Social network games (SNGs) are genre of casual games that require being logged into a social networking site (e.g., Facebook) to access the gameworld. To date, investigations of these games are typically focused on the rate of attrition or “churn,” reinforcing the idea that SNG players exist to make the developer money rather than participating in a game they derive pleasure from. Seeking to recenter the player in research about SNGs, this article reports on a survey of former players (N = 147) who were queried about their reason(s) for no longer participating in YoWorld, a Facebook-based SNG. Findings indicate that players typically quit because of external constraints to their leisure time rather than no longer interested in the game, which are not barriers to play that can be overcome by personalized in-game incentives, the typical developer response to prevent churn from taking place.
BergstromK. (2015). To play or not to play: Non/Participation in EVE Online(PhD dissertation). York University, Toronto, Canada.
4.
BergstromK. (2018). Barriers to play: Accounting for non-participation in digital game play. Feminist Media Studies, 1–17. doi:10.1080/14680777.2018.1484790
5.
BergstromK. (2017). Temporary break or permanent departure? Rethinking what it means to quit EVE online. Games and Culture, Advance online publication. doi:10.1177/1555412017698872
BergstromK.de CastellS.JensonJ. (2011, 10). Worlds beyond Warcraft: Studying multiple MMOs. Paper presented at the Association of Internet Researchers, Seattle, WA.
BorboraZ.SrivastavaJ.HsuK. W.WilliamsD. (2011). Churn prediction in MMORPGs using player motivation theories and an ensemble approach (pp. 157–164). IEEE. doi:10.1109/PASSAT/SocialCom.2011.122
10.
BoudreauK.ConsalvoM. (2014). Families and social network games. Information, Communication & Society, 17, 1118–1130. doi:10.1080/1369118X.2014.882964
11.
BurezJ.Van den PoelD. (2007). CRM at a pay-TV company: Using analytical models to reduce customer attrition by targeted marketing for subscription services. Expert Systems with Applications, 32, 277–288. doi:10.1016/j.eswa.2005.11.037
12.
ChessS. (2009). License to Play: Women, productivity, and video games(PhD dissertation). Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY.
13.
ChessS. (2010). A 36-24-36 Cerebrum: Productivity, gender, and video game advertising. Critical Studies in Media Communication, 28, 230–252. doi:10.1080/15295036.2010.515234
14.
ChessS. (2012). Going with the Flo. Feminist Media Studies, 12, 83–99. doi:10.1080/14680777.2011.558350
15.
ChessS. (2016). A time for play: Interstitial time, invest/express games, and feminine leisure style. New Media & Society. doi:10.1177/1461444816660729
16.
ChessS. (2017). Ready player two: Women gamers and designed identity. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
17.
ConsalvoM. (2011). Using your friends: Social mechanics in social games. In Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Foundations of Digital Games (pp. 188–195). New York, NY: ACM. Retrieved fromhttps://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?doid=2159365.2159391
18.
ConsalvoM.BegyJ. (2015). Players and their pets: Gaming communities from Beta to Sunset. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
19.
CoussementK.Van den PoelD. (2008). Churn prediction in subscription services: An application of support vector machines while comparing two parameter-selection techniques. Expert Systems With Applications, 34, 313–327. doi:10.1016/j.eswa.2006.09.038
20.
CrawfordD. W.GodbeyG. (1987). Reconceptualizing barriers to family leisure. Leisure Sciences, 9, 119–127. doi:10.1080/01490408709512151
21.
CrawfordD. W.JacksonE. L.GodbeyG. (1991). A hierarchical model of leisure constraints. Leisure Sciences, 13, 309–320. doi:10.1080/01490409109513147
22.
de CastellS.BrysonM. (1998). Retooling play: Dystopia, dysphoria, and difference. In CassellJ.JenkinsH. (Eds.), From Barbie to Mortal Kombat gender and computer games (pp. 232–261). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
23.
DebeauvaisT.NardiB.SchianoD. J.DucheneautN.YeeN. (2011). If you build it they might stay: Retention mechanisms in world of warcraft. In Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Foundations of Digital Games (pp. 180–187). ACM Press. doi:10.1145/2159365.2159390
DuttonN. (2007). Participatory quitting: Quitting texts and world of warcraft player culture(master’s thesis). Ohio University, Athens, OH.
26.
FairfieldJ. A. T. (2009). The end of the (virtual) world. West Virginia Law Review, 112, 53–95.
27.
FengW.BrandtD.SahaD. (2007). A long-term study of a popular MMORPG. In Proceedings of the 6th ACM SIGCOMM workshop on Network and system support for games (pp. 19–24). ACM Press. doi:10.1145/1326257.1326261
28.
FronJ.FullertonT.MorieJ. F.PearceC. (2007). The hegemony of play. In Situated Play, Proceedings of DiGRA 2007 Conference. Tokyo, Japan: Digital Games Research Association, pp. 1–10.
29.
GeeJ. P. (2005). Semiotic social spaces and affinity spaces: From the age of mythology to today’s schools. In BartonD.TustingK. (Eds.), Beyond communities of practice: Language, power, and social context (pp. 214–232). Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.
30.
HadijiF.SifaR.DrachenA.ThurauC.KerstingK.BauckhageC. (2014). Predicting player churn in the wild (pp. 1–8). IEEE. doi:10.1109/CIG.2014.6932876
31.
HarveyA. (2015). Gender, age, and digital games in the domestic context. New York, NY: Routledge.
32.
HarveyA.FisherS. (2015). “Everyone can make games!” The post-feminist context of women in digital game production. Feminist Media Studies, 15, 576–592. doi:10.1080/14680777.2014.958867
33.
HellmanM.SchoenmakersT. M.NordstromB. R.van HolstR. J. (2013). Is there such a thing as online video game addiction? A cross-disciplinary review. Addiction Research & Theory, 21, 102–112. doi:10.3109/16066359.2012.693222
34.
HendersonK. A.DialeschkiM. D. (1991). A sense of entitlement to leisure as constraint and empowerment for women. Leisure Sciences, 13, 51–65. doi:10.1080/01490409109513124
35.
HochschildA. R.MachungA. (2012). The second shift: Working families and the revolution at home. New York, NY: Penguin Books.
36.
JacksonE. L.HendersonK. A. (1995). Gender-based analysis of leisure constraints. Leisure Sciences, 17, 31–51.
37.
JensonJ.de CastellS. (2010). Gender, simulation, and gaming: Research review and redirections. Simulation & Gaming, 41, 51–71. doi:10.1177/1046878109353473
38.
JensonJ.FisherS.de CastellS. (2011). Disrupting the gender order: Leveling up and claiming space in an after-school video game club. International Journal of Gender, Science and Technology, 3, 149–169.
39.
JuniuS.HendersonK. A. (2001). Problems in researching leisure and women: Global considerations. World Leisure, 43, 3–10.
40.
KafaiY. B. (2008). Gender play in a tween gaming club. In KafaiY. B.HeeterC.DennerJ.SunJ. Y. (Eds.), Beyond Barbie and Mortal Kombat: New perspectives on gender and gaming (pp. 111–128). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
41.
KawaleJ.PalA.SrivastavaJ. (2009). Churn prediction in MMORPGs: A social influence based approach (pp. 423–428). IEEE. doi:10.1109/CSE.2009.80
KubrikE. (2012). Masters of technology: Defining and theorizing the hardcore/casual dichotomy in video game culture. In GajjalaR.OhY. J. (Eds.), Cyberfeminism 2.0 (pp. 135–152). New York, NY: Peter Lang.
44.
LaRoseR.AtkinD. (1988). Satisfaction, demographic, and media environment predictors of cable subscription. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 32, 403–413. doi:10.1080/08838158809386712
PearceC.Artemsia. (2009). Communities of play: Emergent cultures in multiplayer games and virtual worlds. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
47.
PittmanD.GauthierDickeyC. (2010). Characterizing virtual populations in massively multiplayer online role-playing games. In BollS.TianQ.ZhangL.ZhangZ.ChenY. P. P. (Eds.), Advances in Multimedia Modeling (Vol. 5916, pp. 87–97). Heidelberg, Germany: Springer Berlin Heidelberg. Retrieved fromhttp://www.springerlink.com/index/10.1007/978-3-642-11301-7_12
48.
PriceM. L.WearnN. (2012). Viral or social friends? “I want to build relationships while playing a game. I want to meet real people.” In Proceedings of the Broadcast Education Association Conference. Las Vegas, NV. Retrieved fromhttp://eprints.staffs.ac.uk/1366/
StebbinsR. A. (2017). Leisure’s legacy: Challenging the common sense view of free time. New York, NY: Macmillan.
53.
StetinaB. U.KothgassnerO. D.LehenbauerM.Kryspin-ExnerI. (2011). Beyond the fascination of online-games: Probing addictive behavior and depression in the world of online-gaming. Computers in Human Behavior, 27, 473–479. doi:10.1016/j.chb.2010.09.015
54.
TurnerN. E. (2008). A comment on “problems with the concept of video game ‘addiction’: Some case study examples.” International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction, 6, 186–190. doi:10.1007/s11469-007-9125-1
55.
Van RooijA. J.MeerkerkG. J.SchoenmakersT. M.GriffithsM.van de MheenD. (2010). Video game addiction and social responsibility. Addiction Research & Theory, 18, 489–493. doi:10.3109/16066350903168579
56.
VanderhoefJ. (2013). Casual threats: The feminization of casual video games. Ada: A Journal of Gender, New Media, and Technology, 1. Retrieved fromhttp://adanewmedia.org/2013/06/issue2-vanderhoef/
57.
WilliamsD.YeeN.CaplanS. (2008). Who plays, how much, and why? A behavioral player census of virtual world. Journal of Computer Mediated Communication, 13, 993–1018.
58.
WillsonM.LeaverT. (2015). Zynga’s Farmville, social games, and the ethics of big data mining. Communication Research and Practice, 1, 147–158. doi:10.1080/22041451.2015.1048039
59.
YeeN. (2006). Motivations for play in online games. CyberPsychology & Behavior, 9, 772–775. doi:10.1089/cpb.2006.9.772
