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Philanthropic, prosocial players: How game-related charity events motivate unlikely donors

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New Media & Society
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Although we have long known that many different types of individuals play video games, the stereotypical “gamer” is often portrayed as a young male. Furthermore, research into questions such as violence and aggression, addiction or problematic play, and toxic gaming communities tends to frame gamers and gaming as anti-social. From a philanthropic perspective, then, gamers appear to be unlikely candidates for charitable giving. Following attendance at a fundraising game tournament for Gamers Outreach, a non-profit charity that provides video game systems to children’s hospitals, this research team conducted a survey of attendees. Our findings suggest that gamers are willing to support and monetarily contribute to a cause they believe in, but also that engaging potential donors through their preexisting interests and communities—in this case, games—can be a productive form of outreach. Finally, participants recognized and sought to combat gaming’s anti-social stereotypes, revealing a further motivation behind their charitable behavior.
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https://doi.org/10.1177/14614448221130738
new media & society
2024, Vol. 26(8) 4867 –4884
© The Author(s) 2022
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DOI: 10.1177/14614448221130738
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Philanthropic, prosocial
players: How game-related
charity events motivate
unlikely donors
Amanda C Cote
University of Oregon, USA
Sonya Dal Cin
University of Michigan, USA
Liese Exelmans
Karel de Grote Hogeschool, Belgium
Matea Mustafaj
University of Michigan, USA
Abstract
Although we have long known that many different types of individuals play video games,
the stereotypical “gamer” is often portrayed as a young male. Furthermore, research
into questions such as violence and aggression, addiction or problematic play, and
toxic gaming communities tends to frame gamers and gaming as anti-social. From a
philanthropic perspective, then, gamers appear to be unlikely candidates for charitable
giving. Following attendance at a fundraising game tournament for Gamers Outreach,
a non-profit charity that provides video game systems to children’s hospitals, this
research team conducted a survey of attendees. Our findings suggest that gamers are
willing to support and monetarily contribute to a cause they believe in, but also that
engaging potential donors through their preexisting interests and communities—in this
case, games—can be a productive form of outreach. Finally, participants recognized
Corresponding author:
Amanda C Cote, School of Journalism and Communication, Allen Hall, 1275, University of Oregon, Eugene,
OR 97403, USA.
Email: acote@uoregon.edu
1130738NMS0010.1177/14614448221130738new media & societyCote et al.
research-article2022
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... Recent research suggested that corporate philanthropy has been adopted as a marketing strategy to develop a company's favourable image and reputation from a long-term perspective (Ding & Jiang, 2021). However, the intersection between philanthropy and gaming platforms has been quite intriguing (Cote et al., 2022). For instance, a prominent gaming stage that permits clients to play fantasy cricket in India is Dream11. ...
... This 2 | LITERATURE REVIEW AND HYPOTHESIS DEVELOPMENT 2.1 | Fantasy sports gaming and philanthropy Kamath et al. (2021) observed that the unexpected surge in fantasy sports gamers intensifies consumers' attention and interest in viewing distinct sports, ultimately promoting the online gaming sector and fantasy gaming sports companies. In the context of online fantasy gaming platforms, frequent donations could benefit the progress and development of the platforms (Cote et al., 2022). There is hardly any empirical research in the Indian context directly examining the relationship between fantasy sports online gaming participation and philanthropy. ...
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