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Games GroupCarolina Escalera ceqk7@mizzou.edu

Michael Kelly mlk3k9@mizzou.edu

Jennifer Ledbury jalyr8@mizzou.edu

James Richter jwr9q7@mizzou.edu

Josh Wolff jmwrhb@mizzou.edu

Executive Summary

Goal of Report:

-The goal of this report was to find what is the future of games in the newspaper and its Web site, along with a web converged publication.

Findings:

-Most people do not have time to read the newspaper everyday.-However, most people believe it is important to read a newspaper everyday, presenting us with the problem facing the newspaper industry.-Most people do read news on the Internet everyday.-Game play is not as prevalent as our group thought, which is based on the survey results, but this finding is partially limited due to the difficulty in defining a game, and not having an “other” category for the survey. -The most popular games are sports games, numbers games and word games.-People enjoy learning about sports, American history and science more than math and literature.-People are apathetic toward games in the newspaper and online.

Assembly of Report:

-This report was based on a gradual process of collecting and analyzing data. First, our group started with researching secondary data to find background to the problem as well as finding other studies that have been performed to help guide our project. Then, we conducted interviews with ten different subjects varying in age, occupation and gender to get more information about the topic. Lastly, having all the necessary background information, our group performed a survey, which was collected over a five-day period with a sample of near 200. We then analyzed the data and gave different recommendations for the future of games and for more research that is needed.

Coming to the Conclusion:

-We came to our conclusions and recommendations based on all the data we have collected and analyzed throughout a 14-week process. With many steps along the way, we felt that our conclusion is a starting point for the future of games and clearly not an ending point. But our conclusions provides a great starting base.

The project that our group made was related to media usage and people. The objective

was to find how one of many sections in the newspaper relates to its readers, and non-readers,

how important it is to them, how we can improve the topic for future usage and through what

mediums. Our group chose games and we wanted to see where the future of games in the

newspaper and its Web site would go. To do this, we first had to define what a game was, which

is easier said than done. We didn’t want to restrict our interview subjects and information as we

went further along in the project, so we didn’t define a game per se, but we incorporated many

different games, so that the most popular games would be prevalent in the project.

Our group knew that there were many different games, but we agreed that we would

concentrate on a select few: video/computer games, board games, word games, number games,

trivia games, card games and activity games. We also knew from our own lives, the lives of

friends and our families’ lives that games are an important part, whether as a stress reliever,

diversion or just for fun. The secondary data that our group found showed that nearly two-thirds

of the people in the United States played some sort of video or computer game, an astounding

number that shocked all of us. We also found research that suggested playing word and number

games could improve intelligence, which showed the added value of games in peoples’ lives.

Card games, although seemingly primitive and simple, are still nonetheless popular, secondary

data showed. Although card game play as a whole has not changed much in the last 20 years,

poker has had dramatic rises in play, with nearly 23 million people betting on poker online with

the numbers of people playing poker not online even higher. The rise in poker play is a result of

the increase in gambling in the country and the television production of the World Series of

Poker, showcasing a game easy to learn, hard to master, and which has amazingly piqued the

interest of Americans. We also found that playing some types of number and word games can

increase overall intelligence. Overall, our secondary research provided a solid foundation for us

leading up to our interviews that games are ubiquitous, varied and enjoyed by nearly every

person, but it did not give us specifics of game play, which we hoped to learn more about in the

interview stage.

The interview process was interesting as we took ten different people with varying

backgrounds with five between the ages of 18-25 and the other five over 35 years old. The

interviews confirmed what our secondary research told us about the prevalence of game play.

Only one of our subjects said he did not play games as “other things became more interesting

like dating.” Forty-five year old Pablo said that instead of gaming, which he used to do as an

“arcade gamer,” he become interested in the violin, reading and watching DVDs. However,

Pablo was the exception as the other nine subjects played games. The older generation played

more of the number and word games, while the younger generation played more sport games and

video games.

Another theme was the definition of games, which we decided not to define, but rather let

our interview subjects create one that we could use. Wade, a 20-year-old, Notre Dame student

defined it best when he said “It’s anything that brings joy or excitement to your life.” The other

subjects agreed on this definition, but Wade said it best. A game can be anything to anyone and

that’s why its best not to put parameters on what a game is, but rather let each individual person

decide for themselves. Lastly, we found that our interview subjects enjoyed the social aspect of

games. Kathy, a 57-year-old, says that games are great because “It’s a way to have fun and

engage with each other.” The clear consensus among our game players was that games are more

fun to play with people and they choose to play games that involve social interaction.

Based on our interviews and secondary research, we hypothesized that younger people

would play more games than older people. We thought that with time availability and more

frequent use of the Internet, young people would play more games. We also hypothesized that

there would be no difference in what subjects people wanted to learn about. To investigate our

hypothesis, we wrote up survey questions that helped test these two hypotheses. To find out who

plays more games, we decided to ask a question about how many times each person had played

games the past 30 days. We offered nine different types of games (games: video shooter, video

role playing, activity, board, card, sports, number, word and trivia) that we thought to be most

popular. Then, to find out about which subjects people were interested in learning about, we

asked how much they enjoy learning about the following subjects: math, American history,

world history, literature, science/technology, art and sports. We also asked about where people

were playing games to see how people played games and finally we asked about their attitudes

toward having games and other newspaper related items in the print edition and online to try and

get inside an average reader’s mind.

The results of our survey, specific to games, were unexpected, but before delving into our

specific results, let’s talk about the demographics of our sample. The average age in the sample

was around 22-23 years old, or born in 1985, with around 60% saying that they were currently

students. Nearly half of the sample resides in Missouri and around 85% of the survey takers

identify their lifestyles with being Caucasian. These demographic statistics, although not

unexpected, provide limitations because we are not getting a representative sample of people in

the country. Fewer students and more of the older generation could tilt some of the reading and

game playing habits. As well, the majority of the sample’s income was over $100,000 (around

40%) and next was between $50,000 and $100,000 (around 38%). According to the census

bureau, the median household income for Americans was $48,201 in 2006, so there is clearly not

a truly diverse sample of people surveyed based on the income statistics.

Newspaper readership among our sample was not surprising as the majority of people,

over 21%, did not read a newspaper during the past 7 days, but the majority of people did read

news on the Internet the past 7 days with over 53% reading everyday. However, it was

interesting to note that nearly 19% of people believed it was very important to read a newspaper

regularly. Clearly, herein lies the problem facing newspapers, people believe it’s important to

read the newspaper, but are simply not reading, for which we can hopefully provide solutions

later in this analysis.

Looking at the survey results specifically for games was a surprise: the majority of people

did not play a game in the past 30 days. Zero games played during the past 30 days was the

majority for every game option listed. After seeing that, we decided to see how game play

varied with age, hopefully, answering one of our hypotheses. We found that game play didn’t

depend on age, that people of all ages were playing games at about the same rate, thus denying

our hypotheses of unequal game play. However, not having as many of the older generation

proves to be a limitation because we simply do not have enough of the older generation to make

a complete conclusion about equal game play. We did find a correlation between age and which

games they play. The younger generation plays more sports games while the older generation

plays more word games than anything else. Sports games proved to be the most popular game

played among our sample, likely due to the age group of the majority of the sample, but it proves

our interview data that people like socialization in games. However, people did play all the

games we listed and no game was significantly neglected.

The next question was about the importance of learning different subjects, which we

hypothesized that all the subjects would be about the same, however that was incorrect. The

plurality of people (~ 30%) did not care at all about math, but people did seem to care “greatly”

about American history (~23%), literature (~21%), science and technology (~23%) and sports at

over 31%. We also found that income level and age really did not impact which subjects people

enjoyed learning about, however, it would be interesting to compare with gender, if we had those

statistics, because some variance would likely have occurred.

In the attitudes section, we found interesting correlations between what the people with

income under $20,000 liked in the paper compared to what people liked with an income over

$100,000. Having above $100,000 as an income showed that there would be some ambivalence

or apathy toward having various items in the paper because this group showed no strong opinion

either way. The under $20,000, however, did have a passionate opinion. This income bracket

really enjoyed having photos, comics and movie reviews in print with “liking greatly” having the

majority with those categories.

The attitudes of our survey subjects toward items online was indifferent, except for

people “liking greatly” having photos online.

Finally, all of the survey data combined with our interview reports and secondary

research has led us to a few recommendations. Due to the surprising number of people playing

sports games and the natural healthy effects from playing sports, we recommend a newspaper

being a central location for sport games. Not only have listings about different types of

recreational leagues, but also a “pickup game” hub where people can type in their address and

find local pickup games of different sports. Pickup games are great exercise and people will visit

the website to see where local games are. It makes more sense for these games to be listed on the

Web site because more people read news on the Internet.

Games should also find an increased presence on the Web site of newspapers and

converged “publications,” but not an increase in the newspaper, except for maybe a trivia quiz

each day on a different topic. On the Web site, since space is basically infinite, we should have

all types of games available so that every person can find their own game. This should include

online video games, online chess, trivia games, online card games, and just about every type of

game. Since no game was drastically more popular, a Web site should include a great variety of

games. The newspaper’s website can also play host to tournaments and match up players.

Although this is similar to Yahoo Games, one problem we’ve found through secondary research

is that Yahoo Games is not filtered well and people worry about who they are playing. The

newspaper’s website can do a better job filtering, giving people more sense of security in who

they are playing.

Additional information about the playing habits of people 35 and older would be

necessary to have a greater perspective of game playing habits within that age. As well, greater

variety on race and income is needed to get the complete picture on game playing habits for the

entire population.