Who Commands the Little Soldiers?
A Comparison of the Personality Traits of Miniature Wargame Players With Other Gamers and Non-Gamers
Abstract
Abstract. The popularity of miniature wargames (MWGs) has recently been on the rise. We aimed to identify the personality characteristics of people who play MWGs. Whereas the popular media have suspected that fantasy role-playing and war-related games cause antisocial behavior, past research on tabletop role-playing has shown that gamers are creative and empathetic individuals. Previous studies have investigated pen-and-paper tabletop games, which require imagination and cooperation between players. Tabletop MWGs are somewhat different because players compete against each other, and there is a strong focus on war-related actions. Thus, people have voiced the suspicion that players of this type of game may be rather aggressive. In the present study, 250 male MWG players completed questionnaires on the Big Five, authoritarianism, risk-orientation, and motives as well as an intelligence test. The same measures were administered to non-gamers, tabletop role-playing gamers, and first-person shooter gamers. Results indicated that according to self-reports, MWG players are more open, more extraverted, and have a higher need for affiliation than non-gamers. Further, high scores on reasoning and low scores on authoritarianism were typical of MWG players, and MWG players were similar to other gamers on these characteristics. All in all, our findings show that despite their penchant for (re)-enacting war scenes, MWG players seem to be open, nonauthoritarian individuals. Future research may add to these findings by using observer reports and longitudinal research to better understand whether intelligent and nontraditional people are attracted to MWGs or whether the setting of MWGs supports the development of such traits.
References
(2007). Nerds: Who they are and why we need more of them. New York, NY: TarcherPerigee.
(2001). Effects of violent video games on aggressive behavior, aggressive cognition, aggressive affect, physiological arousal, and prosocial behavior: A meta-analytic review of the scientific literature. Psychological Science, 12, 353–359. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9280.00366
(2010). Violent video game effects on aggression, empathy, and prosocial behavior in Eastern and Western countries: A meta-analytic review. Psychological Bulletin, 136, 151–173. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0018251
(2014). Die Kurzskala Autoritarismus-3 (KSA-3): Ein ökonomisches Messinstrument zur Erfassung dreier Subdimensionen autoritarer Einstellungen
[A short scale for measuring three dimensions of authoritarianism] (GESIS Working Papers). Mannheim, Germany: GESIS. https://doi.org/10.6102/zis228(2014). Eine Single-Item-Skala zur Erfassung von Risikobereitschaft: Die Kurzskala Risikobereitschaft-1
[A short scale for measuring risk-orientation] (GESIS Working Papers). Mannheim, Germany: GESIS. https://doi.org/10.6102/zis236(1989). Relationship between game playing and personality. Psychological Reports, 64, 705–706. https://doi.org/10.2466/pr0.1989.64.3.705
(2014). Drafting an army: The playful pastime of Warhammer 40,000. Games and Culture, 9, 122–147. https://doi.org/10.1177/1555412013513349
(1998). Personalities of players of Dungeons and Dragons. Psychological Reports, 82, 182. https://doi.org/10.2466/pr0.1998.82.1.182
(2013). Table-top role playing game and creativity. Thinking Skills and Creativity, 8, 56–71. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tsc.2012.06.002
(1992). Four ways five factors are basic. Personality and Individual Differences, 13, 653–665. https://doi.org/10.1016/0191-8869(92)90236-I
(2011). Stereotypes and individual differences in role-playing games. The International Journal of Role-Playing, 2, 44–58.
(2016). The transformative potential of role-playing games: From play skills to human skills. Simulation & Gaming, 47, 423–444. https://doi.org/10.1177/1046878116650765
(1990). Alienation and the game Dungeons and Dragons. Psychological Reports, 66, 1219–1222. https://doi.org/10.2466/pr0.1990.66.3c.1219
(2002). Approach-avoidance motivation in personality: Approach and avoidance temperaments and goals. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 82, 804–818. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.82.5.804
(1983). Shared fantasy: Role-playing games as social worlds. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
. (2015). Annual report 2015. Retrieved from https://investor.games-workshop.com/annual-reports-and-half-year-results/
. (2019). Annual report 2019. Retrieved from https://investor.games-workshop.com/annual-reports-and-half-year-results/
(2013). Personality profiles associated with different motivations for playing World of Warcraft. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, 16, 189–193. https://doi.org/10.1089/cyber.2012.0090
(1995). Playing war: The applicability of commercial conflict simulations to military intelligence training and education. Washington, DC: Bolling Air Force Base.
(2013).
Everyone’s a winner at Warhammer 40K (or, at least not a loser) . In C. PearceJ. SharpH. KennedyEds., Proceedings of the DiGRA 2013 Conference (pp. 1–11). Atlanta, GA: DeFragging Game Studies.(2013). The short version of the Hagen Matrices Test (HMT-S). Methoden, Daten, Analysen, 7, 183–208. https://doi.org/10.12758/mda.2013.011
(2017). How the influence of unethical leaders on followers is affected by their implicit followership theories. Journal of Leadership & Organizational Studies, 24, 450–465. https://doi.org/10.1177/1548051817705296
(2009). Allgemeine Intelligenz und beruflicher Erfolg in Deutschland: Vertiefende und weiterführende Metaanalysen
[General intelligence and professional success in Germany: in-depth and advanced meta-analyses] . Psychologische Rundschau, 60, 82–98. https://doi.org/10.1026/0033-3042.60.2.82(2001). The fantasy role-playing game. A new performing art. London, UK: McFarland.
(2007). Compensating for low topic interest and long surveys: A field experiment on nonresponse in web surveys. Social Science Computer Review, 25, 372–383. https://doi.org/10.1177/0894439307297606
(2005). Who are the people reluctant to participate in research? Personality correlates of four different types of nonresponse as inferred from self‐and observer ratings. Journal of Personality, 73, 959–984. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6494.2005.00335.x
(2018). WARHAMMER: What is it, who plays it, and why it stays popular. Retrieved from https://www.naracoorteherald.com.au/story/5474890/warhammer-what-is-it-who-plays-it-and-why-it-stays-popular/
(2004). A Monte-Carlo study of confirmatory factor analytic tests of measurement equivalence/invariance. Structural Equation Modeling, 11, 60–72. https://doi.org/10.1207/S15328007SEM1101_5
(2012). The self-perceived effects of the role-playing hobby on personal development – A survey report. The International Journal of Role-Playing, 3, 49–68. Retrieved from http://www.ijrp.subcultures.nl/wp-content/issue3/IJRPissue3merilainen.pdf
(2012). Does excessive play of violent first-person-shooter-video-games dampen brain activity in response to emotional stimuli? Biological Psychology, 89, 107–111. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsycho.2011.09.014
(2012). Playing at the World. San Diego, CA: Unreason Press.
(2005). Kurzversion des Big Five Inventory (BFI-K)
[Short version of the Big Five Inventory (BFI-K)] . Diagnostica, 51, 195–206. https://doi.org/10.1026/0012-1924.51.4.195(2016). Empathic features and absorption in fantasy role-playing. American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis, 58, 286–294. https://doi.org/10.1080/00029157.2015.1103696
(2016). It’s not just video games – tabletop gaming has a harassment problem too. Retrieved from https://www.vox.com/2016/4/7/11371194/tabletop-harassment-malifaux-controversy
(2012).
The Cattell-Horn-Carroll model of intelligence . In D. FlanaganP. HarrisonEds., Contemporary intellectual assessment: Theories, tests, and issues (pp. 99–144). New York, NY: Guilford Press.(2012). An IRT analysis of motive questionnaires: The unified motive scales. Journal of Research in Personality, 46, 725–742. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrp.2012.08.010
(2012).
Motivation . In V. S. RamachandranEd., Encyclopedia of human behavior (2nd ed., pp. 650–656). Oxford, UK: Elsevier.(1987). Emotional stability pertaining to the game of Dungeons & Dragons. Psychology in the Schools, 24, 329–332. https://doi.org/10.1002/1520-6807(198710)24:4<329::AID-PITS2310240406>3.0.CO;2-9
(2006). Does playing violent video games induce aggression? Empirical evidence of a functional magnetic resonance imaging study. Media Psychology, 8(1), 39–60. https://doi.org/10.1207/S1532785XMEP0801_4
. (2019, October 13). Horst Seehofer reanimiert die Killerspieldebatte [Horst Seehofer reanimates the killer game debate]. Zeit Online. Retrieved from https://www.zeit.de/politik/deutschland/2019-10/terroranschlag-halle-seehofer-games-killerspiele
