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This study investigates the relationship between player's gaming orientation (dimensions of achievement, immersion and social orientation) and avatar's capital (social, economic, cultural and symbolic). The data was gathered through an online survey (n=905) amidst players of a MMORPG, Final Fantasy XIV. The results show that avatar's cultural capital is predicted by immersion orientation (customization, discovery, and role-playing), achievement orientation (mechanics) and social orientation (relationship and socializing). Economic capital is predicted by achievement orientation (advancement, competition, and mechanics) and social orientation (relationship and teamwork). Social capital was predicted by social orientation (relationship, socializing and teamwork) and immersion-orientation (escapism and customization). Symbolic capital was predicted by achievement orientation (advancement, competition, mechanics) and social orientation (relationship and teamwork).

Extended reality (XR) such as VR and AR have been increasingly adopted across domains in cognitively challenging activities such as learning, shopping, and gaming among others. There are a few concerns about the inferior cognitive affordance of XRmediated functioning, e.g., with respect to memory retention. For better understanding how different XR technologies influence memory performance (e.g., recognition), we examine the effects of VR and ARmediation on the ability to remember (i.e., recognize afterward) text and image-based information based on a 2 × 2 between-subject experiment (n = 155). The results indicate that VR had a negative main effect on text-based information recognition but no effect on image-based information recognition. AR had no significant main effect on the recognition of either information types. Overall, the findings as further supported by the interaction effects analysis, suggest that for memory recognition, it is always best to have a fully physical

This paper examines how the demographic attributes and extragame habits of players of a Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (MMORPG) predict the accumulated capital of their avatars. An online survey (N=905) was conducted amidst the players of Final Fantasy XIV (FFXIV). Four types of capital were measured to map out the concrete and intangible resources of the avatars; social, economic, cultural and symbolic. The results show that weekly time spent playing the game is the strongest predictor of avatar capital and was associated with all types of capital. Time subscribed to the game was associated with cultural, economic, symbolic and bonding social capital. Social capital was found to be highest amongst both young and female players. Forum activity was associated with symbolic capital.

This study explored how social capital has been utilized in video-game studies by conducting a scoping review. In total, 74 peer-reviewed publications were analysed from three different databases. The following aspects pertaining to social capital were analysed: definition, methodology, game or genre as stimulus, its utilization inside or outside the stimulus, whether it was the sole concept or variable, how it was utilized, whether social capital was used to predict variables or whether variables were used to predict it, and what where the predicted or predicting variables. The results of the analysis show that Putnam’s research, the quantitative method and Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games were most commonly combined. Social capital was predominantly utilized in binary form. It was utilized almost equally inside and outside the video games’ sphere of influence. The study then presents the main findings and discusses future research avenues.