Engineering Sociability: Friendship Drive, Visibility, and Social Connection in Anonymous Co-Located Local Wi-Fi Multiplayer Online Gaming

In this study, the authors show that online multiplayer gaming via local Wi-Fi can be used as a "social lubricant" to increase social connections between co-located strangers at a cafe. In a field experiment in real world cafes, they recruited people who were sitting alone at the same cafe to play an online game together using iPads, from wherever each happened to be sitting. Some pairs could see each other; some were facing in opposite directions, some were in separate rooms. Visibility influenced how and how much players communicated outside of the game, but had no impact on enjoyment or self-reported experience of social connection. The authors measured "friendship drive" and found that social yearners were more interested in gaming with a stranger and more likely to hope to see their gaming partner again than were socially satiated players. Friendship drive did not impact communication between players or feeling social connection.