The Relationships between Online Game Player Biogenetic Traits, Playing Time, and the Genre of the Game Being Played

OBJECTIVE Psychobiological traits may be associated with excessive Internet use. This study assessed the relationships between biogenetic traits, the amount of time spent in online game playing, and the genre of the online game being played. METHODS Five hundred sixty five students who enjoyed one of the four types of games included in this study were recruited. The types of games examined included role playing games (RPG), real-time strategy games (RTS), first person shooting games (FPS), and sports games. Behavioral patterns of game play, academic performance, and player biogenetic characteristics were assessed. RESULTS The amount of time that the participants spent playing online games was significantly greater on weekends than on weekdays. On weekends, the types of games with the largest numbers of participants who played games for more than three hours were ranked as follows: RPG and FPS, RTS, and sports games. The Young's Internet Addiction Scale (YIAS)score for the RPG group was the highest among the groups of the four types of game players. The time that participants spent playing games on weekdays was negatively associated with academic performance, especially for the RPG and FPS groups. Compared with the other groups, the RPG and RTS groups had higher novelty seeking (NS) scores and self-directedness (SD) scores, respectively. Additionally, the sports game group had higher reward dependency scores than the other groups. CONCLUSION These results suggest that RPGs may have specific factors that are attractive to latent game addicts with higher NS scores. Additionally, excessive playing of online games is related to impaired academic performance.