Development of value orientations among student gamers

Abstract

Modern video games have evolved beyond mere entertainment and leisure, forming the core of an entire cultural phenomenon. Originally developed within an academic environment, many video games were intended to demonstrate the educational and developmental capabilities of emerging technologies. Scholarly discourse views video games as interactive digital environments that create unique space for social communication and self-expression, while gamers are seen as members of these virtual worlds, who interact with game content and with each other, pursuing various goals and motivations. Contemporary video games represent vast digital realms governed by their own internal logic. The dozens of hours that players spend in them can influence their personalities and contribute to value orientations developed by student gamers. These value orientations act as behavior regulators at the volitional level, guiding individual behavior in a variety of situations — an aspect that is undoubtedly useful to educational practice. Game developers aim not only to populate virtual worlds with content but also to address contemporary issues within them, thereby engaging with topics that resonate with individuals on a personal level. Video games have ceased to be solely a form of entertainment, emerging as a powerful educational, cultural, and social phenomenon instead. We conducted a study on the value orientations developed by student gamers with passion for AAA games — titles that are not only technologically sophisticated but also socially significant, capable of raising pressing issues ranging from gender roles and ethics to cooperation and individual freedoms. In the first stage, participants completed a survey that identified four distinct groups of informants based on their preferred types of digital games. In the second stage, participants underwent testing using M. Rokeach’s methodology, which served as a basis for a comprehensive analysis of their value orientations. The data structuring and the comparative analysis revealed both general trends and unique development patterns of value orientations within each identified group.