Online-only friends, real-life friends or strangers? Differential associations with passion and social capital in video game play

Aug 24, 2026

The present study tests a model in which social video game play supports wellbeing through a harmonious engagement with games. Players (N = 2030) of Destiny reported whether they played with real-life friends, online-only friends, or strangers, and completed measures of harmonious and obsessive passion plus social capital. Structural equation modeling showed harmonious—but not obsessive—passion mediated the positive association between playing with others and social capital. The relationship types also differed across bridging versus bonding social capital as a function of tie closeness, highlighting online multiplayer interactions as effective for building social capital by aligning gameplay with broader goals.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages72

Reading Time3 h 1 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

Video games as environments for social interaction

From negative impacts to positive wellbeing outcomes

Social capital and online multiplayer gameplay

[eprints@whiterose.ac.uk](eprints@whiterose.ac.uk)[ ](eprints@whiterose.ac.uk)[https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk](https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk) Universities of Leeds, Sheffield and York Deposited via The University of York. White Rose Research Online URL for this paper: [https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/id/eprint/133834/](https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/id/eprint/133834/) [Version: Accepted Version](Version: Accepted Version) Article: Perry, Robert, Drachen, Anders, Kearney, Allison et al. (2018) Online-only friends, real-life friends or strangers? Differential associations with passion and social capital in videogame play. Computers in Human Behavior. pp. 202-210. [https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2017.10.032](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2017.10.032) Reuse This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs (CC BY-NC-ND) licence. This licence only allows you to download this work and share it with others as long as you credit the authors, but you can’t change the article in any way or use it commercially. More information and the full terms of the licence here: [https://creativecommons.org/licenses/](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/) Takedown If you consider content in White Rose Research Online to be in breach of UK law, please notify us by emailing [eprints@whiterose.ac.uk](eprints@whiterose.ac.uk) including the URL of the record and the reason for the withdrawal request. *Title Page with Author details Online-only friends, real-life friends or strangers? Differential associations with passion and social capital in video game play. Ryan Perry1,7, Anders Drachen2, Allison Kearney7 , Simone Kriglstein3, Lennart E. Nacke4, Rafet Sifa5, Guenter Wallner6, Daniel Johnson7 5th July, 2017 Word count: 7867 1. Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia 2. DC Labs, University of York, York, UK 3. Institute for Design and Assessment of Technology, Vienna University of Technology, Vienna, Austria 4. HCI Games Group, Games Institute University of Waterloo Waterloo, ON, Canada 5. Fraunhofer Institute Intelligent Analysis and Information Systems IAIS, Fraunhofer Technical Institute, Sankt Augustin, Germany 6. Institute of Art & Technology, University of Applied Arts Vienna, Vienna, Austria 7. Queensland University of Technology (QUT), Brisbane, Australia Corresponding author: Daniel Johnson, Computer-Human Interaction, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia. Email address: [dm.johnson@qut.edu.au](dm.johnson@qut.edu.au) *Manuscript without Author Details (SHOWING REVISIONS) Click here to view linked References Abstract The present study tests a recently proposed model in which social video game play supports wellbeing by contributing to a harmonious type of engagement with the game. Players (N = 2030) of the online-only multiplayer first-person shooter game, Destiny, reported the frequency they played with real-life friends, online-only friends and strangers, their type of engagement with the game – measured as harmonious and obsessive passion, and completed a wellbeing measure of social capital. Telemetry data also recorded their total time playing over the duration of the study. A structural equation model supported the prediction that harmonious – but not obsessive – passion would mediate the positive association between playing with others and social capital. The findings also supported a supplementary hypothesis that the three types of social relationships would be differentially associated with two forms of social capital – bridging versus bonding – as a function of the closeness of social ties. Real-life friends was positively associated with bonding, strangers with bridging, and online-only friends with both. Overall, these results emphasise that social interactions in (and around) online multiplayer video

FAQs

What model does the study test about social video game play and wellbeing?

It tests a model where social video game play supports wellbeing by fostering a harmonious type of engagement with the game.

How were players grouped, and what engagement and wellbeing measures were used?

Players reported play frequency with real-life friends, online-only friends, or strangers, and measures captured harmonious and obsessive passion and social capital.

What did the findings show about harmonious versus obsessive passion?

Harmonious passion mediated the positive association between playing with others and social capital, while obsessive passion did not.

Aug 24, 2026

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