1. TEENS, VIDEO GAMES, & AGENCY
Earlier this year I was tasked with learning what roles video games play in the lives of NYC teenagers – specifically Black and brown high school students. I entered the project well aware of what everyone says I was supposed to be watching for.
Some topics were on the negative side: Do video games make teens violent? Do they distract them from their studies?
Some were on the positive side: Do video games inspire an interest in coding or other STEM topics? Do they teach players how to approach problems?
Both positive and negative topics like these certainly emerged, but when I was listening to the teens, and let them drive the agenda, I found myself asking very different questions based on what they were sharing: How do you use games to manage your emotions? How do games help you to be the person you want to be in the world?
The key difference between the two – on the one hand, popular hopes and fears about the impact of games and, on the other hand, what youth are actually thinking and doing – can be summoned up in one word: agency.
A lot is written about how games might be taking agency away from teenagers, doing something to them, whether good or bad. But what I heard instead from 70 teens was how they were in charge, how they used games to take agency in the world around them.
The following research findings reframe youth from being the subjects of gaming’s influence to being agents leveraging what games afford. Their actions are not always successful, but when the frame shifted – from what games do TO teens to what teens do WITH games – a wholly different picture emerged.
Together we explored topics like: how teens use games to shape and express their identity; how they use games in their classrooms and to support their academics studies; how they look to gaming culture for inspiration and career direction; how young females and people of color respond to the ever-present sexism and racism they encounter in online gaming communities; and so much more.
Over this series of posts I want to paint that picture, drawing across various data points from this limited study of games in the life of NYC high school students. It will focus on three areas:
- Games & Me: what youth are playing and how they use games to manage their feelings and shape their identity.
- Games & We: where youth encounter games in their neighborhood and online communities, games’ local impact, and how youth’s cultural background intersects with gaming.
- Games & The Future: how games impact society, youth’s academics (at both the high school and collegiate level), and youth’s plans for the future.
For the remainder of this first post I’ll detail who I did the research with and for, and the methodology we used. The next three posts will then delve into the findings for the three topics listed above.
2. BACKGROUND
The goal of the study was to understand the role and impact that games, particularly video games, have on the lives of teens living in the communities of Harlem, Upper Manhattan, and the South Bronx. It was envisioned that the information from this study would 1. inform the efforts of City College of New York (CCNY) to recruit students from these communities and 2. shape plans by Science and Arts Engagement New York (SAENY) to create an exhibit on game design and development in its Harlem Gallery of Science.
In December 2020, SAENY and CCNY retained my services to assist them in developing the project’s research design and lead the data collection effort and analysis to follow. The research employed surveys, remote focus groups and 1:1 interviews. The research findings were also informed by a youth advisory composed of twenty young people who participated in a 4-session 10-hour after school program, co-developed and run with the Urban Arts Partnership’s School of Interactive Arts. During this pandemic, everything was done remotely.
We developed a research agenda and in February, with funding for this project provided by West Harlem Development Corporation and The Foundation for City College, we were off and running. Over the next five months, we engaged with high school students (N=70), college students, (N=109) and educators (N=25).
3. LINES OF INQUIRY
The research activities were designed around three lines of inquiry, two of which I will be discussing in these posts:
The first line of inquiry was to understand the relationship between video & tabletop games and area high school students (West Harlem, Upper Manhattan, and the South Bronx). Games of interest included both tabletop (e.g. Chess, dominos, Uno, Yu-Gi-Oh) and digital (e.g. Fortnite, Minecraft) games.
The second line of inquiry was to understand how to connect youth interests with CCNY opportunities while advancing CCNY’s ability to leverage gaming opportunities. These could be seen as two sides of the same coin – what youth need to gravitate towards CCNY and what CCNY needs to have in place to attract and retain them.
Each line of inquiry had its own set of guiding questions. The first line of inquiry asked:
- Are there demographic predictors for youth who are attracted to games and/or specific types of games?
- How do youth interact with games and the broader gaming ecosystem?
- What roles do games play in youth’s local communities? What roles do youth play within those activities? How much time do youth spend engaged with gaming activities when not directly playing? What are those game-related activities? What would youth want to change about gaming in their local community?
- What role do games play in youth’s online communities? What roles do youth play within those activities? How much time do youth spend engaged with gaming activities when not directly playing? What are those game-related activities? What would youth want to change about gaming in their online communities?
- How does their community and cultural background shape how they interface with gaming culture? What would youth like to change about the games they play?
- What are the academic interests and aptitude of youth who play games (specifically in areas that intersect with gaming)? Do youth see any connections between their academics and their gaming?
The second line of inquiry asked:
- How do youth understand games’ impact as a cultural force and as an economic force?
- What are the currently existing academic pathways (both high school and collegiate) that build upon youth’s interest in gaming and/or their career plans related to gaming? Where are these opportunities?
- How do youth view academic opportunities as a vehicle for them to pursue their interest in gaming and/or their career plans related to gaming or related fields?
4. METHODOLOGY
Partnering with staff from both CCNY and SAENY, I specifically worked with Stan Altman, Susan Perkins, Milena Chakraverti-Wuerthwein, Veeshan Narinesingh, and Brian Schwartz.
Together our research focused on NYC high school students, college students, and educators. We also partnered with the School of Interactive Arts (SIA), an after school program of the Urban Arts Partnership focused on the art and science of game development that had successfully pivoted to online learning during the pandemic. SIA recruited students from their existing programs, provided a co-instructor and a learning environment within Discord, and general support. Kevin Wright was our point-of-contact and Genesis Espinal (a recent SIA graduate and current CCNY student) consulted and co-facilitated. For 10 hours, over four sessions, we met with 20 high school students. We discussed their survey responses on topics related to the lines of inquiry and provided individual and group assignments to dig deeper. We called it the G.A. (the Gaming Advisory).
SIA also shared a survey among their other after school students (N=20) and a smaller version of that survey among high schools which offer SIA (N=10).
At the same time, we met with youth over Zoom for one-hour focus groups targeting three different communities: West Harlem (N=5), the Bronx (N=9), and Washington Heights/Inwood (N=6).
For college students, we sent out a survey to all CCNY students (and with support of their eSports Club) on a range of topics (N=109), ran a focus group of CCNY students over Zoom (N=9), and then ran a second survey targeted to the CCNY eSports Club (N=21).
Finally, for high school educators, we sent out a survey (N=21) and then interviewed them over Zoom (N=4).
As we start exploring the findings in the next post, please keep in mind the data collection was not designed to be scientific nor comprehensive but illustrative and suggestive. The response rates are often not high enough to represent all of their community. These were not randomly assigned groups; we aimed to balance by gender and reproduce the ethnic make-up of the three geographic communities.
In the next post we will look at how NYC teens use video games to manage their feelings and shape their identity.
