As the number of individuals becoming gamers continues to increase, using video games as a medium tounderstand the social interactions and underlying motivations of players becomes ever so important.Interpersonal relationships, which develop from the social interactions that occur during gameplay have beenfound to contribute to player motivation and relatedness within the game (Rigby & Ryan, 2011). In the currentstudy we examined how interpersonal touch, more specifically positive or negative touch conditions within agameplay experience, impacted player motivation and inter-player impressions in 74 undergraduate students. Inaddition, observational data was collected measuring the quality of interaction between the participant in thestudy and a research confederate with whom they were playing an online game. Quantitative results indicatesignificant differences between the positive touch conditions perceived competence, effort/importance, andrelatedness when compared to the control touch and negative touch conditions. Qualitative results also revealthat participants who were in the positive touch and negative touch conditions had more reactions not onlycognitively (i.e. in game response) but emotionally (i.e. out of game response like laughing) than the controlcondition. Touch is only one aspect of behaviors that can help to foster a sense of connection between players.These results begin to highlight the effect of virtual touch on relatedness and motivation. More research isneeded to help determine the exact levels of virtual touch, as well as the different types of virtual touch neededto elicit a change in the participant’s motivation and relatedness, with hopes that game developers may takevirtual touch into account when creating a game.
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