Game play provides emotional and social support for players to relieve stress, loneliness, and boredom . This study found that Farmville players were more likely to perceive higher sense of social capital if they played the game more intensively and psychological wellness may also serve as predictors of social capital. However, the extent to which intensive Farmville play may lead to the psychological benefits of enhanced life satisfaction and reduced loneliness is unclear. Researchers have found mixed results in terms of whether Facebook use can help users who had low life satisfaction to overcome social barriers  . The causal relationship between social game play and socio-psychological perception is nuanced and needs more attention. The “rich get richer” or“poor get richer” Internet paradox may still be of interest to future studies by adding more contextual variables.However, in addition to the positive relationship between Farmville play and social capital, another interesting finding was that general Internet use was negatively correlated to bridging and bonding social capital whereas Facebook use was positively correlated.

That is, spending more time on general Internet use may not provide a higher perception of social capital. Rather, mobile vertical rack the hours spent on Facebook, and the engagement of Farmville play, in particular, may contribute more to both dimensions of social capital. Thus, it may be less about how long people spend on the Internet for general use, and more about what they do online in perceiving the sense of social capital. Second, previous research suggested that easy entrance into the community results in less bonding social capital. Online communities were influenced by easy entry and exit and thus tended to promote weaker tie based bridging social capital instead of bonding.Although the social gaming community is easy to join and is free,this study found people who played Farmville more were more likely to perceive higher bonding social capital.Moreover, in the context of online games, the characteristics of online social networks were broad and thus can function better as bridging mechanisms than as bonding ones . In this study, players who tended to add formerly unknown others mainly for gaming purposes were more likely to perform better in the game. Here, having more people to play the game with was more helpful to progress in the game but using the game to connect with existing contacts was not positively related to a player’s overall game level.

In this sense, other socio-psychological benefits may be provided by acquaintances that cannot be measured solely based on achievements in the game.More precisely, although linking new people through the game may provide resources to help players advance,bonding social capital was perceived if players tended to connect with existing contacts through gaming. Findings here provide empirical support to the strength of weak tie and benefits of strong tie networks. It illustrates that players’ connection strategies do matter by elaborating how players may gain instrumental support in advancing in the game through weak ties and perceive emotional support via their strong tie networks. It can also be understood that the design of social games is centered on sociability and playfulness while the mechanism of gaming requires collaboration and mutual aid.

However, conversation and socialization among acquaintance are more likely to encourage emotional or substantive support.Another interesting finding was that Farmville players perceived more bridging social capital if they played the game longer. Players who had shorter gaming history, vertical grow rack rather than long-term players, perceived a higher sense of bonding social capital. These findings reveal that game intensity may not be necessarily equivalent to how long they have been playing the game. Game intensity may be less about frequency or duration and more about the extent to which players are attached and engaged. Further, players may initially start playing with their close ties and feel bonded. But, it takes longer to link to more people to progress in the game, and thus bridging social capital may be perceived over time. Given the social setting, low barrier, and low cost of the social game characteristics, newcomers are easily attracted as a way to interact with acquaintances. However, they may not foster long-term engagement and are easily distracted by other new games that are continually developed and free to enter. What makes social game players disengaged may also be interesting to explore.Finally, the structure and characteristics of MMORPGs were heavily embedded in synchronous collaboration and communication.