Just five more minutes…
Mobile Me & You Project (Gaming Community) Part VII | “New Consumer Trends” — “Mobile Reputations” course | Panteion University
In a world that is constantly changing new trends are taking place. In the frame of our course “Mobile Reputations”, we, as students of the Panteion University, run a qualitative research in order to examine the use of mobile phones by Millennials. In specific we decided to focus on the gaming community and we managed to interview 12 persons, in order to meet the needs of our project.
In this part of our project you are going to read about our last millennials, Nickos and Afroditi. Nickos is a programmer, he is 25 years old and has been a gamer for the last 12 years. Afroditi, on the other hand, is 22 years old, studies shipping and has been a gamer for the last 7 years.
We will begin with Afroditi. A typical day for her with her mobile phone starts with YouTube and during the day apps like Pinterest, Viber, Google Maps, Gmail, Messenger and Steam follow. Afroditi doesn’t forget to visit regularly the Play store, in order not miss any brand-new helpful app or a new gaming app or generally any possible update. Her day closes with some gaming apps, that help her relax and by the set of the alarm clock for the next morning. This is a total of 5 hours mobile use.
Whe she was asked if she could manage to live without her phone, her response was “No way! I can not do without my mobile phone… I want it everywhere with me”. Afroditi didn’t explain specific why is that, but she did tell us that she doesn’t want to miss any new message, which she receives.
Alarm clock, quick note, calendar and Facebook are some apps, which help her to organize her daily life though her mobile. More specifically she uses Facebook, in order to be informed about her academical studies and organize the work that has to be done with her colleagues. Furthermore, she frequently checks Ryanair and Booking/Airbnb, in order to find affordable plane tickets and accommodation for her next possible destination. Besides Airbnb, Afroditi uses Uber, eFood, iBank also and she said to us, that until now she has not faced any problem with these apps, so there isn’t any good reason for her to stop using them. As for complementary gadgets, she doesn’t have and neither is interested in buying any.
She stated, that she prefers using her mobile phone for easy tasks, which need to be taken care of quickly and for entertainment. Meanwhile, if she needs to work on a project, she will without any doubt use her PC. The same is also for movies or series.
She doesn’t share content on any platform, but she enjoys consuming the content that other users put out there. So, she uses sharing apps like You Tube, Pinterest and Twitch. She admitted, that when she is with company, she still uses her mobile phone, to scroll or to show something interesting like a video from YouTube or an Instagram photo to her friends. Moreover, she added that she does play videogames with her friends and sometimes they play as a team. Afroditi made us clear, that she feels a part of the gaming community, because consistently she meets new people, who have the same passion with her for games. Her mobile phone -according to Afroditi herself- makes her feel connected, because thanks to it she can keep in touch with all of her beloved ones, even if they live faraway… “Thank you Skype!”. Furthermore, she is bale to know what is happening all around the globe.
As she told us, she doesn’t have any concerns about playing online games with random people. That’s why, because nobody is obligated to share any personal information, so nobody has something to worry about.
Afroditi stated that she follows some influencers. Most of them are related to gaming -for example Khoa who is a Fortnite gamer, vlog, haul or unboxing of many products, like Konstantina. She keeps track of them though her mobile phone via YouTube and Twitch. Afroditi believes that is common for someone to get inspired by an influencer and start relating to him. More or less something like this has happened to her. As she said, she has purchased many times products, which one of her influencers was presenting on different hauls. In general, she does buy stuff online via her mobile phone from e-bay or other online stores. In addition, she even buys some games from Play Store or Steam. Also, she pays all her bills monthly though her mobile phone.
According to her belief, she doesn’t use her mobile phone in the same way all her friends use it, because they don’t always share the same interests. On the other hand, when it comes to gaming or studies, she strongly believes that everyone has more or less the same habits. She sticks to You Tube and Twitch, when it comes to gaming and gaming streaming.
She spends on average 2 hours on gaming playing Fortnite and 1 hour on streaming daily on YouTube and Twitch. “Sometimes more. I check on the clock regurarly and sometimes I think I can play 5 more minutes. In the end I realize that I was playing for 4 hours straight, no breaks and no work done.” she replies.
Afroditi admitted, that she is into gaming, because according to her it is a nice way to have fun and she really enjoys getting to know new people, which love gaming and share her ideas with them. As she told us, she doesn’t have any ambition in taking her love for gaming to the next level by becoming a “professional” on it. That’s why, because for her gaming is something that relax her, so she doesn’t want -by any means necessary- to make it a business and also, she thinks herself as too shy to build her personal social brand.
That was all Afroditi has to say to us about her mobile use and gaming, so we thank her a lot and now let’s jump straight into what Nickos has to say.
A typical day of his with his mobile phone begins with You Tube and during the day 9GAG, Google Maps, Viber, Messenger, email, App Store and Steam follow. The last two help him and for him are something like a personal assistant for games. His day closes with gaming and by the set of the alarm clock for the next day. This is a total of 7 hours mobile use.
His mobile phone is really critical for his job, because he has to be in touch and communicate with people, that are interested in the progress of his work (websites) or his partners. Calendar, Alarm clock, Quick note and LinkedIn are some apps that his phone provides to him, in order to organize his day.
He does play games through his mobile phone, but he also plays from his iPad or his computer, which is the main tool of his job. His favorite games are PUBG Mobile, Shadowgun Legends and Hearthstone. Nickos told us that he has never used Uber, or Airbnb or has booked plane tickets, because he owns a car and doesn’t travel usually. Also, he doesn’t want any complementary gadgets, because he already owns the full package, everything he possibly needs. Not only he is constantly watching gaming related content on You Tube, Twitch and 9gag, he uploads content too on 9GAG and receives feedback.
He admitted, that when he is with company, he uses his mobile phone, in order to check if he gets any new message about his job or to play with his friends. Nickos feels that is a part of the gaming community, because he can get to know new people or around the world, who share the same love for games as him. He said that his mobile phone makes him feel connected, because he can keep in touch with his people and get to know what is going on in the world, which is something that he strives to do. He uses sharing apps like You Tube, 9gag, Twitch and services such as eFood and iBank. He has been playing for a long time with random persons online and will continue to do so, because there isn’t anything for anybody to be afraid of or threatened by.
Nickos stated that he follows mainly though the sharing apps YouTube and Twitch some influencers of the gaming community like Furki and Mr. Ghost, who are into the game PUBG mobile. He believes that by watching them you can learn new strategies, which will make a better gamer and you will be able to learn new aspects of a game.
Nickos said to us, that makes online purchases via his mobile phone from eBay/Amazon mainly for electronic devices. Also, he buys some games from App Store or Steam (Sale Service of Digital Content) and makes mobile payments.
He does not have the same mobile habits with his friends, but they share the same passion for the same mobile games. Daily he spends 3 hours on mobile gaming and 1 hour on streaming on You Tube or Twitch, but during the weekdays he plays way more than that.
Until now he only plays for having fun. He enjoys devoting his time on watching other’s persons videos about gaming and giving them his thoughts as feedback. He has started though lately thinking about taking it more seriously and become a “professional”. He is thinking about beginning his own YouTube and Twitch channel and building his personal social brand. We wish him the best of luck then!
At this point we have completed all our interviews… Our next publication is going to be about the insights of our survey… So, we will see you very soon.
If you want to learn how this project got started and the methodology that we follow you can have a look at the following articles:
If you are looking for the other parts of the interviews about gaming check the links below:
To learn the results and the insights of our research you can check the links bellow. We also made a comparison with global trends.
Team: Antonis Katsis, Liana Kollia, Korina Simeonidou
Professor: Betty Tsakarestou
