Who is a gamer? What kind of people are perceived to be gamers? And finally – who perceives themselves as a gamer? In this article the authors attempt to answer these three questions from a multinational perspective. Background. Games are nowadays one of the most frequently encountered forms of entertainment and constitute an ever-increasing part of many people’s day-to-day lives. With the rising popularity of video games, there is a need to conduct a research concerning gamer identity and to find out who perceives themselves as a gamer. The aim of this study is to compare the results of the survey conducted in two different countries to better understand the characteristics of players that self-identified as gamers. Methods. The quantitative study was conducted in two countries – Poland and the United States – in order to research gamer identity. The questionnaire consisted of questions about the self-identification as a gamer, time spent playing video games, types of games played, and the platforms used. It was conducted among 223 students who play video games. Results. The results show that there are both similarities and differences in the meaning of gamer identity between Poland and the United States. People who consider themselves gamers generally spend more time playing games than non-gamers regardless of the country. However, some differences can be spotted between Poland and the U.S. concerning among others types of games played, used platforms or different styles of playing video games. Limitations and further research. The main problem in the study was the limited age range in the sample. In the future it seems valuable to include people of different age groups to broaden the study of self-identified gamer identity.

This study explores how a high-reliability team (HRT) employed an informal communication norm to facilitate access to members’ distributed expertise during forecast decisions, despite time pressures. The communication norm was documented during observations of U.S. National Weather Service (NWS) forecast team members’ naturalistic decision making (NDM) regarding forecasts. We labeled the norm, floating. Although NWS members did not have an explicit term for their communication norm, follow-up interviews revealed they readily confirmed its existence and expressed an expectation that other members would engage in floating during collective forecast decision making. Additionally, analysis of interview data suggested floating facilitated team cognition and helped enact reluctance to simplify, sensitivity to operations, and deference to expertise. Implications for high-reliability team and organization (HRT&O) theory, naturalistic decision making, expertise, and team cognition conclude the paper.

High reliability team (HRT) theorizing emerged from high reliability organization (HRO) theory and now represents a distinct subset of HRO literature. Seeking to capture the development and range of HRT research, a comprehensive literature review was conducted. This systematic review of HRT scholarship, the first of its kind, provides a foundation from which small group and team scholars across disciplines may reflect on key lessons and chart future research. This review includes 71 articles across 21 disciplines and incorporates historical reflection on HRT theory foundations, existing empirical support, critiques and rivals, theory extensions, and ideas for future scholarship efforts.

This study examined the transition of veterans from the military to the classroom. Guided by communication accommodation theory (CAT), results of semi-structured interviews (N = 20) of military veterans were analyzed to see how and why participants described communication approaches in the university setting. Approaches appeared guided by inculcated values developed during earlier cultural experiences, in the military. Participants described interpersonal and group communication exchanges in three broad themes: cultural clash, perspective taking, and self-silencing. This research supports prior psychological research that explored difficulties combat veterans face after exit and extends this research to non-combat veterans from a communicative perspective.

This study examined member encounter in two organizations with rigid rule structures and great reach into members’ lives: the U.S. military and the Independent Fundamental Baptist Church. Interviews conducted with members allowed emergence of the lived experience of organizational entry in the words of participants in thematic categories. Findings challenge current views of encounter as a negotiation between currently held beliefs and organizational role and suggest a more nuanced view of organizational encounter that is tied to the reach of the organization into the member’s life. Findings also suggest that in totalistic organizations, encounter is designed to quickly manufacture enacted organizational identities that maintain and reproduce organizational rule systems.

This study examined characteristics of players that self-identified as gamers. Participants (N=476) were asked to complete an online survey and provide information about their video game play. Analyses of the survey responses found support for gamers being younger, men, and playing more. We also found that some of the genres of play and technology used diverged from previous research. The two most surprising findings were that gamers preferred to play on consoles more than on computers, and massive-multiplayer online games were not the most played genre. This paper contributed to research in three ways: previous assumptions surrounding gamer identity and demographics were tested, the genre of games and method of play were examined to refine the definition of a gamer, and the implications of gamer identity were discussed.