Economics Seminar - "Nationalism in Online Games: Impacts of International Conflicts on Chess Player Behavior"

This study investigates the influence of nationalism in the context of online gaming, specifically its impact on player behavior during international conflicts. Utilizing conflict data from the Uppsala Conflict Data Program (UCDP) Dyadic Dataset, the research focuses on chess players from Armenia, Azerbaijan, Ukraine, and Russia. We examine whether players exhibit behavioral shifts, including increased aggressiveness or changes in performance, in response to being paired with a player from a hostile country. We scrape move-level data from chess.com, the world's largest online chess platform. The findings show that international conflicts have a noticeable effect on player behavior, with the extent of impact varying among the countries studied. This research sheds light on the interplay between geopolitics and online gaming behavior, providing insights for platform organizers and raising broader questions about the relationship between war and behavior in virtual spaces.