Video Games, Youngsters Motivation and Time Spent In Game
Transcript of Video Games, Youngsters Motivation and Time Spent In Game
Video Games:Youngsters Motivation and Time Spent In GameReport
CO
NT
EN
T ESSENTIAL FACTS 1
GAME TIMELINE 2
BEHIND THE GENRES 3
WHY ARE WE PLAYING GAMES 4
GAME ATHMOSPHERE 5
CURRENT STUDY 6
TIME SPENT IN VIDEO GAMES 8
MOTIVATION AND GAME ENGAGEMENT 9
I Video games?
The current study aims to identify the motivation that drives the Romanian
youngsters and young adults in playing video games and to analyze which
motivation, if any, causes these young people to be more engaged in playing.
The sample is composed of people who completed the online questionnaire. To
test our hypothesis, we have analyzed a sample of 140 respondents, age varying
between 13 and 42 years old. The methodology features the use of „Game Play
Motivations” (12-item version) and „Pathological Video-Game Use” (11 items)
instruments. The results are confirming our suspicions, as there is at least a
relation between social derived motivation and the time a gamer spends in
game.
ABSTRACT
Population?
More than 150
million Americans
play video games.
Time?
60 percent of
Americans play
video games
daily.
Age?
The average gamer
is 34 years old and
72 percent are age
18 or older.
Gender?
45% of US
gamers are
women.
ESSENTIAL FACTS
Data provided by: Entertainment Software Association 1
The history of home video games is a
history of constant change and innovation,
battles over standards, booms and busts
(Williams, 2009, p. 42). Curiously, the first
video game was developed in 1958 in a lab
by a government nuclear research scientist
named Wally Higginbotham who, tired of
seeing bored visitors at his lab’s open
house, decided to create a game of tennis
on an oscilloscope screen (Herman 1997
apud. Williams, 2009, p. 42).
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GAME TIMELINE
1958
First video
game
1999
2010
From 1998 to 2001, the video game
industry became the fastest growing
segment of the entertainment
industry with a growth rate of 15 to
25 per cent, employing over 200,000
people (Williams, 2009, p.41).
Domestic revenues of
$7.4
billion
Since its launch in 2004, the MMORPG
WoW grew rapidly, reaching 12 million each
paying 10$ monthly (Forbes, 2010).
World of Warcraft 12
million subscribers
Dmitri Williams (2009), Structure and Competition in the U.S.
Home Video Game Industry
An single player game wins the game
of the year award in an “era of online
games”.
2019
The Witcher 3 the Game
Award of the year 2015
02One game, Fortnite,
reach 250 million
players 2018
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2017Consumer spend on the
video games industry
$36 BILLION
GAME
GENRESSimulation
Strategy
Puzzle
Fantasy/role
playing
Sports
Action /
adventure
Shooter
Racing
/speed
Classic
board
games
Fighter
Quiz/
trivia
Card/diceArcade
(Lucas & Sherry, 2004, p. 512).2
In World of Warcraft, 12 million players regularly log on to
customize their fantasy personae (characters), explore complex
and ever-changing vistas (pleasing scenes), and collaboratively
battle human and computer opponents. In Starcraft 2, millions
worldwide play a complex chess-like strategy game that
demands perpetual multitasking between procuring resources,
amassing an army, and penetrating opponents’ defenses. In The
Sims 3, players cultivate a virtual existence where their
character(s) socialize, learn new skills, work steady jobs, and
develop complex relationships. In Halo 4, players take on the
first-person perspective of a highly equipped supersoldier,
violently killing alien races over the course of a narrative and,
when online, competing and cooperating with peers. In FIFA 13,
players take control of their favorite soccer teams, competing in
realistic simulations against computer- or human-controlled
teams. Finally, in Minecraft, millions of players use Lego-like
elements to construct their own unique structures and
mechanisms, sharing their creations with others in immense
virtual worlds.
Garnic, Lobel și Rutger (2014, p.68), describe 2011’s
most popular games as follows:
BEHIND THE GENRES
Although most individual games
fit comfortably in one category
or another, some are difficult to
pigeonhole and others occupy
more than one category. For
example, simulation games,
which attempt to mimic complex
real-life activities like planning a
city, running a corporation, or
governing a country, usually
have role-playing, puzzle, and
strategy elements.
Role-playing
GENRES
PUZZLE
Strategy
Simulation
History
Game example: Mount and Blade
Mount and Blade genres
3
THE WORLD THROUGH
THE EYES OF AN
ANTRHROPOLOGIST
Based on a long line of fantasy themes derived from
a variety of sources, including Lord of the Rings and
its predecessors, World of Warcraft is staged in a
medieval setting (…) Players battle monsters, amass
treasure, conduct business at an auction house,
practice crafts such as alchemy and blacksmithing,
and seek to improve their characters through the
acquisition of ever better weapons and armor.
Players start at level 1 and can advance to level 80,
in a process known as “leveling,” by slaying
monsters and completing quests (minigames) that
award “experience points.” The character is seen in
the third person, usually from behind
(Bonnie A. Nardi, 2010, p.12)
4
GAME
ATHMOSPHERE
WoW is a game of movement. The game
geography is huge. Characters travel on foot or by
beast, boat, or air through fields, farms, forests,
jungles, deserts, mountains, seas, and other
distinctive scenery for which Blizzard artists have
won many awards. Players quest to find and slay
hundreds of different types of creatures from the
game’s “bestiary”—creatures dwelling throughout
the varied landscapes of the world.
The construction of the world has strong appeal to the modern consciousness—everything is human
scale. No building is more than a few stories high (Some areas are reached by elevator but are only one
or two levels once one arrives.) The objects players wear, wield, win, buy, and sell, including weapons,
vials of magical potions, fishing poles, armor, crafting implements such as mining picks, and resources
like herbs, cloth, and precious stones, are easily handled by the (virtual) human hand.
(Bonnie A. Nardi, 2010, p.12)
Bonnie’s Night Elf Priest
YEE MOTIVATION SCALE EXPLAINED
Advancement
Progress, Power,
Accumulation, Status
Mechanics
Numbers, Optimization,
Templating, Analysis
Competition
Challenging Others,
Provocation, Domination
Socializing
Casual Chat, Helping Others,
Making Friends
Relationship
Personal, Self-Disclosure,
Find and Give Support
Teamwork
Collaboration, Groups,
Group Achievements
Discovery
Exploration, Lore,
Finding Hidden Things
Role-Playing
Story Line, Character History,
Roles, Fantasy
Customization
Appearances, Accessories,
Style, Color Schemes
Escapism
Relax, Escape from RL,
Avoid RL Problems
Achievement Social Immersion
5
33
96
110
50
100
150
<18 18-28 > 28
Age categoriesThe age of respondents
varies between 13 (1)
and 42 (1) years old.
The vast majority of the
sample is composed of
youngsters as the
mean age is 22 years
old.
31%
69%
The total number of respondents analyzed
for the present study reaches 140 people.
Among our sample, the number of boys
(68,6%) is much higher than girls (31,4%),
which can give us indications that, in
Romania, gender differences remain
pronounced for gamers. Even though, the
girls percent has increased as more
respondents have completed the
questionnaire, it is still well below the portion
found in other countries’ rapports.
SAMPLE
DEMOGRAPHIC
6
Only 4 respondents in the entire sample do
not have a fulltime occupation at the
moment. This data contradicts the stereotype
that video game players would be people
without occupation.
QUESTIONAIRE
COVERAGE
As you can see (in the graphic),
most respondents are from the
counties: Cluj and Brasov, as well
as from the capital, Bucharest.
34
55
32
4
1
14
0 20 40 60 80
Highschool
Higher Education
Employed
N/A
Occupation
No other full time activity School and Work
PLATFORM
POPULARITY
86
66
36
8 7 13
9
6
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
PersonalComputer
(PC)
LaptopDevice
PlayStationConsole
XboxConsole
NintendoConsole
MobileDevice
Individual Shared (with others)
7
122 2
1
2
2
Brașov
Bucharest
Cluj
4
1
1
1
2
2
3
2
6
5
1
2
41
2 121
38
14
6
TIME SPENT IN
VIDEO GAMES
61%23,60%
7,90%
7,10%
Once or twice a
month
Once or twice per
week
Daily
The large number of people who
say they play every day is likely to
be caused by our data collection
method (choosing only sites and
groups dedicated to gamers).
Rarely, once
every two
months or
more
6%
94%
Pathological Video-
Game Use
Normal Use
We have introduced the
”Pathological Video-Game Use”
in our questionnaire, an
instrument made by Douglas
Gentile (2009), a highly tested
and probed questionnaire
which has proven its validity in
many other studies.
Even if our sample was mainly recruited from the online gaming
communities, as such we have expected a higher risk of
problematic use, we are pleasantly surprised that only 5,7% of
the respondents present so called „pathological use” (which can
be translated as video game addiction).
VIDEO GAMES
ADDICTION?
16 36,4% 70 72,9%
12 27,3% 21 21,9%
7 15,9% 4 4,2%
9 20,5% 1 1,0%
8
MOTIVATION AND GAME
ENGAGEMENT
As expected, motivation that drives us in playing video games affects the way we
interact with these games. From the time we spent in game through the dedication
we offer to them. We came to this realization based on a statistic analysis (“Bivariate
Correlations”) that follows a correlation between the 3 motivations and the results
from the "Pathological Video-Game Use” instrument, this being one of the main
reasons why we chose to apply the last mentioned instrument. As video game
addiction is not related to the time gamers spent in games, the instrument follows
the way a game affects our life (from family and friends’ aspects to our dedication to
the game, as a person is considered addicted only if the games affect aspects of his
personal life).
Thus, to conduct our correlation analysis, we have made a
sum of the scores obtained by respondents on the
questions from the addiction instrument, but we did not
future transform all this scores in a specific number that
reflects addiction or non-addiction as we have done before
(1-addicted, 0-non addicted). Not being interested in
knowing who is or is not addicted, we simply leave the
scores as they were, as the scores have much greater
importance for identifying a possible correlation. Our
strategy has proven to be useful, as the results show that,
indeed, motivation is related to the way we interact with
the game and how we balance the in game world and the
real word. We know from the results of the addiction tests
that most of the players have managed to balance this two
worlds without ignoring their real life responsibilities.
These results can be consulted in the table where it can be
seen that our data is backed up by strong statistical
significance (meaning that sig. is below 0.05) on all
motivations.
Achievement 0,012*
Social 0,000**
Immersion 0,005**
Sum from "Pathological Video-Game Use”
Bivariate
Correlations
* Strong statistical significance (p <0.05) ** very strong statistical significance
(p <0.01)
9
Mo
tivati
on
s
In the above paragraph we explain that our significance score (last column sig.) is above 0.05 (a score that is
below 0.05 is desired in scientific papers, reaching it practically means that the author is right 95 of 100
times, but that is not the case here). As we do not have p = <0.05, our data is not that exact so we can be
quite wrong (for that reason we chose to say that there is a “possible relation”). We have reached a "possible
relationship" because in case of the statistical test presented, we can also consult the F rates, if this rate is
higher it could mean that there is a correlation (even if it is not yet significant) and so we have to collect
more data, as a large number of respondents can increase the F, and so the results are more likely to
become significant.
ARE THERE DIFFERENCES BASE ON
SPECIFIC MOTIVATIOS?
Finally, we wanted to see if any of the
three motivations is more influential
than the other. For this purpose, we
analyzed if there is a relation between
the respondents motivation and
pathological results (more detailed , we
have done a ONE WAY ANOVA statistic
analysis among Yee’s 3 Motivations from
“Game Play Motivations” instrument and
the data from "Pathological Video-Game
Use”).
F Sig.
Achievement 1,713 .193
Social 2,843 .094
Immersion ,003 .960
ONEWAY ANOVA
The results are presented in the table above. As you can see, we obtained weak statistical
significance on the Social motivation where we have a sig. score below 1.0 (still above the required
0.5 for statistical significance but enough to suspect that there is some correlation).
It is important to note that we have no way of knowing in which “direction” these relations affect
the user, so it can also mean a positive influence, as social motivation can reduce pathological use.
This data surprised us, as we expected different results based on our findings from the preliminary
data analysis conducted on the first 77 respondents, where we found a higher F for the
Achievement motivation and no sign of possible correlation on Social. According to the initial
findings, we have continued the data collection procedure expecting to find significance for the
Achievement motivation.
The present analysis proves that our decision was correct, even though we did not find any strong
statistical significance, and contrary to our expectations the F of Achievement has slightly
decreased, so our expectation in this regard are unsustain by data .
Yet, we have obtained weak statistical significance for Social motivation. Thus, we can suspect that
there is a correlation between social derived motivation and game engagement.
10
Finally, in terms of engagement and motivation, we can conclude that there is a correlation
between the motivations and video game engagement, this data being backed up by strong
statistic significance. We also identified two possible correlations, on a different statistic test,
suggesting that two motivation may have some correlation with pathologic use, these being
Achievement motivation and Social motivation. the latter have stronger statistical significance
than the other. We also consider the data sufficient for the purpose of the present paper, as
we can probe that the motivation driving a person to playing video games also affects the
dedication to those games. Another potential strong point of our work is related to the data
on pathological use. Even with a small sample, we can say that the number of those
dependent on video games is at a level similar or even lower compared with other Western
states.
CONCLUSIONS
11
Hey, my name is Cosmin, I am currently following a masters degree
at the Faculty of Sociology and Social Work, part of Babeș-Bolyai
University form Cluj-Napoca. I’m interested in gaming studies,
alternative music studies and subcultural studies. Because of my
preferences for these domains I often say that: If something is
under-researched or the topic is considered unorthodox here in
Romania, I will most likely be interested in that aspect and I will be
open to research it myself.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
The present paper is part of a bigger project named
“RomaniaGamingStudies”, where I put all my heart in. It was made
with the main goal of bringing gaming studies to the mainstream
here in Romania. To do so, I am interested in continuing my
education, being mainly interested in a PhD in which I want to
continue the current project related to video games
Lastly, I want to personally show my gratitude to all the participants that completed the online
questionnaire for the present study! All of you helped me enormously and because of you I
obtained incredible data that really motivated me to consider continuing my study and proving
that many of the stereotypes that we often here from other people about video games might be
quite wrong.
The data collection stage is completed, still more data could be useful
for future projects, so, if you like what we are doing, please consider
filling (if u did not already do so) and distributing the questionnaire to
other players (which can be found on the page:
fb.com/RoGamingStudies).
Thank you very much to
all the participants and to the readers
The present study did not receive any sponsorship/grants and we are not interested in
collaborations that want to use the data for commercial purposes.
The only affiliation of the project is with Faculty of Sociology and Social Work, Babeș-Bolyai
University (UBB), Cluj-Napoca, Romania.
For any questions or scientific partnerships, please contact us using one of the contact listed on
the cover.
Contact information:
Author mail: [email protected]
Project mail: [email protected]
Facebook: fb.com/RoGamingStudies