Tag Archive for Motivation

Passion and Motivation in MMORPGs

April 20, 2014 Motivation, Theory No comments

Fuster, Chamarro, Carbonell, and Vallerand investigate the relationship between passion and motivation. They note that it is unclear how passion affects MMORPG(massively multiplayer online role-playing games) players motivations. In their study “results indicated that passionate gamers were interesting in relating with others through the game and exhibited a high degree of interest in discovery of the game, gaining leadership, and prestige but little interest in escape from reality”. This study was a questionnaire of 410 MMORPG players. They identify some motivations upon which the study is based. “Demetrovics et al. [2011] identified seven motivations: social, escape, competition, coping, skill development, fantasy and recreation. These dimensions overlap with those found by Yee. A subsequent study by Fuster et al. identified four interpersonal and interpersonal motives: socialization, exploration, achievement, and dissociation”.

Fuster et al. (2014) use the Duelistic model of Passion, which identifies harmonious passion (HP) and obsessive passion (OP). Responses were sort by posting on MMORPG community forums. There was a low response rate among women (20 females, 410 males), so these responses were removed. With women now representing almost 50% of the gaming market it means these results and conclusion really need to be carefully considered and generalized. The following games were listed as the most popular:

  • World of Warcraft – 32%
  • Lord of the Rings Online – 22%
  • Rift – 16.6%
  • EVE Online – 11.5%
  • Aion – 5.1%
  • DC Universe Online – 4.1%

In their findings, “These results suggest that both constructs- motivation and passion- can be integrated into an explanatory model of gaming behaviour, in which HP and OP guide the various motivations experienced while playing online gaming”. These findings align with Wang et al.’s (2008) social interactions within guilds, Shen & Williams ideas on socialization, and confirms the duelistic model of passion as in Stoeber et al.(2010) and Wang & Chu (2007). The author also admits the limitations of the study, noting the need for coss-sectional study and the examination of OP and addictive behaviours. While this particular study isn’t that useful since in completely omits female data, it is still useful. It does prove correlation between Passion and motivation when linked to MMORPGs. It has also provided some additional material to examine (listed below).

 

Further Reading

Boyle EA, Connolly TM, Hainy T, et al. Engagement in digital entertainment games: a systematic review. Computers in Human Behaviour 2012; 28:771-780

Demetrovics Z, Urdan R, Nagygyorgy K, et al. Why do you play? The development of the motives for online gaming questionnaire (MOGQ). Behaviour Research Methods. 2011; 43:814-825.

Ducheneaut N, Yee N. (2008) Collective Solitude and social networks in World of Warcraft. In Romm-Livermore C, Setzekorn S, eds. Social networking communities and e-dating services: concepts and implications. New York: Information Science Reference, pp. 78-100.

Graham KT, Gosling SD. Personality profiles associated with different motivations for playing World of Warcraft. Cyberpsycology, Behaviour, & Social Networking; 2013; 16:1-5.

Van Gee I. (2012) MMOData Charts version 3.3. www.mmodata.net Meredith A, Hussain Z, Griffiths M. Online gaming: a scoping study of massively multi-player online role-playing games. Electronic Commerce Research 2009; 9:3-26.

Yee N. The demographics, motivations, and derived experiences of users of massively-multiplayer online graphical environments. Presence: Teleoperators & Visual Environments. 2006; 15:309-329.

Stoeber J, Harvey M, Ward JA, et al. Passion, craving and affect in online gaming: predicting how gamers feel when playing and when preventing from playing. Personality & Individual Differences 2011; 5:991-995.

Shen C, Wiliams D. Unpacking time online: connecting Internet and massively multiplayer online game use with psychosocial well-being. Communication Research 2012; 38:123-149.

 

References

Fuster, H., Chamarro, A., Carbonell, X., & Vallerand, R. J. (2014). Relationship Between Passion and Motivation for Gaming in Players of Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking.

Looking into Badges – University of Washington

April 20, 2014 Badges, Theory No comments

When the University of Washington moved to a skill-based promotion system (from seniority-based), they looked int piloting a bagdes program to encourage skill development for student employees. Student employees make a a 50+ person team that manage IT labs, and assist in technology related help services. State introduced legislature in 2009 meant a freeze on wage increases, and the only options for these student staff were moving to jobs with increased pay and responsibilities. This meant those starting in freshman year may never have seen a pay rise over the course of their employment.University of Washington Logo

UW implemented a tier-based system upon where each level indicated an increased degree of skill and responsibility. Promotion up the chain required justification and documentation of skills. As a result they identified that there was inconsistency around how a student achieved the skills needed for the promotion. Thus UW investigated digital badges as a solution to show that a group of skills could represent expertise within the team.

Wallis and Martinez acknowledge that informal learning is not recognized, and degrees and certificates do not represent a complete picture of a learners skills and abilities. They identify the Mozilla Open Badge Infrastructure as a potential framework solution. UW-IT “started to investigate badges primarily as a way of measuring and documenting their [student staff] skills, and encouraging them to continue to improve their skills”.

Wallis and Martinez then launch into a discussion about the options for a badge system, in particular the division between Open source and commercials solutions. Open examples such as Badg.us and BadgeOS, and commercial solutions such as Credly. In reviewing Seton Hall’s code for a badge system they UW identified the priorities for integration, adn flaw in using an open source method. Seton Hall’s (pre-GitHub Release version) had inelegant coding implementations (such as individual modules for authentication), while badg.us did not accommodate functions such as meta-badges.

Wallis and Martinez conclude that more exploration of options is required. Noting that there was further interest in pilot participation from other units on campus and that students enjoyed the Code Academy model. The authors also note their concerns about ad-hoc badge issuing for informal learning, leaderboards and student inflexibility, and note that “we want to be cautious that badges do not become a completely extrinsic motivator”. Intrinsically motivated students will seek learning, badge system or not. They also note the key points of Ryan and Deci’s Self-determination theory, Autonomy, competence and relatedness. Then mentions the historical perspectives of badges as either representation of expertise/experience or power/authority (Alexander Halavais, 2012, “A genealogy of Badges: Inherited meaning and monstrous moral hybrids”).

 

References

Wallis, P., & Martinez, M. S. (2013, November). Motivating skill-based promotion with badges. In Proceedings of the 2013 ACM annual conference on Special interest group on university and college computing services (pp. 175-180). ACM.

 

Why am I here? – Motivations for playing games online

September 20, 2013 Game Mechanics, Theory, Video Games No comments

Yee (2013) conducted a study to investigation players motivation for MMORPGs. Early he critics the lack of empirical data behind Bartle’s Player types. Noting that the player types were not mutually exclusive and in fact have a significant degree of crossover. Yee opted for a factor analytic approach, “Players used a five-point fully labelled construct-specific scale to respond” to a 40 question survey.

The Results

Yee (2013) exposed the following factors and sub components in motivation. Noting the the data identified that a high score in one factor did not suppress a high score in another factor.

Achievement Social Immersion
Advancement – Progress, Power, Accumulation, Status
Mechanics – Numbers, Optimization, Templating, Analysis
Competition – Challenging Others, Provocation, Domination		 Socializing – Casual Chat, Helping Others, Making Friends
Relationship – 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, Colour Schemes
Escapism – Relax, Escape from Real Life, Avoid Real-Life Problems

 

References
Yee, N (2006) Motivation for Play in Online Games, Cyber Psychology and Behavior. Volume 9, issue 6. pp 772-775.

Motivating Learners – Just add badges right?

September 7, 2013 Badges, Game Elements, Gamification, Theory No comments

Reading through Play As You Learn: Gamification as a Technique for Motivating Learners (2013) by Ian Glover gives an overview of the current state of gamification, with particular relevance to  education. Glover first states the three basic parts of most games:

  • Goal-focused activity
  • Reward mechanics
  • Progress tracking

Glover then notes some current uses of gamification including popular social network FourSquare.

Eventually gets to the good stuff, and touches on some criticism of gamification. These included the detriment of providing extrinsic rewards for learners who are intrinsically motivated, the addictive behaviours often associated with certain personality types (notes from Zichermann, 2011), the competitiveness of leaderboards (Williams, 2012), and the types of engagement when gamification is removed (Thoma, Millen, and DiMicco, 2012).

Glover’s main points include the following

  • Careful consideration needs to be taken before the application of gamification to learning
  • Providing extrinsic motivation for intrinsically motivated learners is detrimental
  • Gamification in earning should therefore be optional
  • Popular Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs) and LMSs (Learning Management Systems) provide an ideal opportunity, with tracking data already available
  • Rewards need to be desirable to all learner to motivate behavior
  • Gamifiation can be applied to non-electronic contexts

 

My references

Glover, Ian (2013) Play as you learn: gamification as a technique for motivating learners. In: HERRINGTON, Jan, COUROS, Alec and IRVINE, Valerie, (eds.) Proceedings of World Conference on Educational Multimedia, Hypermedia and Telecommunications 2013. Chesapeake, VA, AACE , 1999-2008. http://shura.shu.ac.uk/7172/

 

Glover’s References
Thom, J., Millen, D., & DiMicco, J. (2012). Removing gamification from an enterprise SNS. In Proceedings of the ACM 2012 conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW ’12), 1067-1070. Accessed: 27/11/2012 -http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/2145204.2145362.

Williams, J. (2012). The Gamification Brain Trust: Intrinsically Motivating People to Change Behavior (part 2). Gamesbeat, Panel discussion, Wallace, M. [chair], Accessed: 26/11/2012 – http://venturebeat.com/2012/09/22/the-gamification-brain-trustintrinsically-motivating-people-to-change-behavior-part-2/#h8geQcI5BUyR5Ihv.99

Zichermann, G. (2011). Gamification has issues, but they aren’t the ones everyone focuses on. [Editorial] O’Reilly Radar. Accessed: 26/11/2012 – http://radar.oreilly.com/2011/06/gamification-criticism-overjustification-ownership-addiction.html

Rewards. Means I get a trophy right?

July 20, 2013 Game Design, Game Mechanics, Theory No comments

Rewards are a natural part of games and gamification. They appear to create the motivation to engage in a given behaviour. This is true pf many things. Most (if not all) games systems have a reward involved from board games, to digital games, and even other things that have been “gamified”.

Rewards can be either intrinsic or extrinsic. Intrinsic rewards in games are where the player engages in the action for the simple enjoyment or pleasure of the task. Extrinsic rewards are those that would grant a reward that does not have application to the immediate task, eg grinding away in World of Warcraft (WoW) for that one amazing sword you must have. Both types of rewards have their values.

In Extra Credits Season 6 Episode Intrinsic or Extrinsic they discuss the ideas of both motivations. The narrator notes that all games should be made wholly with intrinsic rewards, were playing the game would be its own reward. While this is a great idea I find that this would not really appeal to me. Whilst I am not the first person to shoot my hand up to grind out a day for an awesome shield or some other similar reward, I see and feel the appeal. The narrator does come to note that building wholly intrinsically motivating games is unlikely.

Val Teixeira (2013) hits the nail on the head, different people are have different motivations. Some people are motivated by extrinsic rewards, while others are a motivated by the intrinsic nature of games. Which brings to mind the Bartle player types, perhaps the style of player influences motivation? What is more interesting perhaps is to what extent each gamer is motivated to engage with the game where only extrinsic rewards are presented.

Back to gamification, one of the most common methods of this is the application of badges, trophys or other such rewards to non-game processes. These are always extrinsic rewards. So, why for so many people do they stay engaged when clearly there is no intrinsic motivator? An answer I’d like to know. Recently Steam released a new method of extrinsic rewards, cards. It motivates gamers to play certain games in order to attain digital cards. Cards are not, by default, available for all games. It will be interesting to see the development of Steam cards over time. Not just of the community but the patterns of play. Will frequent gamers abandon the games they have put hours into, just to start playing new games that offer them opportunities to get the cards?

 

Further Reading

Games and motivation

Reward Systems

Bartle Player Types

 

Resources

Penny Arcade (2013) ‘Episode 01 – Intrinsic or Extrinsic’ Extra Credits, Season 6. Accessed 18/07/2013.

Val Teixeira (2013) ‘Rewarding players’ Boardgamegeek.com. Accessed 18/07/2013. http://boardgamegeek.com/blogpost/21342/rewarding-players

Valve (2013) http://store.steampowered.com/news/10946/