Tag Archive for Study

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.

My First MOOC

August 16, 2013 Education, Online Resources, Research Journey No comments

Since finishing my degree I have felt this gap in my life. I think more so it’s the ways in which I now need to fill spare time I have. Spare time in previous years has been a somewhat foreign concept. Though now that I have no study commitments, I have no pressure to be spending spare moments researching, and reading. In saying that I feel like there is a small void that video games and leisure reading just isn’t filling. I have identified this as missing learning. I enjoy the process of learning and research, I enjoy acquiring new knowledge.

Image courtesy of lisamcalister.com

How do I address this insatiable desire to learn? I have no desire for another bachelors degree, and my university opportunities for further studies in my desired fields are slim, at best. So I have turned to the latest trend in education, MOOCs. A MOOC is a Massive Open Online Course. So its basically anyone in the world with an interest in a given topic connecting to the course. Why? many people have a variety of reasons to engage in online study.

I have enrolled in The Global Business of Sports, delivered by Penn, University of Pennsylvania, on Corsera. My course so far consists of lectures and discussion forums, with 2 assessible quizzes coming, one at the mid-point and one at the end. The lectures have been split up into modules, with a module released each week. The lectures are split up into nice digestible chucks, 20-25 minutes a piece. Then we have the forums. Coming in a little bit late to the course (mid-week 2) discussion had well an truly kicked off. This meant for some of the more interesting debate topics in the forums, postings had already reached beyond 300 posts. I found this a barrier to engaging with that particular topic since reading more than 300 posts and comments isn’t really my idea of a good time. So I sought out topics that I could jump into that hadn’t yet reached a such a size, and have had some great (almost academic) discussion. Though mostly so far it has been very low key, with most people offering their opions with no references and discussion about farourite sports and teams. I look forward to moving a little further beyond this.

Retention rates for students in MOOCs are generally pretty low. Many sources note that students will enroll but not complete the course. I need to find some good statistics for this. For the current course there is no way I can see to find out how many students are currently enrolled, and this is not something the teaching staff have shared yet. I can see many reasons for low retention rates, beyond the usual reason students may drop out of face to face style courses. There is the appeal of free, the ease in which to enroll, the seemingly low commitment required, and a dislike of the teaching method or style. I would imagine that for many it is combination of these.

This is week still week two of the course. I’m interested in if I manage to stick it out and complete the course, or whether I just become another statistic. Stay tuned.