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To persevere is to save the world: exploring expertise in gaming

Published: 15 September 2010 Publication History

Abstract

This paper applies a psychological theory of motivation (Self-determination theory) to gamer motivation and persistence. By comparing three different expertise groups (casual gamers, heavy gamers, hardcore gamers) we found that the more experienced gamers not surprisingly exhibit the highest levels of persistence, need satisfaction and motivation, where intrinsic motivation is more important than extrinsic motivation. A similar structure is found for the less experienced gamers, even if their general levels of need fulfillment and motivation are lower. When comparing the motivational structure of the three groups with use of structural equation modeling we found that the difference between the more and less experienced gamers becomes more apparent. While casual and heavy gamers exhibit identical structures in their motivational mechanism, hardcore gamers differ significantly regarding the importance of relatedness when trying to explain their heightened levels of persistence.

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Cited By

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  • (2021)Using Case Studies to Explore Need Satisfaction and Frustration in Puzzle Video GamesGames and Culture10.1177/1555412021105612617:5(752-772)Online publication date: 5-Dec-2021
  • (2019)An investigation of motivation and experience in virtual learning environmentsEducation and Information Technologies10.1007/s10639-018-9784-524:1(591-611)Online publication date: 1-Jan-2019

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cover image ACM Other conferences
Fun and Games '10: Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Fun and Games
September 2010
170 pages
ISBN:9781605589077
DOI:10.1145/1823818
Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

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  • Microsoft Belgium
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Association for Computing Machinery

New York, NY, United States

Publication History

Published: 15 September 2010

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Author Tags

  1. expertise
  2. gamers
  3. motivation
  4. persistence
  5. self-determination theory

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Fun and Games '10
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Fun and Games '10: Fun and Games 2010
September 15 - 17, 2010
Leuven, Belgium

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Cited By

View all
  • (2021)Using Case Studies to Explore Need Satisfaction and Frustration in Puzzle Video GamesGames and Culture10.1177/1555412021105612617:5(752-772)Online publication date: 5-Dec-2021
  • (2019)An investigation of motivation and experience in virtual learning environmentsEducation and Information Technologies10.1007/s10639-018-9784-524:1(591-611)Online publication date: 1-Jan-2019

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