A Synergistic Multiprocess Model of Video Game Entertainment

Abstract

Video games have inspired substantial activity in past entertainment research. Based on an analysis of the core characteristics of this highly popular medium (agency, narrative, aesthetics, and sociality) that are all uniquely shaped by interactivity, we propose a multiprocess model that can explain the great majority of gamers’ hedonic and eudaimonic entertainment experiences. These key processes are (1) agentic experience of effectance and competence, (2) cycles of suspense and performance-driven relief, (3) escapist and meaningful self-transformation, (4) connectedness with virtual and real others, and (5) other-praising emotions from narrative-aesthetic appeal. Temporal shifts of salience and importance for the overall experience and synergistic interactions among processes are suggested to explain both the enduring motivation of many gamers and the strong, robust, and reliable capacity of games to facilitate “some” or even “great” entertainment.

Mastering uncertainty: A predictive processing account of enjoying uncertain success in video game play

“…Why do people seek out, persist engagement in, and enjoy pursuing goals where their winning odds are below 100%? While most contemporary models assume that games afford multiple distinct motivating experiences in parallel (e.g., Vanden Abeele et al, 2020 ; Klimmt and Possler, 2021 ), the vast majority include and often centre on some notion of achievement, competence, or effectance (ACE). They agree that in tackling and overcoming the obstacles games pose, players feel a sense of effectively exercising their own capacities.…”

“…1 While current theories see gameplay fuelled by multiple motives (e.g., Vanden Abeele et al, 2020 ; Klimmt and Possler, 2021 ), they typically explain the appeal of optimal challenge with intrinsic motivations of achievement, competence, or effectance (‘ACE’ henceforth). Broadly, ACE theories hold that people need and therefore seek out the positively valenced experience of effectively causing intended change in the world: We enjoy succeeding or doing well at something ( Klimmt and Possler, 2021 ). Yet if gameplay is motivated by enjoying success, why would we seek un- certain success?…”

Not Very Effective: Validity Issues of the Effectance in Games Scale

“…In addition to effectance, we measured three constructs that following White [46] should be part of effectance, and following Klimmt [20] should be distinct from effectance, which makes them 1.…”

“…The construct of effectance was introduced to games research by Christoph Klimmt [17,20]. Klimmt posits that entertainment experiences in video game play arise from multiple synergistic psychological processes operating at different temporal and structural scales.…”

“…Klimmt (and others after him) see effectance as a component of agency experiences [20,31], and directly linked to self-efficacy, defined as łpeople's beliefs about their capabilities to produce designated levels of performance that exercise influence over events that affect their livesž [2, p. 2]. For these scholars, self-efficacy is the learned expectation of personal effectance, built up through repeated actual effectance experiences [18,41].…”