Basic psychological needs, passion and motivations in amateur and semi-professional eSports players

Abstract

Electronic sports (eSports) are a category of video games that are played competitively following rules, either in teams or individually. Currently, the top videogame is League of Legends (LoL), a game in the genre known as Multiplayer Online Battle Arena (MOBA) with more than 100 million monthly active players worldwide. Re­search has shown that video games can satisfy basic psychological needs and be experienced as a passion, and that passion is a useful construct to help understand the different motivational patterns of video game use. In addition, no relevant studies have been found with professional players. There­fore, the objective of this study is to explore whether knowledge of the degree of frustration of gamers’ basic psy­chological needs in everyday life, users’ passion and their motives to play makes it possible to distinguish between types of players (amateurs or semi-professionals). The participants were 195 Spanish-speaking LoL players (156 amateurs and 39 semi-profes­sionals) who were passionate about LoL. The results indicate that the game is most often played for competitive, social and exploration reasons. As for passion, players play more out of harmonious passion than out of obsessive passion, the latter being associated with the frustration of basic psychological needs. As a whole, being younger, less motivated by the plot of the game, having greater motivation to improve mental abilities, and spending more hours playing are predictors of the type of player (semi-professional). It is concluded that eSports players are not characterized as obsessed or frustrated people, and that the use of videogames is not necessarily harmful.Los deportes electrónicos (eSports) son un conjunto de videojuegos que se juegan de manera competitiva siguiendo unas reglas, ya sea por equipos o en solitario. Actualmente, el videojuego por excelencia es el League of Legends (LoL), del género Mul­tiplayer Online Battle Arena (MOBA), con más de 100 millones de jugadores mensuales activos a nivel mundial. La investigación ha demostrado que los videojuegos pueden satisfacer necesidades psicológicas básicas y ser vividos como una pasión, y que la pasión es un constructo útil para ayudar a comprender los diferentes patrones motivacionales del uso del videojuego. Además, no se han encontrado estudios relevantes con jugadores profesionales. Así pues, el objetivo de este estudio es explorar si la frustración de las necesidades psicológicas básicas en la vida cotidiana, la pasión y los motivos de juego permiten diferenciar el tipo de jugador (amateur y semi-profesional). Los participantes fueron 195 jugadores de LoL (156 amateurs y 39 semi-profesionales) castellano-hablantes y apasionados al LoL. Los resultados indican que el uso predominante del juego son los motivos competitivos, sociales y de exploración. En cuanto a la pasión, los jugadores juegan más por pasión armoniosa que por pasión obsesiva, siendo esta última junto con la frustración de las necesidades psicológicas básicas las más bajas. En conjunto, tener menor edad, una menor motivación por la historia del juego, una mayor motivación por mejorar las capacidades mentales, y dedicar más horas de juego por semana son predictores del tipo de jugador (semi-profesional). Se concluye que los jugadores de eSports no se caracterizan por ser personas obsesivas o frustradas, y que el uso del videojuego no es necesariamente perjudicial.

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