Factors directing individuals to computer games in the process of evaluating recreational activities

Abstract

<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title><jats:p>This study aims to examine the motivational factors that direct individuals to computer games in the process of evaluating leisure activities. The study is designed in descriptive and relational survey models, which are among the quantitative research patterns. A total of 1677 individuals participated in the study. A personal information form and the Computer Gaming Motivation Scale were used. An independent sample t-test, one-way analysis of variance, and Pearson correlation test were used to analyze the data. According to the results, there were significant differences in the concentration, entertainment, escape, learning, and socialization sub-dimensions of the participants in favor of the groups playing in Internet cafes. The findings indicate that when more time is spent with information and communication technologies, there is a decrease in concentration and an increase in entertainment and escape. Furthermore, when the relationship between the sub-dimensions of the scale was examined, positively moderate and high correlations were found among concentration, entertainment, escape, learning, and socialization. As a result, rapid technological changes and developments provide many opportunities for individuals. It is thought that individuals’ busy work lives and monotonous daily routines cause them to prefer easily accessible activities during their leisure time.</jats:p>

Overviewing Gaming Motivation and Its Associated Psychological and Sociodemographic Variables: A PRISMA Systematic Review

“…As for the other studies assessing gender related to motivations not related to the external and internal motivation framework of interpretation (other researchers used dimensions such as as competition and social), 6 studies found that, in general, males score higher than females in all or almost all game motivations [28,29,38,47,50,54], even though Demetrovics et al [22] found contradicting results showing that women tend to score higher on recreation, social, coping, fantasy, skill development, and escape except competition. In fact, 5 studies confirmed that female players tend to score higher than males on the relationship motivation [22,[25][26][27]67], 3 studies found that females score higher on social motivation [22,29,47], 3 studies found that females score higher on escapism [22,25,67], and 2 on fantasy [22,67].…”

“…Other four questionnaires that were fairly used in the analyzed papers were as follows: (a) The Player Experience of Need Satisfaction (PENS, [30]) (n = 5), which based on the Self-Determination Theory [31], assesses five main dimensions: presence 54 , competence 12 , relatedness 58 , autonomy 7 , and intuitive controls 41 ; (b) the Motive for Online Gaming Questionnaire (MOGQ; [22]) (n = 5) which assesses seven main motivations: competition 13 , coping 15 , fantasy 28 , social 65 , skill development 63 , escape 25 , and recreation 57 ; (c) the Gaming Motivation Scale (GAMS; [32]) (n = 5) which assesses five dimensions: intrinsic motivation 38 , integrated regulation 36 , identified regulation 34 , introjected regulation 40 , external regulation 27 , and amotivation 5 ; (d) the Online Gaming Motivations Scale [27] (n = 5) which assesses three main motivations: immersion 35 , achievement 1 , and social 65 .…”

“…Other analyzed behaviours were as follows: "years of playing" (n = 5), sometimes also called "gaming experience", which defines the years that participants spent playing a specific game or gaming; "daily play time" (n = 6), which are the hours spent playing per day or the average longest game session in hours in a day, and "playing or talking with other people" (n = 5); four variables were investigated just a couple of times: "future play" (n = 2) defines as how much the participants were willing to keep playing the game; "time spent playing in the weekend" (n = 2); "players behavior in World of Warcraft" (n = 2), where the studies assessed an ensemble of specific actions done in World of Warcraft. Lastly, the following variables were assessed just one time: "Gaming duration" [69], intended as the longest gaming session the player ever had; "Pay to play" [70], which defines the money spent to play the game; "Daily usage of Information and Communication Technologies" [54]; "Continued play" [30], intended as the intentional behaviour of keep playing the same game"; "gaming during spare time" [34]; progression game, intended as a specific index calculated by the game [71]; "days played" [46].…”

“…The study made by Yee [26] found no gender differences regarding the social component, implying that male players socialize just as much as female players. Only 2 studies found that males score higher than females on escapism [36,54]. Billieux et al [71] found that women showed greater interest in discovery and exploration, at least in WoW.…”

“…The second cluster is composed of "underaged" samples; 5 were the samples whose mean of age was under 18 (k = 5). In addition, it is necessary to clarify that 5 papers did not report any mean of age but just the age range [47,[51][52][53][54], and 3 did not specify the distribution of the age neither with the mean nor the range [26,30,55], even if, regarding the paper done by Ryan et al [30], this can be applied only for the first study that they included in their research. The third cluster, the "adult sample" whose mean of age was above 35, is composed of only two samples (k = 2).…”