How Awe Affects Players’ Entertainment Experiences Over Six Weeks of Playing

Excited for eudaimonia? An emergent thematic analysis of player expectations of upcoming video games.

“…Looking more closely at our themes to address RQ1 in relation to eudaimonic expectations, only a single theme could be interpreted as directly related to having eudaimonic experiences—the theme of “personal meaning” understood as complex affective responses (see Daneels et al, 2021). However, there are several other themes identifying expectations about game elements that potentially influence or facilitate eudaimonic game reactions (and are thus more indirectly related to eudaimonia), including consequential choices (Bowman et al, 2022; Holl & Melzer, 2022), game aesthetics (Possler & Klimmt, 2021; Possler et al, 2021), game narratives (Oliver et al, 2016; Rogers et al, 2017), and users’ relationships with game characters (Oliver et al, 2016) and with human players (Kümpel & Unkel, 2017; Rogers et al, 2017). The findings, including broader categories and specific themes, examples of each theme, and frequency counts (as % total frequency, sample-wide), are shown in Table 1, with the themes associated with eudaimonia marked in the table…”

“…This is a likely consequence of the game's unique design in which players could conceivably visit any location at any time: the game famously allowed players to proceed directly to the final “boss fight” with Calamity Ganon without any further game progression (Kollar, 2016). Most discussions more broadly dealt with engaging the physical game world as a source of enjoyment: “I loved the open world and how the game rewards players for exploration” and “I love exploration and the vast world of Hyrule was a perfect opportunity to do that.” Although not mentioned explicitly, such exploration could also lead to eudaimonia via awe experiences (Possler et al, 2021). Furthermore, it is not surprising that Forza Horizon 5 was absent of any mentions of lore, in-game characters, and consequential choices, and was most often noted for “fun.” The game (and the franchise) is primarily built around collecting, customizing, and racing exotic and unusual cars—all experiences unlikely to align conceptually with eudaimonia.…”

“…As part of larger survey project aimed at proposing and validating a possible scale for assessing eudaimonic motivations for playing video game (Possler et al, 2021), respondents were asked to reply in essay format to the following prompt: “Can you tell us a little bit about your expectations for [GAME], and why you would like to play the game?” The primary goal of the prompt was to stimulate subjects to express their expectations of the game in question, although it also referred to gameplay motives to encourage more detailed responses connecting expectations to anticipated outcomes. Notably, the open-ended prompt was given to respondents early in the survey.…”

“…Thus, it could be argued that players primarily expect and seek fun and enjoyment in a manner consistent with previous research on game selection, but “stumble upon” eudaimonic experiences in their general search for fun (Possler et al, 2020). For example, players of open-world games such as Zelda: Breath of the Wild may be initially motivated by the pleasure of exploring a large game world (To et al, 2016) but then come across unexpected awe-inspiring scenery (Possler et al, 2021). In line with this explanation, the few studies on eudaimonic preferences (i.e., generally liking media content capable of causing eudaimonic experiences) have found weak or statistically nonsignificant associations between those preferences and players’ intention to use a game (Wulf & Baldwin, 2020) or their entertainment experience (Possler et al, 2020).…”

Animating a Plausible Past: Perceived Realism and Sense of Place Influence Entertainment of and Tourism Intentions From Historical Video Games

“…Due to the evocative nature of eudaimonic experiences (Bartsch & Hartmann, 2017;Daneels et al, 2021aDaneels et al, , 2021b, it makes sense that video game experiences that are perceived as highly realistic and foster a sense of place could be seen as more eudaimonic. For example, Possler et al (2021) found Fallout 76 players reported high levels of awe for the in-game landscapes, which in turn predicted higher levels of appreciation of the gaming experience.…”