Play on Demand

Abstract

Due to the penetration of smartphones and associated mobile devices, mobile gaming has become a ubiquitous industry worldwide. Players now have access to games at all times. Extending previous research and the Uses and Gratifications approach this paper presents an alternative conceptual model that can offer explanations towards understanding why players play the mobile game they play most frequently.

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

“…23 papers had a reporting bias since they had to discard some of them, and not all the cases were reported. 13 papers presented a measurement bias: (1) Lafrenière et al [32] did not report the specific value of each dimensions' Cronbach's alpha; (2) Tekofsky et al [67] created an ad hoc scale by compiling items from already assessed instrument, but they did not report the Cronbach's alpha for each dimensions; (3) Scharkow et al [38] created an ad hoc questionnaire, but one of the dimensions (exploration-ego centered motives) had only one item, thus resulting in Cronbach's alpha of one; (4) Dindar [75] proposed the construct of "gamer loyalty" as an attitude variable and not as behavioural one; (5) Ratan et al [50] measured two constructs only through one item; (6) Kim [40] created a scale to measure preference of games, and this scale had low alphas; (7) the questionnaire used by Willians et al [124] had an alpha of .62 for the immersion factor which would be considered insufficient if we would interpret this with the European Federation of Psychologists' Association's [27] criteria, which says that a Cronbanch's alpha is acceptable only if above .70; (8) Dauriat et al [36] did not report the Cronbach's alpha for each dimensions of their scale; (9) McCauley et al [52] created an ad hoc questionnaire that needs further validation; (10) Fuster et al [33] used an ad hoc instrument that needs further validation; (11) Tondello et al [44] used a short version of their scale, and it could have problems with acquiescence, also the scale needs further validation, and the player dimension had a Cronbanch's alpha of .698, which is insufficient according to EFPA [139]; (12) Azadvar & Canossa [46] measured some behavioural variables through a recording system, so the obtained data could have been affected by external factors; (13) the ad hoc questionnaire created by Yee [25] to measure MMORPG motivations had three dimensions with insufficient alphas [139]: .63 for immersion, .62 for escapism, and.67 for achievement. Lastly, 3 papers also had a statistical bias due to the fact that one questionnaire was based on an already existent one [41]; Frederik & Jan had a really small sample which could lead to a type II error; Ratan et al [50] underlines that there might have been a type I of error due to the unequal sample size in doing the ANOVA calculations.…”

“…51 Performance: the expectation to perform well when playing digital games [35]. 52 Philanthropist: players motivated by purpose. Their motivation to play is to help others without expecting a reward [44].…”

“…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).…”

“…The fourth variable is "enjoyment"(n = 2) which is positively related to autonomy ( [52]; Ryan et al [30], entertainment and flow motivations [52], competence, and relatedness [30].…”

Building a pervasive social gaming experience using SocialPG

“…Another aspect of interest concerning mobile games is that users are increasingly using their free time to engage in short, intense gaming experiences that have a large social component (McCauley, 2017).…”