Hi all! In February, I conducted research for my thesis on the topic “Motivation for gaming in adolescence and adulthood” (https://stopgame.ru/blogs/topic/109753/motivaciya_geyminga_opros_dlya_diploma). Most likely everyone has already forgotten about this, and I’m very sorry that I delayed this for so long, there was a lot to do, but now I’m free, hurray)
I understand that super long texts are not interesting to anyone, so without long introductions I will try to tell everything briefly and to the point)
I divided the group into three subgroups, I indicated the age in brackets to make it more clear. Adolescence (18–22), early adulthood (23–35) and middle adulthood (36 and over).
Graph according to the first method. So maybe nothing is clear at all, but now I’ll explain.
The predominant motivations, as we see, are integrative, identified and internal. Now let’s go through each of them.
Integrative motivation suggests that for many, video games have already become an integral part of life, a real value, in short, they have become integrated into life. For some, this may be a favorite hobby, for others it is part of their lifestyle or profession, for example, e-sports or game design. Everything here is purely individual.
Identified motivation. We can say that people play video games in order to develop important qualities, intellectual abilities or communication skills, i.e.e. a large number of people can use games to solve any of their goals or problems.
And finally, intrinsic motivation. She says that people play games based on their inner motivations. This could be ordinary interest, research motives, a desire to feel certain emotions, etc.d.
This is a graph using the second method and here you can see which aspects are most attractive to people of different ages.
Well, you can clearly see that this is “customization”, “role playing” and “research”.
Let’s go through all these factors in https://cupcakebingocasino.co.uk order.
Factor customization associated with the player’s creative orientation – interest in modifying the appearance of his character, creating a unique style for him, etc. d. This can be explained by the fact that video games give a person the opportunity to show their individuality, to make a character unique and different from others, because, unlike real life, some people do not have the opportunity to freely experiment with their image. But this factor cannot be limited only to the appearance of the character. Let’s not forget that now, video games provide tools that allow players to create new content, mods, new maps, etc.d., therefore, we can associate this factor simply with creativity, which can be manifested in its different forms.
Factor role-playing suggests that, in most cases, everyone likes to put themselves in the shoes of the game character. In games we can get a huge amount of experience that we cannot get in real life, we can become anyone for a while and get a lot of different emotions.
Exploration of the game space. For most people, the lore of the game is very important, some secrets, secret passages, rare items, etc.d. It is quite possible to assume that games are capable of satisfying the need to learn something new.
It can also be assumed that in video games people can go beyond the boundaries in which society places them and feel free and unlimited in their actions.
If you combine some factors into one, you get this picture:.
Motivation for immersion ours is in the lead and includes the factors that I wrote about above (exploration, escapism, role-playing and customization). Achievement motivation includes factors such as mechanics, progression and competition. Social motivation – communication, relationships and teamwork.
Here I would very much like to note that such results do not mean at all that multiplayer games are less popular than single-player games. I just got a sample where people are more interested in single games, without interaction with other players.
Well, here’s my profile. Here everything turned out somehow more or less stable) I asked you what exactly you value most in games and here are your answers.
The most predominant answer is “experience”, which means that video games have the ability to evoke an emotional response in players, creating unique experiences that cannot be achieved in real life, as I partially mentioned above.
If we talk about the results in general terms, then that’s all) But initially the goal of my work was precisely to study the differences between ages. I think there’s no point in boring you with numbers and calculations, so I’ll just say what the conclusions were. I’ll say right away that some thoughts are exclusively mine and may have nothing to do with reality, so you don’t need to take them to heart.
So, the differences. I will only tell you about the most interesting ones.
Motivation to dive decreases slightly with age. Let me remind you that this motivation is associated with exploring the game space, deep immersion in the plot, etc.d. I assumed that this is due to the fact that with age there is less time for one’s hobbies, unfortunately. Therefore, when entering the game, a person just wants to be a little distracted and relax, without putting too much effort into it and without wasting his energy in vain.
Interestingly, during adolescence and middle adulthood, people are much more likely to play video games in order to feel in control. Control in the sense that, while playing the game, a person creates his own order, decides the fate of his own and other characters, can choose different styles of passing, etc.d. Both during adolescence and during middle adulthood, this can be associated with age-related crises. In adolescence, it is important for a person to find himself and understand who to be in the future, and in middle adulthood a person reviews and analyzes all his numerous experiences, which may often seem wrong to him. A slight digression from the topic, but just an interesting idea that a person’s ability to control the world around him is how a person ensures his survival. When a person is not in control of his immediate environment, he feels very insecure and that is why a person wants to control the current circumstances, regardless of whether the outcome is positive or negative. And the game, in this case, can help you feel this control, at least temporarily.
It can also be assumed that in adolescence, people play multiplayer games much more often, but again this can be explained by the specifics of the sample.
And one more thing that could be said. During adolescence and early adulthood, video games can become a place for people to realize ambitions that they were unable to realize in real life. This can be explained by the fact that these ages are characterized by planning for their personal and professional future, and sometimes people face some restrictions that prevent them from realizing their full potential in life.
All other differences are, in fact, not so interesting, and perhaps far-fetched, because the diploma required it, so I don’t want to take up your time with them.
Phew, that seems to be all) In fact, it is very difficult to tell such a large amount of data in two sentences, but I hope that I managed to make it more or less clear.
And again, I want to say that such results cannot be one hundred percent reliable and apply to all people. This is just my little research)
And to those who read to the end, I want to say a big thank you again. For those who stumbled upon this for the first time, thank you for reading! And to those who took part in the study, thank you for your contribution, without you none of this would have been possible!