Developing a Model of Video Game Play: Motivations, Satisfactions, and Continuance Intentions
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DEVELOPING A MODEL OF VIDEO GAME PLAY: MOTIVATIONS, SATISFACTIONS, AND CONTINUANCE INTENTIONS A Dissertation by Brady Patzer Master of Arts, Wichita State University, 2016 Bachelor of Science, University of Central Florida, 2013 Submitted to the Department of Psychology and the faculty of the Graduate School of Wichita State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy December 2018 © Copyright 2018 by Brady Patzer All Rights Reserved DEVELOPING A MODEL OF VIDEO GAME PLAY: MOTIVATIONS, SATISFACTIONS, AND CONTINUANCE INTENTIONS The following faculty members have examined the final copy of this dissertation for form and content, and recommend that it be accepted in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy with a major in Psychology. _____________________________________ Barbara Chaparro, Committee Co-Chair _____________________________________ Rui Ni, Committee Co-Chair _____________________________________ Joseph Keebler, Committee Member _____________________________________ Alex Chaparro, Committee Member _____________________________________ Heidi VanRavenhorst-Bell, Committee Member _____________________________________ Brendan Clark, Committee Member Accepted for the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences _____________________________________ Andrew Hippisley, Dean Accepted for the Graduate School _____________________________________ Dennis Livesay, Dean iii DEDICATION To my parents and my wife, you always believed in me and supported me iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I could not have completed this dissertation without the support and guidance of Dr. Barbara Chaparro. You kept me on track and accountable. I appreciate you spending a considerable amount of time and patience helping to cultivate my ideas. You always had the best advice whenever I had a question. To the rest of my dissertation committee, Dr. Joseph Keebler, Dr. Alex Chaparro, Dr. Heidi VanRavenhorst-Bell, and Dr. Brendan Clark, I would like to thank you for your time, suggestions, and advice. Further, I would like to thank Dr. Alex Chaparro, Dr. Barbara Chaparro, and Dr. Joseph Keebler for giving me opportunities to expand my skills and for supporting my growth as a researcher. Dr. Joseph Keebler - Thank you for spending time reviewing my analyses and providing feedback. You’ve always been helpful and supportive. Dr. Elizabeth Lazzara – Thank you for showing me what Human Factors was back at UCF. You taught me many of the skills I use today. I might not have gone down this path without your guidance. To Christal Patzer, Jake Ellis and Will Choi - it has been an honor to share the journey of graduate school with great friends. I am looking forward to cheering on your accomplishments. Christal Patzer, you have always shown me love, support, and understanding. Thanks for listening to my ramblings over the years. Not to mention all those chores I skipped out on in the name of dissertation work…I owe you so many chores. Thank you to those who helped share my survey, Alexis Raushel, Jasmine Granados, Daniel Smith, and Adam Armijo. I appreciate you all for keeping the Applied Research in Gaming Lab alive. I would also like to thank Dustin Smith for the impromptu brainstorm sessions and general dissertation pro tips. v ABSTRACT As video game usage continues to rise, it is important to understand why people choose and continue playing a game. This research presents a theoretical framework to explore the relationships between gameplay motivations, satisfaction, continuance intention and gameplay. All constructs were from previously validated measures. Motivations were measured by the Trojan Player Typology, which assessed story-driven, completionist, competitor, escapist, smarty-pants, and socializer motives. Satisfaction was measured using the Game User Experience Satisfaction Scale (GUESS), which assessed satisfaction with usability/playability, narratives, play engrossment, enjoyment, creative freedom, audio aesthetic, personal gratification, social connectivity, and visual aesthetics. Continuance intention was measured using a 4-item scale. To examine these relationships, survey data was collected from 353 participants who played different types of online games, including League of Legends, World of Warcraft, Overwatch, and Hearthstone, for at least 10 hours in the past three months. A series of structural equation models were tested to identify the model with the best validity and fit. The final model suggested that motivations were positively related to satisfaction, while satisfaction was positively related to continuance intention and weekly play time. Motivations accounted for 20% of the variance in satisfaction, and the story-driven motivation was the strongest predictor. Further, satisfaction accounted for 47% of the variance in continuance intention and 8% of the variance in weekly play time. Thus, it seems that individual differences in gameplay motivation are an important component of a player’s satisfaction. Further, satisfaction appears to be central to a player’s intention to continue using a game. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter Page 1. INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................... 1 Video Game Usage ............................................................................................................. 1 Video Game Satisfaction .................................................................................................... 1 Theory of Game Play Motivations ...................................................................................... 5 Game Play Motivations....................................................................................................... 8 Continuance Intention ....................................................................................................... 25 Purpose .............................................................................................................................. 27 Hypothesized Research Framework ................................................................................. 27 2. METHOD .............................................................................................................................. 32 Game Descriptions ............................................................................................................ 32 Sample Size Estimation .................................................................................................... 37 Procedure .......................................................................................................................... 37 Participants ........................................................................................................................ 38 Measures ........................................................................................................................... 39 Influence of Game on Motivations ................................................................................... 40 3. RESULTS .............................................................................................................................. 43 Normality .......................................................................................................................... 43 Missing Data ..................................................................................................................... 43 Model Fit Assessment ....................................................................................................... 44 Hypothesized Measurement Model Assessment .............................................................. 44 Validity Assessment.......................................................................................................... 45 Structural Model Evaluation and Hypothesis Testing ...................................................... 53 Exploratory Analyses ........................................................................................................ 58 Alternate Model 1: Validity Adjusted Model ................................................................... 58 Alternate Model 2: Composite GUESS Model ................................................................. 61 Alternate Model 3: Parsimonious model .......................................................................... 64 vii TABLE OF CONTENTS (continued) Chapter Page 4. DISCUSSION ........................................................................................................................ 69 Model Building and Testing ............................................................................................. 69 Final Model Interpretation ................................................................................................ 73 Implications....................................................................................................................... 74 Limitations ........................................................................................................................ 77 Future Directions .............................................................................................................. 78 Conclusion ........................................................................................................................ 81 REFERENCES ............................................................................................................................. 82 APPENDICES