A Preliminary Research On Self-expansion Motivation Of MOBA Players

Game motivation theory holds that there are three primary components which delineate plays’ motivations for play:Achievement,Social,and Immersion.Whereby Battle’s earlier model consists of two opposing motivations(action versus interaction with people or the environment),Yee’ model,in contrast to Bartle,is not developed around the notion of polarized motivations for play.Rather,Yee suggests that these components coexist within players,although an individual’s motivations for playing will reflect these in varying degrees.Thus,according this game motivation theory who are motivated by in-game achievements are not necessarily less social than other plays.the theory has also identified subcomponents of each of these motivations.The achievement component is made up of three subcomponents Advancement,Mechanics,and Competition.The social component consists of three subcomponents Socializing,Relationship,and Teamwork.The immersion component consists of four subcomponents:Discovery,Role-Playing,Customization,and Escapism.Achievement motivation means that the player gains status in the game by winning the game and thereby improving the player’s ability,so as to win others’respect and improve self-esteem.Some gamers may seek to become powerful as quickly as possible in order to garner in-game status by becoming more powerful than other gamers.Those who are primarily motivated by the achievement component are satisfied by continual progress in the game with a focus around building up the strength and wealth to gain a sense of accomplishment,and to gain recognition and respect from other gamers.Social interaction motivation refers to the motivation to realize the needs of interpersonal communication through chatting in the game or contacting with other players.Game can be viewed as enormous chatrooms where there is almost always someone online.Gamers can log on nearly any time of the day or night and find other gamers who are online and willing to chat with them.For this reason,many gamers use MOBA as an environment in which they can make friends.Gamers can form lasting friendships,and intimate relationships online with other gamers and many gamers have met romantic partners within MOBA environments..Moreover,the players reported that the support from their friends in the game not only alleviated the pressure to some extent,but also helped them overcome the difficulties in life.Immersive motivation refers to the fact that players like to immerse themselves in the virtual environment of the game and the colorful pictures in the game,and Some immersive gamers use the game to explore other identities within and various personality traits as a means of reflection or self-examination,within the game.Other players are only immersed in the game to escape from the real life.In addition,it is also proposed in the game theory that these three main motivations do not exist independently,but exist in each player at the same time,except that under different circumstances,one motivation dominates while the other two motivations are relatively weak.The theory of self-expansion is that people have the ability to establish intimate relationship with others through interpersonal communication,so as to bring others into their own,and to bring other people’s materials,opinions and identities into their own to achieve self-expansion.The self-expansion theory holds that the self-expansion motivation of human beings is a basic motivation of human beings and most of the time it happens unconsciously.With the continuous development of theories,the self-expansion theory after development proposes that the main way of self-expansion is not only to establish intimate relationship with people through interpersonal communication,but also to participate in novel and challenging activities.Amoebic Self Theory(AST)argues that people use several modes to enlarge their self-concepts.This theory posit that people,like amoebas,are driven by two basic needs:to consume and to self-perpetuate,that is to continue the experience of living.Expansion occurs through inclusion—not only of others—but engulfment or’consumption’ of other experiences by the self.Thus the drive to self-expand not only leads humans to make connections and form attachments with others,but also to build societies,attribute meaning to objects,store surplus food,and amass wealth,in order to expand and perpetuate the self.Increasing personal knowledge by learning and experiencing new things,as well as collecting meaningful personal items,and seeking cognitive and emotional stimulation have also been shown to reduce the drive for self-expansion.(AST proposes three domains through which expansion may occur:physical,social,and spatial-symbolic(Burris et al.,2013).These domains are measured using the Engulfment of Self Scale.Persons with a higher need for cognition spend more time thinking about social issues,constructing rational arguments,and attempting to solve problems(often seeing their world as a puzzle)than do individuals who indicate a lower need for cognition,and it has been suggested that puzzle solving is one avenue which individuals utilize to facilitate self-expansion.According to Fodor’s theory,when an individual is faced with a problem,or puzzle that needs to be solved,they cognitively enter an environment that must be mastered(assimilated into the self to reduce uncertainty).This task is accomplished by successfully solving the puzzle,and reducing uncertainty;thereby expanding the self.MOBA(tactical competitive multiplayer online game)itself has a strong novelty,two kinds of self expansion theory is game theory,the correlation of three motives seem to have very strong achievement motive component in game theory,for example,social assimilation of self expansion on the definition and description have strong similarity.lt has been proved by scholars that self-expansion motivation is the fundamental motivation in MMORPGS(Massively Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Game).Therefore,from the perspective of MOBA(multiplayer online tactical competitive games),the verification of self-expansion motivation as the fundamental motivation of games can not only enrich the theory of game motivation and self-expansion theory,but also verify whether the previous research results are universal.This study takes college students as the research object and measures self-expansion,cognitive needs and traditional game motivation.142 valid questionnaires were obtained.A conclusion can be drawn under the conditions of this study:(1)players who played MOBA games for more than six months experienced more self-expansion than gamers who played the same MOBA game for less than six months.(2)the longer you play MOBA games,the more time you spend playing games every week.(3)if you spend more than 15 hours per week playing MOBA games,you will clearly feel that games have affected players’ study and life.(4)there is a significant positive correlation between the degree of self-expansion experienced by MOBA players and the achievement motivation,social interaction motivation and immersion motivation in the game motivation theory.(5)there was a significant positive correlation between the degree of self-expansion and the components of bodily engulfment and spatial symbols engulfment in the amoeba theory,but there was no significant correlation between the degree of self-expansion and the components of society engulfment.(6)the principal component analysis obtained two principal component factors,including the self-expansion component,the achievement motivation component in Yee’s game motivation theory,the social interaction motivation component,the immersion component,and the physical engulfment component and the space symbol engulfment component in amoeba’s ego theory.The major factor 2 contains the social engulfment components in the ESS scale.Therefore,it can be concluded that self-expansion in playing MOBA games is the fundamental motivation for players to play MOBA games,among which achievement motivation,social interaction motivation and immersion motivation are just different strategies to meet the needs of self-expansion.(7)there was a significant positive correlation between principal component factor 1 and both harmonious and obsessive passion,but the correlation between harmonious passion was higher than that between obsessive passion.(8)there was a significant positive correlation between principal component factor 2 and harmonious passion,but there was no significant relationship between it and obsessive passion.Future research can also be conducted on subjects of different game types,different age groups and different ethnic backgrounds to improve the external validity of the research results.