TY - GEN
T1 - Gender and genre differences in multiplayer gaming motivations
AU - Wohn, Donghee Yvette
AU - Ratan, Rabindra
AU - Cherchiglia, Leticia
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020.
PY - 2020
Y1 - 2020
N2 - This study examines gaming motivations for two different genres of multiplayer games—casual social network games (SNGs) and massively multiplayer online (MMO) games—and tests for gender differences in motivation after considering genre. We conducted a survey of 515 SNG players and 505 MMO players in the U.S. through Mechanical Turk, asking about their motivations for play and basic gaming behavior such as frequency and length of play. Using a self-determination theory approach to categorize motivations, we looked at how game genre and gender are associated with six types of motivation. We find that hypotheses of gender differences from previous games research are contradicted or unsupported—for example, female players for both SNGs and MMOs reported higher levels of external game regulation than males, contradicting previous studies of men being more achievement oriented than women. There are also major genre differences in relation to different motivations. Results reflect a cultural shift in gaming away from gender stereotypes, supporting the importance of reconsidering previous scholarship in this area. Future research should account for both the affordances and culture associated with different game genres rather than generalizing gender effects to all games.
AB - This study examines gaming motivations for two different genres of multiplayer games—casual social network games (SNGs) and massively multiplayer online (MMO) games—and tests for gender differences in motivation after considering genre. We conducted a survey of 515 SNG players and 505 MMO players in the U.S. through Mechanical Turk, asking about their motivations for play and basic gaming behavior such as frequency and length of play. Using a self-determination theory approach to categorize motivations, we looked at how game genre and gender are associated with six types of motivation. We find that hypotheses of gender differences from previous games research are contradicted or unsupported—for example, female players for both SNGs and MMOs reported higher levels of external game regulation than males, contradicting previous studies of men being more achievement oriented than women. There are also major genre differences in relation to different motivations. Results reflect a cultural shift in gaming away from gender stereotypes, supporting the importance of reconsidering previous scholarship in this area. Future research should account for both the affordances and culture associated with different game genres rather than generalizing gender effects to all games.
KW - Gender
KW - Genre
KW - Motivation
KW - Multiplayer games
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85088742301&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85088742301&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1007/978-3-030-50164-8_16
DO - 10.1007/978-3-030-50164-8_16
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:85088742301
SN - 9783030501631
T3 - Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics)
SP - 233
EP - 248
BT - HCI in Games - 2nd International Conference, HCI-Games 2020, Held as Part of the 22nd HCI International Conference, HCII 2020, Proceedings
A2 - Fang, Xiaowen
PB - Springer
T2 - 2nd International Conference on HCI in Games, HCI-Games 2020, held as part of the 22nd International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction, HCII 2020
Y2 - 19 July 2020 through 24 July 2020
ER -