How Different Gaming Genres Can Be Described by Required Skills and Motives for Playing

Bibliographic Data

ID22004273
AuthorsAnnika Brandtner (0000-0002-7646-2338, University of Duisburg-Essen, corresponding author), Stephanie Antons (0000-0003-3187-968X, Erwin L. Hahn Institute for Magnetic Resonance Imaging), Magnus Liebherr (0000-0001-8580-2464, Erwin L. Hahn Institute for Magnetic Resonance Imaging), Matthias Brand (0000-0002-4831-9542, Erwin L. Hahn Institute for Magnetic Resonance Imaging)
Year2022
Volume25
Issue9
Pages613-619
Publication date2022-09-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueCyberpsychology Behavior and Social Networking (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2152-2715 • E-ISSN: 2152-2723
PublisherSAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1089/cyber.2022.0019
PMID36067114
OpenAlexW4294796005
LanguageEN
Citations received7
References cited36

With the drastic expansion of the games industry, psychological research is concerned with the question as to why certain genres might be more addictive than others. Besides specific games characteristics and motivational profiles of gamers, skills that are relevant to play certain games and genres might provide more insights for answering this question. An exploratory online survey was designed, asking for played genres, subjective relevance of required skills to play the game, gaming motives, and symptom severity. The analyses aimed at investigating which genres are associated with higher and lower symptoms of their players and the relationship between the relevance of skills required for certain genres and the symptom severity of players. In total, 727 data sets were collected. Descriptive results indicated that the most pronounced difference between genres associated with low and high symptom severity appeared among the indicated relevance of communicating with others, the social motive for gaming, and among the relevance of required executive function skills such as attentional vigilance. The communication skill is discussed as a vulnerability factor for maintaining problematic gaming behaviors despite the occurrence of negative consequences, whereas certain executive functions could be constitutional factors of the experience of a flow state. The association between flow and addictive gaming tendencies is a topic yet to be investigated in future research

Addiction · Cognitive psychology · Flow Experience in Various Fields · Gambling Behavior and Treatments · Impact of Technology on Adolescents · Psychology · Social Psychology

Tools

Open DOI