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Massive multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs) are representative metaverse games that are thriving in academia and the industry. This study aims to develop an integrated model based on Yee's motivations and the Proteus effect to explore individuals' intentions of playing MMORPGs.

The data were gathered by conducting an online survey (n = 441) for the players of World of Warcraft, an MMORPG. The collected data were analyzed with a structural equation model.

The outcomes of this research reveal that the Proteus effect positively influenced the intentions of the players to play the game via mediations of social, immersion, achievement motivations and enjoyment. Furthermore, the players influenced by the Proteus effect, which enables avatar embodiment and identification, exhibited a stronger intention to play MMORPGs.

This research is one of the first attempts to establish a theoretical framework involving the Proteus effect and Yee's motivations. In addition, the findings of this study imply that the Proteus effect should be considered when investigating the individual experience of metaverse games.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate impact of playing motivation on team member selection (TMS) in online games specifically related to Massively Multiplayer Online Role-playing Game environment.

A self-administered questionnaire was developed and administered to an online sample of 9,335 CR3 players.

The findings of this research indicated that social and immersion motivations have a significant effect on TMS. Additionally, it was discovered that achievement motivation has a positive relationship with dispositional TMS, a negative relationship to bond-based TMS. The moderation effect of frequency and gender is also demonstrated.

The study verified the relationships of the theoretical model of the game motivation and TMS.

This study provides advice to operators of online games when motivating players to work in groups.

This research examined the social interactions of online game players based on the proposed motivation model in order to understand the transitions of motivation of online game. The authors also separated samples into four categories to compare the difference of different type of online game players.

This study proposed a motivation model for online game player based on existence–relatedness–growth theory. The authors also analyze the transitions of motivations via first-order and second-order Markov chain switching model to obtain the journey of online to offline socialization.

Teamwork–socialization players preferred to make friends in their online gaming network to socialize. Competition–socialization players were mostly students who played games to compete and socialize and may share experience in online or offline activities. Teamwork–mechanics players purely derived pleasure from gaming and were not motivated by other factors in their gaming activities. Competition–mechanics players may already have friends with other gamers in real life.

More samples can be added to generate more generalizable findings and the proposed motivation model can be extended by other motivations related to online gaming behavior. The authors proposed a motivation model for online to offline socialization and separated online game players into four categories: teamwork–socialization, competition–socialization, teamwork–mechanics and competition–mechanics. The category of teamwork–socialization may contribute to online to offline socialization area. The category of competition–mechanics may add value to the area of traditional offline socialization. The categories of competition–socialization and teamwork–mechanics may help extant literature understand critical stimulus for online gaming behavior.

The authors’ findings can help online gaming industry understand the motivation journey of players through transition. Different types of online games may have various online game player's journey that can assist companies in improving the quality of online games. Online game companies can also offer official community to players for further interaction and experience exchange or the platform for offline activities in the physical environment.

This research proposed a novel motivation model to examine online to offline socializing behavior for online game research. The motivations in model were interconnected via the support of literature. The authors also integrated motivations by Markov chain switching model to obtain the transitions of motivational status. It is also the first attempt to analyze first-order and second-order Markov chain switching model for analysis. The authors’ research examined the interconnected relationships among motivations in addition to the influential factors to online gaming behavior from previous research. The results may contribute to extend the understanding of online to offline socialization in online gaming literature.

Extending on flow theory, the purpose of this paper is to explore how interactivity (human-to-human interactivity and human-to-machine interactivity) and personal beliefs (perceived attractiveness, personal involvement, and perceived uncertainty) impact flow experience; this study also investigates how flow experience is related to replay intention. Furthermore, this is the first study to explore the relationship between perceived uncertainty and challenges in online gaming.

The proposed research model was empirically evaluated using survey data collected from online game players. The evaluation was conducted using partial least squares of structural equation modeling.

The findings revealed that flow experience was a significant predictor of replay intention. Four antecedents of flow (telepresence, focused attention, skills, and challenges) had a positive influence on flow experience. Interactivity (human-to-human interactivity and human-to-machine interactivity) and personal beliefs (perceived attractiveness, personal involvement, and perceived uncertainty) influenced these antecedents. Moreover, human-to-human interactivity exerted a greater impact on the flow experience antecedents than did human-to-machine-associated interactivity. This study reveals that human-to-human interactivity is most crucial to the effective development of online games. In addition, the author find that utilitarian motivations have positive moderating effects on the relationship between flow and replay intention. Finally, additional practical and managerial implications are discussed.

Few empirical studies have explored the moderating role of utilitarian motivations. This original study analyzed how utilitarian motivations moderate the relationships between flow and replay intention of online game players. Moreover, this is one of the first studies to explore the characteristic of uncertainty and its role in the context of online game playing.

The health promoting benefits of sport participation are under-utilized and should be further developed, particularly at the grassroots level. The purpose of this paper is to examine how grassroots coaches in youth football perceive their coaching practices after participating in a community-based coach education program aimed at optimizing their experiences in youth sport, namely the Empowering Coaching™ training program, based on self-determination theory (SDT) and achievement goal theory (AGT). It compares French and Norwegian coaches to suggest whether the principles of the Empowering Coaching™ training program can be applied successfully in the two countries.

The Empowering Coaching™ training program is a six hour workshop and was delivered at the beginning of the 2011 football season. At the end of the season, the grassroots coaches’ reflections on their coaching practices were examined through a qualitative approach with in-depth interviews of 18 coaches in France and Norway, applying a hybrid analyses and comparing country-wise.

All coaches expressed the intention to embrace the philosophy of the program, and to apply several of the strategies they had learnt during the workshop. The coaches perceived that the program supported their efforts to develop and implement strategies to stimulate intrinsic motivation, enjoyment and long-term participation among the players. There were some differences between coaches from France and Norway (e.g. rules and involvement), but the similarities were more evident, supporting the universality of applying SDT in the youth sport setting.

The findings are encouraging for sport as a health promoting setting and for the development of the personal skills in grassroot coaches, as they imply that coaches who feel competent in how to structure practices and matches that provide the players with positive sport experiences are likely to enable players to feel supported and motivated.

This study explores qualitatively the impact of an intervention based on SDT and AGT, focussing on football coaches’ reflections on their coaching practices.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss how educators can harness the natural momentum of learning to create a dramatic and exciting hero’s learning journey. Given the importance of motivation, educators can borrow ideas from game designers by using gamification – a process to re-frame a real life goal to be more appealing and achievable. A series of learning activities, developed to meet both cognitive and emotional needs, results in an engaging learning journey.

The concept presented, based on PSI Theory, OCEAN Big Five character traits and player/learner archetypes, is that learners are motivated by three basic needs: affiliation, competence or certainty (assuming other physiological needs are met).

Armed with insight into types of motivations at different phases, learner experience designers can create different learning journeys and user profiles. Learning activities can be planned for each need and phase based on changing motivations: collaborate and curate (affiliation), choice and ownership (certainty), challenge and accountability (competence).

Further research is needed in the area of gamification in education. A qualitative study should be conducted on preferred learning and assessment activities for each player archetype and, importantly, this research should represent broad samples and not be restricted to the online gaming community.

Rather than focussing on an isolated unit of study, and asynchronous eLearning modules, learning designers can use modern technologies to seed and nurture learning communities where each person has an appealing pathway to enable them to move from novice to expert at their own pace in a spiral of satisfying learning.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the mechanism by which uses and gratification (U&G) constructs predict continuance intention to play (ContInt) the augmented reality game Pokémon Go (PG), through multiple serial mediation technique, with enjoyment and flow as mediators. The model also integrates other motivational factors specific to PG, namely, network externality and nostalgia and investigates the process by which they influence ContInt through players’ inherent need-to-collect animated monsters and online community involvement, respectively.

The model was tested using 362 validated responses from an online survey of PG players in Malaysia. Partial least squares structural equation modeling was used to analyse the data. The predictive relevance of the model was tested via partial least squares-Predict.

ContInt is influenced through various mechanisms. Enjoyment is the most important mediator, mediating three U&G predictor constructs (achievement, escapism, challenge and social interaction) and the outcome ContInt. Flow did not have any influence on ContInt unless coupled with enjoyment as a serial mediator. Network externality and nostalgia were found to only influence ContInt through mediators, online community involvement and need-to-collect Pokémon Monsters, respectively. Overall, the results show evidence of four indirect-only mediation paths and one complementary partial mediation path.

Provides support for an integrated model incorporating psychological, social and gaming motivational factors. While most other studies focus on direct relationships, we focus on indirect relationships through multiple sequential mediation analysis, following the recent modern mediation analysis guidelines. Contrary to previous findings, flow was not an important factor in predicting ContInt for gaming and nostalgia does not link directly to ContInt.

Online games based on a freemium business model face the monetization challenge. The purpose of this paper is to examine how players’ achievement orientation, social orientation and sense of community contribute to willingness to pay (WtP).

A multi-method study of an online game community is used. Interviews and participant observation are used to develop an understanding of social and achievement orientations followed by the development of hypotheses that are tested using survey data.

The findings indicate that a sense of community is positively related to WtP, whereas satisfaction or dissatisfaction with the service provider is not. The authors examine the moderating role of players’ achievement orientation and social orientation and find that while a stronger connection to the community may encourage achievement-oriented players to pay, the opposite is indicated for socially oriented players.

Decision makers need to understand that not all players are potential payers; while socially oriented users can help to maintain and grow the community, achievement-oriented players are more likely to pay for the value they extract from the community.

While communities are held together by people with common interests, which intuitively suggests that WtP increases with the strength of connection to the community, the authors find this only applies in the case of players with an achievement orientation. For those with a social orientation, WtP may actually decrease as their connection to the community increases. These perhaps counter-intuitive findings constitute a novel contribution of value for both theory and practice.

This study aims to illuminate Turkish gen Z players’ intention to make in-game purchases based on stimulus–organism–response (SOR) model and uncover the distinctive role of gender.

Six hundred and ninety-six young players were included in the research who are aged 12 to 29 in Istanbul, Türkiye. Measurement validity was checked via principal component and confirmatory factor analysis. Structural model testing, mediation and multigroup analysis were conducted to test relationships among latent constructs.

The study revealed enjoyment, perceived attractiveness and economic value were positively associated with gamer satisfaction, though connectedness was not. In addition, gamer satisfaction positively affected loyalty and loyalty predicted in-game purchase intention. On the other hand, the magnitude of enjoyment-gamer satisfaction path was greater in female players than in males. However, the effect sizes of perceived attractiveness and economic value on gamer satisfaction were larger in males than in females.

The research focuses on freemium game context, the sample of Istanbul province in Turkey, and gen Z (12 to 29) players constituting the limitations.

Mobile game producers should consider that enjoyment is more substantial for female players to increase in-game revenue. Hence, perceived attractiveness and economic value may be improved for male players. They could also balance the gaming experience by providing social connectivity and isolation.

It is the initial attempt to unveil Turkish young mobile players’ behavioral tendency toward paid in-game extensions. On the other hand, gender difference is a salient matter unnoticed by other investigations that the strength of stimulus varies from players’ gender discovered by the research.