Browsing by Author "Bell, Rebecca"

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Computer games: what motivates New Zealand adolescents?
(Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington, 1998) Bell, Rebecca
Playing computer games has become an increasingly popular activity of New Zealand adolescents but the reasons behind this trend are largely under-researched. The purpose of this thesis was to explore why young New Zealand males and females play computer games. Adolescent motivations for computer game-playing were identified and comparisons were made with their motivations for participating in other leisure activities. The ways in which same-sex participants interacted when they played computer games was also investigated to provide further evidence of adolescents' motivations behind computer game-playing. A combination of qualitative and quantitative methods enabled 12 participants' experiences to be set in a broader context. The study involved two parts: firstly, the observational study that identified the interactions between same-sex pairs while playing a computer game; secondly, the open-ended questionnaire that discovered adolescents' attitudes to and motivations for computer game-playing and their participation in other leisure activities. The findings showed that computer game-playing is equally popular with males and females, although males tend to play more often and for longer periods of time. Other findings of the study were: the importance of fun, excitement, skill and competition as intrinsically motivating factors for male computer game players; the importance of challenge, fun, and excitement as intrinsically motivating factors for female computer game players. It was found that the intrinsically motivating factors for computer game-playing were not unlike the participants' reasons for playing sport and socialising. Co-operation was a strong behaviour for both males and females in the study, as was control that was displayed through instances of dominance. The concepts of assimilation and flow offered a possible explanation for why adolescents play computer games as a leisure activity.