Computer games: what motivates New Zealand adolescents?

Abstract

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.