The differences in motivations of online game players and offline game players: …

A combined analysis of three studies at higher education level

 an article by by Tom Hainey, Thomas Connolly, Mark Stansfield and Elizabeth Boyle (University of the West of Scotland, Paisley) published in Computers & Education Volume 57 Issue 4 (2011)

Abstract

Computer games have become a highly popular form of entertainment and have had a large impact on how university students spend their leisure time. Due to their highly motivating properties computer games have come to the attention of educationalists who wish to exploit these highly desirable properties for educational purposes. Several studies have been performed looking at motivations for playing computer games in a general context and in a higher education (HE) context. These studies did not focus on the differences in motivations between online and offline game players. Equally the studies did not look at the differences in motivations of people who prefer single-player games and people who prefer multi-player games.

If games-based learning is to become a recognised teaching approach then such motivations for playing computer games must be better understood. This paper presents the combined analysis of two studies at HE level, performed over a two year period from 2007 to 2009. The paper focuses, in particular, on differences of motivations in relation to single-player/multi-player preference and online/offline game participation. The study produces a set of important motivations to be taken into consideration for each player preference type (single-player or multi-player) and each player participation type (online or offline) based on a large piece of empirical research.

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