Level Up! The Role of Progress Feedback Type for Encouraging Intrinsic Motivation and Positive Brand Attitudes in Public versus Private Gaming Contexts

With the popularity of video games and the resulting gamification of everyday activities comes an increase in in-game advertising (IGA). As a result, video game players' engagement and motivation to level-up or master a video game are becoming increasingly important for marketers hoping to increase exposure to their brands. Across two experimental studies, we provide evidence that games played publically (versus privately) are more motivating to players, and also demonstrate the important influence of feedback via building a character or completing a status bar. In study 1, we find that, for public gaming contexts, players experience more enjoyment, effort, and flow when progress is shown via building a character. Furthermore, in study 2 we extend study 1's findings and discover a moderated mediation model for brand attitudes. Specifically, the relationship between public gaming context and brand attitude is mediated by enjoyment and flow. Further, the mediation of enjoyment and flow is moderated by feedback type, where progress affects brand attitude when a character is used for game feedback, but not for status bar feedback. We examine our research questions within the context of intrinsic motivation, specifically self-determination theory.

[1]  Israel D. Nebenzahl,et al.  Consumers' Attitudes Toward Product Placement in Movies , 1993 .

[2]  Matthew S. Fritz,et al.  PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE Research Article Required Sample Size to Detect the Mediated Effect , 2022 .

[3]  T. Hennig-Thurau,et al.  Value Creation in the Video Game Industry: Industry Economics, Consumer Benefits, and Research Opportunities , 2013 .

[4]  E. Deci,et al.  Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivations: Classic Definitions and New Directions. , 2000, Contemporary educational psychology.

[5]  Yvonne de Kort,et al.  Shared Fun Is Doubled Fun: Player Enjoyment as a Function of Social Setting , 2008, Fun and Games.

[6]  Scott B. MacKenzie,et al.  An Empirical Examination of the Structural Antecedents of Attitude toward the Ad in an Advertising Pretesting Context , 1989 .

[7]  S. West,et al.  A comparison of methods to test mediation and other intervening variable effects. , 2002, Psychological methods.

[8]  Lloyd P. Rieber,et al.  Seriously considering play: Designing interactive learning environments based on the blending of microworlds, simulations, and games , 1996 .

[9]  Leonard Reinecke,et al.  Avatar Creation and Video Game Enjoyment , 2010, J. Media Psychol. Theor. Methods Appl..

[10]  M. Csíkszentmihályi.  Flow. The Psychology of Optimal Experience. New York (HarperPerennial) 1990. , 1990 .

[11]  D. Schunk.  Goal Setting and Self-Efficacy During Self-Regulated Learning , 1990 .

[12]  Byron Reeves,et al.  Being in the Game: Effects of Avatar Choice and Point of View on Psychophysiological Responses During Play , 2009 .

[13]  D. A. Kenny,et al.  The moderator-mediator variable distinction in social psychological research: conceptual, strategic, and statistical considerations. , 1986, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[14]  R. Batra,et al.  Situational Effects of Advertising Repetition: The Moderating Influence of Motivation, Ability, and Opportunity to Respond , 1986 .

[15]  B. S. Ong.  A Comparison of Product Placements in Movies and Television Programs , 2004 .

[16]  A. Hayes.  Beyond Baron and Kenny: Statistical Mediation Analysis in the New Millennium , 2009 .

[17]  Keith S. Coulter.  The Effects of Affective Responses to Media Context on Advertising Evaluations , 1998 .

[18]  Maggie Geuens,et al.  Media Context and Advertising Effectiveness: The Role of Context Appreciation and Context/Ad Similarity , 2002 .

[19]  Pierre Jouvelot,et al.  Motivation-driven educational game design: applying best practices to music education , 2005, ACE '05.

[20]  Kristopher J Preacher,et al.  Addressing Moderated Mediation Hypotheses: Theory, Methods, and Prescriptions , 2007, Multivariate behavioral research.

[21]  M. Goldberg,et al.  Happy and Sad TV Programs: How They Affect Reactions to Commercials , 1987 .

[22]  Chin-Lung Hsu,et al.  Why do people play on-line games? An extended TAM with social influences and flow experience , 2004, Inf. Manag..

[23]  E. Deci,et al.  Self-determination theory and the facilitation of intrinsic motivation, social development, and well-being. , 2000, The American psychologist.

[24]  Hao Wang,et al.  Game reward systems: Gaming experiences and social meanings , 2011, DiGRA Conference.

[25]  Chin-Lung Hsu,et al.  Consumer behavior in online game communities: A motivational factor perspective , 2007, Comput. Hum. Behav..

[26]  Michele D. Dickey.  Engaging by design: How engagement strategies in popular computer and video games can inform instructional design , 2005 .

[27]  Richard A. Spreng,et al.  How Does Motivation Moderate the Impact of Central and Peripheral Processing on Brand Attitudes and Intentions , 1992 .

[28]  A. Hayes.  Introduction to Mediation, Moderation, and Conditional Process Analysis: A Regression-Based Approach , 2013 .

[29]  Edward L. Deci,et al.  Self-determination theory and the facilitation of intrinsic motivation , 2000 .

[30]  Ron Tamborini,et al.  Defining Media Enjoyment as the Satisfaction of Intrinsic Needs , 2010 .

[31]  V. Jefferis,et al.  The influence of social groups on goal contagion , 2008 .

[32]  Christina C. Norman,et al.  Couples' shared participation in novel and arousing activities and experienced relationship quality. , 2000, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[33]  John L. Sherry.  Flow and Media Enjoyment , 2004 .

[34]  R. Veitch,et al.  Good News‐Bad News: Affective and Interpersonal Effects1 , 1976 .

[35]  Juhani Mertsalmi,et al.  Character customization in video games as symbolic consumption- how characters are customized , 2010 .

[36]  Andrew K. Przybylski,et al.  A Motivational Model of Video Game Engagement , 2010 .

[37]  T. Baker,et al.  The Influence of the Racial Mix of Other Customers on Black Consumers' Anger Following a Plausibly Prejudicial Service Failure , 2010 .

[38]  Asimina Vasalou,et al.  Me, myself and I: The role of interactional context on self-presentation through avatars , 2009, Comput. Hum. Behav..

[39]  Lance Porter,et al.  In-Game Advertising Effects , 2010 .

[40]  Christopher Cunningham,et al.  Gamification by Design - Implementing Game Mechanics in Web and Mobile Apps , 2011 .

[41]  Donna L. Hoffman,et al.  Flow Online: Lessons Learned and Future Prospects , 2009 .

[42]  Nick Yee,et al.  Motivations for Play in Online Games , 2006, Cyberpsychology Behav. Soc. Netw..

[43]  Eugene F. Provenzo,et al.  Video Kids: Making Sense of Nintendo , 1991 .

[44]  Jeroen Jansz,et al.  Gaming at a LAN event: the social context of playing video games , 2005, New Media Soc..

[45]  Alexandra Rankin Macgill,et al.  Teens, Video Games, and Civics: Teens' Gaming Experiences Are Diverse and Include Significant Social Interaction and Civic Engagement. , 2008 .

[46]  Geoffrey L. Cohen,et al.  Mere belonging: the power of social connections. , 2012, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[47]  Cynthia A. Erdley,et al.  Cognitive and affective components of automatic priming effects. , 1988 .

[48]  H. Marsh,et al.  Development and Validation of a Scale to Measure Optimal Experience: The Flow State Scale , 1996 .

[49]  Bernard J. Jaworski,et al.  Enhancing and Measuring Consumers’ Motivation, Opportunity, and Ability to Process Brand Information from Ads , 1991 .

[50]  Ultimate App Guidebooks.  Candy Crush Saga , 2013 .

[51]  Edward McAuley,et al.  The Effects of Subjective and Objective Competitive Outcomes on Intrinsic Motivation , 1989 .

[52]  Thomas W. Malone,et al.  Toward a Theory of Intrinsically Motivating Instruction , 1981, Cogn. Sci..

[53]  Murray Crease,et al.  Making progress with sounds - the design & evaluation of an audio progress bar , 1998 .

[54]  M. Csíkszentmihályi.  Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience , 1990 .

[55]  Christoph Klimmt,et al.  Gender and Computer Games: Exploring Females' Dislikes , 2006, J. Comput. Mediat. Commun..

[56]  B. Sternthal,et al.  The Effects of Knowledge, Motivation, and Type of Message on Ad Processing and Product Judgments , 1990 .

[57]  Michelle Renee Nelson,et al.  Advertainment or Adcreep Game Players’ Attitudes toward Advertising and Product Placements in Computer Games , 2004 .

[58]  J. McGonigal.  Reality Is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World , 2011 .

[59]  Richard F. Bowman.  A "Pac-Man" theory of motivation: Tactical implications for classroom instruction. , 1982 .

[60]  R. Ryan,et al.  Control and information in the intrapersonal sphere: An extension of cognitive evaluation theory. , 1982 .

[61]  James E. Driskell,et al.  Games, Motivation, and Learning: A Research and Practice Model , 2002 .

[62]  Mark D. Griffiths,et al.  Social Interactions in Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Gamers , 2007, Cyberpsychology Behav. Soc. Netw..

[63]  E. Deci,et al.  The "What" and "Why" of Goal Pursuits: Human Needs and the Self-Determination of Behavior , 2000 .

[64]  A. Isen,et al.  The effect of feeling state on evaluation of positive, neutral, and negative stimuli: When you "accentuate the positive," do you "eliminate the negative"? , 1982 .

[65]  Terry E. Duncan,et al.  Psychometric properties of the Intrinsic Motivation Inventory in a competitive sport setting: a confirmatory factor analysis. , 1989, Research quarterly for exercise and sport.

[66]  Kristopher J Preacher,et al.  SPSS and SAS procedures for estimating indirect effects in simple mediation models , 2004, Behavior research methods, instruments, & computers : a journal of the Psychonomic Society, Inc.

[67]  Andrew K. Przybylski,et al.  The Motivational Pull of Video Games: A Self-Determination Theory Approach , 2006 .