The Goal of Gaming: The Motivations Behind Playing Different Videogame Genres

Videogames are a massively popular form of media that offer a wide variety of experiences to a wide variety of people. However, a great deal of videogames research does not reflect this nuance, instead treating videogame exposure as a homogenous monolith. This dissertation aims to capture this nuance, contributing to our understanding of videogames through the lenses of genres, types of gamers, and needs. We first identify a list of videogame genres for use in research and the factor structure underlying those genres (Study 1). Using those factors, we then identify a gamer typology that largely replicates across multiple samples (Studies 2–4). We then examine whether different genres and different gamer profiles are uniquely associated with different forms of videogame need satisfaction (Study 4). Our predicted associations between genres and needs are mostly supported by the data, but the predicted associations between profiles and needs are only partially supported by the data. Finally, across two waves of data, we examine how the need frustration caused by the COVID-19 pandemic may have affected the use of games to satisfy needs, and how that affected well-being (Study 5). We hypothesized that people would change their gaming habits to satisfy the most frustrated needs, which would in turn lead to better well-being. Broadly speaking, we find this effect only for autonomy, and not for relatedness or competence. We also find that, in some cases, gaming to satisfy needs is associated with worse well-being. This latter finding could be due to people relying too heavily on videogames to try to address their malaise, without success. Overall, we provide a novel and nuanced look into the relations among videogame genres, the people who play them, and the needs that they satisfy.