IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/simgam/v55y2024i4p637-661.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Playing Motivations of Male and Female Gamers and the Effects of Stereotypes on Their Motivations in Honor of Kings

Author

Listed:
  • Chunqi Li
  • Luke K. Fryer
  • Alex Shum

Abstract

Introduction Honor of Kings (HoK) is one of the most popular mobile games worldwide. To understand why players actively engage with digital games, it is essential to focus on their gaming motivations. However, no previous studies were found to have investigated the kinds and depth of players’ motivations in this game. Moreover, the empirical research concerning the impact of stereotype threat and lift on players’ motivations is scant. Thus, this pre-registered study aims to examine male and female players’ gaming motivations in Honor of Kings and the effects of stereotypes on players’ motivations. Methods This study utilized Yee et al. (2012)’s motivational model. A 2 × 3 MANCOVA was performed for the outcome variables of achievement, social, and immersion motivations; with gender and stereotype activation (no activation, female, and male threat activation) as independent variables; and with age and gaming time as covariates (n = 421). Results Contrary to prevalent perceptions, the results suggested females had higher achievement and immersion motivations, but lower social motivation than males in Honor of Kings. Unexpectedly, only females’ immersion motivation was impaired under stereotype threat, and females demonstrated lower social motivation under stereotype lift. However, males were not affected by either stereotype threat or stereotype lift. Discussion The results suggest that caution is needed for the assumption that male gamers are more achievement-oriented and females are more social-oriented because their motivations may vary depending on game genres. This study also found unexpected effects of stereotype threat and lift. Future research should further explore how to implement stereotype activation effectively to promote gender equality in gaming. Notably, this study only recruited participants from China due to the restrictions of recruitment channels. Future researchers are highly recommended to examine whether there are cross-cultural differences in the findings of this study.

Suggested Citation

  • Chunqi Li & Luke K. Fryer & Alex Shum, 2024. "The Playing Motivations of Male and Female Gamers and the Effects of Stereotypes on Their Motivations in Honor of Kings," Simulation & Gaming, , vol. 55(4), pages 637-661, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:simgam:v:55:y:2024:i:4:p:637-661
    DOI: 10.1177/10468781241238299
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/10468781241238299
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/10468781241238299?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. van Buuren, Stef & Groothuis-Oudshoorn, Karin, 2011. "mice: Multivariate Imputation by Chained Equations in R," Journal of Statistical Software, Foundation for Open Access Statistics, vol. 45(i03).
    2. Julia Kneer & Sanne Franken & Sabine Reich, 2019. "Not Only for the (Tom) boys: Gender Variables as Predictors for Playing Motivations, Passion, and Addiction for MMORPGs," Simulation & Gaming, , vol. 50(1), pages 44-61, February.
    3. Richard Zinbarg & William Revelle & Iftah Yovel & Wen Li, 2005. "Cronbach’s α, Revelle’s β, and Mcdonald’s ω H : their relations with each other and two alternative conceptualizations of reliability," Psychometrika, Springer;The Psychometric Society, vol. 70(1), pages 123-133, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Fabian Gander & Jennifer Hofmann & Willibald Ruch, 2021. "From Unemployment to Employment and Back: Professional Trajectories and Well-Being," Applied Research in Quality of Life, Springer;International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies, vol. 16(2), pages 739-751, April.
    2. Noémi Kreif & Richard Grieve & Iván Díaz & David Harrison, 2015. "Evaluation of the Effect of a Continuous Treatment: A Machine Learning Approach with an Application to Treatment for Traumatic Brain Injury," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 24(9), pages 1213-1228, September.
    3. Abhilash Bandam & Eedris Busari & Chloi Syranidou & Jochen Linssen & Detlef Stolten, 2022. "Classification of Building Types in Germany: A Data-Driven Modeling Approach," Data, MDPI, vol. 7(4), pages 1-23, April.
    4. Boonstra Philip S. & Little Roderick J.A. & West Brady T. & Andridge Rebecca R. & Alvarado-Leiton Fernanda, 2021. "A Simulation Study of Diagnostics for Selection Bias," Journal of Official Statistics, Sciendo, vol. 37(3), pages 751-769, September.
    5. Anne-Catherine Guio & David Gordon & Eric Marlier & Hector Najera & Marco Pomati, 2018. "Towards an EU measure of child deprivation," Child Indicators Research, Springer;The International Society of Child Indicators (ISCI), vol. 11(3), pages 835-860, June.
    6. Gaetano Martino & Giulia Giacchè & Enrica Rossetti, 2016. "Organizing the Co-Production of Health and Environmental Values in Food Production: The Constitutional Processes in the Relationships between Italian Solidarity Purchasing Groups and Farmers," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(4), pages 1-22, March.
    7. Christopher J Greenwood & George J Youssef & Primrose Letcher & Jacqui A Macdonald & Lauryn J Hagg & Ann Sanson & Jenn Mcintosh & Delyse M Hutchinson & John W Toumbourou & Matthew Fuller-Tyszkiewicz &, 2020. "A comparison of penalised regression methods for informing the selection of predictive markers," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(11), pages 1-14, November.
    8. Liangyuan Hu & Lihua Li, 2022. "Using Tree-Based Machine Learning for Health Studies: Literature Review and Case Series," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(23), pages 1-13, December.
    9. Norah Alyabs & Sy Han Chiou, 2022. "The Missing Indicator Approach for Accelerated Failure Time Model with Covariates Subject to Limits of Detection," Stats, MDPI, vol. 5(2), pages 1-13, May.
    10. Feldkircher, Martin, 2014. "The determinants of vulnerability to the global financial crisis 2008 to 2009: Credit growth and other sources of risk," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 19-49.
    11. Shankar Tumati & Huibert Burger & Sander Martens & Yvonne T van der Schouw & André Aleman, 2016. "Association between Cognition and Serum Insulin-Like Growth Factor-1 in Middle-Aged & Older Men: An 8 Year Follow-Up Study," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 11(4), pages 1-12, April.
    12. Eunsil Seok & Akhgar Ghassabian & Yuyan Wang & Mengling Liu, 2024. "Statistical Methods for Modeling Exposure Variables Subject to Limit of Detection," Statistics in Biosciences, Springer;International Chinese Statistical Association, vol. 16(2), pages 435-458, July.
    13. Ida Kubiszewski & Kenneth Mulder & Diane Jarvis & Robert Costanza, 2022. "Toward better measurement of sustainable development and wellbeing: A small number of SDG indicators reliably predict life satisfaction," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 30(1), pages 139-148, February.
    14. Georges Steffgen & Philipp E. Sischka & Martha Fernandez de Henestrosa, 2020. "The Quality of Work Index and the Quality of Employment Index: A Multidimensional Approach of Job Quality and Its Links to Well-Being at Work," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(21), pages 1-31, October.
    15. Christopher Kath & Florian Ziel, 2018. "The value of forecasts: Quantifying the economic gains of accurate quarter-hourly electricity price forecasts," Papers 1811.08604, arXiv.org.
    16. Esef Hakan Toytok & Sungur Gürel, 2019. "Does Project Children’s University Increase Academic Self-Efficacy in 6th Graders? A Weak Experimental Design," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(3), pages 1-12, February.
    17. J M van Niekerk & M C Vos & A Stein & L M A Braakman-Jansen & A F Voor in ‘t holt & J E W C van Gemert-Pijnen, 2020. "Risk factors for surgical site infections using a data-driven approach," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(10), pages 1-14, October.
    18. Stefkovics, Ádám & Krekó, Péter & Koltai, Júlia, 2024. "When reality knocks on the door. The effect of conspiracy beliefs on COVID-19 vaccine acceptance and the moderating role of experience with the virus," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 356(C).
    19. Joost R. Ginkel, 2020. "Standardized Regression Coefficients and Newly Proposed Estimators for $${R}^{{2}}$$R2 in Multiply Imputed Data," Psychometrika, Springer;The Psychometric Society, vol. 85(1), pages 185-205, March.
    20. Lara Jehi & Xinge Ji & Alex Milinovich & Serpil Erzurum & Amy Merlino & Steve Gordon & James B Young & Michael W Kattan, 2020. "Development and validation of a model for individualized prediction of hospitalization risk in 4,536 patients with COVID-19," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(8), pages 1-15, August.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:simgam:v:55:y:2024:i:4:p:637-661. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.