Enjoyment or engagement? Role of social interaction in playing Massively Militplayer Online Role-Playing Games (MMORPGS)

Vivian Hsueh Hua Chen*, Henry Been Lirn Duh, Priscilla Siew Koon Phuah, Diana Zi Yan Lam

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Chapter/Conference proceedingConference proceedingAcademicpeer-review

56 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Based on data collected through 40 in-depth interviews, it is found that (a) the balance between perceived challenges and skills, and (b) the types of in-game social interactions can both facilitate and impede the enjoyment of game playing. Through these two factors, a conclusive link was also found between game enjoyments and a gamer's engagement level. Engaged gamers experience optimal enjoyment more frequently and value the importance of social interactions more than non-engaged gamers. In addition, game enjoyment can be enhanced through game design and it can also be adversely affected by real world contextual factors and technical difficulties. More importantly, the study underlines the importance of social interaction. Social interaction is the key factor that determines the level of engagement of gamers. For engaged gamers, social interaction is essential in this gaming experience. For non-engaged gamers, social interaction is not important and they have little tolerance of negative social interaction within the game.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationEntertainment Computing, ICEC 2006 - 5th International Conference, Proceedings
Pages262-267
Number of pages6
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2006
Externally publishedYes
Event5th International Conference on Entertainment Computing, ICEC 2006 - Cambridge, United Kingdom
Duration: 20 Sept 200622 Sept 2006

Publication series

SeriesLecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics)
Volume4161 LNCS
ISSN0302-9743

Conference

Conference5th International Conference on Entertainment Computing, ICEC 2006
Country/TerritoryUnited Kingdom
CityCambridge
Period20/09/0622/09/06

Research programs

  • ESHCC M&C

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