Abstract
Esports are a rapidly growing phenomenon and understanding of factors underlying game performance are therefore of great interest. The present study investigated the influence of satisfaction of basic psychological needs (competence, autonomy, and relatedness), type of motivation (amotivation, external regulation, introjected regulation, identified regulation, integrated regulation, and intrinsic motivation), and number of matches played (time on task) on individuals’ performance on a matchmaking rating (MMR) in the video game Defence of the Ancients 2 (Dota 2). Collected data from 315 participants was included in the analyses. A web-based questionnaire was used to collect data and structural equation modelling (SEM) was performed to analyze the data. The results show that perceived competence and autonomy were the only significant predictors of MMR performance beyond matches played. Fulfillment of relatedness, as well as motivational factors, were not found to be predictors of MMR scores. The strong effect of matches played, used as proxy of time on task, emphasize the effect of time and practice as a critical aspect of video-game expertise.
Highlights
Many people all over the world play video games, independent of gender and across a wide variety of ages
The real-time strategy (RTS) game Defence of the Ancients 2 (Dota 2) was used as the video game of interest
The game has the highest player count for any game on the Valve Corporation platform, and in February 2019, Dota 2 had an average of 475,747 active players playing the game every hour of the day, and there were a total of 11.3 million players registered (Steam, 2019)
Summary
Many people all over the world play video games, independent of gender and across a wide variety of ages. It is estimated that 60% of Americans play video games daily (Entertainment Software Association, 2018), and it is a growing sports phenomenon. E-sport is defined as an organized form of video gaming involving many players either locally or online over the internet. According to Sylvester and Rennie (2017), e-sport, a subcategory of video gaming, is a global activity with no signs of slowing down; the total time spent viewing e-sport is expected to be greater than nine billion hours per year by 2021 (HIS Markit, 2017). As a gaming phenomenon and as a field of study. In comparison to traditional sports, relatively little is known about factors that influence performance
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