Do people play MMORPGs for extrinsic or intrinsic rewards?

Abstract

Several frameworks have been proposed to explain the motivations for playing Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games (MMORPG). However, no unified view as to whether people play MMORPGs for extrinsic or intrinsic rewards has been proposed in the existing literature. Thus, this study drew upon flow theory, Veblen’s Leisure Class theory, and Yee’s online gaming motivations framework to investigate the effects of extrinsic and intrinsic motivations on the gamer loyalty and gaming behaviors of Turkish MMORPG players. A path model was proposed to articulate the aforementioned relationships. The model showed that gamer loyalty could be predicted by status seeking (extrinsic motivation) and two facets of flow (merging of actions and awareness, and autotelic experience; intrinsic motivation). Furthermore, the game levels reached while playing MMORPGs were affected both by status seeking (extrinsic motivation) and high control of the game (intrinsic motivation). The results also demonstrated that participants with higher social motivation spent more of their daily time on MMORPGs, and players who reported higher levels of autotelic experience spent more money on MMORPGs.