Prepare for Trouble and Make It Double: The Power Motive Predicts Pokémon Choices Based on Apparent Strength

Title of the Paper

Prepare for Trouble and Make It Double: The Power Motive Predicts Pokémon Choices Based on Apparent Strength

Bibliographic Information

• Field of Study: Motive Disposition Theory and Human-Computer Interaction in Gaming Research
• Keywords: Motive Disposition Theory, Power Motive, Affiliation Motive, Dominance, Prosociality, Player Motivation, Video Games, Digital Representation, Virtual Characters
• Publication Date and Conference: May 2021, CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI ’21), Yokohama, Japan
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1145/3411764.3445084

Research Background and Issues

• Problem Identification:

  • How players choose virtual game characters is not solely based on appearance but also reflects their motivations and modes of self-expression.
  • Motive Disposition Theory (MDT) defines two primary social motives: power motive and affiliation motive, but how these manifest in specific gaming contexts remains unclear.
  • There is a lack of detailed research on player motivations and their virtual character selection behavior in games.

• Importance of the Study:

  • Understanding the intrinsic drivers behind players' character choices can help optimize game design and enhance user experience.
  • Exploring how motivations influence character selection can provide practical guidance for user behavior research and game development.

• Research Motivation and Related Work:

  • MDT categorizes motives into explicit (conscious) and implicit (subconscious) types, which influence players' behavioral choices in games.
  • Moreover, players' social motives (e.g., power motive and affiliation motive) may dominate their virtual character selection, but the differential effects of these motives remain unclear.

Solution

• Research Methods:

  • Two experiments were conducted to analyze how players' motivations (particularly power motive) influence their decisions when selecting virtual characters in different contexts (combat vs. companionship).

• Study Design:

  1. Experiment 1 aimed to test character selection in combat scenarios and companionship scenarios:
     • Players chose from strong, cute, and neutral Pokémon.
     • The influence of power motive and affiliation motive on character selection was measured.
  2. Experiment 2 built upon Experiment 1 to further explore how two expressions of power motive (dominance and prosociality) affect selection:
     • Added a "no context specified" condition to investigate whether players default to assuming a combat scenario.

• Techniques and Tools:

  • Explicit motive assessment (Motive Enactment Test, MET)
  • Pokémon game environment, providing anthropomorphic monsters for selection testing.

Research Findings

Experiment 1

1. Key Findings:

   • Scenario Differences: Players were more likely to choose strong-looking Pokémon in combat scenarios and cute Pokémon in companionship scenarios.
   • Motivation-Driven Choices:
     • Power motive significantly predicted the selection of strong Pokémon, and this effect persisted across different scenarios.
     • Affiliation motive did not significantly influence character selection.

2. Data Results:

   • Context explained 11.8% of variance, and power motive accounted for an additional 4.6% of variance.
   • Affiliation motive showed no significant relationship with the preference for strong Pokémon.

Experiment 2

1. Key Findings:

   • Default Scenario Assumption: Players did not default to assuming a combat scenario when no context was specified.
   • Power Motive Subtypes:
     • Dominance-oriented power motive significantly predicted the selection of strong Pokémon, while prosocial power motive did not.

2. Data Results:

   • Dominance and prosociality together explained 17.3% of variance, but only dominance motive was significant.
   • The tendency to choose strong Pokémon was primarily driven by dominance-oriented power motive rather than prosociality.

Comprehensive Discussion

• Theoretical Contributions:

  • Validated the applicability of MDT in the context of game character selection and emphasized the importance of motive subtypes in behavioral prediction.
  • Refined "social motives" into two types (power and affiliation) and demonstrated their differential manifestations in player behavior.
  • Explored the direct influence of gaming scenarios on character selection, suggesting designers should consider motive alignment.

• Advantages and Innovations:

  • First study to use Pokémon as an experimental environment and detail the mechanisms of different motive types on selection behavior.
  • Linked dominance-oriented power motive to the preference for strong-looking characters, laying a foundation for further research on gaming user behavior.

• Limitations and Future Directions:

  • Participants were primarily German university students, with an uneven gender sample; broader demographic validation is needed.
  • Further research is required to investigate whether physiological aspects of motivation can be reflected in other gaming contexts.
  • Explore potential associations between affiliation motive and other character traits (e.g., attractiveness or friendliness).

Application Scenarios

• Game Design:

  • Adjust digital character appearances based on player motivations and preferences (e.g., preference for strong-looking characters) to enhance immersion.
  • Design rewards and incentive scenarios tailored to dominance-oriented behaviors to mitigate negative in-game actions.

• Motivation Research:

  • Provide methodological templates for other fields requiring detailed motivation studies (e.g., education, leadership research).