The Fluidity of the Self-Concept as a Framework to Explain the Motivation to Play Video Games

The Fluidity of the Self-Concept as a Framework to Explain the Motivation to Play Video Games

A better understanding of the motivation to play video games and potential antecedents have a long history in Human Computer Interaction research. Besides different motivational dimensions specific to video games, researchers already used the personality of players to explain the motivation to play and the subsequent video game use. At this juncture, they postulated a rather static self-concept underlying the personality of players. The study at hand tries to resolve this shortcoming and proposes a more holistic perspective on personality following the assumptions of the Social Identity Approach from psychology, which postulates a much more fluid and context-specific salient parts of the self-concept. Specifically, we use findings from consumer research arguing that the dimensional fit between the perception of the self-concept of a player and the corresponding video game holds the potential to explain the motivation to play as well as the subsequent usage of the video game.