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Abstract
With recognition of the need for studying eSports in this interactive digital communication era, this study explored 14 motivational factors affecting the time spent on eSports gaming. Using a sample of 515 college students and athletic event attendees, we further compared eSports game patterns to their non-eSport or traditional sport involvements (game participation, game attendance, sports viewership, sports readership, sports listenership, Internet usage specific to sports, and purchase of team merchandise). Multiple regression results indicated that competition and skill had a statistically significant impact on the time spent on eSports games while peer pressure had marginal significance. Related to the overall findings, developing tailored messages that drives consumption behaviors of target audiences to specific eSports games will provide a better chance for marketers to fulfill their strategic goals of increased purchasing and larger market shares. Understanding that the interest in competition and skill are critical to eSports gamers may influence marketers to focus on creating games and opportunities for gamers to compete against each other and give tangible rewards to the winner. The use of peer pressure may be another motivational factor for playing. Consequently, those marketing dollars could be spent more on the interactive nature of game design. The subsequent analysis on cross-validation check suggests that the results of the regression analysis could be generalized.
Keywords: Video Games, eSports Playing
Based on the history of eSports (sports video or electronic sports) game playing, eSports may be classified into two eras: the arcade era and the Internet era. During the early arcade era (from the 1 980 's to 1990 's), popular eSports games included NBA Jam and Virtua Racing (Electronic sports, 2009). Other eSports games gained their popularity with the evolution of the Internet through local area networks (LAN). The advancement of LAN technology changed the mode of eSports consumption from human- versus - machine to human- versus -human (Griffiths, Davies, & Chappell, 2003). Many popular tournaments have drawn hundreds of participants from various continents. Approximately 800 gamers from 78 countries participated in the 2008 World Cyber Games (WCG) that was held in Cologne, Germany (World Cyber Games, 2009). This emerging sports genre has also been recognized as a good spectator sport. For example, several countries have begun regular televising of...