Altruism or egoism – how do game features motivate cooperation? An investigation into user we-intention and I-intention

Marc Riar, Benedikt Morschheuser, Rüdiger Zarnekow and Juho Hamari

Behaviour and Information Technology, 2024, vol. 43, issue 6, 1017-1041

Abstract: Achieving cooperation between individuals is challenging and often driven by self-beneficial motives. On the other hand, people also seem capable of subordinating their personal interests and of engaging in cooperation for motives other than their own, i.e. out of altruistic impulses. One context in which both motivational facets can be observed is multiplayer online games. However, there is a lack of knowledge about how cooperation based on altruism and egoism develops in games, which also prevents us from transferring this knowledge as a form of gamification. In this study, we explore which game features are accountable for altruistic and egoistic sentiment, and how these distinctive demeanours induce cooperation in games, with the intent to also derive implications for gamification. We employ we-intention and I-intention theory and conduct a survey among players of the game Ingress (N = 206). Our findings imply that (1) cooperative game design can give rise to within-group altruism in form of enjoyment in helping others and cooperative goals, (2) altruism can lead to the formation of we-intentions, and (3) individualistic game features invoke I-intentions and self-centered motivations in games in the form of recognition-seeking. Theoretical and practical implications are provided for cooperative game and gamification design.

Date: 2024
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/0144929X.2023.2196581 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:tbitxx:v:43:y:2024:i:6:p:1017-1041

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/tbit20

DOI: 10.1080/0144929X.2023.2196581

Access Statistics for this article

Behaviour and Information Technology is currently edited by Dr Panos P Markopoulos

More articles in Behaviour and Information Technology from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().