Excited for eudaimonia? An emergent thematic analysis of player expectations of upcoming video games.

Abstract

Video games are celebrated for their capacity to elicit myriad emotional experiences, from fun and excitement (hedonia) to reflection and contemplation (eudaimonia). Less clear is the extent to which gamers have salient eudaimonic expectations of upcoming games. The current study reports on an emergent thematic analysis of responses from N = 877 fans of five game franchises known to vary in their eudaimonic capacity but in response to yet-to-be-released games within those franchises: Far Cry 6, Final Fantasy XVI, Forza Horizon 5, Mass Effect 5, and Zelda: Breath of the Wild 2 (later renamed to Tears of the Kingdom). We identified 15 themes across seven categories: familiarity, aesthetics, relationships, emotions, immersion, game features, and developer notes. Most themes focused on discrete game features, while the few themes aligning with eudaimonia (e.g., "emotions" and "personal meaning") were mentioned infrequently. Gamers seem more likely to express expectations for specific content over more abstract affective experiences, offering further evidence that eudaimonia is less anticipated and more discovered during gameplay. Public Policy Relevance StatementFew challenge that video games are fun and enjoyable, but only recently has the notion of more serious and meaningful gaming experience been given serious attention. Gamers commonly report having deeper emotional reactions to video games, but less is known about their expectations for these emotions that might motivate gameplay. The current study asked fans of popular game franchises to write about their expectations of soon-to-be-released video games known for emotionally complex content. Contrary to expectations, players mostly wrote about specific game features and spoke less about emotions and personal meaning. These data suggest that deeper emotional reactions to video games are not so much anticipated as they are experienced during and after gameplay.

Players Just Want to Have Fun? An Exploratory Survey on Hedonic and Eudaimonic Game Motives

“…As the present analysis was part of a larger study on players' expectations of and motives for digital game use (see companion qualitative analysis in Bowman et al, 2023), only those quantitative variables for analysis in the current study are detailed below. Additional measures not analyzed here included, among others, an introductory open-ended question about expectations for the game in question, which also served to prompt participants to reflect on their motives before answering subsequent closed questions.…”