The development and validation of the Videogaming Motives Questionnaire (VMQ)

Abstract

Gaming motives are important factors for explaining individual differences in videogame-related behaviors. The aim of the present study was to develop a new comprehensive but brief instrument–the Videogaming Motives Questionnaire (VMQ)–which embraces some of the most relevant gaming motives. In a first study, a pilot exploratory factor analysis (EFA) with data from 140 undergraduates was performed on items from twelve potential motives. This identified eight main factors: recreation, social interaction, coping, violent reward, fantasy, cognitive development, customization, and competition. In Studies 2 and 3, an EFA and a confirmatory factor analysis were performed on two independent samples of 407 adolescents and 260 young adults, respectively. The VMQ presented a robust eight-factor structure, with all scales showing adequate reliability indices. In reference to criterion validity, all motives presented specific associations with hours spent playing videogames, disordered gaming, and game genre preferences. More specifically, and in both adolescents and young adults, social interaction was the main motive related to time spent gaming, whereas disordered gaming was related to both coping and social interaction motives. Based on these findings, it is concluded that the VMQ is a brief and psychometrically appropriate tool for assessing the most relevant videogaming motives.

Loot boxes use, video gaming, and gambling in adolescents: Results from a path analysis before and during COVID-19-pandemic-related lockdown in Italy

“…Our data confirm and extend the previous scan research studies with adolescents (Zendle et al, 2019;Kristiansen and Severin, 2020;DeCamp, 2021;Ide et al, 2021). Consistent with previous studies, we found that the large majority of adolescents played video games in the last year (Kowert et al, 2014;Müller et al, 2015;Rehbein et al, 2015;Pontes et al, 2016), especially Action games, First Person Shooter games, Real Time Strategy games, and Sport games (López-Fernández et al, 2020), and mainly by using the smartphone (Lemola et al, 2015). Moreover, the percentages of video gamers classified as at-risk and problem gamers are comparable with what emerged in times before the COVID-19-related pandemic (Gentile, 2009;Thomas and Martin, 2010;Rehbein et al, 2015;Milani et al, 2018).…”

Development and Validation of the RAFFLE: A Measure of Reasons and Facilitators for Loot Box Engagement

“…Most of these subscales have strong parallels with those seen in existing measures of motivations for other activities. "Enhancement" is one of the most universal: factors to do with fun, excitement, or recreation have been identified across numerous studies of motivations for both gambling [13,[35][36][37][38][39] and gaming [40][41][42][43][44], and have generally been found not to correlate strongly with problematic involvement [13,45]. Within selfdetermination theory, fun and excitement are defined as types of "intrinsic motivations"; people who find an activity fun or exciting are likely to participate in it because it is enjoyable to them, in and of itself [46].…”

Gaming motivations and gaming disorder symptoms: A systematic review and meta-analysis

“…Videogaming Motives Questionnaire (López-Fernández et al, 2020). I 2 5 97%), coping (k 5 23, n 5 26,105, r 5 0.397, 95% CI 5 0.335-0.455, τ 2 5 0.029, I 2 5 97%) and competition (k 5 24, n 5 26,892, r 5 0.306, 95% CI 5 0.237-0.371, τ 2 5 0.032, I 2 5 97%).…”