Lee Sung Je, Jeong Eui Jun, Kim Dan J, Kong Jeonyoung
Department of Digital Culture and Contents, Konkuk University, Seoul, Republic of Korea.
Department of Information Technology and Decision Sciences, University of North Texas, Denton, TX, United States.
Front Psychol. 2023 Dec 22;14:1278738. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1278738. eCollection 2023.
Game cheating (i.e., behavior of violating rules in games by using unregulated Software or assistive devices to gain advantage) poses a fatal problem as it destroys fair competition systems and negatively impacts the game ecosystem. Game cheating is reported to be common in competitive online games because they stimulate strongly a user's motivation and psychological needs. However, there is still in lack of academic research which focused on the issue from the psycho-social perspective.
This study investigated the relationships between basic psychological needs (i.e., autonomy, competence, and relatedness) and motivation (i.e., intrinsic and extrinsic) based on self-determination theory, and examined their effects on the degree of game cheating with survey data of 322 gamers in a competitive online gaming community.
The results showed the opposite associations between the two forms of motivation (intrinsic and extrinsic) and game cheating. On one hand, extrinsic motivation decreased by autonomy enhanced the degree of game cheating. On the other hand, intrinsic motivation increased by both autonomy and relatedness finally abated game cheating. Competence did not influence any form of motivation. The results indicated that people motivated by interest or enjoyment (i.e., intrinsic motivation) of the game tend to view game cheating negatively while those motivated by game victory and rewards are likely to have positive attitudes toward game cheating. Increasing the degree of user autonomy and social relations in the game could decrease game cheating through the enhancement of intrinsic motivation.
Digital game cheating is a crucial problem threatening the spread of game culture and the growth of the eSports industry. The findings of this study reveal the influence of psychological needs and intrinsic motivation related to 'game cheating,' providing valuable guidelines in educational and policy aspects.
游戏作弊（即通过使用未经授权的软件或辅助设备违反游戏规则以获取优势的行为）是一个致命问题，因为它破坏了公平竞争系统，并对游戏生态系统产生负面影响。据报道，游戏作弊在竞争性在线游戏中很常见，因为它们强烈激发了用户的动机和心理需求。然而，仍然缺乏从心理社会角度关注这一问题的学术研究。
本研究基于自我决定理论，调查了基本心理需求（即自主性、能力和关联性）与动机（即内在动机和外在动机）之间的关系，并通过对一个竞争性在线游戏社区中322名玩家的调查数据，检验了它们对游戏作弊程度的影响。
结果显示了两种动机形式（内在动机和外在动机）与游戏作弊之间的相反关联。一方面，自主性增强导致的外在动机下降会增加游戏作弊程度。另一方面，自主性和关联性共同增强导致的内在动机增加最终会减少游戏作弊。能力对任何一种动机形式都没有影响。结果表明，受游戏兴趣或乐趣（即内在动机）驱动的人往往对游戏作弊持负面看法，而受游戏胜利和奖励驱动的人可能对游戏作弊持积极态度。通过增强内在动机，提高游戏中用户的自主性和社会关系程度可以减少游戏作弊。
数字游戏作弊是威胁游戏文化传播和电子竞技产业发展的一个关键问题。本研究的结果揭示了与“游戏作弊”相关的心理需求和内在动机的影响，在教育和政策方面提供了有价值的指导方针。
