Motivation
Motivation is considered to be an urge that leads to changes in behavior and particular actions (Brown,
2007;
Incentive Theory of Motivation and Intrinsic vs. Extrinsic Motivation, n.d.; Weiner,
1990). Its role in learning and achievement in everyday life is very important in both formal and informal learning scenarios, and as pointed out in (Pintrich,
2003) motivated pupils are more engaged, persist longer, have better learning outcomes, and perform better in comparison to non-motivated peers on standardized achievement tests. There are 3 basic theories to explain different aspects of motivation (Bandura,
1997; Hodges,
2004):
attribution theory,
expectancy-value theory and
goal theory and are all closely connected to the concept of motivators. Motivators provide some sort of incentive for completing a task. There are two categories of motivation based on the nature of the motivator (Hodges,
2004): intrinsic deriving from internal factors and extrinsic deriving from external factors (
Incentive Theory of Motivation and Intrinsic vs. Extrinsic Motivation., n.d.).
Intrinsic motivation refers to learner’s internal desire to perform an activity and reach reward like personal satisfaction, enjoyment and feelings of competence and self-determination (Deci,
1975; Hodges,
2004). Intrinsic motivators can be passion with the topic, level of relevance with everyday life and its context, sense of achieving competence. Intrinsic motivation can be long-lasting and self-sustaining, therefore behavior will be influenced in a slow manner, while a personalized and time-consuming preparation is necessary. Due to the diversity of learners, different approaches should be utilized to motivate everyone (DeLong & Winter,
2002). Based on the nature of the internalized utility of the behavior, intrinsic motivation can have 3 forms. (Vallerand et al.,
1992):
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Intrinsic motivation to know, when a learner experiences the desire to perform a learning activity for the pleasure one experiences while learning (i.e. the utility to an individual is the learning in and of itself).
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Intrinsic motivation towards accomplishment, when a learner desires to engage in an activity for the pleasure and satisfaction experienced when accomplishing a difficult feat.
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Intrinsic motivation to experience stimulation occurs when a person takes part in an activity in order to be stimulated. Stimulation can take a range of forms such as sensory pleasure, aesthetic pleasure or emotional sensations such as fear or excitement. (Buckley & Doyle,
2016)
Extrinsic motivation appears when a learner is engaged in the activity not for the subject or the content but because it is a necessary path leading to target (Harlen & Deakin Crick,
2003). In case that a learner is motivated by rewards and incentives external to personal interest and satisfaction, then these factors are extrinsic motivators (Hodges,
2004) which can be money, prize, grades, positive feedback (Brown,
2007), or the learner’s purpose to satisfy parents, the desire to attain high assessment in an external exam and to be best among peers (DeLong & Winter,
2002; Ur,
1996). According to Deci (Deci et al.,
2001), extrinsic motivation can also has also been refined into more precise constructs (Deci et al.,
2001). Although the stimulation prompting behavior is always external to the participant, extrinsic motivation can take 3 forms due to each one possessing a different grade of participant’s autonomy:
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External regulation is the least autonomous form of extrinsic motivation. The participant’s behavior is shaped to achieve satisfaction of an external demand, to meet an externally set standard or to avoid an externally imposed penalty. Typically, these behaviors are externally imposed.
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Introjected regulation, a second form of extrinsic regulation, describes the situation when activities are driven either by self-esteem strengthening or by the urge to avoid feeling guilty. Although the regulation is internal to the participant, the stimulus is external.
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Regulation through identification is the most autonomous form of extrinsic motivation. In this form a bond is observed between participant’s identity and an externally proscribed behavior and therefore (s)he behaves in order that own identity to be supported (Buckley & Doyle,
2016).
In this study as already mentioned, the focus is on intrinsic motivation and its relation with game mechanics and aesthetics.
Motivation and digital games
Digital game-based learning (DGBL) derived from the union of interactive entertainment and serious learning through digital games (Prensky,
2001). Therefore, DGBL contains two parameters: learning (education) and gaming (fun, entertainment) (Bellotti et al.,
2013; Nussbaum & Beserra,
2014). The entertaining perspective of digital games in order to support specific educational purposes had the initial aim of promoting motivation. “
Motivation is a condition that activates and sustains behavior towards a goal” (National Academies of Sciences Engineering and Medicine,
2018) (p. 109). Motivation plays a central role in learning and achievement on many levels of everyone’s life, as well as in both formal and informal learning scenarios. If pupils are motivated, then they are engaged, persist longer, have better learning outcomes, and perform better in comparison with non-motivated peers on standardized achievement tests (Pintrich,
2003). According to the definition given by Brown, motivation is “
an inner drive, impulse, emotion, or desire that moves one to a particular action” (Brown,
2007) (p.114). Therefore, a motivated learner is the learner “
who wants to achieve a goal and who is willing to invest time and effort in reaching that goal” (Daskalovska et al.,
2012) (p.1187). As intrinsic motivation (see paragraph 3.7 for details) is characterized by a learner’s internal desire to perform a task and can only be rewarded with personal satisfaction and enjoyment, it thus derives from the learners and their attitudes toward the topic, their learning goals and aims, their emotions, and their ambitions (Daskalovska et al.,
2012; Hodges,
2004; Leonardou et al.,
2020). Intrinsic motivation along with learning deriving from fun, autonomy and experiential learning are defined as the main concepts constructing DGBL (Perrotta et al.,
2013).
The nature of games can support learners’ engagement and involvement, motivation and interest, and at the same time the retention of learned skills (Cahyani,
2016b). Game-like elements can be used in educational settings, for example in the case of deploying avatars players may gain social credibility and recognition. Furthermore, good game designs perfectly match the player’s cognitive abilities with the difficulty level and also games give learners the opportunity to learn from mistakes in quick recovery (Lee & Hammer,
2011). According to Cahyani (
2016a,
2016b) “
Gamification within learning process allows students to fail and not feel rejected, so they are willing to try more and more” (p.3). Despite the fact that games’ central aim is entertainment, they also support a plethora of other aspects like training and knowledge sharing in domains such as defense, education, scientific exploration, healthcare, emergency management, city planning, engineering, religion, government and non-governmental organizations (NGOs), business, marketing, communication and politics (Breuer & Bente,
2010; Muntean,
2011; Susi & Johannesson,
2007). In coherence to serious games (games targeting at investigating, training, and advertising Breuer & Bente,
2010; Muntean,
2011; Susi & Johannesson,
2007)), gamification is the application of game elements for purposes that go beyond mere entertainment (Deterding et al.,
2011a, Deterding et al.,
2011b). Both serious games and gamification try to reclaim games’ characteristics with the aim to achieve something beyond playfulness. Gamification utilizes game-based mechanics, aesthetics and game thinking in order to promote engagement, motivation, to support learning and solve problems (Kapp,
2012). Gamification is the adoption of game-design elements and game rules in non-game contexts in order to improve user experience, motivation and engagement, specifically in non-game contexts (Groh,
2012). It can also be defined as an online interactive system design that makes use of people's desire for competitive and rewards to motivate the player (Anderson & Rainie,
2012). Rewards can be virtual rewards e.g. payments, points, badges, free gifts (Cahyani,
2016b). One term used to identify different types of rewards is SAPS—Status, Access, Power and Stuff (Zichermann & Cunningham,
2011). The reward can often indicate the level of competence that has been achieved. Reward systems also use progress tracking (Buckley & Doyle,
2016).
The gamification element is based on the MDA framework (Hunicke et al.,
2004). According to the MDA Framework, a game needs to possess 3 aspects: (a) Mechanics, describing the specific parts of the game, at the data representation level and algorithms, (b) Dynamics, describing the describes the behavior of the mechanics acting—during game- on player inputs and each others’ outputs, and (c) Aesthetics, describing the desirable emotional responses of the player while interacting with the game. According to Amir et al. (
2015) game mechanics can be points, levels, challenges, virtual goods, leaderboards, badges, gifts and charity; game dynamics can be reward, status, achievement, self-expression, competition, altruism, and aesthetics can be satisfaction, pleasure, envy, respect, connection. On the other hand, Hunicke et al. (
2004) supported that the aesthetics of a game comprise: sensation (game as sense-pleasure), fantasy (game as make-believe), narrative (game as drama), challenge (game as obstacle course), fellowship (game as social framework), discovery (game as uncharted territory), expression (game as self-discovery), and submission (game as pastime).
Among the typical game design elements, those with the strongest effect on motivation are points, badges, leaderboards, performance graphs, meaningful stories, avatars and teammates (Sailer et al.,
2017) that also are analytically presented in (Leonardou et al.,
2020). All these game design elements share strong motivational influence as supported by the self-determination theory (Deci & Ryan,
1985; Ryan & Deci,
2000). According to this theory, behavior is strongly determined by three universal, innate, psychological needs: autonomy, competence and social relatedness. In an effort to correlate these three intrinsic psychological needs with the game-based elements, it is easy to observe that as collected points are immediately influenced by player’s actions, they offer a quantified view of player’s progress and therefore the need for competence is addressed (Sailer et al.,
2017). Performance graphs represent not only player’s performance, but also competencies’ level and thus the need for competence is satisfied. The need for competence is also met in badges, as badges are directly connected to player’s progress and in leaderboards, as they visually rank players’ performance. As the need for autonomy can be expressed in two forms: experience of decision freedom and experience of task meaningfulness, it can be claimed that avatars satisfy this need due to the freedom of choice they offer to players (Peng et al.,
2012). On the other hand, meaningful stories satisfy the second aspect of the need for autonomy, as through stories players experience their choices meaningfully and in an engaging manner (Rigby & Ryan,
2011; Sailer et al.,
2017). On one hand, gamification motivators as clearly extrinsic and independent elements to learning, are obvious part of the extrinsic motivation a game can offer to the user (B. Amir & Ralph,
2014; Dicheva et al.,
2014; Kapp,
2012; Muntean,
2011). On the other hand, due to the bond gamification motivators possess with autonomy, competence and social relatedness, which are intrinsic psychological needs, it is more recently claimed that they are positively related to intrinsic motivation, as well (Matallaoui et al.,
2017; Richter et al.,
2015a,
2015b; Yang et al.,
2020). This latter conclusion is reached through this study as well.