WHAT DRIVES PEOPLE TO PLAY WII GAME?

The Trend of Human-Computer Interaction on Video Game Design

Chih-Hung Wu, Ching-Cha Hsieh

Department of Digital Content and Technology, National Taichung University, No.140 Ming Shen Rd., Taichung, Taiwan

Department of Information Management, National Taiwan University, No.1, Sec. 4, Roosevelt Rd., Taipei, Taiwan

Cheng-Chieh Huang, Chin-Chia Hsu

Department of Information Management, National Taiwan University, No.1, Sec. 4, Roosevelt Rd., Taipei, Taiwan

Keywords: Human-Computer Interaction, Wii, Leisure Technology, Structural Equation Model.

Abstract: Nintendo released the fifth home videogame console, Wii in November 2006, and sold over six million

units in six months. What drives people to play Wii game? What is the magic? The TAM model has

empirically tested why people accept some technologies, but most constructs are measured for workspace

contexts. This research argues that if we want to understand that why people are attracted to the leisure

technology, such as Wii, should take consider the leisure social psychology constructs. We consider that

people playing the leisure technology will experience a subjective psychological state of leisure, not only

objectively tangible activities. Thus, the intrinsic motivations of leisure will influence the attitudes and

intentions of people for using the Wii Game. This research proposes a new leisure technology acceptance

model, then using questionnaires, streets surveys, and SEM to collect and verify data. This study provides a

new perspective and direction to study leisure technology and human-computer interaction (HCI).

1 INTRODUCTION

The Japanese company--Nintendo released the fifth

home videogame console, Wii in November 2006,

and sold over six million units in six months

according to the MIC market research (Hsu, 2007).

In Taiwan, before the official sales of the Wii Game,

parallel imports have already taken the market by

storm. What drives people to play Wii Game? What

is the magic?

In IS research, technology acceptance model

(TAM) has been popularly used to explain why

individuals accept various types of technologies, and

has got wide empirical supports (Hsu & Lu, 2004;

Pagani, 2006; Wu et al., 2007). But TAM has

generally been applied to technology in the

workplace (Legris et al., 2003), is it still properly

used to support the Wii videogame, the

entertainment technology, the leisure technology

(Bryce, 2001)?

Past studies on the participation in leisure

activities emphasize on the individual psychological

intrinsic motivation, perceived control, and

perceived freedom, which influence the participation

in leisure activities (Iso-Ahoa, 1980; Roger &

Kleiber, 1999). This study argues that understanding

people in leisure activities should consider their

leisure psychology.

Therefore, this study constructs the leisure

technology acceptance model that combined

integrated model of TAM (Venkatesh et al., 2003)

and intrinsic motives of leisure to verify what drives

people to play Wii game. This research adopts

different sources of data, including questionnaires

and street surveys, in order to obtain the perceptions

and usage attitudes of the Wii Game. Then,

Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) is used to

analyze data and validate the model. This model

provides a new perspective and direction to study

leisure technology and human-computer interaction

or design.

190

Wu C., Hsieh C., Huang C. and Hsu C. (2009).

WHAT DRIVES PEOPLE TO PLAY WII GAME? - The Trend of Human-Computer Interaction on Video Game Design.

In Proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Enterprise Information Systems - Human-Computer Interaction, pages 190-193

DOI: 10.5220/0002154801900193

 SciTePress

2 THEORETICAL

BACKGROUND

2.1 Leisure, Technology and Subjective

State of Leisure

Leisure has been defined as a special type of

activity, a time for shirking responsibilities; it is an

experience of satisfaction, happiness, excitement,

and sense of belonging, or a combination of activity,

time, and experience (Roger & Kleiber, 1999).

Leisure activities are not only the objective actions

involved in the activities, but also a subjective

psychological state arrived at by conducting the

activity (Azjen & Drive, 1992; Coleman & Iso-

Ahola, 1993; Iso-Ahoa, 1980).

Technology has been a leisure activity for a long

time; from the traditional movies, television,

videogames to the Internet ‘browsing’, all of which

have become parts of human leisure activities.

Technology substitutes traditional leisure activities

and people can enjoy relaxation, enjoyment, escape

from reality, social interaction, and development of

self-orientation derived from traditional leisure

activities (Bryce, 2001).

Thus, those who engage in leisure technology

also experience a subjective psychological state of

leisure. This study argues that people enjoyed in

leisure technology are not only objectively tangible

activities, but the achievement of subjective state of

leisure through technology.

2.2 Leisure Intrinsic Motivations

Coleman & Iso-Ahola (1993) considers that

participation in leisure is due to coping with stress in

order to maintain physical and psychological health.

In studying attitudes towards video games, Barnett

et al. (1997) demonstrates that there are

psychological motivations involving escape, fun,

and avoidance of boredom. Leisure also is a

socialization process for individuals to obtain leisure

knowledge, attitudes, values, techniques, and

motives (Iso-Ahola, 1980). Coleman & Iso-Ahola

(1993) argues that social support is an important

reason for participating in leisure activities.

Another intrinsic motivation of leisure arises

from the motivation for self-growth; leisure provides

people with opportunities to clearly understand

one’s own strengths and weaknesses, to

continuously develop abilities, and become the type

of person one expects to be (Mannell & Kleiber,

1997). Barnett et al. (1997) also indicates that

videogames involve the intrinsic motivation of self-

achievement. In summary, this study considers that

the leisure intrinsic motivations will influence the

attitude of people in the leisure activities. This study

argues the leisure intrinsic motivations also the

drivers of playing the leisure technology, Wii Game.

2.3 Flow Experience

Flow experience was first proposed by

Csikzentmihalyi (1975), and was used to describe

the psychological state that people are immersed in

an optimal leisure activity. There are many empirical

evidences show a positive influence of flow

experience on technology acceptance (Hsu & Lu

2004; Koufaris, 2002). Therefore, this study

considers that as a type of leisure technology, the

Wii Game is likely to achieve the leisure

psychological state of flow experience.

2.4 Leisure Constraint and Social

Norms

Leisure constraints refer to the inability or decreased

engagement in leisure due to limitations in physical

entity, environment, or society (Mannell & Kleiber,

1997; Hoff & Ellis, 1992). In a study on online

games, Hsu & Lu (2004) also finds that social norms

are significant factors that impact the people to

accept online games. Crawford et al. (1991)

summarize to three types of leisure constraints:

personal limitations, interpersonal limitations, and

structural limitations. This study will focus on

interpersonal leisure constraints on playing the Wii

game.

2.5 TAM Model

The TAM model was proposed by Davis (1989) as

an improvement of the Theory of Reasoned Action

(TRA), and primarily evaluates how the perception

of organizational personnel regarding the

technology’s ease of use and perceived usefulness

influence their behavioural intention to use, which in

turn affects usage. The TAM model has generally

been applied to technology used in the workplace

(Legris et al., 2003), and the concept of perceived

usefulness of technology is derived from extrinsic

motivation such as work performance stress (Davis,

1989; Jackson et al., 1997; Venkatesh et al., 2003),

and acceptance of technology, especially in non-

workplace usage, which may arise from voluntary

intrinsic motivation of those who accept. Some

scholars have also noticed the influence of intrinsic

motivation on technology acceptance model, and

WHAT DRIVES PEOPLE TO PLAY WII GAME? - The Trend of Human-Computer Interaction on Video Game Design

191

introduce intrinsic motivation in the technology

acceptance model (Chung & Tan, 2004; Davis et al.,

1992; Venkatesh et al., 2003). Thus, this study

considers the above leisure intrinsic motivations

should include in the leisure technology TAM

model.

Perceived ease of use also has a positive

influence on perceived usefulness (Venkatesh et al.,

2003). For example, the Wii Game uses its wireless

controls to simulate the motion of sports and games,

so that users feel ease of use, and they in turn feel

that playing the game is useful. Perceived ease of

use also makes it easier for users to reach flow

experience (Hsu & Lu, 2004). In fact, many users of

the Wii Game overlook the pain caused by excessive

exercise due to their immersion in it.

3 METHODOLOGY

3.1 Conceptual Model

According to the above literature and theories, this

study builds a leisure technology TAM conceptual

model. The model considers that the intrinsic

motivation of leisure technology will affect the

attitudes and intentions of people when using the

Wii Game. Leisure constraints of social norms have

a negative influence on the attitudes and intentions

of people when using leisure technology. Perceived

usefulness and ease of use still affects the attitudes

and behavioural intentions of people toward leisure

technology (See Figure 1). Next, we forms H1~H10

hypothesises prepared to verify the constructs’

correlations.

3.2 Measurement

The questionnaire was developed from literature

relating to TAM and leisure social psychology. After

completion of the draft of the questionnaire, experts

and scholars were asked to provide their opinions on

the content validation. Original literature was

consulted for backtranslate comparisons to confirm

to original intentions of the authors. Prior to release

of the official questionnaire, 25 Wii Game users

were found for a pilot test, and the content was fine

tuned to make the intentions of the question clear in

order to create face validity and content validity. The

constructs and measurements are shown in Table 1.

Social Norms

Perceived

Usefulness

Perceived

Ease-of-use

Flow Experience

Motivation for

Physic Health

Motivation for

Psychological

Well-being

Motivation for

Self-Growth

Motivation for

Social Support

Attitude toward

Playing Wii Game

Intention toward

Play Wii Game

Leisure Intrinsic Motivations

H9a

H9b

H10

Figure 1: The Leisure Technology TAM Model.

Table 1: Constructs and Measurements.

Constructs Literature

Leisure Intrinsic

Motivations

Coleman & Iso-Ahola (1993);

Barnett et al. (1997); Manfredo

& Driver (1996); Mannell &

Kleiber (1997)

Leisure Constraints

from Social Norms

Crawford et al. (1991) ; Hoff &

Ellis (1992); Hsu & Lu (2004);

Koufaris (2002) Mannell &

Kleiber (1997)

Perceived

Usefulness,

Perceived Easy of

Use

Hsu & Lu (2004); Venkatesh et

al. (2003)

Attitude to Use

Intention to Use

Davis et al. (1992); Hsu & Lu

(2004); Venkatesh et al. (2003)

3.3 Tests of the Structural Model

The structural model of this study is based on

traditional TAM, and has added the aspects of

leisure, social norms, and flow experience (Hsu &

Lu, 2004) to conduct an extension of TAM testing.

The structural model of this study is analyzed by the

AMOS software of SPSS. First, the traditional

information technology acceptance model was

tested, followed by the modified information

technology acceptance model (Extended TAM); this

is the traditional TAM with the addition of aspects

of social norms, psychological relaxation

motivation, psychological relaxation motivation,

physical health motivation, self-growth motivation,

social support motivations, flow experience, in order

to determine the final model.

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4 CONCLUSIONS

This study combines the leisure social psychology

into the extended TAM and explains why the leisure

technology so popular? What are the drivers of the

Wii game? Past literature, such as Hsu & Lu (2004)

have considered the different constructs, social

norms and flow experience in the traditional TAM to

explain intentions in playing online games. This

study further proposes that TAM should include the

leisure intrinsic motivations to study the leisure

technology, such as Wii, PS3, online games, etc.

Bryce (2001) argues that technology reshapes and

transforms the leisure activities. If we can not

change our perspective of technology from

workspace to leisure contexts, how can we find out

or design the useful, easy of use technology for

leisure activities? This study provides a new

direction to leisure and IS research.

In the future study, the researchers plan to collect

data from internet questionnaires on the my3q web

page in order to enhance the breadth of samples.

This study will also use convenience sampling, with

questionnaires filled out by relatives and friends, as

well as questionnaire distribution on the streets of

Taipei.

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