In Pursuit of Play: Toward a Social Cognitive Understanding of Determinants of Digital Play. Issue 2 (8th April 2014)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: De Grove, Frederik; Cauberghe, Verolien; Van Looy, Jan
• Is Part Of: Communication theory. Volume 24:Issue 2(2014:May)
• Page Start: 205
• Page End: 223
• Publication Date: 2014-04-08
• Subjects: Communication -- Periodicals; Information theory -- Periodicals; 302.205
• DOI: 10.1111/comt.12030
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1050-3293

Abstract

Abstract: Over the years, reasons for playing digital games have been studied from a variety of perspectives. A systematic, theoretically and empirically grounded conceptual framework which takes into account the specificity of gaming as a contextualized social, rule-based, narrative, and systemic practice has hitherto been lacking however. This paper proposes such a framework based on social cognitive theory and elaborated on by means of 37 in-depth interviews. Understanding digital play is conceptualized as a reciprocal system of play behavior, individual factors, and environmental aspects. This approach offers a flexible framework for understanding determinants of playing games in a variety of contexts while taking into account the specific characteristics of the medium.