A Study of the Moderating Effect of Social Distance on the Relationship Between Motivators and Game Engagement

The purpose of the present study was to examine the relationships between motivation factors and game engagement and explore the moderating effect of perceived social distance on those relationships. For this, the present study collected data from 228 college students in South Korean through a survey method and used hierarchical multiple regression analyses with three-steps to test the hypotheses. In the results, first, the more fantasy, diversion, or arousal participants pursue in gameplay, the more they are engaged in the game. Second, the positive relationship between arousal and game engagement is stronger for participants in high rather than low in social exclusion. However, social exclusion was found to have no significance in the relationship between other motivators and game engagement. For research contribution, this study is the first one to examine the integral model of motivation factors of engagement in the game platform and to investigate the moderating effect of perceived social distance in gameplay.