The effects of intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation and toolkits onuser participation in User-generated content for video games: : A quantitative study of product development in online communities

Sammanfattning: In this thesis we will discuss the subject of user participation in the development process of products, specifically video games, through a concept called User-generated content. Product development demands speed and flexibility in the development process and it has been suggested that managers should revise the process of product development to become more flexible and integrate the consumer in increasingly more steps of the process. Video games will often be modified after its release. In fact, it has been estimated that between 95% and 100% of the files in most software will be modified after its initial release. User participation, referring to behaviors and activities performed in a system development process, is a definite feature for websites that consider their content user-generated. Customers who participate in online video game UGC are actively changing games, modifying existing content and creating new content related to all aspects of the game bit by bit, while also contributing this content to others, usually over the internet through some sort of video game content sharing site.User participation is determined by a user’s ability to participate and his motivation to do so, the latter of which is the focus of this thesis. Two major branches of study can be distinguished from motivational theory; intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivation. The main purpose of this thesis is to examine the effects of motivational factors of intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation and toolkits that motivate customers to participate in UGC for video games. We examine what effects intrinsic motivational factors enjoyment, altruism and continuance commitment, as well as extrinsic motivational factors rewards, future rewards, personal need and reputation have on user participation. The toolkits approach to product development is a common user-oriented product development methods in the video game industry, which allows users to modify and create content for games. We will also study what effects the usefulness and ease of use of these toolkits have on user participation. Conducting a quantitative study, we presented a questionnaire to members of four online video game UGC communities; Steam Workshop, GameBanana, ModDB and MODSonline, in order to assess users’ attitudes of aforementioned concepts in relation to their user participation.We have not found any relevant research that examines both motivational factors’ and toolkits’ effects on user participation in video game UGC. With recent turbulent developments in the video game industry regarding monetary compensation for UGC, we decided to put great weight on this area in this thesis, both through our review of previous literature and regarding the results of our study.Our multiple regression analysis showed that toolkit ease of use, intrinsic motivational factors enjoyment and altruism, as well as extrinsic motivational factor reputation have significant positive effects on user participation, while toolkit usefulness showed a significant negative effect on user participation. We also find trends suggesting the positive effect of continuance commitment on user participation, and, finally, a trend suggesting the negative effect of rewards on user participation.