INVESTIGATION OF MOTIVATION LEVELS OF UNIVERSITY STUDENTS STUDYING IN TURKEY TO PLAY DIGITAL SPORTS GAMES

Considering the technological developments in digital games, it may be an important gain to learn at which points the motivation for virtual reality and augmented reality based games differs from the motivation sources for digital games that can now be considered traditional. The purpose of this study is to examine the motivation levels of Turkish university students studying who are e-athletes and recreationally play digital sports video games in digital sports video games. A total of 72 e-athletes and 81 recreational digital sports video game players aged between 18-24 years participated in the study. The Digital Sports Games Motivation Scale (DSGMS), which was adapted into Turkish by Kilci (2022), validity and reliability study, was used as a data collection tool in the study. Scale responses show that university students' motivation to play digital sports games can differ according to gender and player typology. In particular, the findings that e-athletes have higher motivation than recreational digital players are noteworthy. As a result, it is understood that the motivation to play digital sports games in terms of university students can vary according to various demographic characteristics. Investigating how different traditional sports branches can be a source of motivation in playing digital sports games can be suggested as another issue that should be done after this study.