Does Motivation Relate to Player Experience? An Empirical Study on Indonesian MOBA Gamers

Multiplayer Online Battle Arena (MOBA) is one of the most popular game genres and has the largest number of players in the world, including in Indonesia. Previous studies suggest that player motivation is correlated with the development of player experience, and player experience has an impact on player motivation. This study aims to investigate the correlation between motivation and player experience in the context of Indonesian MOBA gamers. The study involves 435 Indonesian MOBA gamers as respondents. Player motivation is measured with the Electronic Gaming Motive Questionnaire (EGMQ) which consists of four dimensions, namely enhancement, social, coping, and self-gratification. Player experience is measured with the Player Experience of Need Satisfaction (PENS) framework which includes four dimensions, namely competence, autonomy, relatedness, presence/immersion, and intuitive controls. The correlation analysis result shows that there is a significant moderate correlation between self-gratification motivation and presence/immersion experience. The explanation for this correlation is discussed.