Different Gameplay Styles, Different Psychological Needs – Linking Relatedness to Behavioral Indicators of Relational Social Influence

Abstract: As Massively Multiplayer Online Games (MMOGs) grow in popularity and complexity, understanding how gameplay styles relate to players’ psychological needs is increasingly important. Grounded in Self-Determination Theory, this study examines the associations between competence, autonomy, and relatedness and two dominant gameplay styles: achievement-oriented gameplay (AOG) and social-oriented gameplay (SOG). Given that relational influence provides an important context in which relatedness is enacted and sustained, we incorporate two interaction-based behavioral indicators – Social Value and Receptivity – as behavior-based measures of relational social influence. Using Sky: Children of the Light, we integrated large-scale behavioral data with survey responses. Structural equation modeling revealed that AOG was positively associated with competence and autonomy but negatively associated with relatedness and behavior-based relational influence, whereas SOG showed the opposite pattern, with parallel directional effects observed across relatedness and behavioral indicators of relational influence. A significant negative residual correlation was also observed between AOG and SOG. The results show that psychological need satisfaction differs across players’ gameplay orientations and highlight relatedness as a dynamic process shaped through ongoing interaction.