Motivations and Constraints for Playing Electronic Games: A Scoping Review

The objective of this scoping review was to map the existing scientific literature on the relationship between motivations and constraints for playing digital games and esports, characterizing study profiles, identifying dominant themes and tensions, and examining the extent to which their interaction has been theorized and empirically investigated. Following Arksey and O'Malley’s framework and PRISMA-ScR guidelines, a search across EBSCO, SCOPUS, and Web of Science identified 38 eligible studies published between 1985 and 2025. The findings reveal a profound structural and theoretical imbalance: research is heavily skewed toward motivation-driven "pull factors" (76.3 %), while constraints remain critically understudied (13.2 %). Crucially, integrative studies (10.5 %) demonstrate that while intrinsic motivations can mitigate logistical barriers, deep psychosocial and symbolic constraints rooted in identity exclusion and social stigma consistently override motivation, triggering disengagement or severe affective costs. This review exposes the theoretical limitations of isolated psychological models, arguing for integrative, socio-culturally sensitive frameworks capable of capturing motivations and constraints as interdependent dynamics of the situated gaming experience.