A Study on the Relationship between Motivation for Gaming and Creativity in Students Who Major in Video Games Development or Design

This study examines whether the motivations behind gaming relate to creativity among second-year college students enrolled in a video game development course in Japan. Building on Iguchi's seven-factor model of game uses and satisfactions, the authors hypothesized that the fantasy, recognition, achievement, friendship, and study motivations would be associated with creativity. The sample consisted of 77 students (72 men and 5 women, average age 19.7), surveyed in October 2019 using 27 items on game satisfaction and 32 items on a creativity scale, both rated on five-point Likert scales.

The analysis yielded several key findings. Participants reported very high enjoyment of games, with a mean of 4.60 out of 5 on the "Do you like games?" item, indicating a ceiling effect that confirmed nearly all respondents were genuine game enthusiasts. Correlational analysis revealed that fantasy, recognition, achievement, friendship, and study were all positively and significantly associated with creativity, while preference and diversion showed little or no relationship. Upper-group and lower-group comparisons using unpaired t-tests supported the hypothesis: students with higher levels of fantasy, recognition, achievement, friendship, and study motivations scored significantly higher on creativity, with the recognition and study differences being especially pronounced.

The authors conclude that incorporating game materials and practices that engage these five motivational factors may benefit creativity development in game engineering education. They also note that the study's scope is limited to a single cohort at one course, and they call for future research examining how game genres and general student populations relate to creativity.