The Impact of Fulfilling a Desire for Idealism on Task Engagement and Enjoyment in Digital Games

For practitioners and researchers who want to design for enjoyment, empirical research on what makes digital games enjoyable is critical. This is true for Game Design, Gamification of non-game applications, and Serious Games with a purpose beyond enjoyment. But existing theories are incomplete or lacking empirical support. A Desire Fulfillment Theory of digital game enjoyment is proposed, building on three established theories: Expectancy Disconfirmation Theory, Basic Human Desires Theory, and Flow Theory. Desire Fulfillment Theory suggests systems that fulfill users’ basic human desires will maximize enjoyment. An online survey of 315 game players was conducted, focusing on the last digital game they played. Idealism, a desire to improve society, stood out as having the greatest impact (highest R2) on the Task Engagement (flow not including enjoyment) factors Concentration and Sense of Control among the factors tested, and greater Task Engagement in turn increased Enjoyment. Multiple linear regression results support the proposed model with minor revisions. The revised model shows how Clear Proximal Goals, Immediate Progress Feedback, and Desire Fulfillment: Idealism lead to Task Engagement and Enjoyment. This is the first empirical evidence the authors are aware of that fulfilling a desire for Idealism leads to Task Engagement and Enjoyment in digital games. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.