Self-Determination Theory and HCI Games Research: Unfulfilled Promises and Unquestioned Paradigms

TL;DR

Self-Determination Theory (SDT) has been widely adopted in HCI games research, yet this study shows that many applications remain perfunctory and focused on need satisfaction and intrinsic motivation rather than deep theory-driven explanation or design. By expanding the corpus to 259 papers across venues and incorporating Game Developers Conference (GDC) practitioner perspectives, the authors diagnose why SDT operates as a dominant paradigm rather than a rigorously tested theory in games. They reveal widespread reliance on SDT measures (notably PENS and IMI), limited engagement with SDT mini-theories, and a notable gap between academic use and industry practice, including scant critique of SDT when data clash with theory. The paper advocates more intentional theory use, theory translation for designers, and concrete, testable SDT propositions to advance cumulatve, design-relevant SDT-based research in HCI games.

Abstract

Self-determination theory (SDT), a psychological theory of human motivation, is a prominent paradigm in human-computer interaction (HCI) research on games. However, our prior literature review observed a trend towards shallow applications of the theory. This follow-up work takes a broader view -- examining SDT scholarship on games, a wider corpus of SDT-based HCI games research (N=259), and perspectives from a games industry practitioner conference -- to help explain current applications of SDT. Our findings suggest that perfunctory applications of the theory in HCI games research originate in part from within SDT scholarship on games, which itself exhibits limited engagement with theoretical tenets. Against this backdrop, we unpack the popularity of SDT in HCI games research and identify conditions underlying the theory's current use as an oft-unquestioned paradigm. Finally, we outline avenues for more productive SDT-informed games research and consider ways towards more intentional practices of theory use in HCI.

Figures (5)

• Figure 1: The key tenets of cognitive evaluation theory (CET): the extent to which a stimulus influences experienced need satisfaction and intrinsic motivation is determined by its functional significance and the social context. Events perceived as controlling and/or amotivating undermine need satisfaction, promote a more external PLOC, and decrease intrinsic motivation. Events perceived as informational and non-controlling support need satisfaction, promote a more internal PLOC, and increase intrinsic motivation.
• Figure 2: The different motivations and regulations posited by organismic integration theory (OIT), ranging from the least self-determined (amotivation) to the most self-determined (integrated regulation and intrinsic motivation). Adapted from ryan2017organismicvansteenkiste2018fostering.
• Figure 3: Summary of the literature review procedure.
• Figure 4: Number of reviewed papers (N=259) referring to SDT per year and publication venue. Note that CHI PLAY proceedings were first published in 2014. One paper published in Computers in Human Behavior in 1993 is not shown here for clarity.
• Figure 5: The seven most frequently mentioned SDT concepts in the HCI games corpus, distributed per secondary theory use category. Note that this does not readily correspond to the concept having been used in that manner smeddinck2016difficulty. Numbers do not add up to 100%, as papers could include multiple instances of secondary theory use.