Relationship between Online Gaming Motivation, Perception of Toxic Behaviour, and Subjective Well-Being of Players in Team-Based Competitive Online Games

The research is devoted to the study of the relationship between motivation for games, perception of toxic behavior and subjective well-being among Russian-speaking players in online competitive team games. The popularity of online games has increased markedly after a period of isolation due to COVID-19, including team competitive games that involve both pleasure and negative behavior of players towards each other. Modern Russian researchers tend not to focus on the phenomenon of competitive video games, as evidenced by the small number of methods for studying motivation for competitive games or the manifestation of toxic behavior in such games, as well as assessing the well-being of players in Russia. At the same time, foreign researchers often provide research results on the well-being of players, as well as strive to develop a theory of toxic behavior in games. The aim of the study is to explore how the motives of gamers may be related to their perception of toxic behavior related to the game, which will complement the theory of toxic behavior in games. The second goal of the study is determining the role of perception of toxic behavior in the relationship between motivation for games and the subjective well-being of players, which may contribute to the view of player well-being as a contextual phenomenon that is associated with various factors interacting with each other rather than apart from each other. The study will use a survey methodology to collect data from Russian-speaking participants over the age of 18 who regularly play competitive online team games. Motives for the game will be assessed using the Russian adaptation of the Game Motivation Scale, and subjective well-being will be assessed using the Life Satisfaction Scale. Data on the perception of toxic behavior will be collected using The Cyber-Aggression Typology Questionnaire (CATQ). The choice of this questionnaire is justified by the limited tools in Russian adaptation for assessing the perception of toxic behavior, the proximity of the constructs of cyber aggression and toxic behavior, in which toxic behavior is one of the manifestations of cyber aggression, as well as a significant relationship between the perception of cyber aggression and the severity of cyber aggression. The study is expected to find a correlation between different types of motivation for games and the perception of toxic behavior, as well as to identify the role of perception of toxic behavior as a moderator between motivation for games and subjective well-being. As a result of the study, in accordance with the hypotheses of the study, significant positive correlations were revealed between the severity of impulsive-responsive cyber aggression and integrative, as well as introjected motivation for games. According to hypotheses, it was found that impulsive-aversive cyber aggression enhances the negative relationship between amotivation and subjective well-being. This type of cyber aggression also reinforces the negative relationship between integrative motivation and subjective well-being. Among the results not included in the hypotheses, significant positive correlations were found between the severity of controlled-aversive cyber aggression and external, introjected motivation for games and amotivation. In addition, significant positive correlations were found between the severity of controlled-appetitive cyber aggression and two types of motivation: external and introjected. The results of the study and limitations are described in the paper.