Negative Emotional Value of Players: Exploring the Time Investment Dimension from Chinese Mobile Game Players’ Reviews

This study delved into the concept of “time investment” by examining negative comments from players. It conducted a comprehensive analysis of how time investment and external motivation influence players’ emotional experiences, drawing from self-determination theory (SDT). Nonetheless, there has been limited exploration of the origins and significance of players’ negative emotions. The study employed a mixed-methods approach. Initially, it constructed a radar chart representing time investment by analyzing textual reviews from Chinese players across six distinct mobile game types and creating thematic models with BERTopic. Subsequently, the initial machine learning results were confirmed through a questionnaire survey (<i>n</i> = 1028), resulting in the identification of five primary time investment dimensions: in-game experience time investment, learning time investment, social time investment, emotional time investment, and economic time investment. The study unveils the impact of external motivation on players’ emotions and assessments, all from the viewpoint of players. It also offers an expanded perspective within SDT for the exploration of external motivation. The findings present a fresh theoretical outlook and research framework for game designers and the human–computer interaction (HCI) field. Additionally, they offer new insights into the concept of time as perceived by players.

本研究以玩家负面评论为切入点，围绕“时间投入”这一概念展开探究。本研究依托自我决定理论（self-determination theory, SDT），全面剖析了时间投入与外部动机对玩家情感体验的影响机制。然而，当前学界针对玩家负面情绪的起源与意义的探索仍较为有限。本研究采用混合研究方法：首先，通过分析六类不同移动游戏的中国玩家文本评论，并结合BERTopic构建主题模型，绘制了表征时间投入的雷达图；随后，通过1028份问卷（n=1028）验证了初始机器学习结果，最终确定了五大核心时间投入维度：游戏内体验投入、学习投入、社交投入、情感投入与经济投入。本研究从玩家视角出发，揭示了外部动机对玩家情绪与评价的影响，同时为自我决定理论框架下外部动机的相关研究提供了拓展视角。本研究成果为游戏设计师与人机交互（human–computer interaction, HCI）领域提供了全新的理论视角与研究框架，此外还为理解玩家认知中的时间概念提供了新的研究洞见。