Exploring New Perspective in Online Multiplayer Games: Psychological Ownership and Emotions

Abstract

The objective of the present exploratory research study is to find out the existence of psychological ownership in online multiplayer games and to further explore the role of emotions in generating psychological ownership towards such online multiplayer games. The study follows a qualitative approach by conducting in-depth personal interviews of 25 gamers who were passionate about playing online multiplayer games. The respondents were selected by adopting the snowball sampling technique. For analysis, NVivo software has been used. The results showed that gamers possess psychological ownership towards online multiplayer games. Moreover, the findings also revealed the role of emotions in generating psychological ownership. The present study helps in providing crucial insights to marketers and online multiplayer game designers to tackle and take benefit of the psychological ownership and emotions of gamers. The paper concludes by adding future research opportunities for scholars and researchers. This paper makes a unique contribution for the stakeholders of online multiplayer games by adding a new positive concept of psychological ownership in contrast to existing literature, which shows the negative aspect of online multiplayer games such as mental disorder or game addiction.

Keywords: Psychological Ownership, Emotions, Online Multiplayer Games, Qualitative Research, Sentiment Analysis

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