The Difference in Performance and Motivation by Focus Types on the Outcome / Process and Device in Games

With the advent of virtual reality (VR) games, many people are using them appropriately in various fields to fulfill their own interests. Among them, gaming field showed great interest toward VR upon its initial appearance. A study was carried out to find out the difference compared to the existing game device, Computer screen (CS). An experiment was conducted using an actual game to determine how both devices (VR, CS) and the type of focus induced (result focus, process focus) affect motivation and performance of the game player. It was expected that motivation and performance would be high when the type of focus and the characteristics of each device align, that is, when playing games using each device, the information or value provided while playing the game matched the focus. The results of the study showed that people who played games on VR with a focus on the process performed better than those who focused on the outcome. Additionally, when asked about their level of performance, process-focused participants were less accurate on VR than on CS. Nevertheless, better performance was shown on VR with lower accuracy on level of performance. Hence, these results suggest that the type of the device and psychological state of the player should be considered altogether.