Research On Motivations And Behavior Of "Esports Cloud Players" In Esports Events

Esports has been a rapidly growing part of the entertainment industry in recent years,and has been recognized by the public.It is a mixture of technology,competition,entertainment and social interaction,which matches the preferences of young people.Esports has emerged as a new trend of culture,and a large number of young people have been attracted to join this trend.At present,China has become the country with the largest number of esports users in the world,but the pervious researches focused on the perspectives of the group of esports game players in esports users."Esports cloud players" are a special group of esports events spectators.They watch and participate in esports events but they seldom or never play esports game by themselves.This study aims to explain the motivation and behavior of "Esports cloud players" in esports events by "Uses and Gratifications" and "Self-determinism theory",and tries to broaden the research of Chinese esports users.The motivations of "Esports cloud players" in esports events are divided into two categories:autonomy-oriented motivation and control-oriented motivation.The research shows that the autonomy-oriented motives of "Esports cloud players"include excitement,alternative achievement,drama,group belonging,aesthetics,and immersion,while control-oriented motives include killing time,escape,social interaction,and perceived value.Based on the Psychological Continuum Model(PCM),this research explained the behavior of "Esports cloud players" in esports events from the four stages,awareness,attraction,attachment and allegiance.It shows that effort expectation,achievement satisfaction and national honor are the important factors that affect the behavior of "Esports cloud players".According to the research,"Esports cloud players" presents unique behavior characteristics.They psychologically shy away from "Esports cloud players",which means esports game players.And they restrict their behavior when they take part in esports events.At last,"Esports cloud players"in different genders have different behavior in esports events.This research attempts to subdivide the users of esports events in a perspective of spectators.Esports events can be regard as sports media products,and satisfy multiple demand for Esports spectators.This research contributes to understand the reasons behind motivations and behavior of "Esports cloud players",and have guiding significance in the research on behavior of sports spectators and ornamental value of post-modern competitive sports.