Online gaming with a purpose: exploring positive personal development achieved through esports play

Despite the growing popularity of esports, it has yet to gain mainstream acceptance as a legitimate pathway for personal success. Motivated by examining the positive side of esports play, this study aims to identify a systemic framework describing the benefits of playing esports and the process through which positive personal development can be fostered. Specifically, we first reviewed relevant literature on online games, traditional sports, and esports play motivations. We then employed the positive youth development (PYD) framework as the theoretical lens to guide our analysis. After receiving informed consent from 19 esports players, we used a semi-structured interview technique to understand the key benefits obtained from play. We used qualitative content analysis technique to generate 12 key categories important in esports play, and the Delphi method to establish group consensus about relations between each category pair. We then adopted a structured approach involving interpretive structural modelling (ISM) technique to present a framework describing pathways for esports players’ positive development. In the positive development framework, Commitment, Self-Esteem, Communication, Cooperation, Emotional Self-initiative, and Initiative were found to be the given conditions, while Personal Growth was the linkage variable leading to fulfilment of five higher-end personal values.