Well-Being, Motives and Experiences in Live and Online Game Settings

Abstract

Traditional mind sports are extremely suitable for online environment, so various specialized platforms, were developed for this purpose. Although online games are technically superior and popular, many players argue that online play lacks “the game spirit”. The aim of this article was to compare motives and experiences of live and online games of Bridge. The authors conducted ten semi-structured online interviews with bridge players. All participants confirmed that Bridge significantly improved their quality of life. The participants reported benefits in accordance with Major (2001) serious leisure benefits and partially in accordance with the DRAMMA model of five factors related to leisure activities (Newman, Tay and Diener, 2014). Results showed that online bridge was generally perceived as less challenging and demanding, but appropriate for training purposes. The most important difference in motivation is related to boredom – frequent motive of online bridge, while not existent in live settings.