Self-Determination Theory proposes that people are intrinsically motivated to play video games to fulfil the psychological needs of autonomy, competence and relatedness. However, video games can also actively thwart and frustrate these needs. This paper investigates how need frustration affected motivation to solve cognitively challenging puzzle video games. Participants (n = 27) played two cognitively challenging puzzle video games, with data collected through a survey, recorded gameplay footage and interviews. The analysis reveals that when a player’s primary need for playing was frustrated, they quit easily and did not enjoy the game and when a player’s primary need for playing was satisfied, they displayed resilient behaviours and enjoyed the game. These findings suggest cognitively challenging video games that are more likely to be used in educational contexts should contain features that support autonomy and relatedness as well as competence, in order to be motivating for as many players as possible.
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