Speedrunners and Motivation: Self-Determination Theory Applied to a Speedrunning Community
This study aims to interrogate the relationship between speedrunners, their motivations, and their communities. Members of the Super Mario Bros 3 (SMB3) speedrunning community were interviewed to better understand their speedrunning motivations. Anonymous questionnaires and semi-structured interviews were conducted with seven speedrunners who were active on Speedrun.com and the SMB3 speedrunning Discord. The discussions helped build an understanding of speedrunners’ motivations and their relationships with speedrunning, traditional gaming, and their speedrunning communities. The interviews conducted were semi-structured, allowing participants to direct the conversation in open-ended ways. Results were examined through the lens of Self-Determination Theory (SDT). SDT provides an important context for studying motivation in play, particularly for those gamers who choose to play games in ways unintended by their creators. This theory is important to speedrunning because the act of speedrunning, as described by participants, often feels unpleasant or like work. Understanding participants’ motivations beyond playing a game solely in the pursuit of fun can lead to a better understanding of speedrunners, gamers, and motivation. Participant responses had strong resemblances to the tenets provided by Self-Determination Theory and their motivations were firmly rooted in competence. Speedrunning can be viewed as an expression of skill, the mastery of playing a specific game, or its highest level of challenge. Elements of community and performance are noteworthy and are also explored through the discussion.
speedrunning, self-determination theory, comptetence, gaming, motivation
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