Motivational Climate Effects on Communications, Emotional-Social States, and Performance in Collaborative Gaming Environment

The study explores the effects of motivational climate on communication features, emotional states, collective efficacy, and performance in collaborative gaming environments. Forty participants with no prior gaming experience were randomly assigned to 20 gender-matched teams of three (including one confederate) across two motivational climates: positive-supportive (PS) or neutral-unsupported (NU) (10 teams per condition). Team members completed three progressively difficult levels of Overcooked! 2 during which communication contents, emotional responses, collective efficacy, and performance outcomes were observed and coded. Mixed-design MANOVAs and ANOVAs were employed to examine the effects of motivational climate and task difficulty on communication patterns, emotions, collective efficacy, and performance. Chi-square analyses were performed to test communication content differences between conditions. Results revealed that PS team members significantly outperformed NU teams at lower task difficulty level, but this advantage diminished as task complexity increased. Communication analysis revealed that PS team members utilized significantly more action-oriented, factual, and emotional/motivational statements, while NU team members used more statements of uncertainty and non-task-related communication. The percentage of the talk time increased with difficulty across both climate conditions. PS team members maintained more positive emotional profiles throughout, with higher excitement and happiness scores and lower anxiety, dejection, and anger compared to NU team members. Furthermore, PS team members reported consistently higher collective efficacy beliefs across all difficulty levels. These findings reveal that positive motivational climate enhances team communication effectiveness, emotional resilience, and performance outcomes in challenging collaborative environments.