Measuring What Motivates Maldaimonia in Play with the Inventory on Maldaimonic Motivations in Player Experiences (IMPEX)

Players often engage with video games maldaimonically—pursuing self-realization and self-expression through egocentric, destructive, exploitative, or otherwise harmful activities. Despite its recognition as a meaningful and cross-cultural experiential construct in games, no established instrument currently exists to measure the motivations associated with maldaimonic play. To address this gap, we developed the Inventory on Maldaimonic Motivations in Player Experiences (IMPEX) to assess player motivations as expressed through maldaimonic gaming activities. Following established scale development procedures, we conducted four iterative item development and initial validation studies, resulting in a 33-item, multidimensional scale encompassing eudaimonic motives, hedonic motives, malicious power-seeking, escapism, transgressive autonomy, social ambition, and extrinsic pursuits. We found initial support for understanding maldaimonic game experiences as involving established motivational dimensions and maldaimonic dimensions like malicious power-seeking, thereby extending current frameworks of player motivation.