The world of assassins, witchers and cowboys

The importance of open-world games to the video game industry is unmistakable: the millions of sales in recent years, the presence in popular culture, and the steady flow of new open-world titles make it clear that the genre currently enjoys great prestige. This is in contrast to the research that has hardly been done on this specific genre. Based on existing research literature on video games, this study examines usage motivations for open-world games using hypotheses. With the help of an international online survey, people were asked about their habits and motives regarding their use of an open-world game and, for comparison purposes, also about the use of a game of a different genre. Subsequent analysis of the data revealed four central motives: curiosity and exploration, identification with game characters, and fascination with the game content are of particular importance. The findings obtained here offer potential for follow-up research on this subject of investigation or in related areas.