Independent Validation of the Video Game Dispositional Flow Scale With League of Legends Players

Flow is a highly influential concept across many research domains. Because of the close links between enjoyment and flow, it is also a central concept in game research. Accordingly, many measurement instruments in the form of questionnaires have been developed to measure flow in video games. However, limited independent validation work has been carried out to date. In this project, we evaluated the recently developed Video Game Dispositional Flow Scale (VGDFS) in the context of League of Legends. An online survey posted on the online community reddit.com yielded a sample of N = 140. Confirmatory factor analysis did not support the originally proposed structure. Subsequent exploratory factor analysis resulted in inconclusive findings. Convergent validity with other questionnaires for the measurement of interest, enjoyment, and flow could be demonstrated in our data, although with unusually high correlations between the VGDFS and another flow measure. For divergent validity, correlations with questionnaires for the measurement of boredom and trait anxiety in the hypothesized direction could be found. Findings suggest that the VGDFS needs further evaluation in different video game contexts while also hinting at measurement problems possibly related to conceptual issues with flow.