  Maldaimonic game experiences occur when people engage in personally
fulfilling play through egocentric, destructive, and/or exploitative acts.
Initial qualitative work verified this orientation and experiential construct
for English-speaking Westerners. In this comparative mixed methods study, we
explored whether and how maldaimonic game experiences and orientations play out
in Japan, an Eastern gaming capital that may have cultural values incongruous
with the Western philosophical basis underlying maldaimonia. We present
findings anchored to the initial frameworks on maldaimonia in game experiences
that show little divergence between the Japanese and US cohorts. We also extend
the qualitative findings with quantitative measures on affect, player
experience, and the related constructs of hedonia and eudaimonia. We confirm
this novel construct for Japan and set the stage for scale development.
