skip to main content
10.1145/3450337.3483491acmconferencesArticle/Chapter ViewAbstractPublication Pageschi-playConference Proceedingsconference-collections
Work in Progress

The Spheres of Player Motivation: Towards a New Typology for Player Motivation in Digital Games

Authors Info & Claims
Published:15 October 2021Publication History

ABSTRACT

Due to the subjective and complex nature of topics like fun and enjoyment, the motivations for players engaging with interactive games are particularly difficult to explore. However, understanding player motivation within games is indisputably valuable for those wishing to succeed in this highly competitive industry. While numerous models exist to quantify the motivations felt by players, the industry is ever evolving, and emerging sub industries have given rise to new reasons to play. In this work, though a meta-ethnography study clustering 284 motivation metaphors extracted from 30 included papers, the Spheres of Motivation is proposed; a new preliminary typology which synthesizes the last three decades of player motivation research.

Skip Supplemental Material Section

Supplemental Material

p140-The_Spheres_of_Player_Motivation.mp4

Supplemental video and captions

mp4

40.6 MB

References

  1. Richard Bartle. 1996. Hearts, Clubs, Diamonds, Spades: Players Who Suit MUDs. Journal of MUD Research 1, 1 (1996), 19 pages.Google ScholarGoogle Scholar
  2. Chris Bateman and Lennart E. Nacke. 2010. The Neurobiology of Play. In Proceedings of the International Academic Conference on the Future of Game Design and Technology (Futureplay ’10). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 1–8. https://doi.org/10.1145/1920778.1920780Google ScholarGoogle ScholarDigital LibraryDigital Library
  3. Marcus Bildtgard. 2014. Applying the Five Factor Model to Games. Thesis. Uppsala University.Google ScholarGoogle Scholar
  4. Elizabeth Boyle, Thomas M. Connolly, and Thomas Hainey. 2011. The Role of Psychology in Understanding the Impact of Computer Games. Entertainment Computing 2, 2 (2011), 69–74. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.entcom.2010.12.002Google ScholarGoogle ScholarCross RefCross Ref
  5. Virginia Braun and Victoria Clarke. 2012. Thematic analysis. In APA handbook of research methods in psychology, Vol 2: Research designs: Quantitative, qualitative, neuropsychological, and biological.American Psychological Association, Washington, DC, USA, 57–71. https://doi.org/10.1037/13620-004Google ScholarGoogle ScholarCross RefCross Ref
  6. Chiao-Chen Chang. 2013. Examining users’ intention to continue using social network games: A flow experience perspective. Telematics and Informatics 30 (2013), 311–321.Google ScholarGoogle ScholarDigital LibraryDigital Library
  7. Kendra Cherry. 2021. How Does Self-Determination Theory Explain Motivation?https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-self-determination-theory-2795387Google ScholarGoogle Scholar
  8. Paul Costa and R.R. McCrae. 1999. A Five-Factor Theory of Personality. Handbook of personality: Theory and research 2 (01 1999), 51–87.Google ScholarGoogle Scholar
  9. Anders Drachen, Alessandro Canossa, and Georgios N. Yannakakis. 2009. Player Modeling using Self-Organization in Tomb Raider: Underworld. In 2009 IEEE Symposium on Computational Intelligence and Games(CIG’09). IEEE, Milano, Italy, 1–8. https://doi.org/10.1109/CIG.2009.5286500Google ScholarGoogle ScholarCross RefCross Ref
  10. Emma France, Maggie Cunningham, Nicola Ring, Isa Uny, Edward Duncan, Ruth Jepson, Margaret Maxwell, Rachel Roberts, Ruth Turley, Andrew Booth, Nicky Britten, Kate Flemming, Ian Gallagher, Ruth Garside, Karin Hannes, Simon Lewin, George Noblit, Catherine Pope, James Thomas, and Jane Noyes. 2019. Improving reporting of meta-ethnography: The eMERGe reporting guidance. BMC Medical Research Methodology 19 (01 2019). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12874-018-0600-0Google ScholarGoogle ScholarCross RefCross Ref
  11. Juho Hamari and Lauri Keronen. 2017. Why do people play games? A meta-analysis. International Journal of Information Management 37 (2017), 125–141. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2017.01.006Google ScholarGoogle ScholarDigital LibraryDigital Library
  12. Juho Hamari, Jonna Koivisto, and Harri Sarsa. 2014. Does Gamification Work? — A Literature Review of Empirical Studies on Gamification. In 47th Hawaii International Conference on System Science. The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, USA, 3025–3034. https://doi.org/10.1109/HICSS.2014.377Google ScholarGoogle ScholarDigital LibraryDigital Library
  13. Juho Hamari and Janne Tuunanen. 2014. Player Types: A Meta-synthesis. Transactions of the Digital Games Research Association 1 (2014), 25. https://doi.org/10.26503/todigra.v1i2.13Google ScholarGoogle ScholarCross RefCross Ref
  14. Joseph Hilgard, Christopher R. Engelhardt, and Bruce D. Bartholow. 2013. Individual differences in motives, preferences, and pathology in video games: the gaming attitudes, motives, and experiences scales (GAMES). Frontiers in Psychology 4 (2013), 608. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00608Google ScholarGoogle ScholarCross RefCross Ref
  15. Robin Hunicke, Marc LeBlanc, and Robert Zubek. 2004. MDA: A Formal Approach to Game Design and Game Research. AAAI Workshop - Technical Report 1 (2004), 6.Google ScholarGoogle Scholar
  16. Daniel Johnson, Sebastian Deterding, Kerri-Ann Kuhn, Aleksandra Staneva, Stoyan Stoyanov, and Leanne Hides. 2016. Gamification for health and wellbeing: A systematic review of the literature. Internet Interventions 6(2016), 89–106.Google ScholarGoogle ScholarCross RefCross Ref
  17. John A Johnson. 2014. Measuring thirty facets of the Five Factor Model with a 120-item public domain inventory: Development of the IPIP-NEO-120. Journal of Research in Personality 51 (2014), 78–89.Google ScholarGoogle ScholarCross RefCross Ref
  18. Kirsi Pauliina Kallio, Frans Mäyrä, and Kirsikka Kaipainen. 2011. At Least Nine Ways to Play: Approaching Gamer Mentalities. Games and Culture 6, 4 (2011), 327–353. https://doi.org/10.1177/1555412010391089Google ScholarGoogle ScholarCross RefCross Ref
  19. Mehdi Kaytoue, Arlei Silva, Loïc Cerf, Wagner Meira Jr., and Chedy Raïssi. 2012. Watch me Playing, I am a Professional: a First Study on Video Game Live Streaming. In WWW ’12 Companion: Proceedings of the 21st International Conference on World Wide Web. International World Wide Web Conference Committee, Lyon, France, 1181–1188. https://doi.org/10.1145/2187980.2188259Google ScholarGoogle ScholarDigital LibraryDigital Library
  20. Stéphane Kieger. 2010. An Exploration of Entrepreneurship in Massively Multiplayer Online RolePlaying Games: Second Life® and Entropia Universe®. Journal of Virtual Worlds Research 2, 4 (2010), 3–28. https://doi.org/10.4101/jvwr.v2i4.643Google ScholarGoogle ScholarCross RefCross Ref
  21. Nicole Lazzaro. 2004. Why We Play Games: Four Keys to More Emotion in Player Experiences. In Game Developers Conference. XEODesign, Oakland, CA, 1–46.Google ScholarGoogle Scholar
  22. Thomas W Malone and Mark R Lepper. 1987. Making learning fun: A taxonomy of intrinsic motivations for learning. Lawrence Erlbaum, Hillsdale, NJ, Book section 10, 223–253.Google ScholarGoogle Scholar
  23. Andrzej Marczewski. 2015. User Types HEXAD. Blurb, Inc., California, USA, 65–80.Google ScholarGoogle Scholar
  24. Marcel Martončik. 2015. e-Sports: Playing just for fun or playing to satisfy life goals?Computers in Human Behavior 48 (2015), 208–211.Google ScholarGoogle Scholar
  25. Abraham Harold Maslow. 1943. A theory of human motivation.Psychological review 50, 4 (1943), 370.Google ScholarGoogle Scholar
  26. Robert R. McCrae and Paul T. Costa. 1987. Validation of the Five-Factor Model of Personality Across Instruments and Observers. Journal of personality and social psychology 52, 1(1987), 81–90. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.52.1.81Google ScholarGoogle ScholarCross RefCross Ref
  27. Lennart E. Nacke, Chris Bateman, and Regan L. Mandryk. 2014. BrainHex: A Neurobiological Gamer Typology Survey. Entertainment Computing 5, 1 (2014), 55–62.Google ScholarGoogle ScholarCross RefCross Ref
  28. Nintendo. 2019. Ring Fit Adventure.Google ScholarGoogle Scholar
  29. George W. Noblit and R. Dwight Hare. 1988. Meta-Ethnography: Synthesizing Qualitative Studies. Qualitative Research Methods, Vol. 11. Sage Publications, California. 88 pages.Google ScholarGoogle Scholar
  30. Jana Rambusch, Peter Jakobsson, and Daniel Pargman. 2007. Exploring E-sports: A Case Study of Gameplay in Counter-strike. In DiGRA ’07 - Proceedings of the 2007 DiGRA International Conference: Situated Play, Vol. 4. Digital Games Research Association, Tokyo, Japan, 157–164.Google ScholarGoogle Scholar
  31. Sonia Roccas, Lilach Sagiv, Shalom H. Schwartz, and Ariel Knafo. 2002. The Big Five Personality Factors and Personal Values. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 28, 6 (2002), 789–801. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167202289008 arXiv:https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167202289008Google ScholarGoogle ScholarCross RefCross Ref
  32. Richard M. Ryan and Edward L. Deci. 2000. Self-Determination Theory and the Facilitation of Intrinsic Motivation, Social Development, and Well-Being. American Psychologist 55, 1 (2000), 68–78.Google ScholarGoogle ScholarCross RefCross Ref
  33. Richard M. Ryan, C. Scott Rigby, and Andrew Przybylski. 2006. The Motivational Pull of Video Games: A Self-Determination Theory Approach. Motivation and Emotion 30, 4 (2006), 344–360. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11031-006-9051-8Google ScholarGoogle ScholarCross RefCross Ref
  34. John Sherry, Bradley Greenberg, Kristen Lucas, and Kenneth Lachlan. 2006. Video Game Uses and Gratifications as Predictors of Use and Game Preference. In Playing Video Games: Motives, Responses, and Consequences, Peter Vorderer and Jennings Bryant (Eds.). Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, New York, Book section 15, 213–224.Google ScholarGoogle Scholar
  35. Christopher J. Soto, Anna Kronauer, and Josephine K. Liang. 2015. Five-Factor Model of Personality. American Cancer Society, West Sussex, UK, Chapter 1, 1–5. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118521373.wbeaa014 arXiv:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/9781118521373.wbeaa014Google ScholarGoogle ScholarCross RefCross Ref
  36. Gustavo F. Tondello, Rina R. Wehbe, Lisa Diamond, Marc Busch, Andrzej Marczewski, and Lennart E. Nacke. 2016. The Gamification User Types Hexad Scale. In Proceedings of the 2016 Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play (Austin, Texas, USA) (CHI PLAY ’16). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 229–243. https://doi.org/10.1145/2967934.2968082Google ScholarGoogle ScholarDigital LibraryDigital Library
  37. Hui-Jie Tone, Hao-Rui Zhao, and Wan-Seng Yan. 2014. The attraction of online games: An important factor for Internet Addiction. Computers in Human Behavior 30 (2014), 321–327. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2013.09.017Google ScholarGoogle ScholarDigital LibraryDigital Library
  38. Fan-Chen Tseng. 2011. Segmenting online gamers by motivation. Expert Systems with Applications 38, 6 (2011), 7693–7697. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eswa.2010.12.142Google ScholarGoogle ScholarDigital LibraryDigital Library
  39. Ubisoft. 2011. Rocksmith.Google ScholarGoogle Scholar
  40. Jukka Vahlo, Johanna K. Kaakinen, Suvi K. Holm, and Aki Koponen. 2017. Digital Game Dynamics Preferences and Player Types. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 22, 2 (2017), 88–103. https://doi.org/10.1111/jcc4.12181Google ScholarGoogle ScholarDigital LibraryDigital Library
  41. Peter Vorderer, Tilo Hartmann, and Christoph Klimmt. 2003. Explaining the Enjoyment of Playing Video Games: The Role of Competition. In International Conference on Entertainment Computing 2003, Donald Marinelli (Ed.). Carnegie Mellon University, Schenley Park, Pittsburgh, PA, United States, 9.Google ScholarGoogle Scholar
  42. Leo Sang-Min Whang and Geun-Young Chang. 2004. Lifestyles of Virtual World Residents, Living in the on-line game, “Lineage”. In Proceedings. 2003 International Conference on Cyberworlds, Tosiyasu L. Kunii, Seah Hock Soon, and Alexei Sourin(Eds.). IEEE Computer Society, Singapore, 18–25. https://doi.org/10.1109/CYBER.2003.1253430Google ScholarGoogle ScholarCross RefCross Ref
  43. Jiming Wu, Pengtao Li, and Shashank Rao. 2008. Why They Enjoy Virtual Game Worlds? An Empirical Investigation. Journal of Electronic Commerce Research 9, 3 (2008), 219–229.Google ScholarGoogle Scholar
  44. Nick Yee. 2006. Motivations for Play in Online Games. Cyberpsychology & Behavior 9, 6 (2006), 772–5. https://doi.org/10.1089/cpb.2006.9.772Google ScholarGoogle ScholarCross RefCross Ref
  45. Nick Yee and Nic Ducheneaut. 2019. Gamer Motivation Model Reference Sheets & Details (V2)., 9 pages. https://quanticfoundry.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Gamer-Motivation-Model-Reference.pdfGoogle ScholarGoogle Scholar
  46. Peter Zackariasson, Nils Wåhlin, and Timothy L. Wilson. 2010. Virtual Identities and Market Segmentation in Marketing in and Through Massively Multiplayer Online Games (MMOGs). Services Marketing Quarterly 31, 3 (2010), 275–295. https://doi.org/10.1080/15332969.2010.486689Google ScholarGoogle ScholarCross RefCross Ref

Index Terms

  1. The Spheres of Player Motivation: Towards a New Typology for Player Motivation in Digital Games
          Index terms have been assigned to the content through auto-classification.

          Recommendations

          Comments

          Login options

          Check if you have access through your login credentials or your institution to get full access on this article.

          Sign in
          • Published in

            cover image ACM Conferences
            CHI PLAY '21: Extended Abstracts of the 2021 Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play
            October 2021
            414 pages
            ISBN:9781450383561
            DOI:10.1145/3450337

            Copyright © 2021 Owner/Author

            Permission to make digital or hard copies of part or all of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for third-party components of this work must be honored. For all other uses, contact the Owner/Author.

            Publisher

            Association for Computing Machinery

            New York, NY, United States

            Publication History

            • Published: 15 October 2021

            Check for updates

            Qualifiers

            • Work in Progress
            • Research
            • Refereed limited

          PDF Format

          View or Download as a PDF file.

          PDF

          eReader

          View online with eReader.

          eReader

          HTML Format

          View this article in HTML Format .

          View HTML Format