As games are a huge genre that cannot be describes and analysed as a whole it is important to split certain aspects of games and analyse them individually. The most important aspect that plays into the player behaviour and their choices to why they prefer certain games over others is the player type that they identify as. Bartle defined 4 main player types in 1996 that can still be mapped to players of modern games.
- Achievers
- Socializers
- Explorers
- Killers
These four types excel in two out of 4 characteristics that are unique to the group. While achievers are often very aware of their environment, they also enjoy acting and immersing into the story. Explorers share the interesting in the environment but focus more on the interaction with their surroundings to learn every detail about the story, the world and the connected challenges. Socializers prefer people over environment and love interacting with them, generally NPCs and also real players, however, they prefer bonding and making new friends with real players. Killers are in some way opposite of socialiser but they both share their interests in people. But while socializers enjoy interacting, killers do not care about that but rather act based on their own goals. They are usually very competitive and prefer playing against people rather with them.
Realistically most players do not identify as one type only. In reality an average player classifies as 80 percent of a socializer, up to 50 percent explorer, 40 percent achiever and around 20 percent killer.
The player types are important to understand as they explain what gets people interested in games, but the next question is what keeps them playing. The main reason why people keep playing games is the flow state. Once a player reaches the flow, they have a balance between a difficulty that keeps them challenges but does not demotivate them. The flow theory is based on positive psychology and is reached when a person is fully committed to a single task. It does not only appear in games but also in normal day to day tasks or work. However, it can be very exhausting as the full focus is on one activity.
Game designers are trying to balance the player between getting bored and experiencing a certain level of anxiety that stops them from playing as it stresses them too much or makes them frustrated with the game. Usually, the difficulty increases over time as the players become more skilled and experienced, however it should not be too difficult for them to get back into the game once they start playing for some while. A common example of generally good games that fail to keep players in the flow state is The Witcher 3. The story and the character are well made, however the players don’t really get into the flow state as the difficulty is to high due to a difficult fighting system that is not well introduced and then not increasing the difficulty as the player learns the controls.
References:
- Bartle, R. (1996). Hearts, clubs, diamonds, spades: Players who suit MUDs. Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/247190693_Hearts_clubs_diamonds_spades_Players_who_ suit_MUDs
- Bartle, R. A. (2006). Designing virtual worlds ([Nachdr.]). Berkeley, CA: New Riders.
- Zichermann, G., & Cunningham, C. (impr. 2011). Gamification by design: Implementing game mechanics in web and mobile apps. Sebastopol (Calif.), Beijing, Cambridge: O’Reilly.
- Snyder, C. R., & Lopez, S. J. (2005). Handbook of positive psychology. New York: Oxford University Press. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&scope=site&db=nlebk&db=nlabk&AN=140528
- Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1990). Flow: The psychology of optimal experience. New York: Harper and Row.
