How can you identify the core motivation of a player?

Taking an extra step forward, I propose actively seeking player input even before the official launch of the game. This entails conducting closed alpha and beta tests, participating in focus groups, and aligning with team members by creating detailed personas for each game in progress. Additionally, integrating hitmaps within the development team facilitates the collection of design-centric data that is both visible and understandable.

Deciding the target audience is the key step before making any game; games can be made to fit different tastes, but they cannot possibly appeal to every player out there. If the target audience is supposed to be killers and action oriented, adding too many puzzles would bore them. If they are into exploring, mission-based games would be less appealing to them. God of War cannot exist without combat, and GTA won’t make as much money without freedom in exploration because they each have a specific player type. Consequently, knowing the target audience and their type is perhaps the most important step before going on with the design and production of a title.

I personally like to use the Quantic Foundry model of 12 gamer motivation. Every player falls into at least one motivation category - competition, discovery, challenge, etc -but more often more than one. Think Mario Kart mobile: racing (excitement - main motivation), carts collection (completion and power), playing with friends (competition). Understand and use those motivations to build around the game, align your visual style and gameplay with these motivations. If your players are driven by an action packed gameplay, they will be interested in more guns, explosives, thrill moments, in addition to competition. And probably a gameplay based on slow-paced motivation, like exploring elaborate plots, will not be popular.

Know your target audience, feel it and "wear" their persona. Then, get passive and active feedback. Active feedback: Employ player surveys and feedback tools to gather direct insights. Engage with your community on social media and forums to capture their interests and dislikes. Passive feedback: Analyze in-game behavior and patterns to discern preferences for competition, collaboration, exploration, or story-driven experiences. Utilize segmentation techniques to categorize players by their actions and choices within the game. Implementing A/B testing on game features can also reveal what elements resonate most.

Using surveys is one effective way for targeting player types and also finding the Target Audience of the game. Both inside and outside of the game area, surveys can help on Beta phase of the applications.

Once personas are established, identifying the dominant archetype is crucial. For instance, in a game like Doom focused on killing, the next consideration is the tools available for performing those kills. Following that, the spotlight shifts to upgrades. Addressing design issues in this context involves recognizing problems within the core gameplay loop and finding solutions without inadvertently creating more complications. It's about refining the player experience by enhancing key elements like tools and upgrades without sacrificing the overall balance of the game.

Integrating these psychological and anthropological aspects into player needs analysis not only enhances our understanding but also informs more culturally inclusive and emotionally impactful game development strategies. Additionally, acknowledging player satisfaction enables the creation of targeted marketing strategies that align with players' intrinsic motivations, fostering stronger player loyalty and increased revenue streams.

The core idea of a game can be very narrow in its goals. Defining or identifying a niche that associates with those goals will help you fine tune how to expand those goals to include players who may be more driven by different types of gameplay. An example of this would be an FPS. The goal is typically that of removing targets through accuracy with a gun. Combining that with stealth mechanics adds an element of strategy, or setting it in more open spaces with collectables or quests can add an element of exploration. These things can broaden your audience, but also de-emphasize the core. Which players' needs are you wanting to cater to?

Thinking about player needs to be grounded in motivation theory will provide valuable insights for your game design. Needs like competence, autonomy, relatedness and curiosity stem from self-determination, while challenge, immersion and expression connect to flow and cognitive evaluation frameworks. Understanding what psychologically drives your players helps craft satisfying, engaging experiences. For example, ensuring gameplay progression nurtures feelings of competence through clear goals and feedback.

Las necesidades del jugador pueden no estar tan conscientes en ellos mismos. Un "killer" en el modelo de Bartle no tiene concientizado que necesita ganar, o la raíz psicológica, obtener reconocimiento, autoridad, liderazgo. Es tarea del dise?ador poder identificar estas y otras necesidades (no sólo respecto a los modelos, sino al contexto en particular) y poder generar acciones que las satisfagan. Ten en cuenta que el contexto y el objetivo del juego/experiencia puede satisfacer o requerir diferentes niveles de profundidad en las necesidades del jugador.

Examining player feedback is a crucial aspect of identifying the core motivations of players. This analysis extends beyond explicit statements and involves discerning patterns in their comments, identifying recurring themes, and understanding emotional expressions. It is imperative to pay close attention to aspects that players consistently highlight positively or negatively. Employing surveys with open-ended questions can yield deeper insights into player experiences and motivations. Additionally, the utilization of sentiment analysis tools proves valuable in quantifying emotional tones within feedback, facilitating a better understanding of the underlying motivations.

Taking it a step further, I advocate for actively gathering player feedback even before the game's official launch. This involves closed alpha and beta tests, engaging in focus groups, and aligning with your team members through carefully crafted personas for each game in development. Additionally, incorporating hitmaps within the development team helps gather design-oriented data that is both viewable and readable. Moving on to the next phase, connecting this team interaction process to the gathering of feedback from players becomes crucial. The key is to streamline the data classification process, ensuring that insights from both internal team collaboration and external player feedback contribute to refining the game design effectively.

Through the use of data analytics and financial metrics, we can accurately measure the impact of player feedback on key performance indicators, effectively linking user satisfaction to revenue generation. This data-driven approach enables a more systematic and financially informed evaluation of player sentiments. Moreover, by incorporating principles from sociology, it is essential to comprehend the social dynamics within player communities. Analyzing how opinions spread and influence others within these communities provides valuable insights into the dynamics of community-driven games.

One of the most important thing is to also gather feedback that focusses on the human side of thing. Yes we can see what actions are populair and what behaviors people show in game. But also map out the emotions people have while playing. Our focus is mostly on fun, but most of the time there are other emotions that play a role as well. If you know these and what patterns are in your game, you can play with rythm, waves and how strong emotions can linger. Which will in turn make your whole game a stronger experience.

This is a very important step, gathering feedback from players could help in solve problems in the early development process and either pos-launch process. This step could be measured by using KPI's (Key Performance Indicators).

Identifying a player's core motivation involves observing their behavior, gathering feedback, and analyzing data. Observe their choices and reactions during gameplay, track metrics like playtime and achievements, and consider psychological models like Self-Determination Theory. Collect feedback through surveys, interviews, and focus groups to understand what aspects of the game they enjoy and what keeps them engaged. Iterate on game design based on this feedback to create a more fulfilling experience. By combining observation, analysis, and direct feedback, developers can better understand and cater to player motivations

Esto ayuda muchísimo para lograr identificar la motivación de los jugadores, y puede considerar varios niveles, como por ejemplo, lo generacional, edad, datos demográficos, culturas, roles, etc. Poder determinar los principales arquetipos, nos ayudará a crear una mejor experiencia. Por ejemplo, en gamificación, si hablamos de una interacción en una empresa, algunos arquetipos son: Gerencia, Jeftura, Mandos medios / líderes de equipo, Recursos humanos, Colaboradores, etc. Y ellos a su vez pueden haber clientes (quienes impulsaron la actividad) y los usuarios (quienes jugarán). Los arquetipos nos ayudan a identificar necesidades y con ellas, las motivaciones.

Player profiles works like a resume for everyone in the leaderboard The skins gives a player bragging rights or to show the skills of the player. Fortnite where one can either buy everything with a season pass or you can earn everything while the current season is running. This shows everyone that the player is someone noteworthy and talked about The best example for this is "Let Me Solo Her" in Elden Ring Player (look into YouTube) The achievement on the players profile also is an indicator that they played enough, watch DMC game playing after 2000 hours These are great examples for adding social feature with discord and steam for others to see and for getting well-deserved respect

Player profiles, crafted through personas, archetypes, or segments, offer a nuanced view of player motivations and behaviors. Personas are detailed fictional characters embodying specific player groups, while archetypes represent fundamental player types. Segments categorize players with shared traits. These profiles guide game design by aligning with player needs and testing various game scenarios against diverse player expectations

Understanding the emotional highs and lows throughout the journey empowers designers to create experiences that resonate with players on a deeper level. Designing for emotional engagement contributes significantly to player satisfaction and long-term retention. Also, Clear maps highlight pain points in the player's journey. These could be moments of frustration, confusion, or dissatisfaction. Identifying these pain points allows designers to focus on refining those areas, enhancing the overall experience.

By examining cognitive processes like attention, memory, and decision-making, we can improve player journey visualizations to highlight important cognitive touchpoints. This helps us identify potential bottlenecks in cognitive load and opportunities for memory-driven engagement, ultimately enhancing the overall user experience. Recognizing how cultural backgrounds influence players' emotional responses and expectations at different stages allows us to create narratives that resonate culturally.

Respecto al viaje de los jugadores, a mis estudiantes de cursos de gamificación se los explico con el viaje del héroe, utilizado en el storytelling. Es una excelente herramienta para poder identificar los momentos y sobre todo las expectativas en cada uno, para poder aprovecharlas y despertar la motivación de nuestros jugadores y moverlos a la acción, participación e interacción.

Why should someone play FNAF series because of the journey, the series that created the sub-genre of walking simulator The journey or the adventure aspect of a game is the journey for the player. From rags to riches or from weak to strong or in some cases too strong. This is called hero's journey most beautifully used in the game "Zelda: Breath of the wild" but also seen "Shadow of the colossus" To my knowledge SoC has pure journey and same weapon stats unlike Zelda:BoW. in the FPS genre we can give them hard to achieve titles. Both are journeys but executed in a different manner. The execution comes to play as always to give players motivation for seeing the end or achieving the hardest achievement

People naturally view their life as a story. If a player could journal their experiences what would turn out to be? A low-budget solution is to simply roleplay during a test. Narrating your own experiences as you go through. This narration should be able to scale up and down depending on the pace of each gameplay loop. This should give more than enough feedback for the game design, the hypothetical player and your own interests as a developer.

Player modeling in game design involves creating mathematical or computational representations of player behavior and preferences to understand and predict their actions within a game. This process includes collecting data on player interactions, decisions, and preferences. Algorithms are then developed to analyze and create mathematical representations, ranging from simple statistical models to advanced machine learning approaches. The goal is to predict player behavior, adapt the gaming experience, and create personalized engagements through an iterative feedback loop.

By considering strategic decision-making and player interactions within the game environment, we can create models that predict individual player behaviour and simulate emergent behaviours within the gaming community. Leveraging financial modeling techniques can help predict player spending patterns and inform targeted monetization strategies.

You can detail as much as you want but most of the time, especially small game teams forget the main idea. Core motivation of players is HAVING FUN. period. Create the largest maps, give them content every day, mix the best mechanics of the world etc etc. If your game is not fun, its not going to scale.

I’d have to say that most players are into games to have fun despite the game genre. Players will go towards certain genres with certain expectations and adding some surprises in story, environment, challenges etc within an escalating experience (while avoiding over repetition) just add to the fun.

Try to understand the root psychology of players. Why do they play your genre. What’s happening in their lizard brains in the moment to moment? What’s happening over longer arcs? Are they chasing something? What is the dopamine profile of your game? Those answers may not be what you want to hear or work against your personal design ideas, but better to know as early as possible. Because in the conflict between design paths and user paths, the user path always wins. Even if that means the user path leads out of your game.

Like G?khan said - it’s all about having fun. Fun of course is subjective. All the tools above ‘help’ identify what is potentially fun to your audience. The beautify of the gaming industry is that the ‘norm’ becomes boring far too quickly - so also make bold assumptions. Break the rules: based on game design theories a few years ago GTA should never have succeeded, and your FarmVille plants dying was considered ‘fun’. Create a game from the perspective of a pet monster (remember Goat Simulator just works), or instead of moving the character, move the world around it. Dare to dream - you’ll stumble upon something super fun. For everyone.

Make the games that you want to play. Ensure the prototypes are fun of course. If it's what you want to play, and fun for you, others will find it fun too.