The Freedom Fallacy: Understanding "Player Autonomy" in Game Design. Hitman is the future of games -- even if it's not the future of Square Enix | VentureBeat. Maslow's Hierarchy of Game Design. Looking at the development history of games and comparing it to the basic psychological needs of humanity, some interesting corrolaries crop up.
Let’s take a quick look at Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs and adapt its levels of motivation for gaming. What happens if we adapt the physiological, safety, love/belonging, esteem, and self-actualization levels of his famous pyramid to historical game development cycles? A fascinating pattern emerges. Survive Early games focused on the basics. Progress As games advanced, they’ve become more in-depth. Socialize As games entered the networked era and the Internet became more prevalent, socialization was an obvious next step. Social tools can take many forms: from things as simple as in-game friends lists and chat to team-based multiplayer with objectives, multiplayer deathmatch, cooperative campaign play, raiding, PvP, and much more. Achieve I would argue that rewards and achievements are not possible without some layer of socialization built in.
Create. Games about Rich Experience, Not Addiction. Joel Burgess: GDC 2011 Transcript: Motivating Players in Open World Games. Are basically useless on their own. Because of this, I wanted to post this transcript of my talk online. I typed the majority of this out on the plane to San Francisco, mostly as a way to practice the talk quietly, so it follows what I had planned to say pretty closely. In fact, I realized through the week that I had forgotten to make several minor points which are captured here. Fair warning - this is long. Turns out I speak about 7,000 words per hour.
The first thing I wanted to do was consider what we mean when we talk about an “Open” game. Further, another term that often gets thrown around when we talk about Open World games is “Sandbox.” This, for me, boiled down to one common aspect -- a deliberate choice to focus on Player Agency. So why is player agency attracting so much attention? I won’t be the first person to point out the obvious fact that Interactivity is the primary, and perhaps only, attribute of games that other mass media hasn’t got.
Player-Designer Ground Rules. Being invested in games. Immersyve » Science of Engagement. By Scott Rigby & Richard Ryan This white paper reviews our underlying need satisfaction model and its application. We generally try to update this paper every couple of years with our latest research information. This version was updated in Sept, 2007 (we know…we’re due for an update. It’s in the works!) Summary Based on years of research and a multidisciplinary team that combines experience in interactive product development, motivational theory and psychometric testing, Immersyve has developed an in‐depth model of games that identifies and measures those elements of the player experience that are most deeply satisfying and valued.
PENS has statistically proven power in predicting not only fun/enjoyment, but also game ratings, sales, developer loyalty, and sustained player interest. Why Do Achievements, Trophies, and Badges Work? At this point in human history we take it for granted that badges, trophies, achievements, and similar rewards are baked in to most gaming systems. “Achievement unlocked!” Is a punchline that can be swapped into any situation where you get a little something for doing what you (presumably) were already going to be doing. They’re also part of the holy trinity of “points, badges, leaderboards” of gamification, which applies game systems to non-gaming activities like work, shopping, or philanthropy. But …do they work? That is, does rewarding or promising to reward player behaviors with achievements, trophies, or badges actually get people to engage in those behavior more? Does it get them to play the game more? Well, yes. Sharetribe is very community focused, so it really wants users who log in regularly, participate in markets, and provide important information to other users.
To cut straight to the chase, Hamari did indeed find that adding badges to the website had the intended effects.