Jim walked into his living room, cradling his warm cup of coffee. Sasha was sitting on the couch in her bathrobe, staring at her laptop as the morning sunlight lit the room.
“Gosh, I am tired. I really wish that I had gotten more sleep last night.†Jim mumbled sleepily.
After a moment, he looked at Sasha, “Hello? Are you listening to me? Wait a minute... are you playing that game again?!?"
"Of course! Crusaders of the Lost Idols is great." Sasha responded indignantly without looking up from her screen.
"Ugh! I hate that game. You don't do anything in that game. There is no destruction or competition.â€
"But Jim, I have almost got all of the event achievements and look at my gear! I finally got this epic item that I have been wanting. Also, it is fun to tweak my formation until I get the most optimal progress in the game." Sasha sighed.
"Come on Sasha! You know that I don't collect achievements in games like Diablo 3 and WoW. Why would I enjoy them in this game?" Jim said scratching his red beard.
"Hold your horses there boys and girls.†says a man in a lab coat, as he steps into the room. “My name is Dr. Nick Yee. You may remember me from my series of instructional videos on gamer motivations. Did you know that people play video games for different reasons?" Nick adjusted his glasses, set down his clipboard and sat down to provide a more detailed explanation.
Quantic Foundry
Okay. Okay. None of this really happened. Obviously, Sasha and Jim are fictional characters from our games and even though Nick Yee does exist, he hasn't interrupted their argument with his words of wisdom. I don't think Nick wears glasses, and I have never seen him in a labcoat with a clipboard.
However, Nick Yee is a researcher who has produced some very impressive work on the motivations of those who play video games. I have followed his work for many years, and I highly suggest that you check it out. It is fascinating.
If you are reading this, you probably enjoy playing video games. And most of us like to believe that our friends who play video games must be playing them for the same reasons that we do. After all, they are our friends, and we all enjoy this common activity of playing games.
However, what Nick Yee's research explores is the different motivations for why people play video games. He has developed a test which is kind of like a personality test. However, instead of telling you whether or not you are introverted or extroverted, his test tells you what aspects of video games you like. This test, the Gamer Motivation Profile (https://apps.quanticfoundry.com/lab/10/crusaders), is free for anyone to take and can be very illuminating.
Eric's Gaming Style: Calm, Driven, Gregarious, Immersed, and Inquisitive
For example, when I took the test, I found out that I scored very high on the Achievement motivation. The motivation is composed of two subcategories: Completion and Power. If you enjoyed collecting Star Wars cards as a kid (as I did) or getting all of the achievements in WoW (another activity that I enjoy), then the odds are that Completion is an important motivation for you. The Power subcategory is about wanting to increase your power in a game. So this can be things like getting better gear to improve your damage (DPS) or increasing your character stats.
A typical RPG progression curve is something that I really enjoy. This would normally involve collecting better gear to get more powerful, leveling up with the accompanying increase in stats (more power!), and hopefully lots of achievements for me to collect as well. Games like Diablo 3 and WoW are great matches for my motivations.
The life of an RPG Gamer
Interestingly, idle games like Crusaders of the Lost Idols also provide experiences that match my motivations really well. Even though I would never have considered this genre of simple games to have much overlap with triple A games like Diablo 3 or WoW, it turns out that they do. Simple idle games and more complex RPGs both provide increasing power and stats combined with a collection of achievements and other items.
So having seen my Gamer Motivation results, I can understand why I find both genres of games to be so compelling.
What I find equally interesting is that it also explains the reaction of some of my friends when I tell them how much I enjoy idle games. Some of my friends also love idle games. However, some do not, and they find the genre’s appeal to be surprising. The Achievement motivation that is so strong up for me is not something that is strong for those that don’t like idle games. In hindsight, this makes perfect sense. These are the same friends who enjoyed playing WoW, but couldn't understand why I spent so much time collecting achievements in the game. We were both enjoying different aspects of WoW. I was enjoying the collection elements while they were enjoying the PvP elements of the game. Even though we were both playing the same game, we were doing it for different reasons.
So, I think if Sasha and Jim were to take Nick Yee's survey, they would discover that they play video games for different reasons. Sasha clearly enjoys power progression and collection, while Jim enjoys action and excitement elements.
If you are interested in learning about what makes you tick when it comes to games, then you should take the survey too. You can find it
here.
Blog post by Eric Jordan, CEO of Codename Entertainment.
