Episode 19 – Player Typologies

Meaningful Play Podcast

In this episode Jordana provides an analysis of the game Bully. After recapping what we’ve been playing lately, we explore player typologies: what are some of the ways that researchers have tried to understand player motivations and preferences? We take Quantic Foundry’s gamer motivation profile survey and discuss our results.

Games:

Animal Crossing, Bully, Greedfall, Moons of Madness, The Call of Cthulu, The Forgotten City, Spyro Reimagined

References:

Bartle, R. A. (2013). Design Principles: Use and Misuse. In T. Quandt & S. Kröger (Eds.), Multiplayer: The Social Aspects of Digital Gaming.

Crecente, B. (2013, Sep 25). Rockstar’s Dan Houser would still love to make another Bully game. Polygon. https://www.polygon.com/2013/9/25/4769298/rockstars-dan-houser-would-still-love-to-make-another-bully-game

Bartle, R. (1996). Hearts, Clubs, Diamonds, Spades: Players Who Suit MUDs. MUD. http://mud.co.uk/richard/hcds.htm

Kallio, K. P., Mäyrä, F., & Kaipainen, K. (2011). At Least Nine Ways to Play: Approaching Gamer Mentalities. Games and Culture, 6(4), 327-353. https://doi.org/10.1177/1555412010391089

Klevjer, R., & Hovden, J. F. (2017). The Structure of Videogame Preference. Game Studies, 17(2). https://doi.org/10/d6cxsv

Lazzaro, N. (2004). Why We Play Games: Four Keys to More Emotion Without Story. XEODesign. https://www.xeodesign.com/research/

Quantic Foundry (2021). The 9 Quantic Gamer Types. https://quanticfoundry.com/gamer-types/

Quantic Foundry (2021). The Quantic Lab. https://apps.quanticfoundry.com/

Quantic Foundry. (2020). Player segments based on gamer motivations. https://quanticfoundry.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/9-Player-Segments-GDC-2020-Excerpt.pdf

Yee, N. (2014). The Proteus Paradox. Yale University Press.

Credits:
Music created with Per Nyblom’s Abundant Music.