As I was responding to the PVE vs. the PVP thread, I got thinking... I’d be interested to see the Quantic Foundry gamer motivation profiles for others waiting on Pantheon. Nick Yee has done a lot of interesting studies on motivation, play style, and social aspects for online games since the EQ days. He also wrote a book that I enjoyed reading called, “The Proteus Paradox: How Online Games and Virtual Worlds Change Us—And How They Don't”. As I was reading it, I was really hoping that at some point perhaps game designers would read the book and look at the survey data. If you want to make a social game, look at the underpinnings of society and social interaction. They are not different online than they are IRL, it’s just that the social rule sets that are created by the game designers enforce different types of behavior.
Here’s the link to the gamer motivation survey: https://apps.quanticfoundry.com/lab/gamerprofile/
My gamer motivation profile: https://goo.gl/sGmZmu
A link to the book for those that are interested: https://www.amazon.com/Proteus-Paradox-Online-Virtual-Us/dp/0300190999
I committed quite a few posts here dealing with gamer motivations :)
Indeed I know Nick Yee quite well and I have been member of his panel from the Day 1 (it started with EQ that we were both playing back then) .
The problem with Quantic Foundry is that it is a for profit company so that the access to data is no more so easy as it has been back in the early 2000 .
And like you I find it a pity that game developpers are apparently little interested by academic studies of motivations and profiles .
Well thinking of it I would bet that the very large companies (like EA, Blizzard etc) now surley have people working on these questions prior to launch of a concept/game .
Good points. Even though Quantic Foundry charges for thei data they've collected now, the information regarding the underlying principals is widely available. Why people do things and how they associate with each other are not new areas of study. It's just for some reason many assume that those things don't apply to motivations and interactions online. However studies like Nick Yee's have show that's not the case.
How people behave is not only determined by internal factors (motivations/personality type) but also by the social constructs of the place that they're interacting with other people. E.G. Even though you may want to tell your boss off, you might not because you don't want to deal with the consequences. Or you might be inclined tell someone off online because there are little to no consequences for doing so. The new HBO show, "Westworld" is actually doing a good job exploring/demonstrating these types of situations.
Well it is indeed not so "new" . N.Yee was applying standard statistical techniques (factorial analysis) to MMORPGs in the start of the 2000ies and he was not the first one .
But the key is in the access to the underlying data which is now very difficult because the value of such studies is in the sample and not in the techniques which have been known for a century .
If you want to get knowledge about motivation distribution in an MMORPG, then the segmentation is paramount - e.g you must know how the sample is segmented because you must not mix up players of MOBA or cell phone games with players of RPG and MMORPG .
So, ideally, you need a sample where players of RPG/MMORPGs are clearly identified within a general population and this identification is impossible if you have no access to the underlying data .
However I agree that even if this access costs money (and it should because it has value), it is certainly worth the expense . After all we are talking a few thousands $ here for an overall investment which is measured in millions . And those few thousands $ may very well make the difference between designing a game that hits the core of the customers' target and a game that misses it .
Right, that’s one of the good things about the internet though. You can pay experts if you have the money or you can research a subject yourself and apply the knowledge to a project. I work for a small company (35 people) you have to do this at times to make things work. I enjoy it even though it’s not always ideal I still think it has value.
Also I would say that what the numbers tell us is more important than the numbers themselves. But then I am demonstrating my preference for top down analysis rather than bottom up. Ultimately, the underlying data paints a picture about what types of activities MOBA, RPG, and MMORPG players enjoy and if you know at least that much you can integrate the elements of those activities for your target audience.