What are the main motivation axes in tabletop gaming? Are there 3 core motivations, or 8? Do people who care about strategy also tend to care about winning, or is that more related to people who enjoy high conflict mechanics? See how you compare with other board gamers. Take a 5-minute survey and get your [...]
Asking gamers whether they like to play with other people actually gets pretty complicated. Are we talking co-op or competitive? Do you mean local or online? With friends or with strangers? So in a recent survey, we decided to break all this down. Do You Remember GoldenEye 007? As someone who grew up in the [...]
In mid-April, we got an email query from Eric Jordan, the CEO of Codename Entertainment. Codename makes an Idle Clicker game called Crusaders of the Lost Idols and because the genre is still relatively new, Eric wanted to learn more about the psychological profile of these gamers. At this point in time, Nic Ducheneaut and [...]
Previously on our blog, we’ve looked at genre maps of Strategy games and Open World games. This week, we’re doing maps of the Shooter genre. The Shooter genre is much maligned in mainstream media, and it's easy to end up with a monolithic view of who Shooter gamers are. In this post, we'll dive into [...]
RPGs are known for creating deep narratives where players are able to immerse themselves in a compelling world and get lost in their “role”. As developers seek to create more immersive worlds, characters have become more and more customizable. Not only can players choose what their character looks like, or their base stats and abilities, [...]
In case you missed our GDC talk, you're in luck! During GDC week, apart from presenting at Moscone Center, we also presented the same talk at the GamesUR Summit. Hosted by EA on their Redwood Shores campus, the conference provided speakers with an amazing stage with wonderful audio-visual support. They recorded all the talks and [...]
We’re revisiting the Strategy genre map with some additional data overlays. If you’re a regular reader of our blog and familiar with our motivation data and how we generate these genre maps, feel free to skip the next 2 sections. Data from the Gamer Motivation Profile The Gamer Motivation Profile allows gamers to take a [...]
One of the hallmarks of 4X games is the ability to use different approaches to achieve victory. These may include crushing your enemies on the battlefield, creating an economic superpower, or achieving cultural or scientific nirvana. I still remember watching my father play the original Civilization and being confused as to why he would waste [...]
The Open World genre has grown a lot over the past decade, with well-known franchises from multiple game studios. These range from the space opera Mass Effect to the criminal underworld of Grand Theft Auto. Yet this is still a relatively young and fluid genre, and that made us curious to see if we could [...]
Although gamers are often lumped together as “people who enjoy playing videogames”, there is often a lot of variability in the types of things people like to do while playing. Most have a preferred genre, and even within genres a preferred style of play. How We're Playing Fallout 4 Take Fallout 4 for example, a [...]