How to increase players’ intrinsic motivation

This article is a part of a presentation I gave earlier in 2023 at MAG Interactive. I was thrilled to be invited by the company to speak at their MAGCon event.

A small intro about UX in games

To start off, it’s important to explain why me, a UX designer working with mobile games, is going on about intrinsic motivation.

As a generalist UX Designer, I often like to explain to people that my work is based on 3 layers: design theory, quantitative data, and qualitative data. In that order. Everything we designers work on needs to have a solid theoretical foundation, to, at the very least, cover the basic of good usability practices. Then, we check the work with data — quanti first, then quali, whenever possible — but we all know the day to day of working with UX is not as straightforward.

But going back to the very first layer of the design work, design theory, it’s usually thought of as being about usability only. People instantly associate it to concepts like Fitt’s Law, for instance. But UX for games touches on two different fronts: first, of course, the side of UX Design most people are familiar with: how to improve the game’s accessibility and usability; and second, how to get your players to behave the way you want them to.

Motivation

And this is where we can talk about player motivation. As, you see, working with UX for games is very different from traditional UX. Users’ goals and tasks aren’t as simple and easy to measure as going through a checkout flow.

There are two reasons why players will continue to keep playing a game: it’s either going to be intrinsic or extrinsic motivation.

But it’s not that simple! Let’s dive in:

When we think of motivation, there are two opposing ends — extrinsic and intrinsic. There’s a bit of am extra range in between that as well, but let’s focus on the big picture.

Extrinsic Motivation

Extrinsic motivation is characterized by engaging in behaviours because of some external reason, that could come in the form of rewards, social acceptance, to avoid a negative consequence or even just so I myself feel like I’m keeping true to my values. But notice how all of these reasons come from a place of an almost “obligation”?

Extrinsic motivators are an attempt to persuade people to do something. And they work really well, in the short term, to force people to take action.

We can basically divide them into two categories: carrots and sticks!

In mobile games, there are classic examples of external motivators, like daily rewards, progression mechanics, win streaks and so on.

Intrinsic Motivation

Intrinsic motivation is characterized by engaging in behaviors just for their own sake. You do something because you enjoy it. Intrinsic motivation is what comes from within. It is when you care deeply for an activity, and you enjoy it without needing any external rewards or pressure to do it.

But pinpointing what internal motivation looks like is a bit more tricky.

In order for us to have intrinsic motivation, there are 3 basic psychological needs that must be met. This is the basis of self determination theory.

How does that look like in games?

Competence involves the need to feel capable of achieving a desired outcome. Your players need to feel they are effective in an activity and are learning different skills.

From a UX perspective, the first thing we can do is to set up players for success early on. Make sure your FTUE teaches players all skills needed, without overwhelming them. Build their knowledge in context, and as the skill becomes necessary to advance, so players will have the feeling they’re learning and getting better.

Add achievements that cater to this psychological need — they’ll need to be real difficult, not your average “Score 3000 points” achievement.

Give players skill related feedback — did they end your mobile solitaire match with extra cards on their hands, because they didn’t need to use the entire talon? Reward them with bonus gems for each card, and make sure they understand that’s why they’re getting those cards!

Autonomy is about the need to feel as in control of your own actions, behaviors and goals.

Games where you have a lot of choice and freedom of how to play (if done right) — be it something simple, like choosing which fountain you want to decorate your garden, or which strategy you’re gonna use to build your base — will foster a sense of autonomy and a sense of ownership of that world.

But remember — you will break this perceived sense of autonomy the second you make any of these choice activities feel like a chore. Because then it becomes an external mandate, and the intrinsic motivation is gone.

And relatedness reflects the need to feel a sense of belonging and attachment to other people. To feel close to, and understood by, important others.

This does not mean though that you should turn all of our games into PvP games.

One way we can increase relatedness in games is by adding collaborative goals.

Cooperation has the potential to affect intrinsic motivation because players can experience the benefits of being part of a team that works together towards a common goal.

Clans have that same effect, because they foster that feeling of belonging to a community.

Another way to support relatedness is to offer a way for you to compare yourself to other players. This can help players feel that this is more of a social environment.

And we all know how connecting to people who are going through the same challenges as you are is important.

Duolingo relies on this and prompts users to send encouraging messages to friends if they complete challenges.

This increases the feeling that you’re not there alone, trying to learn a new language on your own.

There are other people who are going through the same experience as you are.

And that feeling alone already helps with the psychological need of relatedness.

Measuring fun

One of the most discussed themes in player research is how to measure fun. How do you define if a game was fun?

If intrinsic motivation is all about doing an activity because you enjoy it, well, now we have a framework to measure fun.

And we can start to look into our most engaged players and see what they value in our games, what actions they take, in what order, for how long, and how we can amplify that by providing more nudges, loops and features that help support intrinsic motivation.