A Closer Look into the 12 Gamer Motivations

Understanding what motivates gamers is crucial for a game’s success, and can inform important decisions from adding new gameplay features to knowing what messages to convey in ads. This article unpacks the 12 gamer motivations we at Quantic Foundry identified based on data from over 400,000 gamers. We split them up into six pairs according to their correlation to each other: for example, gamers who were strongly motivated by destruction were also strongly motivated by excitement, and so these were grouped together. Each pair was then assigned overall category labels, like Action or Creativity.

See how you compare with other gamers. Take a 5-minute survey and get your Gamer Motivation Profile

Over time, we realized that some confusion had emerged from our research, with people asking questions such as, ‘’when a gamer scores low on everything, are they just a disengaged gamer?’, and ‘when a gamer has many high scores, do they just want more of everything?’. These are the outcome of negative spaces — blind spots that the data doesn’t answer. By diving into each motivation, focusing on gamers who scored the highest and lowest 20% of each, we’ll hopefully fill in gaps that have emerged.

Action

Destruction

At its heart, players who are motivated by destruction are drawn to chaos and mayhem in games. Strongest among males under the age of 18, this motivation is most present in games where players can destroy things the fastest, such as shooter games. We found destruction to be the best motivational predictor of players interested in VR adoption — something we’ll look at later.

You might assume that construction is a strong appeal among gamers who scored low on destruction. However, being conscious of negative space, we now understand that this is not the case. On the low end of the destruction spectrum, gamers enjoy experiencing an evergreen world — in other words, games that are reliably constant and familiar, such as Mist and Animal Crossing — not necessarily construction.

Construction should be treated as a means rather than an end. For example, while you’d think building an empire in Civilization is construction, it’s actually strategy. Meanwhile, building a city in SimCity in order to then blow it up is simply destruction.

Excitement

Players motivated by excitement are drawn to action-packed gameplay full of surprises. On the high end of excitement, we have fast-paced games such as Call of Duty and Super Smash Bros, which center around combat and competition. On the low end of the spectrum are games like Myst and Civilization, which are more relaxed and predictable, with less visual stimulation.

Social

Competition

Players who are strongly motivated by competition enjoy duels, matches, and battling it out on leaderboards. Games such as Call of Duty and League of Legends are particularly popular among this cohort. Conversely, gamers who find minimal appeal in competition gravitate towards non-adversarial games where there is no human conflict or rankings, such as Lego Dimensions or Myst.

Community

The players who are motivated by community are driven by sharing experiences with others, and tend to be more collaborative and dependent on others within gameplay. Games in which the majority of players are motivated by community emphasize teamwork and collaboration, such as MMOs like Battlefield, Destiny, and Final Fantasy XIV. Games in which very few players are motivated by community emphasize solo and independent gameplay, where the gamer is always in full control.

Mastery

Challenge

Gamers who score high on challenge are driven by the ability to practice and master a skill. Popular games among this cohort feature complex moves and difficult missions, rewarding mastery over time, such as DotA and Super Smash Bros. On the other side are games like Oxenfree and Animal Crossing, which can be described as ‘easy fun’. Quick to learn and straightforward, ‘easy fun’ games don’t punish the gamer for making mistakes. Challenge is the only motivation in our model with a score that resurges after age 45, which suggests older gamers are interested in mastering skill-based games.

Strategy

Gamers who score high for this motivation want long-term strategies they can plan out and execute. Games they enjoy playing integrate complex decision-making into the gameplay that require them to anticipate a number of potential contingencies. Popular high-strategy games from our survey are StarCraft II, Crusader Kings II, and Stellaris. Conversely, games with low strategy scores are more spontaneous, where decisions can be made with a small amount of information, and without needing to think or plan ahead too much. From our data, games that fit this bracket include The Sims, Mario Kart Wii, and Disney Emoji Blitz.

Achievement

Completion

Gamers who score high on completion are driven by quantifiable, consistent rewards that clearly show progress. Games that cater to this cohort are task-oriented and clear, with predictable conversion mechanics between time and reward. MMOs, particularly in the Asian market, scored very high for the completion motivation, with Dragon Nest, Lego Dimensions, and Aura Kingdom featuring heavily. Games on the low end of the completion spectrum, such as Victoria II and Kerbal Space Program, are more sandboxy, meaning gamers are encouraged to roam, decide what they want to do, and define goals for themselves. Completion is the most age stable motivation in our model, and is higher for women.

Power

Gamers with high power scores gravitate towards games that start the player weak, and offer a path of character level ups and weapon upgrades. Driven by numbers, power is about constant growth. At its essence, it isn’t really about the end goal; the appeal is the journey of growth. World of Warcraft and League of Legends are examples. Games that score low for the power motivation feature a flat progression, with fully developed characters from the start, such as Night in the Woods and The Longest Journey.

Immersion

Fantasy

Gamer’s who score high for the fantasy motivation want to be part of the game world. A type of psychological teleportation, it hinges on the gamer’s willingness to be transported to an alternate reality and the richness of that alternate world: its lore, its scope and its visual design. Popular games among those with high fantasy scores include Fallout and Dragon Age, which are categorized by their compelling alternate worlds and deep storylines. On the other side are either abstract puzzle games like Candy Crush Saga, or games with 3D yet generic graphics which have minimal world-building and lore, such as Counter-Strike and Street Fighter.

Going back to the VR adoption study, we ran a survey to test the relation between gamer motivation and VR satisfaction and adoption and received 2,400 responses, with 31% currently using VR devices such as Oculus. We were expecting fantasy to be the most significant predictor of VR adoption, as virtual realities seem synonymous with imagination and teleportation. We were surprised to discover the best predictors are in fact destruction and excitement — fans of shooter games.

Story

Gamers who find strong appeal in storylines enjoy games with a deep web of possible interactions and relationships, and characters with their own histories and personal dramas. Games like Life is Strange and Dragon Age, which have a rich web of dramas, full of characters with their own quirks, grudges, and histories, are popular. Conversely, gamers who scored low on the story motivation are attracted more to games that don’t involve human characters, such as SimCity.

Creativity

Design

Gamers who score high for design are motivated by expressing individuality and personal flair in the context of a game. Popular games for this cohort include The Sims, Guild Wars 2, and The Elder Scrolls Online. However, some of the games popular with those who score low on the design motivation are far from bland or generic, and in fact had unique styles and artistic visions: Braid, Super Mario Galaxy 2, Spelunky are some examples.

A different way to make sense of the design spectrum is how much aesthetic control the designer has versus the gamer. In other words, perhaps those on the low end of the design motivation spectrum are gamers willing to experience a curated gameplay and relinquish control to the game designers. Our data tells us that the appeal of design peaks early, with females scoring higher.

Discovery

Gamers who are strongly motivated by discovery care about the unknowns and testing the rules of what you can and cannot do. It’s easy to think of discovery as just exploration of a world, but it’s actually more about exploring the possibilities and boundaries of a world. Games on the high end include Fallout and Legend of Zelda, where gamers can find hidden treasures and experiment with objects. The low end is defined by practicality; games such as FIFA and Call of Duty, which have clear, constant rule sets and minimal unknown variables and possible interactions.

Here’s a reference sheet PDF for the model

This reference sheet includes an overview of the motivation model, as well as the details for the low and high ends of each motivation.

What do you think?

Are there other gaps in your understanding of our game motivation data that you’d like us to clarify in future posts? Would you like to consult with us about how you can actually apply these findings to your game? Let us know in the comments below.