What is it about?
Why do different people enjoy playing games in different ways? Player satisfaction modeling seeks to answer this question, and this paper summarizes the state of the art in this field, looking at Bartle Types, Yee's Motivations, Lazzaro's Four Fun Keys, International Hobo's DGD1 and BrainHex as well as tracing new research options in neurobiology.
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Why is it important?
We stand at a turning point in understanding why players enjoy different games, as new research options can move us beyond psychological methods and into deeper empirical research. This paper outlines the shape of this future research programme and frames it in the context of existing models of player preferences.
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Empirical Game Aesthetics, March 2014, Wiley,
DOI: 10.1002/9781118796443.ch15.
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Resources
BrainHex test website
What's your BrainHex class? The website for the BrainHex play style test.
21st Century Game Design
The book that summarizes the DGD1 model and the research behind it.
Beyond Game Design
Collection of essays by Lazzaro, Bartle, Bateman and others discussing the psychology of player preference and other topics of interest to professional game developers and anyone studying play.
Contributors
The following have contributed to this page
