Myers-Briggs Typology and Gamers

The Model in Brief Four pairs of traits: – Extraversion vs Introversion (E vs I), (50-50) – Sensing vs Intuition (S vs N), (70-30) – Thinking vs Feeling (T vs F), (50-50), (60 M - 70 F) – Judging vs Perceiving (J vs P), (55-45) Sixteen Types: – ISTJ, ISFJ, INFJ, INTJ, ISTP, ISFP, INFP, INTP – ESTP, ESFP, ENFP, ENTP, ESTJ, ESFJ, ENFJ, ENTJ

How Games Are Played E Play when they are bored Enjoy games in a social situation Sharing the gameplay (”pad passing”) I Play as a willing preference Playing for long periods on their own Majority of games are played by I-types Hint: E-type gamers should not underestimated (e.g. Dance Dance Revolution’s success)

Learning and Problem Solving S Patient with routine material Need linear exercises to learn controls etc. N Patient with abstract or complex material Can intuit controls and mechanics on their own Hint: A good tutorial environment is designed to be approached from both the routine exercise angle and the learn-by-experimentation method Hint: Use intuition puzzles for secondary rewards

Motivation T Learn best when given clear objective goals and rationales Games mostly rely on T- types F Respond best when receiving personal encouragement Hint: Incorporate design elements that reflect the needs of F-types

Goal-Orientation J Tend towards strong goal- orientation Play to complete goals Prefer games they can definitely complete P Tend towards process- orientation Play to improve their abilities Prefer games with no clear end condition Hint: The most appropriate game structures for a mass market are those in which players can pick and choose what they are going to do, but must complete a proportion of the material to progress and complete the game

Challenge vs Fun (TJ vs FP) The Sims is the best selling all-time PC game The only significant FP-style game Very few FP-style people in the business The problem is: – Without sufficient marketing games have difficulty reaching mass market with Hardcore evangelization (and they are mostly T-biased even if they are not J-biased)

The DGD1 Demographic Model

The Research DGD1 = Demographic Game Design 1 Developed by iHobo Groundwork, two components: – 32 question Myers-Briggs personality test – Short questionnaire to determine game purchasing and playing habits Got a good mix between hardcore and casual players for the survey

Conqueror (TJ) H1 Mainly INTJ, ISTJ Want to 100% complete games Want to see and do everything Competition against themselves Action, RPG C1 Mainly ISTJ Mostly interested in competition and winning Interpersonal competition Want to humiliate/crush opponents FPS, racing games Style of play: Progess: Rapid Advancement Story: Plot or Irrelevant Social: Online

Manager (TP) H2 Maily INTP, ISTP Strategy, adventure Likely to stop if game is too difficult Want to master a game C2 Mainly ISTP Less intuive -> more comfortable with familiar settings Realism, construction & management Style of play: Progess: Steady Story: Plot Social: None?

Wanderer (FP) H3 Mainly INFP Most intuitive of all groups Show interest in finesse Play a lot, but often consider games too hard Story + setting important But also like puzzle games if they get an experience they enjoy C3 Mainly ENFP Same taste but less gameliterate than H3 Need their games supremely easy Find one game and play it a lot (as not many games are made for them) Style of play: Progess: New Toys Story: Character/Emotion Social: Talk about what they like

Participant (FJ) H4 Mainly ESFJ? Largest group in population Very little about them RPG, the closest they could find in a game they would like Competitiveness not desired C4 Mainly ESFJ? Largest group in population Very little about them Co-op games, competitive multiplayer games Social play Style of play: Progess: Narrative Story: Character/Emotion Social: Multiplayer

Psychological Profiling: Entering the Mind of the Game Player

Two case studies CSI: Dark Motives The Simpsons: Hit & Run

CSI: Dark Motives Disagreements about the ”optimum feature set”, (needed to know the target audience) Used Myers-Briggs Type Indicator Matched the expected types of gamers with the MB typologies Result: – Clear understanding of the intended audience – Made it easier to put their interests first – Design considerations could be evaluated – New tutorial level made for all the S-types in the target audience

Simpsons: Hit & Run First phase: Pure brainstorming session Second phase: Create a ”design filter” based on consumer profiling Third phase: Apply the filter on the brainstorm ideas to get a manageable feature set Result: – Cut out dozens of ideas that did not focus on meeting the demands of the intended audience – Had a workable design feature set within the proposed production schedule