“What motivates you as a gamer?” – Several weeks ago Angie at Backlog Crusader posted her results of the Gamer Motivation Profile by the research company Quantic Foundry, almost being a “personality quiz” for gamers. This ties into a question I have asked myself at various times – “why do I play games?”. Being fully aware the simplest explanation to that particular question would be “I have fun playing them”, attempting a more analytical approach to what appeals to or “motivates” me in gaming sounded intriguing, though I still smirk using the word MOTIVATION as it refers to me, anyways…here are my results of the questionaire.
Results
The main categories in which the results are sorted into are Action, Social, Mastery, Achievement, Immersion, or Creativity. Do you play games to be immersed in a far away planet filled with all sorts of different characters and creatures or is gaming much more of a social activity in which you cooperate with or compete against others for a common goal? Do you view games as a puzzle to test your critical thinking or do you simply want an outlet to blow shit up? Here are my primary as well as secondary motivations…
How do you feel about your survey results?
I was not really surprised to see my survey results, my primary motivations are spread out across all categories, but lean most heavily toward the Action side. As someone who spent the majority of their life playing action/platform games like Mario and Sonic and also many FPS titles like the Call of Duty or Halo games. A couple of the survey questions were how much I enjoy explosions or “being an agent of chaos and destruction”, so…I had a hunch about what to expect in the results 😉 Another slightly less prominent category was Creativity in which the secondary motivations are Discovery and Design. I love the element of exploration in games, which probably stems from all the time spent playing Metroid and Zelda games. I love being able to wander around the giant environments in open-world games like Fallout or Assassin’s Creed. Outside of Action and Creativity the other categories are pretty much equal; I like to remain open-minded about any genre of game and know I will enjoy some aspect of it. For every FPS there’s and RPG game I enjoy, or for every game focusing primarily on gameplay there’s a narrative-based “walking simulator” that provides just as much enjoyment and happiness.
Which category is most accurate and least accurate?
I feel the survey results are pretty accurate, games more action-oriented are probably my middle ground as game genres go. I know these aren’t defined boundaries of what games I’m SUPPOSED to enjoy or not. In surveys where your answer is on a scale of how much your enjoy or how important something is to you I find myself answering somewhere in the middle as I can usually come up with scenarios for every answer. I quite often wake up and feel like playing something completely different than the previous one. The survey results show Mastery as my lowest percentile, I mostly agree with that as I don’t do a lot of achievement or trophy hunting in games or spend a considerable length of time trying to get an S-rank on missions. There are always exceptions to this, like all the other categories. If I’m really really enjoying a game, I will spend the extra time to go through and get the platinum trophy or finish everything, like Horizon: Zero Dawn, God of War, Spider-Man, or Mario Odyssey and Breath of the Wild.
Are there any major exceptions to your gaming motivations?
Not really, this seems reasonably accurate. I actually took the survey a couple times and got the same answers
Do any of these motivations carry over to your non-gaming life? If so, how?
Umm…I guess scoring a bit higher in the Action category is perfectly in line with someone that at times demonstrates the attention span of a hamster or the Creativity category fits well as most of my pursuits in life are less physical and more of either creative or intellectual(Surely obvious, right?).
Which games in your experience best satisfy your gaming motivations and how do they compare to the “suggested games” list from the questionaire’s follow up page?
Most of the games on the Suggested Games list are of the open-world/sandbox variety and should come as no suprise I have played and really liked every one on the list. The only exception is Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor, which I regretfully have yet to play. However, other titles like Half-Life 2, GTA: San Andreas, and Super Mario World are among my all-time favorite games. I have also pretty routinely mentioned how much I loved playing through Mario Odyssey. In describing games that best satisfy my gaming motivations I would probably use games like Metroid Prime or God of War(2018) as they are good examples of games that provide a little of everything in terms of action, exploration, and immersion.
I’ve linked the site if anyone wants to take a look at the Gamer Motivation Profile for themselves. It’s interesting to look at how Quantic Foundry has compiled all of the information in regards to what is your primary areas of motivation for gaming versus others. That’s all I have for now! If you take the survey let me know your results below, it’s always interesting to see the results and what games are recommended to others. This coming week, I also plan to finish up my Real Neat Blog Award(x2) post as well as wrapping up my Layers of Fear summary as we enter this Halloween season. And now, I’m headed back to Koholint Island for the evening.
Keep on playing…
Gaming Omnivore 