TBM: Ep 6 script

In an attempt to transition out of hiatus, I will be posting the scripts of my Thinking Beyond Mechanisms segment. I don't plan to edit them, so there may be some differences between the audio and written versions. Take the audio as the correct version. I also plan on offering some additional thoughts in separate posts—commentary on the episodes, if you will.

Motivation

Welcome to Thinking Beyond Mechanisms, an in depth look at some of the other aspects of game design, the segment that looks at some of the theory of board game design that goes beyond what typically gets covered when we learn how to design games. My name is Sarah Shipp and today I want to talk about what motivates players during gameplay. 

Much of the time, when we talk about player experience we discuss how we want players to feel when playing a game. Player emotions occur as a result of stimuli provided by a game. Player motivation, on the other hand, is something that players bring to a game.

Steven Reiss, an American psychologist, developed a list of sixteen basic human desires that make up human motivation, often referred to as intrinsic motivation. Those desires are romance, curiosity, honor, acceptance, order, family, independence, power, social contact, physical activity, status, saving (defined as the desire to collect), eating, vengeance, tranquility, and idealism.

This isn’t a list of everything that can motivate us, but rather a list of universal things that motivate all of us. I will refer to the traits from Reiss’s list as motivators because they are sources of motivation. 

Right away we can see how the motivators are relevant to thematic design. Mechanical design requires us to look a little deeper. If I were to make two lists, one for motivation within game mechanics and one for motivation within game theme, the list for game theme would include every motivator from Reiss’s list. We can also add some of Maslow's needs to round out this list for thematic purposes: specifically physiological needs (such as breathing and sleep) and the need for safety (which includes protection from the elements or injury). 

My list for motivators that apply to game mechanics would include the following: curiosity, acceptance, order, independence, power, social contact, physical activity, status, saving, vengeance, and tranquility. Remember that saving means collecting in the sense that we can define a savings account as a collection of monetary value. Here’s a cursory look at why I think these motivators apply to game design. 

Curiosity is a good motivator for exploration games, push your luck games, and sandbox narrative games. Order and saving are standard motivators in strategy games. Physical activity is a motivator for dexterity games and some types of party games. Twister, for example. Social contact is a general motivator behind why many people like to play tabletop games but also a motivator specifically for party games. Acceptance might be a motivator for party games like Green Team Wins or could be a motivator in negotiation games. Similarly, independence could be a motivator for why someone does not want to negotiate for a shared victory. Vengeance is a motivator in games involving direct player conflict. Power is a motivator in games that have leveling up mechanisms or direct conflict. Status is the motivator that pushes us to try to win the games we play. Lastly, tranquility is what motivates people to seek out cozy games. In this instance, cozy refers to the play style and not the theme. 

How does this list help with designing games? We become invested in the action of a game because the action is comprehensible to us; we know why someone would want to act and what drives them to action. This is true even if we don't agree with the actions taken by our avatars. We would not declare war on our neighbor, but the desire for more power is comprehensible to us, which allows us to become invested in a combat game.

Often when we are play testing, players will want to take actions that are contrary to the goals of the game. Your players will tell you that they want to take certain actions because those actions are fun. We should assume, however, that something is motivating them to take those actions. Most players will be motivated by progression in a game, but what they consider progress and what you consider progress may not be the same thing. 

One common place this comes up is in games with pvp combat. Players will not be motivated to attack other players if other actions have stronger motivators or if the results of combat don’t yield a good enough progression toward victory. As designers, we can either make our core game more motivating and engaging or we can align gameplay with what players are already motivated to do. 

Another way to use this list is when you are deciding on the type of experience you want your game to provide. Instead of focusing only on how you want players to feel when they are playing, you can design around what types of motivators you want to be present in your game. A game that inspires curiosity and status will be very different from one that inspires acceptance and saving. 

Intrinsic motivation helps designers understand player behavior and in turn motivators shape that behavior to fit the desired experience of a game. For more ways of thinking beyond mechanisms, you can visit my blog at shipp board games dot blog spot dot com or catch future episodes of thinking beyond mechanisms on ludology.