Agenda
Personality Traits and Gaming Behavior: What Can (and Cannot) Be Predicted from Player Actions
Ekaterina Strakhova (Senior Interface Designer, Owlcat Games)
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Track:
Design
Format:
Lecture
Vault Recording: TBD
There are a lot of retrospective explanations like "our audience loves challenges" or "players are lazy", but these say little about the root causes of behavior. What can actually be revealed about a player by their in-game behavior and what are generalizations, cognitive biases, and widespread myths?
The lecture explores the gap between everyday concepts and scientific terminology, why labels like "anxious", "aggressive", or "narcissistic" are not the same as scientific constructs and could lead to bad design choices.
Based on empirical research, the lecture demonstrates which personality traits can and cannot be identified by in-game behavior.
A case study of the Expanse beta test highlights the limitations of behavioral label segmentations and shows benefits of understanding real reasons for in-game behavior.
The lecture also debunks myths about "masochistic" Soulsborne fans, players' desire to unlock all platinums and collect all loot, and offers ways to design motivation for psychological diversity among players.
The lecture explores the gap between everyday concepts and scientific terminology, why labels like "anxious", "aggressive", or "narcissistic" are not the same as scientific constructs and could lead to bad design choices.
Based on empirical research, the lecture demonstrates which personality traits can and cannot be identified by in-game behavior.
A case study of the Expanse beta test highlights the limitations of behavioral label segmentations and shows benefits of understanding real reasons for in-game behavior.
The lecture also debunks myths about "masochistic" Soulsborne fans, players' desire to unlock all platinums and collect all loot, and offers ways to design motivation for psychological diversity among players.
Takeaway
Participants will learn how to separate everyday concepts and scientific terminology. This session will present the frameworks to work with data-based models instead of common labels like "casual player" or "hardcore player". This will allow them to find real reasons behind in-game behavior, accurately interpret UX test results, and design player motivation.
Intended Audience
The session targets UX researchers, interface, game, narrative, and quest designers. Attendees benefit from actionable frameworks for applying scientific knowledge of players' behavior to design in-game motivation. The presentation assumes basic familiarity with player motivation concepts but requires no prior psychology background.