The Other Game Theory (Customer Motivation)

“If you study as much as you play games, you would’ve become a rocket scientist”

 I think this is an iconic statement that every gamer was told by his parents, just change the career path and the position based on the country and culture of the gamers’ family, yet it could be a worldwide iconic statement.

One of the reasons that made me believe in the commonalty and the universality of this statement is the vast amount of both time and effort that the gamer’s community invests in gaming.

According to Forbes magazine

"The 100 Biggest Gaming YouTube Channels Now Bring in 3.5 Billion Views a Month. That’s more than the number of all the people who have access to the internet combined which is 3.1 billion active internet users."

Over 59% of Americans play games this adds up to 150 million people in the U.S.  alone with the average age of 31. So what keeps gamers in general motivated? What makes them invest long hours in gaming?

Well Maslow might have the answer to these questions; Dr. Abraham Maslow is an American psychologist who described human needs in a pyramid hierarchy and the pyramid levels of motivation or needs is as follows:

• At the bottom of the pyramid are the Basic needs or Physiological needs of a human being.
• The second level of the pyramid is Safety Needs: Security, Order, and Stability.
• The third level of need is Love and Belonging.
• The fourth level is the Esteem
• Then on the top of the pyramid is the Need for Self-actualization.

Just as a thought I wanted to apply Maslow’s motivation theory or the pyramid hierarchy of needs into the gaming world and see if games satisfy the human needs as Maslow visualized them.

Level one the “survival”:

In the 80’s games like Mario, Street Fighter, Contra and Pac man came to being. The common factor being these games is that they are a survival task through satisfying a basic need like eating mushrooms or white dotes in the dark. In street fighter and contra the task was to survive against time or to literally maintain health in front of the opponent.

Level two “Security”:

This is an issue of debate on how the gaming industry has satisfied this level in Maslow’s pyramid of motivation and here are 3 of those points of views:

1- That the gamer himself is safe, not matter what kind of explosions, death threats or even actual killing the gamer is safe.

2- That the game allowed the character to level up increasing the characters power or equipment which provided a higher sense of security, for example in a game called “Earth Worm” the more points the character collects the better the weapon becomes and sometimes get a different stronger weapon all together, In another skating game named after the skater “Tony Hawks” the more points the character collects tony gets to own a new better skating board which means he will fall less and he will be safer and more  secure.

3-This theory suggests that the gaming industry replaced security for progress. In games like “Aladdin”, “resident Evil” and “Mutant Ninja turtles”. The character doesn’t get to advance or progress to the next level of the game until they kill all the enemies or clear all the danger from the level that is currently being played. In other words the character does not get to progress or advance until the area is both safe and secure.

Level 3 “belonging”:

 The gaming industry was able to satisfy this need in more than one way, one way is that the simple fact of being a video gamer your invited to join that inner circle of gamers, the feeling of if you enjoy video games you’re not alone there are other people, other group that shares the same passion as you.

Another way in which games enhance the sense of belonging especially in the age of high speed internet and fiber optics connection, the Internet opened up opportunities for play across local area networks and vast distances. The majority of games have some kind of social features - whether that’s multiplayer, co-op, or massive multiplayer online game (MMO).

Now the gamer is connect with his or her team in real time feed, some of the most obvious examples of this are games like Call of Duty, Far Cry & the racing game Need for Speed.

 

Level 4 “Esteem”:

 From stunning visuals to loud music and praising commentator’s one can easily tell that the gaming culture knows how to raise the gamers self esteem, from the arcade era of gaming up to date achievements, trophies, awards and high points are a big part of the game. This is from as simple as having a high score in the arcade game putting the name on the top list to now sharing the score on every social media platform.

 

Finally level 5  on the top of the pyramid self actualization:

This is actually a hard level to write about as the concept itself of self actualization is debatable even Maslow has modified his pyramid in an academic paper. Yet Maslow himself defined this level in his book motivation and personality as the desire to achieve the highest form of what one aspires to become.

For example, one individual may have the strong desire to become an ideal parent. In another, the desire may be expressed athletically. For others, it may be expressed in paintings, pictures, or inventions.

Gaming satisfy this need in a unique way in gaming the gamer not only gets to be whatever he or she aspires to be, the gamer gets to create both his character and his world in games like “SimCity”, “Spore”, and “Civilization”.

I would like to sum up by saying that all the games that were mentioned have other features and could simulate different motives to different people. Yet this article as part of the series just deals with Maslow’s pyramid and what could mirror his stages in the levels of gaming..

Twitter: @fouad_khafaga
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the other game theory (Hero worship & gaming)

I once saw the God atlas, I was a dragon slayer, I saved a couple of princesses and I was able to rescue the president of the free world. Once I start my gaming counsel I am able to fight demons, conquer land, save nations and fight for freedom as a future soldier with an amazing suit.

 However other than the effects of visual stimulus, great story plots and ancient art of storytelling can we relate the gaming industry to a concept like hero-worship?

In general the concept of hero worship is the excessive admiration of someone, yet in this article I am looking at the excessive admiration of the idea of a hero not specific person or a specific hero.

Before answering this question it would make sense to look at the society in general. Is there symptoms of hero worship and if yes then how gaming satisfies such a need?

 There are about 670,000,000 results that come up when the word hero is googled, there is a television show on TNT network called hero, and CNN has a yearly award show called CNN Heroes where ordinary people are changing the world. Even fox news once had a headline out of the state of Maine where a man tried to plot a kidnapping where he would then go in and save the girl.

Thomas Carlyle the author of a book titled (Heroes) argues that there is a structural need of heroes in every society he wrote “Society is founded on Hero-worship. All dignities of rank, on which human association rests, are what we may call a Heroarchy (Government of Heroes)”.

He even argues that there is an innate desire for being a hero

“Does not every true man feel that he is himself made higher by doing reverence to what is really above him?” he asks.

I can see the answer to this question in Carl Jung writings as well he theorized that embedded deep within the human collective unconscious are universal archetypes, powerful symbols that all humans share in common.

Jung thought that these archetypes come to us primarily in our dreams and are represented in folktales, art, and epic poems and stories (not to mention TV shows about humans with special abilities). Among these archetypes is “the Hero.”

If the concept of hero worship is innate, embedded  or at least a huge market demand based on a society need how does gaming stand out from other forms or entertainment  that fulfills the same need?

There is the factor of overwhelming diversity of heroes’ shapes and forms in gaming; yes one can argue that movies, novels and TV-shows have very diverse categories of heroes.

Yet in games you can be an Italian plumber that saves the prince’s s from a jumping “not flying “dragon called Mario, in a game titled “Dead Space “ the hero is an astronaut who found himself  in a dead space filled hostile aliens , another game “Halo” the hero is a futuristic solder with advanced weapons that fight for a cause, in “Red Faction” your part of a movement on mars that aims to save humans. There is a verity of worlds, Ecology, heroes and missions.

Yet the one factor that makes games and the gaming world stand out from any other attempt towards heroes and hero worship is self –actualization. According to Abraham Maslow hierarchy of needs self actualization is the desire for self-fulfillment, namely the tendency for him [the individual] to become actualized in what he is potentially.

In other words in games the gamers are the heroes. Other than the obvious mention that the gamer gets to be the character that is being played weather it’s a role-play game or any other form of gaming.

In the game “Def Jam: Fight for NY” the gamer get to be a celebrity hip-hop artist fighting rivals or better off you can create the character , most of the sports game the gamer gets to be  his hero create his path and engineer his sporting career.

In games like civilization, red alert and strong hold the gamer gets to even create the world in which his characters, teams or army will play in.

The industry took evolutionary steps in terms of self-actualization for gamers when it comes to the counsels and playing mediums from the industry veterans like saga and Nintendo till now.

From just playing the game through a monitor and controlling the character through joystick or a keyboard X-box now scans the gamer so he can have a direct experience with the game further more ps4 PlayStation Flow combines PS4 gaming with real-life swimming.
When the gamer gets to an underwater section of a game like “The Last of Us Remastered” the gamer can pause then resume at the nearest pool, dive in and resume playing through PlayStation Flow. With underwater environments in games becoming more and more realistic, PlayStation Flow provides a natural enhancement to player experience.

The system consists of four PlayStation Flow Sensors, constructed using the latest composite fabrics. They attach comfortably to your biceps and thighs and track your swimming, sending real-time updates of body movements back to your PS4 via Remote Play.

Another example is NAOS QG is the first mouse that provides deep insights into gaming. Via built in sensors, the NAOS QG tracks the gamer heart rate, galvanic skin response and actions per minute. This data appears as a transparent overlay on the screen putting the gamer in the heart of the action.

The KOR-FX gaming vest uses award-winning 4DFX technology that transforms the acousto-haptic signals (audio) coming from games or media into pinpointed high-definition feedback that allows the gamer to feel the on-screen action and environmental factors for the first time.

if society needs a hero , if the idea of a hero is embedded and innate in our human nature the gaming world doesn’t just answer the hero call.

In games you are the hero and you have many lives.

Twitter: @Fouad_khafaga
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