The Effects of Player Type on Performance: A Gamification Case Study
In the last ten years, practitioners and academics have gained interest in gamification in different fields, for instance, business. Gamification aims to improve individuals' motivation to perform tasks and achieve organizational, team and individual goals.
However, every player is different. What motives an individual might not have the same effect on another individual. Thus, it is a big challenge to choose and define what game elements may be used in gamified solutions, how they fit better, and how they can improve players' performance.
Previous studies explored the relationship between player types of individuals and their preference of game elements. However, as referred by Lopez and Tucker 2019, most studies are theoretical. So, according to their work it was needed to explore the effects of an individual's Hexad player type (table 1) on their performance in gamified applications.
Table 1 - Summary of Hexad player types (Lopez and Tucker (2019)
Lopez and Tucker (2019) work' highlights the importance of considering player types. In their words, their work could help designers tailor their gamified applications based on individuals' Hexad player types to improve individuals' performance. For instance, findings reveal that the participants who scored high in the Hexad dimension of Achiever improved more than other participants, e.g., achievers will prefer gamified applications with reward game elements and be motivated to master a task.
I recommended the full read of this Lopez and Tucker article since it is an excellent contribution to organizations interested in adopting gamification. Nevertheless, further studies are needed to confirm and improve these findings, namely, customizing gamified solutions and adopting game elements to a specific target audience.
Helder Barbosa Ferreira
18 Dec 2020
Source: Lopez, C. E., & Tucker, C. S. (2019). The effects of player type on performance: A gamification case study. Computers in Human Behavior, 91, 333-345.