Give me a reason to dig: qualitative associations between player behavior in Minecraft and life motives

Abstract

Understanding how personality, motives, values, goals and belief systems affect the behavior of players is crucial for designers of digital games. Whether the goal is pure entertainment, education or behavior change, knowing what makes different people tick means understanding the reasons for their behavior. This understanding allows the creation of more efficient content since it means acknowledging the individual differences that define every human being. A deeper understanding of players' personality from play behavior is very relevant also for adaptive systems aimed at increasing level of immersion. Indeed, knowing more about players' personality could help design systems more responsive to players' desires and goals increasing the potential benefits of serious application of digital games. The behavior of Minecraft players is analyzed through the lens of User-Initiated Events (UIE) logged by the game system and related to the 16 basic desires enunciated by Reiss in his analysis of motivation.