How Game Ecology Drives Player Choices in Strategy Video Games: An Environmental Determinism Perspective

Recent years have witnessed increasing attention on the study of game ecology, the virtual environments, and underlying mechanics within games. Yet, these studies often focus on the active role that players have in changing game ecology, while overlooking the reciprocal influence between game ecology and players. This study investigates the potential impact of game ecology on player choices from an environmental determinism perspective—the development of humanity is shaped by the physical environment. This new perspective is substantiated by a case study of two strategy games, Sid Meier's Civilization VI and Humankind, using an immersive-participatory method to analyze their game mechanics. This study identifies four major forms of game mechanics that use game ecology to influence player choices: spatial constraints, movement modifiers, uncommon events, and dynamic indexes. This study discusses how the identified game mechanics reflect environmental determinism and contrast with the conventional ideology of cultural determinism. Additionally, environmental determinism in video games, derived from a broader social background, is constantly evolving into new forms. This study introduces a new perspective of environmental determinism for analyzing the interaction between game ecology and players. This approach has the potential to offer valuable insights into guiding future game design and research endeavors.