What do people play online game for?

The number of people registered in online games is simply monstrous and amounts to billions of gamers from all over the world. In this article, we will try to figure out what attracts people to multiplayer games so much.

The data you will see below is not "from scratch. They are the results of various professional and amateur studies done in different ways at different points in time. They answer the question: why people play online games.

However, to fully understand them, it is first necessary to go to the origins of human psychology.

What does a person want? Maslow's pyramid

Abraham Maslow was an American psychologist and the founder of humanistic psychology. "Pyramid of needs" of a person, which was developed by A. Maslow, is widely known throughout the world. For many years it has been successfully used by marketers and economists, because it helps to better understand consumer motivation and behavior.

If we turn to Wikipedia to get acquainted with this "pyramid" more closely, we will find that at the very top of it is such a step as "self-actualization. This concept is deciphered as a need for development, the desire to do what they love, to achieve their own goals.

And Maslow himself believed that the need for self-actualization comes into force only after lower-level needs such as hunger and thirst are satisfied. Kurt Goldstein, a German and American psychologist and neurologist who coined the term "self-actualization," argued that the need for self-actualization is the strongest need of a living organism and can even temporarily overshadow hunger, thirst, or the need for sleep.

According to Goldstein, self-actualization is a person's desire for the fullest identification and development of his own abilities. In many strands of modern Western psychology it is self-actualization that is considered the main motivating factor. In simple terms, self-actualization - is the desire and desire to fully reveal their potential and reach the highest possible heights.

Based on this, we can reasonably conclude that one of the main desires of a person is the desire to find purpose, to improve and to constantly move forward.

"What does all this have to do with online gaming?" - you ask. And very simply.

The main motivators of multiplayer games

A few decades earlier Richard Bartle, the creator of one of the first multiplayer worlds MUD1, writer and professor at the University of Essex, classified players according to psycho-type. A total of 4 groups came out.

• Careerists. Players whose main motivator is gaining gaming experience. They strive to score as many points as possible, find the most effective solution of the task set within the game session, achieve maximum heights.
• Sociophiles. Players who are primarily attracted to social interaction. For example, the possibility of cooperation with other live players and any interaction with the virtual society, communication.
• Explorers. This type of players does not chase virtual achievements, but prefers to explore the game world, gradually revealing its secrets. Players of this type are attracted mainly to the plot and entourage.
• Killers. The main motivator of these players - the desire to win and superiority, dominance and domination. Such players are attracted by any opportunity to demonstrate their skills and skill of the game.

It is interesting that the largest percentage of users of online games are careerists. In second place are usually sociophiles (party people), in third place are researchers, and at the end of the rating are killers - they are about 10% of the world.

To understand why the ratio of psycho-types is distributed in this way, it is worth referring to Maslow's Pyramid, which was discussed above. Should we consider it a coincidence that "careerists," whose psychotype most corresponds to the term "self-actualization," turned out to be the most numerous? They are the ones who primarily seek self-expression through playful means. Leveling up, accumulating virtual wealth, and effectively applying game mechanics are all ways of self-actualization in an online game.

However, the need for self-actualization is equally true for "killers," who put dominance and the desire to win above all else, because this psychotype has to develop and hone its skills much more than the others. Because of this, we can combine "careerists" and "killers" into one group whose main motivator is self-expression, thus getting over 50% of the entire multiplayer game audience.

Brief Conclusions

This research has long been known to the makers of both conventional online games and gambling. According to BetPokies, players only get a virtual boost to their skills. In real life, they don't change anything, but only expend energy to maintain their virtual status. And many gamblers even spend money on the game in the hope of making money. Very few manage to do so, but this is more of an exception to the rule than a pattern.

Actually, this is the end of this review, because the answer to the question of the article is simple: people play online games in order to satisfy their needs.