Players Seek Emotionally Engaging Experiences
On this page
This section offers a wealth of information to help you enhance emotional engagement within your game. While the term “fun” is often used in game design, it is essential to recognize the emotions games evoke during gameplay. These emotions are not always positive; for example, confronting a colossal monster or narrowly escaping a kill zone can stir negative feelings. However, both positive and negative emotional experiences contribute to the overall engagement.
What Players Want
Active Interaction with the Game
Players have a preference for actively participating in games rather than passively observing the events on the screen, as is the case with movies. However, it is not necessary to disregard the provision of a certain level of cinematic experience. This can be achieved by utilizing cinematic principles and employing a dynamic camera or incorporating cutscenes.
As your game undoubtedly possesses a narrative to convey, endeavor to grant players the ability to influence it. Allow them to explore it through an interactive narrative that does not excessively rely on cutscenes. There is also a necessity to provide the players with some autonomy as you lead them towards their objectives. Generally, the greater amount of advice you provide, the more the game will resemble a passive experience. Furthermore, the greater extent to which players are allowed to simply observe cutscenes, the more impersonal their experience becomes. Therefore, enable your players to interact with your game to the fullest extent possible in order to provide them with the most engaging experiences.
Understanding and Mastering Gameplay Mechanics
Mastering mechanics provides a sense of achievement. It gives players a tangible way to measure their growth and improvement, which boosts their confidence and satisfaction.
Mastery keeps players interested for a long time. As players improve, they keep coming back to the game to enhance their skills or experiment with new strategies. This long-term involvement prevents boredom because players are motivated to get better and try out new aspects of the game.
For certain players, achieving perfection is what mastery means. They strive to do everything perfectly, complete every goal accurately, or get the best score they can. This desire for perfection can keep them playing for hours or even years.
Defeating Opponents
Competition and Challenge
Many players naturally have a competitive spirit, whether they are aware of it or not. Playing games helps players challenge themselves and see how they compare to others. It’s similar to why athletes train—they have a desire to surpass others and be the best performer. Competing against others often causes a surge of adrenaline, especially when the stakes are high or the match is very close. The excitement and energy make playing and winning even more thrilling.
Games often give players challenges that test their limits, and beating opponents, whether they are AI or human, shows how resilient they are. These victories demonstrate the player’s growth, highlighting their mental or physical skills to succeed in challenging situations.
Sense of Mastery
Beating opponents is often seen as a sign of a player’s own improvement. They can think about their early losses and notice their big improvements in how quickly they react, how they make decisions, and how they think strategically. Many games use victories to track and show progress, such as through rankings, statistics, or unlockable content. Winning matches feels like solid evidence of one’s improvement and mastery of the game’s rules. Players need to keep learning and improve their skills as they face tougher and more skilled opponents. Players strive to learn and improve in response to their opponent’s behavior or strategy in order to achieve victory. The challenge is not only about winning, but also about constantly adapting to stay ahead.
In Jotun, defeating bosses is a highly engaging and rewarding experience, as it combines strategic thinking with skillful execution.
Credit: Thunder Lotus. Screenshot captured by the author.
Personal Validation
Winning a match can greatly increase a player’s confidence. It shows that the player can do well in a challenging and competitive situation. This feeling of validation is particularly strong when the opponent is very skilled, as it indicates that the player can overcome challenging obstacles.
In multiplayer games, defeating opponents, especially those who may doubt a player’s skill or question their decisions, is a way to prove oneself. It’s not only about beating someone else, but also about overcoming self-doubt and showing themselves and others that they can achieve success.
Desire for Success
Everyone wants to be successful in some way. Beating opponents is a straightforward way to succeed in a game. The desire for success can come from personal ambition, societal pressures, or childhood experiences where winning was highly valued.
Winning often gives players positive feedback that motivates them to keep playing. The more players win, the more they want to keep playing and get better. This creates a cycle where success motivates more effort, leading to more victories.
Narrative and Story Progression
In many games, players need to beat opponents in order to move forward in the story. Players are motivated by both the desire to win and the need to advance the story.
Beating opponents can sometimes unlock new areas, characters, or storylines. Players who enjoy completing the game or exploring every aspect will work hard to defeat these opponents and move forward to discover more content.
Expressing Creativity
Players seek to express their creativity in games for various reasons, as it enriches their overall experience. Creativity enables self-expression, providing players with a space to display their uniqueness by customizing characters, constructing distinctive buildings, or solving challenges in imaginative ways. It also offers a sense of control, allowing players to influence the game world and make decisions that align with their personal style. This creative freedom enhances immersion, causing players to become more engaged with the environment and storyline.
Moreover, creativity can serve as a problem-solving tool, enabling players to think outside the box and devise unique solutions to challenges. It enhances enjoyment and fun by letting players experiment and uncover surprising results. Creative possibilities often enhance replayability, allowing players to discover various strategies during multiple playthroughs. Ultimately, creativity leads to personal fulfillment as players take pride in finishing projects or mastering new skills, enhancing the gaming experience with greater rewards and satisfaction.
In Stronghold Crusader 2, constructing a castle that is protected by a formidable army and supported by strong economics requires significant time and effort. However, players who are able to do so can experience a significant sense of accomplishment.
Credit: Firefly Studios. Screenshot captured by the author.
Role-playing
Players are drawn to role-playing in games for various reasons, which enhance and improve their gaming experience. Role-playing provides a way to escape reality by assuming the identity of a character in a completely different world. Players can explore different personas, characters, and lifestyles by taking on the identity of a living thing or a machine, encountering scenarios and challenges that they may not experience in real life. This feeling of escapism provides a temporary break from everyday life, giving a safe place to explore fantasies and participate in experiences that are not possible in reality.
In addition to offering a way to escape, role-playing also helps to improve creativity and self-expression. Players can use their imagination, values, or preferences to decide how their character behaves, makes choices, and forms relationships. Players are encouraged to think critically and creatively when crafting a backstory for a character, making moral choices that impact the story, or role-playing within defined character traits. Their decisions can lead to different results, making the game more replayable and encouraging experimentation. This creative freedom is particularly satisfying in role-playing games and multiplayer environments, where the variety of character builds and storylines contributes to the diversity of experiences.
Another major reason players enjoy role-playing is because it helps them develop a strong emotional connection. When players develop a strong connection with their character, they often become more involved in the storyline and its ending. This emotional connection can create a more interesting story, where players are invested in their choices and the challenges their character faces. Role-playing can help people grow by understanding and celebrating the challenges and successes of their character. This connection improves the overall experience and increases the excitement, as players feel emotionally involved in their character’s journey.
In Sniper Elite 4, players take on the role of an allied sniper during World War II.
Credit: Rebellion Developments. Screenshot captured by the author.
Experiencing Historical Events
Players often enjoy replaying historical events in games because it allows them to interact with the past in a meaningful and interactive way. One main reason is the desire to fully experience and explore. Players can experience key moments in history firsthand by replaying historical events, such as battles, or political decisions. This type of involvement helps players understand the context, emotions, and challenges people experienced during that time. Players can gain a more realistic understanding of what it might have been like to experience these important moments by fully engaging in these events.
Another reason is the appeal of alternative outcomes and experimentation. In many historical games, players can change the course of history by making different decisions or taking different actions. This freedom to try out different scenarios is both interesting and satisfying, as it lets players see how small changes could potentially have big effects on the outcome of an event or even the overall course of history. This choice allows players to think creatively and solve problems as they explore the outcomes of their decisions.
Some players also use replaying historical events as a way to gain new perspectives. Games often present different perspectives or highlight lesser-known aspects of history, giving players a more comprehensive and detailed understanding of past events. This could include playing as a different group, experiencing a specific event from the point of view of an individual, or exploring the complex social, political, or economic factors that influenced history. By assuming these new roles, players can gain a deeper understanding and compassion for the individuals who experienced those times.
Furthermore, learning about historical events through replaying them is a crucial factor. Many players enjoy learning about history through games that accurately depict historical events, people, and places. Games are a more engaging and interactive way to explore history than traditional educational materials, giving players a chance to actively participate in shaping the events they learn about. This kind of involvement can make players more interested in history and motivate them to explore more than just the game.
Feeling Invincible
Players want to feel invincible because they want to escape real-world limitations. In real life, people often encounter limitations, such as personal challenges, work pressure, or societal expectations. Playing games can help players escape their limitations and feel invincible, which can provide a temporary break from their real-life struggles. It provides a place where they can feel strong and unrestricted, free from the usual limitations and weaknesses they face every day.
The feeling of being in control is also important. Players enjoy the excitement of feeling almost invincible, whether it’s defeating a strong boss, taking down multiple enemies at once, or advancing through the game with ease. Feeling dominant can be exciting and is often linked to the feeling of accomplishing something remarkable or outstanding.
Furthermore, feeling accomplished and skilled contributes to the desire to feel unbeatable. In many games, players work hard to increase their character’s level, improve their skills, and obtain powerful items. Reaching the point where they feel unbeatable is often the result of a long journey of personal development and improvement. Players feel a sense of accomplishment when they see the results of their hard work and enjoy the rewards of their investment in the game.
Some players feel invincible because they want excitement and fun. When players feel invincible, they can try out new things, take chances, and try out different strategies without being afraid of dying or failing. This relaxed approach can transform a game into an emotionally engaging and exploratory experience, rather than always striving for success.
Social validation and competition can be motivating factors, especially in multiplayer games. Feeling unbeatable in a competitive setting often means doing better than other players or being dominant in PvP (player versus player) situations. It increases a player’s status and can result in recognition within the gaming community, improving their sense of accomplishment and boosting their self-esteem.
Examples of when players may feel invincible include:
Driving vehicles capable of withstanding significant impacts.
Jumping from great heights without injury.
Healing quickly from wounds.
Confronting multiple adversaries without succumbing.
Carrying large amounts of equipment with no mobility restrictions.
The Desire for Wealth
Players often want to feel wealthy in games because it taps into a strong sense of accomplishment, power, and importance. Accumulating wealth in a game is often seen as a clear sign of success, giving players a sense of progress and achievement. It also gives them more control and access to other rewards, which makes them feel more capable and in control of their virtual world.
Additionally, in-game wealth can indicate status, enabling players to display valuable items or fancy belongings, which enhances their self-image and acknowledgment among other players. Many people find games to be a way to escape from reality and live out their fantasies of power and success in a virtual world.
Furthermore, having abundant resources increases freedom and choice, enabling players to experiment, explore, and progress without constraints, which enhances their enjoyment. In multiplayer settings, in-game wealth can also encourage social interaction, as players trade and connect with each other based on their virtual wealth. In the end, feeling wealthy in a game increases motivation, rewards progress, and makes the gaming experience more immersive and satisfying.
Therefore, why not immerse yourself in a game world where players can possess, for example:
Luxurious homes.
High-performance vehicles.
Expansive properties.
Significant in-game currency.
A diverse collection of rare items.
The Drive to Explore New Game Features
Players are motivated to explore new game features because it offers a sense of progression, discovery, and satisfaction. Discovering new features, abilities, or content often represents progress and personal development within the game, driving a player’s motivation to keep exploring and moving forward. Unlocking new options also boosts the sense of freedom and customization, enabling players to personalize their experience or try out various strategies.
Moreover, discovering new content often leads to a feeling of accomplishment and satisfaction, as it is usually linked to overcoming challenges or achieving goals. This continuous exploration of new possibilities keeps players engaged, ensuring they stay committed to the game and continue to experience the rewards of their hard work.
Some examples of features players can explore include:
Characters and units.
Levels.
Hidden locations.
Secret passages.
Skills and abilities.
Construction options.
Alternative tactics.
What Players Dislike
Here is a list of issues that players frequently find displeasing in games. Click on each link to explore the associated list of issues.
The following section outlines additional aspects that players typically find undesirable.
Overly Realistic Simulations
Your game will undoubtedly attempt to replicate certain aspects of the real world to a certain degree. In other terms, it will replicate specific mechanics that take place in actual life. The selection of what and how to simulate will directly influence the level of emotional engagement in your game. Take into consideration the following example.
In a first-person shooter game, as long as the game does not aim for hyper-realism, the player character, who is a soldier, can perform tasks more effectively than a real human soldier in numerous aspects. These examples include:
Carrying more weapons and ammunition.
Reloading faster.
Sprinting regardless of the equipment’s weight.
Surviving high-altitude falls without injury.
While these mechanics lack realism, they provide significant emotional engagement because:
Players need not worry excessively about conserving ammunition due to their ability to carry large quantities.
Players can eliminate opponents more efficiently.
Players can sprint longer distances, enabling them to approach and eliminate enemies more quickly.
Historically Accurate Gameplay
If you desire to create a game in which players engage with historical events, players expect that these events will be portrayed in a manner that closely resembles their historical occurrence. However, despite efforts to ensure historical accuracy in your game, it may still be uninteresting and lack emotional engagement. Given that the primary objective of games is to engage players, prioritizing historical accuracy should be of lesser significance.
Watching Cutscenes
Players often prefer playing over watching cutscenes because gameplay offers them a sense of control and agency. When they take control of the character, they feel more engaged with the game world and have a direct impact on the events that unfold. This engagement fosters a stronger bond with the story, allowing players to make decisions, explore, and interact with the environment. Cutscenes, on the other hand, remove this control, leaving players in a passive role that can feel disengaging. Many players enjoy the thrill and challenge of gameplay, feeling as if they are actively participating in the narrative instead of merely observing it.
Additionally, players often feel that cutscenes break up the game’s flow, particularly if they are frequent or long. They disrupt the pacing, slowing down the action and occasionally removing the player from the experience. Many players appreciate seamless gameplay that allows them to concentrate on combat, puzzles, or exploration without any interruptions. Even in games with compelling narratives, players often skip cutscenes during replays, preferring to focus on the interactive elements they haven’t experienced yet rather than the cinematic sequences they’ve already seen.
Waiting
Players generally don’t like waiting during gameplay as it disrupts the overall experience, for instance, when:
Re-spawning during a match.
Time travel.
Loading new levels.
Video games are created with the intention of being captivating, with players fully engaged in action, exploration, or strategy. When one is waiting, it can create a sense of disruption in the rhythm, leading to feelings of frustration. The sense of momentum is diminished, and players may grow impatient as they are removed from the interactive experience.
Furthermore, waiting can feel like wasted time that could otherwise be spent engaging with the game’s challenges. Players want to be constantly engaged and rewarded for their actions, so periods of inactivity often feel like a hindrance to the immersive and dynamic experience they crave.
When players must wait for something to happen, such as when the game loads the most recent saved game state, it is advisable to provide them with an activity to engage in, in order to avoid the need to focus solely on the progress bar displayed on the loading screen.
Here are some examples of activities that players could participate in while waiting.
Observing the best moments of gameplay.
Watching fellow players’ actions.
Reading tips to improve gaming skills.
Participating in mini-games.
Viewing animations.
While awaiting the loading of the game state in Sniper Elite 4, players have the opportunity to read informative gameplay tips.
Credit: Rebellion Developments. Screenshot captured by the author.
Endless Winning Streaks
When a game lacks sufficient challenge, players can achieve long streaks of victories with little effort. While this may initially feel rewarding, it eventually becomes monotonous due to its low difficulty.
Replaying Completed Quests
If the game concludes for the player due to any cause (player character’s demise, game crash, etc.) immediately after accomplishing a highly challenging objective, at that juncture the player will desire to resume from the instant he completed the previous objective. Therefore, it would be beneficial to consider implementing a well-timed autosaving algorithm, as well as providing players with the choice to manually save the game state at a later time, or both.
Unfair Challenges
Players prefer games that are fair, as fairness guarantees a level playing field where skill and strategy are the key to success. When a game is fair, players believe their efforts and decisions directly influence their progress or success. Whether in a competitive multiplayer setting or a solo adventure, fairness enables players to control their experience, as results are not affected by external factors like luck. This fosters a sense of satisfaction and accomplishment when players overcome challenges or win, recognizing that their success was a result of their own skills and choices. When players feel that a game is unfair due to imbalanced mechanics, cheating, or pay-to-win features, it can result in frustration and decreased engagement.
Inconsistencies
When engaging in a new game, players draw upon their personal experiences and previous gaming experiences. If the game strives to achieve believability through effective simulation of certain real-world elements, players will have confidence in the game’s ability to consistently simulate those elements accurately. For instance, if the player character is concealed in low-light conditions and his adversaries encounter difficulty in detecting him, the player will depend on this strategy subsequently, firmly believing in its efficacy. However, if this mechanic fails to function at some point and the player is unaware of the reason, such an experience can provoke a strong sense of anger.
Getting Stuck
It is undesirable for the assets within the game world to obstruct the player character, resulting in their being trapped and forcing the player to reload a previous saved state, or, even worse, to restart the game from the beginning. This issue may arise, for example, when the player character becomes trapped in a pit from which escape is impossible. Potential solutions to address this issue include the following:
Modifying the shape of problematic meshes that create depressions.
Placing objects within the pit, such as rocks, ladders, ropes, or ramps, which players can use to escape. These objects should appear naturally integrated into the environment.
Allowing players to utilize mechanics such as:
Teleportation.
Power jumps.
Tools (e.g., gravity tools) to grab objects and create a path out of the trap.
Instantly reloading the most recent saved game state.
Additionally, if players rely on AI-controlled characters, the situation may arise in which one or more of these characters become stuck, compelling the player to reload a previous save. For instance, this may occur if an AI character becomes trapped at a door, rendering it impassable for the player character.
Bugs, Glitches, and Crashes
Players typically have a negative attitude towards bugs in games due to their ability to disrupt the overall experience, leading to frustration and a loss of immersion. When bugs result in unforeseen behavior, such as character glitches or mission failures, they can give the impression that the game is incomplete or unjust. Players anticipate seamless and refined experiences, and the presence of bugs frequently results in unforeseen consequences, lost progress, or even crashes, thereby creating a sense of disconnection from the game world. Furthermore, bugs have the potential to compromise the difficulty or fairness of the game, particularly when they enable unjust advantages or impede progress, ultimately resulting in a decline in pleasure.
Annoying or Contrived Dialogues
Players frequently express a dislike for bothersome dialogues between characters as they have the potential to disrupt the smooth progression of gameplay and hinder the immersive experience. When dialogues appear repetitive, excessively lengthy, or superfluous, they may come across as a burdensome aspect rather than an engaging element of the game. These interruptions can diminish the player’s concentration, particularly if they are compelled to endure dialogue that does not contribute to the narrative or gameplay. Irritating conversations can also diminish the relatability of characters or heighten frustration, thereby adversely affecting a player’s emotional attachment to the game. In the end, when conversations become tiresome or disruptive, they detract from the pleasure and feeling of advancement in the game.
Real-World Survival Tasks
Players frequently have a negative attitude towards activities from real life such as eating and sleeping in games due to their perceived mundanity, repetitiveness, and lack of connection to the thrilling or significant elements of gameplay. In contrast to combat, exploration, or puzzle-solving, activities such as eating and sleeping can be perceived as mundane tasks that disrupt the game’s rhythm and diminish the overall pleasure. When these actions are implemented through survival mechanics, they may be perceived as monotonous upkeep rather than captivating obstacles, particularly if they are devoid of depth or strategic importance. Furthermore, when players engage in gaming as a means of seeking solace or thrill, the monotonous aspects of everyday life may appear superfluous or even vexing. However, when implemented with careful consideration, such as by enhancing immersion, storytelling, or role-playing, these mechanics can contribute value and depth to a game.
Pay-to-Win Mechanics
Players typically have a negative attitude towards pay-to-win mechanics in games due to their detrimental impact on the fundamental principles of fair competition and skill-based accomplishment. When players have the opportunity to acquire benefits such as strong weapons, improved statistics, or unique abilities, it results in a situation where the outcome is more dependent on financial investment rather than on hard work, strategy, or expertise. This discrepancy can be especially exasperating in competitive multiplayer games, as fairness is essential for upholding player satisfaction and engagement. The awareness that victories can be purchased rather than achieved frequently diminishes the feeling of accomplishment and progress, resulting in an overall experience that feels empty and less gratifying.
Additionally, pay-to-win models have the potential to negatively impact game communities by fostering divisions between players who pay and those who do not. This frequently leads to feelings of resentment, reduced motivation, and potential player departure when non-paying players perceive their inability to keep up or compete effectively. These systems have the potential to harm a game’s reputation, as players may perceive the developers as prioritizing financial gain over the quality of gameplay and user satisfaction. Over time, the implementation of pay-to-win strategies can diminish trust and loyalty, leading to a decline in player engagement and satisfaction in otherwise enjoyable and prosperous gaming experiences. In order to sustain a committed and healthy player community, numerous developers make efforts to implement monetization strategies that provide cosmetic or non-disruptive choices instead of direct advantages in gameplay.