Player Types: A Meta-synthesis

Abstract

This paper investigates different ways in which players have been typified in past research literature in order to distinguish relevant typologies for further research as well as for designing and marketing of games. The goal is to synthesize the results of various studies and to find the prevailing concepts, compare them, and draw implications to further studies. The research process for this study proceeded from a literature search, to author-centric (Webster & Watson 2002) identification and categorization of previous works based on the established larger factors such as demographic, psychographic and behavioral variables. The previous works on player typologies were further analyzed using concept-centric approach and synthesized according to common and repeating factors in the previous studies. The results indicate that player types in previous literature can be synthesized into seven primary dimensions: Intensity, Achievement, Exploration, Sociability, Domination, Immersion and In-game demographics.