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The important thing to remember is that these
are not player types. It is not the case that we have found
a way to categorize players into different boxes. Rather,
we have found several distinct motivations that are meaningful
and empirically tested constructs. Each individual player
has a score for each factor, and it is after looking at the
scores of all 5 factors that we can get a good idea of what
part of an MMORPG appeals to them. Just because a player scores
high on Achievement doesn't mean they will score low on all
the other factors.
Therefore, a questionnaire constructed
to measure these 5 factors must not force players to choose
between one of several motivations, but rather, statements
representing each factor should be presented to the respondent
separately.
These 5 factors should also be considered
as a preliminary empirical model of player motivations. It
is very possible that certain important parts of the spectrum
were not explored, and that future research will suggest to
us what we might have missed. What we have gained from this
dataset, however, is a meaningful way to talk about differences
in player motivations. We know what should be and should not
be clustered together when we talk about particular motivations.
And this gives us a more solid foundation to build future
research upon that explores how these different motivations
affect in-game behavior patterns.
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