Paper Presented at GAMEON-ASIA'2010, Shanghai

Explorations In Player Motivations : Game Mods

REF: Bostan, B. & Kaplancali, U. (2010). Explorations in Player Motivations: Game Mods. GAMEON-ASIA 2010 Conference, Shanghai, China.

This article aims to analyze player motivations derived from the needs framework of Murray (1938) in relation to user modifications (mods) to an existing commercial computer game. Although the restrictions imposed by the game mechanics significantly reduce the number of player needs satisfied by a game and trap the player within the common motivational cycle of Achievement, Aggression, Harmavoidance and Acquisition (Bostan and Kaplancali, 2009), this study shows that the game mods created by users attempt to compensate for this by satisfying the needs of Sentience, Exhibition, Recognition, Sex, Play and Affiliation.

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