Player Traits and Gratifications of Casual and Hardcore Players of Pokémon GO, Harry Potter: Wizards Unite, and Ingress
Player Traits and Gratifications of Casual and Hardcore Players of Pokémon GO, Harry Potter: Wizards Unite, and Ingress JOHN DUNHAM, Niantic x RIT Geo Games and Media Research Lab, Rochester Institute of Technology, USA KONSTANTINOS PAPANGELIS, Niantic x RIT Geo Games and Media Research Lab, Rochester Institute of Technology, USA NICOLAS LALONE, University of Nebraska Omaha, USA YIHONG WANG, University of Liverpool, UK Location-based games (LBG) impose virtual spaces on top of physical locations. Studies have explored LBG from various perspectives. However, a comprehensive study of who these players are, their traits, their gratifications, and the links between them is conspicuously absent from the literature. In this paper, weaim to address this lacuna through a series of surveys with 2390 active LBG players utilizing Tondello’s Player Traits Model and Scale of Game playing Preferences, and Hamari’s scale of LBG gratifications. Our findings (1) illustrate an association between player satisfaction and social aspects of the studied games, (2) explicate how the core-loops of the studied games impact the expressed gratifications and the affine traits of players, and (3) indicate a strong distinction between hardcore and casual players based on both traits and gratifications. Overall our findings shed light into the players of LBG, their traits, and gratifications they derive fromplaying LBGs. CCS Concepts: • Human-centered computing ! Human computer interaction (HCI); Collaborative and social computing. Additional Key Words and Phrases: Location-based Games, Player Traits, Gratifications, Pokémon GO, Harry Potter: Wizards Unite, Ingress ACM Reference Format: John Dunham, Konstantinos Papangelis, Nicolas LaLone, and Yihong Wang. 2018. Player Traits and Gratifica- tions of Casual and Hardcore Players of Pokémon GO, Harry Potter: Wizards Unite, and Ingress.
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