The DOI matches its Crossref record; 28 of the 28 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Player Types: A Meta-synthesis
Open accessAbstract
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.
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“These might be geographic, demographic, psychographic or behavioral (Hamari & Tuunanen, 2014, p. 31).”
From Real-time hermeneutics: meaning-making in ludonarrative digital games (2018) · cites this paper as Hamari & Tuunanen, 2014, p. 31
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“Hamari and Tuunanen (2014) review the field of player typologies and synthesize their findings into five motivations or orientations: achievement, exploration, sociability, domination and immersion.”
From Real-time hermeneutics: meaning-making in ludonarrative digital games (2018) · cites this paper as Hamari and Tuunanen, 2014
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“Fortunately, research into player types did not stop with applications of Bartle's model.”
From Real-time hermeneutics: meaning-making in ludonarrative digital games (2018) · cites this paper as Hamari and Tuunanen, 2014
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“Hamari and Tuunanen (2014) review the field of player typologies and synthesize their findings into five motivations or orientations: achievement, exploration, sociability, domination and immersion.”
From Real-time hermeneutics: meaning-making in ludonarrative digital games (2018) · cites this paper as Hamari and Tuunanen, 2014
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Citations
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Flagged first, then by citations
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Cited by
Sorted by citations
Does Gamification Work? -- A Literature Review of Empirical Studies on Gamification
Hamari, J., Koivisto, J., & Sarsa, H. (2014) · 2014 47th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences · doi:10.1109/hicss.2014.377 · Cited by 5,201
Self-citationThe Rise of Motivational Information Systems: A Review of Gamification Research
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Self-citationHamari, J., Shernoff, D. J., Rowe, E., Coller, B., Asbell-Clarke, J., & Edwards, T. (2016) · Computers in Human Behavior · doi:10.1016/j.chb.2015.07.045 · Cited by 1,713
Self-citationA definition for gamification: anchoring gamification in the service marketing literature
Huotari, K., & Hamari, J. (2016) · Electronic Markets · doi:10.1007/s12525-015-0212-z · Cited by 1,284
Self-citationWhat Is eSports and Why Do People Watch It?
Hamari, J., & Sjöblom, M. (2017) · Internet Research · doi:10.1108/intr-04-2016-0085 · Cited by 1,119
Self-citation
Metadata
- Authors
- Hamari, J., & Tuunanen, J.
- Affiliations
- Tampere University (FI)
- Aalto University (FI)
- ORCID
- Hamari, Juho
- Venue
- Transactions of the Digital Games Research Association
- Publisher
- Digital Games Research Association
- Published
- 2014-03-24
- Volume
- 1
- Issue
- 2
- ISSN
- 2328-9414 (ISSN-L)
- 2328-9422
- OpenAlex
- W1849401977
- Cited by
- 355
- References
- 28
- Citations by year
- 2026: 21 · 2025: 29 · 2024: 32 · 2023: 28 · 2022: 33 · 2021: 33 · 2020: 37 · 2019: 38 · 2018: 32 · 2017: 28 · 2016: 19 · 2015: 17 · 2014: 7
- FWCI
- 77.08
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- diamond
- doi.org
- Locations
- Transactions of the Digital Games Research Association (publishedVersion)
- Tampere University Institutional Repository (Tampere University) (publishedVersion)
- Tampere University Institutional Repository (Tampere University) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Digital Games and Media
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Educational Games and Gamification
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Sport Psychology and Performance
- Keywords
- player types, game design, game marketing, player behavior, player demographics, immersion, achievement motivation, exploration, sociability, domination
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