Player motivation: are we forgetting the most important topic in game marketing?

We talk a lot about CPI, CPA, core loops, targeting, engagement, and retention when we’re talking games and growth. But we talk far too little, says Google’s Mariusz Gąsiewski, about player motivation: why people are actually playing games … why they pick the games they play … and why they stick around.

I recently interviewed Gąsiewski, who leads mobile apps and gaming at Google for central and eastern Europe, about this on Growth Masterminds. 

Hit the play button and keep scrolling:

Are we forgetting player motivation?

“It seems to me that there is a lot of discussion about retention rates, conversion rates, growth, data, and design in gaming, although there is much less discussion about users’ motivations in gaming,” Gąsiewski said recently on LinkedIn. 

“This is especially true when it comes to understanding the motivations of users in different countries. As the data shows that these motivations differ.”

Player motivations are personal.

But they’re also cultural.

In the U.S., for instance, 66% of people say they play games for fun, 62% to relax and unwind, and 48% to pass the time, according to the 2023 GWI report for gaming. In India, 55% of people say they play games for fun and 44% say they play to relax and unwind.

 

 

The difference is even more stark when you ask them deeper questions.

34% of Indian gamers play “to learn new skills,” and 26% “to improve my reflexes/coordination.” The equivalent numbers in the UK and U.S. are 11% and 15%, respectively, to learn new skills. Amd 9% and 13% to improve reflexes. Brazil, Indonesia, and the Philippines all index much higher than the UK and U.S. on these answers.

It’s also about social factors

People in the U.S. and UK game for a lot of reasons, but a core one is that it’s “me time,” Gąsiewski says. 

35% of people in the U.S. and 32% of those in the UK say they game “to escape from reality.” It’s a little break from work, from routine, from school, or even from other people.

Not so much in India and other countries:

“If you look at the data, for example, for countries like India, we see that still a lot of users feel guilty when they play a game because it’s kind of a waste of time,” he told me.

“It’s not something that brings a lot of value … that’s why they feel much better when they play, for example, logic games … that’s why those puzzle board games are so popular in the country because it’s not just entertainment, but there is specific value coming from that as well.”

Also, many cultures value the social aspects of gaming.

“India, Philippines, Vietnam have much more playing [for] this connection with peers and friends,” he says. “I remember discussions with my colleagues from Vietnam where they mentioned that, for example, gaming started from playing in the Internet cafe when people were coming and playing with each other. So it became kind of part of the culture that you’re not playing by yourself, you are playing with other people.”

People are having fun, sure. But they’re also spending time with friends … making the time twice as valuable, from their perspective.

As a result, the user acquisition ads for games in Asian countries often mirror that: social gameplay.

Player motivation and growth

It’s super-tough to grow games today: competition is everywhere. (I mean, when Netflix and YouTube are getting into gaming … )

And that means game publishers are trying crazy new combinations of different mechanics, trying build and fail fast so they can flood the market with 100 combinations and hope that 1 of them goes viral, or anything else they can think of.

But success — especially success in different countries with different cultural expectations of gaming — is more likely when taking player motivation into account.

“It seems to me that there is a much higher potential for success if you spend some time thinking about whether these new mechanics are relevant to the motivations of specific groups of people,” Gąsiewski says.

The results, he says:

• More users
• Happier players
• Higher engagement
• Higher spending
• Better retention

And, games like Monopoly Go or Clash of Clans, that aren’t just a flash in the pan and make a few bucks for a few months, but become almost iconic brands and retain their players for years and years.

But it all starts with growth.

And that’s where a deep understanding of player motivation can help game makers break free from the pack and get attention.

“The only way to steer the attention to your new products [is to] really make sure that you really understand their motivation.”