Beyond player types

Education and psychology studies have used motivational constructs called achievement goals to predict learning success and response to failure. In this article we adapted classroom achievement goal scales to instead measure gaming achievement goals. We collected survey data from 432 university students to empirically examine the applicability and utility of achievement goal constructs from education research to gaming. We introduced a new approach to player types based on mastery and performance gaming achievement goals. Four types are studied: super-achievers, mastery-only, performance-only, and non-achievers. We also examined the relationship between our four achievement goal player types to the traditional achiever, explorer player types. We found that Interest in exploration in games can exist in any of the four types, but those with strong mastery goals have the lowest interest in exploration. Gender and gaming frequency were significantly related to gaming achievement goals. The implications and suggestions for designing games for learning and entertainment are discussed.