[IxDA Discuss] Why do people play games/gamble online?

[Dan Brown]

You might look at the casual gaming community. Casual Gaming is a growing
area of gaming involving puzzles, logic games, word games, etc. (Any
Babblers in the crowd?)

This community has done a fair amount of research into behaviors and
motivations surrounding online play. The Casual Gaming Association [1] has a
more-or-less definitive paper on casual gamers. The International Game
Developers Association has a wiki for casual gaming [2].

At the beginning of the year, I did some user research into this community
and learned that a major motivation was escape. People play these games
because they are, in a sense, a non-committal way to exercise the mind. Like
hard-core gaming, the social aspect has two angles: competition and
cooperation. Casual gaming adds a third aspect: encouragement. One-player
games frequently have social functionality to allow people to help each
other, chat while their playing, and offer words of encouragement.

Hope this helps!
-- Dan

1. http://www.casualgamesassociation.org/
2. http://www.igda.org/wiki/Casual_Games_SIG

On 7/31/07, Staffan Schröder <Staffan.Schroder at bossmedia.se> wrote:
>
> Hi everyone,
>
> I am looking for any research in the field of why poeple play games or
> gamble online.
>
> Any pointers in the right direction would be very welcome.
>
> Regards
> Staffan
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