Defining the Global Ludo Polychotomy

This paper, presented at DiGRA 2015, examines whether the established East-West dichotomy, originally theorised by S. Meštrovic (1994) and applied to cultural and psychological studies, accurately describes the global video game industry. The authors propose the alternative term "Global Ludo Polychotomy" to capture the greater complexity observed in game design and marketing. Their central argument is that while East-West differences are real and noticeable, they are insufficient to explain the full range of market patterns, and that a more multifaceted framework is needed.

The method relies on the authors' "Three Corners of Reward" model (James et al., 2013), which classifies game design along competitive, social, personal, extrinsic and intrinsic reward axes. Using this framework, the authors analyse six recent, popular titles across three case-study groups: Call of Duty: Ghosts and Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag as Western examples; Pokémon X and Y and Super Mario 3D World as Eastern examples; and Grand Theft Auto V, Battlefield 4 and Lego Marvel Super Heroes as Western-developed titles that deviate from the expected pattern. The sample is small and selected for popularity and seminal status, and the analysis is qualitative, relying on the authors' own categorisation of each game rather than on player data or sales figures.

The findings suggest that Western design tends toward extrinsic, fast-paced material rewards displayed through competitive online play, whereas Eastern design tends toward personal goals and intrinsic progression, with less emphasis on displaying achievements to others. The authors acknowledge notable exceptions, including the anomalous Western titles, which emphasise "beating friends" and cooperative or squad-based play. They conclude that the East-West split is relevant but oversimplified, and that genre, developer origin and other factors shape design beyond regional lines. The paper's scope is limited to a handful of titles from 2007 to 2013, and the authors explicitly call for further study of the anomalies they identify.