Why Game Designers use Maslow - Extra Credits Gaming

I don't think I have to tell you that there are a lot of video games coming out these days. So, to make sure I'm using my limited time on this spinning blue dot as intelligently as possible, lately I've been wondering, what do I need from a game to know that I'll enjoy playing it? Actually, I'll even take that question a bit further. What do I need from a game that will just guarantee that I'm not going to want to put it down for hours? Of course, I'd imagine that those are probably two different lists with a bunch of different stuff in the middle. But then I was talking to James the other day, and he was telling me about how he put together a talk for a conference recently and found himself working on something akin to Maslow's hierarchy of needs, but specifically for players of video games. And I got really excited about this because it provided some fascinating answers to some of my questions. So, today let's go over what we believe the player needs to get the most out of a game. Thanks so much to Trade Coffee for not only being the best beans in the business, but also making sure that we don't run out of them. The coffee beans,

I mean, not the people beans, which you're going to see throughout the episode. You get the idea. Okay, to kick things off, let's take a second and talk about Maslow and the hierarchy of needs he built before we jump into what such a hierarchy might look like for players in the gaming space. Because Maslow had a key insight, certain needs have to be met before others can be. For instance, if your basic needs of food and shelter aren't met, it's going to be almost impossible to meet your more existential needs. Meaning, once your players have enough snacks, living rooms, breathable air, etc., there's a whole different actual hierarchy, an ordering of needs within a game that have to be met before things higher up on the chain can be. And as a designer, the higher up on that chain you can get the players, the more of their needs you can meet, the more likely they're going to love your game. So, here is James's basic pyramid. Of course, he would be the first to admit that you could subdivide it a lot further, and there are lots of other ways you could put it together. So, if any of you want an intellectual exercise, feel free to outline your own,

maybe in the comments. And now that I've talked enough to give you a good glance at this image, let's go through the layers one by one. I promise it's not cake. Maybe. Starting at the bottom, we have understanding the basic elements of play. This is the idea that before anything else, the player has to understand enough of your game so that they feel comfortable exploring it and starting to discover things on their own. If you don't get your player here with your intro or your tutorial, they're just going to bounce off instantly. After all, if you don't know the very basics of how to play, you're not going to get much out of the game. Here it's important to recognize though that the same game can meet this bar for some players and not others. Different people come in with different levels of familiarity with games, right? Have different learning styles, and of course, having different levels of tolerance for having to go outside of a game to learn how to play it. It's the Crusader Kings problem. Some people just get the game or, you know, are willing to watch a dozen hours of YouTube videos to learn how to play it. And for them, they can get past this need and the game does an amazing job fulfilling their higher ones. But for a lot of other

players, they'll never get to experience the fulfillment the game can offer because for them, this most basic need was never met. Above that on the pyramid is having an intuitive user interface and user experience. Now, this may not seem essential, but I promise you it absolutely is because if playing your game feels like a chore, it really doesn't matter how much else it has to offer. Few people are going to want to slog through that to find said joy. If the game feels sluggish, if it feels like the player is always fighting with menus to play, it's going to completely pull them out of the immersion and prevent them from ever getting to the next level, a satisfying visceral experience. This is the first of the psychological needs, the place where the player starts feeling like they're getting what they sought out of your game. Now, delivering on this isn't enough to make a game good in and of itself, but it is where the player starts to really feel like they've gotten something from the experience of playing. But what do we really mean when we say something like a satisfying visceral experience? Well, like most of the basic psychological needs, this one

is all the most proximal stuff. All the stuff you experience right from the start, and you will experience every minute of play. The sensory elements of your game, if you will. It's your art, your sound, your gameplay, all delivering at a level where your game appeals to the senses, evokes a feeling of wonder, or lets your players get lost in your virtual world. Importantly here, these elements all have to mesh. If you have a great soundtrack that's not appropriate for your gameplay, or visuals that make no sense with everything else that's going on, your game isn't going to be able to meet this need. A great example of doing this well is Yakuza 0. When you hit someone in that game, they'd explode into money. It was viscerally satisfying, and it felt right in that experience. Far more right, in my opinion, than in other entries of the series where like blood just flew across the screen. But, why is that? Well, because it fit better with the rest of the experience they were trying to present. So, when thinking about this for your game, just know what tone and mood you're trying to create, and really try to deliver on that. Next, we have the core fantasy of the game. This is the emotive reason that your

players came to your game in the first place. What they came there to feel. Is your game supposed to make them feel powerful? Feel relaxed? Feel artistic? Heroic? Social? What are the central human desires your game fulfills? If you can nail that, then you've got an experience that they'll want to come back to again and again. Just remember to really drill down what this is, because similar-looking games can often have a totally different core fantasy. After all, a match-three game that's meant to make you feel clever is a radically different game than one that's meant to make you feel relaxed. Finally, there's the external fulfillment. This is the need to take something with you once you've set the game down. This can be a story to tell your friends, a new acquaintance you met playing online, a narrative that stuck with you and made you think about your own life or just something that you learned. Honestly, a game that checks all of those boxes for me is Hollow Knight, which I know I am late to the party on, but Will and I have been playing it over on the Twitch channel and I have to say, not only did

it deliver on all of the previously needed needs, but it's the external fulfillment that I've been finding from it that's really been sticking with me. Both from a oh my god, I cannot believe I can just calmly pogo with ease now sort of skill-based fulfillment. YO, THAT WAS SO GOOD. BUT ALSO, the fulfillment I find from its hauntingly beautiful narrative that I've quite honestly not been able to stop thinking about since I started playing it again. So, if your game can deliver on something like that, then you've not only quite literally made your player's life a little better, but you've also made a game that will stick with them even when they're not looking at the screen. Your game's gone beyond a pastime and become a part of who they are. And not just because they ate a piece of it that WAS ACTUALLY CAKE. GOT YOU. SO, weird ending to this one, but I'm sticking with it. Actually, you know what would be so good with this right now? Saved again by Trade Coffee. That smells good. Hold on.

Thanks, Zozo. One of my New Year's resolutions, other than, you know, romancing every Baldur's Gate 3 NPC, is to never run out of coffee again. Because I got to tell you, if that happens, things get pretty dark. Luckily, I got Trade Coffee, who deliver me fresh curated coffee roasted to order from my local roaster right to my door whenever I need it. For me, that would be weekly. And the really cool thing is that they use their expertise to map your specific tastes against their hundreds of different coffee flavor profiles, meaning they can help find the perfect roast and grind specifically for you every single time. For instance, Trade has matched me with a bunch of great blends from local NYC roasters and they're all in my rotation now. Not only do they grind it perfectly for my French press, but it also means I never have to make a bleary-eyed morning trek to the grocery store ever again. And of course, I know Jeff is still on his quest to try every dark espresso bean in Trade's roster, which might end up taking him a while. So, if you would like to join us in upgrading your morning routine with way better beans, right this very moment, Trade is offering a free bag of coffee with every subscription when you

use our link drinktrade.com/extracredits. You can sign up for Trade right here and get free coffee. And then, once you're fully caffeinated, check out another one of our videos here. What's up, Auto time, Michael Hoggett, Koya Koyo, Joseph Blame, Easy Coin, Dominic Valenciana, Arclight Games, Angelo Valenciana, and Ahmed Ziad Turk were the best legendary patrons. That time is now.