Marvel Super Heroes

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 paper proposes replacing the East-West dichotomy (Meštrovic, 1994) with a "Global Ludo Polychotomy," arguing that regional differences in game design are real but too simplistic to explain market patterns.
• Using the "Three Corners of Reward" model (James et al., 2013), the authors find Western design tends toward fast-paced extrinsic, material rewards displayed through competitive online play, while Eastern design favours personal goals and intrinsic progression with less emphasis on showing achievements to others.
• The analysis covers only six titles released 2007–2013: Call of Duty: Ghosts, Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag, Pokémon X and Y, Super Mario 3D World, Grand Theft Auto V, Battlefield 4 and Lego Marvel Super Heroes, selected for popularity and seminal status.