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Shaping the Modern Gamer: How the Gaming industry’s evolution and monetization techniques have created new player archetypes
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Resumo(s)
The video game industry has become a dominant force in the global economy and a central pillar of contemporary culture. This evolution includes a shift from traditional one-time purchases and subscription models to Free-to-Play (F2P) games, microtransactions, and the professionalization of gaming through eSports. While research exists on the industry’s history and the impact of monetization on players’ experiences, such as spending behaviors, revenue concentration among a small subset of players, and perceptions of fairness, less is known about how these industry transformations have shaped modern player profiles and their spending patterns. This thesis investigates the question: How have shifts in the video game industry influenced the emergence of modern gamer archetypes and their associated spending behaviors? A mixed-methods approach was used, combining a narrative literature review of industry evolution and monetization strategies, an expert interview with an eSports player, and quantitative data from an online survey. The survey measured gamer motivations and purchasing habits, and the responses were analyzed using the K-means clustering algorithm to identify distinct player segments. The analysis revealed three gamer archetypes influenced by industry trends: (1) Casual Mobile Players, characterized by low engagement and minimal spending, often playing F2P games on mobile devices, highlighting how the early adoption of the F2P model by mobile games contributed to increasing the accessibility for mass audiences across different contexts; (2) Competitive PC Players, highly engaged individuals motivated by competition and eSports culture, showing a willingness to spend for in-game advantages, even in pay-to-win systems; and (3) Dedicated Multi-Platform Gamers, active across PC and console platforms, primarily playing premium titles while also spending on microtransactions to enhance gameplay and personalize experiences, reflecting the importance of conventional monetization models on today’s gaming population. These findings provide empirical evidence that modern player profiles are shaped by technological and economic developments in the industry. This study provides videogame developers, marketers, and publishers with evidence that the gaming industry’s economic models have contributed to the creation of these distinct gamer profiles. In this regard, sustainable growth relies not on a “one-size-fits-all” approach, but on aligning game design and monetization techniques to the specific characteristics and motivations of the “Casual Mobile”, “Competitive PC”, and “Dedicated Multi-Platform” gamer profiles to foster long-term engagement.
Descrição
Dissertation presented as the partial requirement for obtaining a Master's degree in Information Management, specialization in Business Intelligence
Palavras-chave
Cluster Analysis eSports Free-to-Play (F2P) Gamer Behavior Gaming Industry Microtransactions Monetization Models Pay-to-Win (P2W) Player Archetypes Spending Habits Videogames