Understanding online collectible card game players' motivations: a survey study with two games

Abstract

Online collectible card games (OCCGs) are digital, networked contemporaries of collectible card games (CCGs) which combine the collection of trading cards with strategic deck building and competitive gameplay. Despite their popularity and unique mechanics, we know very little about OCCG players, their motivations and play habits. A survey study using the Trojan player typology[11] with 856 players from two popular OCCGs (Hearthstone and Eternal) revealed four main player motivations: immersion seeker, socializer, competition and smarty-pants. Competition and immersion seeking were main motivations to play OCCGs whereas socializing and strategizing (smarty-pants) were the least. These differ from the findings with CCGs where the main motivations were socialization and strategy development. We found Eternal players had higher satisfaction of their autonomy and competence needs than Hearthstone players. These findings contribute to our understanding of why individuals play different types of video games. It also helps game designers to target the needs and motivations of their audience.