Developing a New Major

he wa working on a “needs-based framework of human motivation” – people motivated by unsatisfied needs, lower needs have to be met before higher needs can be considered. While satisfying lower level needs we’re pretty selfish – we have to think about our own survival – but not true for everybody right – might give food to a child even if you’re starving, might give up creature comforts in order to do a job we really love but that doesn’t pay very well. When we move into self-actualization we can be more unselfish/more other focused

original hierarchy physiology – safety – social – esteem – self-actualization (self-actualization in his original plan was the only growth need and the rest were deficiency needs)

self-actualized (?actualizing) people were problem-focused; 2) incorporating an ongoing freshness of appreciation of life; 3) a concern about personal growth; and 4) the ability to have peak experiences

new pyramid – added a need above self-actulaization and 2 more deficiency needs

1) Physiological: hunger, thirst, bodily comforts, etc.;- need coping info

2) Safety/security: out of danger; – need helping info

3) Belonginess and Love: affiliate with others, be accepted; -need enlightening info, relationship development info

4) Esteem: to achieve, be competent, gain approval and recognition. – need empowering info – how to develop their ego

5) Cognitive: to know, to understand, and explore; – need edifying info

6) Aesthetic: symmetry, order, and beauty; – need edifying info

7) Self-actualization: to find self-fulfillment and realize one’s potential; – need edifying info

Self-transcendence: to connect to something beyond the ego or to help others find self-fulfillment and realize their potential. – need info on how to connect to things beyond themselves and how to edify others

he’s studying motivation – and he realized you can’t focus on just one aspect (like biology or need for achievement)

he was one of the first to do his research on humans nad not just be theoretical or animal research based

he realized that not everybody followed same pyramid path, personality types like introversion and extroversion might affect path – here’s a table from the 2nd article – needs reduced to 3, start at bottom

A Reorganization of Maslow’s and Alderfer’s Hierarchies

could apply to games in a nmber of ways

- it’s talking about the players – can we help them fill any needs with our game -  not going to actually give them food or money or shelter from playing (unless they’re plying competitively then I assume they’ve filled their basic needs and have moved on, can help with other focused needs by giving them practice with interpersonal relationships and by helping them make new relationships with multi-player games. We talked about the fun of discovery and exploring – and that fits in with the need to know and understand.

- it could be the content of the game – the player might have to help the characters move up the need hierarchy – related tothe player of course – fun’s not an explicit need but it ties in with the idea of learning skills for survival (games might help with the basic needs by teaching the player how to do them better), The sims did this in later editions – they changed the focus of hte actions from basic physiological needs (eating) to more social needs, you could have them find things that address different needs over hte course of the game

- it could help us create better NPCs -we could figure out quests and actions that seem motivated by these needs, game developers could use it to model characters, set up situations – applies to creating characters for linear content too – make characters more believable

- it might help marketing

the decision making article talks about automating some of the more basic decisions – those could be considered the game version of deficiency needs – we want them fulfilled so we can move on to being self-actualized, to having fun, to thinking about others

article to add for the future

Jensen, Jennifer, “Deeper Character Motivation” http://character-development.suite101.com/article.cfm/deeper_character_motivation – using the hierarchy of needs to create better characters, writer knows more than the character, how can you convey that info to the player/viewer

quote from it

“With these basic needs in mind, writers can deepen their characters by determining how the things a character wants (revenge, romance, a promotion, to solve a mystery, to hold a marriage together) are caused by what he or she really needs.

• A bully doesn’t pick on someone just to be mean. Does it make him accepted with his friends? Is the other worker is a threat to his job? Does he think he’ll be seen as powerful if he forces someone into submission?
• Is the village wise woman completely altruistic in helping others, or does she need the acknowledgment of others or the self-respect that comes with giving advice? Does she need the empowerment and control the position gives her? The status within her group?
• And does the corporate power broker simply enjoy the challenge and excitement of business, or does he need the outward show of respect to feel accepted? Or is he driven to success to make up for a past failure?”

naother one to add – http://headrush.typepad.com/creating_passionate_users/2007/01/what_comes_afte.html and his earlier post on user enchantment – http://headrush.typepad.com/creating_passionate_users/2006/03/user_enchantmen.html and

HEre’s a graphic from that article – hierarchy of needs of users – they first need software that meets their needs (does what they need done, works without bugs), then they need usable software (efficient, interface makes sense), then they want “flow” – they want to be engaged, they want it to be fun to use and if we can give them that it will create passionate users and we mess up the enchantment/engagement if the interface gets int he way of the story (ties back to the theming of the experience) – the user/player/media consumer wants to be enchanted – they want to be swept up in the story – they’re a co-conspirator anxious to be led along to more engagement – unless we mess it up – games/media needs to stay out of hte way and let the user do what htey want to do, don’t wnat to be aware that there is interface/mediating media

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