In our last blog post, we created a map of the Strategy game genre to explore how gamers’ preferences for Excitement or Strategy can influence the types of strategy games they are likely to play. But gaming motivations not only impact genre preference, they also impact playstyle within game genres.

Leeroooooooy Jenkins!

The infamous Leeroy Jenkins video exemplifies the charge-first-think-later playstyle, and it often isn’t the most effective. That said, many of us can appreciate the urge to get straight to the fun and not worry so much about the outcome. Many games balance risk versus reward, strategy versus action in this way. One of the genres where this relationship can be seen most clearly is in First Person Shooters (FPS).

Many games balance risk versus reward, strategy versus action.

Destiny, for example, allows players to choose between weapons that are better suited for one style or another. Players can pick their loadouts depending on whether they want to sit back and methodically pick the enemy apart (e.g., scout rifles, sniper rifles) or jump directly into the action and kills things quickly, but expose themselves to additional risk in the process (e.g., auto rifles, shotguns).

But who are the gamers who tend to favor fast moving, close-quarters encounters? And how are they different from the gamers who prefer eliminating the enemy from a distance? That’s what we’ll focus on in this post.

A Quick Word About The Data

In addition to the Gamer Motivation Profile, we have research surveys that gamers can participate in. These surveys tackle a variety of game preference questions, and we can link gamers’ responses back to their motivation scores. 1,082 gamers participated in this research survey. In the survey question about FPS role preference, 55 respondents indicated they were not familiar with the FPS genre, resulting in 1,027 valid responses.

Female Gamers Prefer Long-Range Stealth

A higher proportion of male gamers preferred aggressive, close range tactics when compared with female gamers. Stealthy, long-range encounters on the other hand are preferred by a larger proportion of women compared to men. Interestingly, both groups were consistent in having the stealthy approach as the most popular answer, followed by close range tactics. An “in-between” approach was the least popular answer with both men and women.

Younger Players Prefer Aggressive Close-Range Combat

In terms of age, older players prefer a stealthier, long range approach while younger players prefer run-and-gun close range tactics. The demographic trends here are consistent with our recent results reviewing gender differences in gaming motivations, and how those shift with age.

The chart below shows the mean ages for each preference group, with the error bars indicating 95% confidence intervals.

Run-and-Gunners score higher on Excitement, Destruction, and Competition

Our Gamer Motivation Model distills gaming preferences into 12 distinct motivations. By linking gamers’ motivation data to their responses in the research survey, we can see how FPS role preference varies by gaming motivations.

Gamers who prefer aggressive close-range combat score higher on Destruction (guns, chaos, explosives, and mayhem), Excitement (fast paced, action, surprises, and thrills) and Competition (duels, matches, scoring high on rankings). It makes sense that the run-and-gun gamers are more action-oriented and confrontational.

Understanding Your Own Gaming Motivations

For gamers, knowing your motivation profile might help you reflect on your FPS gameplay. Those who have high scores for Destruction and Excitement may need to remind themselves to be more cautious, whereas those with lower Destruction and Excitement scores may need to push themselves outside of their comfort zone (and trade their sniper rifle for a shotgun) to reach their full potential. At the team or clan level, these motivation profiles may also help optimize role assignment based on individual preferences.

How much Leeroy do you have in you? Take a 5-minute survey and see how your Gamer Motivation Profile compares with other gamers.

In the end, poor Leeroy’s attempt did not work out for the best. Perhaps if he had been screened by his guild leader for potentially risky behavior (i.e., high Destruction and Excitement scores) that particular wipe could have been avoided. Take the Gamer Motivation Profile to see how much Leeroy Jenkins you might have in you.