A Data-Driven Taxonomy of Undergraduate Student Videogame Enjoyment

Understanding the design elements that lead to player enjoyment is critical to the creation of effective game experiences. An exploratory factor analytic approach was taken to discover the underlying characteristics of videogames that influence player enjoyment. Using questionnaire data from 219 undergraduate students, a taxonomy of six design features (fantasy, exploration, companionship, competition, realism, and challenge) that influence player enjoyment of video games was derived. In this paper, ten recent and well-known game design taxonomies are compared to the derived taxonomy. The abundance of similarities between the taxonomies provides evidence of universal game design features. This lends support to the belief that the influential aspects of videogame design can be scientifically identified and manipulated to beneficent ends.