About BrainHex

Since 1999, International Hobo Ltd has been at the forefront of developing new models of play in order to understand how and why people play videogames, boardgames and games in general. The goal of this research is to make better games for everyone, to investigate the barriers which stop some players from enjoying videogames, and to appreciate the many different reasons why players enjoy some play experiences and hate others.

BrainHex is the result of many years studying neurobiological research papers and tying their findings to the realm of game design and player satisfaction modelling, as well as several previous surveys into gaming tastes such as the DGD1 survey (which resulted in the DGD1 model) and the DGD2 survey (which directly affected the development of BrainHex).

A wealth of information about the research behind the model can be found on our other websites, and in various books. Simply follow the links below:

• Beyond Game Design: Nine Steps Towards Better Videogames
  Containing a wealth of information about the psychology of videogame design and the ways we can expand the market for videogames, this book also contains two chapters by International Hobo's Chris Bateman (the editor of the book) about the connection between the brain and play. Essential reading for anyone interested in BrainHex.
  Available from Amazon and all good bookstores.
• Why You Play Games: this piece discusses the many different ways that play can trigger the brain's pleasure centre, including the three most addictive approaches (challenge, puzzles and achievement) and three more widely enjoyed methods (curiosity, vertigo, and socialising).
• Grip: The Biology of Compulsion: elaborating on Why You Play Games, this explores the ways in which the pleasure centre makes us come back for more, and how they differ.
• 21st Century Game Design
  The first book International Hobo published on player modelling, it contains the complete research for the DGD1 model, the forerunner to BrainHex.
  Available from Amazon and all good bookstores.
• Deconstructing Flow: this advanced-level piece discusses Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi's model of Flow, and how it relates to neurobiology.
• Deconstructing Temperament: this specialist piece discusses how Kiersey and Beren's Temperament Theory connects to neurobiology.

The BrainHex Class icons were designed by Zakelro Story Studio and are copyright © 2009 International Hobo Ltd.

Feel free to take a copy of your BrainHex class icon (or dual class icon) and display it anywhere you wish! Simply right click and choosing "save as". All we ask is you provide a link to BrainHex.com anywhere you use our images.

Comments

[Brandon]

Chris,

Thank-you so much for providing this survey. I have a friend who actually does NOT enjoy playing games but I have a theory that perhaps he just hasn't found the right one. For example, his brother and I and a few of our friends love playing FPS (counter-strike, battlefield) but he hates it. I'll be sure to share this with him and as many people as I can.

Also, I signed up for your study. I hope I'm selected...!

Cheers,

Brandon from Central Florida

[Chris]

Thanks for the kind words Brandon! A lot of people who don't like videogames eventually find one that works for them - although it's sometimes very different from what gamers enjoy! :) Games like PopCap's Bookworm, for instance, is enjoyed by a lot of players who normally wouldn't touch a videogame.

Best wishes!

[Michael Filtenborg]

Well you don't really seem to have a real critic part of this site, so I will post here. I think your qustionary is way to narrow and focuses a lot on classes under the asumbtion that gamers are totally objective people and that the dev. teams of the games and thereby the trends of game making industry has no effect on how and why people choose how they choose. You also make it really hard to even out or maxing in all catagories.

Addressing first problem. The short, narrow qustionary, the possible lack of distinction between the groups of gamers and also the lacking possibilities:
I know it's tempting to make the questionary purely quantitative, but is that really the way to go when you think about how many factors actually influence people? Or at the least you ought to follow it up with some qualitative sampling and a broader qustionary. I am also aware that you do need a (as in it could be a seperate) qustionary that the casual gamers can chew their way through, because they are by far the biggest group of gameres now a days.
As I hinted you might consider seperating things a bit if you can't handle the complex datasets needed to cover all the three groups of gamers. I personally think that the truely casual gamers differs so much from the rest of us that they could easily corrupt the data or at the least make the datasets needed very complicated.
As for the narrow questionaries. There are several catagories that lack a, what to say, multicatagory choice. as mulityplayer vs. singleplayer. Did you think that every gamer even the Hardcores were absolutely decided on this subject?
Also to your results as to what classes are the most popular, have you counted how many indicator choises there are for each of the classes i think you will be surprised to see that there are not an equal number of indicators for each. Now that will naturally create data pointing more in one specific direction, might explain quite a bit.
I find that your questionary very narrow (I dont mean the number of datasets) especcialy considering that you are trying to find a specific reason as to why a human does a specific act. We are a bit more complex in our ways than so :-), but it's your choice, though I would think that people in the scientific community would have difficulties accepting results on a complex problem build on datasets with so little choises (even though it is good tone to eleminate factors)

Next problem the trends of the industry, thereby the objectivity of the gamers, and even more factors as to why they choose as they choose.
It has become apparant that many gamedevelopers focus on one moralsite of a game, or one way of playing a game, especially sorting by genre. Thereby gamers can't possibly say what they likae playing the most or what they velue the highest without you adding genres to your qetionaries. Useing myself as an example. I got a very low score on the daredevil part and the survior. How can you score low on both and not have a middleway?
But I think my clans in shooter games like BF and COD would tell you I can often be nearly suicidal taking crazy risks facing the enemy, where as other games that does not promote risktaking will make my cautious, yes the definition of a daredevil is with you but my point is that there is a differens between a daredevil, a stupid person or noob. and other games can can award you for being both a mastermind and triggerhappy, but might tip the scale to one side, and the rest of the Devs out there making similar things might follow the example thereby making gamers game a style they like but not giving them free choice to play it and thereby making it hard for them to say what they like most.

There are of course many more factors and angles to this, evne if we only focus on gaming science (witch is of course a mixed science). but then this post would be like 50-200 pages long and i don't have that much sparetime :-)

Just my two cents. It would be nice to hear from you, email might be most convenient, thinking about the possible lengh.

[Chris (BrainHex Admin)]

Michael: questionnaires are rarely perfect. While there are certainly more than three divisions that you could divide people into in respect of "Hardcore" vs "Casual", one has to ask questions that people have a reasonable chance of answering. We have found in previous surveys that people who self-type "Hardcore" fit other criteria by which this has been assigned by other researchers, and this question has thus not given us any problems.

Regarding the breadth of the questions, we will be performing a statistical analysis on the answers people provide for which the classes that are given on the results page will not be a major factor. If there are patterns of response in the data, we will find them in the statistical analysis. This, in fact, is the goal of the survey. I have no idea what these patterns will be - that's the fun of doing this kind of research! :)

We also will be performing case studies as follow up work, so the test is not the whole of the research.

I view this survey, as with any survey, as a great starting step towards investigating the relationship between the brain and play, and will be following up with more detailed studies in the future. You might view a focussed study as a bottom up approach, whereas BrainHex is more of a top down approach - both can be informative.

Thanks for your comment!

[Trix]

Meh, not one question in the survey about enjoying building things, making things or resource management. Does anyone who respond to the survey like things like Civilisation or the Sims? Or does that not count as "gaming"?

[Adam]

I found the quiz fairly decent, at first glance of page two I believe it was, I thought I would score "perfect" in every category (I saw results of friends before taking this). I was surprised when I actually scored low in some of the fields! More to a constructive point I hope, I wouldn't mind seeing more questions, and some *if possible* less obvious as to which category they pertain to, or some giving points to multiple/hybrid styles. Also since Trix(poster above me) mentioned it I'll second: reource collection/management would be pretty cool to add in somewhere. I know even with all my *uber* conqueror-mastermind achieving the impossible and solving problems, I like logging into some games like 1602AD (never played Sims or Civ sorry, wouldnt know about them) and building cities, or some RuneScape or WoW-esque resource collection (mining, gathering) just for the simplicity and being able to kick back and relax, take a break from the carnage of raiding and pvp, earn some in game cash, that sort of deal. Of course that said, It's likely (and some days myself included) that some people look for a game that has some form of harvesting or resource management as a primary form of stimulation. (Things like Harvest Moon or Lost In Blue come to mind)

semi unrelated to the above paragraph, what category would be a likely class to put someone who A) prefers building robots/turrets to do the killing for them, or someone who *only* makes any form gear for others? B) Plays games for their customization and personalization? This could range from a simple weapon load-out in say.. COD4, or putting hours into character creation for an MMO, customizing a robot (Custom Robo?) or advanced skill combinations like something from Monster Hunter Freedom? It takes patience, and admittedly some skill to do well in constructing these forms of things before throwing them into combat(or whatever) and many people really enjoy doing these!(I like everything, so exclude me if you wish, I'm sure I can't be alone, there are only what.. 6.8billion people here? ;) )

[Sean]

It seems to me that you're missing a class of gamers who are interested in telling or being a part of a story. When I play games - even those that are more open ended, and don't have an explicit story - I'm typically placing the events of the game in the context of my character's motivations and goals. This doesn't really fit with any of your other categories. But my second and third favorite aspects still came up, predictably.

[Sam]

Hi,

I'm very grateful for this test, I've been searching for something that actually puts the research into gameplay styles into a practical test.

I do have some questions that I'm trying to research: behaviors of different personality types in specific situations during games. For example, specific situations in a game of monopoly. I wouldn't exactly call Monopoly a game of skill or strategy, but the times when dice is not the primary force are there, situations like: Do I stay in Jail or pay to get out of jail? How much do I did in this auction?

What factors are most important to an infp? entj? istj? Seeker? Survivor? Mastermind?

Is there anything within this research that can help me in this endeavor?

[Puck Blom]

Hi

Can you tell me where I can download the actual test?
I would love to use it in my master's thesis and will be more than happy to share my data set with you!
Please let me know soon!

Kind regards,
Puck Blom

[Chris]

Hey Puck,
Use the contact link at ihobo.com - we can fit you out with the test kit, no problem!

Cheers,

Chris.