Play-Persona: Modeling Player Behaviour in Computer Games

As a possible way out from this impasse, Sanders suggests that “Designers will transform from
being designers of “stuff” (e.g., products, communication pieces, etc.) to being the builders of
scaffolds for experiencing.” [11]. She understands scaffoldings as “temporary and moveable
structures for building enormous new things, but also for protecting the surrounding area from the
new construction. Scaffolds provide support for the workers and their tools and materials”.
Translating this concept to the field of game design, I intend to expand, introduce granularity and
flesh out the “scaffolding” by sub-dividing it in four phases and renaming them aptly to fit the
process they are meant to describe: the facilitation of player expression within the framework of a
game that is not necessarily open-ended.
The four phases I suggest are: play-values, play-modes, play-styles and play-personas (see figure
1).
Fig. 1 Play-values, schemas, styles and personas
The starting point in defining the scaffolding is represented by what Zimmerman calls “Play-values”:
the abstract principles that the game’s design, both aesthetic and functional, should embody [13].
These play-values will consequently inform the inception of game play modes, gestalts and
schemas. Lindley individuated gestalts and schemas during his quest for interactive storytelling [6,
7]. He understands game play gestalts as patterns of interaction between player and game. He
then goes on to define game play schemas as cognitive structures that underlie and facilitate the
above mentioned interaction.
Play-modes are the resulting sets of all possible navigation and interaction attitudes that players
can utilize to negotiate any given situation. All the game features that motivate, facilitate and
constrain player action, offer the players a certain set of methods of operation within the game.
Play-styles are consistent sets of isotopic play-modes which signify, unify or distinguish players
from each other. Styles need not to be consistent, implying that players can change style at a whim
and select a radically different set of play-modes. If, on the other hand, a player chooses to
maintain a certain style, he/she will start identifying with a defined, implied play-persona.
Play-personas are mental constructs that allow the player to identify his/her own behaviour with
prototypical profiles. The logic of these play-personas is the same that governs Max Weber’s "ideal
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