Stages of Player Engagement

Throughout my years of thinking about Game Design, it has become clear to me that the stages of one's engagement with a game are much alike the processes of engagement with life itself. These Stages of Player Engagement can be conceptualized as the Aesthetic, Mechanical, and Systematic. Notably, the stages of player engagement are oddly reminiscent of the "Stages of Lifes Way", theorized by danish theologian Søren Kierkegaard.

As a brief introduction and summary of the "Stages of Lifes Way", Kierkegaard puts forth that human beings go through a process of moral and religious development throughout their life. The stages within this process of moral development are the aesthetic, the ethical, and the religious. We will not go too deep into Kierkegaard here, only that we use this idea of one's development process, regarding their relationship with life and the world, as the bedrock from which I have built this idea of the Stages of Player Engagement.

As I have mentioned, the stages of player engagement can be broken down into the Aesthetic, the Mechanical, and the Systematic. Each level of engagement is deeper than the one before and requires the success of the previous for the Player to move on to the next. Each stage is a natural progression of the previous, yet does require an active choice on the part of the Player to move on to the next stage.

To Begin, the Aesthetic pertains to the sensory and fantasy aspects of the game. The Aesthetic brings the Player from a stage of not having played the game at all to playing for the first time. At this point of engagement, the player likely knows very little about the game and has not played it at all; thus, it is the lowest level of engagement. The sensory aspects of the game, pertaining to the Aesthetic stage of player engagement, are essentially the game's presentation. The Player is drawn to play the game through the game's visual and audible presentation. The Player must be attracted to a game's presentation in some sense in order to begin playing the game at all. The other important part of Aesthetic engagement to consider is that of Player Fantasy. Player fantasy does not mean the fantasy genre; it is the psychological and/or narrative fantasy the game provides. All games provide a player with a fantasy to fulfill, whether it is driving fast cars, being the hero, or being a competitor. A primary reason an individual might decide to try a game in the first place is the fantasy the game may provide and whether or not the fantasy appeals to the individual.

After the Aesthetic stage of engagement comes the Mechanical. The Mechanical stage of engagement occurs when the Player has begun playing the game and engaging with the game's mechanics. At the Mechanical stage, the player decides whether or not they find the game enjoyable in the most base sense; this includes whether or not they find the game fun to play, and whether or not they will keep playing. When designers and players refer to a game as 'feeling good to play' or 'being fun', the Mechanical stage is what they are referring to. The Mechanical stage of engagement's success depends on the execution of the mechanics by the developers and how well the game's base mechanics and levels are designed. The span of this stage of development usually lasts for the first full playthrough of the game, although different player types may exceed this stage earlier.

The Systematic stage is the final and highest stage of player engagement. At the Systematic stage, the player's engagement has exceeded that of the mechanical, and the player has chosen to discover and learn the systems behind the mechanics. It is worth noting that in order for a player to reach the Systematic stage, they require near complete knowledge of the game's content and base mechanics due to the fact they need a base to apply new knowledge. While in the Systematic stage, the player seeks to know all there is to know about the game in order to improve at it; they will often learn the specifics of mechanics such as the mathematics behind damage calculation, the momentum system behind character movement, enemy AI and spawn systems, etc. It is worth noting that at the Systematic stage, the player's knowledge of a game can and often exceeds the knowledge of the designers. It is also worth noting that the Systematic stage also often acts as the transcendent stage, where the player's engagement with a game transcends the playing of the game itself, as players will often seek information outside of the game through, for example, spreadsheet diving and discussing with other players. Notable examples of player archetypes that have reached the Systematic stage of engagement are pro gamers and speed runners. Both professional gamers and successful speedrunners require deep and vast knowledge of the game they specialize in to achieve their goals. The Systematic stage also represents the level of engagement we as designers strive for our players to achieve, for it is the deepest and long-lasting relationship a player can have with our games. The Systematic has the potential to provide the player with near-endless hours of engagement with a game, given that the game's systems are well designed and have enough depth due to the cycle of improvement present within it. Players who reach and continue to exist within the Systematic stage of development will continuously seek to play, learn and improve in order to achieve their goals.

Now that we have established this conceptual system of Player Engagement, we must ask the question, what practical use can we make of this? After all, what use is philosophy if it cannot be applied practically. I have used this system when analyzing games and designing my own by breaking a game down into the elements that compose the stages and ensuring that each stage is robust. You must consider your game through each stage and ensure that your game skillfully nurtures and guides the player through each stage. Your game will not be played by many if you have not considered the Aesthetic stage, they will not play for long if the Mechanical stage is lacking, and they won't have a long-lasting relationship with your game if the Systematic is not well designed. The goal of any game should be for their players to reach this systematic stage, or to put it simply, to have the player engaged as deeply and as long as possible.

For the Aesthetic stage, you must ensure that your game has an attractive fantasy to provide the player with and that the game is visually and audibly appealing. For the Mechanical stage, you must ensure that all your game mechanics are fun to use and play with, and the execution of your game mechanics must be sound. For the Systematic, your game must be built on well-designed systems that interact with each other in meaningful ways. You must consider every stage of player engagement when designing a game and be careful not to neglect any, for if you do neglect any stage, your game's engagement cycle might be cut short or never have a chance to begin at all.

It is worth noting that different player types will often reach levels of engagement at different rates. Casual Players may not reach the Systematic stage of engagement quickly, or maybe not at all. In contrast, hardcore gamers will quickly reach the systematic stage. This means that depending on your audience you may need to consider one stage more than the other and perhaps compensate and weigh your game's engagement to a certain stage.

I encourage all to pick their favorite games and analyze them according to The Stages of Player Engagement I have outlined here. See if you can pinpoint each stage and how it appeals to you, how well the game fostered your engagement, from Aesthetics to Systems, how the visuals and the fantasy appeal to you, to how much enjoyment you got out of learning and applying new knowledge of the game's systems. Perhaps you will learn something new about why your favorite game is your favorite game, and perhaps you will become a better designer.