Högskolan i Skövde

Communication is a field of research that has been a core part of UX design for a while. In scientific literature communication is described as being a combination of several different psychic and physical events. Communication fulfills a number of pedagogical functions in humans. The communication in multiplayer games works in a different way than reality. The social world of multiplayer is very complex and there are many different ways for players to engage in interpersonal communication. All players of these games have unique personal attributes and belong to a unique typology. Player typologies are a young concept which has been defined by different psychometric models. One of those models is BrainHex which includes seven archetypes that typify a specific gaming experience. The model is still hypothetical and has much room to develop further. Until now there was a lack of reports on how these player typologies in the BrainHex model communicate with each other, as well as which ways of communication they prefer. The purpose of this study was to fill this knowledge gap and contribute to the field about communication in videogames. To collect data, scientific literature was reviewed and a digital survey was sent out. This was supplemented with anin-depth interview with a participant that was regarded as an expert on videogame development. The result of the study indicated there is no clear connection between player typologies and choice of communication method, but it was discovered that certain ways of communication were more favored. Choice of communication method is therefore not a staunch way to categorize player typologies in BrainHex.