Learn how to use the Motivational Communication Toolkit as a strategic model for improving game UX writing, microcopy messages, and player satisfaction (framework by Amir Dori)
As game designers or product managers in the gaming industry, you already know that creating engaging and meaningful experiences for players is crucial. But have you ever realized the power of the microcopy messages in your game? When focusing on the word ‘micro’ in microcopy, we can guide and motivate our players better, as they scan the screen and pick out individual words. That’s why I’d like to introduce you to the Motivational Communication Toolkit — a framework that helps you tap into the motivations and behaviors of different player types to create compelling messages, inspire game mechanics, and refine the motivational microcopy for each player type.
Intro to the Motivational Communication Toolkit
The Motivational Communication Toolkit (MCT) is a quadrant model based on Bartle’s Player Taxonomy, where the X-axis represents a player’s preference for interacting or acting, and the Y-axis represents a preference for other players or content. This splits the players into 4 main types: Socializer (interacting with other players), Killer (acting on other players), Explorer (interacting with the game’s content), and Achiever (acting on the game’s content).
For each player type, there are associated verbs that are used to create tailored messages that resonate with the core motivations of that type. These motivational verbs are chosen to evoke the desired emotional response and drive engagement and are based on a set of common game mechanics.
My goal with the creation of the MCT is to provide fellow designers with a good foundation for writing effective UX messages in their games by using microcopy with the right motivational verbs. So if you’re working in the gaming industry as a game designer, product manager, monetization manager, ASO manager, or UX copywriter — this tool is for you.
Now, let’s learn how to use it!
✍️ Applying the Motivational Communication Toolkit to your game — Practical examples
In-game milestones
Let’s have a look at how the MCT can be applied to a game’s goals\tasks\missions or milestones system to drive player engagement and motivation. By leveraging the verbs associated with each player type, we can create milestones that appeal to different players, leading to a more satisfying and immersive gaming experience for everyone.
Milestones communicated with Socializer motivations
Curated verbs: Join, Share, Help, Gift, Greet, Donate, Contribute, Trade, Rate, Vote, Comment, Congratulate, Visit, Connect, Support, Discuss, Celebrate, Follow, Collaborate, Invite, Host, Participate, Play.
Examples:
Milestones communicated with Killer motivations
Curated verbs: Fight, Attack, Battle, Beat, Defeat, Destroy, Kill, Brag, Steal, Challenge, Take, Make, Capture, Hunt, Dominate, Outplay, Betray, Trick, Duel, Sabotage, Humiliate, Evade, Own, Raid, Disrupt.
Examples:
Milestones communicated with Explorer motivations
Curated verbs: View, Read, Search, Choose, Create, Design, Customize, Build, Try, Explore, Unlock, Collect, Discover, Research, Change, Solve, Investigate, Find, Understand, Navigate, Scan, Test, Analyse.
Examples:
Milestones communicated with Achiever motivations
Curated verbs: Win, Challenge, Pass, Raise, Complete, Collect, Finish, Obtain, Gain, Earn, Clear, Score, Achieve, Master, Progress, Level-up, Maximize, Upgrade, Advance, Improve, Learn, Accomplish, Boost.
Examples:
Note: While in-game goals are mainly appointed to Achievers, the other player types will pursue them if they help further their own agenda. They might not be doing it for the goal itself, but because it helps them do what they enjoy in the game (which is their intrinsic reward).
Examples from app store marketing screens
In addition to its application in the game itself, the MCT can also be used to create effective game marketing messages. By understanding the motivations and behaviors of players, ASO marketing managers and UX copywriters can create compelling screenshots that speak to each player type, as demonstrated below:
Examples of push notifications
Push notifications are a key tool in keeping players engaged with a game, but they’re only effective if they communicate something that the player finds compelling. You can use the MCT for crafting notifications that speak directly to the player’s desires and motivations, as demonstrated:
Case study
Before publishing this article and introducing a new game design tool to the world, it was essential to put it to the test and validate its purpose with some empirical data. With the support of Lior Green and Yehuda Faivel, my dear colleagues from SciPlay, we ran a test on several push notifications of a new Solitaire game (“Solitaire Daily Break”) to see if they can be empowered with the MCT.
In its traditional form, Solitaire is a solo game, and since there are no other players involved we know that Socializer and Killer motivations are out of scope. That leaves us with Explorers (interacting on the game’s content) and Achievers (acting on the game’s content):
So we created tests for three push notifications with common call-to-action verbs (control group) and with the MCT adjustments. The copy for the control variants is not far-fetched at all; actually, their copy was curated from the touchpoint of the users’ context and we used “their own language” as indicated via surveys and user interviews that we conducted. The idea was to only replace general verbs with motivational verbs from the MCT model for Achiveres (Gain, Boost, Win, Earn, Complete) and to see the effect:
As you can see above, with the tweaks of the Motivational Communication Toolkit, ALL of the push notifications showed higher and improved CTR results. Simply by overriding existing verbs with the motivational verbs of the toolkit, we were able to increase up to 66% lift in the CTR of push notifications.
That’s a great start, and it also demonstrates why it’s so crucial to know your audience when designing games!
A quick practical design workflow
So we just went over some real examples of in-game milestones, store screenshots, and push notifications. But how do we create these crafted messages from scratch? No worries, let’s dive into a practical example together.
For this example, let’s continue with the Solitaire game from the case study. As noted, the main motivations in such a game are aimed at Achievers and Explorers. Based on this, we can lay a quick foundation for an in-game goals system with the following microcopy messages that resonate with the specific motivations of Achievers and Explorers from the MCT:
- ⭐Achiever: Win X games | Win the daily challenge | Complete all daily challenges | Earn trophies | Collect all card sets | Challenge yourself and get a new best score | Reach a new title | Level up …
- ⭐Explorer: Customize your cards | Try a new card set | Solve the daily challenge | Choose a new background | Change your theme | Unlock a new title…
✔️ We can also craft a base for push notifications that align with these ideas:
- 🔊 A new daily challenge is unlocked! | Can you solve today’s daily challenge? | Complete today’s daily goals! | Win as many levels as you can! | A new card set is awaiting your discovery! …
✔️ Finally, we can design high-level marketing messages for app stores:
- Win Solitaire! | Complete challenges! | Customize your game! | Improve your best score! …
Pretty straightforward, right?
Research and credits
As mentioned in the intro section, Bartle’s pioneering research provided the foundation for the four-player types that inform the framework of this model. The Social Action Matrix inspired me with the concept of using verbs to drive player engagement. By combining these two perspectives, and after analyzing hundreds of push notifications and in-game achievements, I created the Motivational Communication Toolkit to offer a practical tool for the gaming industry to master UX writing for games and to create more compelling microcopy messages for your players.
💮 I’d like to thank Dr. Richard Bartle for reviewing the MCT model and providing insightful feedback to empower it. I tweaked and improved the model based on his feedback, including the content of this very article. I’d also like to thank Yu-Kai Chou, a pioneer in the industry of gamification and the creator of the Octalysis Framework, for reviewing and affirming the model’s actionable design. It means a lot! And last but not least, I’d like to thank again my colleagues from SciPlay, Lior Green and Yehuda Faivel, which helped to ensure that I’m not just theoretically visioning and that the MCT is really meaningful and valuable.
Personal note: As an educator, I prefer to build my teaching materials on top of each other, gradually, rather than presenting a new approach or model every lesson and potentially confusing my students. That’s why I reverted the Social Action Matrix back to the Player Types' one-to-one connection, instead of switching them with the four key social actions of Compete, Collaborate, Express, and Explore. I also mapped a comprehensive list of verbs, instead of using only the common ones, to make it more applicable as a go-to tool. This was my main motivation for developing a new model of my own, one that I could teach my students as a practical and effective tool for their career in the gaming industry.
Wrap-up
While several models already categorize players based on their motivations and preferences, there’s always room for new approaches and perspectives. The Motivational Communication Toolkit is a fresh take on this topic and could be especially valuable by providing specific guidance for designing calls-to-action that appeal to each player type. As always, this is not an exact science, and people have different perspectives and experiences, so it’s inevitable that some people may disagree with this idea. From my personal experience, this model should be easy to integrate into existing UX writing processes, and I believe that this practical approach can make the MCT widely applicable to people in the gaming industry who are looking for actionable advice.
If you found this article helpful, please consider sharing it with your colleagues or on social media to help spread the word about the Motivational Communication Toolkit (MCT)💗
Happy game designing!