CSSII: A Player Motivation Model for Tabletop Games

Although multiple models have been proposed to explain what motivates different players to engage with digital games, the domain of tabletop games have not received the same attention from the research community. This work tries to fill that gap, investigating what drives us to play tabletop games. Based on the existing literature and in conjunction with tabletop game experts, we designed a questionnaire capturing relevant concerns both related to the analog artifact itself as well as to the context of play. Through principal component analysis of the responses from a diverse range of tabletop game hobbyists (N = 229, with an average collection of 99 tabletop games each), we propose a model with 5 dimensions characterizing the main motivations to play tabletop games that explains 80% of the variance of the data: (C)ompetitive interaction, (S)ocial challenge, (S)ensory experience, (I)ntellectual challenge, and (I)maginative experience. We discuss each dimension and compare our results to existing models on play motivations, and propose a 3-component version of our model providing a bridge to a broader interaction model. By understanding why players engage with tabletop games in their physical form, we hope to help the development of hybrid or digital versions of these games.