PTD: Player Type Design to Foster Engaging and Playful Learning Experiences

Abstract

In this paper we present a design model, PTD (Player Type Design), to create engaging gaming and non-gaming experiences for attracting different types of players to learning settings. Based on Bartle’s four player types, elements grounded on game design theory are introduced to design collaborative, competitive, explorative, and rewarding learning experiences. We illustrate the use of the framework on two different experiences. The main contribution of this paper is the design model “PTD”, which can be used to create and also analyse engaging experiences in different contexts (gaming and non-gaming) based on different player types as known from game design theory. The model is evaluated with two different experiences: (1) a blended learning experience, (2) a mobile game with purpose.