Our guest today is Paula Neves, product manager at Square Enix. We discuss how psychological models are integral for understanding user personas, which in turn give us data and insights on how to attract, engage and motivate different kinds of users - and change what oftentimes is the essence of a game itself. This is very much a masterclass in gamer psychology - and we’re thrilled to present our conversation with one of the smartest folks in mobile today.

Key highlights:

🏅 What inspired Paula to start using psychological frameworks to understand gamer motivation.
🔑 The key psychological models and frameworks that are relevant for understanding gamer motivation.
🎮 How psychological models help point to the kinds of players a game will attract.📊 How Paula adapted models originally made for AAA games for an F2P context.
📈 How to evaluate a game as per a psychological model prior to its launch.
🧐 How psychological models help align on a vision for the game.
🤝 How to resolve disagreements that may come up when evaluating a game according to a psychological model.
👀 How Paula and her team structure their competitive analysis.
🧑‍🤝‍🧑 How to address resistance to applying psychological models within a team.
📄 How user testing, surveys and focus groups fit into the process of applying psychological models.
⚙️ How UA can be used to test user archetypes.
💬 How in-game user behavior can be tied back to the creatives or messaging that brought a user in.
🏃‍♀️ How psychological models can be applied to a game that is already live and active.
🕹️ How a game developer might start implementing psychological models.

Check out the show notes here:
https://mobileuseracquisitionshow.com/episode/player-motivations-psychological-models-paula-neves-square-enix/

**

Get more mobile user acquisition goodies here:
http://RocketShipHQ.com
http://RocketShipHQ.com/blog

**

Check out our podcast featuring inside stories of how technology evolves and grows:
http://HowThingsGrow.co

CLASSIC: The Santa Susana Field Experiment Coverup

Stuff They Don't Want You To Know

Outro

The AI-powered Podcast Player