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Jonathan Motes
Production
The Correlation Between Personality , Motivation , Engagement , and Parasocial Relationships in Competitive Fighting Game Players ’ Preferred Characters
This thesis studied the differences in personality between competitive Super Smash Bros . Ultimate players based on how they chose the character they use predominantly in a competitive context , referred to as their ‘ main .’
The significance and impact of a player ’ s relationship with their chosen main is not well documented , so this study provides new understanding for fighting game developers to inform their design choices when constructing fighting game rosters .
The study introduced a binary variable called ‘ main selection preference ’ to categorize competitive Smash players into one of two categories : players who primarily chose their main for the character ’ s competitive advantages , and players who chose their main primarily for personal reasons ( such as personality , aesthetic , etc .) separate from the character ’ s competitive performance .
I chose this topic due to the overwhelming importance of choosing a main in competitive fighting games , as well as the general lack of research into the topic .
This thesis was developed over the course of a year . In that time , I gained experience in creating academic surveys , conducting audience research , and using tools like Stata to analyze and contextualize data . This project could prove useful to the industry by informing design decisions surrounding fighting game roster creation through a better understanding of what competitive fighting game players value most and what impact character choices have on players .
76 PRODUCTION