Functional Customization in Looter Shooters and Roguelikes: Crafting the Meta Build
Alexander MADDOX
Production
Functional Customization in Looter Shooters and Roguelikes: Crafting the Meta Build
My Thesis investigates how functional customization in looter shooters and roguelikes influences players. I used Self- Determination Theory and Self-Efficacy Theory to examine whether the scope of functional customization systems affects players’ feelings of autonomy, competence, relatedness, and self-efficacy across ten games, including Borderlands 3, The Division 2, Hades, and Risk of Rain 2.
I chose this topic because customization is central to how these genres retain players, yet there was little published research connecting specific functional customization mechanics to player psychology. As both a producer and a player, I wanted to bridge that gap with actionable findings for game development teams. I designed a taxonomy that broke functional customization into three subcategories: offensive customization,
ability customization, and defensive customization. I then classified each game as high or low in functional customization’ s three subcategories in relation to the levels related to players’ autonomy, competence, and relatedness within the respective games.
The results showed that functional customization had a significant positive relationship with both autonomy and competence. Offensive customization depth was the strongest predictor of competence, while autonomy was tied to breadth across multiple customization layers rather than depth in any single system.
For producers, these findings offer the idea that developers who invest in customization depth and breadth may increase player resilience and extend play sessions.
76 PRODUCTION