The five factor model has been considered in relation to gamification see for example the attached Google search.

Mostly this is considered in terms of how to personalize or improve the game experience. Some relate player types to personality and to gamification elements.

I am not aware of work which attempts to use choices in the game to predict personality traits and compare this predictive power to other methods. This is to be expected as the purpose of the research is focused on making gamification more effective,

http://scholar.google.co.uk/scholar?q=Five+Factor+personality+model+gamification&hl=en&as_sdt=0&as_vis=1&oi=scholart&sa=X&ei=T5MgVMz2K7C07Qbxn4HACw&ved=0CCAQgQMwAA

Gary,

Yes, game developers use this type of evaluative methodology to see if a game challenge is too easy, creating lack of interest, or too hard, creating undue frustration and abandonment.  I am looking to find a way to see if certain choices are predictive based on a personality type and characteristics. Is the player wiling to take risks, be cautious, etc? That they must decide and do so under the pressures of the game, I believe, leads to more of an instinctual response, rather than a considered one.

The closest I can find to what you want is:

Cowley, Ben, et al. "Real-time rule-based classification of player types in computer games." User Modeling and User-Adapted Interaction 23.5 (2013): 489-526.

However this does not use the Five factor model

http://download.springer.com/static/pdf/924/art%253A10.1007%252Fs11257-012-9126-z.pdf?auth66=1411635140_d91bf479efef0ee7664b26f43a773dc7&ext=.pdf

Hi

I'm from the computer science lab of the CNAM Paris.

We designed a game to map gameplay to psychometric tests for vocational guidance.  It's a short Animal Crossing like game.  The evaluation tests (done with a psychometric laboratory) on 140 subjects is very promising.  It seems that some gameplay and game mechanics are related to the dimensions of the psychological model we use.  

I made a PhD on this topic in parallel of my job.  The first publication will be available early 2015 in a book.  

I'm also game director (15 years, lots of titles) and i'm developing the use of player profiling in different segments (mental disease diagnostic, assessment...).

Best regards

Emmanuel

Emmanuel,

Interesting. Let me know when there is something published that I can read.

Robert

Hi Robert, Gary and Emmanuel,

This is the actual topic of my doctoral research - perfekt.ID.

I published a paper late last year about the proposed relationship between game elements and mechanics, and various different types of personality types and trait theories. You can find it here: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/259044226_Towards_personalised_gamified_systems_an_investigation_into_game_design_personality_and_player_typologies

I also  just concluded my primary survey and currently analysing the results identifying this relationship between a model that is similar to the Five Factor Model. Results should be out soon.

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There is chapter on mapping Myers Briggs to Gamers in this book http://www.amazon.co.uk/Century-Design-Charles-River-Development/dp/1584504293 althought written at a time when games were proably less diverse

Lauren,

Thanks, I have read the paper. It is likely that I will be commissioning specific research to meet my needs. There are several studies that tangentially support my ideas, but I think a clinical approach for the purpose of validation is requisite.

Hello Robert,

Last year I did research into how the Big Five model relates to in-game behavior. I used the short IPIP Big Five (100-items) and the video game Battlefield 3 (a modern first-person shooter) and a sample of a few thousand participants. We could not make predictions of play style based on personality or vice versa. However, the game is not as complex in terms of choices as you might be looking at. We did find many low effect size correlations between personality and play style. You can find the paper here: 

http://www.psyopsresearch.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/FDG2013.pdf

Shoshannah,

Interesting results. I need to analyze a bit more and will respond to you.

Robert

Haven't seen mention of Bartle's player personality types mentioned.  A bit out of my league what your talking about, but Bartle's and several others have proposed personality types associated with different game design engagement models.  

Yes, I have looked at his study. I think there is more to gain by mapping to the Big Five in regard to realting a person to activities other than gaming.

Mr. Godwin, I am working on the development of methods to increase motivation through gamification for elderly in telemedicine applications. At the moment I am looking into the possibilities of using personality traits to serve as a guide for tailored game content, since many existing game design classifications are non-orthogonal and ambiguous. Looking at your question, I think a person who likes to be challenged in games scores higher on conscientiousness. Competition may reveal something about one's score on agreeableness, a preference for party games about extraversion.

Hi, I am working on my Phd that related to applied personality in gamification sys. So, could I ask if there is more published work on that area? I found little with some that are already mentioned.

I developed and analyzed serious games for healthcare in Ambient Assisted Living environments in my PhD and for the user tests I assessed the participant's Big 5 as a "fingerprint" of the sample.

I briefly checked the influence of the Big5 scores on the intention to use these games and the attained performance, Yet, only B5-Openness seems to relate to intention to use and performance. However, other factors, such as self-efficacy in interacting with technology or - wow - previous gaming frequency, were found to be much more influential for intention to use and attained performance.

My key finding: Serious games and gamification works, but only for people who are inclined to it. This sounds trivial, but is insufficiently discussed in the scientific community.

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Philipp,

It is true, and our research reflects, that game player instinctual responses can only be assessed with any credibility if the game play is self motivated (re: inclined to do so). It is no small factor that the results of analytics related to gameplay means that you are only assessing those who want to play games. This leaves out a significant segment of the consuming public (my demographic interest). 

Robert

I should clarify that in our model, game participation is an opt-in with the general public. A low interest in playing themed games likely excludes significant segments of the populous.