Meaningful Choice as Expression of Creativity in Gameplay: A Preliminary Typology of Creative Gameplay in Videogames

Abstract

Gamification guru Yu-Kai Chou positions creativity as the ultimate motivational drive as it both addresses intrinsic motivation as well as positive emotions. Creativity and play have long been linked together and, despite many attempts to grasp them, have maintained elusive concept because their expressions have an enormous variety. Yet, creative gameplay has rarely been analyzed as a whole, research often lingering on a single variant of it, mostly tangible player production in videogames. This thesis offers a framework based on Chou’s concept of meaningful choices for identifying varieties of creative gameplay and offers a preliminary typology of creative gameplay in videogames.