Emotional Driver Framework

Turning Player Motivation into Emotional Payoffs

Overview


This framework tries to define Emotional Drivers as a foundation to players motivation; allowing combatants to put pressure against those drivers. Emotional drivers define why players love a role or class and ensure motivation stays central to design.

Player Motivations

Players don’t just pick “the character who deals damage” or “the one who takes a beating”, they pick the role that fulfills an emotional payoff important to them. Whether a player is looking for mastery, recognition, impact, or cooperation, player motivations sit alongside mechanical outputs in combat design to help players execute on “Why I play a specific role”. The core targets are:

  • Agency and Mastery: I want to test and improve my skill.

  • Impact and Leadership: I want my actions to visibly shape the team’s fate.

  • Social and Cooperation: I want to work together and help others succeed.

  • Autonomy and Self-Reliance: I want to control my destiny, save myself, or out play the game.

  • Recognition: I want to be noticed, valued, and remembered by others.

TANK

Normally these motivations, and drivers, would be work-shopped with Directors, Combat Team, and anyone else that should be involved; For this exercise I did the work shopping solo, based on common trinity motivation/drivers. There are assumptions made about roles, mechanics, pillars, etc. all hypothetical for this doc, as well as the associated Enemy Archetypes Framework, in order to make a fuller framework example(e.g. Stagger may be a universal combat system, not enemy unique).

Emotional Drivers By Archetype

Each archetype has core emotional drivers. Designers should pick at least one to reinforce as the emotional pillar of any kit, allowing combatants to challenge that driver and support the core motivation of why players play that role. Others can be implied, but intentional focus is key. The lists below uses player statements to convey motivations or drivers.

“I love being the backbone that lets my team win.”

Player Motivations:

  • I want to be the reason my team feels safe to make plays.

  • I want to control the flow, set the pace, and protect others.

  • I want my leadership to be felt, even if it’s not always seen.

  • I want to turn enemy aggression into an advantage.

  • I want to be remembered for the clutch save or fight-winning engage.

  • I want to outplay the enemy’s focus, not just soak it.

Turn Motivations into Emotional Drivers:

  • Space Maker: I give my team room, create space, and create windows of opportunity.

  • Playmaking Leadership: I set the tempo, start the fight, and create the moment for the win.

  • Protector/Peeler: I save, shield, or rescue allies at the right time, not just block damage.

  • Disruptor: I force enemies to play my game, split their attention, or overextend.

  • Recognition Seeker: I want my big moments to be noticed (clutch ult, fight-saving engage).

  • The Survivor: I want to survive and adapt on my terms, not just hold a line.

Practical Examples:

  • A leap/shield bash that interrupts a boss and opens a DPS window (Space Maker, Playmaking Leadership).

  • A taunt/zone ability that forces the boss to target the tank during a burst, saving allies (Protector/Peeler, Recognition Seeker).

Anti-Patterns:

  • Passive “stand and take damage” tanks with no ability to influence the fight.

  • Recognition limited to mitigation meters, with no visible clutch plays.

  • Kits that lock the tank in place and prevent movement or aggression.(Movement reductions are okay, but not movement prevention)

SUPPORT

“I love enabling my team’s best moments and preventing failure.”

Player Motivations:

  • I want to be the glue that holds the team together.

  • I want to keep my team alive and empower their plays.

  • I want to adapt to what the team needs and always have an answer.

  • I love turning defeat into victory through timing and smarts.

  • I want my support to be felt, even if not always seen.

  • I want to tactically engage and disengage, as needed, to weave in and out of combat to provide support.

Turn Motivations into Emotional Drivers:

  • Enabler: I make others stronger, faster, or safer when it matters.

  • Clutch Savior: I save a losing fight, pull off a revive, or prevent a disaster.

  • Adaptive Strategist: I always have the right answer, solve problems, and read the battlefield.

  • Rally: I have abilities I can hold until the right moment, that can turn a fight and lets my allies know “now is the time to turn the tide”.

  • Social Connector: I have options to setup my allies to make plays, even if they are too busy to notice.

  • Movement Artist: I have ways to take movement risks, in order to dive to an ally in need, or retreat after making a save or play.

Practical Examples:

  • A shield-and-speed boost that saves an ally from danger (Clutch Savior, Enabler/Empowerer).

  • A heal-over-time that rewards allies for aggression, letting their damage heal them (Adaptive Strategist, Social Connector).

Anti-Patterns:

  • Passive regen with no chance for visible, game-changing plays.

  • Contributions that are regularly unnoticed due to art or UI/UX.

  • Healing kits with no independent value, leaving supports stuck in the backline.

DPS

“I love finishing the fight and carrying the moment.”

Player Motivations:

  • I want my skill to shine and be recognized.

  • I want to express mastery and style through aim, combos, or tactics.

  • I want the satisfaction of deleting a boss, wave, or backline in one move.

  • I want to take high risks for high rewards and have the chance to pop off.

  • I want to be the closer, the carry, the one who makes big boom.

  • I want to win fights on my own terms, not just by following orders.

Emotional Drivers:

  • Mastery/Combo Expression: I chain abilities in satisfying, high-skill ways.

  • Threat Removal: I eliminate priority targets quickly and stylishly, by manipulating my damage through skill or knowledge.

  • Carry Moment: I tilt the fight through damage with a big play, streak, or ultimate.

  • The Gambler: I choose the right moment to go in, a well timed engage could lead to a lot of dead bodies.

  • Big-Bada-Boom: I want my plays, the ones that kill tons of enemies or do insane damage, to have a visual pay off others can see.

  • Lone Wolf: When I go in, my team can’t help me, I want my moment to shine.

Practical Examples:

  • A chain attack buff where stopping means you lose the buff (Mastery/Combo Expression, Carry Moment).

  • A single-target debuff that, when followed up, enables huge explosion and cooldown resets (Mastery/Combo Expression, Threat Removal, Big-Bada-Boom).

Anti-Patterns:

  • DPS that always requires setup from others to succeed.

  • Passive “set and forget” damage with no reward for timing or skill.

  • Kits with no chance for playmaking or clutch moments.

Next

Enemy Archetypes Framework