Serious games can be used for a vast amount of different purposes and they change the way we think, learn, and entertain ourselves. The focus of this paper will be more about learning or educational games and how the adaptation of content through personalized preferences can be of an importance for capturing the user’s interest and retaining their motivation. The aim of this paper is to highlight the importance of the content adaptation of a serious game target group in order to maintain their motivation to achieve the learning outcome. The players of serious games usually have a goal or motivation prior to begin playing a game. Those goals may include the learning of a new language or increasing one's geography or math skills. By adapting the content of a serious game to the level of knowledge of a player or giving the player the opportunity to choose in what field they would like to increase their knowledge in, could be a factor to maintain the player motivation up until the goal of the player is achieved. In this paper, an adaptive educational game has been developed to examine whether a target group with personalized content will indicate a higher motivation to play the game than another group which will be playing the direct version of the game without any personalized content.

This research explores player motivations in first-person shooter competitive multiplayer games and proposes game mechanics illustrated in gameplay contexts that promote competence, relatedness, and autonomy. By adopting a self-deterministic lens for exploring player motivations and experiences, and how they are negatively affected by toxic play, the study aims to identify insights that could diminish the negative effects for standard players. Following a design-based research approach, the project employed player-centred methods to explore personal accounts of experience in the researched context. The end result is an annotated portfolio presenting game mechanics in gameplay contexts that allow players to understand who they are playing with and against, to bond with their teammates, and to get a second chance to rejoin the game. The annotated portfolio frames the knowledge contribution as insights into how the designs enhance perceived competence, relatedness, and autonomy.