The Demographics and Motivations of Trading Card Game Players

Abstract

The study examines motivations for analogue trading card game (TCG) play by utilising Yee's (2006; 2007) research on MMORPG players as its basis. While TCG players share some motivations with MMORPG players, they also have unique motivators due to factors related to both the internal play experience and the playing environment. To measure player motivation, an online quantitative survey with over 300 responses was analysed by using exploratory factor analysis (EFA). The results show thata there are five factors for TCG play: competitiveness, escapism, social, manipulation and design. While some of these factors, such as competitiveness, are directly linked to orthogamic gameplay, other factors showed how TCG play is more than the act of playing against other players. Factors such as social and design pointed towards topics outside of the orthogamic gameplay, such as meeting other players and building decks, being essential parts of TCG play. An earlier version of these findings was presented in the author's master's thesis, Why to Play? - What motivates players to participate in orthogamic trading card game play (2025). The present article revises and expands that work for publication.