“I Just Can’t Commit to That Level Anymore” - Players, Demands of Games, and Player Services

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Mabel

Exploring why Finnish players abandon or reduce both digital and analog games, the article frames quitting as a complex response to game demands and expected audiences. Drawing on an online survey and interviews, it shows that the dedication and effort required to play, alongside the social and cultural positioning of games, can push players away. The study argues that documenting constraints across an entire play ecosystem reveals thresholds designers can lower. It concludes that a player service model can guide actions that reduce barriers for those still wishing to participate.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages28

Reading Time1 h 11 min

AccessFree to download

Players, Demands of Games, and Player Services

Abandoning Games and Leisure Constraints

Previous Research

Quitting and Leisure Barriers

“I Just Can’t Commit to That Level Anymore” Players, Demands of Games, and Player Services • Elisa Wiik People, the author holds, instinctively believe quitting a game to be a simple choice: you are either playing or you are not. But she finds quitting play more complex. To understand better the whole ecosystem of play, she maps out the reasons Finnish players abandon or reduce their gaming and examines these reasons through the lens of specific demands. Using an online survey and interviews, she reveals that the dedication and effort needed to play—and the expected audience for a game—can drive players away from the games they once so enjoyed. She concludes that using the player service model promoted by Jaako Stenros and Olli Sotamaa in 2009 can identify the actions game designers might take to lessen the effect of these game demands. Keywords: analog games; digital games; game demands; quitting game play; player services Larps started to demand a really deep dedication and the level of propping rose to something incomprehensible; I just didn’t have the time for that. It felt like I was a bad larper and the joy vanished from it. —Woman respondent, age forty-two What happens when players abandon their games and take an extended leave from the various imaginary worlds they have been inhabiting—or at least devote less time to them? Trying out different games and hobbies, then giving these up when life changes, is of course a normal part of adult life. But games are an important part of popular culture and a lucrative, growing business. Bergstrom and Sherman (2021) note that exclusionary practices can keep women out of digital games and maybe even push them out. If the players are kept out (or pushed out) of that culture, especially diverse players, their departures can affect both the business and the culture of gaming. 82 American Journal of Play, volume 15, number 1 © 2023 The Strong [Contact Elisa Wiik at elisa.wiik@tuni.fi](Contact Elisa Wiik at elisa.wiik@tuni.fi) As Bergstrom and Sherman (2021) note, documenting the constraints of playing digital games can reveal thresholds that might be lowered to help those still wishing to participate. I agree with their notion that the norms and structures of games and game cultures become more visible when we examine the entire ecosystem of playing, including different varieties of games and former players, current players, in-between players, and even nonplayers. In short, understanding the constraints of play can help us design games for everyone and not just for that stereotypical player, the young white male (Fron et al. 2007; Paul 2018; Booth 2021), and hardcore players who have a lot of time on their hands (Consalvo and Paul 2019) . In this article, I rely on a survey of—and on interview data from—Finnish players who have abandoned or reduced their gaming. I define games very broadly and include different varieties of digital and analog games to garner a wide perspective on games in these individuals’ lives and on their ideas about play. In reality, they might well use several devices to play games, and they do not fall neatly into either category of analog players or digital players. Abandoning one type of game might sometimes mean abandoning all others, too, but not necessarily. As Bergstrom (2019b) argues, different games and the types of games played depend on the situations, the needs of individual players, and those with whom they are playing. Focusing on one game only, or on one genre, Bergstrom (2019b) says, limits what we can discover out about nonplayers. It is important to know who abandons games, why they do so, and whether players are being excluded (Bergstrom and Sherman 2021) . To find this out, I posed two research questions: What reasons lead players to abandon or reduce their play? What kind of thresholds do the answers reveal when looked at through the lens ofthe demands made by games and play? For my purposes, I directed the lens of d

FAQs

What research question does the article focus on regarding quitting play?

The study asks what reasons lead players to abandon or reduce their play, and what thresholds those reasons reveal when viewed through the demands made by games and play.

What methods does the study use to understand players who quit or reduce gaming?

It relies on an online survey and interview data from Finnish players who have abandoned or reduced their gaming.

How does the article explain what drives players away from games they previously enjoyed?

It attributes player departures to barriers created by the dedication and effort required to play, along with expectations about the game’s audience, which together can make participation feel unsustainable.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Mabel