MOTIVATIONAL CALIBRATION MODEL: PUZZLE SELECTION BASED ON THE PLAYER’S ESCAPE ROOM BIOGRAPHY

This paper examines a new model for personalizing the escape room experience, the motivational calibration model designed to enhance player engagement by aligning puzzle difficulty with individual motivation patterns. The model is based on the concept of the player's gaming biography, a structured dataset that captures various parameters such as prior success rates, genre preferences, difficulty levels, team versus solo performance, and time-based metrics. Through empirical and conceptual analysis, the study demonstrates that integrating such biographical information allows for real-time or scenario-based adaptive task selection, thereby optimizing the challenge-to-skill ratio and fostering sustained interest and participation. The article presents a framework for collecting, updating, and managing gaming data. This includes mechanisms such as user registration, CRM system integration, pre- and post-game surveys, and embedded behavioral feedback. Emphasis is placed on ethical data practices, particularly the need for transparency, informed consent, and alignment with international data protection standards such as the GDPR. Challenges such as the need for high system reliability, adequate staff training, and the risks of user disengagement due to overly abrupt changes in puzzle difficulty are also addressed. Additionally, the scalability of the motivational calibration model is explored in digital and immersive environments. For online platforms, the implementation of behavioral analytics enables dynamic puzzle adjustment during gameplay. In virtual reality (VR), motion tracking and haptic feedback allow for deeper personalization, while augmented reality (AR) applications benefit from spatial and contextual task modulation. These adaptations expand the applicability of the model to educational, professional, and recreational domains, including digital learning environments, corporate training programs, and tourism. The conclusion underscores that motivational calibration, when ethically and effectively applied, fosters inclusive and sustained user engagement across multiple escape room modalities. The model contributes to the development of gamified systems that are not only more motivating and cognitively engaging but also more ethically responsible and accessible. It supports a vision of adaptive game design that is grounded in empirical user data, responsive to individual needs, and capable of delivering high-value experiences in both analog and digital formats.