u/SnooGuavas4613

I have just completed a personal UX research project on player retention in Helldivers 2, a live-service co-op shooter where the paid layer doesn't just sell cosmetics, it gates access to weapons, equipment, and abilities players use to play the game. That structure has created a long running tension between what the game sells and what players actually want to engage with. The recommendations all ended up built around one line: gameplay items should be earned through play, cosmetic items should be the paid layer. The friction the research surfaced isn't that there's a paid layer at all, it's what's currently in it.

Some context on where I'm coming from: my degree is in anthropology, so the qualitative side of this is familiar ground, but I have no formal UX or game design training. Everything here is built on free courses, my own reading, and trial and error. I'm working toward a transition into games UX research, and posting here partly because outside eyes catch things the person who wrote it can't. If anything in the project stands out as a glaring weakness or an obvious oversight, I'd want to hear it.

The work underneath the principle is a thematic analysis of 1,143 Reddit comments, six semi-structured interviews, and three observations of high-skill gameplay via livestreams.

Slides, raw data, interview and observation notes, and full write-ups are all here: Helldivers 2 Complete UX Project

I recently finished a user experience research project exploring what keeps Helldivers 2 players coming back, and what pushes them away.

This was a personal project, and for it I grouped responses from a Reddit discussion (full post here: What actually keeps you playing Helldivers 2? : r/Helldivers) into recurring themes, ran player interviews, and watched streams from players I had never seen before. I wanted to capture a mix of direct community feedback, personal player experiences, and more natural gameplay commentary.

There are some clear limitations. Reddit only reflects a small and often more vocal part of the community, and players who stream the game are probably more invested than the average player. Because of that, this does not fully represent the everyday experience of quieter or more casual players, though the interviews helped balance that out to some degree.

That said, I still think this group matters. The players who stay engaged through the highs and lows are often the ones who keep squads together, bring friends back, talk about the game outside of it, and help sustain the social energy around Helldivers 2. Since the game is so community-driven, keeping core players engaged can have a ripple effect across the wider player base.

The recommendations I made are not meant to be the final answer for every kind of player. They are my attempt to turn the themes I heard from the community into practical ideas that could help strengthen retention, support long-term engagement, and build on what already makes Helldivers 2 special.

The full presentation includes links to the data sources and more detailed explanations behind the findings. If anyone wants to check out the full project, here it is: HD2 UX PROJECT