Roger's Gaming Cabin

Summarize the mainstream Games User Research Methods here for future reference:

Behavioral Observation

This technique can be as simple as looking over the shoulders of individuals when they are playing a game, or as complex as high-definition video recording of players from different angles in a natural gaming environment, such as a living room. Because of its relative simplicity and the actionable results that it produces, behavioral observation is often regarded as the most valuable GUR technique. Direct
observation is especially valuable to the designers of a game.

Think-Aloud Protocol

The think-aloud protocol was developed in usability testing for products (Lewis 1982) and later made its way from interaction design to GUR. It could be seen as a natural expansion of behavioral observation, because it introduces player narrative to the observations.

Lewis C (1982) Using the thinking-aloud method in cognitive interface design. Vol technical re
port. IBM TJ Watson Research Center, Yorktown Heights

Interviews

Interviews are a common method of qualitative subjective inquiry, providing direct insight into the player experience. Much of the quality of the data collected during an interview session depends on the skill of the interviewer. Interviews allow a greater degree of depth when analyzing player opinions, emotions, and reactions. However, data collection and analysis can be time-consuming.

Questionnaires

Questionnaires or surveys are a common GUR method, because they allow collecting large volumes of self-report data simultaneously from many different players. Surveys are usually used to get insights into value judgments about gameplay moments.
A questionnaire can be delivered to players directly after a gameplay event (e.g., making a choice in the game) or after a gameplay session, so that experience is still present in memory. This is arguably less biased than, for example, recalling an experience during an interview session post-gameplay. Often, gameplay questionnaires feature a Likert-scale (Likert 1932) rating type of a gameplay interaction.

Focus Groups

Focus groups are another method of qualitative inquiry, where a group of players is gathered to talk about their opinions, beliefs, and attitudes towards the game (Poels et al. 2007). The group has complete freedom to talk about their likes and dislikes, but usually a moderator is present to facilitate the discussion and lead the group toward a topic of interest. Again, I will not go into depth about focus group methodology here, since Poels et al. (2010) describe a focus group study about qualitative insights into postgame experiences, which is an excellent overview of the methodology.

Poels K, et al. (2010) Digital games, the Aftermath: qualitative insights into postgame experiences. Evaluating user experience in games. Springer London, 149–163. doi:10.1007/978-1- 84882-963-3_9

Heuristic Evaluation

Heuristic evaluation is a method stemming from usability research (Nielsen and Molich 1990). In this context, the evaluation consists of judging how an interface complies with recognized usability principles, which are called “heuristics”. It is known as a discount usability method, because it is cheap to conduct and can yield significant actionable results for a game. The method includes GUR experts playing a game and evaluating it based on a set of criteria. So, in a way, a heuristic evaluation can be likened to a tightly structured game review. After the expert has played the game, they give feedback on whether the game fits a certain playability guideline, or “heuristic”, and what problems might arise from non-compliance.

Nielsen J, Molich R (1990) Heuristic evaluation of user interfaces. Paper presented at the Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on Human factors in computing systems: Empowering people, Seattle, Washington, United States doi:10.1145/97243.97281

Game Metrics

Game analytics and metrics are undeniably a recent trend within the GUR community (Seif El-Nasr et al. 2013). Chapter 7 by Drachen in this book focuses on game metrics or more specifically on a part of game metrics that is also referred to as game telemetry (because data are often collected after delivery of the game and not always during testing). The term “game metrics” generally refers to the process of logging player interactions, positions in the game world, camera angles, and all data that relates to the gameplay interaction process in the game. To do this, a programmer has to define appropriate hooks in the game engine that allow the logging of all this data. A huge advantage of metrics is the large amount of data being collected. This can also prove detrimental, as this data has to be analyzed quickly and accurately, which often means that a GUR professional has to use visualization software to make sense of such vast collections of data. The potential of this GUR methodology is promising, because it can measure key gameplay events (e.g., player deaths) and their surrounding circumstances in detail. By integrating these log files with synchronized physiological sensor data, we can craft a more complete picture of player experience.

El-Nasr M, Drachen A, Canossa A (2013) Game analytics: Maximizing the value of player data. Springer London. doi:10.1007/978-1-4471-4769-5

Physiological Game Evaluation

Psychophysiological measures in games can be used in conjunction with other measures to establish relationships between player experience facets and physiological responses. Physiological metrics can be recorded continuously during a games user research session without interrupting play. This makes these methods less obtrusive than subjective measures that either break the experience (by interrupting and prompting with questions) or introduce memory bias (by asking questions about the game in retrospect). The only downside of physiological metrics is that the player has to wear sensors, and that some might find this intrusive (although based on personal experience, many players forget that they are wearing sensors a few minutes into the game).

However, recent research shows that a combined method with above techniques should be more efficient and comprehensive in revealing the actual PX.

Charoenpruksachat, Alongkorn, and Pattama Longani. “Comparative Study of Usability Evaluation Methods on a Hyper Casual Game.” 2021 Joint International Conference on Digital Arts, Media and Technology with ECTI Northern Section Conference on Electrical, Electronics, Computer and Telecommunication Engineering, 2021.

Johnson, Daniel M., et al. “Validation of Two Game Experience Scales: The Player Experience of Need Satisfaction (PENS) and Game Experience Questionnaire (GEQ).” International Journal of Human-Computer Studies / International Journal of Man-Machine Studies, vol. 118, 2018, pp. 38–46.

Tan, Chek Tien, et al. “Combining Think-Aloud and Physiological Data to Understand Video Game Experiences.” Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, 2014, pp. 381–390.

Scozzi, Monica Visani, et al. “A Mixed Method Approach for Evaluating and Improving the Design of Learning in Puzzle Games.” Proceedings of the Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play, 2017, pp. 217–228.

Toth, Adam J., et al. “Beyond Action Video Games: Differences in Gameplay and Ability Preferences among Gaming Genres.” Entertainment Computing, vol. 38, 2021, p. 100408.
Nacke, Lennart E. “Games User Research and Physiological Game Evaluation.” Game User Experience Evaluation, 2015, pp. 63–86.

Good news on Sep 29 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The IELTS examination via computer suits me perfectly I guess, some tips for the others:

1. You should really pay more attention to the listening part if you are not a quick typer, although there are about half minute for you to type in your answers, it will be a bad idea if you indeed wrote your answers down on the paper then re-type it again. If you can directly input your answer after you heard the words, you will have more time to prepare for the next session 🐒.

2. The reading part might be the easist part for most of the people, especially for Chinese students. Just remember to double check your spelling, tense and singular or plural.

3. The writing part is the most difficult part for me I guess, the time is so tight and you need to finish 2 writing test with completely different purpose. I managed to write the second article with more than 500 words, but didn’t have enough time to check the spelling, hopefully I didn’t make too much stupid error in the writing test.

4. The oral test finished much faster than I’d imagined, the examiner asked me more than 15 questions I guess 😂 … each question only involves a few sentences but the questions were very sporadic that you need to have a fairly extensive vocabulary to cover them all.

Hope I can get a high score 🚬 💣.

A very good analysis of the evolution of video game camera:

The rise of the “camera” in the context of videogames is generally associated with the widespread use of real-time 3D graphics during the 1990s. The “virtual camera” of videogames is therefore perceived by researchers as a direct and stable consequence of graphical and computational procedures (Manovich, 2001; Jones, 2007). This reading is often supported by the linear narrative provided by the classical history of videogames. Our research aims at retracing the emergence of the notion of “camera” through a close reading of a textual corpus that provides a representative sample of production and press discourses from 1987 to 1998. Data extraction has been conducted by the perusal of two leading European magazines as well as several hundred instruction booklets. In this article, we focus on the earliest conception of the term “camera” within discourses associated with videogames from the end of the 1980s to the mid-1990s, a framing we refer to as the “diegetic camera.” Our analysis shows that the word “camera” bears no stable nor irrevocable meaning in the context of videogames, but has rather gone through a historical process of naturalization determined by the gradual disappearance of the cinematic mindset originally associated with the term.

See it here: http://gamestudies.org/2102/articles/krichane

Mark the good articles:

While allusions to Aristotle’s Poetics have been contentious in videogame discourse this paper seeks to show that there is immense value in using the conceptual terms and mechanisms that Aristotle introduced in his Poetics. They can be used to highlight the unique ways that games can create meaning both in their narrative structure and generated by gameplay. Moreover, using detailed definitions of key terms such as mimesis, catharsis and hamartia offer a useful lens for understanding narrative arcs in a medium that inherently confounds the structure of other narrative forms. This structure conforms to an arc of knowledge acquisition for both the player and player character. This process is illustrated using contemporary videogame discourse as well as Ninja Theory’s award-winning title Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice.

See the original post from: http://gamestudies.org/2102/articles/meakin_vaughan_cullen

Why we are so scared but never stops playing the horror game? See below article:

Fear and anxiety are two powerful and fundamental emotions. The burning need for these emotions to be experienced in a controlled environment is addressed rather widely in fiction. Literature, games and films all invent and develop new ways of delivering truly horrific experiences in order to meet a growing demand, but only digital games with their complex structure seem to be able to fully satiate this demand. This structure is comprised of a network of multifaceted game mechanics which, if harmoniously set together, is able to exploit human cognitive potential remarkably well. This paper will argue that horror digital games make use of several fear- and anxiety-inducing techniques, making their gameplay not only narrative-driven, but also fully embodied experiences. In doing so, I identify a number of cognitive stimuli in Slender – The Eight Pages (Parsec Productions, 2012), explaining their form and purpose. The results show that although relatively simple in structure, especially when compared to other horror digital games, Slender is a great repository of fear and anxiety inducing mechanics. The game’s components, such as game world design, weather conditions, objectives, the elements with storytelling potential, perspective, interactive items as well as the opponent, prove to be fully capable of inciting a multimodal feeling of dread. The article also emphasizes the importance of making a crucial distinction between a number of key concepts used in the study of horror. This article’s findings and novel approach may be relevant to horror game designers and media scholars interested in in particular. It may also be useful to game researchers involved in the study of multimodality in fiction.

Originally in: http://gamestudies.org/2102/articles/dudek

A new perspective from Nonhuman-Oriented game:

A host of recent videogames revolve around animals that wreak havoc on human communities and the urban spaces they live in. After introducing this strand of “animal mayhem games,” my paper links it to recent arguments on human-nonhuman entanglement in times of ecological crisis. Games like Goat Simulator, Deeeer Simulator and Tokyo Jungle ask players to engage with an animal avatar while simultaneously unsettling dichotomies between human societies and nonhuman phenomena. The destabilization of anthropocentric assumptions, I argue, is the deeper significance of animal mayhem. The subversive fun generated by these games speaks to core ideas of nonhuman-oriented thinking, particularly Timothy Morton’s concept of “strange stranger.” My close readings of Goat Simulator and Untitled Goose Game focus on the intersection of nonhuman agency and generic templates drawn from open world and puzzle games, respectively.

See it here: http://gamestudies.org/2101/articles/caracciolo

See the child character in games, really interesting:

This paper examines representations of children in contemporary video games through content analysis. A selection of commercially successful and critically acclaimed video games published within the last ten years (n=506) was sampled in order to determine what proportion of these titles contained child characters. The games that contained child characters (including non-human and quasi-human child characters) were analyzed to ascertain the relative importance of these child characters. If they were found to play a significant role, the child characters were then coded for race, gender and age. The sample was categorized according to genre to discern whether child characters were more prevalent in some genres over others. Finally, the corpus was organized by year of publication to see if the proportion of games containing child characters varied over time. The results show that the majority of successful video games published between 2009 and 2019 did not contain any child characters at all. 19% of the total games sampled contained significant child characters, of which around half were playable characters. Most child characters were aged between 6 and 11 years old, and white, male children outnumbered non-white children of different genders. Child characters appeared more frequently in games categorised as “Action,” “Role-playing” and “Adventure” than they did in games from the “Sports,” “Strategy,” “Rhythm” and “Sandbox” genres, and the proportion of games containing child characters has remained fairly constant over the past ten years. The paper concludes by suggesting future directions for research conducted at the intersection of childhood studies and game studies.

See it here: http://gamestudies.org/2101/articles/reay

How to better build the aword system? See this article:

In this paper, two commonly contrasted categories of game objectives are juxtaposed: achievements (otherwise known as trophies, medals or badges) and quests (or missions). Recognizing that previous research perceived them as separate and rather broadly understood concepts, the paper follows Mikael Jakobsson (2011) in acknowledging the similarities and overlaps between quests and achievements, which are redefined as umbrella terms describing a range of tasks sharing an objective and a reward. These “objective-based reward systems,” understood additionally as frames for the play experiences, are discussed in relation to their associated level of meaning (Fine, 1983) and attainability (Juul, 2013). Finally, the results are presented in a generalized theoretical model for further study of various objective-based reward systems, going beyond just quests and achievements proper.

Check it here: http://gamestudies.org/2101/articles/waszkiewicz_kominiarczuk

Why players are always fractious? See this:

Toxicity is a relatively new concept when it comes to describing behaviour and communication practices. It is now widely accepted as a denominator for aggressive and abusive interactions or relationships, both online and offline. However, toxic behaviour in videogames remains an elusive topic. Despite many research initiatives, and the implementation of numerous new features in games to discourage disruptive behaviour, toxicity continues being a part of players’ everyday experience with many online games. The goal of this article is thus to identify key causes and factors that may lead to toxic in-game interactions according to players’ perception. We studied the Dead by Daylight (DbD) (Behaviour Interactive, 2016) community, using a content analysis of players’ conversations on the game’s official subreddit to help us better understand how they perceive potentially toxic behaviour inside of the game. More specifically, we analyzed how and why players intensify or counter behaviour they view as toxic. We were able to identify five key aggravating factors for toxicity in DbD : 1) Role identification, 2) Ambiguity in objective setting, 3) Individual gaming experience, 4) Task repetition, 5) Rigidity of norms. These factors are interrelated, in that they may echo and amplify each other. Nonetheless, categorizing toxic behaviours remains difficult because the process depends on consensus-building within each videogame’s community (or communities).

Originally: http://gamestudies.org/2004/articles/deslauriers_iseutlafrancestmartin_bonenfant

Breathtaking !!!!!!!!!!!!

See video from here