Evaluating User Experience in Games (eBook)

Foreword 8
Discussion 8
Contents 14
Contributors 16
About the Authors 20
Part I Introduction to Evaluation of UX 30
1 User Experience Evaluation in Entertainment 31
1.1 Introduction 31
1.2 Defining User Experience 32
1.3 Methods to Evaluate UX in Games 33
References 35
Part II Frameworks and Methods 36
2 Enabling Social Play: A Framework for Design and Evaluation 37
2.1 Introduction 37
2.1.1 Brief Overview of Related Work 37
2.1.2 Defining Social Play 38
2.1.3 Why Focus on Social Play 39
2.1.4 A Framework for Understanding Social Play 40
2.1.4.1 Contextual Factors 40
2.1.4.2 Motivational Factors 41
2.1.4.3 Conceptual and Theoretical Grounding 42
2.1.5 Evaluation Tactics 44
2.1.6 Challenges and Future Directions 46
References 46
3 Presence, Involvement, and Flow in Digital Games 49
3.1 Introduction 49
3.1.1 Games and Playing 50
3.1.2 Psychology of User Experience 51
3.1.3 User Experience in Games 53
3.1.4 Presence-Involvement-Flow Framework (PIFF) 56
3.1.4.1 Presence and Involvement 56
3.1.4.2 Flow 57
3.2 PIFF: Methodological Background 58
3.2.1 Presence and Involvement 60
3.2.2 Flow 61
3.3 PIFF 2 in Practice 61
3.3.1 Between Groups: PIFF 2 in Two Different Games 62
3.3.2 Between Users: Competence and Challenge in the First Hour 65
3.4 Contributions and Future Challenges 68
3.5 Appendix 1: The Final PFA of the Presence and Involvement Measurement Model 69
3.5 Appendix 2: The Final PFA of the Flow Measurement Model 69
References 70
4 Assessing the Core Elements of the Gaming Experience 73
4.1 The Experience of Playing Video-games 73
4.1.1 Introduction to Video-games 74
4.1.2 Introduction to User Experience 74
4.1.3 Overview of the Chapter 75
4.2 The Concept of User Experience 75
4.2.1 Understanding Experience 75
4.2.2 Definition of User Experience 76
4.3 The Experience of Playing Video-games 77
4.3.1 Optimal and Sub-optimal Experience in Video-games 78
4.3.2 The Need for a New Approach to Understand Experience in Video-games 79
4.4 Defining the Gaming Experience 79
4.4.1 A Grounded Theory Approach 80
4.4.2 Defining the Core Elements 81
4.4.2.1 About the Video-game 82
4.4.2.2 About Puppetry 83
4.4.3 About the Theory 88
4.5 Operationalising the Theory 89
4.5.1 The CEGE Model 89
4.5.2 A Questionnaire for the Gaming Experience 91
4.6 An Example of Using the Questionnaire 91
4.6.1 Method 91
4.6.1.1 Design 91
4.6.1.2 Participants 92
4.6.1.3 Apparatus and Materials 92
4.6.1.4 Procedure 92
4.6.2 Results 93
4.6.3 Discussion 93
4.7 Summary 94
Appendix 94
Core Elements of the Gaming Experience Questionnaire (CEGEQ) 95
Appendix 95
References 96
5 The Life and Tools of a Games Designer 98
5.1 Introduction 98
5.2 The Industry and the People 99
5.2.1 Industry 99
5.2.1.1 Platforms 99
5.2.1.2 Genres 100
5.2.1.3 Delivery 100
5.2.2 The People 100
5.2.3 How We Work Together 101
5.3 Development 101
5.3.1 Concept 101
5.3.1.1 Paper Prototyping 102
5.3.1.2 The Tech Demo 103
5.3.2 Pre-production 105
5.3.2.1 Heuristics 105
5.3.2.2 Personas 106
5.3.3 Production 106
5.3.3.1 User Testing 107
5.3.4 Post Launch 108
5.3.4.1 Reviews 109
5.3.4.2 Online Forums 109
5.4 The Future 110
5.5 Conclusion 111
References 111
6 Investigating Experiences and Attitudes Toward Videogames Using a Semantic Differential Methodology 113
6.1 Introduction 113
6.2 Experiences and Attitudes 115
6.2.1 Experiences, the Core Concept of Gaming 115
6.2.2 Why Attitudes Matter in Leisure Activities Such as Videogames 116
6.3 Case Study 117
6.3.1 Research Objectives 117
6.3.2 Methodological Procedures 118
6.3.3 Choice of Concepts and Adjectives 118
6.3.4 The Differential Semantic Questions 119
6.3.5 Description of Participants (Descriptive Analyses) 120
6.3.6 Multidimensional Analyses of Attitudes Toward Leisure and Games 120
6.3.7 Comparisons Between Subgroups 122
6.4 Discussion 126
6.4.1 Discussion of the Results 126
6.4.2 Discussion of the Semantic Differential Methodology 127
6.5 Conclusion 127
References 128
7 Video Game Development and User Experience 130
7.1 Introduction 130
7.2 Previous Work 131
7.2.1 Traditional HCI Approaches 131
7.2.2 Refining Traditional Methods 132
7.2.3 Heuristics 132
7.2.4 User Experience 132
7.2.5 Game Development 133
7.3 Introduction to the Game Development Life Cycle 133
7.3.1 Concept 133
7.3.2 Prototyping 134
7.3.3 Pre-production 134
7.3.4 Production 134
7.3.5 Alpha -- Beta -- Gold 135
7.4 Case Studies 135
7.4.1 Case Study 1 -- Black Rock Studio 136
7.4.1.1 Game Development at Black Rock Studio 136
7.4.1.2 Prototyping 136
7.4.1.3 Pre-production 136
7.4.1.4 Alpha to Release 137
7.4.1.5 Post-launch 137
7.4.1.6 Understanding the User 138
7.4.1.7 Pure Development Summary 140
7.4.2 Case Study 2 ë Zoë Mode 140
7.4.2.1 Understanding the User 140
7.4.2.2 Game Language 141
7.4.2.3 Game Complexity and Accessibility 143
7.4.2.4 Usability Tests 143
7.4.2.5 Changing Demographic 144
7.4.2.6 Studio-Wide Quality Review 144
7.4.2.7 Postmortem 144
7.4.2.8 Summary 145
7.4.3 Case Study 3 -- Relentless Software 145
7.4.3.1 Internal Testing 146
7.4.3.2 Understanding Users 146
7.4.3.3 Post-Launch 147
7.4.3.4 Relentless Software Typical Development Summary 148
7.5 Discussion 148
7.6 Future Challenges 149
References 150
Part III User Experience Decomposed 152
8 User Experience Design for Inexperienced Gamers:GAP -- Game Approachability Principles 153
8.1 Introduction 153
8.2 Game Approachability 155
8.2.1 Learning as a Means to Approachability 156
8.3 Design of the Study: Comparison of Empirical Usability Evaluation and Heuristic Evaluation by GAP 156
8.3.1 The Games 157
8.3.2 Heuristic Evaluation Based on GAP 157
8.3.2.1 The GAP List 158
8.3.3 Empirical Usability Evaluation 159
8.3.4 Comparison of Results 159
8.4 Results of the Heuristic Evaluation by GAP Heuristic Counts 160
8.4.1 Examples of Approachability Found in Data 160
8.4.1.1 GAP as Heuristic Evaluation Not Found in Usability Testing 160
8.4.1.2 GAP Found in Usability Testing Not Found in GAP Heuristic Evaluation 163
8.4.1.3 GAP Found in Both Usability Testing and Heuristic Evaluation 166
8.4.2 Level of Detail 166
8.5 Conclusion 167
8.6 Future Work 168
References 168
9 Digital Games, the Aftermath: Qualitative Insights into Postgame Experiences 170
9.1 Introduction 170
9.2 The Conceptualization of Postgame Experiences 171
9.2.1 Postgame Experiences Related to Game Enjoyment 172
9.2.2 Postgame Experiences Related to Game Immersion 172
9.2.3 Postgame Experiences Related to Game Flow 173
9.2.4 Postgame Experiences Related to Social Gaming 173
9.2.5 Postgame Experiences Related to Embodied Gaming 174
9.2.6 Postgame Experiences After Repeated Exposure to a Game Environment 174
9.3 Focus Group Explorations 175
9.3.1 Exploring Short-Term Postgame Experiences 175
9.3.1.1 Participants and Procedure 176
9.3.1.2 Results 176
9.3.2 Exploring Long-Term Postgame Experiences 179
9.3.2.1 Participants and Procedure 179
9.3.2.2 Results 180
9.4 Discussion and Conclusion 182
References 183
10 Evaluating User Experience Factors Using Experiments: Expressive Artificial Faces Embedded in Contexts 185
10.1 Introduction 185
10.2 Related Work 186
10.2.1 General Description on Emotion 187
10.2.2 Games and User Experience 188
10.2.3 Embodied Conversational Agents 188
10.2.4 Facial Expressions Performed by Embodied Conversational Agents 189
10.3 Evaluation 191
10.3.1 Methodological Considerations 191
10.3.2 Prestudy 1: Evaluation of Emotion-Eliciting Situations 192
10.3.3 Prestudy 2: Evaluation of Artificial Facial Expressions 193
10.3.4 Prestudy 3: Evaluation of Settings and Text Fragments 195
10.3.5 Experiment: Facial Expression and User Experience 196
10.4 Results 199
10.5 Conclusions and Future Work 200
References 201
Part IV User Experience Evaluating Special Aspects of Games 204
11 Evaluating Exertion Games 205
11.1 Introduction 205
11.2 Approach 207
11.3 Evaluating User Experience Post-playing 208
11.3.1 Interviews 209
11.3.2 Prisoner's Dilemma Task 211
11.3.3 Questionnaire 213
11.4 Evaluating User Experience In-Place 214
11.4.1 Coding Body Movement 215
11.4.2 Automatically Coding Body Movement 216
11.5 Other Approaches of Evaluating Exertion Games 218
11.5.1 Physiological Measurements 219
11.5.2 Borg's Perceived Exertion Scale 219
11.5.3 Evaluating Exertion Games Based on User Groups 220
11.5.4 Evaluating Using Blogs 220
11.6 Future Challenges 221
11.7 Final Thoughts 221
References 223
12 Beyond the Gamepad: HCI and Game Controller Design and Evaluation 226
12.1 Introduction 226
12.2 The Evolution of Game Controllers 227
12.2.1 Standard Game Controllers 228
12.2.2 Focus on Innovative Game Controllers 228
12.3 Evaluating Game Controllers: Experience, Usability, and Functionality 229
12.3.1 Introduction to the Components of Human--Computer Interaction 229
12.3.2 Functionality and Game Controllers 230
12.3.3 Usability and Game Controllers 231
12.3.4 Experience and Game Controllers 232
12.3.5 Evaluation and Design of Game Controllers 232
12.4 Case Study 233
12.4.1 Justification 234
12.4.1.1 Functionality 234
12.4.1.2 Usability 234
12.4.1.3 Experience 234
12.4.2 Methodology 235
12.4.2.1 Procedure 235
12.4.3 Results 236
12.4.3.1 Functionality 236
12.4.3.2 Usability 236
12.4.3.3 User Experience 238
12.4.4 Combining the Results 242
12.4.5 Critique 244
12.4.6 Conclusions 244
12.5 Discussion 245
12.5.1 Implications and Recommendations 245
12.5.2 Future Research 245
References 246
13 Using Heuristics to Evaluate the Overall User Experience of Video Games and Advanced Interaction Games 249
13.1 Introduction 249
13.1.1 Overview 251
13.2 Video Game Definition and Genres 252
13.3 User-Centred Design in Games 252
13.4 History of Heuristics for Video Games 254
13.5 User Experience of Games 255
13.6 Overview and Review of Existing Video Game Heuristics and Their Impact on User Experience 257
13.6.1 Video Game Heuristics 261
13.6.2 Heuristic Approach to User Experience 263
13.7 A Framework of Heuristics for the Evaluation of a Tabletop Games User Experience 266
13.8 Summary and Future Challenges 268
References 269
Index 273