Gameplay Experience Research Papers - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

This paper explores the design of jumping in 2D platform games. Through creating a method for measuring existing games, applying this method to a selection of different platformer games, and analysing the results, the paper arrives at a comprehensive data model for jumping. The model supports the exploration, design and development of new jump implementations. The underlying framework and toolset can be used by game designers to measure, model and analyse movement in platform games.

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- Game Design, Video Games, Video Game Design, Video Game Development and Production
- by Lindsay Grace
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- Sex and Gender, Sexual Violence, Video Games, Video Game Design

There is a call in industry and research for objective evaluation of player experience in games. With recent technological advancements, it is possible to automatically log numerical information on in-game player behavior and put this into temporal, spatial, and psychophysiological context. The latter is done using biometric evaluation techniques, like electromyography (EMG), electroencephalography (EEG), and eye tracking. Therefore, it is necessary to discuss experimental results in academia and best practices in industry. This panel brings together experts from both worlds sharing their knowledge using conventional and experimental, qualitative and quantitative methods of player experience in games.

- by Lennart E Nacke
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- Game studies, Data Mining, User Experience (UX), Information Visualization

O RPG Digital e um gênero clássico de jogos que se mantém popular após anos de existência. A cada ano, diversos jogos deste tipo são lançados, causando um grande impacto no mercado de games e na crítica especializada. Este artigo relata os resultados de uma pesquisa sobre Design de Games focada no gênero de RPG Digital. Para a concepção e design de um jogo eletrônico muitos são os elementos que podem ser utilizados para maximizar a experiência de jogo e estabelecer uma conexão emocional com o jogador. Tais elementos podem ser funcionais e/ou estruturais, como a mecânica, interface e narrativa; ou mais subjetivos e conceituais. Na primeira etapa da pesquisa foi realizado um levantamento de dados para a elaboracao de questões relacionadas ao processo de Design de jogos eletrônicos e aos elementos que os compõem. As questões estavam focadas em investigar e identificar lacunas que pudessem vir a ser exploradas como diferenciais no processo de Design de novos jogos. Entre as questões formuladas foi realizado um recorte envolvendo aquelas relacionadas aos jogos de RPG Digital, mais especificamente questões que tratavam da interação do jogador com NPCs (Non-Player Characters). A escolha por este recorte veio do fato dos NPCs serem amplamente utilizados em jogos de RPG Digitais e por oferecem viéses diversos a serem observados na interação destes com o jogador; desde aspectos de personalidade até mecânicas de diálogo. Tais perguntas foram exploradas em um experimento prático. A partir dele, um questionário foi elaborado e aplicado em jogadores de RPG digital. O questionário buscava validar observações realizadas durante o experimento. Os resulta dos obtidos com esta pesquisa podem ser utilizados no processo de Design de um RPG Digital como uma referência de pontos pouco explorados em jogos existentes. A pesquisa também contribui para um melhor entendimento das expectativas de jogadores de RPG Digital em relacao aos jogos deste gênero.

- by Bruno B P L de Araujo and +4
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- Emotion, Game Design, Gameplay Experience, Role Playing Game (RPG)

This paper explores the relationship between the city and the game experience, with the intent of identify how the applied playfulness could happen during the visiting activity of particular areas of Milan.
This paper relates and analyses the design of a pervasive urban game concept, dealing with the territorial communication in the city. The project’s intended target is composed by tourists and curious citizens; the leading idea is to allow players to experience urban spaces more closely, bringing them thoward new interaction models with society and culture. The goal is to engage them in a relationship with the urban context and its compositive elements. The project is the consequence of a theorical research on game topics and of the desire for the development of a socio-cultural interaction related to the urban fabric; it was born as a graduation thesis at Politecnico di Milano, School of Design in 2011.

- by Ilaria Mariani
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- Communication, Game Design, Pervasive Gaming, Gameplay Experience

This paper discusses the critical gameplay design project and its newest developments. After being exhibited in five national and international venues in 2009--2010, the project has been reconstituted with 3 new games that critique specific aspects of standard gameplay. This short paper reflects on the experience of the exhibition and the design heuristics gathered from them. The paper discusses the three axes of creating Critical Gameplay Games, content, process and scale. It is provided as a resource for researchers making polemic games, including but not limited to persuasive games, advergames, and critical gameplay. It is also useful to people involved in game jams or other intensive, time restricted game-making activities.

- by Lindsay Grace
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- Cultural Studies, Media and Cultural Studies, Design, Game Design

The aim of this study is to find the relationship between the specific gameplay elements of a chosen game and the gameplay experience it provides which will be measured by a selected survey from the literature, the Game Experience Questionnaire (GEQ). Before illustrating the relation between the game elements and the player experience measured via GEQ, a confirmatory factor analysis was conducted to validate the factor structure of GEQ and GEQ is also evaluated for its unidimensionality, internal reliability, convergent validity and discriminant validity. The selected game for the study is Horizon Zero Dawn which is an open-world action role-playing video game developed by Guerrilla Games. Selling more than 2.6 million units worldwide in two weeks, the game has become the best-selling new first party IP launch on the PlayStation 4. Our study aims to answer the following questions: (1) Can we measure a successful and popular game's experience with GEQ? (2) What are the gameplay elements that make this game so popular? (3) Are there any correlations with the subscales of GEQ and the gameplay elements in question?

- by Barbaros Bostan
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- Player Experience, Gameplay Experience
- by C. Thi Nguyen
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- Aesthetics, Philosophy of Technology, Landscape Architecture, Game Design
- by Hex L Kri
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- Video Games, Video Game Theory, Gameplay Experience, Horror

- by Martin Pichlmair and +1
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- Game Design, Video Games, Video Game Design, Video Game Development and Production

Abstract: This chapter introduces critical gameplay design as a technique for creating digital games that offer alternative play. Critical gameplay provides the opportunity to explore game ethics through the way games are designed to be played. Since game designers outline the rules of play, game designs outline designer's definitions of what is ethical and important. Taking the notion that design is a reflection of the designer's values, this chapter outlines methodologies for exposing the intrinsic values in play and creating gameplay models from alternative ethics and values. The chapter concludes with examples of critical gameplay games that have been demonstrated to international audience.

- by Lindsay Grace
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- Ethics, Game Design, Computer Ethics, Computer Games Technology

In recent years, the rapid growth of the video game industry has attracted much scholarly attention to video game translation. Mangiron and O’Hagan (2006, 2013) borrowed the notion of transcreation from Translation Studies and wrote that video games must be sometimes transcreated so as to retain the original gameplay experience. Nevertheless, the authors’ description has been challenged due to the emergence of constructed languages in video games. Constructed languages are man-made languages that are potentially transcreatable using a group of six translation strategies. Because such languages only became popular in video games after Mangiron and O’Hagan wrote about transcreation, their description failed to explain whether the strategies can be used to translate constructed language text and retain the game’s original gameplay experience.
The present study investigates whether Mangiron and O’Hagan’s transcreative strategies can be used to translate constructed languages in game assets and retain the game’s gameplay experience. The present study analyzes constructed language texts in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, and categorizes them based on asset type, text type, immersion components, and translation strategies, in order to determine whether transcreative strategies can be used to translate constructed language texts. Results show that transcreative strategies are rarely used for constructed language texts and that the texts are often transliterated or kept unchanged. The present study concludes by recommending that translators select strategies based on gameplay experience and the ways constructed languages and game assets are used in games.

- by 泰榮周
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- Gameplay Experience, Constructed Languages, Transcreation, Game Localization
- by Olli Tapio Leino
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- Philosophy of Technology, Gameplay (Video Game Design), Context, Meaning

As the game industry matures and games become more and more complex, there is an increasing need to develop scientific methodologies for analyzing and measuring player experience, in order to develop a better understanding of the relationship and interactions between players and games. This panel gathers distinguished European playability and user experience experts to discuss current findings and methodological advancements within player experience and playability research.

- by Hannu Korhonen and +1
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- Usability, User Experience (UX), Experience Design, Usability and user experience

This article proposes a scale for measuring player identification in massively multiplayer online games (MMOGs). Three dimensions have been derived from the literature, avatar identification, group identification, and game identification, whereby avatar identification is a second-order factor consisting of similarity identification, wishful identification, and embodied presence. Based on the results of a cross-sectional survey of 544 World of Warcraft players, the measurement instrument's proposed factorial structure was confirmed and the constructs were successfully tested for convergent validity. Subsequently, support for nomological validity was gathered by testing nine theoretically rooted hypotheses linking the identification constructs to motivations for playing MMOGs. The results show that avatar identification is positively associated with roleplay, customization, and escapism; group identification with socializing and relationship; and game identification with escapism, discovery, advancement, and mechanics. These findings indicate that the Player Identification Scale provides a reliable measure of identification in online games ready to be used and further validated in subsequent research.

- by Jan Van Looy
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- Game studies, User Experience (UX), Virtual Communities, Video Games

This book is devoted to emotional and narrative immersion in the experience of gameplay. The focus of our research is the complex interplay between the story and mechanics in digital games. Our goal is to demonstrate how the narrative and the ludic elements together can form unique player experiences. The volume is a collection of case studies involving close reading of selected independent titles, with focus placed on the themes, motifs and experimental approaches to gameplay present therein.

- by Dariusz Brzostek
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- Psychology, Video Games, Digital Games, Player Experience

This master thesis studies the communicative and interactional dynamics between a gamer and a game system through the theories of film enunciation and cognition. By analyzing first-person survival horror video games, the purpose is to conceptualize a heuristic spiral of enunciation following the theoretical frame of the Magic Cycle (Arsenault et Perron, 2009). It will be explained that the self-reflexive nature of “game mark” (marque de jeu) and “gameplay mark” (marque de jouabilité) serve to assigned a relationships between an enunciative formulation (textual, verbal, visual, auditory or procedural), the contextual details, and an agent of enunciation. This methodology aim to analyze the gamer’s cognitive negotiation of the immediacy-hypermediacy value through the setting of “linking relations” (rapport de liaison) and “unlinking relations” (rapport de déliaison). This will explained how the gamer produced meaning from some “ludics propositions” and “ludodiegetics propostitions” in order to proceed with the cognitive mapping of interactional attitudes. It will be discuss that through the process of “performative attuning” (mise en phase performative) and “meta-systemic ludic attuning” (mise en phase méta-systémique ludique), these propositions are then introduced as immersive vector. Depending on the vector’s immediacy-hypermediacy value, the gamer’s experience oscillates on an immersive continuum which polarized a systemic experience and a diegetic experience.

- by Hugo Montembeault
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- Game Theory, Game studies, Media Studies, New Media

No presente artigo abordamos como o design de interfaces, aplicado ao campo dos jogos digitais, potencializa transmissão de sensações ao jogador. Iniciamos com uma discussão sobre a metáfora da interface e suas possibilidades de manifestação nos videogames no uso de recursos narrativos e regras para compor mundos ficcionais. Partiremos da relação entre o Dasein e os entes fundamentais de Heidegger (1927) e também das teorias sobre a presença virtual, discutindo suas características e aplicação na composição de mundos ficcionais que estimulem a percepção de presença no jogador. Em seguida, consideramos o conceito de meaningful play e exploramos as sensações possíveis ao jogador quando em processo de imersão em um espaço simulado. Por último, discutiremos a presença do outro e como tais relações se apresentam no jogo Death Stranding, partindo para uma análise estética.

- by Guillaume Levieux
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- Game Design, Gameplay (Video Game Design), Evaluation, Video Game

This article focuses on the phenomenon of meaningful experiences within digital games. To this end, rather than Game Studies, we propose 'Gameworld Studies' as better articulating both the goal of certain theorists and theoretical approaches, and the player experience. In explicating meaning, the authors utilise and link two frameworks: hermeneutic phenomenology and self-determination theory. This interdisciplinary perspective is applied to two data sets, one quantitative, one qualitative, regarding players' experiences of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt and Fallout 4. The responses illuminate how certain design decisions have substantial impacts upon both how, and why, particular meanings manifest within the player experience. The article concludes with recommendations for both the design and study of digital games.

- by Steven Conway
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- Psychology, Game studies, Self-Determination Theory, Phenomenology

This paper analyses the use of asymmetric gameplay on the videogame console Nintendo Wii U, using concepts of interaction design, interface design, playability, game mechanics and the console by itself. The interaction between player and console, and the interface elements can shape and limit the game mechanics, with direct influence on the playability. We analysed the asymmetric gameplay on the title Nintendo Land and as a result, we highlighted the main game mechanics and playability trends used. Through the analysis of them, some new possibilities of game mechanics using asymmetric gameplay, specifically on Wii U, became clear, and we could identify some incremental changes on game interface systems, proposed by Schell.

- by Marisardo Filho
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- Interaction Design, Game Design, Video Games, Video Game Design

In this paper we examine the factors that contribute to the general appeal of World of Warcraft through the use of the AttrakDiff questionnaire. AttrakDiff is a questionnaire that measures the users' perceptions in four categories: Pragmatic Quality, Hedonic Identification, Hedonic Stimulation and General Appeal. 40 players and non-players of World of Warcraft were requested to have a brief play session on the game, and then answer the AttrakDiff questionnaire. After correlation analysis we found that usability and appeal are intimately related attributes for the game of World of Warcraft.

- by Georgios Christou
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- Usability, Game Design, Multiplayer Online Games, Digital Games

This document contains the English version of the Game Experience Questionnaire. The development and testing of the Game Experience Questionnaire is described in project Deliverable 3.3. The Game Experience Questionnaire has a modular... more

- by yvonne de Kort
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- Gameplay Experience, Game Experience

Muito discute-se acerca dos videogames como expressões artísticas. A intenção de se legitimar a arte também é questionável e controversa. É frequente a afirmação de que os games seriam arte por seus elementos sonoros, visuais e narrativos, porém, o que este texto propõe é um encaminhamento para a compreensão dos games enquanto arte baseando-se em perspectivas de Walter Benjamin e os valores propostos pelo autor. Por meio de contextualização histórica, conceitos e exemplos, propõe-se que os games poderiam sim serem considerados como expressão artística legítima, mas seus elementos estéticos dependeriam da própria apreciação dos jogos digitais dentro de contextos socioculturais incluindo as experiências de jogo como uma possível maneira de se repensar a aura pensada por Benjamin.

- by Rodrigo Oliveira
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- Aesthetics, Art Theory, Video Games, Walter Benjamin

One's feelings of intimacy and connectedness with distal, fictional media characters are referred to as parasocial interactions. Video games have challenged this concept, as the distance between game players and characters is greatly reduced, if not completely removed, in virtual environments. Games encourage the internalization and psychological merging of a player's and a character's mind, a multidimensional concept known as character attachment (CA). Data from our study suggest that dimensions of CA are useful in understanding both pro- and anti-social gaming motivations. Pro-social gamers feel a greater sense of control over their characters, while anti-social gamers are more likely to suspend their disbelief of the game environment and not take responsibility for their virtual actions. Pro-social gaming was more prevalent in older gamers, and younger male game characters were motivated by anti-social reasons.

- by Nicholas Bowman
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- Personality Psychology, Video Games, Gameplay Experience, Avatars

User experience (UX) studies in video games have become increasingly prevalent in the literature in recent years due to an increasing global focus in UX, multiple new video game platforms and the growing utilisation of virtual reality technology. To have a video game perform at an acceptable level for the user, research scientists must investigate which parts of a video game are effective in terms of overall game enjoyment and playability. There are various factors that affect the overall user experience in a video game. In this study, we take a closer look at the differences in brain waves using an electroencephalogram (EEG) and UX satisfaction metrics in both desktop and VR gaming conditions utilising a commercial EEG device capable of measuring a range of brain activity.

- by Damian Schofield and +1
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- Usability, Virtual Reality (Computer Graphics), Video Games, Video Game Design
- by Wouter van den Hoogen
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- Information Systems, Psychology, Cognitive Science, Serious Games

The First-Person Walker genre is defined by minimal player interactions, a deliberate slow pacing of the game play, and ambiguous goals. These distinct characteristics of FirstPerson Walkers challenge how we may consider a digital game. As such, there is a gap in understanding the design attributes that contribute to the unique game experiences afforded by ‘Walkers’. We conduct a player experience study of four Walker games, Gone Home, Dear Esther, Proteus, and The Stanley Parable. From our analysis we discuss four distinct design themes specific to the Walker game experience: 1) player interaction, 2) temporal space, 3) player focus, and 4) ambiguity. We consider how each of these themes can be used to enhance the design of First-Person Walker player experiences.

- by Jonathan Duckworth
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- Psychology, Computer Science, Game studies, Virtual Environments

Este artigo procura discutir sobre uma performance de alto rendimento no jogo on-line League of Legends (LoL), cujo objetivo é compreender como a busca pela perícia ocorre entre os sujeitos-jogadores. Para tanto, o artigo concentra-se na discussão de um modelo binário composto pela mecânica e metagame no processo de especialização/aprendizado de uma experiência de cunho tanto operacional quanto social, passando pela repetição e a procura por padrões por parte dos jogadores. Para alcançar este objetivo, a proposta é formada de um processo articulado que possui nos elementos “jogo” e “jogadores” sua manifestação central para constituição da esfera empírica de investigação, a partir de um olhar baseado nos estudos da comunicação, performance studies e game studies. Nessa perspectiva, à guisa do método etnográfico, são apresentadas narrativas e experiências de performances em LoL por jogadores das cidades de Belém (PA), Diadema (SP) e Osasco (SP). Os resultados apontam para as diversas capacidades que os aspectos sociais, para além do jogo, têm de incutir nas dinâmicas das narrativas e dos estudos das experiências, das perícias e das performances em LoL.

- by Tarcízio Macedo and +1
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- High Performance Computing, Mechanics, Game Theory, Game studies

In this paper I will discuss, by building on post-phenomenological philosophy of technology, existential ludology, and game studies, the conditions of possibility for discovery in computer games and present a sketch for a model of three 'levels of discovery' in computer games: discovery of that which we can do, of that which we need to do, and, of what we want to do.

- by Jan Van Looy
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- Game studies, Serious Games, Game Based Learning, Digital Games
- by Tzu Yuan Hsu
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- Serious Games, Game Design, Gameplay (Video Game Design), Game Based Learning

This paper presents the results of a qualitative study of players' awareness of the mediation of gameplay by a hardware input device (gamepad). As a point of departure we adopt a definition of gameplay which places interfaces at the centre of the experience, but does not compromise the perception of other mediators and their interference in the process. We argue that indirect-mapping interfaces have their own advantages and can be the source of greater enjoyment in gameplay. Presentation of results is organized in 7 categories: software interface, movement in the gameworld, interaction with the gameworld, camera movement, materiality of the gamepad, corporeality of players and spatial awareness and perception. Results indicate that players remain aware of the hardware interfaces and of their own corporeality throughout gameplay. Rather than dematerialization and immersion, players experienced embodied presence and expansion of the gameworld towards the physical space.

- by Mariana Amaro and +1
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- Human Computer Interaction, Game studies, Qualitative methodology, Video Games
- by Jan Van Looy
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- Game studies, Educational Technology, Serious Games, Game Design

Affection games are ludic experiences in which players are required to express culturally recognized expressions of fondness as a primary goal in the game. Interestingly, while the physical world of analog play has many such activities, the digital world has been relatively limited in affording players the ability to express affection as the primary game goal. Affection games in digital play exist as somewhat esoteric clusters across a variety of cultures and super genres. This paper defragments the diverse set of affection games, collecting, cataloging and describing the games in detail. The paper provides a content analysis of affection games and an overview of their preponderance on the web.
This paper organizes affection games into a simple classification based on their game verbs. These are flirting, hugging, kissing, and sexual affection. The content analysis provides the attributes through which the affection games are clustered. Notable patterns from the content analysis include indications that kissing and sexual affection are most common, while hugging games are the rarest. There is also a strong coupling of targeted gender identification and the types of affection made playable. These patterns are indicated both in the spaces in which they are distributed and in their content.
As the game industry and the academic research community look for new ways to understand and engage wider demographics, the lessons learned from studying affection games may prove useful. Affection games reveal cultural values, taboo, and may potentially expand the space of pro-social play.

- by Lindsay Grace
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- Sex and Gender, Sexual Violence, Video Games, Video Game Design
- by Patricia Gouveia and +1
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- Game studies, Gameplay Experience
- by Jan Van Looy
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- Game studies, Serious Games, Game Design, Game Based Learning

- by Lindsay Grace
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- Cultural Studies, Computer Science, Media and Cultural Studies, Design

- by Mariana Amaro
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- Human Computer Interaction, Game studies, Qualitative methodology, Video Games

This paper describes the phenomenon of game-biased perceptions and associations, or how, through intensive game play, elements from the game world can trigger thoughts and imagery outside the game world, influencing the perception and interpretation of stimuli in everyday life. Examples include the insertion of game elements in thoughts, perceptions and dreams, the use of specific vocabulary or slang – typical to the game world – in everyday conversations, and the association of real-life objects with game elements. Results from an online survey with habitual players of World of Warcraft confirm the existence of this phenomenon and show that the occurrence of these game-biased perceptions and associations is reinforced by increasing playing time and
narrative involvement.
Keywords
Digital games, massively multiplayer online role-playing game, perception, player involvement, real life

- by yvonne de Kort and +1
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- Digital Games, Gameplay Experience, World of Warcraft, Game Experience

Failure is a central aspect of almost every game experience, driving player perceptions of difficulty and impacting core game user experience concepts such as flow. At the heart of failure in many game genres is player death. While techniques such as dynamic difficulty adjustment have addressed tweaking game parameters to control the frequency of player death occurrence, there is a surprisingly limited amount of research examining how games handle what happens when a player actually dies. We posit that this is a rich, underexplored space with significant implications for player experience and related techniques. This chapter presents our exploration into the space of player death and rebirth through the creation of a generalized taxonomy of death in platformer games—one of the genres that features player death and respawning most heavily. In order to create this taxonomy, we collected and catalogued examples of death and respawning mechanics from 62 recent platformer games released on the digital distribution platform Steam after January 2018. Games selected varied equally across positive, mixed, and negative overall reviews in order to provide a broader range of mechanics, both good and bad. We observed gameplays of each individual game and noted the processes of death and rebirth, respectively. A grounded theory approach was then employed to develop the taxonomy of game death and respawning, resulting in five notable dimensions: (1) obstacles, (2) death conditions, (3) aesthetics, (4) changes to player progress, and (5) respawn locations. Finally, we discuss how the different dimensions and mechanics highlighted in our taxonomy have implications for key aspects of player experience, as well as how they could be used to improve the effectiveness of related techniques such as dynamic difficulty adjustment.

- by Edward Melcer and +1
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- Video Games, Video Game Design, Player Experience, Gameplay Experience

Schlaraffia is a live action role-playing game (LARPG) that is played continuously since 1859. It contains impro-theatre aspects, is based on colaborative gaming, the principles of friendliness, even friendship, and (amateur) arts by employing humour, creativity and cultural learning, using the German language. The setting for the game satirises assumed medieval courts and more recent administrative pomp and forms. The game does not fully recognise winners or losers, nor does it deliver any services. Each session of the game consists of two parts, the first focusing on mock-administering the own chapter’s business, the second is centered on more artistic, mostly literary, culture. Music and songs are important for the framing rituals of each session, at least their opening and closing but wherever possible even within the session. Both parts combine role-playing and impro-theatre elements that build on clearly defined challenges. While the game is driven by banter and performances of all kinds of cultural production that mostly reflect on and/or joke about human nature, the principle of friendship between all members of Schlaraffia hinders aggressive competition or trolling behavious by its players. The text tries to describe, explain, analyse some of the crucial features of the game, with some focus on schlaraffic role-playing.

- by Jakob F . Dittmar
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- Humor/Satire, Parody, Representation, Gameplay Experience
- by J. Patrick Williams
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- Identity (Culture), Board Games, Engagement, Games