Evaluating User Experience in Games - Concepts and Methods

Foreword

Discussion

Contents

Contributors

About the Authors

Part I Introduction to Evaluation of UX

1 User Experience Evaluation in Entertainment

1.1 Introduction

1.2 Defining User Experience

1.3 Methods to Evaluate UX in Games

References

Part II Frameworks and Methods

2 Enabling Social Play: A Framework for Design and Evaluation

2.1 Introduction

2.1.1 Brief Overview of Related Work

2.1.2 Defining Social Play

2.1.3 Why Focus on Social Play

2.1.4 A Framework for Understanding Social Play

2.1.4.1 Contextual Factors

2.1.4.2 Motivational Factors

2.1.4.3 Conceptual and Theoretical Grounding

2.1.5 Evaluation Tactics

2.1.6 Challenges and Future Directions

References

3 Presence, Involvement, and Flow in Digital Games

3.1 Introduction

3.1.1 Games and Playing

3.1.2 Psychology of User Experience

3.1.3 User Experience in Games

3.1.4 Presence-Involvement-Flow Framework (PIFF)

3.1.4.1 Presence and Involvement

3.1.4.2 Flow

3.2 PIFF: Methodological Background

3.2.1 Presence and Involvement

3.2.2 Flow

3.3 PIFF 2 in Practice

3.3.1 Between Groups: PIFF 2 in Two Different Games

3.3.2 Between Users: Competence and Challenge in the First Hour

3.4 Contributions and Future Challenges

3.5 Appendix 1: The Final PFA of the Presence and Involvement Measurement Model

3.5 Appendix 2: The Final PFA of the Flow Measurement Model

References

4 Assessing the Core Elements of the Gaming Experience

4.1 The Experience of Playing Video-games

4.1.1 Introduction to Video-games

4.1.2 Introduction to User Experience

4.1.3 Overview of the Chapter

4.2 The Concept of User Experience

4.2.1 Understanding Experience

4.2.2 Definition of User Experience

4.3 The Experience of Playing Video-games

4.3.1 Optimal and Sub-optimal Experience in Video-games

4.3.2 The Need for a New Approach to Understand Experience in Video-games

4.4 Defining the Gaming Experience

4.4.1 A Grounded Theory Approach

4.4.2 Defining the Core Elements

4.4.2.1 About the Video-game

4.4.2.2 About Puppetry

4.4.3 About the Theory

4.5 Operationalising the Theory

4.5.1 The CEGE Model

4.5.2 A Questionnaire for the Gaming Experience

4.6 An Example of Using the Questionnaire

4.6.1 Method

4.6.1.1 Design

4.6.1.2 Participants

4.6.1.3 Apparatus and Materials

4.6.1.4 Procedure

4.6.2 Results

4.6.3 Discussion

4.7 Summary

Appendix

Core Elements of the Gaming Experience Questionnaire (CEGEQ)

Appendix

References

5 The Life and Tools of a Games Designer

5.1 Introduction

5.2 The Industry and the People

5.2.1 Industry

5.2.1.1 Platforms

5.2.1.2 Genres

5.2.1.3 Delivery

5.2.2 The People

5.2.3 How We Work Together

5.3 Development

5.3.1 Concept

5.3.1.1 Paper Prototyping

5.3.1.2 The Tech Demo

5.3.2 Pre-production

5.3.2.1 Heuristics

5.3.2.2 Personas

5.3.3 Production

5.3.3.1 User Testing

5.3.4 Post Launch

5.3.4.1 Reviews

5.3.4.2 Online Forums

5.4 The Future

5.5 Conclusion

References

6 Investigating Experiences and Attitudes Toward Videogames Using a Semantic Differential Methodology

6.1 Introduction

6.2 Experiences and Attitudes

6.2.1 Experiences, the Core Concept of Gaming

6.2.2 Why Attitudes Matter in Leisure Activities Such as Videogames

6.3 Case Study

6.3.1 Research Objectives

6.3.2 Methodological Procedures

6.3.3 Choice of Concepts and Adjectives

6.3.4 The Differential Semantic Questions

6.3.5 Description of Participants (Descriptive Analyses)

6.3.6 Multidimensional Analyses of Attitudes Toward Leisure and Games

6.3.7 Comparisons Between Subgroups

6.4 Discussion

6.4.1 Discussion of the Results

6.4.2 Discussion of the Semantic Differential Methodology

6.5 Conclusion

References

7 Video Game Development and User Experience

7.1 Introduction

7.2 Previous Work

7.2.1 Traditional HCI Approaches

7.2.2 Refining Traditional Methods

7.2.3 Heuristics

7.2.4 User Experience

7.2.5 Game Development

7.3 Introduction to the Game Development Life Cycle

7.3.1 Concept

7.3.2 Prototyping

7.3.3 Pre-production

7.3.4 Production

7.3.5 Alpha -- Beta -- Gold

7.4 Case Studies

7.4.1 Case Study 1 -- Black Rock Studio

7.4.1.1 Game Development at Black Rock Studio

7.4.1.2 Prototyping

7.4.1.3 Pre-production

7.4.1.4 Alpha to Release

7.4.1.5 Post-launch

7.4.1.6 Understanding the User

7.4.1.7 Pure Development Summary

7.4.2 Case Study 2 ë Zoë Mode

7.4.2.1 Understanding the User

7.4.2.2 Game Language

7.4.2.3 Game Complexity and Accessibility

7.4.2.4 Usability Tests

7.4.2.5 Changing Demographic

7.4.2.6 Studio-Wide Quality Review

7.4.2.7 Postmortem

7.4.2.8 Summary

7.4.3 Case Study 3 -- Relentless Software

7.4.3.1 Internal Testing

7.4.3.2 Understanding Users

7.4.3.3 Post-Launch

7.4.3.4 Relentless Software Typical Development Summary

7.5 Discussion

7.6 Future Challenges

References

Part III User Experience Decomposed

8 User Experience Design for Inexperienced Gamers:GAP -- Game Approachability Principles

8.1 Introduction

8.2 Game Approachability

8.2.1 Learning as a Means to Approachability

8.3 Design of the Study: Comparison of Empirical Usability Evaluation and Heuristic Evaluation by GAP

8.3.1 The Games

8.3.2 Heuristic Evaluation Based on GAP

8.3.2.1 The GAP List

8.3.3 Empirical Usability Evaluation

8.3.4 Comparison of Results

8.4 Results of the Heuristic Evaluation by GAP Heuristic Counts

8.4.1 Examples of Approachability Found in Data

8.4.1.1 GAP as Heuristic Evaluation Not Found in Usability Testing

8.4.1.2 GAP Found in Usability Testing Not Found in GAP Heuristic Evaluation

8.4.1.3 GAP Found in Both Usability Testing and Heuristic Evaluation

8.4.2 Level of Detail

8.5 Conclusion

8.6 Future Work

References

9 Digital Games, the Aftermath: Qualitative Insights into Postgame Experiences

9.1 Introduction

9.2 The Conceptualization of Postgame Experiences

9.2.1 Postgame Experiences Related to Game Enjoyment

9.2.2 Postgame Experiences Related to Game Immersion

9.2.3 Postgame Experiences Related to Game Flow

9.2.4 Postgame Experiences Related to Social Gaming

9.2.5 Postgame Experiences Related to Embodied Gaming

9.2.6 Postgame Experiences After Repeated Exposure to a Game Environment

9.3 Focus Group Explorations

9.3.1 Exploring Short-Term Postgame Experiences

9.3.1.1 Participants and Procedure

9.3.1.2 Results

9.3.2 Exploring Long-Term Postgame Experiences

9.3.2.1 Participants and Procedure

9.3.2.2 Results

9.4 Discussion and Conclusion

References

10 Evaluating User Experience Factors Using Experiments: Expressive Artificial Faces Embedded in Contexts

10.1 Introduction

10.2 Related Work

10.2.1 General Description on Emotion

10.2.2 Games and User Experience

10.2.3 Embodied Conversational Agents

10.2.4 Facial Expressions Performed by Embodied Conversational Agents

10.3 Evaluation

10.3.1 Methodological Considerations

10.3.2 Prestudy 1: Evaluation of Emotion-Eliciting Situations

10.3.3 Prestudy 2: Evaluation of Artificial Facial Expressions

10.3.4 Prestudy 3: Evaluation of Settings and Text Fragments

10.3.5 Experiment: Facial Expression and User Experience

10.4 Results

10.5 Conclusions and Future Work

References

Part IV User Experience Evaluating Special Aspects of Games

11 Evaluating Exertion Games

11.1 Introduction

11.2 Approach

11.3 Evaluating User Experience Post-playing

11.3.1 Interviews

11.3.2 Prisoner's Dilemma Task

11.3.3 Questionnaire

11.4 Evaluating User Experience In-Place

11.4.1 Coding Body Movement

11.4.2 Automatically Coding Body Movement

11.5 Other Approaches of Evaluating Exertion Games

11.5.1 Physiological Measurements

11.5.2 Borg's Perceived Exertion Scale

11.5.3 Evaluating Exertion Games Based on User Groups

11.5.4 Evaluating Using Blogs

11.6 Future Challenges

11.7 Final Thoughts

References

12 Beyond the Gamepad: HCI and Game Controller Design and Evaluation

12.1 Introduction

12.2 The Evolution of Game Controllers

12.2.1 Standard Game Controllers

12.2.2 Focus on Innovative Game Controllers

12.3 Evaluating Game Controllers: Experience, Usability, and Functionality

12.3.1 Introduction to the Components of Human--Computer Interaction

12.3.2 Functionality and Game Controllers

12.3.3 Usability and Game Controllers

12.3.4 Experience and Game Controllers

12.3.5 Evaluation and Design of Game Controllers

12.4 Case Study

12.4.1 Justification

12.4.1.1 Functionality

12.4.1.2 Usability

12.4.1.3 Experience

12.4.2 Methodology

12.4.2.1 Procedure

12.4.3 Results

12.4.3.1 Functionality

12.4.3.2 Usability

12.4.3.3 User Experience

12.4.4 Combining the Results

12.4.5 Critique

12.4.6 Conclusions

12.5 Discussion

12.5.1 Implications and Recommendations

12.5.2 Future Research

References

13 Using Heuristics to Evaluate the Overall User Experience of Video Games and Advanced Interaction Games

13.1 Introduction

13.1.1 Overview

13.2 Video Game Definition and Genres

13.3 User-Centred Design in Games

13.4 History of Heuristics for Video Games

13.5 User Experience of Games

13.6 Overview and Review of Existing Video Game Heuristics and Their Impact on User Experience

13.6.1 Video Game Heuristics

13.6.2 Heuristic Approach to User Experience

13.7 A Framework of Heuristics for the Evaluation of a Tabletop Games User Experience

13.8 Summary and Future Challenges

References

Index