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Playability and Player Experience Research (Pre-print)

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Abstract

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.

Figures (2)
Figure 1: The interfaces between player, game and game designer show that playability is directed toward evaluating game design, whereas player experience has to be analyzed in the player-game interaction process. We argue that playability is the evaluative process directed toward games, whereas player experience is directed toward. players. More precisely, playability methods evaluate games to improve design, whereas player experience methods evaluate players to improve gaming. Figure 1 shows that this separation of terms becomes important in the game design process, especially within a user research team for deciding, which methods to deploy at which stage of the process.
Figure 1: The interfaces between player, game and game designer show that playability is directed toward evaluating game design, whereas player experience has to be analyzed in the player-game interaction process. We argue that playability is the evaluative process directed toward games, whereas player experience is directed toward. players. More precisely, playability methods evaluate games to improve design, whereas player experience methods evaluate players to improve gaming. Figure 1 shows that this separation of terms becomes important in the game design process, especially within a user research team for deciding, which methods to deploy at which stage of the process.
Figure 2: A simple example of a gameplay metrics analysis. The diagram details a time-spent analysis of the choice of weapons equipment for a single player during 25 minutes of Deus Ex gameplay. Gameplay metrics form a valuable objective data source to See ne ecniead Ga because these data fer quantitative, time-stamped information about the specific behavior of players of computer games (for an example see Figure 2) [3, 11, 31]. By combining metrical game data with other user experience measures - biofeedback, surveys and usability methods - it is now possible to directly link game experience with game design elements.
Figure 2: A simple example of a gameplay metrics analysis. The diagram details a time-spent analysis of the choice of weapons equipment for a single player during 25 minutes of Deus Ex gameplay. Gameplay metrics form a valuable objective data source to See ne ecniead Ga because these data fer quantitative, time-stamped information about the specific behavior of players of computer games (for an example see Figure 2) [3, 11, 31]. By combining metrical game data with other user experience measures - biofeedback, surveys and usability methods - it is now possible to directly link game experience with game design elements.

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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. Author

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