Karolien Poels

It is always a lot of fun!: exploring dimensions of digital game experience using focus group methodology

This paper focuses on digital game experience: the feelings and experiences people have when they play digital games. Digital game experience is not a one-dimensional concept. Great variety exists in game genres and game players, and game experiences will differ accordingly. To date, game experience is studied in a rather fragmented way. As such, the field still lacks a common vocabulary and a shared taxonomy of the different dimensions of game experience. In this paper we describe a focus group study and present a tentative, but comprehensive categorisation of game experience. Focus groups with various types of gamers were organised to capture a full first-hand account of game experiences and second, findings were discussed in an expert meeting in which empirical findings were consolidated with existing theoretical findings. The categorisation bears relevance for both game theorists and game developers wanting to get to the heart of digital game experience.

Where everybody knows your game: the appeal and function of game cafés in western Europe

Game cafés are popping up in cities across Western Europe and are rapidly becoming popular places in the tangible world of the gamer. Compared to studies focused on Asia, motivations and activities of Western European visitors of game cafés are relatively unclear and not discussed in academic literature. Since understanding these motivations would contribute to explanations of why and how people play games, focus groups and contextual inquiries were organized with visitors of Dutch game cafés. The findings indicate that- similar to Asia - Western European game cafés can be seen as third places, a home base separate from home and work or school. Moreover, this research identifies why a game café and a virtual game world can both be regarded as a third place.