Penelope Sweetser

Player-Centered Game Environments: Assessing Player Opinions, Experiences, and Issues

Game developers have identified, explored and discussed many of the key issues that arise for players interacting in game worlds. However, there is a need to assess the thoughts and opinions of game-players on these issues, through structured, empirical studies. This paper reports the results of two player-centered studies aimed at investigating these issues from the player’s perspective. The first study, a focus group, supports some of the issues identified by game developers; consistency, intuitiveness and freedom of expression, and identifies new issues; immersion and physics. The second study, a questionnaire, examined the relationship of these issues to game-type preference and game-playing experience. This paper represents important initial exploratory research that supplements the existing literature by focusing on the player’s perspective and exploring which issues and context have the most impact on player enjoyment.

The Inherent Appeal of Physically Controlled Peripherals

Computer game controllers that require the user to interact using physical movements (other than finger movements) are becoming increasingly popular. The present study sought to explore the factors and context which impact upon preferences for particular physically controlled game peripherals. A comprehensive user study was undertaken and both qualitative and quantitative data were analysed. The results highlight the importance of intuitiveness and realism as factors influencing both the degree of control experienced and attitudes towards physically controlled game peripherals.

Combining influence maps and cellular automata for reactive game agents

Agents make up an important part of game worlds, ranging from the characters and monsters that live in the world to the armies that the player controls. Despite their importance, agents in current games rarely display an awareness of their environment or react appropriately, which severely detracts from the believability of the game. Some games have included agents with a basic awareness of other agents, but they are still unaware of important game events or environmental conditions. This paper presents an agent design we have developed, which combines cellular automata for environmental modeling with influence maps for agent decision-making. The agents were implemented into a 3D game environment we have developed, the EmerGEnT system, and tuned through three experiments. The result is simple, flexible game agents that are able to respond to natural phenomena (e.g. rain or fire), while pursuing a goal.

Motivations for videogame play

The aim of the current research was to identify factors that are associated with the amount of time people play videogames. The current study extends previous research by exploring this question with a variety of genres of videogames. Five hundred and seventy-three participants completed an online survey of their gaming habits, preferences and their experiences while playing. Beyond differences in hours of play associated with gender and game genres, greater time spent playing was found to be associated with playing with others and with higher experiences of competence, autonomy and relatedness during gameplay. The findings are interpreted in light of previous research and the potential implications for links between videogame play and wellbeing are considered. We explore the factors that influence the amount of time people spend playing videogames.Certain genres of videogames are associated with greater time playing.Playing with other people is associated greater time playing.Satisfaction of self-determination needs is associated with greater time playing.There is some support for immersion being associated with less time playing.

Facilitating Learning in a Real Time Strategy Computer Game

The aim of this project was to implement a just-in-time hints help system into a real time strategy (RTS) computer game that would deliver information to the user at the time that it would be of the most benefit. The goal of this help system is to improve the user’s learning in terms of their rate of learning, retention and avoidance of stagnation. The first stage of this project was implementing a computer game to incorporate four different types of skill that the user must acquire, namely motor, perceptual, declarative knowledge and strategic. Subsequently, the just-in-time hints help system was incorporated into the game to assess the user’s knowledge and deliver hints accordingly. The final stage of the project was to test the effectiveness of this help system by conducting two phases of testing. The goal of this testing was to demonstrate an increase in the user’s assessment of the helpfulness of the system from phase one to phase two. The results of this testing showed that there was no significant difference in the user’s responses in the two phases. However, when the results were analysed with respect to several categories of hints that were identified, it became apparent that patterns in the data were beginning to emerge. The conclusions of the project were that further testing with a larger sample size would be required to provide more reliable results and that factors such as the user’s skill level and different types of goals should be taken into account.

The People-Game-Play model for understanding videogames' impact on wellbeing

Given the increasing popularity of videogames, understanding when, how and for whom they have a positive or negative impact on wellbeing is critical. We propose a model for exploring these questions based on existing literature and our own research. The People-Game-Play model identifies player characteristics, game features and the experience of play as key determinants of the impact of videogame play on wellbeing. We propose research exploring the relationships within and between each of these key factors is needed and identify some examples of future research in this space.

GameFlow in Different Game Genres and Platforms

The GameFlow model strives to be a general model of player enjoyment, applicable to all game genres and platforms. Derived from a general set of heuristics for creating enjoyable player experiences, the GameFlow model has been widely used in evaluating many types of games, as well as non-game applications. Initial applications of the GameFlow model were limited to real-time strategy games. However, in order to be considered a general model of player enjoyment in games, the GameFlow model needs to be applied to a more varied set of play experiences. In this article, we revisit the design of the GameFlow model, review the various applications and derivative models, and discuss on-going analysis of the model. Subsequently, we describe a study that aims to extend the initial validation of the GameFlow model to incorporate additional game types. We report the results of expert reviews conducted using the GameFlow criteria to evaluate first person shooter games on Sony PlayStation 3 and adventure games on Apple iPhone. Our findings provide insight into the manifestation of the GameFlow elements in these types of games and also highlight some of the genre-specific considerations in the application of the GameFlow model. Key issues are raised and discussed in relation to immersion, social interaction, and multiplayer games.