Establishing the Relationship between Personality, In-Game Persona, and Metrics Data
Michael R. G. Duwe
This study has been performed to try and establish if it is possible to customise a video-game to each individual player’s preference using metrics data. In order for this to be feasible, a relationship needs to be established between a subject’s personality and full videogames or video-game type preferences, as well as trying to find out if there is any correlation between data which can be recorded during a subject’s play session and their real life personality.
The data will be collected in two stages; pre-testing, and play testing. During the pre-testing, case studies in the form of surveys are performed to establish the test subject’s personality based on the big five personality traits model reference. Alongside the survey, another list is filled out which is a collection of 80 different games which all have their own features and different unique game play mechanics. The subjects are asked to sort 20 games numbered from most to least preferred game. This game list is used to identify which are the player’s preferences in relation to specific game features, with the higher ranked video games having more weight attached to their individual features. These two different surveys are used to try and establish if there is any correlation between the different game type preferences and their personality type.
During the second stage of the research, the same subjects are asked to perform a play through in local Co-op mode with another player on the game Left 4 Dead 2 [Valve 2009]. This data is recorded, and all data which can be tracked in the form of metrics data is stored.
This data in return is used to try and establish the players’ in-game persona, a method which has been established as a variation on the real life personality traits, and has been researched and documented in previous research by Canossa [Canossa 2009b]. With the use of the metrics related data, the different areas of game play which have been defined in his research and used to define in-game personas, will be used to identify each different area of the possible game play options. Each of these traits will be compared against the player’s real life personality traits to try and identify any correlation between the two. While there are two different stages to this project, in order for there to be any possibility for games to be customised to each players’ individual needs, there has to be a correlation between at least a players’ personality and their game type preference, as without there is no way of ever truly defining each players’ ideal game play scenario.
Metrics data has been selected for this project due to its continuous use in popular social media games to customise the product after release, as well as extensively used during pre-production and testing stages of big budget titles to identify any game play issues and improvements that can be made [Gagne 2010]. If the relationship between metrics data and personalities does not seem to have any viable relationship, it helps rule out the ability to use this measuring device for anything more advanced than it is currently being applied for, and helps developers to try and identify different ways in which it could be achieved.
Can We Use Digital Games As Therapeutic Activity?
Emily Green
Digital Games have grown rapidly as an Industry, appealing to an ever-broadening audience on a plethora of devices making them more accessible than ever. Games are a form of play for both adults and children; and play is good for us. Commercial video games are already being used to help patients in chemotherapy (Kato, 2010) and therapy for children (Kokish,1994) as I discussed in the literature review. After seeing the evidence of how games have already been successful in therapy, I propose to establish how games can be used in everyday life to improve our well being.
The aim of this research is to review the potential of digital games to have a positive effect on our mental state, particularly in relation to flow theory and traditional therapy; focusing on short term methods of dealing with stress and anxiety in everyday life. Based on an understanding of the causes, effects, coping mechanisms and therapies in relationship to stress and anxiety, can existing gameplay and game mechanics be adapted to create structure for games that have a relaxing effect on the player? For this, I will look into emotion theories, academic writing on achieving well being, traditionally relaxing activities, psychology and therapy. The main arguments against this work are research into the production of psychological arousal and aggression through games (Anderson
"Compared with games, reality is depressing. Games focus our energy, with relentless optimism, on something we're good at and enjoy." Jane McGonigal, 2011
There is a strong relationship between games and flow which has been discussed by other academics such as Jenova Chen, Ben Cowley, Michaela Black, Ray Hickey and Csikszentmihalyi himself in his discussion of Flow in Chess. Using research into flow; emotion regulation; cause, effect and coping mechanisms of stress and anxiety, I will design a mobile phone application to help with the immediate symptoms of stress. I propose the use of an application as a short -term coping device via soothing activity. Further research could involve looking whether games can be used as a preventative tool in the case of significant or chronic stress and anxiety disorders. This work is a blank canvas on which others can paint the larger picture by testing whether
Autonomous Choice to Disobey authority in Digital Games: A Plausible Mechanic
Bryn Morrison-Elliot
Psychological studies of autonomy, authority, and obedience are widely discussed subjects of academia. However, this research has not been applied to theories in digital games. This paper uses the research of Stanley Milgram in his experiments in Obedience to Authority. The experiments, conducted in a lab tested how participants reacted to authority figures when being commanded to harm others. The results of which showed that most participants obeyed. This research is then applied to digital game theories. In order to establish the authoritative nature of digital games, autonomy in digital games, and how examples of Milgrams experiments can be used to create gaming scenarios where a player has the option to disobey authority. In conclusion it is discussed that the possibilities of autonomous choice to disobey authority as a digital game mechanic is strong, but further research would be essential to carry the argument forward.
Often when playing digital games, players are obedient to an authority. Whether it is the game telling us what to do via a tutorial of how to play the game, or a non-playable character (NPC) guiding us with details of objectives that need to be completed to finish a task. Often these requests are carried out without a thought of ‘why am I doing this?’
More often than not, if a player was to question an authoritative request and disobey, then a games state would become static until the request is met.
I propose a scenario where the player has the option to disobey. For example, in Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed [1] the player is able to control an assassin who is given orders to assassinate characters within the game world to complete objectives. If the player assassinates their target then the objective is complete and the player is rewarded with a new objective and the game progresses. Often the targets for assassination within the game are morally bad individuals; this allows the player to justify their actions in the game without much thought to whether it is right or wrong. This is the fundamental formula of authority and obedience in most games.
Moral choice mechanics in digital games have been prevalent for a long time, since being popularized by titles such as BioWare’s Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
Through research in the fields of social psychology, philosophy, and game theory, I propose a scenario where the player is placed within an amoral situation, where the choice they make is not necessarily to do good or evil, or make either the right or wrong choice. The choice will be exclusively theirs to make and once it has been made the game continues to progress.
Designing a Fully Diegetic/Meta-perceptual User Interface for Use in Competitive Shooters
Sam Gross
The aim of this paper is to investigate the possibility of a fully meta-perceptual (or, where possible, diegetic) user interface/heads-up display, and to assess the capacity of said interface for use within a competitive multiplayer first person shooter (FPS) setting. First, a distinction is made between tactical and fictional immersion, and each is prioritised with regards to the new design. User interfaces/heads-up displays from currently existing competitive multiplayer FPS are examined, and recurring features of their display are identified. Finally, diegetic and metaperceptual user interfaces/heads-up displays from a variety of fictionally immersive titles are investigated in an effort to collect a variety of unconventional alternatives for use in the design. The methods by which the resulting design would be assessed are then expounded upon (focus group testing, whereby participants are asked to identify information presented in the design, contrast this with a traditional interface, and evaluate the design's aesthetic appeal and usability.) For the duration of this paper, the terms 'user interface' and 'heads-up display' will be used interchangeably, denoting any on-screen information displayed for the players benefit.
User interface is the design field of human-machine interaction; in the realm of consumer electronics, UI refers to the elements of a piece of software with which the user interacts. This encompasses active functional elements such as on screen buttons or tabs, as well as passive feedback elements like progress bars or word counts. In the field of non-leisure software, functionality and performance have been the focus of research (keystrokes, target acquisition tasks), with an emphasis on the prevention of negative emotions, the prevention of failure for example [23]. In digital games, the primary aspect of the user interface takes the form of the Heads Up Display, or HUD “a collection of persistent onscreen elements whose purpose is to indicate player status... it is an accepted shorthand, a direct pipeline from the developer to the end-user.” [49] In addition to the HUD, many games of varying levels of complexity incorporate menu screens which include ingame resources like maps, objectives or inventories (it is common for these menus to be separate from menus governing factors external to the game's fiction, for example audio or video options.) In development effective user interface for digital games, one must take into account not only the prevention of negative emotion, but the generation of positive emotion.. User interface in games faces a problem that user interface in other types of software does not, in that it must satisfy two needs; gameplay and fiction.
Designed to be enjoyed rather than to perform a function, game UI is vital to creating an entertaining experience; A game with a non-functional UI gives poor feedback, which results in poor play, which results in frustration; the game has, at this point, failed its purpose. Technically non-vital elements of a HUD, like a health bar, are nevertheless essential to enjoyable play as a sudden and unexpected player-death makes for an infuriating experience. As such, UI is in large part responsible for creating the state of flow as outlined by Csikszentmihalyi [9]. For example, Ernest Adams talks about tactical immersion [1] (“ immersion in the moment-bymoment act of playing the game, and is typically found in fast action games... It's physical and immediate.”) and attributes the creation of this state to UI “To create tactical immersion, you must offer your players a flawless user interface, one that responds rapidly, intuitively, and above all reliably. Players won't get into the groove if they're struggling with slow, awkward controls.” On the other hand, many games are played for their fictionally immersive qualities, which see players losing themselves as imagined characters operating within digital worlds. In games such as these, all focus must be placed on creating an “inner consistency of reality” [41] with which much of the tradition UI or HUD is incompatible. This separates games from other noninteractive creative mediums which are not required to consider usability.
There exists debate as to whether form or function takes precedence, though neither side can fully claim the other's irrelevance. If the presence of user interface elements can break fictional immersion, that would infer that a title with strong fiction cannot include complex interaction, or that a title with a wide variety of in-depth mechanics could not shoulder a game world with any narrative depth. This is patently untrue, as the most narrative driven, and often the most complex games are role playing games (RPGs.) Thus it must be concluded that, to some degree, players will accept HUD and UI elements under the correct circumstances. This is addressed by the Immersive Fallacy [38] in which it is posited that game player's do not immerse themselves fully into simulated worlds, but that they adopt a double or hybrid-consciousness that puts them both inside and outside of the frame; in this way, the HUD is entirely acceptable to their 'outside' consciousness, if not their 'inside' one – players of the fictionally immersive BioShock had no issue with the nondiegetic nature of the way point, even when compared directly to
Mirrors Edge's geometric 'runner vision', and actively preferred Killzone 2's meta-peceptual visual distortion to Halo 3's more traditional (though technically diegetic) health bar [12]. Additionally, some believe that games have the ability to thoroughly break the fourth wall – whereby character acknowledge, for example, the existence of game mechanics – can enhance the play experience; Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem [39] is cited as a game that does this effectively, simulating loss in television signal or the corruption of memory card data to induce fear in the player, whilst the Metal Gear Solid franchise is noted or acknowledging the 'threshold object' (the controller) without ever breaking character, or distinguishing the player from the playable character [48]. The current trend is an increase in meta-perceptive elements (blood-spatters, desaturation) and geometry effects (highlighted/glowing objects), and diegetic elements (ammo displayed on rifles) at the expense of the traditional HUD. This creates a more pleasing aesthetic, but also can impact a systems flexibility, accuracy and general functionality [7]. In competitive games, it can be particular detrimental as players (mentally) strip away the fiction leaving only the systems the more competitive elements the game experience builds on, the importance of being able to make strategic gameplay decisions grows for the players; in pure competitive multiplayer games, it is also important do make these decisions fast. Hence, ambiguous information should be avoided in these situations, and user interface elements presented in an overlay manner might be the most reasonable approaches that can be taken to achieve this.”. It should be possible, however, to create a fully meta-perceptive UI suitable for competitive gaming, resulting in a tactically and fictionally immersive game.
To design a user interface that meets these requirements, the first step is to observe both the tactically immersive competitive titles that use traditional HUD overlays – identifying the needs/stress points of their UI – and to look at the non-disruptive way in which fictionally immersive games present information. The second step is to design a variety of UI utilising diegetic/geometric/metarepresentational/meta-perceptual elements using conclusions garnered from step one. The final step is to test these UI on participants. Methodology for investigating UI in games is outlined in Beyond the HUD. Question-based information gathering and observation-based information gathering methods are both used, the former found to be the more useful of the two, resulting in deeper, more subjective results. They also suggest the optimum amount of test subjects to be around fifteen, in three groups of five users. Should actual working prototypes prove too ambitious, simulated footage/screenshots could be used as substitutes. User tests such as these should, in theory, result in a form of user interface that is both immersive and conducive to competitive play. This new form of UI could have the potential to be implemented across a variety of genres, and surpass the currently dominant version of the in-game HUD.
Applying Decision Theory to Video Games to create a more Dynamic and Natural Decision Process
Andrew Thomas
The use of decision making through dialogue as a game mechanic has been used in video games a considerable amount in the past two decades. More recently developers have been utilizing this mechanic to involve players in the direction of the narrative, giving players options which will affect the flow of future events in the game. Largely these decisions experiment with morality and ethics, in order to create decisions which are hard for the player, but the decision process itself remains relatively easy. Video games are a strong medium for interactive narrative, but this is often considered by some as reversely proportionate to gameplay. Through experimenting with the types of decision offered in games, it may be an achievable goal to improve aspects of both narrative and gameplay. It may also be considered that improving the way the player makes the decision by offering a more psychological natural representation of real life decisions; we may also improve the well-being of the player [17]. In this paper we will be discussing elements of decision theory from the field of psychology, and how they can be applied to video games to create a more realistic and tougher decision making process for the player. A basic framework of knowledge was gathered in the literature review which provided the theoretical and academic support for the paper, regarding decision theory from psychological perspective. Through the three case studies, it was found that basic decision theory applies to many in game decisions, but evidence of realistic decision making elements such as probability and many impairment factors were not found. In the proposal these concerns were addressed with a new model of decision tree with probability attached to branching outcomes, and it was discussed how this theory could be made practical with a technological experiment.
Everyday a person makes hundreds of decisions, ranging from the minor subconscious choices of day to day lives, to the solving of dilemma, conflicts and autonomously challenging major decisions that arise now and then. It is human nature to choose the path that fairs better for themselves or others, and offers more gains than loses. Developers of video games have mimicked these elements of life in games to create challenging situations for the player, creating challenges in morality, autonomy and social acceptance for the player. Typically the design of choice for video games is experiments more commonly in relation to the narrative, but as games have grown in complexity so have the range of choices they can offer the player. Since games have grown in order to represent elements of real life, do they offer the same level of choices we encounter in real life? What this paper will discuss over the next few pages are the type of decisions current games offer, and how these choices affect the way the player makes his decisions. Is the decision making process the same for the player as it would be for them in real life, and if not how can the same processes be catered for in video games as to make the process more natural for the player?
Introduction of decision theory from a psychological perspective will be delivered in the literature review; this will provide an understanding of how people make decisions, how their personalities effect their decisions, and what outside factors impair their decisions. Then this knowledge will be cross referenced in three case studies, with existing scenarios in three recent games to evaluate how that theory applies to video games, this will highlight if decision theory concerning real life decisions is relevant to video games, and how it is lacking in any way. Lastly these observations will used to suggest areas which could be improved, and a proposed model will be introduced as a solution along with how this solution can be further tested. It is hoped that by offering a solution to this query, a range of game design fields such as narrative, gameplay, enjoyment and level of experience can be improved by adapting to offer more life-like decisions.
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