Establishing a New Framework to Measure Challenge, Control and Goals in Different Game Genres

Ali AlkhafajiPeter Hastings

Brian GreyDePaul University

“Educational” Games

Serious/Educational Games (Habgood)◦ Exogenous

Easy to build Glorified PowerPoint presentations

◦ Endogenous Harnesses the inherit motivation in games Difficult to build Lack of understanding

Motivation!

What is the Problem?

There are two types of motivation◦ Extrinsic Motivation (reward/punishment)

Home work Chores

◦ Intrinsic Motivation Videogames Sports (sometimes)

Understanding Motivation

Previous Research Important factors affecting motivation in games:

◦ Malone, 1980 & Malone and Lepper, 1987 Motivation in video games

◦ Deci and Ryan, 2000 Factors affecting intrinsic motivation

◦ Habgood, 2005 intrinsic integration of learning content (Zombie Division)

◦ Deen and Schouten, 2010 Proposes identified regulations, uses a player’s perception

because intrinsic needs differ◦ Garris, 2002

An overview of the different factors which affect motivation in games based on previous literature

Key Game Attributes for Motivation (Garris 2002) Fantasy: Context, themes or characters Rules/Goals: Rules, goals and feedback Sensory Stimuli: Visual or auditory Challenge: Level of difficulty   Mystery: Determinism  Control: Player’s control

Players’ Perception How much of each game attribute do we

need to make the game motivating?◦ Empirically figure it out!

But, some of these attributes are completely subjective like challenge, control, etc

◦ Ask players about their experience to determine their perception

First Study - Goal Break down the game attributes into

measurable descriptions◦ Challenge: The difficulty level of the game,

ranging from too easy to too difficult◦ Control: How much control does a player

perceives, that they have over the game (directions and objectives)?

◦ Goals: Defined by short and long term objectives

Notice we skipped 3 attributes!

First Study - Survey Questions Produce questions for the survey takers which

measures these attributes◦ Challenge: In an optimal game, how many tries does it

take to finish an average level? ◦ Control: In an optimal game, what is the ideal number of

directions you should be able to choose from at any given time?

◦ Control: In an optimal game, what is the ideal number of objectives you should be able to choose from at any given time?

◦ Goal: In an optimal game, how many short-term goals you should have at any given time?

◦ Goal: In an optimal game, how many long-term goals you should have at any given time?

First Study - Respondents We received 87 responses:

◦ Challenge: 86.2% of respondents felt that an optimally challenging game should take a player 2-5 attempts to finish a level

◦ Control: 82.8% of respondents felt that an optimal game allows the user to choose between 2-5 directions at any given time

◦ Control: 74.7% of respondents felt that an optimal game allows the user to choose between 3-5 objectives at any given time

◦ Goals: 63.2% of respondents felt that an optimal game provides its users with 2-6 short-term goals at any given time

◦ Goals: 49.4% of respondents felt that an optimal game provides its users with 2-6 long-term goals at any given time

First Study - Results

First Study - Discussion The Generic CCG Framework is a great

initial step, but◦ How much will player perception vary between

genres? The second study addresses this point

Second Study - Goal Define 5 unique

genres:◦ First-Person

Shooter◦ Racing◦ RPG◦ Arcade◦ Sports

Second Study - Survey Questions We mapped each question from the first

study to the second study based on genre◦ We considered a “level” to be a “race” for racing

games, a “game segment” in sports games, a “solo boss fight” in RPG and retained “level” for FPS and arcade games

We received 77 responses and results were very similar to that of the first study

Second Study - Results

Second Study - Discussion This study addresses the differences

between different genres We still haven’t accounted for fantasy,

auditory stimuli and mystery We should also consider other interpersonal

attributes, like cooperation, competition and collaboration

Expand on other genres like: Action, Adventure and Simulations

We are currently working on:◦ Validating the CCG Framework - including all six

intrapersonal attributes◦ Testing the impact of Challenge on Motivation in a

commercial game: Super Mario Bros.

◦ and in a Serious Game: Policy World

Discussion (continued)

For more information please visit:

http://edutainment.pbworks.com

Ali.A.Alkhafaji@gmail.com

Questions