With the School Holidays coming to a close, I just wanted to share with you some my recent happenings. On my personal blog (http://andrewstapleton.com) you can find an overview of a book I recently finished entitled “On the Way to Fun” (http://andrewstapleton.com/?p=290). This book provides an interesting adjunct to other research such as the Mechanics-Dynamics-Aesthetics framework in providing a means to both analyze and design games.
I also managed to catch an interesting TV programme on SBS-TV’s Dateline. The programme explored the increasing use of robots in modern warfare which were controlled by videogame controller interfaces — which provided a familiar control set and interface for today’s modern soldiers. You can find more at http://bit.ly/fQKBMS.
Finally, New Scientist include an article on the use of sensors in video games to make them more ‘immersive’ by using players emotional and physiological states to shape the virtual environment. According to the article, “affective gaming” moves games to a new level, beyond the motion-controllers provided via the Wiimote, Move, or Kinect. In short, controllers like the Kinect will move beyond tracking the movement of players, and also begin to track emotional states. Clearly, the use of emotional and physiological states could provide extremely powerful experiences for players, and the early signs are that the experience is a positive one for players. In any case, it was an interesting read which you can catch here http://bit.ly/fo9zbg.
Enjoy!
This month’s Edge magazine, features an article on games user research. The authors note that while “usability may be gaining respectability… it’s still one of the least understood aspects of design.” Accordingly, they set out to answer a couple of fundamental questions:
How does the industry approach user research today, and why has something so fundamental waited so long to be taken seriously?
The article then explores usability by exploring both user testing (whether people can understand how to play a game properly), and playtesting ( whether they’re actually enjoying themselves). Essentially these are the behavioral versus attitudinal aspects of gameplay respectively. There are some fantastic anecdotes from game industry professionals about adopting these approaches, and its definitely worth reading what they have to say.
The article includes some industry comments on participant recruitment are explored. On a personal level, my experience has been that often, clients tend to underestimate the time and effort required to recruit suitable participants for user testing. Dr Graham McAllister (Vertical Slice) reiterates this very point in the Edge article.
“Getting the right audience is very important,” agrees McAllister. “We have profiles on everyone we use for testing in our database. We know who’s hardcore and who isn’t, which games they’ve played, how many hours per week they play. We’d like to go further. We’re thinking of psychometric testing to learn about their game styles. It’s so clients can come to us and we can give them the right audience for their tests.“
Getting the right audience to test your games is important.
There’s some discussion on biometrics as another tool user researchers can access from their usability toolkit… and how much value it provides… as well as the “garbage in, garbage out” effect of not asking the right questions, and setting the right the right tasks of your users/players… even if your participant recruitment is spot on!
John Hopson (Bungie) explains it this way:
“You need to focus the tests, and focus them on the things the designers are worried about… The places where they’d taken a risk and they don’t know how it’s going to play out.”
Then, of course, there’s the issue of interpreting the test results and coming up with a solution that can be handed over to the designers to implement.
Overall, the article presents a balanced view of usability and its increasing importance in game development. The videogame industry has come a long way from the days of designing games just for themselves. Studios are now critically aware of their audience… especially now that bad news travels at light speed along social social networks. And slowly but surely, user research is becoming more integral to the entire process of making a game. I think I’ll let Dr Graham McAllister have the final word on games user research…
Some people think we’re QA, some people think we’re market research, and we’re not: we’re there to present the player’s perspective before your game is on the shelf.
Source: http://bit.ly/eL5lqR
We’ll be attending the Australian Games Expo this weekend. If you’re in Canberra, feel free to stop on by and catch up for a chat with Andrew. The expo is being held in Coorong Pavilion at Exhibition Park in Canberra (EPIC). The Venue is located at Flemington Rd. Mitchell, ACT, and according to the organizers, car parking is free and available on-site.
We look forward to seeing you there 
We came across a list recently and thought it was something worth sharing with you. It was a list of eight (8) commercial video and commputer games to “make you a better boss” (link below). As you’d expect the list is dominated by simulation and strategy games. But it also includes games like Fallout 3 and Left 4 Dead 2… and a Tetris game even gets a look in.
So with the recent release of StarCraft II, it was good knowing the guilty pleasure of putting in an extra few hours is all worthwhile 
!
Screenshot of StarCraft II
Link
http://bit.ly/9491nS
PlaytoResearch is pleased to announce that we will be attending this years “Mind and its Potential” conference to be held in Sydney, November 18-19, 2010. With renowned international speakers including Dr Stuart Brown (author of Play:How it shapes the brain, opens the imagination, and invigorates the soul), Daniel Pink (A whole new mind), and Prof Carol Dweck (Mindset: The new psychology of sucess) alongside local experts including Prof Ian Hickie (Executive Director of the Brain and Mind Institute, University of Sydney), it promises to be a stimulating and exciting conference event.
We look forward to attending and hopefully seeing some of you there. If you’ re around Sydney-town during mid-November feel free to drop us a line!
Our recent website launch coincided with PlaytoResearch Game Experience Engineer, Dr. Andrew Stapleton, visit to SimTecT 2010. This was a fantastic opportunity to develop new acquaintances and meet old colleagues.
Andrew was involved in two workshops on the Monday prior to the beginning of the conference, assisting Dr. Elyssebeth Leigh. He also presented his paper “User Research for Games and Simulations” which he co-authored with Dr. Leigh. The presentation provided an overview of Game User Research, and had participants engaged in a simulation which they then evaluated using what they had learned during the session.
Elyssebeth enjoys a joke with a group at our "Game User Research" session at SimTecT 2010
Participants at our "Games User Research" session at SimTecT 2010
A group deep in discussion during our "Game User Research" session at SimTecT 2010
Overall, this was an enjoyable and rewarding event, and PlaytoResearch is looking forward to participating again in 2011.
Welcome to our shiny new website which will be evolving over the coming months. We look forward to catching up with those of you attending SimTecT 2010 in Brisbane. You can catch Andrew at his presentation session with Elyssebeth Leigh at noon on Tuesday. Feel free to say “g’day” 
.