Assessing the Components of Skill Necessary for Playing Video Games Kent L. Norman Department of Psychology Laboratory for Automation Psychology and Decision Processes and the Human-Computer Interaction Laboratory Summer Video Game Interns and Students in Psyc445: The Psychology of Video Games HCIL Symposium May 23, 2012

Why Video Game Skills? Video games to improve: Visual skills Attention skills Multitasking Spatial cognition Creativity Decision making Probabilistic inference

Why Video Game Skills? One fourth of the variability in the video game performance can be predicted by measuring the volume of certain structures in their brains! Video game performance correlated with laparoscopic surgery skills. Action video games train the brain to better process certain visual information.

Measuring Video Game Skills? No reliable, standardized method for assessing the skills involved in playing video games This project has sought to develop an easy to use coding procedure for video games explore its usefulness for both scientific and industry purposes.

Video Game Skills: Study 1 Skills were discussed and items generated by the participants in a Summer Video Game Internship. 24 items were used – Each item stated a skill or ability required for playing a video game and was associated with a 9-point Likert scale with the end points “Not necessary” and “Very necessary.” – For each of the following indicate the extent to which the skill or ability is necessary in the game Participants entered the name of the game they rated, and additional comments about the game.

A total of 79 games were rated, several games being rated twice or more. A Factor Analysis suggested the following factors: – Factor 1: Perceptual-Motor Abilities – Factor 2: Cognitive-Verbal Abilities; – Factor 3: Problem-Solving Abilities, – Factor 4: Information Utilization Abilities – Factor 5: Persistence – Factor 6: Human-Human Interaction. Results: Study 1

Games were clustered by genre to see how the skill profiles differed Standardized Factor Scores

Study 2 From the comments about games in Study 1, six items were added to the coding scheme. Students in Psyc 445 were asked to code 5 games that they were familiar with. The study was posted online: – Game forums – Facebook game pages – Created a Facebook event for friends to participate as well About 100 different games were coded. A total of 335 codings were recorded.

A Factor Analysis revealed 7 factors that could be labeled as: Motor Coordination Verbal Understanding Manage Resources Observation, Looking Around Creativity and Problem Solving Human-Human Interaction Persistence

Results: Study 2 We choose 6 games that required different skills from among all of the games coded. – Assassin’s Creed (Action Adventure) – Angry Birds (Puzzle) – Mario Kart (Racing) – Professor Layton (Puzzle Adventure ) – Dance Central (Music Rhythm) – Final Fantasy (RPG)

Results Assassins Dance Central Mario Kart Standardized Factor Scores

Assassins Creed Observation -- Assessing ones environment and finding the enemy Coordination -- Moving the character around Resource -- Weapon choice Persistence -- Defeating the game Verbal: Understanding commands and instructions

*Persistence: refers primarily to the player’s patience to continue through parts of the game that may be difficult or boring. * *Human-Human interaction: The interaction with other people playing the game (team members or opponents). *

Mario Kart Coordination: Steering the kart. Verbal Minimal Resources: Selecting karts and characters and managing bombs. Observation: of other racers Creativity: Minimal Human-Human Interaction: Multi-player competition. Persistence: to finish and win.

Professor Layton Puzzle/adventure games Coordination: None. All puzzles are turn based Verbal: Puzzles explained with text instructions Resources: Must manage hint coins Observation: Hidden hint coins in the environment Creativity: Puzzles require you to think critically and in unobvious ways Human-Human: No multiplayer or human interaction Persistence: Puzzles are often difficult

Kinect tracks body movements Coordination: Have to follow along (mimic) with the moves in game and dance to the beat Observation: Watching dance moves Persistence: To get it right. Dance Central (XBOX 360 Kinect)

Final Fantasy Games included in survey 1.Final fantasy IV 2.Final Fantasy VI 3.Final Fantasy VII 4.Final Fantasy VIII 5.Final Fantasy X

Final Fantasy Results Coordination: Minimal. Verbal/ Comprehension: Players must be able to read and understand dialogue. Observation: Unlike other RPGs it does not require movement in an open world. Creativity: Variety of weapons, armor, magic and summon creatures to defeat their enemy. Human Interaction: None. It is a single player game. Persistence: Requies patience to continue through boring or difficult parts Resources: Player manages items ( like potions) through the inventory.

Conclusions Profiles of video games reveal great differences in the skill sets necessary to perform well. The skill profile of a particular game reveals interesting aspects of the game that can be mapped to game play and features of the game.

Future Development Focus more on specific games (diverse genres); more data and therefore more generalizability – Include as a part of game reviews – Help to define game genres Implications for application of skills – Learning/improving skills from video games? – Game recommendation by proficiency

All of those who contributed to this work Summer Video Game Interns Undergraduate and Graduate Research Assistants Psyc 445 Team 5 Psyc 445 Video Game Class