ADVT: The social experience of gaming Paul Cairns

Social experience of gaming, Paul Cairns Why study videogames?  Big business  Dominant phenomenon  Pure experience – Before, during, momentary, after  UX challenge 2

What experiences do games offer? Social experience of gaming, Paul Cairns3

User Experience, Paul Cairns Where is the Science? UX  Personal  Unique  Subjective Science  Generalisable  Repeatable  Objective

Social experience of gaming, Paul Cairns5

Holistic  McCarthy and Wright – Technology as Experience  Can’t ignore the complexity  Narrative: reflected and anticipated  Prosaic experience 6

Exercise  Tell a story (in pairs) about a really good game you played: why was it good, how did the game make you feel, what you did next… How would you summarise the UX in the story you heard? Social experience of gaming, Paul Cairns7

Using stories  Where to focus?  From holism to design?  Need analysis – Holism lacks teeth Social experience of gaming, Paul Cairns8

Reductionist  Analytic approach to experience  Partition up elements  Measure  Compare 9

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Measures of GX  Immersion  GEQ  CEGE  All have questionnaires! Social experience of gaming, Paul Cairns11

Immersion  Commonly talked about  Various formulations  Jennett, five factors: – Emotional involvement, cognitive involvement, real world dissociation – Challenge & control Social experience of gaming, Paul Cairns12

GEQ (unpublished)  An all encompassing measure  During and after modules  Seven factors: – Sensory & imaginative immersion, tension, competence, flow, negative affect, positive affect, challenge  SPGQ Social experience of gaming, Paul Cairns13

Core Elements of the Gaming Experience  What’s needed for a good experience?  Puppetry  Five factors: – control, ownership, facilitators, environment, game-play Social experience of gaming, Paul Cairns14

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Is social play GX or something else? Social experience of gaming, Paul Cairns16

Immersion and social play  Reduces immersion (Sweetser & Wyeth, Ermi & Mäyrä)  Games as social setting (de Kort et al, 2008)  Social presence in games (SPGQ) Social experience of gaming, Paul Cairns17

What is the SPGQ measuring?  3 factors, can you come up with a sensible name that summarising what each factor is about? Social experience of gaming, Paul Cairns18

Immersion and social context  3 experiments  Using IEQ for immersion  Manipulation: – playing computer – playing online – playing colocated Social experience of gaming, Paul Cairns19

Hayley Martin, UCL Social experience of gaming, Paul Cairns20

Results  SPGQ goes up from “computer” to online to colocated  Immersion goes up from computer to online  BUT: deception, Hawthorne effect and old game Social experience of gaming, Paul Cairns21

Matt Day, York Social experience of gaming, Paul Cairns22

Results  Immersion more online than against computer Social experience of gaming, Paul Cairns23

Tom Perryman, York Social experience of gaming, Paul Cairns24

Results  Still no difference  Overall: It matters that you (think you) play a person. It doesn’t matter where that person is.  Social play improves immersion Social experience of gaming, Paul Cairns25

Further work? 26Social experience of gaming, Paul Cairns

Summary  GX is the purest form of UX  Lots of approaches – Holistic, reductionistic  Social play is an intergal part of GX 27

Social experience of gaming, Paul Cairns Reading  Chen, Flow in games (and everything else)  Jennett et al., Defining and measuring immersion in videogames  IJsselsteijn et al., Characterising and Measuring User Experiences in Digital Games (GEQ)  Calvillo-Gamez et al., Assessing the core elements of the gaming experience (CEGE)  de Kort et al., Digital games as social presence technology. (SPGQ) 28