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LIFESTYLES OF ONLINE GAMERS: A PSYCHOGRAPHIC APPROACHSeounmi Youn, Mira Lee, and Kenneth O. Doyle
ABSTRACT:
This study compares people who play games on the Internet, people who use the Internet but not for gaming, and people who do not use the Internet. In terms of demography, there is no gender difference among the three groups. On-line games are the youngest group and have above-average education and income, but non-gaming Internet users enjoy the highest socioeconomic status. In terms of motivation, online gamers are more impulsive and more open to the Internet than either other group. On-line gamers are also highest in novelty seeking, risk-taking, and word-of-mouth communication. In terms of attitude, both online gamers and non-gaming Internet users are more liberal toward socially sensitive issues than non-Internet users, and more tolerant of advertising that contains sex or violence. Practical implications and the need for additional research are discussed.
http://game-studies.wikia.com/wiki/Game_Psychographics
Video game 'loot boxes' are psychologically akin to gambling. Really good read outlining what aspects of gaming are like gambling and why that's so addictive. This poses an issue when gambling is for 18+ while some of the games that use this tactic are aimed at 13 year olds. That plus many people don't make the correlation or consider video games as addictive so are susceptible to addiction. This poses many ethical issues. For my project it's good to be clued into what's addictive so I can actively use these time tested tactics on my audience to wedge them away from the screen.
Market research
Dungeon inc. - A simple 'clicker' game
Really enjoyed the humour, demonising 'the man'. Visuals were great, character's were great, loved the sound design, music and colour scheme. Funny making monetary payment for the game part of their 'investment' rhetoric. Some of the layout was poorly designed though, the 'investment scheme' page (far right) had no hierarchy, it wasn't clear what your options were and the little details illustrated with the text made it confusing.
The rewards you got were pleasantly addictive though, your in game money would rise even when you were playing the game because your little workers would work 24/7 (all tied in nicely with the exploitative rhetoric)
Most people seemed to really enjoy it. 4.4 rating on google play and over 1,000,000 downloads. Reviews would say things like 'best clicker game' 'very addictive' 'loved characters, sounds, humour etc.'. Over all most negative feedback was based on tech issues.
- loved never ending rewards
- loved the additions to the classic 'clicker game' formula such as having power up potions, loot boxes and raiding other players.
- wants a social aspect, would enjoy it more if they could link to fb and compare scores with friends
- reluctant to invest such large amounts of real world money at a single point. Would be more interested in investing if demands were smaller
- finds the 'investment scheme' greedy on the creators part (wants a free app)
- consumes battery, wants an option to reduce graphics or limit animations in order to play for longer
- enjoys the lack of ads
- gets to a point where in game rewards stall and there's a long wait between character upgrades as an incentive to pay and upgrade faster
- wants the characters to evolve as they gain skill
https://www.gizmodo.com.au/2017/09/app-that-paid-users-to-exercise-owes-1-2-million-for-not-paying-users-to-exercise/
https://www.facebook.com/CheckPointOrganisation/videos/1980333538951380/
By Curtis Neveu - I used Adobe illustrator, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=25543294
Compass
Overview:
-A game for mobile devices to aid sedentary gamers in finding a niche sport/club they enjoy
-Encourage exercise
-Facilitate friendly competition
Centred around: The sedentary gamer
Principles:
-Sedentary behaviour shortens lifespan and lessens quality of life-Mainstream gyms aren't appealing to most gamers
-Most people don't know about or hadn't considered local and/or unusual sports groups or clubs
-Endearing and relatable characters are a good way to connect with people, particularly those partial to gaming
Observations:
-Gamers want to game-Many gamers are sedentary for hours at a time
-Many gamers don't want to exercise or struggle with motivation
-Many games use addictive tactics akin to gambling
Ideas:
-App-Gamified exercise
-Screen-based 'transition' game
-Use game language to connect with gamers
-Hook the gamer
-Connect with like-minded people
-Engaging with community
-Characters that level up as player gets fitter
-Awards and prizes unlocked with experience gained
Experiments:
-User tested current games-Find what doesn't work
-Paper prototype
-Make characters more appealing
Exposure
-Poster
-Prototype on Ipad/Iphone if I can get one, phone is preferable
-Trailer motion graphic advertising game (+animations)
-Business cards
Early days
Information Architecture
Wireframes, site maps etc.
Initially, I was planning to have a navigation bar that allows back and forth across all sections of the app. After reading 'Interaction design' by James Pannafino however, I think it might be wiser to have a central 'hub' which all other pages have to return to before moving onto the next one. My app might be too simple for this system to be necessary but will prototype and find out.
Paper Prototypes
User test #1 on prototype 2:
User was given two tasks. I just observed and noted what they did to achieve their tasks.
Task one: choose a workout.
Prototype nav: gym, menu, choose workout
User tried:
-menu
-gym
-home
-f.u.n.
-scrolled
-'circus skills'
Task two: challenge a friend
Prototype nav: f.u.n., swipe left, invite
User tried:
-tapped avatar on home page
-gym
-home
-after a long pause, swiped
-f.u.n. tapped avatar
-contact
Conclusion: Scrolling and tapping are intuitive. Swiping very unintuitive. The user went straight to menu expecting to see all options, was frustrated when this didn't work and couldn't think of anything else to try to achieve goals. Trial and error until user gave up.
User test #2 on prototype 3:
-When asked to customise character, user went to 'avatar' page rather than 'rewards'
-Confused by 'stats' page and location. I this user stats or avatar stats?
-User requested the avatar be a scroller rather than icons, wanted a closer look at them
-If you're having experience points AND monetary value within game make the difference clear
-User requested a competitive leaderboard categorised by suburb
-Samsung health app
Dev. Need to establish fitness level at start. Choose avatar first who then becomes tour guide? Remove in-game monetary system, experience points and levelling up are enough
Character design
Development, expressions and three pieces used for second showing to give people an idea of what characters I'm doing.
Korero with Matt Katz
Matt was kind enough to share his thoughts from a wealth of knowledge and experience. His feedback was invaluable
"Disclaimer, always take your actual tutor's advice over mine, even if mine is correct. (Which it always is) : D
Hey Jen, nice work so far. And a tough subject to tackle. I'm assuming you have done plenty of research into active based games. Eg. The whole wave of motion control on the Nintendo Wii, wii sports, wii fit era of the late 2000's, guitar hero, band hero. And active arcade games such as dance dance revolution. And what they did with their designs to trick gamers into wanting to be active. Nintendo went for a mass market casual audience with the Mii character design. Guitar hero played to teen audience to make it 'cool' to do so.
There are also apps that are like life level up apps where you have a character and when you go to the gym you get to log it in and your real life RPG character levels up with you.
With your designs, some characters are better than others. Medieval guy is working best, metal guy 2nd best. My main issue is that you have nice characters but are not pushing a unifying design style. The current style is 'Jenn Craig' which tends to lend more towards book illustration. Do some heavy research into game stylisation, if these characters are to be theoretically animated, they need to work in certain ways. Will they have certain poses or be seen from certain views? Eg the reason Warcraft characters have big shoulders was originally because it was a top down viewing game
For unification,
Try come up with some certain shape designs or feature designs that no matter that character they carry forward throughout. Including exagerations, medieval and metal guy are exaggerated, Spanish girl and Chinese kid are safer proportions. Look at any good game and there is unification. Off the top of my head, Google 'Guacomelee' luchador platforming game and notice the use of straights and curves and builds of the character designs. This, of course, goes further with colour and rendering style also. Which is a big thing, so maybe do some early tests. You need to consider what device this game is for and therefore consider the actual size the character shapes will be, and so need to consider shapes designs and sizes that will work to scale. There could be 2 versions of them, a full illustration and a pixel art based version like the Fire Emblem games.
Hope the helps. Maybe try throw them into photoshop to work with blocky shapes rather than line work
Keep smashing it in!
Matt"
Thumbnailed some ideas for more exaggerated shapes
Backgrounds:
Trying out a background idea. Possibly the background is customisable as well, there would be a select few to choose from.Low polygon style mountains
Video game design
Guides, ideas and exercises taken from 'video game design' by Michael Salmond
Reading about different player types and how to cater to them. Making different user personas with different player types and psychographic personality types
Sound design
Many of the reviews on the app 'Dungeon inc.' commented on how great the sound design was and how enjoyable the music was.
I found this article on sounds design which listed out a few important things to note with designing sound. I know nothing about this field, but good sound design seems really important; it's half the experience of something audio-visual.
Remembering back to last semester I got in touch with Radek and Greyson to see if any of their students were interested in collaborating on sound design for my app.
I'm yet to hear back from anyone, but this is understandable, students are ready into their projects and designing for mine won't sound too fun! I'll just have to figure it out
Korero with Tanya 10/08
Tanya was really helpful for me and Josh who met with her in the morning before second showing. Her understanding and experience in the field of what we're both trying to achieve gave us invaluable advice.-Call it a game if you're aiming at gamers (stop calling it an app)
-If you're primarily looking at Overwatch players, could this be a plugin for the game? Exercise levelling up the characters etc.
-If you're really looking at people properly addicted to MMOs you're gonna have a hard time getting them away from the screen. They will also have a very low fitness level (talk to Dr Forsey again, get an understanding of just how unfit demographic would be and where to start with exercise advice)
-Use icons, not words, more immersive
-Careful what in-game language is used, can make or break immersion
-An in-game clock is sometimes used to help break immersion with more addictive games
-Jane McGonigal, reality is broken. Book and Tedtalk
Korero with Dr Forsey 10/08
I just asked Dr Forsey again about what sort of exercise she recommends for different levels of fitness.
-It's really tailor-made for the individual. I had to tell a 15-year-old girl to cut back on her exercise because she wasn't doing too much. Then I saw an 11-year-old with his father who kept telling the boy to stop playing video games and was trying to get the boy interested in local sports teams.
-For most people, if they're young and healthy then there are no problems getting them into exercise. For some who are older, have health issues or injury, walking is usually the best starting point. Walking is really great as a gentle wake up for the body. There's a difficult balance in keeping the patient interested and motivated with enough challenge but not too much. "layer interventions in a time effective way"
-Particularly for young adults and those with low mood or mental health problems I try to introduce mindfulness. Asking them just to take in the sights and sounds, pay attention to their bodies and breath, listen to the birds etc. This allows for a much more beneficial walk than if they're just walking but still trapped in their heads and worrying.
-I recommend a 'dr.'s consent disclaiming' at the start of your app if you're planning to use exercise. I'm glad you're being mindful of making sure there's a demonstration of how to do the exercise correctly without injuring yourself but it may not be enough for some
-I have limited knowledge of health sciences, I recommend talking to a health science student or a PT
Korero with Tim Turnidge 14/08
-There seems to be two aspects to the app, a personal development side with the gym and character, and the connection to the wider community. Decide how important each aspect is to the app and make that clear.
-F.U.N. might need to of an explanation.
-After finishing workout take it back to profile
-F.U.N. needs some kind of sorting eg by price or location
-Does there need to be a chat within the app for connecting with niches? Or can it out source to mail or messenger? How important is this aspect of the app an how to you navigate from the immersive app into a chat. Consider the stress and potential dangers of meeting people online
-How can you design the interface to cater to any niche without being too specific.
-Do people registering a niche have to choose an image or can they upload? Maybe both?
-Niches have to be registered and verified to negate danger aspect
-Check out Strava, tracking progress is very effective
-Is 'hours' needed for the 10,000 steps challenge? Maybe sort into sort term/long term/daily
-Leaderboard among friends. Wider leaderboards get bad rep for comparing you against athletes and encouraging dangerous behaviour
-Within stats wanted to tap 'strength'. Maybe have more detail? Which workout or which day you gained?
First showing
Mostly first showing was just getting an idea of what everyone is up to in our Pastorals. We didn't have time for feedback or ideas but it was good to see what everyone is up to.
Second showing
-Location-specific challenges would be cool eg throw Frisbie at Brooklyn Park, events, one time only challenges
-Would you consider adding sleep, water, caffeine, nutrition? Gamify the knowledge, it gets unlocked as you play so as not to overwhelm player. (say when you're gaming, allow the app to link into game and pop-up with push 'you've been gaming for two hours, have a stretch! Possibly have to feed and water the character like a Tamagotchi but you have to do it in real time?
-To talk to gamers try Reddit, twitch or Discard forum. Youtube streamer
-Check out the Fitbit challenges, My Fitness pall scan barcodes to see nutrition
(Does character get dehydrated as reminder to drink water? Happens faster as you workout and when you drink caffeine or fizzy. Vitality is damaged, exercise to regain health?)
User Interface
I was struggling with the aesthetic thematic for ages. Do I try and make it plain and standard to compliment all the niches? Do I try and focus one of niche for the overall look and feel?I think as all the MMO's I've been looking at come under some form of RPG fantasy I'm going to make the game with a standard fantasy look, like one of the classic, generic fantasy games eg WOW. It's instantly recognisable. I'll put a modern twist on it though, as the characters will be simplified with a sense of humour as will the aesthetic.
Pecha Kucha
The presentation went pretty well, I seemed to get my idea across well enough and people were on board with it. We only had 30 seconds for critique so I just got a couple points but mostly I just appreciated the opportunity to practise speaking about the project. I didn't do any prep beyond making the slides so I just used them as prompts to see how well I could communicate the project and it went well, partly just because I'd laid the slides out in a clear and well-ordered manner.
- Lee and Donald liked that I was upfront about stating the project's intentions and that I pointed out the irony of using a screen to get people away from screens but that it still made sense as the right media for the purpose.
- Donald liked the exaggeration of the characters since last week
Digital Prototype
First attempt. Preliminary first mock-up in xd to get the hang of the program and see what it all looks like digitally.
Just analysing existing apps and games. Iain Anderson from PikPok was kind enough to show me some backgrounds he'd worked on for Dungeon Inc. (all thumbnails in far right image) and tell me some of his thoughts on style in game art
Korero with Tanya
If you're looking at the heavily addicted they need a really good reason to leave the game. Maybe there are boring parts of the game where they have to grind that could be done with walking. Needs a really strong hook. Could it be a plugin for an existing game? License design is valid.
Super-Crit
Notes:-Write down three big points about gamers that you're designing towards. Everything you do has to contribute to these points
-Karl suggests: social elements, quick reward, slow reward
-Test these points as a template
-What is it focused on; avatars or familiarity?
-What is it about online gaming that makes people do the thing?
-Talk to gamers, find out what the best games are and why
-If familiarity makes it cool then do it, can be a plugin
-Make it bulletproof so the logic behind your decisions can't be questioned
-License design is valid because parents want to know that the game isn't awful for their kid. If they know it's going to make their kid walk around then they're much more likely to buy
Finn notes
Be careful when designing an alternative to grinding, that's often how the game makes money, you can buy your way out of the boring parts. Also, people get around the pedometer in various creative ways such as strapping their phone to the dog or wrapping it up and chucking it in the washing machine.
The break
This was quite a hurdle of a day for me. The feedback was completely valid; I wasn't really reaching my target audience of 'the very addicted'. It seemed the only way to do that was to make a plugin of an existing game because there was no other reason for someone so addicted to leave the game. It took me the whole break to mull this over and I didn't end up creating much.
Mostly I was disappointed by feedback because I really wanted to use this project as a chance to design my own characters and my own aesthetic. Drawing someone else's just wasn't appealing.
So I made a Discord account and joined a forum of gamers. I asked a big chat room if anyone played Pokemon Go and got some good responses. Some people said they wouldn't because they refuse to walk to exercise. Some said it was gimmicky and not cool anymore, but one person said they used to play it with their daughter as a fun way to walk around but didn't anymore as they got bored of the collection aspect and weren't hooked. I messaged this last person privately and we had a really valuable conversation
A friend was saying they set an alarm before they game, determined not to play for more than an hour. But by the time their alarm goes off, they've been sitting down for so long in front of a screen they can't be bothered getting up, so they just turn off the alarm and call it a 'lazy day'
Live Wire
BJ Fogg, PhD. suggests that big habit changes start with tiny, actionable and achievable steps. If you want to run 10 km every day, you have to start with a 10 min jog and slowly build it up. If you sit at a computer all day for work then come home and game until you go to bed, your level of movement is minimal, and achieving such a goal would have to start with much smaller steps, like standing up regularly. As games are so immersive, one can often lose track of time while playing, and before you know it, you've gone hours without moving. So tiny steps followed by rewards seem to be the best way to start changing a habit. My target audience is someone who has school/uni/work, but who spends all day sitting then comes home and sits some more.Rules
As a multiplayer game, all players sit on their respective weighted electric pads. The aim of the game is to level up your character. You do this by not getting shocked. The game starts when all those playing are seated on their pad and linked up with each other in the mobile game. To start, you chose a character. The game is neutral and not much happens besides slight character animation until the game enters the 'live zone'. Characters become more animated and players are warned that the shock could happen at any time during 'live zone'. The shock is randomised. Players gain in-game currency the longer they stay seated in the 'live zone'. Should a player get shocked, they lose currency and health the longer they stay seated during the shock. The last person to stand without getting shocked wins the round. Winning puts you ahead of your teammates on the leaderboard. If you win you gain a loot box containing extra currency. Currency can be spent on in-game items for your character, such as clothing, accessories, weapons etc. that allow the character abilities such as +health or shock immunity for 2 seconds (while you get shocked your character doesn't lose health). To regain character health, the player must stay standing during the neutral time when they are not in danger of getting shocked. Full health from nothing takes 2 minutes of standing. Each character has a special power which can only be used during the 'live zone' and when their power bar is full. The power bar takes 5 minutes at any time to refill from empty. Star's power is shockwave, every other player on the team gets a little jolt. Jackie/Heidi's power is jab, attacks an individual of your choice. Lance's power is defence, a shield that projects from either attack. Each power permits one use only.
Going for a retro/sci-fi/synthwave/cyberpunk type aesthetic to complement the electrical themes of the game.
During neutral, live and then electrocuted. Last panel would be lying on floor smoking
- Too obscure? Doesn't quite work if only doing this with one character. Either all or none
Characters still too 'illustrated'. Need to be more fun and silly for style and format of game
Presentation ideas
In his book Video Game Design, Salmond summarises a theory put forward by Richard Bartle which categorises four player types; the killer, the socialiser, the explorer and the achiever. He notes that while people have tried to use this template as the key to creating a successful game, these player types only refer to playing an MMO game. This model doesn’t always work for other games but as I’m specifically targeting MMO players it worked for me to use it. My game is predominantly aimed at the killer, socialiser and achiever. It felt forced to fit in an explorer aspect and pulled the game away from its primary goal. I didn’t want the player to become too involved in digital aspect of the game.
The game starts when all players sit on their own pad placed on their seat and open the app. Nothing happens other than simple character animation until the game enter ‘live zone’ at intervals. Within the 5 min live zone the pads could electrocute the players at a random time without warning. The players must decide if they risk sitting for longer and getting shocked in the pursuit of gaining more points and winning or if they quit while they’re ahead and stand up to avoid losing points and getting shocked. The only way to reset the pad and stop it from shocking you is to stand for two mins.
As I knew from the start that I wanted to work on my character design, I had at least one aspect of my output anchored. And as my issue was easy to define; gamers need to move, the question was just a matter whether I should try to persuade or inform my audience and of what medium I should use to do this. From early in the project I found the best way to reach gamers glued to screens was through other screens. Ironic, I know, but the more I unpacked it the more it made sense. Screens can be familiar, fun, engaging and addictive as we can see from the issue I was trying to address. So the plan was to use a game as a kind of ‘transition’, a way to wedge gamers away from the screen. As it was, I saw several aspects I could break my idea down into; character design, user experience design, user interface design and game design. As my idea changed over time, so did these aspects, but this thankfully didn’t mean simply scrapping all my prototypes, ideation and drawings, I simply had to develop and evolve my current designs to keep them relevant with my changing ideas.
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