Play-Persona: Modeling Player Behaviour in Computer Games

Figure 7: Detail of the overlay analysis with a breakdown of the four targeted areas with multiple causes of death. Four
ArcGIS-derived layers included: Aggregated death count, aggregated causes of death (top two rows) and deaths
specifically caused by enemies or environment effects (bottom two rows).
For Area 1, a high number of deaths occur in one specific grid cell (about 5*5 meters), being
caused by a low variety of causes, namely the attack of a Thrall (an AI-enemy, third row in Figure
7) combined with a tricky jump (death by falling, fourth row in Figure 7). If the number of deaths
occurring in this area is deemed to high (i.e. prevents or diminishes player enjoyment), the analysis
suggests two ways of solving the problem, e.g. making the jump easier or eliminating the Thrall
enemy. Area 2 (second column, Figure 7) also shows a high number of deaths and even though
there are only two different causes, tarantulas (third row) and traps (fourth row), the distribution of
tarantula kills on the Valaskjalf map is not spread enough to justify all the deaths displayed,
meaning that most of the deaths are caused by the traps. This could suggest that the traps should
be more lenient. The third area displays a high number of deaths, however it is motivated by a
varied array of causes: Enemies, environment effects and falling – this is the climax of the level and
clearly the toughest part to get through without dying. As with Area 1, a revision of the challenge
level might be useful here. Area 4 displays very similar characteristics to Area 2 with similar
implications in terms of the play experience.
The spatial analysis has thus identified potential trouble spots in the Valaskjalf map design, which
subsequently can be analyzed in further detail, for example by comparing with user-satisfaction
feedback from the level, to evaluate whether there is a problem or not. Additionally, this kind of
spatial analysis provides valuable knowledge for future designs of Tomb Raider-style game levels.
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