Play-Persona: Modeling Player Behaviour in Computer Games

“positivism” and “anti-positivism” since, if the goals of games research are to answer important
questions rather than using particular toolsets, it would be limiting to circumscribe the discussion on
whose methods are better. Williams attempted to quell the debate stating that the discussion does
not lie in terms of whether game studies should or should not be borrowing methods from the
natural sciences, but rather about the strength of empirical work of all types.
“Data collection—whether in the form of ethnographic field notes or participant observation, or in
the form of statistical content analyses, experiments and surveys—is worthwhile” [98].
Summarising the terms of the debate, traditionally, social scientists seem to be asking “What do
games do to people?” utilising mostly quantitative methods while humanists seek to find out what
meanings are made through game use and what power relationships are reinforced through play,
relying more on qualitative methods.
2.2 Positioning play-personas in the field of game studies
Due to my background, my research stands on the threshold between a design-driven approach
(how to make better games) and a communication approach (creation and interpretation of
meaning). My work is split between understanding games as products to improve, with concrete
needs, drives and desired practical outcomes; and as media carrying meanings, attempting to
eviscerate the abstract mechanisms that take place when players are engaged with digital games
and what meanings emerge from that interaction. This double concern entails a double focus on
the game designers as originators of the games as acts of communication and players as receivers.
This double focus drove the definition of play-personas both as tools used by designers to model
hypothetical players during the production of games and as mental devices used by players to
organize and make sense of their own play experiences.
2.2.1 Bridging the gap: humanistic enquiry with empirical methods
The play-persona framework is an attempt to imbue meaning into the mechanics that designers
chose to include in the games they are developing; at the same time it seeks to read meaning in
the actions of players interacting with the game. It is an effort that definitely fits under the
communication umbrella. As Williams pointed out, communication and humanities are angles that
very often resort to qualitative methods.
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