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Play-Persona: Modeling Player Behaviour in Computer Games

Play-Persona: Modeling Player Behaviour in Computer Games

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ARTICLE 13 – PATTERNS OF PLAY: PLAY-PERSONAS IN<br />

USER-CENTRED GAME DEVELOPMENT<br />

Alessandro Canossa & Anders Drachen full paper presentation at DIGRA 2009<br />

ABSTRACT<br />

In recent years certa<strong>in</strong> trends from User-Centered design have been seep<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong>to the practice of<br />

design<strong>in</strong>g computer games. The balance of power between game designers and players is be<strong>in</strong>g<br />

renegotiated <strong>in</strong> order to f<strong>in</strong>d a more active role for players; there is <strong>in</strong> fact more and more evidence<br />

suggest<strong>in</strong>g that players need to have some form of control <strong>in</strong> shap<strong>in</strong>g the experiences that games<br />

are meant to evoke. A grow<strong>in</strong>g player agency can turn both <strong>in</strong>to an <strong>in</strong>creased sense of player<br />

immersion and potentially improve the chances of critical acclaim.<br />

This paper presents a possible solution to the challenge of <strong>in</strong>volv<strong>in</strong>g the user <strong>in</strong> the design of<br />

<strong>in</strong>teractive enterta<strong>in</strong>ment by adopt<strong>in</strong>g and adapt<strong>in</strong>g the "persona" framework <strong>in</strong>troduced by Cooper<br />

<strong>in</strong> the field of Human <strong>Computer</strong> Interaction. The orig<strong>in</strong>al method is improved by complement<strong>in</strong>g the<br />

traditional ethnographic descriptions of personas with parametric, quantitative, data-oriented<br />

models of predicted patterns of user behaviour for computer games. These models will then be<br />

evaluated us<strong>in</strong>g data generated by players engaged with the game.<br />

Keywords: <strong>Play</strong> persona, game experience, game design, user centered design, user experience<br />

design, gameplay metrics, game mechanics.<br />

1 Introduction: “Open” and “closed” games<br />

The practice of design<strong>in</strong>g computer games today cannot refra<strong>in</strong> from <strong>in</strong>clud<strong>in</strong>g player-driven issues,<br />

consider<strong>in</strong>g how standards such as the ones set by Web 2.0 geared players’ expectations towards a<br />

higher degree of agency. In many of the critically acclaimed games today, it is possible to detect a<br />

trend <strong>in</strong> transferr<strong>in</strong>g at least part of the authorship to the players thereby <strong>in</strong>creas<strong>in</strong>g their agency.<br />

User-generated content is one of the manifestations of this trend. In a scenario where people are<br />

grow<strong>in</strong>g used to expect a high level of customization and personalization from enterta<strong>in</strong>ment<br />

products, players react favourably towards be<strong>in</strong>g put <strong>in</strong> charge of the content, to a smaller or<br />

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