Play-Persona: Modeling Player Behaviour in Computer Games

Table of Contents
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 7
STATEMENT OF THE CANDIDATE 8
ABSTRACT 9
1. INTRODUCTION 11
1.1 RESEARCH QUESTIONS 13
1.1.1 GAME LEVELS AS LANGUAGES 14
1.1.2 DENOTATION AND CONNOTATION 15
1.1.3 SYNTAGM AND PARADIGM 15
1.1.4 GAME LEVELS AS MEETING GROUNDS BETWEEN PLAYERS AND DESIGNERS 17
1.1.5 MODELING PLAYERS’ BEHAVIOUR: PLAY-PERSONA 17
1.2 THESIS STRUCTURE 18
2. A THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK FOR MODELING PLAYERS 23
2.1 GAME STUDIES: CONTRIBUTING DISCIPLINES 23
2.1.1 DEBATES IN GAME STUDIES 24
2.2 POSITIONING PLAY-PERSONAS IN THE FIELD OF GAME STUDIES 25
2.2.1 BRIDGING THE GAP: HUMANISTIC ENQUIRY WITH EMPIRICAL METHODS 25
2.2.2 A PERSONAL DEBT TO HUMAN-COMPUTER INTERACTION 27
2.3 AESTHETIC ASPECTS OF PLAY-PERSONA RESEARCH 27
2.3.1 GAMES AS TEXT: EARLY METHODS FOR IMPLYING READERS (AND PLAYERS) 31
3. GAME WORLDS AS FIELDS OF EXPRESSION 35
3.1 PLAY-PERSONAS 37
3.2 A COMMUNICATION MODEL FOR GAMES 38
3.3 PLAY-PERSONA AS A METAPHOR (A PRIORI) 41
3.4 PLAY-PERSONA AS A LENS (A POSTERIORI) 44
3.5 GROUNDING PLAY-PERSONAS 44
3.5.1 ORIGIN OF SUBPERSONALITIES 45
4. CREATING EXPERIENCES 49
4.1 STEPS OF THE TRANSACTION BETWEEN DESIGNERS AND PLAYERS 50
4.2 UNFOLDING THE DIALECTIC “DESIGNER-PLAYER” 51
4.2.1 AESTHETIC AFFORDANCES 51
4.2.2 LUDIC AFFORDANCES 52
3