Play-Persona: Modeling Player Behaviour in Computer Games
Play-Persona: Modeling Player Behaviour in Computer Games
Play-Persona: Modeling Player Behaviour in Computer Games
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<strong>Play</strong>-styles are sets of isotopic gameplay gestalts which signify, unify or dist<strong>in</strong>guish players from<br />
each other. They represent possible ways <strong>in</strong> which certa<strong>in</strong> subsets of the rules and mechanics<br />
provided by the game can be comb<strong>in</strong>ed. For example a “rush attack” <strong>in</strong> any real-time strategy<br />
game consists of quickly build<strong>in</strong>g a large number of the weakest and cheapest units and flood<strong>in</strong>g<br />
the opponent with wave after wave of them. <strong>Play</strong>-styles correspond to MDA’s dynamics, how<br />
mechanics are used dur<strong>in</strong>g a game session.<br />
<strong>Play</strong>-personas are an even bigger and more abstract construct; they allow designers to prefigure<br />
possible patterns of behaviour and at the same time allow players to unify their actions and make<br />
sense of their behaviour. <strong>Play</strong>-personas emerge from the various options for actions that players<br />
are given. <strong>Play</strong>-personas provide ways to personalize the play<strong>in</strong>g experience and facilitate players’<br />
expression.<br />
The second layer of the communication channel that goes from players to designers should be<br />
deconstructed both with quantitative and qualitative tools. Game metrics, be<strong>in</strong>g techniques for<br />
<strong>in</strong>ferr<strong>in</strong>g higher-order concepts from the large quantity of <strong>in</strong>formation available when a computer<br />
game is played, provide detailed and granular records of players’ actions. This allows designers to<br />
reconstruct players’ <strong>in</strong>-game behaviour. Of course game metrics can only account for what a player<br />
does, where and when, but their merit is also the fact that this <strong>in</strong>formation can be harvested<br />
remotely even after the game has been released on the market. In order to discover more about<br />
players (who), their motivations (why) and the context of play (how), it is necessary to resort to<br />
surveys and <strong>in</strong>terviews.<br />
4.2 Unfold<strong>in</strong>g the dialectic “designer-player”<br />
The model utilized <strong>in</strong>sofar clarifies the relation that games build between designers and players<br />
(figure 12). Designers provide aesthetic and ludic affordances and they both contribute <strong>in</strong> shap<strong>in</strong>g<br />
and allow<strong>in</strong>g for player expression (figure 13).<br />
4.2.1 Aesthetic affordances<br />
Aesthetic affordances consist of those possibilities for action that emerge from the sensory-<br />
perceptual qualities of the world such as navigation patterns and view<strong>in</strong>g ranges; they describe<br />
where the avatar can go and see. The aesthetical elements comprise for example colors, textures,<br />
shapes, lights, ambient sounds and music; pretty much anyth<strong>in</strong>g that <strong>in</strong>vests the senses<br />
immediately, purely <strong>in</strong> the realm of perception as un-mediated, mentally unprocessed, event.<br />
Perception is here <strong>in</strong>tended as one of the two mean<strong>in</strong>gs of the term experience: a particular<br />
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