Game Experience Design
How to evaluate the game experience that brings to players?
Introduction
When it comes to game, digital games had become the symbolic terms in modern society. From mobile phones to video game console, multiple devices had blurred the boundary that game content can be shown across the physical forms of devices. In other words, how to ensure that game content brings the satisfied experience to player will be the crucial role in gaming.
This article takes digital games as foundation and the experience which brings to players will be discussed through the theory, Player Experience of Need Satisfaction (PENS). By the theory, designers can examine the game content and ensure the experience the game provides.
What you will know in this article
1.The relation between games and player.
2.The four aspects in Player Experience of Need Satisfaction (PENS).
Player and Game
Interaction will not happen until player starts to engage in games. We all are players, trying to seek the need we know or even not aware. By playing games, players satisfied themselves also interacted with games.
Besides playing, playing with game also represents the communication with game designer. Game can be viewed as a medium which is created by designer. From the perspective of User Experience, “user” is the center of UX. In the context of gaming, we can view “player” as “user”, game designers should put player into center and create the suitable experience.
Overall, what we focus in this article is the experience the game gives. As the game designer, how do we design the content and satisfy players’ need is the crucial part in the process of game design.
Play Experience of Need Satisfaction (PENS)
Developed by Ryan and Rigby (2006), Player Experience and Need Satisfaction (PENS) proposed the experience player receives in gaming can be classified into four concept, Competence, Autonomy, Relatedness, Immersion and Presence.
Competence
The concept of competence illustrates player’s need of solving problems or conquering obstacles. Player expects the feedback and satisfaction after conquering. To provide the best experience in competence, the difficulty between game and player is the important part in competence.
As the difficulty is suitable for player, the experience in competence reaches the best. Conversely, the experience performs not perfectly as the difficulty is too easy or hard for player. That’s why some games provide different difficulty in order to satisfy various player for the best experience in competence. Managing difficulty had become the critical section in setting competence.
Autonomy
Autonomy represents player can control his or her own actions or options in game. In other words, more actions or options that player can use or choose, more autonomy player can receive. Conversely, player experiences low autonomy as actions or options are limited.
Actions or options in game for instance, making avatar with multiple options like hair style or color, single quest can be solved in different way, all these are the ways to enhance autonomy. The classical game type of high autonomy is the open-world game, like Assassin's Creed or Grand Theft Auto provides the numerous actions and options for player to enjoy.
Relatedness
Feeling connected with people or group is the basic nature even in our realife. It’s the same in game. What player does also represent the connection to the whole game system.
In single-player game, Non-Player Character (NPC) is the crucial role for connection, the interaction with NPC provides the relatedness to player. (Rigby, 2011) It’s needless to say the relatedness happens in mutlit-player game. Every single chat or action by player with each other makes all influences the relatedness.
Immersion and Presence
Immersion and Presence spotlight player’s state of mind had been “sucked” into the game world. Namely, the game makes player feel like in the real world, player’s attention had been grabbed by the game. Even player doesn't notice time pass due to the full attention to the game.
Authenticity is the key to enhance immersion and presence. Game design should stand on player’s cognition. It means that content in game should follow the patterns in player’s mind which is composed of real life experience. For instance, Assassin’s Creed is just created in human’s historical background and that authenticity provides the great immersion and presence to player.
The mutual influence of experience
The four aspects of PENS decides the whole gaming experience while these four aspects are not independent. These aspects influence each other therefore designer should consider all mutual influence.
For instance, how to solve a quest and the process contains much consideration in designing experience. How many options player can take in solving problems? Can player corporate with NPC or other player to deal with quest?
For game designer, there should be a way of system thinking to examine the game content. Player Experience of Need Satisfaction, it gives a way to estimate how player feels about the game.
Reference
Brockmyer, J. H., Fox, C. M., Curtiss, K. A., McBroom, E., Burkhart, K. M., & Pidruzny, J. N. (2009). The development of the Game Engagement Questionnaire: A measure of engagement in video game-playing. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 45(4), 624–634.
Nacke, L., & Drachen, A. (2011). Towards a framework of player experience research. In Proceedings of the second international workshop on evaluating player experience in games at FDG (Vol. 11).
Ryan, R. M., Rigby, C. S., & Przybylski, A. (2006). The motivational pull of video games: A self — determination theory approach. Motivation and emotion , 30 (4), 344–360.
Rigby, S., & Ryan, R. M. (2011). Glued to games: How video games draw us in and hold us spellbound: How video games draw us in and hold us spellbound. ABC-CLIO.
