ABSTRACT
The first time a player sits down with a game is critical for their engagement. Games are a voluntary activity and easy to abandon. If the game cannot hold player attention, it will not matter how much fun the game is later on if the player quits early. Worse, if the initial experience was odious enough, the player will dissuade others from playing. Industry advice is to make the game fun from the start to hook the player. In our analysis of over 200 game reviews and interviews with industry professionals, we advance an alternative, complementary solution. New design terminology is introduced such as "holdouts" (what keeps players playing despite poor game design) and the contrast between momentary fun vs. intriguing experiences. Instead of prioritizing fun, we assert that intrigue and information should be seen as equally valuable for helping players determine if they want to continue playing. The first sustained play session (coined "first hour"), when inspected closely, offers lessons for game development and our understanding of how players evaluate games as consumable products.
- Andersen, Erik, O'Rourke, Eleanor, Liu, Yun-En et al. The impact of tutorials on games of varying complexity. In Proc. of CHI (2012), ACM, 59--68. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Bond, Matthew and Beale, Russell. What makes a good game?: using reviews to inform design. In Proc. of HCI (2009), British Computer Society, 418--422. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Brown, E. and Cairns, P. A grounded investigation of game immersion. In CHI '04 Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems (2004), ACM, 1297--1300. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Csikszentmihalyi, Mihaly. Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience. Harper Perennial, 1991.Google Scholar
- Davis, J. et al. A survey method for assessing perceptions of a game: The consumer playtest in game design. Game Studies, 5, 1 (October 2005).Google Scholar
- Dedoose Version 4.5.96, web application for managing, analyzing, and presenting qualitative and mixed method research data. SocioCultural Research Consultants, LLC, Los Angeles, 2013.Google Scholar
- Desurvire, H. and Wiberg, C. User Experience Design for Inexperienced Gamers: GAP -- Game Approachability Principles. In Bernhaupt, R., ed., Evaluating User Experience in Games. Springer-Verlag London Limited, 2010.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Deterding, Sebastian, Dixon, Dan, Khaled, Rilla, and Nacke, Lennart. From Game Design Elements to Gamefulness: Defining "Gamification". In Proc. of MindTrek'11 (Tampere, Finland 2011), ACM, 9--15. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Hamari, Juho and Eranti, Veikko. Framework for designing and evaluating game achievements. Proc. DiGRA 2011: Think Design Play, 115 (2011), 122--134.Google Scholar
- Hedegaard, Steffen and Simonsen, Jakob Grue. Extracting usability and user experience information from online user reviews. In Proc. of CHI (2013), ACM, 2089--2098. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Jenkins, Henry. Games, the new lively art. In Handbook of computer game studies. MIT Press, Cambridge, 2005.Google Scholar
- Karapanos, E., et al. User experience over time: an initial framework. In Proc. of CHI (2009), ACM, 729--738. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Koster, Raph. A Theory of Fun for Game Design. O'Reilly Media, 2013. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Lincoln, Y.S. and Guba, E.G. Naturalistic Inquiry. SAGE Publications, 1985.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Livingston, Ian J., Nacke, Lennart E., and Mandryk, Regan L. Influencing experience: the effects of reading game reviews on player experience. In Proc. of ICEC (2011), Springer-Verlag, 89--100. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Phillips, Bruce. Staying power: Rethinking feedback to keep players in the game. Game Developer Magazine, 16, 6 (2009).Google Scholar
- Shelley, Bruce. Guidelines for developing successful games. Gamasutra (August 2001).Google Scholar
- Strauss, A. and Corbin, J.M. Basics of Qualitative Research: Techniques and Procedures for Developing Grounded Theory. SAGE Publications, 1998.Google Scholar
- Sweetser, Penelope and Wyeth, Peta. GameFlow: a model for evaluating player enjoyment in games. Comput. Entertain., 3 (July 2005), 3--3. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Wu, J., et al. Falling in love with online games: The uses and gratifications perspective. Computers in Human Behavior, 26 (2010), 1862--1871. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Zagal, José P., Ladd, Amanda, and Johnson, Terris. Characterizing and understanding game reviews. In Proc. of FDG (2009), ACM, 215--222. Google ScholarDigital Library
Index Terms
- The first hour experience: how the initial play can engage (or lose) new players
Recommendations
Not (Only) a Matter of Position: Player Traits Which Influence the Experience with the Leaderboard in a Digital Maths Game
Games and Learning AllianceAbstractLeaderboards have often been shown to increase engagement and motivation in digital serious games, supporting better learning outcomes and positively affecting players’ game experience. However, few studies show how the player’s position on the ...
Defining grief play in MMORPGs: player and developer perceptions
ACE '04: Proceedings of the 2004 ACM SIGCHI International Conference on Advances in computer entertainment technologyIn current literature, grief play in Massively Multi-player Online Role-Playing Games (MMORPGs) refers to play styles where a player intentionally disrupts the gaming experience of other players. In our study, we have discovered that player experiences ...
The Pokémon GO Experience: A Location-Based Augmented Reality Mobile Game Goes Mainstream
CHI '17: Proceedings of the 2017 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing SystemsPokémon GO is a location-based augmented reality mobile game based on the Pokémon franchise. After the game was launched globally in July 2016, it quickly became the most successful mobile game in both popularity and revenue generation at the time, and ...
Comments