Snarky's Adventure: A Research Tool to Explore How Children Understand Playtime and Experience Closure When Disengaging From Games
Authors: 
Merlin Steven Opp, Kathrin Gerling, Meshaiel Alsheail, Dmitry Alexandrovsky, Marvin WolfAuthors Info & Claims
Merlin Steven Opp, Kathrin Gerling, Meshaiel Alsheail, Dmitry Alexandrovsky, Marvin WolfAuthors Info & ClaimsPages 312 - 317
Abstract
Research on digital games has focused on engagement, often treating disengagement as a consequence of flawed game design and therefore undesirable. We want to explore disengagement in a different light, as we believe it can lead to an overall more positive player experience through closure and satisfaction. The end of a game session can often lead to conflict between children and their parents/guardians, which we believe can be reduced by proper disengagement built directly into the game design. Disengagement from digital games has not been explored with children in previous research, leaving a gap that we want to fill. Our demo Snarky’s Adventure tries to explore this by centering key design decisions around ending the game session after a selected amount of playtime and easing the player out. This can be used to explore different effects on the player experience that result from in-game communication of remaining play time and additional closure features.
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MP4 File - Snarky's Adventure: A Research Tool to Explore How Children Understand Playtime and Experience Closure When Disengaging From Games
Research on digital games has focused on engagement, often treating disengagement as a consequence of flawed game design and therefore undesirable. We want to explore disengagement in a different light, as we believe it can lead to an overall more positive player experience through closure and satisfaction. The end of a game session can often lead to conflict between children and their parents/guardians, which we believe can be reduced by proper disengagement built directly into the game design. Disengagement from digital games has not been explored with children in previous research, leaving a gap that we want to fill. Our demo Snarky's Adventure tries to explore this by centering key design decisions around ending the game session after a selected amount of playtime and easing the player out. This can be used to explore different effects on the player experience that result from in-game communication of remaining play time and additional closure features.
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- Snarky's Adventure: A Research Tool to Explore How Children Understand Playtime and Experience Closure When Disengaging From Games
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Published: 14 October 2024
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