Open Collections

Yin, Ji Tong

University of British Columbia

Video games have the ability to grant engaging, interactive experiences to its players, evoking a wide range of emotional responses; from joy to sorrow, from elation to thoughtfulness. This experiential affordance of video games, coupled with their meteoric rise in popularity, has made it increasingly important to understand the ways in which video games can shape player emotions and feelings. In this thesis, We consider how games affect player experience by investigating the effects of two prevalent design features, performing qualitative studies to understand their basis for inclusion and consequential effects. Ultimately, we highlight how such features can be used to mould the game towards specific experiences. First, we consider Random Reward Mechanisms (RRMs) - video game reward systems that provide rewards probabilistically upon trigger conditions, such as completing gameplay tasks or exceeding a playtime quota. We investigate the relationship between RRM implementations and user experience by performing a video observation of existing RRM systems and conducting interviews with players. Our methods reveal insights into how factors such as the affordances of non-optimal rewards and the trade-off between luck and skill impact player perception and interaction with RRMs. We additionally investigate the relationship between audiovisual design decisions and player expectations for reward presentations. Finally, we apply our findings to propose design methodologies for creating engaging RRM systems. Secondly, we consider the use of choice in narrative-rich video games. Such games often provide players with opportunities to make choices at key points, generating malleability within the game world and its characters. We explore the types of choices that exist, how choices affect player experience, and how players make decisions when presented with choice. We first conduct interviews with game developers and perform a video observation of existing choices to develop an initial classification system. We then perform a series of interviews with players to understand how different choices impact the overall experience. Our findings reveal that choices influence player experience at several levels of meta-gameplay, having impacts on the game itself, the player-game relationship, and the player outside the game. Finally, we discuss the potential of choice in developing impactful virtual experiences.

Text

2022-08-12

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

http://hdl.handle.net/2429/82339

Computer Science

University of British Columbia

UBCV

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/