DESIGNING COMPUTERGAMES PREEMPTIVELY
FOR EMOTIONS AND
PLAYER TYPES
New Technology 2013
Arelíus Sveinn Arelíusarson.
Table of Contents
Abstract............................................................................................................................................................ 3
Introduction......................................................................................................................................................3
Game Mechanisms...........................................................................................................................................3
Game Rules and game mechanics...........................................................................................................................4
Game Wiles..............................................................................................................................................................4
Player Types.....................................................................................................................................................6
Bartle's Player Types...............................................................................................................................................6
Four Keys to More Emotion Without Story............................................................................................................7
Yee's Player Types...................................................................................................................................................8
Comparing Models .................................................................................................................................................8
The Top Ten Positive Computer-game Emotions..............................................................................................9
Chris Bateman's List................................................................................................................................................9
Lazzaro's Emotions................................................................................................................................................10
Mapping the Top Ten Emotions to Player Types.............................................................................................10
Achievement..........................................................................................................................................................10
Advancement..........................................................................................................................................................10
Mechanics...............................................................................................................................................................11
Competition............................................................................................................................................................11
Biomechanisms.......................................................................................................................................................11
Social.....................................................................................................................................................................11
Socializing..............................................................................................................................................................11
Relationship............................................................................................................................................................11
Teamwork...............................................................................................................................................................11
Biomechanisms.......................................................................................................................................................11
Immersion..............................................................................................................................................................11
Discovery................................................................................................................................................................11
Role-playing...........................................................................................................................................................12
Customization.........................................................................................................................................................12
Escapism.................................................................................................................................................................12
Biomechanisms......................................................................................................................................................12
Augmented Yee Model...................................................................................................................................13
Preemptive Emotional Design........................................................................................................................14
Amusement............................................................................................................................................................14
Contentment...........................................................................................................................................................14
Promising contentment............................................................................................................................................15
Providing feedback..................................................................................................................................................15
Promoting confidence..............................................................................................................................................16
Refusing contentment..............................................................................................................................................16
Wonderment...........................................................................................................................................................16
Excitement.............................................................................................................................................................17
Curiosity................................................................................................................................................................17
Mechanics................................................................................................................................................................17
Role-Playing............................................................................................................................................................18
Discovery.................................................................................................................................................................18
Fireo.......................................................................................................................................................................19
Surprise..................................................................................................................................................................20
Naches...................................................................................................................................................................20
Relief......................................................................................................................................................................20
Bliss.......................................................................................................................................................................21
Discussion......................................................................................................................................................21
References......................................................................................................................................................22
Illustrations.....................................................................................................................................................22
Abstract
In this paper I mapped the top ten emotions computer-game players experience, as
categorized by Chris Bateman, to player types. I compared three models of player types (Bartle,
Lazzaro and Yee) to produce as an encompasing model of player types as possible. Furthermore I
have made use of Bateman's speculations upon which biomechanisms each emotion stems from and
assigned them to player types. The result is what I call the Augmented Yee Model which could help
computer-game designer to have a clear picture of what gamers desire from their preferred activity
and perhaps to identify if a design is missing aspects that are applicable. I also defined the nonaesthetic design constructs of computer-games to better convey understanding of what designers are
doing to elicit emotions from players without the use of a narrative, graphics or music. To that
effect I am introducing a new concept I call game wiles.
Introduction
Will Wright, the designer of The Sims, once said: „In the game industry it's kind of
important to realize --and it's not immediately obvious-- that you're really programming two
different processors. There's the computer in front of you with it's processor that you're
programming in some symbolic computer-language, that's kind of the technology side. But the
other processor, that is even more difficult to program and the game really is happening in, is the
player's mind, the player's imagination.“[1] Wright is pointing out that when designing computergames it is very important to realize that computer-games are directly eliciting emotional responses
in players. In this paper I endeavor to do three things. To define the non-aesthetic design constructs
of computer-games. To find an encompasing model of computer-game player types and to map the
top ten positive emotions of computer-game play and their underlying biomechanisms to player
types. For this purpose I offer an easily referenced model to structure the design approach.
I will define computer-game design constructs and introduce the concept of game wiles. I
will discuss each player type and provide ideas to what they expect from their gaming experience
and how to give it to them. I will describe each of the top ten positive emotions and offer the
Augmented Yee Model of player types where emotions (and their biomechanisms) are grouped and
present ideas and examples of how to design for each emotion specifically.
Providing player types mapped to their relevant emotions and clearly defining computergame design constructs that can be used to connect with them is hopefully a helpful contribution to
computer-game design and the Augmented Yee Model hopefully serves this purpose.
Game Mechanisms
Several attempts have been made to define what the term 'game mechanics' represents. It is
a common phrase in the computer-game industry and gets thrown around a lot. Not everyone
agrees on what it means exactly but everyone understands it. Raph Koster, a veteran game
designer, says „Game mechanics are rule based systems / simulations that facilitate and encourage
a user to explore and learn the properties of their possibility space through the use of feedback
mechanisms.„[2] Miguel Sicart defines them „as methods invoked by agents for interacting with the
game world“[3] and Heather Desurvire et.al. said, „game mechanics involve the programming that
provides the structure by which units interact with the environment.“[4] I think they are all correct.
They all seem to agree that game mechanics are rules and therefore programmable and their
purpose is to afford interaction. But I reckon they are missing an important perspective and I would
offer additional distinctions. First I would segregate game rules from game mechanics and
secondly I would like to introduce my idea of game wiles.
Game Rules and game mechanics
Consider a simple ball game where rules and mechanics have been separated distinctively.
Simple ball game
The rules:
There are two teams, 3 players on each team on a field with two goals on opposite
each other. To win you have to get a ball into the opponents goal more often than
the opponent gets it in your goal, using any part of your body except for your hands.
The mechanics:
When you have the ball, you can pass it, dribble it or shoot it. When the opponent
has the ball you can chase, block or tackle.
The rules of engagement are defined and then the mechanics to operate within those rules.
The interaction between game mechanics then determine the win state of the game.
The significance of this distinction is apparent when you think about how to teach someone
to play a new game. With no research other than my 30 years of gaming, I find that when teaching
someone to play a new game, it's best done in two parts.
•
Lay out the rules of the game concisely and explain how a winner is determined.
•
Teach how game mechanics help them achieve a win status.
Think about this: in a boardgame rulesbook, do you generally care if the section titled 'How
to determine a winner' is before or after you learn the mechanics? It does not matter in which order
you learn about rules and mechanics because learning the facts of either begets curiosity of the other
and seperate they are incomplete. Yet creating that distinction significantly helps in creating an
understanding of the game because you can keep adding new mechanics to the curriculum,
increasing complexity and options, but the rules of the game remain unchanged. Any game can be
boiled down to rules and mechanics because all games are inherently comprised of those constructs.
It is, at least to me, an obvious distinction and it's benefits become apparent at later stages in this
paper.
Game Wiles
Game wiles are representations, or psychological tricks game designers employ to
communicate suggestions, emotions and game states to their players. Wiles are easily
distinguashable from game mechanics as they do not directly influence game states. A progress bar
is a wile, communicating a game state to the player. Enlarging the numbers displayed when a
player performs a critical strikes is a wile, where the big bold letters emphasize the importance of
the strike. Wiles are subtle and suggestive in nature. Progress bars representing health turn from
passive green to dangerous red predicting death. Your crops wilt in Farmville as you neglect to
harvest. Wiles induce emotion.
Take the game Peggle by PopCap. Peggle is a
pinball variant. In Peggle you shoot a ball into
the air trying to hit as many pegs as possible as
the ball falls back down. You loose when the
ball exits the bottom of the screen unless it
lands in a barrel (in which case the ball is
returned to you for another shot). The barrel
continuously moves between the left and right
edges of the screen so it is up to lady luck if
you reclaim the ball or not. When it is a close
call whether the ball will make it into the barrel,
bounce of it's edge back into the level or be lost
to the player, the game shifts into slow motion
and the camera zooms in on the ball as it
Illustration 1: PopCap's Peggle
approaches the barrel. This is a game wile
promoting excitement and uncertainty. Wiles are used to convey the intended emotion designers
want for their players. They suggest and teach (often in the form of a sidekick character) and they
set the mood.
Wiles are used in all mediums, advertising, movies, stories and indeed many migrated from
those mediums to computer-games. But game wiles can be unique to their medium, because the
medium of computer-games is unique due to the hidden dialog between designer and player, the
endless interaction that is a computer-game. An important identification of game wiles is that they
do not affect game states.
Illustration 2: Game Mechanisms
Game Rules define the structure and win states of a game.
Game Mechanics are tools that directly affect game states.
Game Wiles communicate emotions, suggestions and game states.
A note on aesthetics. Graphics and music could be classified as game wiles and certainly
they are used as such with abandon. The line between aesthetics and wiles is hazy. Is a death
animation of a foe a game wile or just graphics? I offer that unless a particular piece of graphics or
sound is emoting or specifically communicating a game state (edges of screen turn red to indicate
danger or a ding sound when collecting tokens) it is not a game wile.
As a final point on the taxonomy of computer-game constructs, I would suggest 'Game
Mechanisms' as an umbrella term for game rules, game mechanics and game wiles.
Player Types
Bartle's Player Types
In 1996 Richard Bartle wrote about player types and presented archetypes of players.
Bartle's model of player types became widely accepted and is cited frequently. For it's intentions
the model is spot on, but it's intent was not to be an encompasing categorization of computer-game
players and so it has been mistakenly applied out of context. In a talk Bartle gave at Casual
Connect Europe in February 2012, Bartle stated „My aim when I wrote about player types was to
stop designers from making games that they wanted to play and start making games that peopole
wanted to play.“[5] Bartle was attempting to provide a system to balance the design of multiplayer
games to accomodate all player types within MMOs. Bartle provides four classifications of MMO
players. Explorers, Socializers, Killers and Achievers. „Explorers like interacting with the world.
They delight in discovery. Socializers
like interacting with other players.
They spend a lot of their time
chatting. Killers like acting on other
players. They wish to dominate them,
either through bullying or through
politicking. Achievers like acting on
the world. They are typically gamers,
playing to “win”.“[16] I agree with
Dan Dixon's critique when he points
out that Bartle's types can overlap[6] .
My concern is with the 'killers'
category whose activites can be easily
disassembled and placed in the
Illustration 3: Bartle's player type model, Designing Virtual Worlds
achievers and socializers types.
Four Keys to More Emotion Without Story
In 2004 XEODesign under Nicole Lazzaro conducted the study Why We Play Games. The
study's aim was to clarify how to design games to elicit emotions from players without the use of a
story. Ignoring the facets of graphics and advanced features, they wanted to „... learn what adult
players thought made good game experiences“.[7] What emerged is what they call Four Keys to
More Emotion Without Story.
Lazzaro's Four Keys[7]
HARD FUN
Players like the opportunities for challenge, strategy, and problem solving. Their
comments focus on the game’s challenge and strategic thinking and problem
solving. This “Hard Fun” frequently generates emotions and experiences of
Frustration, and Fiero.
EASY FUN
Players enjoy intrigue and curiosity. Players become immersed in games when it
absorbs their complete attention, or when it takes them on an exciting adventure.
These Immersive game aspects are “Easy Fun” and generate emotions and
experiences of Wonder, Awe, and Mystery.
ALTERED
STATES
Players treasure the enjoyment from their internal experiences in reaction to the
visceral, behavior, cognitive, and social properties. These players play for
internal sensations such as Excitement or Relief from their thoughts and feelings.
THE PEOPLE
FACTOR
PIn a 2006 study by Nick Yee, titled Motivation for Play in Online Games. Yee
categorized reasons for play within the context of MMORPG players.
MMORPGs by nature offer such a broad scope of playing experiences that I feel
Yee's results could be used to pigieonhole players of almost any computer-game
(perhaps aside from lotteries). It is a detailed model of player types with
subcategories of each of the three main types offering examples of play each
type preferrs.layers use games as mechanisms for social experiences. These
players enjoy the emotions of Amusement, Schadenfreude, and Naches coming
from the social experiences of competition, teamwork, as well as opportunity for
social bonding and personal recognition that comes from playing with others.
Using these Four Keys to define player types as an encompasing model of computer-game
players is questionable to me. The Altered States category isn't really a player type but an aspect
almost every player type can identify with. The emotion of excitement is so widely felt in multiple,
varied computer-game activities, that I don't think it's possible to assign it exclusively to a single
playstyle. Experienceing relief from thoughts and feelings is also produced by numerous activities.
To me this key is underlining an important reason for playing in general rather than defining an
archetype and I can't help but to wonder if Lazzaro was in fact looking at people reporting the
experience of flow as proposed by the Hungarian psychology professor Mihály Csíkszentmihályi.[8]
Other than that I think the other three keys are a good abstract view of computer-game players.
Yee's Player Types
In a 2006 study by Nick Yee, titled Motivation for Play in Online Games. Yee categorized
reasons for play within the context of MMORPG players. MMORPGs by nature offer such a broad
scope of playing experiences that I feel Yee's results could be used to pigieonhole players of almost
any computer-game (perhaps aside from lotteries). It is a detailed model of player types with
subcategories of each of the three main types offering examples of play each type preferrs.
Yee's player type model.[9]
ACHIEVEMENT
SOCIAL
IMMERSION
Advancement
Socializing
Discovery
Progress, Power,
Casual Chat, Helping Others,
Exploration, Lore,
Accumulation, Status
Making Friends
Finding Hidden Things
Mechanics
Relationship
Role-Playing
Numbers, Optimization,
Personal, Self-Disclosure,
Story Line, Character History,
Templating, Analysis
Find and Give Support
Roles, Fantasy
Competition
Teamwork
Customization
Challenging Others,
Provocation, Domination
Collaboration, Groups, Group
Achievements
Appearances, Accessories,
Style, Color Schemes
Escapism
Relax, Escape from Real Life,
Avoid Real-Life Problems
Comparing Models
Comparing the three models I find that
Bartle's model as well as Lazzaro's model, both
fit Yee's model (and indeed Yee employed the
Bartle model as starting point).[9] We can fit
Bartle's Killers into Yee's model by placing them
under Achievement\Competition and as
explained before, Lazzaro's Altered States is
applicable to any of the three major categories
provided by Yee and Bartle. This is very
interesting in and by itself. Three researches over
ten years that reach similar conclusions. It is
therefore that I will use Yee's definitions as they
are the most encompasing in my opinion.
Illustration 4: Relations of Bartle's, Lazzaro's and Yee's
models
The Top Ten Positive Computer-game Emotions
Chris Bateman's List
In 2008 Chris Bateman gathered data from a DGD2 survey with 1,040 repsonses and ranked
the top 10 emotions as reported by computer-game players. It is a list of estimation and to quote
Bateman, „This isn’t a strict scientific measure, as such, but the highest scoring emotions are those
for which the majority of people not only recognised having that emotion while playing games, but
recognised it enhanced their enjoyment.“ [9] Bateman goes on to theorize about possible biological
mechanisms that were responsible for each emotion, attributing the feeling of bliss to seratonin for
example. For the emotions of relief and naches Bateman is not certain enough to sepculate on the
chemicals responsible, guessing relief „may be the experiential analogue of the hormone
cortisol“[10] and offering no insights for naches. According to Ortonay and Turner's list of basic
emotions[10] relief is related to joy and I would therefore rather link it to seratonin. Naches is
interesting. It is the feeling of pride and joy in the accomplishments of a child or a student and I
would make a case that it is a mix of seratonin (pride is related to joy) and norepinephrine (naches
are felt when the child or student itself experiences fiero). Aside from those two speculations, I am
going by Bateman's assessments. Here is the list of the top ten emotions during computer-game
play and the chemicals associated with them with the highest rated emotion first.
Emotion
1. Amusement
2. Contentment
3. Wonderment
4. Excitement
5. Curiosity
6. Fiero
7. Surprise
8. Naches
9. Relief
10. Bliss
Illustration 5: Emotions grouped by biomechanisms responsible
Lazzaro's Emotions
In XEODesign's study, Lazzaro identified seven major emotions by observing facial
experssions, body language and verbality. Although this is not the most scientific method of
interpreting emotion the list is interesting.
Lazzaro's emotions[7]
Emotion
Common Themes and Triggers
Fear
Threat of harm, object moving quickly to hit player, sudden fall or loss of support,
possibility of pain.
Surprise
Sudden change. Briefest of all emotions, does not feel good or bad, after
interpreting event this emotion merges into fear, relief, etc..
Disgust
Rejection as food or outside norms The strongest triggers are body products such as
feces, vomit, urine, mucus, saliva, and blood.
Naches/Kvell
Pleasure or pride at the accomplishment of a child or mentee. (Kvell is how it feels
to express this pride in one’s child or mentee to others).
Fiero
Personal triumph over adversity. The ultimate Game Emotion. Overcoming
difficult obstacles players raise their arms over their heads. They do not need to
experience anger prior to success, but it does require effort.
Schadenfreude Gloat over misfortune of a rival. Competitive players enjoy beating each other
especially a long-term rival. Boasts are made about player prowess and ranking.
Wonder
Over whelming improbability. Curious items amaze players at their unusualness,
unlikelyhood, and improbability without breaking out of realm of possibilities.
Because of the methodology used to compile this list I mention it only as a reinforcement for
Bateman's list (many feelings observed by Lazzaro are on Bateman's list) and as a reminder that
Bateman's list of popular positive emotions isn't a conclusive list of emotions felt by players. Also,
Bateman's list doesn't apply to all the subcategories of Yee's model, so Lazzaro's findings provided
additional clues to mapping player types and emotions.
Mapping the Top Ten Emotions to Player Types
Another one of Lazzaro's work, The Four Keys 2 Fun does a wonderful job of tying
emotions onto game mechanisms. Scrutinizing over Yee's descriptions also provides clues to the
underlying emotions. With these resources at hand I've attempted to map Bateman's list to Yee's
model.
Achievement
Advancement
Players in this category find their rewards in completing tasks, achieveing win states and
amassing items or currency. Fiero, contentment and relief are emotions that manifest when
ojbectives are completed. Until then, excitement reigns as the player prepares and trudges on
towards task completion.
Mechanics
These players are motivated by curiosity of the game's inner workings and the desire to beat
the system. They want to test the game and find the best path through it. In here you will find
strategy gamers and players obssessed with talent-trees. They are hoping that their tinkering will
lead to discovering a powerful configuration and until the theory is tried and tested they feel
excitement compounded by curiosity. The big payoff is a mixture of contentment, fiero and relief
but the process is often puncutated with disappointment.
Competition
These are the warriors of computer-games. Bartle's Killers. They revel in player on player
battles and want to be the best. Excitement prevails here, as fast decisions need to be made to
triumph. Amusement is found in the demise and mistakes of opponents (schadenfreude) and
conquest is rewarded with relief, contentment and fiero.
Biomechanisms
Predominantly players in the Achievement column are adrenaline junkies. Running high on
epinephrine until some seratonin state is achieved.
Social
Socializing
People in this category yearn for the contentment of acceptance, the bliss of companionship
and the pride of other's graditude towards them. They are people persons, finding joy in the casual
interaction with others.
Relationship
Very similar to socializers but with a deep desire to form long-lasting, meaningful
relationships. They are looking for the bliss of intimate relationships. These are the immersive
socializers.
Teamwork
This group of people take pride in group accomplishments and thrive in the structure of an
organization. Unlike the socializing and relationship categories, fiero is their payoff. To enjoy the
group the group needs to be working towards a definite goal that while uncompleted staves off
contentment. This is the social club for players under the Achievement category.
Biomechanisms
Players in the social category enjoy varied emotions. Social types tend towards endorphins
mixed with the other three chemicals.
Immersion
Discovery
These players find their rewards in obscure knowledge and exploration. Driven by curiosity,
they will spend a lot of time seeking something that will cause wonderment or surprise and then feel
content. For these people it is more about the journey than the destination and they will explore
blissfully until the game world and lore is fully known to them.
Role-playing
Roleplayers create and act out personas during play. It is done for amusement, bliss and
contentment. Taking joy in collaboratively creating a story in real time, feeling contentment in the
acceptance of their alternate persona and experiencing the bliss of an alternate fantasy life.
Wonderment is here not only because roleplayers seek it, but because they also desire to induce it.
Customization
Customization is the joy of self expression and the contentment found when one own's
representations are pleaseing. Players belonging to this group long to shape their in-game
appearance, often to express individuality or status.
Escapism
Computer-games inherently provide escapism by providing an avenue to reach a state of
flow. Players in this category use immersion into computer-games to escape real life problems.
Relief, bliss, wonderment, contentment and amusement all play a role in facilitating this.
Biomechanisms
Immersion players seek out emotions related to endorphins primarily but are also enjoying
seratonin kicks
Augmented Yee Model
ACHIEVEMENT
SOCIAL
IMMERSION
Advancement
Socializing
Discovery
Progress, Power,
Casual Chat, Helping Others,
Exploration, Lore,
Accumulation, Status.
Making Friends.
Finding Hidden Things.
Fiero, Contentment, Relief,
Excitement.
Amusement, Bliss,
Contentment, Naches.
Epinephrine, Norepinephrine,
Seratonin.
Endorphins, Norepinephrine,
Seratonin.
Bliss, Curiosity,
Contentment, Wonderment,
Surprise.
Mechanics
Relationship
Role-Playing
Numbers, Optimization,
Personal, Self-Disclosure,
Story Line, Character History,
Templating, Analysis.
Find and Give Support.
Roles, Fantasy.
Curiosity, Surprise,
Contentment, Fiero,
Excitement, Relief.
Amusement, Bliss,
Contentment, Naches.
Amusement, Curiosity,
Wonderment.
Endorphins, Seratonin,
Norepinephrine.
Endorphins.
Competition
Teamwork
Customization
Challenging Others,
Provocation, Domination.
Collaboration, Groups, Group
Achievements.
Appearances, Accessories,
Style, Color Schemes.
Excitement, Contentment,
Amusement, Fiero, Relief.
Amusement, Contentment,
Fiero, Naches.
Amusement, Contentment.
Epinephrine, Norepinephrine,
Seratonin.
Endorphins, Epinephrine,
Norepinephrine, Seratonin.
Endorphins, Epinephrine,
Norepinephrine, Seratonin.
Endorphins, Epinephrine,
Seratonin.
Endorphins, Seratonin.
Escapism
Relax, Escape from Real Life,
Avoid Real-Life Problems.
Amusement, Bliss,
Contentment, Relief,
Wonderment.
Endorphins, Seratonin.
Preemptive Emotional Design
Amusement
Simply: your game should be funny. It doesn't have to be a complete joke, but it should
have a joke. Describing how to be funny is something I won't attempt. If a design does include
humor I will offer this advice: user test it. Check if your audience agrees with what you think is
funny. Amusement is found in every column of Yee's model and all subcategories save for
Advancement, Mechanics, and Discovery.
Contentment
I like how Wikipedia defines contentment, „Contentment is the acnowledgement and
satisfaction of reaching capacity. The level of capacity reached may be sought after, expected,
desired, or simply predetermined as the level in which provides contentment.“[11] This basically
means that contentment is performance driven and that players' goals are not only provided by the
game but by player expectations as well. Fulfilling those expectations then leads to contentment.
As the second most popular emotion there are good grounds for taking it seriously. Because players
form their own expectations there is strong chance a good deal of them will never be adressed by
the game. Making a game that is guaranteed to induce contentment 100% of the time in every
single player that tries is impossible.
You can't design contentment, you can only design to facilitate it. This is done adhering to
the three Ps. First, one must promise contentment by clearly announcing provided goals.
Secondly, while the pursuit of contentment is ongoing, one must provide feedback on progress in a
clear, immediate manner. And thirdly one must promote confidence in the player. Let me explain:
I would argue that contentment is the offspring of the flow experience. Csíkszentmihályi has
suggested that enhancing the time spent in flow makes us happy and successful and that the
experience is an inately positive one, promoting intense feelings of enjoyment.[8] People
experiencing flow report:
1. Intense and focused concentration on the present moment.
2. Merging of action and awareness.
3. A loss of reflective self-consciousness.
4. A sense of personal control or agency over the situation or activity.
5. A distortion of temporal experience, one's subjective experience of time is altered.
6. Experience of the activity as intrinsically rewarding, referred to as an autotelic experience.[8]
Sound familiar? That is the exact experience of any player engrossed in a game. The focus
achieved when decisions are a-plenty, the ease of play when every move comes naturally and
effortlessly, the abstraction from one's real life worries, the feeling of competence, the loss of time
and autotelic joy. It is the underlying reason anyone plays games. It is the internal human
mechanism that drives personal growth, learning and success by promoting happyness and joy in
personal achievements. It is why we are successful as a species. Neglecting to fascilitate flow can
be detrimental to player retention. Flow can not be forced, it is involuntary. There are three factors
that make flow possible.[8]
1. One must be participating in a task with clear goals.
(Promise contentment).
2. The activity has to have clear and immediate feedback so the participant can adjust to
circumstances.
(Provide feedback).
3. The perception of the challenge's difficulty must not outweigh the perception ones own
proficiency.
(Promote confidence).
Promising contentment
Games inherently have both long and short term goals and they need different attentions and
promotions.
Long term goals have to be concise and they need to be introduced as early as possible as is
appropriate. While declaring the final win state of a game is perfectly acceptible for promotional
purposes, the long term goal of level 3 doesn't need to be on the back of the box. This is the
dominant way to advertise games, and classically seen on promotional material. „Kill the final
boss!“ „Explore the world!“ „Addictive gameplay!“. These are then sometimes followed by a list
describing features, styles fo play and content (like the bulleted lists on packaging). All of these
points are promises of contentment and powerful computer-game advertisments as they directly
provoke longing among the target audience. Not understanding which emotions one is targeting
with these promises might cause relevant customers to dismiss the game.
Short term goals can and often need to be detailed. They are best introduced just before a
player undertakes them. A primary example of short term goals are tutorials or dispatching the next
wave of enemies. Clarity of message is also of extreme importance. How can one play if short
term goals aren't explicitly explained?
Providing feedback
Feedback for short term goals has to be immediate and understandable. Game wiles that
convey measurements or game states are well suited for this. Damage text, lifebars, death
animations or reddening the edges of the screen are all examples of wiles that inform players of
status and progress.
Long term goals do not need their feedback to be as immediate as short term goals. Game
wiles such as progress bars, percentages and fractions are all applicable. Displaying a progress bar
representing the completion of the whole game prominently but periodically is a good way to
reinforce a sense of overall progress. Place it on a loading screen or somewhere in the menu system
where players regularly pass by. Provide an understandable, accesible structure that conveys a
sense of task proportion. Map screens that offer an overview of the game world, level lists in a
puzzle game or an inventory of the attainable vehicles in a racing game are all examples of such
structures. Make sure their requirements are explained (e.g. level requirements for a spell) to avoid
misleading players. All this gives a sense of proportion that helps players gauge the effort expected
of them before they are rewarded and most important of all, promises contentment. You're making a
deal witht the players. You're telling them, 'This is what you get if you complete a task that is
roughly this difficult.'
Promoting confidence
Long term goals often correspond to game
rules. In order to win the game you need to finish the
last level while overcoming several other long term
goals first (e.g. finish preceding levels). Short term
goals are mostly achieved via game mechanics.
Game mechanics are therefore chiefly responsible for
player success and success promotes confidence.
Short term goals are instrumental in maintaining the
state of flow in players. If the game is too easy the
player gets bored and abandons it. If the game is too
hard the player quits it as soon as her limit for
frustration is peaked. Games need to constantly raise
the skill bar in order to maintain flow. The method
is simple. Explain a short term goal (like how to
Illustration 6: The Flow Channel
move). Teach the mechanics needed to complete it
(which buttons to press) and allow players to practice it (finish a level using the newly acquired
mechanics). Then, clearly convey to the player when success is met. Then introduce a new
mechanic (raise the skill bar) and do it all over again.
Refusing contentment
It is interestings hat refusing contentment is becoming popular as a business model in
computer-games today. It is known as free-to-play (and all it's subcategories). Free-to-play does
this very well. At some point a player hits a threshold or a wall that can only be surmounted by
either investing countless hours on repetative play or for a small fee is able to purchase the
necessary tools to overcome the hindrance. This is refusal of contentment and people will pay to
have it lifted.
Wonderment
Related to bliss, curiosity and joy,[13] wonderment via game mechanisms is an illusive task.
The best way I can think of is to introduce unexpected game behaviour. When Wolfenstein 3D first
came out it was wonderous. It was game behaviour noone expected, and people loved it. Another
example is a legendary game mechanic that totally blew the FPS population away: Half Life's
Gravity Gun. Wonder produced by game mechanisms often stems from originality, where a game
allows you to do something you've never done before. Examples of games that did this successfully
are Lemmings, Portal and World of Goo. Originality is not the only way to surprise players with
game behaviour. Changing the type of play can cause wonderment. World of Warcraft does this
frequently by providing players with varied mini-games. Creating a mini-game allows designers to
grant players temporary abilities that under normal game-play would be unfeasable. A player can
find herself suddenly in a flying machine, dropping bombs on scores of foes dealing incredible
damage. Another game that did this brilliantly as well is God of War where certain foes made you
match an on-screen sequence of buttons to dispatch them. The game takes advantage of these minigames by providing additional death animation for these special opponents which were often overthe-top and brutal. Providing players with a feeling of power can also trigger wonderment, where
players marvel at how amazing and unstoppable they are. Powerups and expensive-to-use abilites
are means to allow this. Mechanics that change game rules are a tried and tested method to provoke
feelings of power and thus possibly of wonderment. Lessening conditions to achieve win states or
temporarily ignoring penalties are examples of this. Attention though, such mechanics will loose
their wonderment over time if their use becomes too frequently.
Excitement
Excitement in computer-game players is produced by the fight-or-flight response of the
sympathetic nervous system and is induced when the body releases epinephrine (adrenaline).[14]
Triggers for epinephrine release are incitements such as the threat of harm, noises, bright lights and
uproar.[14] To best induce excitement in players, tap into each of those aspects. Soundeffects,
particles, and on-screen chaos are effective game wiles for this purpose. Lemmings is an example
of a game that uses on-screen chaos to induce excitement. Guitar Hero abuses particle effects to
convey excitement and action games would become dull sans soundeffects. The underlying factor
in my opinions is threat. All this means little if there is nothing on the line. The threat itself not
only needs to be clearly communicated, but the absolution of it must be explicit. Most player types
that want excitement want it in waves punctuated by relief and fireo. Consider a healthbar. When
full, it is green and as it empties it changes colour and accumulates a glow. The higher the threat,
the brighter the glow and redder the colour. When the healthbar is refilled by some mechanic,
returned to complacent green and the glow disappears, relief is felt. Reddening screen edges or
edges from where the threat originates are proficient wiles for clarifying threat. Another abstraction
of excitement is to attribute it to decision making. Sometimes the depth of the decision tree that is
available to a player is deep, like in strategy games, and sometimes it is shallow but enhanced by
being rapid, like in shooter games. Tetris, Puzzle Bobble and Super Mario have shallow decision
trees but accuracy and pattern recognition are rapidly required of the player. The combo game wile
can induce excitement as well. Performing a combo is the act of stringing together combinations of
interacting game mechanics as means to an end. As the player progresses along the combo string
excitement grows. Examples of combo strings are combination attacks in fighter games. In short:
Convey a threat. Emphasize the threat. Provide relief clearly.
Curiosity
When trying to compel curiosity it is done differently for each player type it touches upon.
Usually you can employ obscurity to create curiosity.
Mechanics
Mechanical curiosity is wanting to experiment with all the game mechanics the game
provides. It is done for autotelic reasons or for optimization. Players experiencing this type of
curiosity ask questions like, 'How does this mechanic work? ' 'Is one configuration superior to
another given the situation I'm facing?' 'What happens when I do this?' Game mechanic
interactions and restrictions are best suited to keep these players curious. By interactions I mean
that one mechanic's results depends on how it is combined with other mechanics. An example of
this are talent trees in where players select talents that complement and enhance each other. By
restrictions I am talking about restricting access to mechanics without limiting availability. A player
has to make choices of what mechanics to use from a pool of mechanics but can only choose a
limited ammount of them. Team Fortress 2 does this by providing a myriad of different weapons
with subsets of weapons interacting in special ways, but only allowing the player to choose three.
Another method is to hide attributes. In the team menu in FIFA12 footballer's special abilities are
immediately visible but in the FIFA13 team menu they're not and it's not until one inspects a player
that their sepcial attributes are apparent. Intentional or not this information hiding encourages
discovery and hence curiosity.
Illustration 8: FIFA 12 team menu.
Illustration 7: FIFA 13, team menu.
Role-Playing
For these players curiosity lies in the results of social interacton. They create personas and
enjoy reactions to that persona. Fascilitating role-playing is a mixture of normal social features
such as chat, examination of others, emotes and customization. This group of people often require
privacy as the immersive experience is fragile. The inclusion of non role-playing players will
destroy the immersion. World of Warcraft for example has specially designated servers for roleplayers, freeing them from unwanted stimuli. Game wiles that affect immersion are often
indistinguishable from aesthetics. Take the World of Warcraft login screen for example. Depicting
a decrepit, ruinous landscape with fire and ash everywhere. But! In the middle of the screen, a
stone portal containing your login information and beyond it, sunny skies and pastures green. All
you have to do is to just to enter your password and that's where you'll go, to that beautiful place
beyond the stone portal. If not for the interaction the user has to make with the login information,
the garphics of the WoW login screen would just be that, graphics. But because of the interaction,
that the player has to enter his password into the stone portal, the player is subconsciously making a
decision to enter the portal.
Discovery
Discovery is the inherent reward of curiosity. Enticing discovery players with game wiles is
easy! Hide parts of the game but make sure their existance is known. Fogs of war and maps with
unexplored locations blank but outlined seduce explorers. Multiple paths serve this purpose as well.
Super Mario player have all mentally noted that next time they finish a certain level, they're taking
the pipe on the far left. Another way to provide discovery are hidden facets. How well they are
hidden decides the method of discovery. If players have no idea that there are hidden levels their
introduction must be forced (otherwise one is creating content for noone). Find a bottleneck in the
game flow and force the discovery there. One can also associate specific indications with hidden
facets and place them next to them (all the trees are brown except the ones with hidden properties,
they are a slightly different colour of brown). Players will learn to recognize these clues. High up,
in a seemingly unreachable position, there is an off-colour tree revealing that a hidden facet to the
game is yet unexplored.
Illustration 9: Path choice in Super Mario.
Fireo
Personal triumph over adversity is expressed with the Italian word fiero. In order for players
to experience fiero, all that is required is that task completion is possible and has meaningful
rewards. The importance of the reward often determines the intensity of fiero. Extremely tense
situations, where excitement is abundant, induce relief and fiero in players who succesfully navigate
them and the player finds satisfaction is in hiw own capabilities. Emphasizing fiero is done with
game wiles. One of the oldest and dearest game wile to do so are score lists.
Any game that uses score to measure progress has to have a score list to encourage
betterment and to provide a frame of reference for players to estimate their success. But score lists
are fundamentally flawed when approached from the viewpoint of a new player entering the game.
New players don't know if an arbitrary number presented at the end of a level is good or bad.
Instead of abitrary numbers one could do as Angry Birds developer Rovio did. Rovio abstracted the
metrics of a player's performance and presented a simple representation of fractions. When
completing a level players are shown how many stars out of three possible they earned.
Immediatley players understand their performance and achieving all three stars is an experience rich
in fiero. This is such a successful game wile that it is now a widely adopted for measuring
performance in a multitude of games. How important Rovio value this game wile is seen when
examining the evolution of the level completion screen between Angry Birds games.
Illustration 10: Angry Birds level performance screens. On the left, the first version, with small stars that have
roughly equal screen importance compared to the score. On the right, the newer version of the game. Here the stars
are the most important feature and appeared on screen with a resounding thud, one by one.
Denying fiero to players has the curious effect of multiplying the feeling when it is
eventually achieved. Frustration fuels fiero. A game wile that can be used to deny players fiero is
the ascending soundeffect. Computer-games frequently provide players with strings of tokens they
have to collect. Each token collected plays a sound effect which is raised in pitch for every
succeding token collected. As the pitch grows, so does excitement. Missing a token in a string
resets the pitch promoting a sense of failure. Successfully collecting the entire string of tokens
where the last token produces a the highest-pitched sound creates a sensation of fiero.
Surprise
Designing surprise for computer-games includes game wiles like lotteries, unexpected overcompentsation for achievements and automated completion of difficult problems all surprise
players. An example of lotteries is rolling for items dropped in World of Warcraft where players
compete for rewards by a toss of the dice. Over-compensation is to award exceedingly rare items or
a fortune of in-game currency. An example of automated task completion is to introduce a scripted
event that saves the day where at death's door players are saved by a non-player character og a
world event. Unintroduced game mechanics can also surprise players. Either mechanics given to
players or employed by adversaries. These special mechanics are given to players in certain
situations like accessing a surface-to-air missile launcher to deal with enemy aircrafts in an FPS
game or bossfights where as the fight progresses players learn the fight by trial and error and the
bosses abilities come one-by-one as a surprise. Often, these are incorporated into mini-games.
Surprise is strongly related to the idea of acting according to rules.[15] Breaking game rules and
unexpected game behaviour surprises players. Including surprise in a computer-game design is
usually a byproduct of other intentions of the designer. In horror games surprise turns to fear, in
exploration games surprise turns to bliss or wonderment and in action games surprise is morphed
into frustration or relief.
Naches
Naches is a Yiddish word descirbing the feeling of pride one takes in the accomplishments
of ones child or mentee. To specifically provide for this emotion, computer-game designers need to
include a frame work for teaching and guidance. Obviously, communication between players is
important so an ingame chat either via text or voice is fundemantal. Team Fortress 2 has a special
feature right in the main menu that pairs an experienced player with a newcomer. As naches are a
sought after positive emotion in games it might be a mistake not facilitating it. MMOs have picked
up on naches. Aion Online and World of Warcraft both provide a mentor system where in Aion
mentors receive ingame tokens in recognition of their contribution and mentees level up faster. In
World of Warcraft the mentor system isn't exactly that. It is introduced as a buddy system where
both players level up faster when playing together and intended provide players with a way
introduce their friends to the game. World of Warcraft provides numerous rewards for participation.
Relief
Relief is related to joy and it can be
produced by providing tension followed by
absolution. In most games relief comes
naturally as tense situations are resolved. But
designing for relief specifically I would point
out how rush games do this. Rush games are
Illustration 11: The lava level fom Disney's Aladdin
computer-games that target this emotion specially. My first experience with the rush game
mechanic was in Disney's Aladdin from 1992. It contained a level commonly known as the lava
level. Aladdin is escaping the Cave on Wonders upon the flying rug under the constant threat of
advancing lava. Failing to negotiate obstacles decreased the distance from the ever-advancing lava.
The seasless threat coupled with a high rate of decision-making provided a huge relief upon task
completion.
Bliss
Players experince bliss in labor, creativity, socializing and immersion. Players gather
ingredients, combine them and the end product provides bliss and contentment. Customization
allows players to adjust their representations within the game so they are aesthetically pleasing to
them. Immersion provides bliss as the real world fades and players become one with the game.
Positive social ineteractions and meaningful relationships with other players promote self
acceptance and happiness. Designing for bliss is tricky at best and I speculate that bliss emerges
from activites players find autotelic. Because each player type has their own preferred autotelic
activites a designer's best bet at producing bliss via mechanics is to keep players in the flow
channel.
Discussion
It is my hope that the Augmented Yee Model at the very least promotes discussion on the
association of player types and emotions and at best that it becomes a tool for two things. A
checklist of game aspects to be included to best target players seeking certain emotions. An
overview of possible aspects to include in a design. When designing a rush game for example, one
can see that the primary emotion of the game, relief, is present in a few player types and it could be
worth exploring if the game can somehow target those types as well.
As I focused on Bateman's list I am only using the most popular positive emotions.
Emotions like schadenfreude and fright have yet to be placed (although they are probably linked to
seratonin and epinephrine respectively) and I am sure there are many more that can be justifiably
placed in the Augmented Yee Model. I am not a medical doctor nor a psychiatrist and can offer
only my speculations based on rough research. Critique is welcomed and wanted.
References
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Illustrations
1 http://iamyourtargetdemographic.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/peggle-screenshot.jpg
3 http://www.zenfilms.com/blog/Bartle.png
6 http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0747563206001324#gr1
9 http://download.gamezone.com/uploads/image/data/873276/Super_Mario_Bros._-_2.jpg
10 http://i.stack.imgur.com/1ZC97.jpg and http://thevitalounge.com/wpcontent/uploads/2012/09/2012-09-27-171205.jpg
11 http://www.destructoid.com/elephant//ul/13182-550x-5.jpg