Ali Alkhafaji
Peter Hastings
Brian Grey
DePaul University

measuring game elements and attributes
◦ reality
 difficult to define, capture and apply
◦ perception
 unique for each player
 can be affected by a player’s age, gender, game
experience, preferences, etc

is there really a difference between the
two?

when we measure game elements in terms of
challenge, mystery and control, are we:
 measuring those elements in the game
◦ or
 the player’s perception of those elements
◦ which one matters?


perception is how a player perceives a certain
element is presented within the game
e.g.
◦ how difficult is this game?
◦ how much control did you have in this game?
◦ how mysterious is this game?


reality is quantifying game attributes based
on a predefined metric
e.g.
◦ how many attempts did it take to finish this game?
◦ how many directions or objective were available to
you at any given time during the game?
◦ what happens next in this game?

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

60 participants
10 games (5 genres)
20 minute game sessions
age
◦ average: 21.89
◦ median: 21

years of playing experience

times a week of playing video
games
High School
Graduates
Associate
Degree
Bachelors
Degree
Graduate
Degree
◦ average: 14.85
◦ median: 15
◦ average: 4.95
◦ median: 5
Male
Female
hypothesis: there is a high correlation between a player’s perception
about challenge, control and mystery with those elements’
measurements according to our metric.
perception
how difficult is this game?
reality
how many attempts did it take
to finish this game?
how much control did you have in
this game?
how many directions or objective
were available to you at any given
time during the game?
how mysterious is this game?
what happens next in this game?
attribute
correlation
what does that tell us?
challenge
0.925
data shows that as the
perception of difficulty
increases for a player, their
number of attempts increases
as well
control - directions
0.634
control - objectives
0.130
little to no relation between a
player’s perception of control
and the number of directions
and objectives
mystery
-0.350
Little to no relation between a
players perception of mystery
and their grasp on what
happens next

data can suggest a number of things
◦ for challenge, results are exactly what we expected
◦ for control and mystery, not so much. why?
 our definition and metric for control and mystery is
flawed
 a new layer of perception is introduced when we ask
players to answer to the metric question
 remember, we recorded our number of attempts for
challenge
 little to no correlation between control and mystery
and a player’s perception of them

for more information please visit:
http://edutainment.pbworks.com