GAME 3899: Game User Research Syllabus
GAME 3899: Game Topics
Game User Research
324 Ryder
Fall 2013
Tuesdays and Fridays 9:50-11:30
Website: http://www.northeastern.edu/magy/courses/GUR/gur.html
Piazza: https://piazza.com/northeastern/fall2013/game3899/home
Instructor:
Magy Seif El-Nasr
Associate Professor
Northeastern University
136 Meserve
Email: [email protected]
Description:
The development cycle of any game relies on the understanding of the players or target
market. This course discusses players' psychology, including cognition, memory,
emotions, attention. It will also review game-focused theory such as engagement theory,
fun, user experience, play experience, play heuristics, and flow models. The course will
also delve in depth in topics including user testing, behavior analysis methods, usability
engineering. In-group projects, student will be able to use evaluation methods for laband field-based work, examples include playtesting, RITE testing, play heuristics, and
ethnography. The course is designed to equip designers and developers with tools to test
their games and well-rounded understanding of their players.
Teaching Method:
The course will be taught in a combination of lecture and in-class and out-of-class
assignments that demonstrate knowledge and understanding of the subject through
applying the concepts.
Text Book:
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No assigned Textbook, but we will use materials from a number of sources, all
resources will be available through Piazza.
Evaluation:
Assignments 1-7 (70%)
Quizzes & Class Assignments (30%)
Software Required:
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•
•
•
SPSS
Excel
Deduce
Recommended: R, Python, or Matlab for analysis
GAME 3899: Game User Research Syllabus
Class Conduct:
Cell phones and Texts: No use or cell phones, texting is permitted.
Social Networking: social networking is not allowed unless specified by the instructor.
Late: Don’t be late (more than 7 minutes is considered late). Every class you are late
without permission will result in deduction of 2% from your grade.
Attendance: attendance is required. Absence without a pressing and convincing excuse
will result in 5% deduction form your grade.
Use of 3D party assets or code: you are encouraged to use resources from the Internet.
All arts and code used from other resources should be acknowledged and the
sources/author should be credited. Failure to do so will be considered plagiarism, which
has severe repercussion to your grade and your academic standing in the University. As a
student in the University you are expected to be familiar with and abide by Northeastern
University rules of academic honesty and integrity, including plagiarism. Full text of
Northeastern’s Academic Honesty and Integrity Policy can be found online on the Office
of Student Conduct and Conflict Resolution (www.osccr.neu.edu) at
http://www.northeastern.edu/osccr/academichonesty.html.
Disability:
Any student who feels s/he may need an accommodation based on the impact of a
disability should contact me privately to discuss your specific needs. Additionally, if you
have a documented disability you are protected from discrimination and have the right to
a reasonable accommodation. Additional information can be found at the Northeastern
University Disability Resource Center (www.access-disability-deaf.neu.edu).
Participation in TRACE:
TRACE (Teacher Rating and Course Evaluation) is a required part of every course. Your
participation is needed and encouraged as it is one way to enhance the quality of the
course. Your voice matters.
Tentative Outline:
Week 1 (Sept 6, 10):
• Introductions and go over syllabus
• Psychology of Play
Materials:
Rigby and Ryan. (2007). The Player Experience of Need Satisfaction (PENS). White Paper.
Anders Heidenberg. (2005). The Psychology Behind Games. Gamasutra.
Nicole Lazzaro. (2004). Why We Play Games: Four Keys to More Emotion without Story. White
Paper.
Assignment #1:
Brainhex Questionnaire and qualitative analysis of your motivations for play (due Sept 10)
Week 2 (Sept 13, 17):
• Psychology of Play – Media Psychology, individual differences
GAME 3899: Game User Research Syllabus
• Play styles. What makes Games fun?
Materials:
Margret M. Bradley and Peter J. Lang. (2000). Measuring Emotion: Behavior, Feeling, and
Physiology. Cognitive Neuroscience of Emotion. Richard Lane and Lynn Nadel.
Torben Grodal. (2000). Video Games and The Pleasure of Control. Media Entertainment: The
Psychology of Its Appeal. Dolf Zillmann and Peter Vorderer.
Halko, S., & Kientz, J. A. (2010). Personality and Persausive Technology: An Exploratory Study on
Health-Promoting Mobile Applications. Persuasive Technology. (T. Ploug, P. Hasle, & H. OinasKukkonen, Eds.), Vol. 6137, pp. 150–161.
Bart Stewart. (2012). Personality and Playstyles: A Unified Model. Gamasutra.
Assignment #2:
Psychology of Players – A Survey Paper (due Sept 20)
Week 3 (Sept 20, 24):
• Games User Research
• Research Design
• Human Subjects and Ethics
Materials:
Amaya, G., Davis, J. P., Gunn, D. V., Harrison, C., Pagulayan, R. J., Phlips, B., and Wixon, D. (2008).
Games User Research (GUR): Our Expeirence with and Evolution of Four Methods. In Katherine
Isbister and Noah Schaffer, Game Usability.
Bordens & Abbott, Research Design and Methods, 8th ed, 2011, McGraw Hill. [Chapters 4, 5, 8, 10]
Assignment #3:
Ethics Certification (due Sept 24)
Week 4 (Sept 27, Oct 1):
• Usability testing
• Experiment Design
• Usability Lab 1 (class Assignment)
Materials:
Chapters from Neilson. (1993). Usability Engineering. Morgan Kauffman.
Bordens & Abbott. (2011). Research Design and Methods, 8th ed. McGraw Hill. [Chapters 10]
Assignment #4:
Usability testing (due Oct 15th beginning of class)
Week 5 (Oct 4, 8):
• Quantitative data collection and analysis
• Parametric and Non-Parametric tests, ANOVAs
• Reporting results
• Usability Lab 2 (class assignment)
Materials:
Chapters from Neilson. (1993). Usability Engineering. Morgan Kauffman.
Field, Andy: Discovering Statistics using IBM SPSS Statistics. 4th edition. 2013. Sage Publishers.
[Chapters 1 and 2]
Bordens & Abbott. (2011). Research Design and Methods, 8th ed. McGraw Hill. [Chapters 11, 12, 13]
Field, Andy. (2013). Discovering Statistics using IBM SPSS Statistics. 4th edition. Sage Publishers.
[Chapters 7]
Bordens & Abbott. (2011). Research Design and Methods, 8th ed. McGraw Hill. [14]
Assignment #4:
Usability testing (due Oct 15th beginning of class)
GAME 3899: Game User Research Syllabus
Week 6 (Oct 11, 15):
• Correlation and Regression analysis
• Usability analysis Lab 2 (class assignment)
Materials:
Bordens & Abbott. (2011). Research Design and Methods. 8th ed. McGraw Hill. [14]
Assignment #4:
Usability testing (due Oct 15th beginning of class)
Week 7 (Oct 18, 22):
• Heuristics
• Heuristics Lab (class assignment)
Materials:
Heather Desurvire. (2008) Game Accessibility Principles (GAP). CHI.
Heather Desurvire. (2009). PLAY Principles. HCI 2009.
Assignment #5:
Heuristic Evaluation (due Oct 22nd)
Week 8 (Oct 25, 29):
• Playtesting
• Instruments: Survey, Interviews, Video, Think Aloud
• Methods: Focus Groups, RITE, Retrospective methods
• Playtesting Lab 1 (class assignment)
Materials:
Katherine Isbister and Noah Schaffer. (2011). Game Usability. Morgan Kaufman. [chapters 4, 5, 22]
Michael C. Medlock et al. (2005). The Rapid Iterative Test and Evaluation Method (RITE): Better
Products in Less Time. Cost-Justifying Usability, Second Edition: An Update for the Internet Age,
Second Edition (Interactive Technologies) Randolph G. Bias (Editor), Deborah J. Mayhew
(Editor), pp 489-518.
Example surveys, and instruments
Assignment #6:
Playtesting (due Nov 12th)
Week 9 (Nov 1, 5):
• Data collection and cleaning
• Descriptive Statistics
• Qualitative Data coding and analysis
• Playtesting Lab 2 (class assignment)
Materials:
Bordens & Abbott. (2011). Research Design and Methods. 8th ed. McGraw Hill. [11]
Suter, W. Newton. (2010). Introduction to Educational Research. Sage Publications. [Chapter 12:
Qualitative Data, Analysis, and Design.]
Assignment #6:
Playtesting (due Nov 12th)
Week 10 (Nov 8, 12):
• Triangulation
• Presentation of assignment
Materials:
GAME 3899: Game User Research Syllabus
Patton, M. Q. (1987). How to Use Qualitative Methods in Evaluation. California: Sage Publications,
Inc.
Greene, J. C., Caracelli, V. J., & Graham, W. F. (1989). Toward a conceptual framework for mixedmethod evaluation designs. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, Vol. 11, No. 3, pp. 255274.
K. Collins, A. J. Onwuegbuzie, and Q. G. Jiao (2007). A Mixed Methods Investigation of Mixed
Methods Sampling Designs in Social and Health Science Research. Journal of Mixed Methods
Research, vol. 1 no. 3 267-294
Assignment #6:
Playtesting (due Nov 12th)
Week 11 (Nov 15, 19):
• Game Analytics and Introduction
• Instrumentation
• Data cleaning
• Analysis and reporting
Materials:
Magy Seif El-Nasr, Anders Drachen, and Alessandro Canossa. (2013). Game Analytics: Maximizing
Value of Player Data. Springer [Chapters: 1, 2, and 3]
Assignment #7:
•
Analytics (due Dec 3rd)
Week 12 (Nov 22, 26):
• Triangulation Methods
• Lab on analytics and triangulation methods
Materials:
Magy Seif El-Nasr, Anders Drachen, and Alessandro Canossa. (2013). Game Analytics: Maximizing
Value of Player Data. Springer [Chapters: 21 and 22]
Assignment #7:
•
Analytics (due Dec 3rd)
Week 13 (Dec 3):
• Discussion of advanced methods: eye tracking, physiology, FMRI, and others
• Assignment Presentation
Assignment #7:
•
Analytics (due Dec 3rd)