Feature - Usability and Games : Cultural Dimensions determine Use

"Accounting for User Needs and Motivations in Game Design" by Lucy A. Joyner and Jim TerKeurst of IC CAVE at the University of Abertay Dundee, is that unusual thing: a bridge between design, psychology and culture. That is happens to be about games design makes it particularly rare. Below is an introduction to the arguments that the researcher make. Further explorations will be reported in the next couple of weeks.

Joyner and TerKeurst's research tackled basic understanding of how and why computer games are used within British and Japanese culture, a two key gaming-producing, game-playing countries. The research explored two questions: do computer games have different meanings and uses in Britain and Japan? If so, are they embedded in personal and social identity?

'Gamers can be seen as representing contemporary urban leisure subcultures generating meaning and identity in the social worlds games open to them,' they say. 'The consequence of all this is that when researchers study only one culture/market, with its own regulated and constrained title releases, they limit themselves to studying playing preferences amongst games that have been preselected as being perceived to be appropriate. To better understand how computer games appeal to target users, we need to turn the research process around.'

Observational and empirical data from British and Japanese teenagers and adults suggested cultural variation in game playing habits and preferences, across the age groups. Data were reviewed in relation to intrinsic and interpersonal motivations and needs motivations and the outcome is a tentative model that illustrates and explains cultural variation in computer game playing.

The findings, say the researchers, have crucial implications for usability practice and game design: 'By carrying out usability testing of games with targeted players from different cultures, we can modify components of the game, fine tuning them to optimise the balance of motivations to meet the needs of different players. Successful global game design can become reality.'

However, while potentially incomplete, theories outlining the necessary features of intrinsically motivating environments do not need to be viewed in competition to one another. In fact, many features can contribute to the motivational and reward environment, and the optimal balance of them will vary from person to person.

recently it has been suggested that computer games have evolved greatly and we need to take a second look at the design of “modern games.” Gamers expect new, cool features in new titles, with games making it easy for players to form and find subgroups within a community, forming a “natural community” with an obvious common interest.

When viewed globally, it is clear that different cultures have strong cross-cultural affinities for some genres while other genres are appreciated for completely different, and sometimes oppositional reasons. Other genres simply don’t translate at all; at best they may become cult games, but in general they are unknown. The enormous success, in Japan, of Tokimeki Memorial and Princess Maker are examples of this phenomenon. Neither of these games are popular in Europe or North America, and many people would consider the content and gameplay as deviant.

The authors propose that a relationship exists between dominant needs and interpersonal motivations.

Users, and usability testing form the foundation for the model, as observing interactions and game play between players is central for enabling a researcher to understand the players’ preferred balance of features of intrinsic motivation in the game. Combining observations of game play between multiple players, with the preferred balance of features of intrinsic motivation, can indicate the dominant interpersonal motivation. It is proposed that the preferred balance and dominance of these intrinsic and interpersonal motivations will relate to the most salient need of the players. However, a causal relationship between needs and motivations is not inferred, but rather that some motivations interact more strongly with some needs.

By introducing human factors and usability testing into the game development process, the game content and idiosyncratic features can be modified to manipulate the balance of challenge, curiosity and control for optimal appeal to the target users. Usability testing will also help identify if target users prefer intrinsic or extrinsic fantasy in the games they choose to play. Knowing this information could potentially be an invaluable resource for game developers and publishers, and could provide a way for academics and researchers to consider what the main motivations for game playing are across cultures, and how these motivations relate to peoples needs and their identity within subgroups.

1. Interaction of Belonging Needs and Motivations
A player wishing to fulfil the need to belong may be motivated to play computer games that have a stronger sense of cooperation rather than competition. In this case recognition would be being identified as part of a team. Usability evaluations would be central for designing a game with the right balance of intrinsic motivations to meet the belonging need of the players, enabling them to cooperate within the game and identify as part of a team or group.

Comparing Japanese and British teenagers aged 14-15 years, we found that Japanese teenagers were 300% more likely to play in very social arcade environments. Observations made in Japanese arcades identified large groups of teenagers socialising together. Parents were seen with their small child interacting with other parents and providing young children with an opportunity to meet and play games together. Some arcade games were of appropriate height for small children to use, other games provided multi-player opportunities for adults and children, such as sitting in a canoe and steering it to play the game. Time in arcades appeared to be spent meeting, socialising and sharing gaming rather than playing alone or competing against one other person.

It can be argued that the social aspects of gaming were so important to Japanese players that it constrained genre preferences and game selection.

Findings suggest that in Japan gaming is more of a social activity than an achievement-oriented activity. Games are played in a shared and cooperative way, to be recognised as a member of a group or sub-group with its own distinct idioculture, or as part of a larger community, or to fulfil a need to belong. In Japan competitive gameplay is commonly played against the game AI, ensuring that competition between people is less confrontational.

Japanese high school pupils reported that they were playing games less often than they’d like to as exams were approaching. Some teenagers had even stopped playing games altogether. The education system in Japan, and Japanese society, promotes academic excellence and it is important to do well at school and go to a good university. Teenagers who were interviewed attended evening classes during the week and cram school on Saturdays. With little free time, and probably no sibling to play with at home, it is arguable that teenagers choose to play games that do not put them under more pressure to compete to beat their friends and rather, enable them to share in a group identity with their peers. Game material also readily crosses media in Japan, so even when they can’t play games they have access to the material through television, comics and cards. As game playing becomes part of a larger group identity, or community, a lack of space and privacy at home will increase the popularity of playing games at an arcade. This type of game playing declines once at university because it is no longer useful. For Japanese adults, games may be played occasionally for fun, but they have largely been replaced by adult activities that fulfil the need to belong to a group. They are not used to fulfil esteem needs as these needs are met by being associated with a good university, and ultimately a company.

2. Interaction of Esteem Needs and Motivations
A player who wants to fulfil the need for esteem may be motivated to play computer games that favour competition over cooperation. Here, recognition would be as a skilled opponent and ultimately as a winner. Usability evaluations in this scenario would find the right balance of intrinsic motivations to meet the esteem needs of the players, enabling them to be recognised as strong, skilled competitors.

Findings from interviews and questionnaires indicate that UK teenagers at secondary school prefer to play with another person, rather than against the game AI. Data showed that UK teenagers were 50% more likely than Japanese teenagers to play at a friend's house. UK participants also reported playing many types of game, but new games were practised at home, with the learned skills of mastered games being demonstrated to peers through the process of playing a competitive game. Therefore, in the UK competitive game playing mainly takes place in a home with friends, with few players going to arcades. With dominant esteem needs, UK teens played a wide variety of genres with 90% of participants playing at least once a week. In the UK game playing is seen to endure with age, as esteem needs remain strong. More than half of the undergraduate participants played games at least a couple of times a week. They reported enjoying playing alone to get used to a game and practise moves, developing skills, before playing with another person.

This suggests that in the UK, while gaming is a social activity, it is achievement oriented. Competitive games that allow for the demonstration of skill and mastery are preferred. Games are generally used to display achievement and raise esteem.

UK teenagers have more free time to socialise and join clubs, are more likely to have siblings and their own private space in which to entertain others, so they have a sense of community or belonging. In addition, UK teenagers may have less pressure to succeed at school, as it is less of a social norm, or demand, to excel academically. This may explain why UK teenagers play games alone to perfect their skills, and then use games competitively to demonstrate skill and mastery in a way that is acceptable to, and revered by, their peers, raising their self-esteem.

The model suggests a relationship between belonging needs, or esteem needs, and interpersonal motivations, but the relationship between self-actualisation and motivations to play computer games still needs explication.
By furthering research, studying goals and player fantasy within games and targeting those who are motivated to fulfil growth needs, the games market could innovate, providing material that crosses cultures and allows gamers to fulfil their needs at every stage of their development.

Support for this assertion is drawn from work in progress that helps explain computer game preferences and cultural variation in computer game playing. One conclusion that becomes evident when considering motivation and computer games in this way, is the central role that user centred design and testing can play during the game development process; especially when aiming to design games that will successfully cross cultural boundaries.

The full paper was presented at the 1st Global Conference of Interactive Convergence: Research in Multimedia. Anglo-American College, Prague, Czech Republic, August 7-9 2003.

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