“Dollars as Points: Marrying Real and In-Game Progress” Serious game creators want good play to create measurable real-world benefit. Players want games to provide positive feedback for good play. Learn strategies to satisfy both of these requirements in a harmonious, efficient way, and how to identify warning signs that your game may be missing the mark.
Citation preview
1. Dollars as Points Marrying Real and In-Game Progress
Jonathan Barone Center for Game Science University of
Washington
2. What stakeholders want: Users playing because they enjoy the
game Measurable benefit
3. Reality: Users playing because they have to ???
4. About CGS We make scientific discovery and math education
games then use those games for research. Ultimate goal:
expert-level knowledge from games centerforgamescience.org Foldit
Treefrog Treasure
5. Intro: DNA
6. Overview What reality-anchored scoring systems can do for
serious games How to design and implement such a system
7. Whats in a score? Super Hexagon score formula: t
Civilization 4 score formula:
8. Serious games and score How do serious games use score?
Engagement Performance Evaluation
9. Serious games and score How do serious games use score?
Engagement AND performance evaluation
10. Inaccurate/arbitrary scoring You scored 6,230 points! B -
No. Okay. Days? Days? Days? Weeks? Days? So, weeks or months
later:
11. Well-correlated scoring Instant (Little later) Work
12. Designing a scoring system Is a score that reflects real
metrics feasible and practical? How much flexibility do we have?
Prototype/iterate. Does it work for the players? Does it work for
the partners?
15. Prototype, iterate You know the drill. One catveat: involve
a domain expert from the start.
16. Does it work for players? Qualitative, non-leading
questions: Do they understand the concepts? Is it motivating them?
A/B test if possible Hopefully:
17. Does it work for partners? Quantitative, statistically
significant data: Compare to control group. Show transfer to real
life. Compare to value of non-game methods. Hopefully:
18. Outro: DNA
19. Conclusion Scoring needs to suit the players. For use as a
real metric, it needs to suit the partners, too. Its critical for
the designer to understand the field and constraints. Qualitative
evidence from players, quantitative evidence to partners.
20. Acknowledgements The DNA team: Brian Britigan, Matt Burns,
Seth Cooper, Rowan Copley, Barbara Krug, Sundipta Rao, Zoran
Popovic, Georg Seelig, and Eric Winfree Screenshots credited to:
Terry Cavanagh, Firaxis, Green-Eye Visualization
Centerforgamescience.org [email protected]