Affective Ludology: Methods for Evaluating Gameplay Experience in a Serious Gaming Context

Gameplay experience (GX) is created during the process of player-game interaction, where this interaction has the goal to provide a motivating, fun experience for the player. Since GX is an important factor for the success of failure of a game, a formal classification of how to design for and evaluate GX is necessary. Using appropriate mechanisms for evaluation and measurement of GX allows the validation of good gameplay experiences. This talk discusses a three-layer framework of GX. For each layer, a number of measurement methodologies are presented with some practical reports, with focus on physiological metrics for game evaluation. Finally, we point out the potential use of this framework within the field of game-based learning and serious gaming for sports and health.

Short CV

Dr. Lennart Nacke received one of Europe's first Ph.D. degrees in Digital Game Development from Blekinge Institute of Technology, Sweden. He is currently working on affective and entertainment computing as a postdoctoral fellow in the Human-Computer Interaction Lab of the University of Saskatchewan, Canada. He chaired and co-organized several expert panels on psychophysiological player measurement and interaction, game usability and UX at academic conferences (e.g., DiGRA, Future Play, CHI) and industry venues (e.g., GDC Canada). As much as an avid gamer, he is a passionate scientist, whose research interests are psychophysiological player testing and interaction for example with EEG (i.e., brainwaves) and EMG (i.e., facial muscle contractions) or eye tracking as well as gameplay experience in player-game interaction, technology-driven innovation (e.g., playability metrics, affective computing) and innovative interaction design with digital entertainment technologies.

http://hci.usask.ca

Dr. Lennart Nacke
Department of Computer Science
University of Saskatchewan

110 Science Place
Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada
S7N 5C9

Lennart.Nacke@acm.org

+1 306 966-2327