Ali Alkhafaji Peter Hastings Brian Grey DePaul University

 Serious/Educational Games (Habgood) ◦ Exogenous  Easy to build  Glorified PowerPoint presentations ◦ Endogenous  Harnesses the inherit motivation in games  Difficult to build  Lack of understanding  Motivation!

 There are two types of motivation ◦ Extrinsic Motivation (reward/punishment)  Home work  Chores ◦ Intrinsic Motivation  Videogames  Sports (sometimes)

 Important factors affecting motivation in games: ◦ Malone, 1980 & Malone and Lepper, 1987  Motivation in video games ◦ Deci and Ryan, 2000  Factors affecting intrinsic motivation ◦ Habgood, 2005  intrinsic integration of learning content (Zombie Division) ◦ Deen and Schouten, 2010  Proposes identified regulations, uses a player’s perception because intrinsic needs differ ◦ Garris, 2002  An overview of the different factors which affect motivation in games based on previous literature

 Fantasy: Context, themes or characters  Rules/Goals: Rules, goals and feedback  Sensory Stimuli: Visual or auditory  Challenge: Level of difficulty  Mystery: Determinism  Control: Player’s control

 How much of each game attribute do we need to make the game motivating? ◦ Empirically figure it out!  But, some of these attributes are completely subjective like challenge, control, etc ◦ Ask players about their experience to determine their perception

 Break down the game attributes into measurable descriptions ◦ Challenge: The difficulty level of the game, ranging from too easy to too difficult ◦ Control: How much control does a player perceives, that they have over the game (directions and objectives)? ◦ Goals: Defined by short and long term objectives  Notice we skipped 3 attributes!

 Produce questions for the survey takers which measures these attributes ◦ Challenge: In an optimal game, how many tries does it take to finish an average level? ◦ Control: In an optimal game, what is the ideal number of directions you should be able to choose from at any given time? ◦ Control: In an optimal game, what is the ideal number of objectives you should be able to choose from at any given time? ◦ Goal: In an optimal game, how many short-term goals you should have at any given time? ◦ Goal: In an optimal game, how many long-term goals you should have at any given time?

 We received 87 responses: ◦ Challenge: 86.2% of respondents felt that an optimally challenging game should take a player 2-5 attempts to finish a level ◦ Control: 82.8% of respondents felt that an optimal game allows the user to choose between 2-5 directions at any given time ◦ Control: 74.7% of respondents felt that an optimal game allows the user to choose between 3-5 objectives at any given time ◦ Goals: 63.2% of respondents felt that an optimal game provides its users with 2-6 short-term goals at any given time ◦ Goals: 49.4% of respondents felt that an optimal game provides its users with 2-6 long-term goals at any given time

 The Generic CCG Framework is a great initial step, but ◦ How much will player perception vary between genres?  The second study addresses this point

 Define 5 unique genres: ◦ First-Person Shooter ◦ Racing ◦ RPG ◦ Arcade ◦ Sports

 We mapped each question from the first study to the second study based on genre ◦ We considered a “level” to be a “race” for racing games, a “game segment” in sports games, a “solo boss fight” in RPG and retained “level” for FPS and arcade games  We received 77 responses and results were very similar to that of the first study

 This study addresses the differences between different genres  We still haven’t accounted for fantasy, auditory stimuli and mystery  We should also consider other interpersonal attributes, like cooperation, competition and collaboration

 Expand on other genres like: Action, Adventure and Simulations  We are currently working on: ◦ Validating the CCG Framework - including all six intrapersonal attributes ◦ Testing the impact of Challenge on Motivation in a commercial game:  Super Mario Bros. ◦ and in a Serious Game:  Policy World

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