Level 3 Team Project - Source Analysis - Book 2

As part of the team's ongoing research, I've looked into testing methodology using the book "Game Usability: Advice from the experts for advancing the players experience" written by Katherine Isbister and Noah Schaffer as my source. I've created a two page document discussing the relevant information found in Chapters VII, IX and XV and given an insight as to how we can use the information gathered in testing of our own.

“Game Usability: Advice from the experts for advancing the players experience” [1] written by Katherine Isbister and Noah Schaffer gives a good insight into effective testing within the games industry. Chapters VII, IX and XV provide the most relevant information regarding our project, talking about evaluation, metrics, biometric measurement and tracking real time user experience."

"An in-game feedback application as seen in Voodoo Vince [6] could be a useful tool for gathering data. One advantage of this being the player can tell us exactly what they’re thinking the moment it is happening within the game. It’s also possible to present players with an application such as this while masked as an in-game mechanic, asking players if they wish to engage more conversation with NPCs or not, whether or not they wish to travel with one NPC over another and so forth. Games such as Team Fortress 2 [7] offer in-game questioners on certain servers, allowing players to rate the current map they’re playing on, the people they’re playing alongside and the quality of the server. This links back to information found in Chapter VII, as if we’re to include such an application in our product it will have to remain easy to use and simple to understand."

"Game Usability: Advice from the experts for advancing the players experience’ by Katharine Isbister and Noah Schaffer has been a useful source to consider when looking into testing both our prototype and final product. While most sections in the book were not entirely relevant to our project, some of the points made throughout can still be considered, such as the information on the evaluation process and hints to how we can collect data effectively. We may also benefit from including in-game logs as mentioned by Kim in chapter XV and also record player emotion by using equipment such as a web camera to see facial expressions throughout the testing."

To download the full three page .pdf version of the source analysis, click here.