Using Experimental Psychology for Game Design: Insights and Strategies

1. How Can Experimental Psychology Inform Game Design? David Brodbeck Department of Psychology, Algoma University and Laurentian University Jeb Havens 1st Playable Productions

2. Please just listen to this list • Pin • Haystack • Knitting • Sharp • Pointy • Inoculation • phonograph

3. Introduction • What makes people come back to games? • Why are some games hits? • Why are some games misses? • We are applying science to art • The science we are applying is experimental psychology, especially learning, memory and cognition • People have been playing games as long as there have been people

4. Learning Theory • Acquisition • Asymptote • Extinction • Spontaneous recovery • Pretty much universal

5. Reinforcement • Anything that increases the likelihood of a response is a reinforcer • Food reinforces pecking in pigeons • Exams reinforce studying • Save points in Splinter Cell • Skinner

6. Maintaining behaviour • Not Continuous reinforcement • Use of partial reinforcement • Subject never knows when next reinforcer is coming, so behaviour is maintained • Variability • Ratio strain • Just takes a few reinforcers to bring the subject back • Now pull the ratio back up

7. Chaotic systems • Simple interacting components • Emergent behaviours and strategies • Might miss a reward • Not frustration but curiosity

8. Performance vs. Observation • People can learn by observation • Online games, multiplayer • God mode • Reinforce players for staying in a game after they are ‘killed’ • They get better simply through observation • Not aware they are in a tutorial

9. Divided Attention • Finite amount of perceptual resources • Dichotic listening • Dichotic watching! • We can actually give information that is not consciously processed, but still affects behaviour

10. Design implications • Inputs and outputs not in a hardware and software sense but in a human sense • Subject learns best when actively participating • However, hints can be given without awareness • Makes difficulty levels less transparent

11. Implicit learning • Most of the learning that ends up taking place is probably implicit • The controls, for example, of a given genre USUALLY are the same • Keep it consistent • Player does not know he or she is being taught what is going on, thinks ‘I figured this out myself!’

12. Memory • Atkinson and Shiffrin • STM has a limited capacity • 7 +/- 2 • Chunking and becoming an expert • Implication is that early on we can only give players so much at once, but once they become experts more can be thrown at them

13. Implicit memory again • As mentioned, much of the learning is implicit • We can drop implicit hints • Associations, fragments of information that are filled in later

14. Remember any of these words? • Pin • Chair • Cup • Pointy • Sharp • Desk • Knitting • needle

15. Conclusion • We know that most designers use these principles implicitly • We are not trying to constrain the art of game design • We want playable and successful games • Beta test time may be reduced • Games evolved with us, so it is sensible to think about how we think