Talk presented at the CHI Play 2014 conference. Initial slides by Gifford Cheung.
The First Hour ExperienceHow the Initial Play can Engage (or Lose) New PlayersGifford CheungThe Information School,University of WashingtonThomas ZimmermannNachiappan NagappanMicrosoft Research, Redmond
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© Microsoft Corporationhttp://aka.ms/esegroupThomas Debeauvais, Thomas Zimmermann, NachiappanNagappan, Kevin Carter, Ryan Cooper, Dan Greenawalt,Tyson Solberg: An Empirical Study of Driving Skill in ForzaMotorsports 4. FDG 2014Jeff Huang, Thomas Zimmermann, Nachiappan Nagappan,Charles Harrison, Bruce C. Phillips: Mastering the art of war:how patterns of gameplay influence skill in Halo.CHI 2013: 695-704Emerson R. Murphy-Hill, Thomas Zimmermann, NachiappanNagappan: Cowboys, ankle sprains, and keepers of quality:how is video game development different from softwaredevelopment? ICSE 2014: 1-11
© Microsoft Corporationthe “initial experience”the “first time userexperience”“tutorial time”the “5-5-5” (five seconds,minutes, hours)“the first 10 seconds, thefirst minute, the first tenminutes, the first hour”“setting the hook”also known as
© Microsoft Corporation“If your game is abandonedin the first hour that’s apretty low moment. It’s acomplete rejection of thegame play in all ways, youknow, game play, narrative,style. … It’s a prettycatastrophic failure.”Designer Ca Critical Hour
© Microsoft CorporationWhat did we know so far?• Game Approachability Principles: allow practice of newskills/tools, good demonstrations of how to play, feedback,offering self-efficacy, scaffolding, clarity, and information– Desurvire and Wiberg, 2010. User Experience Design for Inexperienced Gamers: GAP --Game Approachability Principles• Positive/negative reviews don’t affect the first 15 minutes of play– Livingstone et al., 2011, Influencing experience: the effects of reading game reviews onplayer experience• Achievement, enjoyment, and social interaction lead to continuedmotivation to play– Wu et al., 2010, Falling in love with online games: The uses and gratifications perspective• Are tutorials effective? For complex games like Foldit, yes.Restricted modes don’t help much.– Anderson et al., 2012, The impact of tutorials on games of varying complexity
© Microsoft CorporationData + Methodology
© Microsoft CorporationPlayer’s PerspectiveGenre ReviewsAction 28Modern First-Person Shooter 32Sci-Fi First-Person Shooter 21Modern Action Adventure 17Role-Playing 16Sci-Fi Shooter 16Fantasy Action Adventure 10Puzzle 9Adventure 9Rhythm / Music 7Sports 6Racing 52D Platformer 4Shoot-'Em-Up 3Strategy 3Beat-'Em-Up 3Driving 3GT / Street Racing 3Action Role-Playing 23D Platformer 2Wrestling 2Football 2Snowboarding 22D Fighting 1Sci-Fi Action Adventure 1Modern Shooter 1Historic First-Person Shooter 1Rhythm / Dancing 1Fantasy Online Role-Playing 1Olympic Sports 1212 Amazon reviews of Xbox 360 gamesSearching for keywords such as“first”, “hour”, “minute”, “start”
© Microsoft CorporationFirst hour reviews 35 collected, 13different authors00 - I click New Game and the first hour of Call of Duty 4begins. We're looking at a view of Eastern Europe. Avoice over is introducing the situation and explainingeverything that is going on in the area. The game zoomsin to a U.K. training ground. I have control now, a mantells me to take a rifle from the table. He points me to ashooting range and I take aim.01 - We conduct various aiming exercises. Looks likethere's some auto aim built in when you look down thesight.02 - I knife a watermelon. "Your fruit killing skills areremarkable!“03 - I follow my objective pointer and meet CaptainPrice. I have to run an obstacle course now.First hour review of Call of Duty 4
© Microsoft Corporation6 Game Industry Professionals• Designer A, B, C,• Tester A, B, and• User Researcher A• 10-20 years of experience, AAA titles• 3+ major game studios
© Microsoft CorporationMethodologyGrounded Theory• Open, Axial, Selective Analysis(Amazon + First hour reviews)• Invited an auditor to review the process andemergent categories for comprehensibility andcloseness to data.• Used the interviews in part to check the findings(Selective)
© Microsoft Corporation
© Microsoft CorporationFindingsFirst Experience Arc
© Microsoft CorporationThe First Experience ArcExpectationsSpecific AnticipationsExperiencesMomentary & EngagingAnnoying, Frustrating, or TediousOutcomeAbandonmentContinuingExceptionsDeal-breakersHoldouts
© Microsoft CorporationExpectationsFranchise, Genre, PredecessorsGaming community, “Everyone”, Friends, BuzzTrailers, Rentals, Demoes, Friend’s houseNotable: Specific Anticipation
© Microsoft CorporationPositive ExperiencesEngaging“hooked”, “engaged”, “interested”,“addicted”, “immersed”“cool”, “awesome”, “wow”, “exciting”,“fun”, “impressed”, “neat”Momentary
© Microsoft CorporationPositive ExperiencesEngaging“hooked”, “engaged”, “interested”,“addicted”, “immersed”Condemned: Criminal Origins“I hit Y to reload my gun, only to realize that itdoesn't actually get reloaded. Instead, mycharacter checks the amount of rounds in thegun. According to the game, I'm limited to theammunition that is found in weapons.Hmmm...I'm going to have to be a little bitmore conservative with my ammo and quithosing down these perps with a steady streamof lead. Very interesting game concept...”“cool”, “awesome”, “wow”, “exciting”,“fun”, “impressed”, “neat”Momentary
© Microsoft CorporationNegative ExperiencesAnnoying Frustrating Tedious
© Microsoft CorporationOutcomesWHOLE & IN PART (Music, Narrative,Voice-Acting, Levels, Mini-games, etc.)Abandonment Continue
© Microsoft CorporationDeal-breakers: Frustrations thatsupersede all positives.“An UNSKIPPABLE cut scene. Annoying. So, we continue playing and now thereare UNSKIPPABLE cut scenes every few plays of the players taunting each otherbefore the ball is hiked! Really? I needed to see his defenseman saying somethingfoul to my running back RIGHT NOW! NO, I don't! We made it through the rest ofthe game some how and decided that it was one of the worst playing experiences ofany game we've ever played. Reselling this ASAP!BTW, the football game play was actually pretty good. Running, throwing andfielding all seemed to work well. In fact, I wouldsay that it worked better than Madden. Its sucha shame that they made the rest of the gameso unplayable.”(Blitz: The League, Amazon Review)
© Microsoft CorporationHoldouts: Playing a game you hateAnticipated Elements“I can't stop before meeting some aliens, right?” (Crysis 2)A good game mechanic“Would I keep playing? I guess so. I really do like the combat system, which capturesCaptain America's acrobatic grace and power quite well, but the limited enemy variety isallowing that repetitious feeling to sink in. … I'll soldier on for a bit, but I don't expect tofinish this fight.” (First hour review of Captain America: Super Soldier)NarrativeCompletionists (External)Social reasons (External)
© Microsoft CorporationFindingsFiguring out the Game
© Microsoft CorporationFiguring out the GameAcquiring the basic skillsto playUnderstandingthe point ofthe gameGateway to Attachment“once you get the hang of it you won't beable to pull yourself away”(Far Cry 3, Amazon Review )Or to Disinterest“once the patterns were figured out, theenthusiasm died down quickly.”(Kung Fu Panda 2 Kinect, Amazon Review)
© Microsoft CorporationFrom fun to real fun“You need to look at it and go, ‘Oh, that looks like it’sfor me and that looks fun.’Then when you actually play it, I as a designer eitherneed to have lured you in with that and that is exactlywhat you get to do or I lure you in with that becauseyou’re familiar with it.Then I transition you into the things that are actuallymore fun.”(Designer A)
© Microsoft CorporationCostly Mistakes in Understanding…but wait, you *can* skip cut scenes.“yes cut scenes are annoying but all you gotta do is hit theB button on your Xbox controller”(Blitz: The League, Comment on the Amazon Review)
© Microsoft CorporationFRUSTRATIONDirection vs. DiscoveryDISCOVERED!Easter EggsBeautyPlayer Abilities (“I can double jump!”)FUNDIRECTIONS, PLEASE.LostImpasseConfusionMistakes
© Microsoft CorporationFindingsPlayer Agency
© Microsoft CorporationPlayer AgencyDoing your homework“If you read all of the in-game instructions and you aren’t afraid to digaround in the menus, you’ll work through the learning curve quickly.”(Create, Amazon review)“At first it was hard to play and I got my butt handed to me, but that wasbecause I just went straight into the match and tried it right away. Then istudied the controls and figured it out.” (WWE '13, Amazon Review)Death is expected and accepted.Players do not complain about dying but about theprecision of the controls and slow loading times betweendeaths.
© Microsoft CorporationPlayer AgencySkipping aheadPlayers take a direct route to the action, skippingtutorials, levels, and other decision branches.Adjusting to the gameTo improve their experience of the game, players tinkerwith the difficulty level.
© Microsoft CorporationImplications
© Microsoft CorporationIntrigue trumps EnjoymentInspire greater engagement, spark interest of aplayer, show strengths of gameplay to come.Be more than a momentary enjoyable experience.Existing design principles (where this prioritization is applied):– Unaffordable items in store– Initial taste of powerDesign the first hour to emphasize direction.Save room for discovery after the first hour.
© Microsoft CorporationThe First ExperienceExpectationsSpecific AnticipationsExperiencesMomentary & EngagingAnnoying, Frustrating, or TediousOutcomeAbandonmentContinuingExceptionsDeal-breakersHoldoutsAcquisition of the basicskills to playUnderstandingthe point ofthe gamePlayer Agencyhttp://aka.ms/esegroup
© Microsoft CorporationThank you!