The First Hour Experience: How the Initial Play can Engage (or Lose) New Players

Talk presented at the CHI Play 2014 conference. Initial slides by Gifford Cheung.

Transcript

1. The First Hour Experience
   How the Initial Play can Engage (or Lose) New Players
   Gifford Cheung
   The Information School,
   University of Washington
   Thomas Zimmermann
   Nachiappan Nagappan
   Microsoft Research, Redmond
   

   View Slide

2. © Microsoft Corporation
   http://aka.ms/esegroup
   Thomas Debeauvais, Thomas Zimmermann, Nachiappan
   Nagappan, Kevin Carter, Ryan Cooper, Dan Greenawalt,
   Tyson Solberg: An Empirical Study of Driving Skill in Forza
   Motorsports 4. FDG 2014
   Jeff 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: 695-704
   Emerson R. Murphy-Hill, Thomas Zimmermann, Nachiappan
   Nagappan: Cowboys, ankle sprains, and keepers of quality:
   how is video game development different from software
   development? ICSE 2014: 1-11
   

   View Slide

3. © Microsoft Corporation
   the “initial experience”
   the “first time user
   experience”
   “tutorial time”
   the “5-5-5” (five seconds,
   minutes, hours)
   “the first 10 seconds, the
   first minute, the first ten
   minutes, the first hour”
   “setting the hook”
   also known as
   

   View Slide

4. © Microsoft Corporation
   “If your game is abandoned
   in the first hour that’s a
   pretty low moment. It’s a
   complete rejection of the
   game play in all ways, you
   know, game play, narrative,
   style. … It’s a pretty
   catastrophic failure.”
   Designer C
   a Critical Hour
   

   View Slide

5. © Microsoft Corporation
   What did we know so far?
   • Game Approachability Principles: allow practice of new
   skills/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 on
   player experience
   • Achievement, enjoyment, and social interaction lead to continued
   motivation 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
   

   View Slide

6. © Microsoft Corporation
   Data + Methodology
   

   View Slide

7. © Microsoft Corporation
   Player’s Perspective
   Genre Reviews
   Action 28
   Modern First-Person Shooter 32
   Sci-Fi First-Person Shooter 21
   Modern Action Adventure 17
   Role-Playing 16
   Sci-Fi Shooter 16
   Fantasy Action Adventure 10
   Puzzle 9
   Adventure 9
   Rhythm / Music 7
   Sports 6
   Racing 5
   2D Platformer 4
   Shoot-'Em-Up 3
   Strategy 3
   Beat-'Em-Up 3
   Driving 3
   GT / Street Racing 3
   Action Role-Playing 2
   3D Platformer 2
   Wrestling 2
   Football 2
   Snowboarding 2
   2D Fighting 1
   Sci-Fi Action Adventure 1
   Modern Shooter 1
   Historic First-Person Shooter 1
   Rhythm / Dancing 1
   Fantasy Online Role-Playing 1
   Olympic Sports 1
   212 Amazon reviews of Xbox 360 games
   Searching for keywords such as
   “first”, “hour”, “minute”, “start”
   

   View Slide

8. © Microsoft Corporation
   First hour reviews 35 collected, 13
   different authors
   00 - I click New Game and the first hour of Call of Duty 4
   begins. We're looking at a view of Eastern Europe. A
   voice over is introducing the situation and explaining
   everything that is going on in the area. The game zooms
   in to a U.K. training ground. I have control now, a man
   tells me to take a rifle from the table. He points me to a
   shooting range and I take aim.
   01 - We conduct various aiming exercises. Looks like
   there's some auto aim built in when you look down the
   sight.
   02 - I knife a watermelon. "Your fruit killing skills are
   remarkable!“
   03 - I follow my objective pointer and meet Captain
   Price. I have to run an obstacle course now.
   First hour review of Call of Duty 4
   

   View Slide

9. © Microsoft Corporation
   6 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
   

   View Slide

10. © Microsoft Corporation
    Methodology
    Grounded Theory
    • Open, Axial, Selective Analysis
    (Amazon + First hour reviews)
    • Invited an auditor to review the process and
    emergent categories for comprehensibility and
    closeness to data.
    • Used the interviews in part to check the findings
    (Selective)
    

    View Slide

11. © Microsoft Corporation
    

    View Slide

12. © Microsoft Corporation
    Findings
    First Experience Arc
    

    View Slide

13. © Microsoft Corporation
    The First Experience Arc
    Expectations
    Specific Anticipations
    Experiences
    Momentary & Engaging
    Annoying, Frustrating, or Tedious
    Outcome
    Abandonment
    Continuing
    Exceptions
    Deal-breakers
    Holdouts
    

    View Slide

14. © Microsoft Corporation
    Expectations
    Franchise, Genre, Predecessors
    Gaming community, “Everyone”, Friends, Buzz
    Trailers, Rentals, Demoes, Friend’s house
    Notable: Specific Anticipation
    

    View Slide

15. © Microsoft Corporation
    

    View Slide

16. © Microsoft Corporation
    Positive Experiences
    Engaging
    “hooked”, “engaged”, “interested”,
    “addicted”, “immersed”
    “cool”, “awesome”, “wow”, “exciting”,
    “fun”, “impressed”, “neat”
    Momentary
    

    View Slide

17. © Microsoft Corporation
    Positive Experiences
    Engaging
    “hooked”, “engaged”, “interested”,
    “addicted”, “immersed”
    Condemned: Criminal Origins
    “I hit Y to reload my gun, only to realize that it
    doesn't actually get reloaded. Instead, my
    character checks the amount of rounds in the
    gun. According to the game, I'm limited to the
    ammunition that is found in weapons.
    Hmmm...I'm going to have to be a little bit
    more conservative with my ammo and quit
    hosing down these perps with a steady stream
    of lead. Very interesting game concept...”
    “cool”, “awesome”, “wow”, “exciting”,
    “fun”, “impressed”, “neat”
    Momentary
    

    View Slide

18. © Microsoft Corporation
    Negative Experiences
    Annoying Frustrating Tedious
    

    View Slide

19. © Microsoft Corporation
    Outcomes
    WHOLE & IN PART (Music, Narrative,
    Voice-Acting, Levels, Mini-games, etc.)
    Abandonment Continue
    

    View Slide

20. © Microsoft Corporation
    Deal-breakers: Frustrations that
    supersede all positives.
    “An UNSKIPPABLE cut scene. Annoying. So, we continue playing and now there
    are UNSKIPPABLE cut scenes every few plays of the players taunting each other
    before the ball is hiked! Really? I needed to see his defenseman saying something
    foul to my running back RIGHT NOW! NO, I don't! We made it through the rest of
    the game some how and decided that it was one of the worst playing experiences of
    any game we've ever played. Reselling this ASAP!
    BTW, the football game play was actually pretty good. Running, throwing and
    fielding all seemed to work well. In fact, I would
    say that it worked better than Madden. Its such
    a shame that they made the rest of the game
    so unplayable.”
    (Blitz: The League, Amazon Review)
    

    View Slide

21. © Microsoft Corporation
    Holdouts: Playing a game you hate
    Anticipated 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 captures
    Captain America's acrobatic grace and power quite well, but the limited enemy variety is
    allowing that repetitious feeling to sink in. … I'll soldier on for a bit, but I don't expect to
    finish this fight.” (First hour review of Captain America: Super Soldier)
    Narrative
    Completionists (External)
    Social reasons (External)
    

    View Slide

22. © Microsoft Corporation
    Findings
    Figuring out the Game
    

    View Slide

23. © Microsoft Corporation
    Figuring out the Game
    Acquiring the basic skills
    to play
    Understanding
    the point of
    the game
    Gateway to Attachment
    “once you get the hang of it you won't be
    able to pull yourself away”
    (Far Cry 3, Amazon Review )
    Or to Disinterest
    “once the patterns were figured out, the
    enthusiasm died down quickly.”
    (Kung Fu Panda 2 Kinect, Amazon Review)
    

    View Slide

24. © Microsoft Corporation
    From fun to real fun
    “You need to look at it and go, ‘Oh, that looks like it’s
    for me and that looks fun.’
    Then when you actually play it, I as a designer either
    need to have lured you in with that and that is exactly
    what you get to do or I lure you in with that because
    you’re familiar with it.
    Then I transition you into the things that are actually
    more fun.”
    (Designer A)
    

    View Slide

25. © Microsoft Corporation
    Costly Mistakes in Understanding
    …but wait, you *can* skip cut scenes.
    “yes cut scenes are annoying but all you gotta do is hit the
    B button on your Xbox controller”
    (Blitz: The League, Comment on the Amazon Review)
    

    View Slide

26. © Microsoft Corporation
    FRUSTRATION
    Direction vs. Discovery
    DISCOVERED!
    Easter Eggs
    Beauty
    Player Abilities (“I can double jump!”)
    FUN
    DIRECTIONS, PLEASE.
    Lost
    Impasse
    Confusion
    Mistakes
    

    View Slide

27. © Microsoft Corporation
    Findings
    Player Agency
    

    View Slide

28. © Microsoft Corporation
    Player Agency
    Doing your homework
    “If you read all of the in-game instructions and you aren’t afraid to dig
    around 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 was
    because I just went straight into the match and tried it right away. Then i
    studied the controls and figured it out.” (WWE '13, Amazon Review)
    Death is expected and accepted.
    Players do not complain about dying but about the
    precision of the controls and slow loading times between
    deaths.
    

    View Slide

29. © Microsoft Corporation
    Player Agency
    Skipping ahead
    Players take a direct route to the action, skipping
    tutorials, levels, and other decision branches.
    Adjusting to the game
    To improve their experience of the game, players tinker
    with the difficulty level.
    

    View Slide

30. © Microsoft Corporation
    Implications
    

    View Slide

31. © Microsoft Corporation
    Intrigue trumps Enjoyment
    Inspire greater engagement, spark interest of a
    player, 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 power
    Design the first hour to emphasize direction.
    Save room for discovery after the first hour.
    

    View Slide

32. © Microsoft Corporation
    The First Experience
    Expectations
    Specific Anticipations
    Experiences
    Momentary & Engaging
    Annoying, Frustrating, or Tedious
    Outcome
    Abandonment
    Continuing
    Exceptions
    Deal-breakers
    Holdouts
    Acquisition of the basic
    skills to play
    Understanding
    the point of
    the game
    Player Agency
    http://aka.ms/esegroup
    

    View Slide

33. © Microsoft Corporation
    Thank you!
    

    View Slide