For my first artifact I observed players on Left 4 Dead 2(L4D2), watching them make decisions according to how the game was communicating with them through visuals and sound. The design of the artifact worked on the 3 levels; recording the screen as they played, taking notes and self observation. Each player personally evaluated at the end the main things that helped them get to the ‘safe house’.
I felt that the experiment worked well in how I began to realise how players interact with modern day games. From what I observed and also taking what people had written in their evaluations after they had finished playing, I discovered around 15 different ways that the game communicates with players to guide them to the finish. With each player only taking about 25 to 35 min’s to finish their test and write it up, it worked as quite an effective method of testing.
The flaw in this testing is that it only approaches one genre of game, this being FPS (first person shooter) which interacts with players in a different way to other game designs like platform or 3rd person games. I feel that the test itself worked fine but may require that I test a different genre of game to see if the way games communicate with players changes across game types.
Due to the players inexperience of playing L4D2 next time getting them to actually read the instruction manual for 5 min’s instead of me talking them through the controls before play began would give them a better chance of understanding what the game was about and different aspects of how to use the game could be employed to strategise their approach to in game play. This would perhaps mean that players concentrated less on the controls and more on noticing the ways in which the game was communicating with them in terms of wayfinding.
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