From first date to committed relationship: Designing for engagement and sustained satisfaction

1. From first date to committed relationship:Designing for engagement and sustained satisfaction Scott Rigby www.immersyve.com

2. The never-ending challenge of relationships with players… Your Player Your Game What You Want What You Fear

3. Winning their hearts • Keeping any relationship long term requires substance over flash • Obviously not all games that players initially say are “fun” hold interest over time • When is fun substantial? How can we design for and measure that during development?

4. Six-year old research company • Focusing on practical, data-driven models • Integration of 15 years of interactive experience with 30+ years of research in the field of motivation and emotion.

5. Today’s Goals • Fun vs. Substantial Fun: What are the deeper satisfactions that lead to sustained engagement • Outline a validated motivational model - “Player Experience of Need Satisfaction (PENS)” • Back up the model with quantitative data showing the predictive value of PENS

6. Take-aways Specific examples and ideas for applying PENS during Design, Development, and Testing

7. Some thoughts on “Fun” FUN • The problem with fun… • is too diffuse a concept… • It doesn’t pinpoint the unique psychological experience of games that leads to sustained engagement • It isn’t precise enough to be of much value during design and development FUN FUN FUN FUN FUN

8. “Fun” sells short the game experience • Players choose to do un-fun things • People play through tension, agony, competition, bladder emergencies… • They are willing to work to play (study manuals, techniques) • They engage in socially complex systems and interpersonal interactions

9. Something pretty powerful is going on… • Thinking about how games satisfy deeper needs give us more precision in understanding what good games do so well • That helps create better, more successful games that build lasting relationships with players

10. Fun may be the general goal, but… “The devel(opment ) is in the details…” The Almighty Whiteboard can also include clear motivational constructs in design and execution

11. Causal vs. Outcome Metrics Emotional Behavioral The industry often looks here… Momentary Fun & Emotional Reactions e.g. Data Logging Outcomes ? This is still a Black Box… Motivators Or “Whys”

12. Developers think about what motivates players all the time… Freedom Bragging Rights Great Graphics Open-ended Gameplay Cool Weapons Phat Loot AI Customization Optimal Challenge Competition Writing • How do you know • What’s right and what’s not? • Why something motivates? • What’s more important and less important for achieving your intended goal? Story Killer Sound

13. The Underpants Gnomes Dilemma Design Game Fun Immersion It is possible to de-mystify Phase 2!

14. Focusing on deeper satisfaction… • Motivational model (PENS) is based in extensive research on human emotion/motivation across many areas of life (work, play, relationships) • Model is continuously tested in terms of its impact on player enjoyment/ engagement and commercial value (e.g. customer retention, player recommendations, Metacritic scores).

15. “Player Experience of Need Satisfaction”(PENS) Sustained fun and commercial success occur most strongly when specific intrinsic motivational needs are satisfied by a game

16. What are intrinsic motivational needs? • Intrinsic motivation is about doing things for their inherent satisfactions (e.g. games, sports) • Gamers play without external motivators and sometimes through punishment (wife, parents, boss) • By defining and quantifying what is being satisfied, a clearer model of sustained engagement emerges…

17. The PENS model includes three specific motivational needs that can help inspire, organize/strategize, and test ideas • Competence - Need to successfully grow; to extend our abilities, skills, and efficacy • Autonomy - Need to experience personal agency (volition, not necessarily “freedom”), “opportunities for action” and choice • Relatedness -Need for meaningful connection to others, defined by others support for our competence and autonomy

18. Why these three? • Consistently predictive • Well-validated • Goal is to focus on what is fundamental (i.e. root-level motivational needs)

19. Predicting that long-term relationship • In multiple longitudinal studies with thousands of players, we look at

20. Need Satisfaction predicting sustained engagement Study Example: 800+ players • PENS predicts sustained engagement over nine months. “Fun” does not • This also supports the idea that Need satisfaction (PENS) is explaining fun at a deeper level Study 1: Multiple Regression Analysis ** means that statistically there is a greater than 99% chance PENS is predicting these outcomes

21. Sustained Engagement: Short term & Long term • 2008 Longitudinal Study – Studied 2100+ “days” in the lives of gamers across multiple genres (e.g. FPS, RPG, Action/Adventure, MMO) • How does need satisfaction vs. fun predict sustained engagement with games (i.e. returning to the game)?

22. Day-to-Day and Week-to-Week • Day to Day Level: Need satisfaction during play (PENS) is significantly related to re-engagement during days in the same week. “Fun” is not… • Week to Week Level: Experiencing need satisfaction is significantly related to sustained engagement comparing week to week. “Fun” is not…

23. Why is this the case? • Fun as an emotional outcome is fleeting • Less precise construct = unclear predictor of long-term value Focusing on deeper need satisfactions that cause sustained enjoyment can provide clearer and more useful guidance in designing and vetting ideas

24. PENS: Competence The experience of efficacy, growth, and mastery

25. Competence – Mechanics Experiential Goal: • High Intention-to-Outcome ratio • Player does not break engagement with gameplay to focus on controls • “Dumb Avatar” frustrations are minimized… Obituary Master Chief died suddenly today, inexplicably walking off the top of a building after years of heroic Covenant pwnage. In lieu of flowers…

26. Competence - Gameplay • Experience of mastery in the moment-to-moment action of gameplay • Examples: • Defeating enemies • Conquering in-game challenges, • puzzles, quests, etc. • Competence need is satisfied by: • High success to failure ratio • Player: “I came, I saw, I kicked a*s”

27. Competence is enhanced by“informational feedback” • Players are most satisfied by rich information throughout play on how they are doing • Information is optimal when it empowers players to fine-tune their mastery • Informational feedback can minimize frustration and demotivationfrom failure

28. Weaving Rich Competence Feedback • Competence needs are maximally satisfied when games integrate feedback mechanisms on multiple levels Granular– Moment to moment feedback on actions Sustained – Feedback on “streaks”, success/failure ratios Cumulative – Feedback on overall performance • Cumulative – Within Session • Cumulative – Within Game • Cumulative – Global

29. Three Levels of Competence Feedback - Guitar Hero Granular competence feedback includes the immediate, one-to-one action/result feedback players receive Cumulative competence feedbackprovides information on your overall mastery Sustained competence feedback includes the mechanisms that make continuous mastery salient

30. Three Levels of Cumulative Competence Feedback Global Within Game Within Session

31. Competence and rewards • Not about shiny baubles (that can actually hurt motivation) • Empowering information=high satisfaction: How does gameplay assist player in greater success (win or lose) • Failure can be very satisfying, if I learn something useful • Are rewards meaningful to further mastery?

32. Competence and Challenge • “Optimal Challenges” satisfy competence needs • Optimal challenges stretch, but do not overwhelm • It occurs in the “Goldilocks” zone between… • Not too Cold– boring • Not too Hot – frustrating or anxiety provoking

33. But there are problems with optimal challenge • Sustained challenge brings reports of “fun”, but also decreases motivation to return • Sustained challenge is exhausting and demotivating over time, even if it holds your attention and interest in the moment

34. Opportunities to express mastery are equally important (and sometimes more important) • Experience of Challenge - Game builds the player’s skill through optimal challenges that cause them to reach further than their previous skill level VS. • Experience of Mastery – Game eases off and instead lets the player express mastery and dominance

35. Gamers invented a word for that… PWNAGE!! Now we can understand more precisely… • What that means psychologically • How to design for it more successfully

36. Example of “Getting Granular:”How certain MMO activities can satisfy Competence Study of 1700+ WoW players… = Satisfaction Probability > 99% = Satisfaction Probability > 95% = Satisfaction Probability > 90%

37. Take Away Tips: Maximizing competence • Don’t fixate on the idea of continual “optimal challenge”, particularly in key battles (e.g. boss fights) • Ensure rewards/items are meaningful to competence, in immediate gameplay and long-term character development. • Focus on feedback mechanisms that provide useful information to players that increase mastery – both when they succeed and when they fail

38. Competence satisfactions are not enough for sustained engagement in most games • Competence satisfactions are what most developers know best (video games began there…) • Games that satisfy competence alone rarely hold the player’s attention over the long haul • A more critical PENS need for sustained play is the experience of autonomy…

39. PENS: Autonomy Personal agency and a sense of volition

40. Autonomy • Player: “I am the cause of my action, not the game design” • Not feeling constrained by environment or features • Autonomy needs are also satisfied in gameplayand character development

41. Autonomy in Gameplay • Recommended Goal is to Maximize Opportunities for Action (OFA’s) • At any given moment… • Variety of objects (or NPCs, players) with which you can interact • Variety of actions available (e.g. combat, social, crafting, etc) Interactive Opportunities X Possible Actions = OFA’s

42. Opportunities for Action in immediate gameplay Players experience greater autonomy when they perceive a “target rich” environment (exploration, challenges) as well as multiple modes of interaction

43. Opportunities for Action (OFA)FPS Example • In my kitchen… • Great variety of interactive objects • Great variety of actions • F.E.A.R. • Great variety of interactive objects • Less variety of action

44. Opportunities for Action (OFA)FPS Example • In HL2… • Great variety of interactive objects • Better variety of action Result is higher OFA’s and greater satisfaction of autonomy needs

45. OFA’s are not about expanse, but about perceived opportunity Game World 1 = 10 Interactive Objects Game World 2 = 8 Interactive Objects 3 2 4 5 6 7 8 1 4 1 2 5 6 7 8 9 3 10 Hellooooo? Smaller worlds with more saturation of OFA’s are perceived as offering greater autonomy than larger “tumbleweed” worlds…

46. Opportunities for Action (OFA)Detractors • Inconsistency in player schema detracts from Autonomy Satisfactions “Hmmm…fire extinguisher” “Sweet…”

47. Opportunities for Action (OFA)Detractors Schema “There’s five *$#@* rounds I’ll never see again… “Oh Yeah! Better back up…” Inconsistent schemas frustrate autonomy

48. “Getting Granular”: MMO activities & PENS Autonomy We’re building an high resolution picture of need satisfaction in response to specific content = Satisfaction Probability > 99% = Satisfaction Probability > 95% = Satisfaction Probability > 90%

49. PENS is not another labeling system • Multiple needs can be satisfied in the same moment/mechanic of gameplay – need satisfaction is not a trade-off • In fact, satisfying multiple needs simultaneously is often what distinguishes good from great games

50. PENS Differentials: FPS Combat Fair FPS Better FPS Blockbuster FPS What distinguishes stand-out titles that sustain interest is simultaneous satisfaction of multiple needs