{"id":1585,"date":"2011-09-12T09:27:07","date_gmt":"2011-09-12T08:27:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.stevebromley.com\/blog\/?p=1585"},"modified":"2019-11-06T17:44:59","modified_gmt":"2019-11-06T16:44:59","slug":"some-great-articles-on-games-usability-and-player-experience","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.stevebromley.com\/blog\/2011\/09\/12\/some-great-articles-on-games-usability-and-player-experience\/","title":{"rendered":"Some great articles on games usability and player experience"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A short update this week, as I\u2019ve been focused on a number of other projects, most importantly polishing off \u201cBeyond Trash Talk \u2013 Understanding player motivation through analysis of social interaction in collocated multiplayer gaming\u201d (of which, more soon!).<\/p>\n<p>Today, I\u2019d like to share some articles on usability and user experience in games that I\u2019ve enjoyed recently, in case you missed them. I\u2019d also be interested to hear recommendations of things I should be reading, feel free to leave a comment!<!--more--><\/p>\n<p><strong>Personality And Play Styles: A Unified Model<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/pejman_mb\">@Pejman_MB<\/a> \u00a0shared this one with me, a Gamasutra article summarising the different models out there for defining player motivation. This has been a pivotal aspect of the research I have been working on recently, and is a recommended read for anyone wanting to accurately target games to specific player types. \u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.gamasutra.com\/view\/feature\/6474\/personality_and_play_styles_a_.php\">The article can be found here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Why Are Tutorials Terrible?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/grmcall\">Graham McAllister<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/totallygeek\">Seb Long<\/a> from Vertical Slice collaborated on an article last week, in Graham\u2019s regular Edge column. \u00a0By looking at examples of good and bad tutorials, they help pinpoint what it is that successfully teaches players how to play your game. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.next-gen.biz\/opinion\/why-are-tutorials-terrible\">Read on here.<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Some Hows And Whys Of Usability Testing<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/emeraldsong\">@EmeraldSong<\/a> \u00a0gave a great introduction to usability testing in games, highlighting how it can be invaluable throughout the development process , can find issues missed in other forms of playtesting , and can be done on a budget. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.gamasutra.com\/view\/news\/36344\/Opinion_Some_Hows_And_Whys_Of_Usability_Testing.php\">Gamasutra has more.<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Resetting Accessibility in Games<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Mike Ambinder from Valve software, who was featured in <a href=\"..\/..\/..\/..\/..\/2011\/09\/01\/valves-philosophy-with-user-research-in-games-habe-newell-and-mike-ambinder\/\">this blog last week<\/a>, has been interviewed in more depth about Valve\u2019s take on accessibility, as part of this article by Dennis Scimeca. Mike\u2019s feedback is really insightful for how commercial development can balance the needs of disabled gamers, and can be found on <a href=\"http:\/\/www.gamasutra.com\/view\/feature\/6239\/resetting_accessibility_in_games.php?page=3%7CResetting\">page three of the article here.<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Scary Game Findings: A Study Of Horror Games And Their Players<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Finally, Gamasutra also featured an article on Vertical Slice\u2019s novel application of biofeedback techniques to try and understand what makes a game scary. Originally appearing in Xbox magazine, this article features examples of five scary games, and works out what makes them tick! <a href=\"http:\/\/www.gamasutra.com\/view\/feature\/6480\/scary_game_findings_a_study_of_.php\">Read more on Gamasutra.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s all for this week!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A short update this week, as I\u2019ve been focused on a number of other projects, most importantly polishing off \u201cBeyond Trash Talk \u2013 Understanding player motivation through analysis of social interaction in collocated multiplayer gaming\u201d (of which, more soon!). Today, I\u2019d like to share some articles on usability and user experience in games that I\u2019ve [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[117],"tags":[44,40],"class_list":["post-1585","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-games-user-research","tag-accessibility","tag-bad-ux","grve-entry-item","grve-blog-item"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v15.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Some great articles on games usability and player experience - Steve Bromley - User Research<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.stevebromley.com\/blog\/2011\/09\/12\/some-great-articles-on-games-usability-and-player-experience\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Some great articles on games usability and player experience - Steve Bromley - User Research\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A short update this week, as I\u2019ve been focused on a number of other projects, most importantly polishing off \u201cBeyond Trash Talk \u2013 Understanding player motivation through analysis of social interaction in collocated multiplayer gaming\u201d (of which, more soon!). 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