{"id":821,"date":"2010-04-20T16:24:02","date_gmt":"2010-04-20T15:24:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.stevebromley.com\/blog\/?p=821"},"modified":"2019-11-06T17:45:02","modified_gmt":"2019-11-06T16:45:02","slug":"understanding-players-through-biometrics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.stevebromley.com\/blog\/2010\/04\/20\/understanding-players-through-biometrics\/","title":{"rendered":"Understanding players through biometrics"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last week UXBrighton<\/a> hosted an event focused on Biometrics, which featured an interesting presentation by Vertical Slice<\/a>. \u00a0Pejman Mirza-Babaei presented his PhD research on the application of biometrics to help understand a player\u2019s experience when playing games. This was presented as a \u2018guerrilla\u2019 method, since it was a speedy and rough implementation, not a definitive and comprehensive methodology.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ll be looking at what biometric research is, how it can be applied to games research, and the problems that became apparent with this method.<\/p>\n

What is biometric research?<\/h4>\n

Biometrics are traditionally an automated way of recognising, or recording, peoples physiological data, or characteristics. To apply this to video-games readings were taken by Vertical Slice by hooking players up \u00a0to machines which record their heart rate, brainwaves, or galvanic skin response (\u2026how sweaty their skin is, presumably).\u00a0 It\u2019s proposed that there is some correlation between how their bodies react, and how the player is feeling \u2013 such as how a player\u2019s heart will beat faster while fighting Gunther Hermann\u2019s Skull Gun or scoring a tetris.<\/p>\n

Pejman Mirza-Babaei has been investigating how this can be applied to games research. Working with Vertical Slice, he is interested in measuring the player experience \u2013 how to know when players are having fun, or becoming frustrated, and so has been performing studies to see the feasibility of measuring this with biometric data. By having players play either Haze, or Modern Warfare 2, while hooked up to this machine, maybe it\u2019s possible to gain a greater insight into the player\u2019s thoughts, and how they feel when playing.<\/p>\n

\n
\"Clockwork

And in a non obtrusive way...<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

What did biometric research show?<\/h4>\n

When playing the games, the player\u2019s heart rate and GSR ratings (that sweatiness rating) were recorded along with a video of the player, and of their screen. \u00a0What was found from the biometric readings, at the simplest level, was when the player\u2019s heart rate went up. The researcher would then conduct an interview after the gaming session, and ask why the heart rate went up at those points, for the player to justify the measurements.<\/p>\n

We saw examples of these spikes when the player enjoyed, or was frustrated by, a task (such as using a machine gun, or getting stuck looking for a vehicle), and were given the player\u2019s justifications for feeling like this.<\/p>\n

The most obvious advantage of this method is that it allows a more natural environment to be created for the player. Since biometrics doesn\u2019t require distracting the player by asking them to perform a \u00a0think-aloud, or by interrupting their game by asking questions and yet still having a degree of insight into how they are feeling, a more natural game play experience can be achieved, without stopping useful data from being gathered.<\/p>\n

Problems with biometric research on games<\/h4>\n

However, some limitations on the application of this technology became obvious through the presentation. Biometric data (in its current form) doesn\u2019t give any insight into why the player\u2019s heart rate has spiked, just that it has. This problem is exacerbated by the single range of readings it can give \u2013 there is no way to distinguish between stress and happiness (or any other reasons a heart rate can spike).<\/p>\n

\n
\"Exciting

such as exciting vehicles<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Because of this, biometric readings have to be justified by another method, to give some understanding as to why the heart rate spikes at certain moments. Traditional UX methods, such as a post-test interview, are therefore needed in addition to biometric readings. However this reintroduces traditional UX problems. A player may not be able to accurately remember why they felt excited at a certain moment, and as pointed out by Sam Nixon<\/a>, may simply justify their opinion by what they see on screen.<\/p>\n

For example, the player may explain a heart rate spike caused by audio cues as being caused by the enemy visible on screen when the clip is shown later, missing the real reason for their excitement.<\/p>\n

Conclusion<\/h4>\n

So biometric readings alone cannot tell us what a player is thinking. Hence they cannot (currently) be a replacement for traditional UX methods.<\/p>\n

What biometric readings can do, is aid the application of current UX methodologies. When combined with tools such as think aloud, or interviews, they can add weight to the findings. For a think aloud, it can tell you which parts of the game particularly affected the player, and hence what comments to pay attention too. Similarly with interviews, biometric research can pinpoint the areas that the player should be asked about. When used in combination with typical UX tools, biometric research can be justified and have some understanding applied to its findings.<\/p>\n

There is amazing potential in the application of biometric data to games. Currently, the \u2018AI director\u2019 in Left For Dead controls the game based on how the player is doing \u2013 giving less zombies to fight if the player is doing poorly, or making the game harder, and giving the player some nasty surprises, if they are doing well. Imagine if a system like this could take biometric data into account, and change the game experience based on how the player was feeling. Vertical Slice have begun to show us the potential of this technology, and I feel we\u2019re at the start of an exciting journey.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last week UXBrighton hosted an event focused on Biometrics, which featured an interesting presentation by Vertical Slice. \u00a0Pejman Mirza-Babaei presented his PhD research on the application of biometrics to help understand a player\u2019s experience when playing games. This was presented as a \u2018guerrilla\u2019 method, since it was a speedy and rough implementation, not a definitive […]<\/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":[],"class_list":["post-821","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-games-user-research","grve-entry-item","grve-blog-item"],"yoast_head":"\nUnderstanding players through biometrics - 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\/2010\/04\/20\/understanding-players-through-biometrics\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Understanding players through biometrics - Steve Bromley - User Research\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Last week UXBrighton hosted an event focused on Biometrics, which featured an interesting presentation by Vertical Slice. \u00a0Pejman Mirza-Babaei presented his PhD research on the application of biometrics to help understand a player\u2019s experience when playing games. 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