Digital Game Experience Analysis: Ghostwire Tokyo Game Review

Yıl 2023, Cilt: 10 Sayı: 18, 160 - 177, 28.06.2023

Çakır Aker

https://doi.org/10.56133/intermedia.1259892

Öz

Digital Games are considered to be new the frontier in communication media for some and keep on advancing as an industry each day. Games, in the most basic sense, are a design output. For this reason, just as with other interactive applications, how they are experienced by the user is also critical for the success of the games. For this reason, the field of game studies and the industry includes the concept of "playability" in its dialect and pays increasing attention to the subject of experience analysis. Just like in the field of user experience, different methods have been put forward, such as the expert evaluation method in the field of player experience. Nevertheless, methods utilized within the area of user experience research are still not sufficient for player experience analysis. Hence the field of game studies is ever advancing novel methodologies for analyzing games. Moreover, many researchers have preferred expert evaluation methods for experience analysis in games, especially since it provides advantages in terms of applicability. Thus, various heuristic sets are put forward. Yet those sets mostly include rather extensive items to observe and/or cannot provide an inclusive analysis for different game genres and platforms. It is evident that a generalizable set such as Nielsen’s 10 heuristics (Nielsen, 1994) is necessary for an effective and efficient analysis in games.

In order to overcome the aforementioned problems and to offer an inclusive approach, an in-depth game analysis is utilized which was derived from the study published in 2019 (Aker, Rızvanoglu, & Bostan, 2019), which draws a general picture of the heuristic set approaches available in the literature. This study has provided a literature review in from a holistic scope and examined the heuristic sets put forward for the analysis of game experience. As a result, the study has provided a general perspective for understanding common items in heuristic sets regarding the player experience. Accordingly, the heuristic set of 15 items is put forward which are common in almost every heuristic in game studies field. The heuristics mentioned are the items put forward to enable digital games to be evaluated within the scope of "playability". In this context, via this common set, Ghostwire: Tokyo, a popular game at the time of its release, was chosen to implement these heuristics with the expert evaluation method. Thus, in this study, the 15-item common heuristic set was put into practice and its effectiveness and efficiency were analyzed. In addition, to examine the scope of the heuristic items, the scores and comments of the game were accessed via the popular website Metacritic, and the general opinions and common denominators were noted by inspecting the user comments. An in-depth analysis of the comments were made and the intended meanings of the comments were noted. By doing so, it is aimed to overcome semantic misunderstandings, preventing the actual meaning of the actors' to be misinterpreted. These comments were examined in terms of their compatibility with the items of the heuristic set. Moreover an expert evaluator has inspected the game and provided an in-depth analysis about player experience utilizing the given heuristic set.

The study conducted has utilized a basic framework for expert evaluation. It is indicated that the 15-item common heuristic set provide a useful and applicable analysis in terms of measuring game experience in general. When the items are examined one by one, it has been observed that player comments can be very incomplete. Just like in the field of user experience, the fact that the players reflect their own subjective judgments in the comments can also prevent them from understanding the experience of the game. However, although a more accurate and detailed analysis of the game can be made with heuristic items and expert evaluation processes, as predicted in the research, it has been observed that the 15-item set used also has deficiencies. Although the provided heuristics were not comprehensive regarding specific mechanics depending the genre or the platform, it seems that it is possible to adapt this set of 15 items as a fast and effective analysis method in the game industry, especially as a set that can be easily used by independent game developers. In this context, it has been possible to make observations that the use of expert evaluation method and heuristics will often be a practical and effective tool in the game industry and field. In order to increase the inclusiveness of the experience analysis, it will be useful for future research to include items suitable for the type of game examined in the set to be used.

Anahtar Kelimeler

digital game, experience, heuristic evaluation, expert evaluation

Dijital Oyun Deneyimi Analizi: Ghostwire Tokyo Oyun İncelemesi

Öz

Günümüzde oyunların ortaya koyduğu deneyimler, pek çok açıdan sektörün ve alanın ilgisini çekmiş giderek önem kazanmıştır. Araştırmalar ise deneyim analizi kısmında kullanılan ve kullanıcı deneyimi alanından uyarlanan yaklaşımların eksikliğine işaret etmektedir. Bu sebeple ortaya konulan oyuncu deneyimi analiz yaklaşımları bu eksiği telafi etse de pratik anlamda uygulanmaları da bir o kadar zor olmaktadır. Özellikle oyun türü, platformu ve benzeri farklılıklardan ötürü yeterince kapsayıcı ve kabul görmüş bir sezgisel seti henüz ortaya çıkmamıştır. Hem uygulamada pratikliği artırmak adına hem de kapsayıcılıktan ödün vermeden uygulanması için 15 maddeden oluşan bir sezgisel derlemesi çalışmanın odağında kullanılmıştır. Yapılan uzman değerlendirme sonuçları sayesinde oyunun nitel anlamda incelenmesi mümkün olmuştur. Bunun yanı sıra Metacritic web sitesi üzerinden elde edilen oyuncu yorumları da çalışmaya dâhil edilmiş ve kapsam bağlamında incelemeye olanak vermiştir. Çalışmada, genel anlamda sezgisel maddelerinin ve uzman değerlendirme yaklaşımının oldukça efektif ve verimli olduğunu gözlemlemek mümkün olmuştur. Her ne kadar bazı açılardan kullanılan sezgisel maddelerinin genişletilmesi gerekliliği ve çoklu-yöntem yaklaşımının daha doğru bir analize sonuç vereceği bilinse de, özellikle sektörde kullanılabilmesi açısından ortaya konulan bu sezgisel maddelerinin ve uzman değerlendirme yaklaşımının efektif ve uygulanabilir olduğu gözlemlenmiştir.

Anahtar Kelimeler

dijital oyun, deneyim, sezgisel analiz, uzman değerlendirme

Kaynakça

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