New Technology Paper: Designing Computer Games Preemtively for Emotions and Player Types

PlayingVideoGames

Games are all about emotions, how people feel. Game designers usually focus on the story of the game and the game mechanics. However, designing game for specific player types and gamer emotion is equally important in game design. Student in my New Technology class of 2013, Arelíus Sveinn Arelíusarson, did research about designing games for emulations. In his paper he documents the basic background of game design. He compares three models for player types and suggest an new model based on Yee’s model. This is the abstract:

In this paper I mapped the top ten emotions computer-game players experience, as categorized by Chris Bateman, to player types. I compared three models of player types (Bartle, Lazzaro and Yee) to produce as an encompasing model of player types as possible. Furthermore I have made use of Bateman’s speculations upon which biomechanisms each emotion stems from and assigned them to player types. The result is what I call the Augmented Yee Model which could help computer-game designer to have a clear picture of what gamers desire from their preferred activity and perhaps to identify if a design is missing aspects that are applicable. I also defined the non- aesthetic design constructs of computer-games to better convey understanding of what designers are doing to elicit emotions from players without the use of a narrative, graphics or music. To that effect I am introducing a new concept I call game wiles. 

Paper: Designing Computer Games Preemtively for Emotions and Player Types