Onderzoeksmethoden 2/het werk/2012-13/Group 3

General information

Within our group there is a lot of interest in the area of gaming. Therefore we have come up with a research question that fits the theme of 'Gaming and Social Behavior'. Games can be divided into many genres, and these genres also have several sub-genres. Within a game there are often several game types that differ in the objective that has to be reached. Some people think that gamers become aggressive when playing shooters. Although research has shown that this is not the case. Gamers experience a wide range of emotions during video gaming.

Research question: "What do people think affects a persons emotional state while playing video games?"

We intend to answer our research question by means of a group brainstorm workshop.

We think there is a significant difference state of mind after or during playing for instance a competitive game or a cooperative game. We intend to ask several questions during to workshop.

Test subjects

We will invite one group of eight persones. The test subjects will be Radboud University students. These students have to fullfill the following requirements:

• play games for at least two hours a week
• have experience with multiple game genres and game types

Because a lot of our friends and family members game on a regular basis we asked people in our social environment to participate.

For our workshop we invited eight people. They are all male and in the age group 18-22 years old. All of them mostly play games online but have experience with playing games offline. The group has the most experience with online RPG and Shooter games.

Data collection

To get a good answer on our main question we produced three sub questions. This will produce some more manageable data during the workshop.

Main research question: "What effects a person's emotional state while playing video games?"

Sub question 1: Which emotions are experienced during gaming?

Sub question 2: What type of games have a strong influence on your emotional state?

Sub question 3: Which other influences effect your emotional state?

The workshop consists of two important phases of data collection. During the first phase lots of information is generated. During the second phase this information is prioritized.

First Phase (diversion)

1. Introduction
2. The participants are asked to wright down three answers to the following question:
   Which emotions are experienced during gaming?
   We will not give examples.
   Some possible answers:
   • Anger
   • Happiness
   • Boredom
   • Sadness
   • Frustration
3. The participants are asked to each give one of their answers turn based, until all possible answers are noted on a whiteboard. (If necessary the amount of ideas are trimmed to a more workable amount. This means fake emotions (emotions that are not emotions) will be dropped and emtions that are the same will be merged.)
4. The participants are asked to wright down two answers to the following question:
   What type of games have a strong influence on your emotional state?
   We will discuss the different levels of game genres (examples we will give: shooters and RPG's) and game types (examples we will give: competitive vs. cooperative and deathmatch vs. search & destroy), but we will also point out that people can name any of the given categories.
   Some possible answers:
   • Competitive gameplay
   • Role playing games
   • Shooters
5. The participants are asked to each give one of their answers turn based, until all possible answers are noted on a whiteboard.
6. The answers will be trimmed by removing duplicate game genres or game types and removing answers that do not belong to the categories game genres and game types.
7. The participants are then asked to wright the game genres and game types that are most important to them on Post-its
8. The participants are asked to put the Post-its on the whiteboard next to an emotion that suits best for that type of game. If necessary they can make a second Post-it with the same type of game.
9. The outliers are discussed on correctness according to the group.
10. The participants are asked to wright down two answers to the following question:
    Which other influences effect your emotional state?
    We will give the following examples: somebody interrupts you while playing a game, internet problems.
    Some possible answers:
    • Internet lag
    • Phonecall
    • Time pressure
11. The participants are asked to each give one of their answers turn based, until all possible answers are noted on a whiteboard.
12. The answers will be trimmed if necessary by merging answers that are more or less the same.
13. The participants are then asked to wright the other influences and game types that are most important to them on Post-its
14. The participants are asked to put the Post-its on the whiteboard next to an emotion that suits best for that influence. If necessary they can make a second Post-it with the same other influence.

Second Phase (conversion)

1. We will create logical formulas about relationships between emotions and game types and/or other influences. When there is consensus about a formula it will be written down on a whiteboard.
   Some possible formulas:
   • All games + lag -> frustration
   • Competitive games -> tension
   • All games + winning -> happiness
2. In the end we will discuss the written down formulas again about correctness and order them by voting. Every subject can devide five votes over the formulas (one per formula) so we can rank them by importance (the one with the most votes as the most important, the one with the least votes as the least important).

ORM Model

Flow Chart

Practical Necessities

• Whiteboard
• (big) Post-its in 2 colours
• Whiteboard marker
• Accommodating room
• 'U shape' positioning of the tables
• Photo camera
• Laptop
• Beamer (and screen)

Process analysis

We held a preliminary workshop to work out the kinks in our process. We held this test workshop with just the four of us: three participated as test subject and one had the combined roll of test subject and workshop leader. We followed the planned steps for the workshop pretty accurate, with actual writing, sticking post-its and discussion. After the two phases we came up with a set of formulas just as we would like to see in the real workshop.

Through the test workshop we unearthed the following issues:

• Eight subject will likely produce more data then we expected, we'll have to be thorough in the trimming stage.
• Discussions should not carry on indefinitely, the leader should be firm in it's decision to stop a discussion.
• We changed the term 'concept' to 'relations'. We find it fits better.
• We changed the term 'External influences' to 'Other influences'. This is because some influences might have something to do with the game and are thus not truly 'external'.
• It might be a good idea to have a final round in which we compare relations to each other to see if some relations might be more important then others.
• We decided which examples we're going to give.
• We decided to limit the amount of variables the subjects can place at a emotion.

Research Results

Brainstorm Emotions

• Came up with 12 emotions
• After some discussion 'trots' was chosen to be removed
• Two new emotions: 'spanning' + 'stress'
• 'spanning' is renamed to 'opwinding'

Final list of Emotions:

• Stress (Stress)
• Irritatie (Irritation)
• Strijdlust (Fighting spirit)
• Verbazing (Amazement)
• Voldoening (Satisfaction)
• Euforie (Euphoria)
• Woede (Anger)
• Frustratie (Frustration)
• Blijheid (Happiness)
• Verdrietig (Sad)
• Ontzag (Awe)
• Jaloesie (Jealousy)
• Opwinding (Excitement)

Brainstorm Gametypes

• Came up with 13 gametypes

Final list of Gametypes:

• Competative
• Shooter
• Online games/Multiplayer
• Strategy
• Sport
• Simulators
• Cooperative
• Survival horror
• Puzzle
• Reward System
• RPG
• Time trial
• Singleplayer

Combining Emotions with Gametypes

• There were more emotions than there were gametypes so we chose to put the gamtypes on the board and let the participants add notes with emotions to them.
• After combining the Emotions with the Gametypes it was decided that 'simulator' should be removed.
• A discussion follwed about the difference between positive and negative emotions.

Emotion/Gametype combinations

Gametype	Emotions
Puzzle	Frustration 1 / Satisfaction 1
Reward System	Euforia 1 / Satisfaction 2
Singleplayer	Happiness 1 / 1 / Awe 1
Multiplayer	Frustration 2 / Fighting Spirit 1 / Irritation 1 / Awe 1
Shooter	Frustration 1 / Excitement 1
Sport	Surprisal 1 / Euforia 1 / Satisfaction 1 / Excitement 2
Co-op	Euforia 1 / Excitement 1
Competative	Excitement 2 / Fighting Spirit 3 / Anger 1
Time trial	Stress 4
Strategy	Awe 1 / Satisfaction 3
Simulator	-
Horror Survival	Excitement 1
Role Playing Game	Awe 1 / Jealousy 1 / Satisfaction 1

Brainstorm External Factors

• 'telefoon' = 'telefoon met pauzeren'
• 'internet drop' = 'lagg'
• 'tijdsdruk' = 'eten klaar' = 'afspraak binnen 10 min'
• 'ouders' = 'stofzuigen' = 'familie stoort'

Final list of External factors:

• lag
• irritante communicatie
• server down
• teammate AFK
• medespeler krijgt telefoon
• telefoon als je niet kunt pauzeren
• batterij op
• koude handen
• tijdsdruk
• computer loopt vast
• familie stoort

Combining variables into Relations

Ranking the Relations

• Discussion about whether the relation 'Sport games -> opwinding' is the same as 'Competitive -> opwinding'. Decided that it is so.
• Short discussion about what an 'RPG' and a 'Shooter' really is.

Ranked list of resulting Relations:

rank	formula
1	all games + not being able to pause + being interrupted -> irritation
2	multiplayer game + internet lag -> frustration
3	All games + computer freezes -> frustration
4	competitive games -> excitement
5	competitive games + teammate is away from keyboard -> anger
6	cooperative multiplayers games + irritating comunication -> irritation
7	all games + not being able to pause + battery empty on notebook -> irritation
8	multiplayer games + games server down -> frustration
9	all games + cold hands -> irritation
10	survival horror games -> excitement
11	reward system -> satisfaction
12	time trial games -> stress
13	single player games -> awe
14	competitive games -> fighting spirit

Data analysis

Diverging phase

The overall results are in line with our expectations. During our test workshop we found similar emotions in the first phase. During the second workshop the group came up with seven positive emotions and six negative ones.

The brainstorm of game types resulted in a list that was closely related to the gaming interests of the group. We know this because we asked everybody what types of games they play and this correlates with the resulting game type list.

The brainstorm of external factors was the most remarkable phase. Because we suspected that positive emotions were closely related to winning a game and that losing a game would result in negative emotions. But in the final list of external factors winning and losing were missing. This is probably a result of putting too much emphasis on ‘external’. We told the group that they had to come up with external factors with external meaning that it must not be part of the game itself.

Converging phase

The top three relations most recognizable for the group are:

1) All games + not being able to pause + an external interruption -> irritation

2) Multiplayer games + lag -> frustration

3) All games + computer freezes -> frustration

These three relations all cover negative emotions. If gaming results in so many negative emotions why do we keep playing? First of all, this workshop probably did not unveil the actual emotions during gaming but only the ones that people can still remember. And maybe negative emotions stick better in our brain. Or maybe negative emotions are experienced stronger because we play games to get positive emotions and relaxed. But when we get frustrated our initial goal of playing video games is not achieved. So we keep playing to get to that positive state but we rarely get there. But these are all speculations; more research has to be done on this area to come up with solid evidence.

What is also logical is that emotions and factors that occur with all games are ranked higher. Because these emotions are occurring more often the ranking will be higher.

Reflection

After completing the workshop we figured out we should have done the following things better:

• During the workshop the facilitator has the most important role. He or she can make or break the whole workshop. The hardest thing is to decide when to cut off a discussion and when to let one going because it might lead to something interesting. This is something that can only be learned by practicing workshops and so our first ‘test workshop’ was of high value. During the workshop it might be hard to keep track of time and planning so it is very convenient if there is a ‘time keeper’ who makes sure that things go as planned. Next to the time keeper it is important to have someone make notes of important decisions that are made during the workshop. Because not everything is determined before the workshop and most of the process is done by the participants the workshop is very dynamic and outcomes are hard to predict. We used one person to make notes but writing down all the decisions was very hard as sometimes multiple decisions were made in one minute. In future workshops it is recommendable to think of a way to efficiently take notes or use more people taking notes to ensure that you won’t miss important decisions.

• When forming the final relations of the emotions, gametypes and external factors things got a bit messy and chaotic. After a while we switched to the voting system as described in 'Second Phase (conversion)'. We should have done this from the beginning.

• We should have used a better quality Post-its (or duct-tape) because they kept falling off the whiteboard.

Background information

• Craig A. Anderson & Melissa Morrow 1995, Competitive Aggression without Interaction: Effects of Competitive Versus Cooperative Instructions on Aggressive Behavior in Video Games, Pers Soc Psychol Bull, volume 21 number 10, 12 pages (link)
  
• Mike Schmierbach 2010, "Killing spree": Exploring the Connection Between Competitive Game Play and Aggressive Cognition, Communication Research, volume 37 number 2, 20 pages (link)