Assessing the Components of Skill Necessary for Playing Video Games

Kent L. NormanDepartment of Psychology

Laboratory for Automation Psychology and Decision Processesand the

Human-Computer Interaction Laboratory

Summer Video Game Internsand

Students in Psyc445: The Psychology of Video Games

HCIL Symposium May 23, 2012

Why Video Game Skills?Video games to improve:• Visual skills• Attention skills• Multitasking• Spatial cognition• Creativity• Decision making• Probabilistic inference

Why Video Game Skills?• One fourth of the variability

in the video game performance can be predicted by measuring the volume of certain structures in their brains!

• Video game performance correlated with laparoscopic surgery skills.

• Action video games train the brain to better process certain visual information.

Measuring Video Game Skills?

No reliable, standardized method for assessing the skills involved in playing video games

This project has sought to • develop an easy to use coding procedure for video games • explore its usefulness for both scientific and industry purposes.

Video Game Skills: Study 1

• Skills were discussed and items generated by the participants in a Summer Video Game Internship.

• 24 items were used– Each item stated a skill or ability required for playing a

video game and was associated with a 9-point Likert scale with the end points “Not necessary” and “Very necessary.”

– For each of the following indicate the extent to which the skill or ability is necessary in the game

• Participants entered the name of the game they rated, and additional comments about the game.

• A total of 79 games were rated, several games being rated twice or more.

• A Factor Analysis suggested the following factors:

– Factor 1: Perceptual-Motor Abilities– Factor 2: Cognitive-Verbal Abilities;– Factor 3: Problem-Solving Abilities,– Factor 4: Information Utilization Abilities– Factor 5: Persistence– Factor 6: Human-Human Interaction.

Results: Study 1

Games were clustered by genre to see how the skill profiles differed.

-2 -1 0 +1 +2 Standardized Factor Scores

Study 2• From the comments about games in Study 1, six items were added to the

coding scheme.• Students in Psyc 445 were asked to code 5 games that they were familiar

with.• The study was posted online:

– Game forums – Facebook game pages – Created a Facebook event for friends to participate as well

• About 100 different games were coded.• A total of 335 codings were recorded.

A Factor Analysis revealed 7 factors that could be labeled as:

Motor Coordination

Verbal Understanding

Manage Resources

Observation, Looking Around

Creativity and Problem Solving

Human-Human Interaction

Persistence

Results: Study 2

We choose 6 games that required different skills from among all of the games coded.

– Assassin’s Creed (Action Adventure) – Angry Birds (Puzzle) –Mario Kart (Racing) – Professor Layton (Puzzle Adventure)– Dance Central (Music Rhythm) – Final Fantasy (RPG)

Coordination Verbal Resources Observation Creativity Human-Human Persistence0.00

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AssassinsAngry BirdsDance CentralFinal FantasyMario KartProf Layton

Prof Layton

Final Fantasy

Angry Birds

Results

AssassinsDance Central

Mario Kart

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Assassins Creed

• Observation -- Assessing ones environment and finding the enemy

• Coordination -- Moving the character around

• Resource -- Weapon choice

• Persistence -- Defeating the game

• Verbal: Understanding commands and instructions

Coordination

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*Persistence: refers primarily to the player’s patience to continue through parts of the game that may be difficult or boring. *

*Human-Human interaction: The interaction with other people playing the game (team members or opponents). *

Coordination

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Mario Kart

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Coordination: Steering the kart.Verbal MinimalResources: Selecting karts and characters and managing bombs.Observation: of other racersCreativity: MinimalHuman-Human Interaction: Multi-player competition.Persistence: to finish and win.

Professor Layton

Puzzle/adventure games• Coordination: None. All puzzles are

turn based• Verbal: Puzzles explained with text

instructions• Resources: Must manage hint coins• Observation: Hidden hint coins in the

environment• Creativity: Puzzles require you to

think critically and in unobvious ways• Human-Human: No multiplayer or

human interaction• Persistence: Puzzles are often difficult

Coordinati

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Kinect tracks body movements• Coordination: Have to

follow along (mimic) with the moves in game and dance to the beat

• Observation: Watching dance moves

• Persistence: To get it right.

Dance Central (XBOX 360 Kinect)

Final Fantasy

Games included in survey1. Final fantasy IV2. Final Fantasy VI3. Final Fantasy VII4. Final Fantasy VIII5. Final Fantasy X

Final Fantasy Results

Coordina...

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• Coordination: Minimal.• Verbal/ Comprehension:

Players must be able to read and understand dialogue.

• Observation: Unlike other RPGs it does not require movement in an open world.

• Creativity: Variety of weapons, armor, magic and summon creatures to defeat their enemy.

• Human Interaction: None. It is a single player game.

• Persistence: Requies patience to continue through boring or difficult parts

• Resources: Player manages items ( like potions) through the inventory.

Conclusions

• Profiles of video games reveal great differences in the skill sets necessary to perform well.

• The skill profile of a particular game reveals interesting aspects of the game that can be mapped to game play and features of the game.

Future Development

• Focus more on specific games (diverse genres); more data and therefore more generalizability– Include as a part of game reviews– Help to define game genres

• Implications for application of skills– Learning/improving skills from video games?– Game recommendation by proficiency

All of those who contributed to this work

Summer Video Game InternsUndergraduate and Graduate Research Assistants

Psyc 445 Team 5

Psyc 445 Video Game Class