Björn är kursansvarig för 

Människa-datorinteraktion 7,5 HP

https://utbildning.su.se/utbildning/utbildningskatalog/ib/ib710c

I urval från Stockholms universitets publikationsdatabas

• Vox Populi – A Case Study of User Comments on Contemporary Video Games in Relation to Video Game Heuristics

  2014. Björn Strååt, Harko Verhagen. GameOn 2014, 5-9

  Konferens

  Läs mer om Vox Populi – A Case Study of User Comments on Contemporary Video Games in Relation to Video Game Heuristics

• Analyzing the social dynamics of non-player characters

  2014. Magnus Johansson (et al.). Frontiers in Gaming Simulation, 173-187

  Konferens

  Much of the current research into artificial intelligence (AI) for computer games has been focused on simple actions performed by the characters in games (such as moving between points or shooting at a target, and other simple strategic actions), or on the overarching structure of the game story. However, we claim that these two separate approaches need to be bridged in order to fully realize the potential of enjoyment in computer games. As such, we have explored the middle ground between the individual action and the story – the type of behavior that occurs in a “scene” within the game. To this end we have established a new model for that can be used to discover in what ways a non-player character acts in ways that break the player’s feeling of immersion in the world.

  Läs mer om Analyzing the social dynamics of non-player characters

• Exploring Video Game Retention Mechanics - a Longitudinal Case Study

  Björn Strååt, Harko Verhagen.

  Lasting player engagement is essential for pushing a video game beyond a successful release. While previous research on retention and engagement in games exists, this has mainly focused on general models and factors. Through a longitudinal study of players’ attitude on specific game elements we can in more detail determine how, why and how the appeal of a game changes.

  In this paper, we present a longitudinal study of seven participants who played a newly released game. The participants played freely for 20 hours over five weeks, and were instructed to fill in player diaries at specified times. At the end of this period, the participants were interviewed about their experience. The results show that all participants felt less excited about the game, less inclined to play more, and more bored at the end of the period than at the start. No single satisfactory explanation for this development could be deduced from the data. Instead, this article suggests four retention mechanics that must be adhered to in order to maintain player retention.

  Läs mer om Exploring Video Game Retention Mechanics - a Longitudinal Case Study

• Exploring Video Game Design and Player Retention - a Longitudinal Case Study

  2018. Björn Strååt, Harko Verhagen. Proceedings of the 22nd International Academic Mindtrek Conference, 39-48

  Konferens

  Lasting player engagement is essential for pushing a video game beyond a successful release. While previous research on retention and engagement in games exists, this has mainly focused on general models and factors. Furthermore, we notice a lack of published studies using longitudinal methods to investigate when and why player interest drops off. In this paper we present a longitudinal case study of players' attitude on specific game elements which enabled us to in more detail determine why and how the appeal of a game changes.

  For the case study we selected a AAA game just before release and approached eager participants who wanted to play the game. The seven participants were selected based on interviews and then played freely for 20 hours over five weeks during which they were instructed to fill in player diaries at specified times. At the end of this period, the participants were again interviewed about their experience. The results show that all participants felt less excited about the game, less inclined to play more, and more bored at the end of the period than at the start. No single satisfactory explanation for this development could be deduced from the data. Instead, this article suggests a list of retention breakdown mechanics that were central in this case to maintain player retention. The method to find retention inhibiting factors can be applied as part of the later stages of the development of games to prevent early drop-off.

  Läs mer om Exploring Video Game Design and Player Retention - a Longitudinal Case Study

• Extending Game User Experience - Exploring Player Feedback and Satisfaction: The Birth of the Playsona

  2017. Björn Strååt.

  Avhandling (Dok)

  Video games are experience-based products and user satisfaction is key for their popularity. To design for as strong an experience as possible, game developers incorporate evaluation methods that help to discover their users’ expectations and needs. Despite such efforts, problems still occur with the game design that lower the user experience. To counter these problems, the evaluation methods should be investigated and improved.

  To address this need, I have explored various design tools and user experience theories. Applying these in a game evaluation context, I have analyzed user-created game reviews and conducted longitudinal user interview- and game diary studies in connection to playing a newly released game, in other words different methods to take advantage of users' expectations, opinions, attitudes and experiences. One result of the analysis of the obtained data is a set of “slogans” that illustrate how and why users lose interest in a game. A second result is a method for extracting user attitudes from pre-produced user reviews and how this can be used in game development. Thirdly, I introduce an alternative model, aimed at game user experience development, the Playsona. The Playsona is a lightweight tool that introduces a variant of the Persona-method, specifically for video game design.

  Läs mer om Extending Game User Experience - Exploring Player Feedback and Satisfaction

• Probing User Opinions in an Indirect Way: An Aspect Based Sentiment Analysis of Game Reviews

  2017. Björn Strååt, Harko Verhagen, Henrik Warpefelt. Proceedings of the 21st International Academic Mindtrek Conference, 1-7

  Konferens

  This paper presents a method for gathering and evaluating user attitudes towards previously released video games. A three-part video game franchise was selected, and all user reviews of these games were collected. The most frequently mentioned words of the game were derived from this dataset through word frequency analysis. The words, called “aspects” were then further analyzed through a manual aspect based sentiment analysis. The final analysis show that the rating of user review to a high degree correlate with the sentiment of the aspect in question. This knowledge is valuable for a developer who wishes to learn more about previous games success or failure factors.

  Läs mer om Probing User Opinions in an Indirect Way

• Using User Created Game Reviews for Sentiment Analysis: A Method for Researching User Attitudes

  2017. Björn Strååt, Harko Verhagen. GHITALY 2017: Games-Human Interaction

  Konferens

  This paper presents a method for gathering and evaluating user attitudes towards previously released video games. All user reviews from two video game franchise were collected. The most frequently mentioned words of the games were derived from this dataset through word frequency analysis. The words, called “aspects” were then further analyzed through a manual aspect based sentiment analysis. The final analysis show that the rating of user review to a high degree correlate with the sentiment of the aspect in question, if the data set is large enough. This knowledge is valuable for a developer who wishes to learn more about previous games success or failure factors.

  Läs mer om Using User Created Game Reviews for Sentiment Analysis

• Applying the Two-Factor-Theory to the PLAY Heuristics

  2015. Björn Strååt, Henrik Warpefelt. Proceedings of the 2015 DiGRA International Conference

  Konferens

  It is a common practice to use heuristic evaluations to assess usability and user experience of digital systems. Video games are no exception. Several video game researchers have presented different lists of best practice, design patterns, principles and heuristics over the last decade. The authors of this paper wanted to see if there is an aspect of priority that can be applied to an existing set of video game heuristics and if it is possible to classify the heuristics according to type. This study uses a survey where the participants were asked to classify Desurvire and Wiberg’s (2009) PLAY heuristics according to Herzberg’s theory into either Hygiene Factors or Motivators. The participants were instructed to view Hygiene Factors as essential to ensure functionality for an enjoyable play experience, while Motivators are mostly aimed at polishing the experience. The method used in this study is inspired by a previous work, where web design heuristics were classified in a similar manner. Results show that the method is applicable, and that it yields interesting results. Preliminary results indicate that mainly heuristics that consider usability are perceived as Hygiene Factors while the heuristics classified as Motivators consider other topics, such as storyline and immersion. Interestingly, the PLAY heuristics are evenly split between these two categories.

  Läs mer om Applying the Two-Factor-Theory to the PLAY Heuristics

• Top Versus Bottom: Game Evaluation from an Expert or Player Perspective

  2015. Björn Strååt, Harko Verhagen. Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on the Foundations of Digital Games (FDG 2015)

  Konferens

  In recent years, many video game researchers have developed domain specific heuristics for video games. Heuristic evaluation is a common way to measure software usability, both during development and to assess existing systems. Video games are very different from productivity software in terms of purpose, design and execution, and thus require specially developed heuristics. Heuristics developed for video games can however only guide the game developers, and are in themselves no guarantee of a positive game experience. The questions examined in this paper concern the extent to which heuristics developed by experts can address the issues that the end users – the players – experience. Furthermore, we examine what kinds of design issues are most frequent, and whether these issues are reflected in online user comments. The results show that users focus their criticism on narrative, game graphics and sound rather than the issues that the heuristics involved in this study were designed to counter.

  Läs mer om Top Versus Bottom

• Top-Down Designers vs Bottom-Up Users: limitations of Heuristic Evaluations on Games

  2015. Björn Strååt.

  Avhandling (Lic)

  Heuristic evaluations are a common way to measure software usability, both during development and to assess existing systems. Generic heuristic tools are aimed at productivity software, but many software domains require domain-specific heuristics. Video games are very different from productivity software in terms of purpose, design, and execution, and thus require specially developed heuristics. Heuristics de-veloped for video games can however only guide the game developers, and are in themselves no guaran-tee of a positive game experience. The questions examined in this thesis concern the extent to which heuristics developed by experts can address the issues that the end users - the players - experience. Furthermore, I examine what kinds of design issues are most frequent, and whether these issues are reflected in online critical reviews. The results of the studies suggest that heuristics that assess affordance and meaningful play should be developed. Furthermore, the results show that users focus their criticism on narrative and aesthetics rather than the issues that the heuristics involved in this study were designed to counter.

  Läs mer om Top-Down Designers vs Bottom-Up Users

• Analyzing AI in NPCs: An analysis of twelve games

  2014. Magnus Johansson (et al.). Multiplayer, 85-96

  Kapitel

  In this chapter we analyze the AI in NPCs in different games. In 2 studies we apply and develop a method for analyzing game AI based on a framework developed for classifying social theories and their ontological differences. Using observation during game play and analysis of the video captures of the game play we can see that the main focus of game AI on path finding has paid off but that the social believability of NPC behavior has not developed at all.

  Läs mer om Analyzing AI in NPCs

• Does Game Quality Reflect Heuristic Evaluation? Heuristic Evaluation of Games in Different Quality Strata

  2014. Björn Strååt, Fredrik Rutz, Magnus Johansson. International Journal of Gaming and Computer-Mediated Simulations 6 (4)

  Artikel

  Usability evaluation tools in the form of heuristic lists can be very helpful in software development. In the field of video game design, researchers are continuously developing new heuristic tools aimed specifically at video game productions. However, through previous studies, the authors have found that even though these tools are frequent and common, design issues regularly appear in video games. This study examines whether video game heuristics are able to capture and evaluate softer values of video game interaction, based on the challenges, flow and immersion of gameplay. By conducting a heuristic evaluation on low scoring and high scoring games the authors manage to show which kind of design issues are most frequent in both high and low scoring games. As a further result of the study, two new heuristics are presented.

  Läs mer om Does Game Quality Reflect Heuristic Evaluation? Heuristic Evaluation of Games in Different Quality Strata

• Breaking immersion by creating social unbelievabilty

  2013. Henrik Warpefelt, Björn Strååt.

  Konferens

  For the last 20 years, computer games and virtual worlds have made great advances when it comes to audiovisual fidelity. However, this alone is not sufficient to make the games seem believable -- the game world must also seem to be alive. In order to accomplish this, the world must be populated by realistic characters who behave in a coherent and varied way. Many game developers seem to realize this, and the capacity of the artificial intelligence controlled non-player characters in the games are often large selling points. However, as pointed out by recent research these opponents do not always exhibit realistic, coherent and varied behaviour. We have examined this phenomenon by analysing a number of games where non-player characters are especially important for the players' enjoyment, and established six anti-heuristics that can be used to identify non-desirable behaviour in non-player characters.

  Läs mer om Breaking immersion by creating social unbelievabilty

• Evaluating Game Heuristics for Measuring Player Experience

  2013. Björn Strååt, Magnus Johansson, Henrik Warpefelt. GAME-ON'13 - The 14th International Conference on Intelligent Games and Simulations 2013, 15-19

  Konferens

  Usability evaluation tools in the form of heuristic lists can be very helpful in software development. In recent years, game researchers have developed heuristics aimed at special design issues within computer game design. This article examines if these game heuristics are able to capture and evaluate softer values of computer game interaction, based on the flow, challenges and immersion of game play. The authors suggest that these softer values should be called Gameworld Interaction. An analysis of the existing game heuristics was made, resulting in a Net Heuristic list, which was then tested on a single game. The result showed both a possible gap in the heuristics, and that even though the game design did adhere to the heuristics, problems still occurred.

  Läs mer om Evaluating Game Heuristics for Measuring Player Experience

• A method for comparing NPC social ability

  2012. Henrik Warpefelt, Björn Strååt.

  Konferens

  The main focus of game developers has for a long time been the audiovisual fidelity of the games, but some researchers claim that artificial intelligence (AI) will be the next step in improving the player experience in games. However, there is as of yet a lack of ways of measuring comparing the believability of non-player character (NPC) behavior in games. In order to rectify this we present a method which can be used to create a typology of NPC behavior believability. Our method uses the Carley & Newell fractionation matrix to describe how advanced the behavior of a game’s NPCs is. This is then recorded in a format that can be compared by simple logic operations.

  Läs mer om A method for comparing NPC social ability

• Designing Interaction in Interaction Design: Using interactionarires in order to understand student use of interaction design concepts

  2012. Henrik Artman (et al.). Designs for Learning 2012, 14-16

  Konferens

  Interaction design is about designing interaction. But how do first year students of interaction design understand and use concepts of interaction in their design processes? By interaction analysis of video material we analyse how students used concepts adhering to interaction. The aspect most frequently used was interactivity. Interaction was mainly handled by using spoken language. While working with physical materials, talk about interaction decreased.

  Läs mer om Designing Interaction in Interaction Design

• Just because you´re paranoid, doesn´t mean they aren´t after you: Meaningful distrust and game design patterns- a study of 4 games

  2024. Magnus Johansson, Björn Strååt, Harko Henricus Verhagen. Proceedings of the 27th International Academic Mindtrek Conference, 1-11

  Konferens

  This paper introduces the design intent “meaningful distrust” by analyzing existing gameplay design patterns and complementary theories from the social sciences. To explore meaningful distrust as a design intent, we have analyzed 4 very different games to see what relations and combinations of gameplay design patterns naturally occur, with mappings to relevant theories from the social sciences. This analysis focuses on how the design patterns are combined and how this affects the overall social situation in these games, adding to our understanding of how to design for meaningful distrust.

  Läs mer om Just because you´re paranoid, doesn´t mean they aren´t after you

Visa alla publikationer av Björn Christoffer Strååt vid Stockholms universitet