Ed 333Ruhi Vasanwala-Khan
July 21, 2002
An Inquiry into Effective Acquisition of Video Game Skills –
How Does a Novice Become an Expert Player?
Learning Environment
Across the United States there are households with two, three, and even four video game systems and video games are now one of the most popular pastimes for younger adults. As video games become even more a constant part of our lives, it is important to investigate how they are affecting society. The statistics on who plays video games are astounding. "Video games were a $6 billion industry in 2000 and sales are projected to reach as high as $8 billion in 2001. Over 280 million units were sold in 2000 alone, and it is estimated that 60% of all Americans, or about 145 million people, play video games on a regular basis (childrennow.org)." The recent development and commercial success of next-generation game systems such as the Nintendo Game Cube, which is aimed at young users, and the Microsoft X-box, marketed to adult players, attest to the fact that the market is growing and broadening.
Learning Problem
Studies on video game playing shows that game play can be beneficial. "Studies have found that playing video games can improve children's visual attention skills, their spatial skills, their iconic skills and their computer literacy skills." Also, video game playing can enhance social networks. However, it is common for video game players to separate themselves between those who know how to play games and those who do not know. Fifteen years ago, video games were relatively simple, with a jump function and a run function controlled by an interface with one button and a big joystick- inviting and easy for most users. Now, games are getting more and more complex and a single controller on the most popular game system, the Playstation 2, has three joysticks and 12 buttons. As games get seemingly more and more complex, those unfamiliar with playing video games become even more wary of joining in. Specifically, female players and the elderly have remained isolated from the gaming community. This has is a problem for video game companies that want to sell more games. Thus, companies want to know how they can design video games to help new game players learn how to play and thus feel confident playing these new complicated games.
Design Principles – A Behaviorist Approach
Our proposal will apply the behaviorist theory approach to learning in order to heighten the rate of success for a high score by every girl that may have dreamed of beating her boyfriend at his favorite video game or by any other person to win in general. We believe that many novice video game players lack repeatable and structured practice, which often form the core skills required in mastering video games. The behaviorist approach contains three categories of focus that can help to accelerate the acquisition of high scores on a variety of video games.
First, in designing a learning environment, the B1 (routines of activity for effective transmission of knowledge), B2 (clear goals, feedback, and reinforcement), and B3 (individualization with technologies) components are leveraged. These components promote activities that are highly organized and structured in order to optimize acquisition of information and routine skill. One way to keep an environment structured is to have explicit instructional goals, specify the procedures, the information to be learned, and the manner in which to learn that information. It is vital that people have learned the prerequisites for each new component. Immediate and detailed feedback should also be provided to all the persons to acknowledge which items they have learned and which items still need attention. Technology may also be used in this learning environment to support individualized training and practice sequence. There are many aspects of video games that follow each of these principles. Each video game is organized so that the player may only perform specific actions in order to increase their score with out getting “killed.” Each player knows that their goal is to increase their score by beating their opponents. There are many actions a player may take to increase their score, so in this case there is no specific procedure. In order to become an expert gamer, one must master a number of prerequisites both specific to the game as well as in general to video games. One feature that is common to most video games is the immediate feedback. Players know at all times if they are beating or being beaten by an opponent. The player knows when their player dies and how much time they have left to play the game. At the end, the video game will announce the winner and their points.
Next, when formulating curricula, the B4 (sequences of component-to-composite skills) component is applied. This component states that when facilitating, it is best to proceed from simple components or familiar knowledge to more complex components. Formulating curricula should be treated as building blocks where new knowledge is an expansion of something already learned. The first time playing, the novice should concentrate on mastering the joystick that controls the direction the player may move. Once the novice is comfortable with this move he can learn the button to “fire” and then “jump.” With repeat practice building on previously learned skills the novice will soon be able to use the joystick’s entire features with full command.
Lastly, to construct assessment, the B5 (assessment of knowledge components) component is used. The performance will be assessed on routine information and skill. The results of the following tests may also be used for predicting other performance that can be measured objectively. After each game a score will tell the players what performance level they have achieved compared to their opponents.
So, by applying the behaviorist learning design principles, a learning environment that focuses on enhancing initial understanding, creating a curriculum that cultivates understanding in a sequential, yet generalized manner, and assess individual components of understanding is created. This environment, in turn, will allow novice video game players to build on previously learned material in order to attain a higher level of play.
Study
In order to determine a solution to our learning problem, we performed an investigative study into the video game learning environment. Specifically, we looked at how well current software enables a non-gamer to pick up a controller and become a proficient gamer. We expected that software that does not follow the described design principles will not help a novice gamer gain gaming abilities and thus will not promote gaming to users.
Design
Participants
As a user in our study, we wanted someone with very little prior gaming experience and no substantial skills at the newest generation of games. For the participant, we selected a 35 year-old female user, to whom we will refer as “Huri Savanwala” to protect her privacy. We employed two experienced, attractive, genius, talented gamers as confederates in this study. All participants received “Cool Ranch” potato chips and granola bars as compensation.
Setting
The study took place on a couch in the living room of a Stanford University graduate student apartment. Various foodstuffs and magazines were scattered throughout the apartment to build authenticity of the environment.
Duration
The study was comprised of two 60-minute sessions of multi-player gaming one week apart.
Design of the Medium
We were interested in observing characteristics of a game and how the behaviorist design principles are employed or ignored. We analyzed the design components of the most popular Nintendo game on the market- Super Smash Brothers Melee. This game is a mix between fighting games and puzzle games in which the goal is to control your character for one minute on a small level and attempt to “knockout” the other players more than they “knockout” you. This includes beating them up until they fly off the screen or knocking them off ledges into the abyss.
We hypothesized that the hierarchy of skills this game would be:
Super Smash Brothers Melee Hierarchy of Skills
- Ability to and knowledge of how to Grasp controller
- Press buttons and move control stick
- Move a character using the controller
- Jump
- Double-jump and move at same time
- Attack using the A button
- Special move button
- Combine buttons with the control stick for powerful moves
- Combine control and attack
- Use defensive techniques (shield and dodge)
- Timing for combination attacks
- Learn appropriate use of previous techniques
- Mastery of the game
The game manual goes over the connection between what buttons go with what moves and gives mastery tips and goals, but true mastery of the game’s techniques requires clear understanding of how to play, lots of in-game practice, and motivation to learn more advanced skills.
Super Smash Brothers Melee clearly outlines the goals of how to play for the novice. On startup, the game goes through to model all the moves that players can do and the game immediately goes into a tutorial-style mode. The novice can simply sit back on the couch with a drink and learn what his or her goals are.
If a learner is to acquire advanced gaming skills, careful attention must be paid to learning prerequisite skills. Once the novice begins to play the game, tutorial modes allow the user to slowly build facility with the game play through guided practice. Beginner modes enable a learner to gain ability with one move at a time and gradually help the learner learn more moves and combinations. There are functions for playing with only a single button enabled so the learner concentrates on the basics. There are also tutorials that help the player practice moves in the proper hierarchical fashion. For instance- when a player is learning how to jump-attack, the player is directed to attack a target and must determine how to reach and attack the target. Whenever the player jumps correctly in the right direction or style, the target will explode and will clearly indicate that that particular way of jumping has been mastered then, the user must destroy another, more complicated target.
Feedback to encourage building of more advanced skills is plentiful throughout game play. Scores are shown prominently on the bottom of the screen to help you compare your abilities to your opponents’. This comparison is meant to motivate the player to increase his or her score by beating the other players up and by avoiding injury. Both these goals can only be accomplished by attempting more powerful and more difficult moves. The controller also provides feedback to the player by “rumbling”, or vibrating in the player’s hands whenever he or she gets hit (similar to Pavlov’s bells or an electric shock). This negative reinforcement for getting hit builds an interest in avoiding attacks and encourages skill development.
Another type of feedback that this game provided was a log of skills. The user can easily determine how frequently he or she has used a type of attack, how much pain “friends” have inflicted upon him or her, how much damage he or she has dished out to friends, and all manner of other statistics. By providing these summaries, a player can see what skills he or she is proficient in and what skills to work on.
Assessment
While Huri had some prior experience playing video games, her gaming skills were completely non-existent. She was initially afraid to play the video games at all, but with extrinsic motivation from the two charming confederates, she sat down on the couch to play.
We collected data on observable characteristics of Huri’s game play. We noted qualitative data on her motivation and attitude, how her skill progression followed the hierarchy, and recorded quantitative data on her skills. We operationalized her level of ability in game play into four quantitative measures:
SK1: Frequency of successful moves (attack or jump)
SK2: Frequency of failed moves
SK3: Number of unique or special attacks
SK4: Most complicated intended attack successfully employed
First Gaming Session
Huri quickly learned how to hold the controller by applying prior knowledge with controllers and by following modeling from the confederates. Huri also drew upon her prior knowledge of how to use a controller to move her character and jump by pressing a button.
After she was obliterated by the confederates in the first round, Huri saw the scores and was motivated to do better the next time. She asked how to play the game better and how to do more moves. Thus indicating that the motivation of the scores was working. Huri was very shocked the first time she felt the controller shake when a confederate’s character’s sword plunged into her character’s face. She stated that she did not like the shake and we noted that this extrinsic motivation was working. Huri also began to identify with her character on the screen and when Ruhi lost badly, her character began to cry on-screen. Huri felt really badly for that character and wanted to do better next time. Thus, we determined that all motivational tactics embedded into the game were working.
Huri’s skills followed the hierarchy well, except that she learned skill 6 on the hierarchy before skill 5. Thus, we fixed the hierarchy to reflect the fact that the “A” attack button and the double-jump are, in fact, not positive transfer. After practice with no interventions other than motivation, Huri’s abilities were at level 6, or the ability to use the Special move button.
Super Smash Brothers Melee Hierarchy of Skills (REVISED)
- Ability to and knowledge of how to Grasp controller
- Press buttons and move control stick
- Move a character using the controller
- Jump
- Double-jump and move at same time
5. Attack using the A button
- Special move button
- Combine buttons with the control stick for powerful moves
- Combine control and attack
- Use defensive techniques (shield and dodge)
- Timing for combination attacks
- Learn appropriate use of previous techniques
- Mastery of the game
Huri’s performance on SK1 through SK4 established a nice baseline performance for a novice. On average, during each 60 second round, Huri successfully carried out a move 20 times (SK1), failed an intended move 73 times (SK2), used only two unique attacks (SK3), and her most complicated attack was a single button push and a movement in one direction (SK4).
The confederates showed Huri how to find the special tutorial modes and let her do some drill-and-practice learning while they worked on a really long Behaviorist study paper. After they completed the majority of the paper and Huri completed all of the training modules, they each left the apartment until the next week.
Second Gaming Session
One week later, Huri was invited back to the apartment for the follow-up session. The gaming carried on in the same manner as before and data was recorded.
Her motivation continued to be influenced by the scores and the buzzing controller. In fact, as her score approached the confederates’ scores (the confederates were letting her win, of course), her motivation to try moves grew even more.
Huri’s skills increased since the training session. She now approached level 11 on the hierarchy and was learning when to use each of the possible attack techniques.
Huri’s performance on SK1 through SK4 grew immensely since her training session. On average, during each 60 second round, Huri successfully carried out a move 45 times (SK1), failed an intended move only 15 times (SK2), used 7 unique attacks (SK3), and her most complicated attack was a well-timed three button attack while holding the keypad in a direction (SK4). All of these measures increased greatly since Huri’s first game session.
Discussion and Proposed Studies
These findings support the idea that adding behaviorist design principles such as positive and negative reinforcement through scores and buzzing controllers as well as supplying drill-and-practice modes to a video game supports mastery of the game’s hierarchy of skills. However, we realize the external validity of our study is limited because the sample size is only one game. Thus, we propose further study into the design principles of video games. Since we usually need to spend hours going over the details of every move in a game and since beer and pizzas are expensive, we will seek six million more dollars in funding for another three years of constant game play. These studies should help describe in more detail how to build games that will extend beyond the narrow niche of expert, frequent-buyers of video games.