Methodologies for evaluating the playability of mobile games:systematic literature review

Tiivistelmä. The gaming industry has been growing rapidly during the past years due to the interest of the new generations in mobile gaming. To deliver a great experience for the gamers, it is required for the gaming companies to produce games that are challenging but at the same time easy to play. To achieve this, it is required to understand the factors that affect the gaming experience. Playability is a term that is used to understand the usability of a game and its experience. The purpose of this thesis was to understand what is known related to the playability of mobile games and to identify the methodologies that are used by the community to evaluate this phenomenon. To find the answers to these questions, it was performed a systematic literature review (SLR) using the databases Scopus, IEEE Xplore, and Web of Science. After conducting the SLR, 1,390 studies related to the playability of mobile games were found from which 27 were identified as primary studies of this research. From the data collected from the primary studies, there were identified 12 different methodologies that are used for evaluating the playability of mobile games. The methodologies that are most suitable to assess the playability of mobile games are heuristic evaluation and playtesting. Other methodologies can be used for evaluating the playability of mobile games, but they must include a set of heuristics that allows evaluating the playability. The limitations of the research were mentioned, and it was proposed topics for future research of this field. The contribution of this thesis is the summarizing of the current methodologies that are used to understand and evaluate the playability of mobile games. The results of this thesis are valuable for game developers, game designers, and game usability practitioners

Heuristics for evaluating video games: A two-tier set incorporating universal and genre-specific elements

The continued significance of video games in contemporary society has led to the production of many heuristic sets by which the playability of games can be evaluated. These sets encompass a wide range of aims and theoretical perspectives, furthermore, they have been developed via a number of distinct methods. This thesis is the result of a two-stage investigation, the first of which was to identify and extract any heuristics that could be considered as having universal relevance, irrespective of the method or theoretical position by which they were developed. The second stage of the investigation complemented this universal list with genre-specific elements, providing a model by which further information can be added in the future. Comparative analysis was used to extract common principles from a selected body of work, resulting in a list of 19 heuristics. In addition, open and axial coding was applied to data sourced from online game reviews, extracting information relating to the Real-Time Strategy genre. This information was then converted into 25 RTS-specific heuristics and integrated with the set developed in the first stage. The results of this study, therefore, clearly demonstrate the existence of a core set of universal heuristics, and the value of incorporating genre-specific information. The finalised set was presented in the form of a deck of cards, with each face representing information according to two different levels of abstraction, thereby increasing accessibility and facilitating use in different contexts. These cards have been made available in a print-ready format and are included as an appendix

Influence of playability and usability in a mobile human computation game

Human Computation Games (HCGs) are applications that harness human intelligence to generate content using the element of fun. Originating in the Web environment, HCGs have now appeared on mobile devices with the advent of global positioning systems, wireless Internet access and multimedia capabilities. In this research, we study usability and playability factors that influence a mobile HCG, known as Glob, by comparing it with the non-game based mobile content sharing application known as Geo Topic. The applications were evaluated based on satisfaction, ease of use and usefulness aspects of usability, as well as the leisure, social interaction and challenge aspects of playability. Results suggested that Glob scored significantly better in terms of playability for leisure and social interaction. Further, Geo Topic scored significantly better in terms of the ease of use aspect of usability

Exploring Human Computation And Social Computing To Inform The Design Process

Although several standards, recommendations and guidelines have been used to assist designers in their tasks, much of the design choices still rely heavily on the designer's experience. In this work we argue that complex choices about interface elements (e.g. images, icons, sounds) could have the help of the users themselves to inform the designeŕs choices. The paper situates the contribution in the intersection of the human computation and social computing fields, showing a preliminary survey of related work. Moreover, we illustrate the idea with an instantiation of an environment for designers, within the frontiers of human computation and social computing.36774Institute for Systems and Technologies of Information, Control and Communication (INSTICC)Aggarwal, S., CAPTCHAS with a purpose (2012) Human Computation, AAAI Technical Report WS-12- 08, pp. 61-68Von Ahn, L., (2005) Human Computation, , Doctoral Thesis, UMI Order Number: AAI3205378, CMUVon Ahn, L., Games with a purpose (2006) Computer, 39 (6), pp. 92-96. , IEEE Computer SocietyVon Ahn, L., Human computation (2009) DAC'09, , ACMVon Ahn, L., Dabbish, L., Labeling images with a computer game (2004) Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, pp. 319-326. , ACM Press, New YorkVon Ahn, L., Ginosar, S., Kedia, M., Blum, M., Improving image search with phetch (2007) Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Acoustics, Speech, and Signal Processing, , Honolulu, Apr. 15- 20, IEEE Press, New YorkVon Ahn, L., Kedia, M., Blum, M., Verbosity: A game for collecting common-sense knowledge (2007) Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, pp. 75-78. , Montreal, Apr. 22- 27, ACM PressVon Ahn, L., Liu, R., Blum, M., Peekaboom: A game for locating objects in images (2006) Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, pp. 55-64. , ACM Press, New Yorkvon Ahn, L. et al. Carnegie Mellon University (2008)GWAP, , http://www.gwap.com/gwap/, accessed on December 2012Barrington, L., Turnbull, D., O'Malley, D., Lanckriet, G., User-centered design of a social game to tag music (2009) KDD-HCOMP'09, pp. 7-10. , ACMBell, M., Reeves, S., Brown, B., Sherwood, S., MacMillan, D., Ferguson, J., Chalmers, M., Eyespy: Supporting navigation through play (2009) SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '09), pp. 123-132. , ACMBry, F., Wieser, C., Squaring and scripting the ESP game (2012) Technical Report from University of Munich, pp. 1-13. , GermanyCasey, S., Kirman, B., Rowland, D., The gopher game: A social, mobile, locative game with user generated content and peer review (2007) Proceedings of the International Conference on Advances in Computer Entertainment Technology, (ACE '07), pp. 9-16. , ACM, New York, NY, USAChamberlain, J., Kruschwitz, U., Poesio, M., Motivations for participation in socially networked collective intelligence systems (2012) Collective Intelligence - CI2012Dasdan, A., Drome, C., Kolay, S., Thumbs-up: A game for playing to rank search results (2009) WWW2009, pp. 1071-1072Erickson, T., Social computing (2013) Encyclopedia of Human- Computer Interaction, , http://www.interaction-design.org/encyclopedia/social_computing.html, Soegaard, M. and Dam, R. F. (eds.), The, 2nd Ed. Aarhus, Denmark, Available onlineFeng, J., Ni, Y., Dong, J., Wang, Z., Yan, S., Purposive hidden-object-game: Embedding human computation in popular game (2012) IEEE Transactions on Multimedia, 14 (5), pp. 1496-1507. , IEEEGencer, A.E., Güngör, T., Gürer, A., Özsoy, A.S., Input-evaluation: A new mechanism for collecting data using games with a purpose (2012) IEEE Symposium on Computers and Communications (ISCC'12), pp. 239-244. , IEEE Computer SocietyGoh, D.H.-L., Lee, C.S., Chua, A.Y.-K., Do games motivate mobile content sharing? (2010) ICADL 2010, pp. 61-70. , Chowdhury, G. Khoo, C. Hunter, J. (Eds.), LNCS 6102, Springer-VerlagGoh, D.H.-L., Razikin, K., Chua, A.Y.-K., Lee, C.S., Tan, K., Understanding location-based information sharing in a mobile human computation game (2011) IEEE International Conferences on Internet of Things, and Cyber, Physical and Social Computing, pp. 209-216. , IEEEGuy, I., Perer, A., Daniel, T., Greenshpan, O., Turbahn, I., Guess who? Enriching the social graph through a crowdsourcing game (2011) CHI 2011, pp. 1373-1382. , ACMHacker, S., Von Ahn, L., Matchin: Eliciting user preferences with an online game (2009) CHI2009, pp. 1207-1216. , ACMHebecker, R., Ebbert, C., Creation and validation of symbols with purposeful games and online survey (2010) DESIRE '10, pp. 112-120Ho, C.-J., Chang, T.-H., Lee, J.-C., Hsu, J.Y.-J., Chen, K.-T., Kiss kissban: A competitive human computation game for image annotation (2009) KDDHCOMP' 09, pp. 21-24. , ACMHowe, J., Crowdsourcing: Why the power of the crowd is driving the future of business (2008) Crown'2008Hu, C., Bederson, B.B., Resnik, P., Monotrans2: A new human computation system to support monolingual translation (2011) CHI'2011, , ACMIslam, M.T., Nahiduzzaman, K.M., Why, Y.P., Ashraf, G., Learning character design from experts and laymen (2010) International Conference on Cyberworlds, pp. 134-141. , IEEEKleek, M.V., Smith, D.A., Stranders, R., Schraefel, M., Twiage: A game for finding good advice on twitter (2012) CHI2012, pp. 889-898. , ACMKothandapani, S., Goh, D.H.-L., Razikin, K., Influence of playability and usability in a mobile human computation game (2012) 32nd International Conference on Distributed Computing Systems Workshops, pp. 75-78. , IEEE Computer SocietyKrause, M., Takhtamysheva, A., Wittstock, M., Malaka, R., Frontiers of a paradigm - exploring human computation with digital games (2010) KDDHCOMP' 10, pp. 22-25. , ACMKuo, Y., Chiang, K., Chan, C., Lee, J., Wang, R., Shen, E., Hsu, J.Y., Community-based game design: Experiments on social games for commonsense data collection (2009) KDD-HCOMP'09, pp. 15-22. , ACMLaw, E., Von Ahn, L., Input-agreement: A new mechanism for collecting data using human computation games (2009) CHI'09, pp. 1197-1206. , ACMLux, M., Böszörmenyi, L., Müller, A., A social approach to image re-targeting based on an interactive game (2010) USAB 2010, pp. 465-470. , Leitner, G. Hitz, M. Holzinger, A. (Eds.), LNCS 6389, Springer-VerlagMalone, T.W., Laubacher, R., Dellarocas, C.N., (2009) Harnessing Crowds: Mapping the Genome of Collective Intelligence, , MIT Sloan Research Paper 4732-09, MITNagy, B., Acquisition of semantic metadata via an interactive game (2011) Personalized Web - Science, Technologies and Engineering: 9th Spring 2011 PeWe Workshop Proceedings, , http://pewe.fiit.stuba.sk/ontoparty-2010-2011-spring, Bieliková, M. Návrat, P. Barla, M. Tvarožek, J. Eds. Slovak University of Technology, 2011, [Online], Available:Oomen, J., Baltussen, L.B., Limonard, S., Brinkerink, M., Van Ees, A., Aroyo, L., Vervaart, J., Gligorov, R., (2010) Emerging Practices in the Cultural Heritage Domain - Social Tagging of Audiovisual HeritageParameswaran, M., Whinston, A.B., Social computing: An overview (2007) CAIS'2007, 19 (37), pp. 762-780Pearl, L., Steyvers, M., Identifying emotions, intentions, and attitudes in text using a game with a purpose (2010) NAACL HLT́2010 Workshop on Computational Approaches to Analysis and Generation of Emotion in Text, pp. 71-79. , Association for Computational LinguisticsQuinn, A.J., Bederson, B.B., Human computation: A survey and taxonomy of a growing field (2011) CHI'2011, , ACMRomani, R., Baranauskas, M.C.C., GWIDO - games with interaction design objective (2009) International Conference IADIS WWW/Internet, pp. 351-358. , IADISRomani, R., Baranauskas, M.C.C., GWIDO - games with interaction design objective (2010) IADIS International Journal on WWW/Internet, 8 (1), pp. 1-15. , IADISRomani, R., Baranauskas, M.C.C., Helping designers in making choices through games (2012) IHC' 2012, pp. 229-238. , SBCScharl, A., Sabou, M., Föls, M., Climate quiz - A web application for eliciting and validating knowledge from social networks (2012) Web Media'12, pp. 189-192. , ACMShehab, M., Ko, M.N., Touati, H., (2010) Social Networks Profile Mapping Using GamesŠimko, J., Bieliková, M., Games with a purpose: User generated valid metadata for personal archives (2011) Sixth International Workshop on Semantic Media Adaptation and Personalization, pp. 45-50. , IEEEŠimko, J., Tvarožek, M., Bieliková, M., Little search game: Term network acquisition via a human computation game (2011) HT'11, pp. 57-71. , ACMSiorpaes, K., Hepp, M., Games with a purpose for the semantic web (2008) Intelligent Systems, 23 (3), pp. 50-60. , IEEE Computer SocietySteinmayr, B., Wieser, C., Kneißl, F., Bry, F., Karido: A GWAP for telling artworks apart (2011) 16th International Conference on Computer Games, pp. 193-200. , IEEETaktamysheva, A., Krause, M., Smeddinck, J., Serious questionnaires in playful social network applications (2011) ICEC 2011, pp. 436-439. , J. Anacleto et al. (Eds.), LNCS 6972Thaler, S., Simperl, E., Siorpaes, K., (2010) Spot TheLink: A Game for Ontology AlignmentTsai, T.-C., Yang, T.-R., GWAP design for a mobile geo-tagging system with confident verification (2011) 14th IEEE International Conference on Computational Science and Engineering, pp. 302-307. , IEEETuite, K., Snavely, N., Hsiao, D.-Y., Smith, A.M., Popovic, Z., Reconstructing the world in 3D: Bringing games with a purpose outdoors (2010) FDG 2010, pp. 232-239. , ACMTuite, K., Snavely, N., Hsiao, D.-Y., Tabing, N., Popovic, Z., Photo city: Training experts at large-scale image acquisition through a competitive game (2011) CHI2011, pp. 1383-1392. , ACM(2008) The Center for Universal Design, , http://www.ncsu.edu/project/designprojects/udi/, Retrieved: jan, 2013Walsh, G., Golbeck, J., Curator: A game with a purpose for collection recommendation (2010) CHI 2010, pp. 2079-2082. , ACMWang, F.-Y., Zeng, D., Carley, K.M., Mao, W., Social computing: From social informatics to social intelligence (2007) Trends & Controversies, pp. 79-83. , IEEE Computer SocietyWeng, L., Schifanella, R., Menczer, F., Design of social games for collecting reliable semantic annotations (2011) 16 Th International Conference on Computer Games, pp. 185-192. , IEE