Research Thesis in Human Factors - Bentley University, MA
Supervisor: Prof. Gary David, Ph.D.
Examining the Role and Journey of Women in Collaborative Core Gaming: A Comparative Study Between Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games (MMORPGs) and Fantasy Role Playing Tabletop Games
Inspired by the continual transition and controversial nature of the gaming culture, this study is a comparative inquiry into the online and the tabletop gaming culture from the perspective of women gamers to find out how critical differences between the two spaces mark their experience while they practice the games they love. It is written as a comparative narrative between online and tabletop data collected from Dungeons & Dragons and World of Warcraft.
For this study, I conducted a 9-months ethnographic study, looking at female gamers and their gaming communities in World of Warcraft and Dungeons & Dragons. I collected both qualitative and quantitative data, stemming from over 100 hours of field observations and little over 300 data points from surveys and 1:1 interviews. I had a three-fold approach to this research:
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Unstructured Interviews
Approximately 4 hours of conversation relating to the diversity and the demographics of their community, factors, and motivators for gameplay, social hurdles, and challenges
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Semi-structured survey
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301 Qualified mixed gender participants coming from twenty-three online and offline sources
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36% women, 61% males, 3% non-conforming gender.
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26 Questions focused on player and community demographics, playstyle and gaming motivators, personal and social hurdles and challenges.
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Auto-Ethnography
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4 Hours of Auto-Ethnography in World of Warcraft, doing sequential raiding which is similar in mechanics with a game of Dungeons & Dragons
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4 Hours of playing Dungeons & Dragons in both public and private communities
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First, I deconstructed the mechanics I experienced and selected ten for each game.
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Then, I identified the emotional feedback to each of the ten mechanics according to Desmet’s Emotional Framework (2003): Instrumental, Surprise, Interest, Aesthetic and Socio-Emotional
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Third, I used Scherer (2005) emotional taxonomy to measure the intensity and the valence of each emotion through direct scaling on a five-point scale
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Finally, I placed the data on a pleasure-arousal grid and looked at research in the field of psychology for findings that overlapped my emotional mapping.
Figure from the research: The emotional reactions identified during similar game mechanics, in Dungeons & Dragons (Orange) and World of Warcraft (Blue), mapped on the Pleasure-Arousal. The moods (Black) serve as a baseline for interpretation.
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Ethnographic Field Work
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30 Hours of ethnographic observations in D&D and PathfinderRPG in private and public settings
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Digital Ethnography
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50 Hours of digital ethnography on the Magtheridon EU Server for World of Warcraft.
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For discussion and analysis of findings, I used as a baseline, Oldenburg’s Framework for a “Third Place”, after home and work.
The thesis, in its entirety, is designed to offer perspective over the online and tabletop gaming space as it is viewed and experienced by women. It also gives insights into the relationships women develop with the community, but also with themselves as they are given the opportunity to recreate a new identity in a virtual world, open to exploration.
This paper probes into the virtual reality (VR) design framework published by industry stakeholders and compares it to the experience design of the flagship launching game of PlayStation VR: Batman: Arkham VR. Aligned with observational and qualitative data collected from players, the purpose of the assessment is to evaluate the degree to which the design framework contributes to an immersive storyline and conveys a compelling experience.
The paper makes the distinction between two case-relevant elements of the VR design framework. The first design element is the overall user experience (UX). I focus on principles which reflect the overall quality of the experience translated into the user derived value, covering both interfaces and interactions.
BatmanVR – A Usability Case Study to Support Design Reflections on Compelling Virtual Reality Environments
Research Paper
The second design element is the user interactions (UI). More specifically, in the case of BatmanVR, UI revolves around gesture-based interactions. The goal of this paper is to evaluate to what extent a publicly acclaimed VR product delivers consumer value, due to its overlapped design choices with UI and UX emerging industry standards and not to a fleeting mainstream hype.
The conclusions summarize valuable takeaways for both theory and practice, for future gaming iterations, as well as insights for cross-industry development.