Process
Embarking on a semester of video game research, we faced
three challenges:
- Our team is not made up of gamers.
- We were writing a paper as a group of 5 people.
- Our scope was enormous.
Our team is not made up of gamers.
Our team has the unique challenge that none of us entered
this project as “gamers.” However, we found
this to be an exciting opportunity to learn and apply our
own unique perspectives to the medium.
Playing games
We played many games both individually and together as a
group. Always, we analyzed, critiqued and discussed the
games from a number of perspectives. For example, we looked
at point of view and camera angle; we talked about linearity
both in story and in gameplay; and we compared reward structures.
Talking to gamers
Both through larger surveys of our ETC classmates and one-on-one
conversations and discussions, we took advantage of the
huge gamer resource at the ETC, using the experiences of
our peers to supplement our own game playing.
Research
We also spent time reading about games to get other perspectives
on the games we were playing and to get a better general
sense of the games we weren't able to play ourselves. Gamespot,
Gamasutra, Gamespy, Mobygames, and many other game related
websites became familiar to us as perspectives to draw on.
Talking to game designers during our trip to EA also gave
us a good sense of games from another perspective as well.
Strength of being non-gamers
Ultimately, being non-gamers (at least, non-hard-core gamers)
turned out to be a strength. We were able to bring our outside
perspective (that of art/drama) to bear on the subject of
emotions and characters in games.
We were writing a paper as a group of 5 people.
Working in a 5 person team is tough, but trying to write
a paper together (as opposed to just having one person write
it) is even tougher. We found some ways to make it work,
and in the end, our paper is stronger than it could have
been if any one of us wrote it alone.
Communication
Throughout the research, brainstorming and writing portions
of our project, communication was critical. We held frequent
meetings to be sure to stay on the same page. In addition,
we made use of online tools such as a message board to post
research and thoughts and email to stay in more immediate
contact.
Managing time together and apart
Once the research and brainstorming was done, we had to
do enough work together that we stayed on the same path,
but we had to split up work so that we could get more done
when not meeting. We utilized a process in which we'd generate
an outline together, then email to each other, each fleshing
it out as we got it. Then, we'd meet again to refine and
edit the outline. We then repeated the process until we
had an detainled outline with which we were happy. The outline
was then transformed into paper form, at which point we
passed it around adding bits and pieces. Again, we read
it together, commenting on points. We divided up the paper
and each rewrote a section based on the groups comments.
From there it was another iteration of editing. Eventually,
we got to the point were one group member edited the paper
for voice and style. This process, though at times arduous,
proved to be successful, as we all got to write and edit
most of the paper.
We are greater than the sum of our parts
Though the process was difficult, we firmly believe that
we wrote a paper that could not have been written by any
one of us. Our constant discussion and editing raised the
level of discourse immeasurably.
Our scope was enormous.
Though our scope was enormous, the journey we took was
necessary to make the observations and form the ideas that
we ended up with. By the end of the project, we recognized
that we could not have gone into the depth that we had imagined
at the outset. There were too many ideas to find and too
many connections to be made to focus on depth immediately.
Expanding the scope first
Though it may sound counter-intuitive, the first thing we
did was to expand our scope to include video games in general,
not just online games. We had to do this to get a handle
on the interactive medium before we could say anything about
why we were researching online games to begin with.
Narrowing down
Eventually, though we had explored many topics relating
to games, we had to narrow our focus. Our trip to Electronic
Arts greatly facilitated our narrowing process, by giving
us ideas as to what would be useful information for game
desigers.
Another helpful exercise in narrowing our topic was brainstorming
as much as possible about the art of games, all of the ideas
we had had while discussing different perspectives on games.
Once we had all of those ideas out, we were able to hone
in on the ones that were novel and fresh. We wanted to bring
something new to the study of game design, and this process
allowed us a better chance at that.
Sparks
Prof. Jesse Schell summed up our scope issue in an analogy:
we are throwing out the sparks of our ideas. Fanning specific
sparks into fires (deeper, more fully fledged ideas) is
something that we are leaving for another time. Each of
us will take sparks from the paper and turn them into papers
and articles for publication in the coming semester. In
addition, we will bring these sparks to EA in January to
hopefully light a fire in the minds of the designers there.
Finally, we view the core idea of our paper, connecting
improv and MMOGs, as a fire in and of itself. At the same
time, this idea too contains many sparks, many areas that
could be enlarged and expanded upon in the future. We see
our work as opening a door to a lot of potential work both
in the research arena and in the game production arena.
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