Elaborating Eight Elements of Fun : Supporting Design of Pervasive Player Enjoyment

• This paper presents the validation of the Pervasive GameFlow model (PGF), a model for analysing Player enjoyment in Pervasive gaming. The model can be used as both a heuristic guideline for designers and as evaluation criteria in user centred evaluation of Pervasive games, but also as a framework for understanding player experiences in Pervasive gaming on a more general level. The theoretical background and perspective on game design and the design support approach that the PGF model represents is explained, and the concept of the magic circle is discussed. The eight elements of the PGF model (Concentration, Challenge, Player skills, Control, Clear goals, Feedback, Immersion and Social interaction) were validated by evaluation of a Crossmedia game prototype (a sub genre of Pervasive games) called Furiae. The comparative importance of the eight elements in the PGF model when it comes to affecting Pervasive gaming experiences was in focus for the evaluation, where Questionnaires (qualitative) and Focus group interviews were used in order to capture how the players graded the eight elements in terms of their importance for the player experience when playing Furiae. The study revealed that seven of eight elements seem to be of specific importance as they scored relatively high in the validation. The top three elements according to the results here are Concentration (Games should require concentration and the player should be able to concentrate on the game), Challenge (Games should be sufficiently challenging and match the player’s skill level) and Immersion (Players should experience deep but effortless involvement in the game). Finally, some implications for design are discussed in terms of how some of the most important elements present challenges and possibilities for Crossmedia game development.

Ämnesord

NATURVETENSKAP  -- Data- och informationsvetenskap -- Systemvetenskap, informationssystem och informatik (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Computer and Information Sciences -- Information Systems (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

Pervasive Games

Playability

GamePlay

Informatics

Informatik

människa-datorinteraktion

människa-datorinteraktion

Publikations- och innehållstyp

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