The document discusses the concept of Player Experience (PX) in games, emphasizing the need for a framework to evaluate it due to its complexity and the influence of various factors like context, emotional states, and time. PX is defined as the culmination of a player's feelings and perceptions before, during, and after gameplay, diverging from traditional user experience metrics used in productivity tools. It suggests that understanding and optimizing PX is crucial for game design, with an emphasis on the roles of both designers and players in shaping the experience.

1. Towards a PX frameworkAnders Drachen, Lennart Nacke

2. ContentWhat is UX and PX? Games: not productivitytoolsTowardsa PX framework?

3. BackgroundUser experience in games is gaining momentum (or no EPEX11)Pastdecade a ton of new research and industry attentionResearch touches upon a number of fields(HCI, CS, Neuroscience, Media, Psychology, AI, Informatics, Data Mining,Physiologyetc.)

4. What is PX?Terminology? (non-existent)Player Experience – User Experience in Games – GameplayExperience – Game Experience– Play Experience….Let´splease just agree on something – anything!Here weuseplayexperience

5. What is PX?PX is somethingthatoccursbefore, during and afterweplay games … Most interest in the ”during” - PX in runtime:Wowthis is cool!I´mbored …S¤&% run! Run! Run!Mhmmm … night elves …… deepconcentration …

6. What is PX?ISO 9241-210 defines user experience as:"a person's perceptions and responses that result from the use or anticipated use of a product, system or service". User experience is subjective and focused on the use of something.

7. What is PX?Additional ISO notes:User experience includes all the users' emotions, beliefs, preferences, perceptions, physical and psychological responses, behaviors and accomplishments that occur before, during and after use -> temporal factor. Three factors that influence user experience: system properties, user stateand the contextofuse.

8. What is PX?RIFTExample: John is playing RIFT in a net café - whataffects his PX?Context: The physical properties of the caféSocial: The influence of otherpeople present physically and those in the RIFT environmentJohn

9. What is PX?Temporal: the durationfoplay and whenheplays, constraints on time (10 minutes to server maintenance…)Infrastructural: Server breakdowns, networkoutagesTask: The specifictask of playing RIFT is an example of a two-waytaskSystem: The RIFT GUI, game system and the cafés hosting system

10. What is PX?The sum of experiences:Using oneaspect of RIFT willimpact on the experience of otheraspects.The overall PX is not just a sum of small experiences – someenhanceeachother, someare more important to John, etc. PX is the end result of all of theseincluences = emotionalstateand attitudes of the user (towards RIFT)(often at a given point in time, e.g. after a playtest).

11. What is PX?But wait, there is more!:Aspectsoutside the specificinteractionperiodpotentiallyimportant: Brand recognition, pricing, peer opinions, etc. Oftenresearch focus on:PX duringinteraction (emotion evaluation)long-term/episoidicPX (attitudes)Methods to evaluatethese temporal levelsvary – as do design approaches

12. What is PX?That is a lot of things to considerwhenplaytesting or evaluating a game!And now it get´sworse …Games aredifferentbeaststhanproductivityapplications: PX is king. PX optimized, complex,time

13. How are games different?PX optimizedFocus on entertainment, not productivity (usability)Everyaspect of a game must be made to optimize PXUsabilitylikelyassists PX

14. How are games different?ComplexityContemporarycommercial games canbemassivelycomplexpieces of software Thousandsof potential user actionsUsers canevenchange games! (modding)

15. How are games different?TimeThe temporal dimension is central, both for design and assessment – measures of PX areheavilyinfluenced by the temporal dimension

16. Towards a PX frameworkThe challenge is clear – how to proceed?

17. Towards a PX frameworkKnowledge from UX, UX design and usabilityTheoreticalmodelsof PX– none areinclusive of all aspectsEmpirical research – hard data on PX - but situation-specific

18. Towards a PX frameworkGet the piecesorganized …Important dimensions:TimeAbstractionAgents

19. Towards a PX frameworkTwo important agents in play:Designer creates the game with the intent of creating an experiencePlayer interacts with the game and experiences something, but framed in the context of use etc.

20. Towards a PX framework3 levels of abstraction:System: Concretelygraspable and technical game system experiencePlayer: Individualplayerexperiencethatinfluences and is influenced by the perceptive and operational actions of the playerContext: Processedexperience. Abstract experiencelevel, shaped by the playerinteracting with others, technologies, brands, etc.

21. Towards a PX frameworkTimeoperatesat all levels of abstractionPastexperiencesinfluence the present Currentexperiencesinfluence the future

22. Towards a PX frameworkAssemblingthe dimensions

23. Towards a PX frameworkAnd westill have not talkedabout the actualElements of PX (emotions,attitudes , flow, etc.)EngagementFunFlowChallengeEmotionAttitudes…

24. Thank you