1. The gamer experience: investigating
relationships between culture and usability of
Massively Multiplayer Online Games
Authors: Dr. Panagiotis Zaharias
Dr. Anthony Papargyris
Presented at University of Cyprus
5/3/2010

2. Α preliminary discussion...
• User Experience is a consequence of users’
internal state, characteristics of the designed
system and the context of use
• Impact of culture is of great importance while
understanding user experience
• The increasing use of global systems in different
cultural contexts and observations that different
people think in different ways, put forth the issue
of the degree to which the use of such systems is
really a matter of culture.

3. Α preliminary discussion...
• Early days:
– HCI research focus on the instrumental quality of
interactive products/systems
– Traditional view of usability: task is the pivotal point of
user-centered design techniques
• Emergence of User Experience: beyond the
instrumental
– a broad term related with a wide variety of meanings
ranging from traditional usability to beauty, hedonic
and affective aspects of technology use
– Towards a more holistic and positive HCI
– Focus on creating positive emotional outcomes such as
joy, fun, pride, intrinsic motivation etc., rather than just
preventing usability problems

4. MMOGs
• Massively Multiplayer Online Games (MMOGs)
represent a new genre in the online games industry
• MMOGs present virtual worlds with an embedded
task-accomplishing scenario (i.e. missions) where
participants can engage in cooperative or ‘solo’
practices.
– the game’s virtual world is active almost 24/7 and
available for a gamer to enter and interact
– Most commercial MMOGs require a monthly
subscription and gamers assume the role of a fictional
character, named as avatar or character
– there are hundreds commercial MMOGs released and
many others in the stage of development or beta testing.

5. The concept of culture
• Culture is “always a collective phenomenon, because it is
at least partly shared with people who live or lived within
the same social environment, which is where it is learned.
It is the collective programming of the mind that
distinguishes the members of one group or category of
people from another” (Hofstede, 1980)
• Socially shared meanings may be grounded in language,
geographical proximity and history at the boundaries of
the nation-state shared by people who live or have lived
within the same social environment (Hofstede, 1980).
– These shared qualities may include common norms,
beliefs, and values as well as particular ways of
categorizing shared experiences.

6. The concept of culture
• Theories and models focus on some aspects or
dimensions of culture
• Hofstede’s model supports that world cultures
vary along consistent, fundamental dimensions
• Dimensional models group together a number of
phenomena in a society, which were empirically
found to occur in combination into dimensions.

7. Hofstede’s cultural dimensions
• Power-distance: this dimension refers to the extent to
which less powerful members expect and accept
unequal power distribution within a culture.
• Collectivism vs. individualism: individualism
pertains to societies in which the ties between
individuals are loose and every one is expected to
look after himself or herself and his or her immediate
family. Collectivism pertains to societies in which
people from birth onwards are integrated into strong,
cohesive in-groups.

8. Hofstede’s cultural dimensions
• Femininity vs. masculinity: femininity pertains
to societies in which the gender roles overlap
while masculinity pertains to societies in which
the gender roles are clearly distinct
• Uncertainty avoidance: this dimension refers to
the extent to which the members of the culture feel
threatened by uncertain or unknown situations
• And a fifth dimension: long vs. short-term
orientation. This dimension focuses on the degree
the society embraces devotion to traditional values
and to forward thinking values (Hofstede & Bond,
1988)

9. Culture, interface design and usability
• HCI research focus on culture as a potentially
important factor that can affect user performance
and satisfaction (and other emotional states)
toward an interface
• Two research streams: one focuses on culture
effects on Information Technology design (web
design, cell phones design etc.) while the other
investigates how culture affects the perception and
application of several usability evaluation
methods.

10. Research questions
What is the relationship between the cultural
variables and the usability of the game?
– What is the relationship between Power Distance and
the usability of the game?
– What is the relationship between Individualism and
Collectivism and the usability of the game?
– What is the relationship between
Femininity/Masculinity and the usability of the game?
– What is the relationship between Uncertainty
Avoidance and the usability of the game?

11. Context of the study
• EVE Online
(http://play.eveonline.com/en/home.aspx )
– Released on May 2003 by Crowd Control
Production (CCP) - 250,000 gamers
– The virtual world of EVE is located in a distant
galaxy, with over 5,000 solar systems.
– Characters are represented in EVE as spaceship
pilots

12. Design characteristics of EVE
• EVE design is based on a multiple window
application following the MS Windows style of
interaction and controls.
• Users mainly rely on the use of the mouse to
interact with other objects and control various
aspects of the game.
– Almost every object is clickable and a drop down menu
lists the actions a gamer can perform on it. There are
two main interface schemes that a gamer can
experience. One while she/he pilots a spaceship in
space and one when she/he is docked inside a station

13. (1) Neocom
toolbar
(2) The Ship
Control Panel
(3) The Overview
scanner
(4) Space
environment
outside the
spaceship
(5) Locked
objects
(6) Chat windows
(7) A clock plus any minimized windows

14. Instruments
• Two questionnaires were used in this study: the
Gamer Background questionnaire and the
usability questionnaire
• Usability questionnaire was adapted from a
questionnaire-based usability evaluation method,
which was developed to assess e-learning
usability (Zaharias, 2004)
– Usability
measures: Navigation & Control,
Learnability, Accessibility, Consistency, Visual
Design, Interactivity, Content & Resources, Media
Use, Learning Strategies Design, Feedback,
Assessment, Player Guidance & Support, Socialization
and Motivational Usability.

15. Subjects and data collection procedure
• Online questionnaire in English and Greek version
• No specific tasks - Two weeks, 307 gamers
responded from 19 countries worldwide
– Netherlands (15.31%), Canada (14.33%), Greece
(13.36%), Sweden (12.05%), and France (10.10%), etc.
– Most of the gamers were males (98.37%) and adults
(46.91% between 26 and 36 years old and 32.57%
between 36 and 50 years old).
– 51.14% reported playing on an average of three to four
hours per day, while 13.03% more than six hours per
day.
– The majority of the participants were old and
experienced gamers (34.85% one to two year old and
20.20% more that two years old)

16. Analysis & Results

17. Scores of Hofstede’s Cultural Variables for each Country
Countries
PDI
ICI
MFI
UAI
score
Score
score
score
Argentina
49
46
56
86
Australia
36
90
61
51
Austria
11
55
79
70
Canada
39
80
52
48
Denmark
18
74
16
23
Finland
33
63
26
59
France
68
71
43
86
Greece
60
35
57
112
Hong Kong
68
25
57
29
Japan
54
46
95
92
Netherlands
38
80
14
53
New Zealand
22
79
58
49
Norway
31
69
8
50
Portugal
63
27
31
104
Singapore
74
20
48
8
Sweden
31
71
5
29
Switzerland
34
68
70
58
Turkey
66
37
45
85
United Arab Emirates
80
38
53
68

18. Country and participants allocation in relation to cultural variables
Cultural
variables
Countries represented in the study and number of participants representing each
cultural variable
Participants
representing each
cultural variable
LPD
Argentina (1), Australia (20), Austria (12), Canada (44), Finland (10), Denmark (22),
Netherlands (47), New Zealand (8), Norway (10), Sweden (37), Switzerland (9)
220
HPD
United Arab Emirates (1), Turkey (5), Singapore (1), Portugal (6), Japan (1), Hong
Kong (1), Greece (41), France (31)
87
IND
Australia (20), Austria (12), Canada (44), Denmark (22), Finland (10), France (31),
Netherlands (47), New Zealand (8), Norway (10), Sweden (37), Switzerland (9)
250
COLL
Argentina (1), Japan (1), Hong Kong (1), Greece (41), Singapore (1), Portugal (6),
United Arab Emirates (1), Turkey (5)
57
MAS
Argentina (1), Australia (20), Japan (1), Hong Kong (1), Greece (41), Austria (12),
Canada (44), Switzerland (9), United Arab Emirates (1), New Zealand (8)
138
FEM
Denmark (22), Finland (10), France (31), Netherlands (47), Singapore (1), Portugal
(6), Turkey (5), Norway (10), Sweden (37)
169
LUA
Denmark (22), Canada (44), Sweden (37), Singapore (1), Hong Kong (1), New
Zealand (8)
113
HUA
United Arab Emirates (1), Turkey (5), Switzerland (9), Portugal (6), Norway (10),
Netherlands (47), Japan (1), Greece (41), France (31), Argentina (1), Australia (20),
Austria (12), Finland (10)
194

19. Usability ratings of EVE Online

20. Analysis & results
• What is the relationship between Power Distance
and the usability of EVE
– Correlation analyses were performed between each of
the usability variables and the participants’ country
scores for PDI.
– One relationship was found to be statistically significant
(at the .05 level): Power distance had a correlation with
Media Use of r =.119
• What is the relationship between Individualism
and Collectivism and the usability of EVE?
– One relationship was found to be statistically significant
(at the .05 level): Individualism and Collectivism had a
correlation with Feedback of r =.138

21. Analysis & results
• What is the relationship between Masculinity and
Femininity and the usability of EVE?
• Masculinity and Femininity had a correlation
with:
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
Navigation of r = .-178 (significant at the .01 level),
Learnability of r = .-115 (significant at the .05 level),
Consistency of r = .-183 (significant at the .01 level),
Visual Design of r = .-165 (significant at the .01 level),
Interactivity of r = .-133 (significant at the .05 level),
Media Use of r = .-119 (significant at the .05 level),
Feedback of r = .-119 (significant at the .05 level), and
Socialization of r = .-195 (significant at the .01 level)

22. Analysis & results
• What is the relationship between
Uncertainty Avoidance and the usability of
EVE Online?
– One relationship was found to be statistically
significant: Uncertainty Avoidance had a
correlation with Feedback of r = .-152 (at the .
05 level).

23. Analysis & results

24. Design implications
• For instance, regarding the LPD and HPD groups, significant
differences were found for feedback:
– It seems that participants from countries that represent LPD
rated higher on feedback; (gamers’ requests for feedback
from experts i.e., game developers in accomplishing tasks
and solving problems via the game’s communication
channels)
– When people from LPD countries interact with a less
structured and formal Web environment, they usually prefer
shallow hierarchies and do not seek authoritative feedback
and guidance.

25. Design implications
• For example: a Swedish player (LPD) asked for “More
freedom to players!” On the other hand, a Portuguese
gamer (HPD) notes: “Every time me or a corp/guild mate
have a problem, GMs look like robots on their response
and they almost never help . . .”
• Assessment was also rated higher by participants from
feminist-oriented countries
– Assessment refers to opportunities for self-assessment in order to
increase the chances for success and to reach the game’s
objectives. In EVE include try-and-error followed by detailed
analyses of the results based on the game’s mechanics and logic
but also on open discussions with other gamers to find expert
advice
– self-assessment is mainly done in reference to the other gamers;
such mutual exchange of ideas and cooperation is favored by
feminist groups

26. Design implications
• In purely statistical terms, the correlations
are not strong. Nevertheless, they show that
cultural and usability dimensions are
correlated.
– they highlight the need for MMOG designers to
seriously consider the cultural differences that
affect a game’s usability
– some usability aspects such as media use,
feedback, and consistency call for special
design treatment, since they were perceived
differently by heterogeneous cultural groups

27. Limitations and Future Research
• Cultural analysis was completely based on
Hofstede’s cultural dimensions
– A single method was used to assess users’ perceptions
of usability (user survey)
• Further investigation with larger sample sizes and
participants from other countries representing
more diverse cultures would increase the validity
of the findings
• These studies can be more effective if new –more
cultural sensitive- usability evaluation methods
and tools will be employed