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Here All Potential Players Can Play Together, Since a Player’S Disability Van- Ishes Behind the Screen

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Here All Potential Players Can Play Together, Since a Player’S Disability Van- Ishes Behind the Screen 1 Bauhaus-University Weimar Faculty of Media Studiengang Mediensysteme Out of Sight Navigation and Immersion of Blind Players in Text-Based Games Bachelor Thesis Katharina Spiel Student Number 50423 Born 12th of February 1986 in Deggendorf, Germany 1. reviewer: Prof. Dr. Sven Bertel 2. reviewer: Dr. Michael Heron Date of Submission: 10th of September 2012 For Frank Because, man, without you this would never have happened. Contents 1 Introduction 9 1.1 Behind the Scenes . .9 1.2 Research Questions . 11 1.3 On Display . 13 2 Literature Review 14 2.1 Immersion . 14 2.1.1 What is Immersion? . 15 2.1.2 Parameters of Immersion . 17 2.2 Playstyles in (Multiplayer) Interactive Fiction . 21 2.3 Players with Visual Impairment . 22 2.4 Games for Visually Impaired Players . 24 2.5 Perception in Navigation . 26 3 Motivation 31 4 Design of Research 34 4.1 Hypothesis . 34 4.2 Game Setup . 36 4.3 Metrics Used . 39 4.3.1 Time on Task . 39 4.3.2 Audio Recordings . 39 4.3.3 Logs of the Sessions . 40 4.3.4 Questionnaires . 41 4.4 Setup of Pilot Study . 42 2 4.5 Findings of Pilot Study and Modification for Main Study . 43 4.6 Main Study . 48 4.6.1 Setup of Main Study . 48 4.6.2 Participants of Main Study . 48 5 Results of Main Study 49 5.1 Task Report . 49 5.2 Logs . 51 5.3 Audio Data . 54 5.4 Questionnaires . 55 5.4.1 MUD-IF Experience Questionnaire . 55 5.4.2 Out-Of-Game Questionnaire . 55 5.4.3 In-Game Questionnaire . 55 5.4.4 Navigation Questionnaire . 57 5.5 Comments . 60 6 Discussion and Conclusion 62 6.1 Expected vs. Actual Results . 62 6.1.1 Navigation . 63 6.1.2 Immersion . 64 6.2 Applications of Research . 65 6.3 Adequacy of Research . 66 6.4 Limitations of Work . 67 6.5 Future work . 69 A Raw Interviews with Blind MUD-Players 81 A.1 Interview with M, conducted March 9th, 2012 . 81 A.1.1 Additional Talk about Navigation, conducted April 27th, 2012 . 86 A.2 Interview with A, conducted March 11th 2012 . 87 A.3 Interview with C, conducted March 13th, 2012 . 91 B Modifications on the Game Environment 95 B.1 Modifications before Pilot Study . 95 B.2 Modifications after Pilot Study . 96 3 B.2.1 Doors . 96 B.2.2 NPCs . 97 B.3 Commands Changed . 98 C Structure of Further Tests Derived from Pilot Study 99 D Welcome Text 101 E Task Descriptions 102 E.1 Original Quest Description . 102 E.2 Pilot Study . 103 E.3 Main Study . 103 F Questionnaires 104 F.1 Interactive Fiction (IF) and Multi-User-Dungeon (MUD) Experience Questionnaire . 104 F.2 Questionnaires for Pilot-Study . 106 F.3 Questionnaires for Main Study . 111 G Task Report for Main Study 119 H Study Data 120 H.1 Overview of Participants of Pilotstudy . 120 H.2 Statistical Data . 121 H.3 Protocols . 121 H.4 Logs . 122 H.5 Audio Data . 123 H.6 Questionnaires . 125 I Heatmaps 129 J Visualised Audio Data 132 4 List of Figures 2.1 Flow in Psychology . 20 2.2 Playstyles that occur in MUDs . 21 2.3 Allocentric vs. Egocentric . 27 4.1 Illustration of Hypothesis . 35 4.2 Original Layout of the Live Game . 37 4.3 Map of the Test Setup . 37 4.4 ASCII-Map in Original Game . 38 4.5 Overview of Utterances in Pilot Study . 45 5.1 Navigation Learning Curves . 49 5.2 Command Error Rate . 51 5.3 Movement Analysis . 52 5.4 Example Heatmap . 53 5.5 Immersion Values . 56 5.6 Time on Estimation Tasks . 57 5.7 Time on Location Tasks . 58 I.1 BA Heatmap . 129 I.2 BE Heatmap . 130 I.3 SA Heatmap . 130 I.4 SE Heatmap . 131 J.1 Utterances and Transitions – BA . 132 J.2 Utterances and Transitions – BE . 133 5 J.3 Utterances and Transitions – SA . 133 J.4 Utterances and Transitions – SE . 134 6 List of Tables 4.1 Navigation of Blind and Sighted Players . 34 5.1 Group Audio Data - Time Percentages . 54 5.2 Results in Tasks of the Navigation Questionnaire . 59 B.1 Additional Explanation of Commands in Newbie Area . 98 H.1 Participants in the Pilot Study . 120 H.2 Average Age . 121 H.3 Time Intervalls on Tasks . 121 H.4 Log Analysis I . 122 H.5 Log Analysis II . 122 H.6 Audio Logs Time . 123 H.7 Utterances of Speech Categories . 123 H.8 Transitions . 124 H.9 In-Game Questionnaire - Free Answers . 125 H.10 Immersion Questionnaires . 126 H.11 Navigation Questionnaire - Text Answers . 127 H.12 Navigation Questionnaire - Location Tasks . 127 H.13 Navigation Questionnaire - Estimation Tasks . 128 7 Chapter 1 Introduction 1.1 Behind the Scenes If gaming, especially collaborative gaming, is considered as a social interaction, the development of collaborative online games opens up new questions: How can game designers ensure that players with different abilities in their everyday lives interact as equals playing the same game? How do they enhance their game with a potential experience of immersion that appeals to all potential players? Creating an interesting and immersive game without an exclusively visual in- terface requires different methods than developing games that heavily rely on their visual interface. Representation of the game environment works differently, as does navigation in it. Text based online roleplaying games attract blind and sighted play- ers alike. However, these two groups navigate using different approaches in their everyday lives (compare amongst others Loomis et al. 1993 or Noordzij, Zuidhoek, and Postma 2006). Further on this paper also attempts to assess whether different navigation systems influence the immersive quality of a game and how this relates to their everyday experiences. Blind players of text based games say that they use this form of gaming to experience sensual feedback that they do not have in their everyday interactions with their environment: 8 "I’m playing to be sighted."1 Gaming is effective as a relaxation activity, similarly to the function of TV (com- pare Engell 2000), for example, this is because they feature repetitive activities such as those found in hack-and-slash2-themed games. However, gaming also works as social activity (compare Caillois 1958/2001, p. 37-42). In multiplayer text based online games, cooperative playing with sighted players on equal terms is not only possible, but also encouraged. Which parameters create immersion for the blind player is not necessarily obvi- ous though. In the 2010 documentary movie Get Lamp, an interviewed blind player explains how they interact with the game: "And then I walk into that room and it says: ’It’s pitch black dark.’ and I just think: ’Welcome to my life.’" This shows that immersion is a subjective term, though this does not keep re- searchers from investigating features which could help increase the immersive feel- ing of games, books and movies. Multiplayer text based online games are interesting to explore as a potential space where all potential players can play together, since a player’s disability van- ishes behind the screen. If it is revealed, it might at first be surprising to others, but soon become part of the normal (compare Foucault 2003/1974-1975). The research presented in this thesis has been conducted by a sighted re- searcher. However, the assistance of blind and visually impaired players has been actively sought out to address potential bias issues. They were included in the research whenever it was possible. The addictive qualities of computer games and whether they even exist are ac- tively discussed in the scientific community (compare for example: Ahn and Ran- dall 2007, Griffiths 2004 or Gruesser, Thalemann, and Griffith 2007). However, this topic is not discussed here, despite degree of immersion playing a big role in assessing addictive qualities of games. Immersive qualities of a computer game are not tied only to extraordinarily detailed graphics or hyper-realistic environments. Simple games like Puzzle Quest or Tetris can cause intense focus in their players. 1’Get Lamp’, Jason.
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