ENGAGING IN ACTIVITIES: THE FLOW EXPERIENCE OF GAMEPLAY Nicole E. M. Vickery Bachelor of Games and Interactive Entertainment, Bachelor of Information Technology (First Class Honours) Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Science and Engineering Faculty Queensland University of Technology 2019 Keywords Videogames; Challenge; Activities; Gameplay; Play; Activity Theory; Dynamics; Flow; Immersion; Game design; Conflict; Narrative. i Abstract Creating better player experience (PX) is dependent upon understanding the act of gameplay. The aim of this thesis is to develop an understanding of enjoyment in dynamics actions in-game. There are few descriptive works that capture the actions of players while engaging in playing videogames. Emerging from this gap is our concept of activities, which aims to help describe how players engage in both game-directed (ludic), and playful (paidic) actions in videogames. Enjoyment is central to the player experience of videogames. This thesis utilises flow as a model of enjoyment in games. Flow has been used previously to explore enjoyment in videogames. However, flow has rarely been used to explore enjoyment of nuanced gameplay behaviours that emerge from in-game activities. Most research that investigates flow in videogames is quantitative; there is little qualitative research that describes ‘how’ or ‘why’ players experience flow. This thesis aims to fill this gap by firstly understanding how players engage in activities in games, and then investigating how flow is experience based on these activities. In order to address these broad objectives, this thesis includes three qualitative studies that were designed to create an understanding of the relationship between activities and flow in games. The first study includes a series of interviews with players, where participants engaged in a card sorting activity to describe the activities they engaged in during their favourite videogame experience. Participants were also asked to describe their experience of flow. Building upon this first study, three focus groups were conducted to build our understanding of in-game activities and to refine the activities that underpin this program of research. The third study of this thesis was the Games Experience study (GExp), a novel experience sampling approach for exploring flow in videogames. The GExp explored players’ experience of flow while engaged in specific videogame activities. The studies identified the prevalence of Conflict-based activities in a wide range of videogame scenarios. Conflict is not only a common aspect of the play experience but can also be integrated with other activities, such as Exploration, to create a sense of challenge. Narrative and character orientated activities where the player actively ii shapes the game’s story or a character’s narrative destiny emerged as an important factor to many participants involved in this research. Several key themes emerged in this thesis’ examination of flow in activities. Firstly, Narrative and Exploration-based activities appeared to draw players into concentration through immersive qualities of the game, while Conflict and Economic-based activities appeared to be more motivated by challenge and dealing with high-level stimuli. The research found that while players might be engaged in a similar low-level activity (e.g., shooting), flow took on different qualities depending on the meaning players place on the overarching gameplay dynamics (e.g., shooting for strategic versus combat purposes). For a subset of study participants, frustration emerged as a positive aspect of the flow experience. Finally, interesting themes emerged in relation to the notion of player control and flow. Results show the importance that facilitating a sense of agency through training, and also by providing players with a range of choices in overcoming a challenge. Through understanding how players interact with game worlds and the activities that they enjoy, we can facilitate the design of future games research and game design by providing a mechanism for exploring nuanced gameplay experiences. iii List of Publications Published as Nicole McMahon: McMahon, N., Wyeth, P., & Johnson, D. (2015). Engaging in videogame play: An activity-centric analysis of the player experience. Paper presented at the OzCHI '15 Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Australian Special Interest Group for Computer Human Interaction, Melbourne, Australia. McMahon, N., Wyeth, P., & Johnson, D. (2015). From challenges to activities: Categories of play in videogames. Paper presented at the CHI PLAY '15 Proceedings of the 2015 Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play, London, United Kingdom. McMahon, N., Wyeth, P., & Johnson, D. M. (2013). Exploring the role of activity in genre. Paper presented at the IE '13 Proceedings of The 9th Australasian Conference on Interactive Entertainment: Matters of Life and Death, RMIT, Melbourne, VIC. Published as Nicole Vickery: Vickery, N., Tancred, N., Wyeth, P., & Johnson, D. (2018). Directing Narrative in Gameplay: player interaction in shaping narrative in the Witcher 3. In Proceedings of the 30th Australian Conference on Computer-Human Interaction (OzCHI '18). ACM, New York, NY, USA, 495-500. iv Table of Contents Keywords ...................................................................................................................... i Abstract ........................................................................................................................ ii List of Publications ..................................................................................................... iv List of Abbreviations ................................................................................................. xv Statement of Original Authorship ............................................................................. xvi Acknowledgements .................................................................................................. xvii Chapter 1. Introduction ............................................................................................ 1 1.1. Gaps in the Literature and Research Aims .................................................... 2 1.2. Addressing the Gap and Contributions ......................................................... 4 1.3. Thesis Outline ................................................................................................ 5 Chapter 2. Literature Review ................................................................................... 8 2.1. Introduction ................................................................................................... 8 2.2. Interaction and Videogames .......................................................................... 8 2.3. Game Mechanics ......................................................................................... 11 2.3.1. Rules ..................................................................................................... 12 2.3.2. Goals .................................................................................................... 13 2.3.3. Challenge ............................................................................................. 13 2.4. Dynamics ..................................................................................................... 16 2.4.1. Play ....................................................................................................... 18 2.4.2. Gameplay ............................................................................................. 19 2.5. Aesthetics and Affect .................................................................................. 23 2.5.1. Flow ..................................................................................................... 24 2.5.2. Immersion and Presence ...................................................................... 33 v 2.5.3. Motivation and Player Experience ....................................................... 38 2.5.4. Emotion in Videogames ....................................................................... 43 2.6. Narrative Elements in Games ...................................................................... 45 2.6.1. Interacting with Narrative .................................................................... 46 2.6.2. Characters as Narrative Elements ........................................................ 47 2.6.3. Narrative, Characters and the MDA .................................................... 49 2.7. Summary and Orientation ........................................................................... 50 2.7.1. Thesis Orientation ................................................................................ 52 Chapter 3. Research Design ................................................................................... 56 3.1. Research Methodology ................................................................................ 58 3.2. Study 1 – Interviews: Exploring the Play Experience ................................. 60 3.3. Study 2 – Focus Groups: Refining Challenges ........................................... 61 3.4. Study 3 – Games Experience (GExP) Study ............................................... 63 3.5. Further Details Relating to the Research Approach .................................... 63 Chapter 4. Exploring Activities and Flow ............................................................