Replayability of Video Games Timothy Frattesi Douglas Griesbach Jonathan Leith Timothy Shaffer Advisor Jennifer deWinter May 2011 i Table of Contents Abstract ......................................................................................................................................................... 4 1 Introduction ................................................................................................................................................ 5 2 Games, Play and Replayability .................................................................................................................. 9 2.1 Play ..................................................................................................................................................... 9 2.2 Categories of Play ............................................................................................................................. 11 2.2.1 Playfulness ................................................................................................................................. 11 2.2.2 Ludic Activities .......................................................................................................................... 12 2.2.3 Game Play .................................................................................................................................. 13 2.3 Game ................................................................................................................................................. 14 2.3.1 Structure ..................................................................................................................................... 15 2.3.2 Rules .......................................................................................................................................... 16 2.3.3 Goals .......................................................................................................................................... 17 2.3.4 Activity ...................................................................................................................................... 18 2.4 Computer Games .............................................................................................................................. 18 2.5 Aspects of Replayability ................................................................................................................... 20 2.5.1 Difficulty .................................................................................................................................... 21 2.5.2 Completion ................................................................................................................................. 23 2.5.3 Social Aspects ............................................................................................................................ 25 2.5.4 Randomization ........................................................................................................................... 26 2.5.5―The Experience‖ ........................................................................................................................ 27 2.6 Business of Replayability.................................................................................................................. 30 2.7 Game Design at the Production Stage ............................................................................................... 32 2.8 Conclusion ........................................................................................................................................ 33 3 Survey, Interview and Market Data ......................................................................................................... 35 3.1 Consumer Surveys ............................................................................................................................ 38 3.2 Demographic Data ............................................................................................................................ 38 3.3 Play & Replay from a Consumer Viewpoint .................................................................................... 41 3.4 Designer Interviews .......................................................................................................................... 45 3.5 Survey Style Questions ..................................................................................................................... 46 3.6 Play & Replay from a Design Perspective ........................................................................................ 47 ii 3.7 Market Perspective ............................................................................................................................ 50 3.8 Conclusion ........................................................................................................................................ 52 4 Perceptions of the Importance of Replayability ....................................................................................... 54 4.1 Reporting on Numerical Data ........................................................................................................... 55 4.2 Commonality of Play within Replayability ...................................................................................... 59 4.1.1 Indistinguishable Nature of Play and Replay ............................................................................. 61 4.1.2 Distinction made through Completion ....................................................................................... 64 4.2 Genre Specificity .............................................................................................................................. 66 4.3 Difficulty ........................................................................................................................................... 69 4.4 Completion ........................................................................................................................................ 71 4.5 Social Aspects ................................................................................................................................... 73 4.6 Randomization .................................................................................................................................. 77 4.6 ―The Experience‖ .............................................................................................................................. 78 4.4 Marketing and Customer Influences ................................................................................................. 82 4.4.1 Brand Loyalty ............................................................................................................................ 83 4.4.2 Nostalgia .................................................................................................................................... 85 4.4.3 Reviews ...................................................................................................................................... 86 4.5 Conclusion ........................................................................................................................................ 87 5 Conclusion and Recommendations .......................................................................................................... 89 Bibliography ............................................................................................................................................... 95 Appendix A: Numerical Survey Data ....................................................................................................... 105 Appendix B: Verbal Survey Data ............................................................................................................. 117 Appendix C: Likert-Scale Survey Data .................................................................................................... 232 Appendix D: Graphical Representations of Survey Data ......................................................................... 239 iii Table of Figures Figure 1 – Cycle of a game‘s life and influence on future works ............................................................... 37 Figure 2 – Possible overlaps helping us define if replayability is biased for specific groups ..................... 40 Figure 3 – Determining if Play eclipses Replay or if Replayability has a solid foothold in industry ......... 43 Figure 4 – The factors, and weighting, of the aspects that go into a successful game. ............................... 45 Figure 5 – Balance of intentional and unintentional changes to design elements in the creation of successful games ......................................................................................................................................... 49 Figure 6 – Triangulation of data to determine a pattern of success ............................................................ 50 Figure 7 – Console Breakdown with Numerical Data ................................................................................ 56 Figure 8 – Playtime Breakdown of Participants‘ Average Week ............................................................... 56 Figure 9 – Play vs. Replay .......................................................................................................................... 59 Figure 15: Age Demographic ...................................................................................................................