Fernando França

MSc Thesis

User Profiling and Factors of Enjoyment in Games

I am currently looking for relationships between player-profile-tailored content and user enjoyment in electronic games as a Msc student in Waterford Institute of Technology, under the supervision of Dr. Patrick Felicia.

Abstract

Games have relied on generic user models to provide a particular gameplay. Tailoring a gaming experience to an individual is a challenging topic that involves psychology, artificial intelligence and game design. While different user models have been proposed for games, profiling methods to generate these models are still an unexplored topic of research. Previous studies have analysed the enjoyment of gaming experiences through very distinct heuristics such as gameplay mechanics (e.g. number of enemies, player speed), narrative (dramaturgic progression), the psychological state of Flow (previously used to measure enjoyment in other fields, for example sports and work) and social factors (e.g. individualism, cooperation and competition). Some models for measuring player enjoyment have been previously proposed. One of these models, GameFlow (Sweetser & Wyeth, 2005), is used in this research to ascertain if the automatic adaptation of gameplay elements to different user models can increase a game user's enjoyment. This research focuses on the design and implementation of an adaptive game prototype and analyses of how player's enjoyment can be improved through user profiling in the light of the GameFlow model.

RubySoccer User Interface

Two Year Anniversary Surprise

RubySoccer is a free online soccer management game programmed in Ruby and its companion framework, Rails. After two years online the game deserved a new facelift.

Improving the user experience in an online game

Improved usability was achieved through proper use of HTML, CSS, AJAX and Ruby/Rails. Furthermore, the interface changes reduced the server load by transfering some responsibilities to the client.

Future Interface Enhancements

Besides the anniversary update, some new features are still on hold as they require proper testing.

Learn more about RubySoccer at www.rubysoccer.com.