ExperienceLab

Xbox One as an Entertainment Hub - how will it work in shared households?

Following on from Ben's gaming focused blog, this post looks at the wider entertainment features offered by the Xbox One. 

During the Xbox One announcement, Microsoft clearly re-positioned the Xbox One as an entertainment hub – a one stop shop for apps, gaming, TV, music, internet and anything else you might want to access. This is not particularly surprising, given the developments made throughout the Xbox 360 lifecycle. 

Xbox One as a games console - our initial reactions

The Xbox One has finally been unveiled. There weren’t too many big surprises, and some of the details, such as the issue of pre owned games are still a little unclear, but it seems to have been positively received in general.

ExperienceLab gameplay experts contribute to first book on Game Analytics

We're pleased to have been asked to contribute to a new book Game Analytics - Maximizing the Value of Player Data, due out in 2013. The book is the first on the topic of game analytics; the process of discovering and communicating patterns in gameplay data through game user research. As well as ways to use them to improve gameplay during game development.

This is a rapidly-growing area of game user research and one that ExperienceLabs' gameplay experts have a wealth of experience in, having conducted numerous and varied research studies for leading games developers. We're pleased to say that among the contributions from over 50 international experts, including Ubisoft, EA, THQ, Sony and Square Enix, is our own - a chapter I authored about the use of questionnaires during game testing.

Edited by Magy Seif El-Nasr, Anders Drachen and Alessandro Canossa, the book provides an in-depth discussion of game analytics and its practical applications, using numerous case studies from industry and research throughout.

The book will published by Springer in early 2013 and is available for pre-order now.

Putting the 'phone' into iPhone gaming

In-between watching the closing events of the London 2012 Olympics, I took a couple of minutes to have a look on the App Store on my iPhone. I noticed a game called the The Heist which was free 'for a limited time period' and decided to give it a go.

The Heist is, at a basic level, a puzzle game with the goal being to solve the various puzzles to unlock a series of security mechanisms on a vault. However, the games uses a clever, and unique as far as I can tell, game mechanism to add narrative to the game.

Will SmartGlass help Microsoft win the race for the centre of the Connected living room?

I’ve been waiting for a long time for a company to really lead the charge in the living room and make web services/apps on a TV screen into a must have. Everyone is fighting to be the front runner but I wonder whether Microsoft might just win if their recently announced SmartGlass technology working with Xbox 360 is as good as it sounds.

PS Vita quickens the handheld gaming race

So it's another update to Sony's portable gaming system now called the PS Vita. As mentioned in our previous post, having worked with and owned every incarnation of the PSP since it was launched, the PlayableGames team at ExperienceLab were keen to get our hands on one as soon as they were launched in the UK.

Having spent a few days with it the verdict is generally good. The hardware itself is up to Sony's high standards with the Vita feeling like a quality device from the moment that you get hold of it. The inclusion of two analog joysticks is a definite plus and feels like a real step forward. The OLED screen is gorgeous, showing vibrant colours, though the Vita's very short time before it goes into standby suggests that it may be quite a power drain. In fact it proved a bit irritating when we were downloading the inevitable firmware update as it kept on going to sleep halfway through the process.

Preparing for the PlayStation® Vita gameplay experience

Like many avid gamers, the ExperienceLab team are counting their pennies and heading down to the shops this morning for the launch of the PlayStation® Vita (we couldn't manage the midnight run to the Oxford Street Game store).

We were lucky enough to have a sneak peek of the Facebook app when we supported Sony's user testing recently and can't wait to get our hands on the real thing. 

We'll be posting our initial impressions over the next few days, so watch this space….

 

Image credit: GameZone

 

OnLive: the future of gaming?

Thursday 22 September saw the UK launch of revolutionary new gaming service: OnLive. 

OnLive is essentially games in the cloud. The advantage being that you don't need an expensive games console to play the games - you can stream them via your computer, and you don't need the latest, more expensive 25-core processor to run the games: if you can watch fullscreen YouTube videos on your computer, then chances are that you can also use OnLive.

So, we decided to give it a go…. 

Usability Amusements

I found this machine in an amusement arcade on Sandown pier.

The idea is that you put in 50p and move the claw across the top of the cabinet. Then you press the button to make it drop down and try to pick up one of the money cartons underneath it. They are valued between £5 and £20 from what I can see.

At least, I assume that’s what the game is. That’s what I told my daughter. Then I noticed that there’s a note written in biro at the front of the cabinet. It says: ‘There is a TIME LIMIT on this game’.

Do better motion controllers affect gaming?

We decided to investigate the effect of the new generation of motion controllers (e.g. Wii MotionPlus and Sony PlayStation Move) on the gaming experience, looking at the following factors:

• Immersion – how engaged and immersed they are in the game
• Motivation – why people play
• Style of play – types of movements and amount of movement

Comparing the Wiimote and Wii MotionPlus, we found that a more accurate motion controller (Wii MotionPlus) did influence style of play – gamers played more realistically and in turn were more immersed in the game. The effect was particularly strong in people who played primarily to win!. People who played to relax still benefited but the effects were less pronounced. This suggests that hardcore gamers may particularly benefit from advances in motion controllers.

The research also showcases the use of different methods to get at players experiences whilst playing games. We used a full-body motion capture suit, video recordings, questionnaires and interviews, to gather data. 

Read a summary of the findings here: research article (PDF)

The research was conducted by Jasmir Nijhar in collaboration with PlayableGames, and formed the basis of an M.Sc. project for the UCL Interaction Centre.

See the PlayableGames research page for more articles and research!