Russ Tarleton

XBox360 Achievements and PS3 Trophies

A short paper was just published by Yahoo Research about the use of Achievements and Badges in games and social websites. Here is a direct link to the PDF. It is a quick read at 4 pages and I found a few parts to be of interest:

Regarding Goal Setting: “The fun and interest of goal seeking is often the primary reward itself. The notion of conceptual consumption is essential to understanding badges because, of course, ultimately the user is left with no physical goods, only the experience and memory which is embodied by a badge.”

Regarding Status: “The interplay between status and affirmation is important because it highlights how badges can be engaging from both an individual and a group point of view. Some users are likely to attend more to the individual benefits of badges while others are more likely to attend to the social ones.”

Regarding Usage: “Evidence suggests that badges are not universally appreciated, understood, or attended to.”

I stumbled across Maslow’s hierarchy of needs a while ago, seen below, and I’ve found it to be relevant to game development. I think it is interesting to look at game elements and identify which of our needs might be fulfilled by them.

Maslow's hierarchy of Needs

As I see it, achievements potentially satisfy a need for:

1. Safety – Morality:  Moral reassurance, if the achievement reflects a value we embrace.
2. Belonging – Friendship: If an achievement is an indicator of level of investment, it could help us feel more associated with others of like investment level.
3. Esteem – Self-Esteem: Assuming the achievement portrays the user in a positive light then it could serve as a reminder of something worked hard at and succeeded in.
4. Esteem – Achievements: Although virtual, it is still a representation and reminder of an accomplishment.
5. Esteem – Respect by Others: Assuming the achievement is publicly viewable, it could shape other’s opinions and level of respect, especially if it represents a shared value (see 1).
6. Self-Actualization – Problem Solving: A reminder that the user was once capable of solving a particular challenge and, more importantly, has the potential to do it again.

The Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication has published an article based on survey results from 7,000 gamers who play the game Everquest 2. The intro mentions that 40% of adults are now regular “gamers”, compared to 83% of teenagers. Those numbers are staggering to think about. I thought some of the questions posed in the conclusion were also pretty interesting: “Why, for example, are older female players playing at the highest rates? Why are older players playing more when younger people are thought to have more free time? Why are these gamers physically healthier than nongamers? Why do minorities play at lower rates?” Definitely an enlightening read if you have the time.

Abstract:

Online games have exploded in popularity, but for many researchers access to players has been difficult. The study reported here is the first to collect a combination of survey and behavioral data with the cooperation of a major virtual world operator. In the current study, 7,000 players of the massively multiplayer online game (MMO) EverQuest 2 were surveyed about their offline characteristics, their motivations and their physical and mental health. These self-report data were then combined with data on participants’ actual in-game play behaviors, as collected by the game operator. Most of the results defy common stereotypes in surprising and interesting ways and have implications for communication theory and for future investigations of games.

http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/fulltext/121394419/HTMLSTART?CRETRY=1&SRETRY=0

I received an email from Trent Reznor today asking me to fill out a survey!

Here is Trent’s approach to soliciting survey feedback:
1. Asks nicely!
2. Offers his latest video for download after taking the survey.
3. Promises future gift or contest entry, if any. 
 
What I’m wondering is, without an official end user license agreement or terms of use, does Trent’s informal email make it illegal to download his offered video directly from his site? 

from nin
date Sun, Sep 21, 2008 at 7:06 PM
subject Nine Inch Nails survey

Message from Trent:

Hello everyone.

I’d like to thank everyone for a very successful year so far in the world of Nine Inch Nails. I’m enjoying my couple of weeks off between legs of our Lights In The Sky tour and got to thinking… “wouldn’t it be fun to send out a survey to everyone that’s shown interest in NIN?” Well, that’s not exactly how it went, but regardless – here it is. As we’ve moved from the familiar world of record labels and BS into the unknown world of doing everything yourself, we’ve realized it would benefit us and our ability to interact with you if we knew more about what you want, what you like, what you look like naked, etc. I know it’s a pain in the ass but we’d truly appreciate it if you’d take a minute and help us out. As an incentive, everyone who completes the survey will be able to download a video of live performance from this most recent tour (and I know what’s going through your little minds right now: “I’ll just grab this off a torrent site and not have to fill out the survey!!!” and guess what? You will be able to do just that and BEAT THE SYSTEM!!!! NIN=pwn3d!!!)

BUT

What if we were to select some of those that DO complete the survey and provide them with something really cool? I’m not saying we’ll ever get around to it, but if we did maybe something like signed stuff, flying someone to a show somewhere in the world, a magic amulet that makes you invisible, a date with Jeordie White (condoms supplied of course), you know – something cool. See, you’d miss that opportunity AND be a cheater.

Do the right thing – help us out. You’ll feel better.

Thank you and I’ve had too much caffeine this morning,

Trent

Visit here to take the survey:
https://www.questionpro.com/akira/TakeSurvey?id=1049187

The Journal of Computer-Mediated Commuication has released a special themed Issue on “Social Network Sites”
http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol13/issue1/

• “Social Network Sites: Definition, History, and Scholarship” by danah boyd and Nicole Ellison
• “Signals in Social Supernets” by Judith Donath
• “Social Network Profiles as Taste Performances” by Hugo Liu
• “Whose Space? Differences Among Users and Non-Users of Social Network Sites” by Eszter Hargittai
• “Cying for Me, Cying for Us: Relational Dialectics in a Korean Social Network Site” by Kyung-Hee Kim and Haejin Yun
• “Public Discourse, Community Concerns, and Civic Engagement: Exploring Black Social Networking Traditions on BlackPlanet.com” by Dara Byrne
• “Mobile Social Networks and Social Practice: A Case Study of Dodgeball” by Lee Humphreys
• “Publicly Private and Privately Public: Social Networking on YouTube” by Patricia Lange