作者：David Or

Scott Rigby（Immersyve）和Troy Skinner（WB）探讨了运用心理学对游戏的启示。

我们必须以量化和系统的方式理解玩家心理学，否则我们就会以一种“一觉醒来想到什么信什么”的原则指导我们的工作。

“大数据”陷阱。万亿字节*0=0。必须理解你想从你的数据中得出什么结论。大数据并没有要开心理学的黑盒。

热衷于测试你的乐趣和沉浸感理论。

Psychology-Studies(from ideamapping)

他们的建议是保持鉴别力和怀疑精神。

*清楚地衡量你的乐趣和沉浸感模型的各个部分，就像社会学家定义和衡量什么才是“爱”。

*验证你的模型。看起来可信并不意味着它是准确的。

*与利益相关者分享结果。

自决理论是动机和情感心理学的主导理论。它已经被大量研究成果所证实。

Scott Rigby创造了“玩家需求满足实验”模型，他专注于玩家需要什么，而不是玩家想要什么。这个模型有三个核心成分。

*胜任/精通——玩家应该感到效力和成长，他们需要信息性反馈、能力反馈，而且这些反馈必须少量、可维持、可积累、即时。

*相关性——玩家应该觉得自己对游戏世界是重要的（游戏邦注：比如可以救助他人，是团队当中的治疗职业）。

*自治权——代理动机，提供大量有意义的选择。

胜任是一个复杂的问题，开发者往往把胜任满足感放在错误的地方。

在主机游戏市场，有一级游戏（非常成功的大游戏）和二级游戏（能赢利的游戏）。但一级游戏和二级游戏之间的收益存在巨大的鸿沟（大约是5千万美元）。

案例研究：《质量效应1》和《质量效应2》。

Mass Effect(from jburger.blogspot)

*《质量效应1》在Metacritic网站上的好评率是89%，收益很可观，忠实玩家人数达到510万。这款游戏属于二级游戏。

*该团队希望将续作提升到一级游戏行列，所以他们专注于品质、市场营销和PR执行工作等。

*《质量效应2》在Metacritic网站上的好评率是96%，广告预算是之前的4倍，忠实玩家人数达到720万。这款游戏仍然是二级游戏。

开发者必须思考游戏为什么能赚钱，以有玩家在做什么，然后再用研究结果支持设计。应该把钱花在什么地方？

在主机市场，有两类玩家。

游戏行家玩平台上的所有类型的游戏。他们认为自己就是“玩家”，甚至有一件游戏主题T恤或一个游戏周边产品。他们关注自己的游戏表现，会参加论坛讨论，会阅读攻略以提高自己的表现。他们总是跟进最新的游戏资讯，会向朋友和家人宣传自己最爱的游戏。他们的购买欲望源于游戏的创新和深度。我们对这类玩家很熟悉，因为我们自己就是游戏行家！但我们只占据市场的15%。

普通玩家占据市场的65%。相比于行家，他们更显得休闲，他们只玩最好的、最热门的游戏。他们玩游戏的目的是娱乐；他们不指望获得最好的表现。他们和自己朋友一起玩游戏，回避和陌生人玩的尴尬。他们只关心玩什么，而不是怎么玩。他们想快速精通游戏。

制作一款成功的游戏应该遵循以下10条原则。

1、绝大部分游戏机玩家玩游戏的目的首先是为了娱乐，其次才是挑战。因此，主机市场的简单模型是：

*游戏有创意才能吸引到游戏行家。

*游戏行家会把游戏推荐给普通玩家。

*普通玩家会试玩游戏，然后发现自己擅长了。

*普通玩家会购买游戏，然后再次推广给其他普通玩家。

2、为了游戏的成功，两个市场都要关注。这两类玩家都有相同的需求（胜任），便有不同的处理方式。

《蝙蝠侠：阿卡姆疯人院》是一个非常好的例子。游戏行家喜欢这款游戏是因为它有创意，它是第一款优秀的超人游戏，战斗系统很有深度（胜利要兼顾攻与防），技能要求很明确。普通玩家喜欢它是罽战斗只要求控制两个简单的按钮，防御很容易理解（被攻击时有直观的信号提示），BOSS战有游戏说明。

如果玩家在线性游戏中死了3-4次，他们就会退出。不要让这种事发生。帮助玩家克服失败。两类玩家都需要这种帮助，因为行家不希望自己被人看低，而普通玩家想获得进度。

3、操作上的复杂度是你的敌人。这不是你应该增加深度的地方。玩家的操作效率越高，游戏内的消费就越多。

4、不要阻碍玩家精通游戏。临床实践如学习乐器是很困难很沉闷的，所以不要设置障碍因素。让玩家轻松得到他们想要的。另一个有助于精通游戏的解决方案是增加加RPG机制。

5、奖励努力多过奖励技术。反馈越多，玩家动机越强。

6、寻找省成本的方式反馈玩家。特效很漂亮，但太费成本，并且很难做得出色。而且没有显示进步的空间。相反地，UI更便宜更吸引人。使用升级、排名和等级等，让玩家有成长的空间。《使命召唤》的秘密配方是它的经验系统，因为它为玩家提供很多可追求的东西，和大量反馈。

7、采用一致性的方式告之玩家的进步。

8、当玩家死亡时，不要过分惩罚他们。在他们已经失败的时候不要削弱他们的力量，而要设置一些恢复机制。

9、当玩家遇到困难时，教他们怎么做才能成功。

10、一款成功的游戏应该让所有玩家都能上手。行家的经验已经很丰富了，所以再次训练已经无法刺激他们的购买欲。

《魔兽世界》的玩家会自定义UI，使自己能更方便地获得反馈。

通过查看持续游戏的时间，你可以预测游戏的销售情况。

沉浸感来自于对游戏的胜任，而不是图像或声音。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，拒绝任何不保留版权的转载，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

GDC2013 – Applied Value

of Player Psychology: Putting Motivational Principles to Work

by David Or

Scott Rigby (Immersyve) and Troy Skinner (WB Games) talked about the implications of truly pursuing applied psychology.

We must truly understand player psychology in a quantifiable and systematic way, or we can wake up in our bed and believe whatever we want to believe.

“Big data” trap. Terabytes of data * 0 clue = No clue. Need to understand what’s going on to get meaning out of your data. Big data does not open the psychological black box alone.

Be as passionate about testing your theories of fun and engagement as you are about having them.

Their recommendation is to be discriminating and a bit skeptical.

Clearly measure each part of your model of fun and engagement, like social scientists who define and measure love.
Validate your model. Just because it looks convincing doesn’t mean it’s accurate.

Share results with stakeholders.

Self-determination theory is the leading psychological theory of motivation and emotion world-wide. It has empirical validation and over a thousand published studies.

Scott Rigby creates the Player Experience of Need Satisfaction (PENS) model where he focused on fundamental needs instead of the players’ wants. It has three core components.

Competence/Mastery – player should feel effective and growth, they need informational feedback, competence feedback can be delivered in granular/sustained/cumulative/instantaneous amounts

Relatedness – feel like you matter to the game world (you are saving someone, or you are the healer that your team relies on)

Autonomy – agentic motivation, offer lots of meaningful choices

Competence is a turnstile issue. Developers often anchor competence satisfaction in the wrong place.

In the console market, there are Tier 1 games (huge mega-hit games) and Tier 2 games (profitable games). But there is a huge gap between Tier 1 and Tier 2 games (about a $50 million difference).

Case Study: Mass Effect 1 and 2.

Mass Effect 1 was rated 89% on Metacritic, the ad spend was solid, and had 5.1 million people hyped about the game. The game was a Tier 2 game.

The team wanted to push the sequel to Tier 1, so they focused on quality, marketing, and PR execution.

Mass Effect 2 was rated 96% on Metacritic, four times the amount of ad spend, and 7.2 million hype. The game was still a Tier 2 game.

Developers should figure out why games make money and what players are doing, then support the studies with design. Where should the money go towards?

In the console market, there are two types of gamers.

The game connoisseur plays everything on all platforms and all genres. They identifier themselves as a “gamer” and has the t-shirts and merchandise to prove it. They care about their game performance and will participate on forums and read guides to improve their competence. They are always reading and following the latest gaming news and will evangelize their favorite games to their friends and family. Their driver to purchase is innovation and depth. We are familiar with this market because the game connoisseur is us! But we only make up 15% of the market size.

The bro gamer makes up 65% of the market size. They are more casual and they play only the best and most popular games. They want to be entertained; they’re not looking to be the best. They play games with their friends and want to avoid embarrassment. They only care about what to play, not how to play, and they want to be quickly competent in the games.
These are the 10 rules to follow when trying to make a successful game.

The majority of console players prioritize entertainment over challenge. Thus, the simple console market model is…

First, the connoisseur is attracted to a game because of innovation.

The connoisseur will recommend the game to his bro gamer friends.

The bro gamer tries the game and feels good at it.

The bro gamer buys the game and spreads to other bro gamers.

Need to capture both segments to make a hit game. Both audiences have the same needs (competence), but with different approaches.

Batman: Arkham Asylum is a very good case study. The connoisseur felt attracted to it because it was the first awesome superhero game, there was depth in the combat system (needed both offense and defense to win), and the skill required is visible. The bro gamer also liked it because the combat used simple 2-button controls, defense was simple to understand (there were visual signals of incoming attacks), and there were direct boss battle instructions.

If players die 3-4 times in a linear game, they’ll quit. Don’t let that step happen. Help players after failures. It’ll appeal to both audiences because the connoisseur won’t feel like you’re talking down to them and the bro gamers will get the help they need to proceed.

Complexity in controls is your enemy. This is not where you want to add depth. The more effective players there are, the more unit sales you’ll have.

Don’t gate mastery. Clinical practice like learning a musical instrument is hard and boring, so don’t make that a gating factor. Give people an easy way to do want they want, like exploding people with your first in Mortal Kombat. Another solution for growth is adding RPG mechanics.

Reward effort more than skill. The more feedback density you use, the more motivated the player will be.

Exploit inexpensive ways to give players feedback. Blowing someone’s head is awesome, but it’s expensive to make and it’s hard to top yourself. There’s no room to grow, because how can you reward the player above that? Instead, UI is much more cheap and captivating. Having upgrades, ranks, and grades open up lots of room for player growth. Call of Duty’s secret sauce is its XP system because it gives lots of things to achieve and tons of player feedback.

Find a way to consistently tell the player they are progressing.

When players die, don’t teabag them. Don’t make them less powerful when they’re already down, but give them some comeback mechanics.

When players struggle, teach them to be successful.

Making all players competent is the price of entry for hit games. Connoisseurs are already hyper-educated, so making them more educated doesn’t incentivize them to purchase.

World of Warcraft players, when left to their own devices, will make custom UI that gives themselves more feedback.
You can predict sales by looking at the hours of sustained plays.

Immersion comes from competence, not graphics or audio.(source:theoryfighter)