作者：Paul Sztajer

现在我们已获悉测试目的，测试对象和测试地点，以及测评内容，下面我们我们就来探究如何测试。

今天我们首先来谈谈定量数据。

quantitative research from wordpress.com

这里我就开门见山：你需记录游戏数据。这是你需要完成的工作。你可以选择置身测试对象旁，记录诸如死亡数量之类的数据，但你定希望能够观察其他更多内容。

你有两大选择：使用既有登陆系统或选择自己的系统。就既有系统而言，其融入Playtomic（游戏邦注：这是个记录Flash、HTML5、Unity和iOS数据的强大工具）。

若你涉足上述类型，就应使用这个工具：其免费提供原始数据和绘图、点击热图之类的分析工具。

若你不在上述类型内，就得使用自己的系统（若有人知道其他编程语言选择，欢迎分享）。

从理想角度看，你将选择使用某个能够快速访问的数据库，因为你会希望能够记录众多数据，然后进行分析。但这等于是在你的游戏中植入新系统，若你时间有限，此方案并不可行。

最佳选择是文本输出，我建议你以标准.csv格式输出内容。

开始前，先选择你的标题：通常是独特游戏测试ID，游戏版本，测试内容，测试时间（游戏邦注：真实时间、游戏时间、关卡数量和游戏类型），测试对象，测试地点以及相关测试值。csv具有双重价值：其便于在Excel中打开和分析；其便于连接和编辑。

记录这些数据时，确保所有数据都完全恰当，因为你稍后或许会以不同角度切入（例如，做出某调整后，你会希望获悉玩家在哪个关卡失败）。

进行在线测试时，你需考虑从测试玩家身上收集数据。

同样，理想方式是把这些信息直接导入在线数据库，但随后你需让其送出输出记录（这是你进行广泛测试前希望完成的工作，否则你的回报就会相当低）。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

Playtesting 104: How to Measure Quantitatively

by Paul Sztajer

This is part 4 in a series on how to playtest games (part 1).

So we know why we’re playtesting, we know who and where, and we know what we want to measure. But how do we do it?

Today, we tackle this question for quantitative data.

So I’m not going to mince words here: you need to record data in your game. It’s a thing you just have to do. You can sit next to the person playing and count things like number of deaths, but there’s usually a bunch of other things you want to watch in that case.

You’ve got 2 main choices: use an existing logging system or roll your own. On the side of the existing logging systems, there’s Playtomic: a great tool for recording data for Flash, HTML5, Unity and iOS.

If you’re in one of these categories, you should really use it: it gives you both raw data and analysis tools such as graphing and heat maps for free!

If you’re not in these categories, you’re probably going to have to roll your own (if anyone knows of alternatives for other programming languages, we’d love to hear about it!).

Now ideally you’ll use a database of some kind that you can query quickly, as you’ll want to record a lot of data and then be able to analyse it. However, that’s adding a whole new system to your game that you probably can’t afford to do if you’re time is short.

The best alternative is text output, and in this case I’d suggest that you output things in a standard .csv format.

Before you start, pick your headings: usually a unique playtest id, game version, what the event is, when it happened (real time, game time, level number, game type, etc.), what it happened to, where it happened, any values associated with it and so on. The value of the csv is twofold: they’re easy to open in excel and analyse; and they’re easy to concatenate and edit.

When you are recording such data, make sure you record in all of these fields that are appropriate, as you might later want to look at the data from a different angle (for instance, you might want to know where players die in a certain level after you made a certain change.

At some point, when you do online testing, you’ll need to worry about gathering data from players who are running your game on their computer.

Again, its ideal to grab this stuff straight into an online database, but until then you might need to ask them to send you the output logs (getting this right is probably something you want to do before you do widespread testing, as your return rates will probably be rather low).

That’s about it – next time we’ll be looking at qualitative data collection: how to record it in person, and how to write questionnaires.（Source：gamasutra）