作者：Steve Bromley

从去年起我就开始从事全职游戏用户研究这项工作。从那时起就有很多人会问我“你是如何找到适合自己的工作？”我想说的是，游戏用户研究员是一个相对细分的职业，尽管如此我们还是能够在游戏产业中找到许多工作机遇。我将在本篇文章中根据自己的经验阐述我是如何进入这一领域。

user research(from eecs.ucf)

理解游戏

我发现游戏用户研究员可能来自各种背景。就像我在大学学的是历史，后来又在水族馆工作过——虽然这些也都与电子游戏没有任何关系。但是我真的非常喜欢游戏，甚至于我还曾针对《雷神之锤1》创造了一个mod。掌握游戏发展趋势并知晓相关新闻对于游戏用户研究员来说都非常重要，因为这样他们便能够拥有更广泛的知识而更好地理解用户的期望和反馈。就像如果玩家跟你反映你的游戏机制“不如《Crash Bandicoot》”，而如果你根本不了解这款游戏，你便难理解玩家的这一反馈。我们不仅能够通过玩游戏获得各种相关知识，同时也能够浏览gamasutra以及eurogamer等游戏网站以增长见识。

同时，更好地了解游戏也能够帮助你提供更加合理的建议。至少你能够对编程，图像以及设计等有一定的了解，而不会盲目地让开发团队进行一些无理的改变，并且这也关系到你的研究结果是否值得信任。从我个人来讲，我更喜欢浏览一些游戏开发论坛（或reddit等新闻网站），并以一种业余游戏开发的角度去理解游戏编程等内容。

教育经历

几年前我重新回到大学专攻人本计算硕士学位。我发现很多工作都要求游戏用户研究员最好拥有一定的学术经验，而我正好很幸运地获得过Player Research创始人Graham McAllister的栽培。在此我学习到了许多非常有帮助的知识，让我能够更好地理解用户体验技术，心理学以及编程等内容。但是人本计算学位在这里并没有多大的帮助，反而在其它领域（如心理或计算）能够派上更大的用场，所以我便通过阅读一些游戏用户研究的学术性论文而进一步提高我对这个领域的了解。

如果想要追赶上产业中那些佼佼者，我们就需要先理解游戏研究的学术性内容，因为这是一个仍然在快速发展着新领域。

行业经验

“现实生活”的游戏研究经验应该比学术经验更加重要。前几年，为了实践我作为游戏用户研究员的技能，并深入了解游戏开发者所需要具备的能力，我开始结交一些iOS和独立游戏开发者，向他们学习相关知识。

我曾经也为《Buzz》的开发商Relentless Software工作过，帮助他们进行一些实践研究。而这一研究后来也变成专注于“衡量社交互动”，并被呈现于利物浦开发大会，游戏用户研究峰会，Edge Online以及Gamasutra网站上。比起纯粹地进行学术研究，参加一些实际的行业项目研究更能够帮助我更好地理解游戏用户研究中的相关内容。现在有很多公司都提供给硕士更多机会，帮助他们开发项目，而我认为即使没有人选择你，你也应该主动靠近开发者并毛遂自荐，为自己争取更多实践机会。

下一步

游戏用户研究是一个较小的领域，因此在这里交流就变得更加重要。大多数研究员都是LinkedIn中的“游戏用户研究特别兴趣小组”中的成员，并定期会参加各种会议。这么做不仅能够帮助你在同行之间积累更多名气，同时你也可以在此了解到更多工作机遇！

我正是通过结合学术经验和实践经验并深入了解游戏才最终找到适合我自己的工作。但是这并不是所有人必须遵循的法则，只能说是我的经验之谈罢了。（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）

How to break into Games User Research

by Steve

I’ve been working as a full time games user researcher since last year, and have often been asked “how did you get your job?”  Games user research is a relatively niche, yet emerging, field, and there are still plenty of opportunities to get involved without having years of experience in the games industry.  In this post, I discuss how I broke into the field. Please note that this post reflects my own experience, so your mileage may vary!

Understanding Games

I’ve noticed that games user researchers come from a wide range of backgrounds. As an undergraduate I studied History, and worked in an aquarium, which is pretty far from computer games. However, I’d always had a strong interest in games, including having built a mod for Quake 1 back in the day. Keeping up with gaming trends and news was important in being able to perform as a games user researcher – it’s very important to have a wide degree of knowledge about all range of games, as this helps you understand user’s expectations and feedback. It’s no good if players tell you that the mechanic is “not implement as well as it is in Crash Bandicoot”, if you have no idea what they’re talking about.  This knowledge can be attained not only through playing games, but through keeping up with gaming websites such as gamasutra and eurogamer.

A strong understanding of games is also important to help sanity check your recommendations. Understanding at least the basics of programming, art and design can ensure that you don’t ask development teams to make impossible changes, which affects the credibility of your findings. Personally I try to follow game development forums (and on reddit), and maintain an understanding of what programming games is like through amateur game development.

Academic experience

A few years ago, I went back to university to study for a Master’s Degree in Human Centred Computing. A lot of job adverts for games user researchers expect some degree of academic experience, and I was very lucky in that I studied under Graham McAllister, founder of Player Research. The course was useful, since it formalised my knowledge of common UX techniques, psychology, and programming. However a HCI degree is unlikely to be necessary to get started in this role, as there are many related fields, such as Psychology or Computing, which can be supplemented by reading academic papers on games user research.

It is however important to understand the academic side of games research in order to keep up with the industry leaders, since the field is relatively new and still moving at a fast pace.

Industry Experience

Experience of ‘real life’ games research was perhaps more important than my academic experience. Over the last few years, I approached iOS and indie developers, offering my services for free, in order to practise my skills both as a games user research, and at communicating with and understanding the requirements of developers.

I also worked with Relentless Software, creators of Buzz, to run a research project that would be of practical relevance to them. This research became “Measuring Social Interaction”, and was featured at Develop Liverpool, the Games User Research Summit, Edge Online, and on Gamasutra. By having a real project that was of use to industry, I gained a much greater understanding of the practical side of games user research than would have been possible through a purely academic project. Many companies offer the opportunity to work on master’s projects with them, and even if no-one seems to near you, I’d recommend approaching game developers and suggesting this!

Next Steps

Games User Research is a small field, and hence networking is important.  Most researchers are members of the Games User Research Special Interest Group on LinkedIn, and regularly meet or present at conferences. Not only is this important for building a reputation among your contemporaries, but it also means that you’ll hear about job opportunities first!

I found my job through the combination of academic and practical experience, as well as a strong understanding of games. However this may not be the recipe for everyone. In my next update, I’ll share advice from other people in the field on how to break into Games User Research.(source:stevebromley)