Games
The exact game / games that I will be creating to execute my thesis research will mostly depend on what I narrow my topic down to. My goal is to have these questions decided and have a thesis proposal written by the middle of this (fall '08) semester.
I'm still deciding on how to measure each game's difficulty. Right now I am using four measurements of difficult, each on a scale of 1 to 5. The first factor is the degree of collaboration that is required to play. Collaboration meaning some form of communication or attention to what your teammates are doing. The intuitivity factor is a basic indicator of how simple the game is to learn for a new player. My intention is to never reuse a player. By doing so I will not skew my results by having some players who are more or less experienced.
Third, the decision ambiguity is the indicator of how obvious or ambigous the "correct" decision in the game is. If the correct decision is someting obvious, like the game red-light green-light, players will have less need too rely on collaboration. On the other hand something like a 3D maze has no obvious correct answer the first time through, thus players will have to find a way to reach a consensus or else be content to battle each other. Finally, each game is given a timing difficulty factor. A game with a high timing difficulty means that success of the team involves one or all players having a strong ability to synchronize their actions or to perform an action at the right time.
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Shape Matching
- Collaboration:
- Intuitivity:
- Ambiguity:
- Timing:
In this game concept, players use their laser pointers to try and match a "blobby" shape to a shape on the screen. A timer will either count up (to determin a score) or count down to the time when they must have the shape formed. This concept could be changed to a team game by dividing the screen in half and having the same shape on each side. This game should test to see how groups do when they must perform a fairly collobarative task under the pressure of a time limit. The game will cycle through a serious of perhaps 10 or more shapes. The difficulty increases by either reducing the time availalbe to create the shape, or introducing more and more complicated shapes (e.g. square, pentagon, star, etc).
- Collaboration:
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Particle Pull
- Collaboration:
- Intuitivity:
- Ambiguity:
- Timing:
In this game concept, players use choose between only two options. By positioning their laser pointer over either their teams goal they cast a vote to either push or pull (to or from the goal) the physically dynamic particles on the field. Some particles are good and will reward the team points when it enters their goal. Other particles are clearly marked as being bad and will reduce the team's score if it enters their goal. As team member's vote to either push or pull the intensity of the force increases as more players vote for the same choice. The game is played, either until a certain score is reached or a timer runs out. The difficulty of the game increases by increasing the movement speed of the particles as time goes on.
- Collaboration:
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Weight Lifting
- Collaboration:
- Intuitivity:
- Ambiguity:
- Timing:
In this game concept, players lift weights from the bottom to the top of the screen by dragging them with their laser pointers. If the weight is lifted to fast it falls back to the bottom and the process is repeated. The weights are each marked with their mass in pounds. A heaver weight must be lifted slower and must have more laser pointers on it to be moved. If too few players at any point do not have their pointer on the weight it falls back down. The difficulty is increased by the introducing the weights with a larger mass.
- Collaboration:
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Maze Navigation
- Collaboration:
- Intuitivity:
- Ambiguity:
- Timing:
This game is a simple 3D maze navigation, which is collectively navigated by the players. The game is simple and easy except for the fact that the correct decision is ambigous at each fork. Player's use their poitners to vote for a direction at each juncture. A majority must be reached before the game proceeds in the specified direction. The difficutly increases by requiring a larger and larger majority before proceeding.
- Collaboration:
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Ogre Battle
- Collaboration:
- Intuitivity:
- Ambiguity:
- Timing:
This game gives two teams the chance to battle it out ogre style. The concept requires team members to synchronize their actions while also matching a specific game timing. Each team has a "swing" button area and a power bar to indicate when the best time to swing is. Once one player points onto the swing area, the other players have a fraction of a second to position their pointers onto the swing button area. The total number of players who enter the swing button in that timeframe acts as a multiplier to the hit's damage. In addition the position of an oscillating power marker also increases the damage. Each ogre has a clearly indicated health meter. The game ends when one ogre has lost all his health. The game difficulty can be increased by increasing the speed of the oscillator and requiring a higher and higher multiplier to do significant damage.
- Collaboration:
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Tilting Table Game
- Collaboration:
- Intuitivity:
- Ambiguity:
- Timing:
I have decided I will not be implementing this game concept...
- Collaboration:
