I observed my 17 year old son, Mike, as he played Snood. I'll include some choice comments made by him at certain parts of the game as they further illuminate the GRAM.

Minute Adjective Comment

 0 engaged
 2 engaged Oh, this is sort of like Tetris
 4 uncertain Crap. What the heck!?
 6 content (humming the success sound w/computer)
 8 engaged/ Crap. Crap.
         uncertain
10 content no noises
12 content no noises
14 annoyed It's being retarded
16 pleased Because I'm winning
18 content Crap. Uh, oh.
20 content no noises

After a quick initial arousal (Attention) from the new graphics and motion, Mike quickly established Relevance through the association of familiar aspects of the game with his own gaming experience (like Tetris). He was quick to pick up on a motivating goal orientation (avoiding the collapse of the brick wall). Confidence was a big factor for Mike. As he has finely honed, quick reflexes, this game was set at an appropriate level of difficulty, giving him a meaningful level of challenge. Finally, some Satisfaction was seen in the limited positive consequences he noticed - especially in playing a section successfully for a longer period of time than before.

Edited by author 10-23-2005 02:47 PM
Motivational Analysis Exercise: Snood (Csikszentmihalyi Flow)

The player was a twenty-five year old male that is interested in all types of games, but especially video games. With that in mind, he was already accustomed to general principles regarding software games and not afraid to try it out.

We reviewed the different responses on the matrix and made sure that he had a chance to ask questions on any of them. His initial response before starting the game was “uncertain” as this was a game that was new to him and did not know the basic goal behind the game. The following are the rest of the responses:

0 Uncertain (not sure what game is going to be like)
2 Uncertain (determined a couple of “rules” for play)
4 Content (rules seem to be working)
6 Annoyed (some unexpected things happened)
8 Frustrated (can’t figure out what brings wall down)
10 Engaged (starting to figure out combinations)
12 Excited (got to within 2 rows of monsters at the top)
14 Pleased (figured out how to drop multiple monsters by connecting above them in pattern)
16 Engaged (ready to play next round and beat last score)
18 Excited (beat last score)
20 Excited (beat last score by a bunch)

After debriefing with the player, I referred to the Csikszentmihalyi article (my assigned theorist) for analysis of the process and responses. The player was uncertain for the first few rounds what the object of the game was. He identified that you were supposed to shoot things and that combinations of 3 eliminated all of them, however, the objectives were not clear from just playing around with the game. It was frustrating as an observer to not be able to go to the help menu to find out more about the game. The player did not seem to be interested in getting “help” even though he voiced frustration and annoyance at least one time each.

The player did seem to reach flow about 12 minutes into the process. When I asked him to stop and respond at the 12-minute mark, it took a couple of times before he actually heard me and could comment. It seemed that at this point, the level of difficulty and the information he knew thus far about the strategy matched perfectly and put him into the “flow.” He did tend to come in and out of flow as there were occasional kinks in the “rules” that he had determined that threw him for a loop. At those moments, he experienced annoyance or frustration and the difficulty level threw him into the A3 section outside of the flow channel. It didn’t last for long, though and he was back in the flow or approaching it. He moved in and out of the flow more frequently at the beginning and then less so towards the end of the 20 minute session.

After the 20 minutes were completed, he continued to play for another half hour and became “addicted” as he put it. He is ready to move on to the next level of challenge.

Angela, Dawn, Marcie, Bernadette

Marcie played the game while we recorded observations.

Overall, Marcie seemed very engaged but frustrated at times. She was also excited during the game.

She seemed to spend most of her time in the pleased and aroused quadrant. However, she seemed to fluctuate along the entire x-axis.

Throughout the activity, Marcie bounced back and forth between excited and uncertain. She was quite curious and challenged. In the middle of the game, she seemed to begin to take control of the situation.

Keller would not be very happy. There's not much confidence and there were no rewards/directions.

Malone would happy. She reached all the 7 levels at various times throughout the game. The game included challenge, fantasy, control, cooperation, etc.

Csikszentmihalyi would think overall she stayed in the flow. She never dropped down into the boredom section. If anything, she went up into the anxiety area. However, she did not seem to stay in the area for long. She played along with curiosity and was very involved. In fact, during the 2 minute marks, we had to tell her repeatedly to describe her feelings. This shows she was lost in what she was doing and wanted to continue.

Motivational Analysis Exercise: Orbital Trader

Player was a twenty nine year-old male that likes most types of games. Began the game uncertain of how to play.

0 Uncertain -
2 Turned Off - still trying to learn game
4 Uncertain - Experimenting with game
6 Annoyed - Guessing, but unsuccessfully
8 Engaged - Beginning of understanding
10 Engaged - Increased understanding
12 Turned Off - Short attention span, hard to make sense of rules
14 Annoyed -
16 Miserable - No longer interested in accomplishing anything
18 Bored -
20 Pleased - Saw some success
22 Excited - Figured out how to play game successfully

Player spent most of the time in the Aroused/Unpleasant quadrant of the matrix.

ARCS:
Attention - Graphics
Relevance - Little to none
Confidence - Came with flow point
Satisfaction - Cash money...

Csikszentmihalyi:
Spent the majority of the time in the Anxiety range. Player reached flow at about the 20 minute mark. Boredom occured at about the 25 minute mark.

Lepper:
Curiosity lead to Challenge (how to play game) which was too great. Control was difficult, negatively affected motivation. Recognition was not valued recognition (i.e. didn't care). Fantasy positively affected motivation.

Group Members: Antonia, Dilek, Kristina

Game: Avernum

0 Uncertain (didn't know rules of game)
  Felt challenged to figure out what to do first
2 Engaged (trying to figure out game)
  Fantasy because involved in fantasy world
4 Engaged (still trying to figure out game, not yet frustrated)
  Challenged because trying to figure out game
6 Engaged (learned how to do something new)
  Control because the player felt like she knew what to do
8 Pleased (learned how to get items)
  Control because the player felt like she knew what to do
10 Bored (didn't know what else to do at that point and achieving nothing with what the player was doing)
   Control because the player could do things in the game
12 Turned off (achieving nothing in the game)
   None of Lepper's motivational categories because the player didn't want to play the game anymore
14 Frustrated (didn't know how to fight and kept losing life)
   Control because the player knew how to do things in the game
16 Uncertain (didn't know how to get back inside)
   Control because the player knew how to do things in the game
18 Died because stole something
   Curiosity because still trying to figure out point of game

Most of the time at the beginning of the game was spent in the Pleasant, Arousal quadrant, while later in the game most time was spent in Unpleasant , Arousal. This was due to the fact that the player didn't know what to do and couldn't figure out the purpose of the game. If the player had known the rules of the game better, it may have been easier to figure out what to do and therefore, more time would have been spent in the Pleasant, Arousal state.

Keller's ARCS model would have said that the player had confidence and attention, but there was lack of relevance and satisfaction because nothing was accomplished.

According to the flow graph, the player remained varied between anxiety and boredom, but was seldom in flow because the player did not understand the goals of the game.

Lepper would have said that most of the game was spent in the challenge and control categories. The player figured out how to move the character and knew some of the other controls, but did not figure out how to fight correctly. The challenge arose from not understanding the purpose of the game and then continued when she did not know how to progress in the game.

Grace, Suzanne, Nelly and Mary

Game was Snood

0 - engaged, curious
2 - engaged
4 - content, interest went down due to lack of success
6 -content, no longer completely engaged, better understanding of the goal
8 - engaged, went to an easier level (child)
10 - engaged, pleased due to success
12 - engaged, at next level of difficulty, more confident
14 - engaged, better at strategy
16 - excited, found new backgrounds and began modifying game
18 - engaged, not motivated by competition of game
20 - content, could play for hours

Grace/John: As the confidence increased she felt more confident to have more challenge. Satisfaction was back after small success and increased the satisfaction.

Suzanne/Mark: Not cooperative, was initially curious, not involved with fantasy or identify with icons, control was important and fit in with skill level, the more hand eye coordination and strategy improved so as hand eye stuff became more automatic left more room for strategy. Recognition could be important, once skill level became worth bragging about.

Nelly/Mike: Started out curious, never had anxiety, having small successes encouraged continuous playing as level of difficulty increased. (Possible endless game playing opportunity.) Meshed well with player’s personality because she likes games like this and plays them often.

Ye Xu
Cynthia Paloma
Fenimore Johnson
Michael Pedersen

0 Engaged
2 Astonished (Confused by bomb symbol)
4 Engaged (Confidence up, happy with popping, relevance unclear)
6 Engaged (Uncertain by rules/symbols, not interested entering high score-Recognition?!)
8 Uncertain (checked tutorial to clarify confusion)
10 Alarm (Still unclear about symbols)
12 Team uncertain about adj.
14 Engaged(new graphics and preview of next shape appealing, clearer on rules, having fun)
16 Engaged (Increased confidence)
18 Annoyed/excited (Yah)
20 Excited (Bombs are the bomb)

ARCS:
A.Interesting graphics and animation, explosions, and happy about popping.
R. Lack of clear rules made the relevance of certain items/game elements unclear
C. Shortness of games made for increased confidence. First bomb decreased confidence due to unclear rules about symbols (bombs).
S. Up when popping (feedback), high score (in artificial environment not used but would have been). Celebratory arm motion when level completed coupled with sharp "YAH!!!!!"

Malone/Lepper:
Challenge: Increasing levels of difficulty helped engage the player. Clear goals. More speed and shape options added to challenge. Self Esteem increased as each series of connections "popped"

Curiosity:
Unclear on what symbols did. Decreased enjoyment until it became clear.
Control:
Significant control over placement however incorrect/suboptimal choices or environmental changes limited the control of placement.
Fantasy:
Emotional happiness when popping series of bubbles
Recognition: Not interested in posting name due to the artificial nature of the environment.

FLOW:
The progressive level of difficulty is closely matched with the increasing skill level of the player. The game is designed to be engaging and retain the interest of the player. It is difficult to determine if the player would have noticed the passage of time since she was made aware of the time every two minutes. She assumes she would not have noticed the passage of time. Although she was frustrated by small points, she still stayed engaged and gained more skill and confidence as the game went on. Most of her time was spent in the engaged, excited and pleased.

Edited by author 10-11-2006 12:43 PM
Motivational Analysis Exercise: Snoods

Player was a thirty nine year-old female that enjoys video games with her children.

0 Uncertain -
2 Uncertain - Experimenting
4 Uncertain - still trying to learn game
6 Annoyed - Guessing, but unsuccessfully
8 Annoyed – Still unsuccessful wants to quit
10 Pleased - some success
12 Annoyed - hard to make sense of rules
14 Annoyed – losing interest
16 Engaged – seems to be figuring things out
18 Engaged – high score
20 Engaged
22 Engaged –
24 Engaged – another high score wanted to continue

Player spent nearly equal amounts of time between the Aroused/Unpleasant and Pleasant/Aroused quadrants of the matrix.

Csikszentmihalyi and Flow:

The initial difficulty of the game caused by the uncertainty of the rules created anxiety which prevented flow from happening. Once the rules were figured out and the player developed some strategies that were successful, she began to relax and enjoy the game. Player reached flow at about the 16 minute mark and remained there for the duration of the time.

Snood
27 Year Old Male
0 Uncertain - not sure what to expect
2 Uncertain - trying to figure it out
4 Uncertain - doing things more by chance, trial and error
6 Engaged - found some things that work and applying those theories
8 Engaged - having success
10 Annoyed - misinterpreted a techinique and hindered progress
12 Engaged - back to some success
14 Pleased - more success
16 Pleased - more success
18 Angry - made a foolish move
20 Engaged - wanted to play more and master it

ARCS
Attention - the icons and images, the breaking of matches, interesting character graphics
Relevance - no real relevance except for entertainment and fun, the "what's in it for me?" question seems to answered with obtaining a high score and mastering levels, personal satisfaction
Confidence - confidence was built once the rules were figured out and patterns were determined so the lines would break on matches
Satisfaction - breaking lines, finding success

Edited by author 09-24-2007 09:27 PM
Dope Wars: Koreen, Serena, James, Erikheath

0 - Engaged. Hugh has no confidence, he's clicking around aimlessly. Player seems a bit confused.
2 - "Confused" Uncertain: Player was incapable of achieving goals. He meandered around the screen uncertain of what to do or how the interface operated relative to the control he wanted to exert. Hugh said, "Oh wait, it doesn't make sense!" The relevance seemed low.
4 - "Confused" Uncertain: Still incapable of achieving goals. Still in exploratory mode - curious
6 - Pleased: Just achieved challenge of buying gun. Player is enjoying game more because he understands it more. Player seems to be intrigued with the experience of buying drugs, a experience that is not ordinary to the player. Exertion of control via understanding how to operate the interface.
8 - "Good" Pleased, Engaged: Player was able to meet the challenge of making a profit. The elements of control, challenge, and fantasy were evident at this moment.
10 - "Good" Excited, Engaged: The player reported he figured out the game, yet he didn't seem to know what the overall goal was, but didn't seem to care. He was making money and that was good enough satisfaction for him.
12 - Same as above: Now more engaged into the fantasy aspect of the game with mentions of strategy. The relevance seemed high in his behavior. He paid off his loan and sold all of his drugs. Exclaimed that he was no longer a drug dealer. Relevant to his own values?
14 - Same as above: Found out new dimension (loan shark) which added new challenge.
16 - Engaged: Player expresses control of most of game mechanics and now is focused on learning more to do better next time. The wow factor has seemed to have worn off and the player is just focused on making money, not the actual drugs anymore.
18 - Engaged, Pleased: Player knows more and is exhibiting more focused play
20 - "Focused" Excited, Engaged.

Edited by author 09-24-2007 09:30 PM
The following graph shows our user's quadrant location over time
http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c226/_ym/MyPicture.jpg

Daniel Novak
Yaxha Mancillas
Yong Chen
Rosina Guerra-Lunceford
Ruth Maas

As our graph shows, the game causes periodic fluctuations amongst quadrants 1,2, and 4. This implies periodic un-pleasure intersperesed with pleasure, and periodic un-arousal interspersed with arousal.

Based on the ARCS model:

A - The game's colors and motion and action, as well as the rapidity of the problem solving issues causes motivational engagement. Dependent on skill and luck, so it keeps you playing.

R - The game is not directly relevant to physical reality, but it has rules and problem solving strategies that can lead to success within the game's internal world, and according to the game's internal logic.

C - The game's varying difficulties and problem sets allows the user to feel alternating confidence and unconfidence. This keeps the player interested and motivated but also challenged. Elements of personal control play into the game, as well as playing within a 'safe space.'

S - The game's periodic rewards keep the user satisfied and allows them to continue.