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Enabling Social Play: A Framework for Design and Evaluation

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Evaluating User Experience in Games

Part of the book series: Human-Computer Interaction Series ((HCIS))

Abstract

This chapter focuses on evaluation and design for successful social play in digital games. It includes an overview of published work in this area and best practices gleaned from professional discussions and descriptions and presents a framework for thinking about an effective evaluation and iteration process. The framework includes issues such as identifying play subgroups and how they differ, interpersonal dynamics that can and should be leveraged and looked for in multiplayer play, hardware factors in supporting social play, and issues of external validity in evaluation of social play. It includes key challenges and work that remains to be done in this area.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Another factor that has not been addressed in this chapter is the large and complex literature on intrinsic motivational factors (such as personality and baseline arousal preferences) that would of course also come into play in social gaming situations. Readers are encouraged to explore this literature as well.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Polytechnic Institute of New York University, Brooklyn, NY, USA

    Katherine Isbister

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  1. Katherine Isbister
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Correspondence to Katherine Isbister .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institut de Recherches en, Informatique de Toulouse (IRIT), Université Toulouse III, route de Narbonne 118, Toulouse CX 4, 31062, France

    Regina Bernhaupt

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© 2010 Springer-Verlag London

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Isbister, K. (2010). Enabling Social Play: A Framework for Design and Evaluation. In: Bernhaupt, R. (eds) Evaluating User Experience in Games. Human-Computer Interaction Series. Springer, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-84882-963-3_2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-84882-963-3_2

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, London

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-84882-962-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-84882-963-3

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

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