Adapting Cognitive Task Analysis to Elicit the Skill Chain of a Game

Britton Horn; Seth Cooper; Christoph Sebastian Deterding

doi:10.1145/3116595.3116640

Adapting Cognitive Task Analysis to Elicit the Skill Chain of a Game

Britton Horn, Seth Cooper, Christoph Sebastian Deterding

Theatre, Film, TV and Interactive Media

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution

Abstract

Playing a game is a complex skill that comprises a set of more basic skills which map onto the component mechanics of the game. Basic skills and mechanics typically build and depend on each other in a nested learning hierarchy, which game designers have modelled as skill chains of skill atoms. For players to optimally learn and enjoy a game, it should introduce skill atoms in the ideal sequence of this hierarchy or chain. However, game designers typically construct and use hypothetical skill chains based solely on design intent, theory, or personal observation, rather than empirical observation of players. To address this need, this paper presents an adapted cognitive task analysis method for eliciting the empirical skill chain of a game. A case study illustrates and critically reflects the method. While effective in foregrounding overlooked low-level skills required by a game, its efficiency and generalizability remain to be proven.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	CHI PLAY'17
Publisher	ACM
Number of pages	13
ISBN (Print)	9781450348980
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1145/3116595.3116640
Publication status	Published - 1 Aug 2017
Event	The ACM SIGCHI Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play - Parkhuis de Zwijger, Amsterdam, Netherlands Duration: 15 Oct 2017 → 18 Oct 2017 https://chiplay.acm.org/2017/

Conference

Conference	The ACM SIGCHI Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play
Abbreviated title	CHI PLAY 2017
Country/Territory	Netherlands
City	Amsterdam
Period	15/10/17 → 18/10/17
Internet address	https://chiplay.acm.org/2017/

Bibliographical note

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10.1145/3116595.3116640Licence: Other

Horn-Cooper-Deterding-CTAGAMES
Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than the author(s) must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]. CHI PLAY ’17, October 15–18, 2017, Amsterdam, Netherlands ©2017 Copyright is held by the owner/author(s). Publication rights licensed to ACM. ACM ISBN 978-1-4503-4898-0/17/10. . . $15.00 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1145/3116595.3116640
Accepted author manuscript, 762 KBLicence: Other

The Digital Creativity Hub
Cowling, P. I. (Principal investigator), AUSTIN, J. (Co-investigator), CAIRNS, P. A. (Co-investigator), HOLLIMAN, N. S. (Co-investigator), HOOK, J. D. (Co-investigator), MARSDEN, E. (Co-investigator), MURPHY, D. T. (Co-investigator), PETRIE, H. (Co-investigator), REED, D. J. (Co-investigator), Richards, J. D. (Co-investigator), URSU, M. (Co-investigator), WADE, A. (Co-investigator), BAIER, H. (Researcher), BEALE, G. (Researcher), BLOCK, F. O. (Researcher), DETERDING, S. (Researcher), DRACHEN, A. (Researcher), Devlin, S. M. (Researcher), KASPROWICZ, R. E. (Researcher), SMITH, D. (Researcher) & WILLIAMS, D. A. H. (Researcher)
EPSRC
1/10/15 → 30/09/22
Project: Research project (funded) › Research

Cite this

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title = "Adapting Cognitive Task Analysis to Elicit the Skill Chain of a Game",

abstract = "Playing a game is a complex skill that comprises a set of more basic skills which map onto the component mechanics of the game. Basic skills and mechanics typically build and depend on each other in a nested learning hierarchy, which game designers have modelled as skill chains of skill atoms. For players to optimally learn and enjoy a game, it should introduce skill atoms in the ideal sequence of this hierarchy or chain. However, game designers typically construct and use hypothetical skill chains based solely on design intent, theory, or personal observation, rather than empirical observation of players. To address this need, this paper presents an adapted cognitive task analysis method for eliciting the empirical skill chain of a game. A case study illustrates and critically reflects the method. While effective in foregrounding overlooked low-level skills required by a game, its efficiency and generalizability remain to be proven.",

author = "Britton Horn and Seth Cooper and Deterding, {Christoph Sebastian}",

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doi = "10.1145/3116595.3116640",

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AU - Horn, Britton

AU - Cooper, Seth

AU - Deterding, Christoph Sebastian

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N2 - Playing a game is a complex skill that comprises a set of more basic skills which map onto the component mechanics of the game. Basic skills and mechanics typically build and depend on each other in a nested learning hierarchy, which game designers have modelled as skill chains of skill atoms. For players to optimally learn and enjoy a game, it should introduce skill atoms in the ideal sequence of this hierarchy or chain. However, game designers typically construct and use hypothetical skill chains based solely on design intent, theory, or personal observation, rather than empirical observation of players. To address this need, this paper presents an adapted cognitive task analysis method for eliciting the empirical skill chain of a game. A case study illustrates and critically reflects the method. While effective in foregrounding overlooked low-level skills required by a game, its efficiency and generalizability remain to be proven.

AB - Playing a game is a complex skill that comprises a set of more basic skills which map onto the component mechanics of the game. Basic skills and mechanics typically build and depend on each other in a nested learning hierarchy, which game designers have modelled as skill chains of skill atoms. For players to optimally learn and enjoy a game, it should introduce skill atoms in the ideal sequence of this hierarchy or chain. However, game designers typically construct and use hypothetical skill chains based solely on design intent, theory, or personal observation, rather than empirical observation of players. To address this need, this paper presents an adapted cognitive task analysis method for eliciting the empirical skill chain of a game. A case study illustrates and critically reflects the method. While effective in foregrounding overlooked low-level skills required by a game, its efficiency and generalizability remain to be proven.

U2 - 10.1145/3116595.3116640

DO - 10.1145/3116595.3116640

M3 - Conference contribution

SN - 9781450348980

BT - CHI PLAY'17

PB - ACM

T2 - The ACM SIGCHI Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play

Y2 - 15 October 2017 through 18 October 2017

ER -

Adapting Cognitive Task Analysis to Elicit the Skill Chain of a Game

Abstract

Conference

Bibliographical note

Access to Document

Projects

The Digital Creativity Hub

Cite this