Understanding and Evaluating Cooperative Video Games

Candidate: Bardia Aghabeigi
Type: Master of Science (MSc), School of Interactive Arts and Technology
Date: February 21, 2011
Senior Supervisor: Dr. Magy Seif el-Nasr
Thesis: Download Thesis Document

Abstract

Cooperative design has been an integral part of many digital and table top games since their inception. WIth the recent success of games like Resident Evil 5 (Capcom, 2008) and Left4dead (Valve, 2008), many video game designers and producers are currently exploring the addition of cooperative patterns within their games. Unfortunately, very little research investigated cooperative design patterns or methods to evaluate their effectiveness withing games [1]. In this thesis, I present two contributions. First, I present a set of cooperative design patterns, I extracted through several play sessions of successful commercial cooperative games, including Left4dead and Halo3 (Microsoft 2009). This framework can be used by game designers to add co-op content in their games. Second, I present a set of validated performance metrics that can be used to gauge the users' experience in a cooperative game. The set of performance metrics were developed through a large scale research studey involving several researchers, including several researchers at EMIIE Lab at Simon Fraser University. in this study, we developed the performance metrics. I then applied them to evaluate four commercial cooperative games: Rockband 2 (Harmonix - 2008), Lego Star Wars (Eidos Interactive - 2007), Kameo: Elements of Power (Microsoft Game Studio - 2005), and Little Big Planet (Sony Computer Entertainment Europe - 2008). I further validated these metrics through a qualitative content analysis study where I investigated the relationship between the metrics we derived and the metrics that game reviewers, both experts and non-experts, use to review the same games.