I'm not gaming, I'm updating drivers

Well, I decided that I needed to test my new PC gaming rig with a retail title in order to see what the current state of the industry is. I haven't played a retail PC game in just over a year, I think.

I don't think I've completed a PC game since Halflife 2.

So, I fired up Steam, and after retrieving my old user name and password, I decided to purchase the standalone PC version of Portal. I already completed the Xbox version (I love the Orange Box) but I know that there is a level editor and a lot of community generated content to mess around with, so I plunked down the $19.95.

I also briefly explored the community features -- which felt pretty uninviting given the competition out there. As I mention below, Steam definitely reduces the friction of playing PC games, but really only for power PC gamers who understand that they need things like "drivers" to play games. I'm going to spend a separate post reviewing the community features in terms of their accessibility to the much wider casual games market -- one that the folks at Valve should be exploiting because they could clearly dominate in that space.

Anyhow, back to Portal. Upon launch, I received a warning that informed me that I really, really (REALLY) should update my video driver. I could skip the warning, but it seemed clear that I should do it. Luckily they had a handy link (they already knew what my system profile was).

I clicked the link and was taken to an nVidia web page. It wasn't too badly laid out -- though, again, it did focus on the core user. The top part of the landing page was dedicated to folks who knew the specs of their video card. Interestingly, the selector was prepopulated to a card that was NOT my own (even though Steam could have transmitted this data to the website). I wonder how many folks would have just hit "search" and wound up installing the wrong driver?

Luckily, I stumbled upon the below part that was more of a one click solution. It installed some sort of app that automagically detected what I had and filtered me to the file I needed to download and install. A few minutes later (and after signing up for email updates) I restarted my machine and am good to go.

Ah, PC gaming. The experience is getting better, but man, the process is still so fragile. Imagine the family bringing a box home from Costco, hooking it up, and having their game not work at all due to... well... they have no idea. If they were hard core enough to know about Steam (or the Windows game optimizer) they would still be bogged down in the process for hours while trying to get their machine up to speed.

Yeah, consoles have upgrades. But you never have to do more than just press the A button and wait for a reboot. No thinking required (except, of course, for modders and cheaters who don't want to have their shenanigans ruined by the latest update).

Steam: Taking behavioral based profiles to the next level

Lots of folks talk about profiles and personas when trying to perform User Centered Design. Obviously these techniques can help designers (and usability folks) make better decisions and recruit relevant participants in order to verify that they are serving their client needs.

I love (love) the fact that Valve are providing so much game play data via their Steam website. Obviously the data aren't presented in as comprehensive a fashion as the folks do at Bungie or on the WoW stat site but it still provides a great service to players who want to study the game and improve.

Looking specifically at the Team Fortress 2 stats, you can begin to break down behavioral profiles that can potentially be unpacked to reveal what motivates different gamers. There's already a natural experiment in that the class based system allows for multiple gaming experiences. Take a look at the top 3 most played classes (Scout, Engy, and Soldier) and the 3 least played classes (Spy, Pyro, and Medic) and then take a look at the subsequent charts that reveal behavioral differences amongst the classes:

• Point scoring isn't the only form of motivation for players:
  
• Note that one of the most popular classes (Engy) is the lowest average point scoring class.
• Note that the 3 highest scoring classes (Sniper, Heavy, and Spy) are not amongst the most played classes.
• That said, Flag Captures are obviously hugely rewarding:
• Scouts are the most popular class, dominate in flag caps, but score the least overall kills and overall points.
• Assists (which contribute to total points) are not hugely rewarding:
• Note that Medics dominate the assists category, but they are the least favored class. This may be compounded by the fact that Medics seem to be getting ONLY assists and not any other points (even though they dominate assists, they are in the bottom tier of overall scoring).
• Engy's are, simply, a different breed:
• They are one of the most popular classes, yet score middle to lowest in almost all reported scoring categories.
  
• However, they do tend to live longer than all other classes. Maybe there are just some folks who like the slow plodding support function that the Engy class offers.

Of course, there are many structural variables that complicate these assessments. Game play is competitive and this means that teams generally have a set number of slots for each class (no one wants an all-Medic team) so there are some artificial constraints. There are no explicit "satisfaction" measures (e.g., reports on how "happy" or "sad" people are after playing a session as one particular class) and there are also no data on class monogamy/polygamy (e.g., which players select only one class, which players rotate through a few, and which players will play 'em all).


What I'd hope to unpack (if I were able to tap the data and add some additional instrumentation) was what motivated people to choose certain classes when they could freely decide? And, what can be done to make less desirable classes more fun for folks to play when they need to take one for the team in order to fill a session and get a game started? In other words:

• Tease out the core play style motivations and preferences in order to generate a nice set of classes and gameplay mechanics that will be welcoming to a wide diversity of gamers.
• Tease out the social reward structure (points, kudos, etc) that will encourage gamers to pick up and play and have a good time even if they need to play a less desired class.
  

Pure genius...

Don't click unless you've completed Portal (from the Orange Box).

Jonathan Coulton sings Still Alive.

Brilliant work.

More Half Life 2 goodness (and some thoughts re: RPGs)

I'm blowing through Half Life 2. It's obviously not as fun as the first time through, but there's enough excitement there to keep me going. And, I can't wait for the new content (Episodes 1 and 2). One thing I had forgotten -- the bridge sequence. I've felt vertigo in other games when I stood on the edge of a cliff. But this game takes that whole feeling to the next level. Emotionally, I felt as stressed out as I think I would actually feel if I were walking around the scaffolding of a bridge without any safety harness. It's that compelling.

Valve just gets so many other little things right, too. On the one hand they create core mechanics that are fun to execute over and over in the little sandboxes they set up. Every encounter is a puzzle that can be solved through the basic shooting, walking, jumping, and lifting actions of Gordon Freeman. On the other hand they script sequences that help advance the plot and add in some truly rewarding (and sometimes HFF) moments. Taken together, it is a wild ride that makes you really feel clever for solving puzzles even though (in the background) they are handing you the pieces and showing you ghost images of how to place them. You just never really notice it until you sit back and start to break it down. Impressive.

Switching gears, it's time to start thinking about RPGs again. Between Mass Effect, Eternal Sonata, Blue Dragon, and Puzzle Quest, I should be doing a fair amount of this kind of gaming in the near future. So, what are the components that make up a great RPG?

• Combat: Controls, Camera, Feedback. Feeling (moment-to-moment; preparation; post combat cleanup)
  
• Exploration: Where am I? Where do I want to go? Is getting there half the fun?
• Story advancement: Do I understand the story? Do I care about the story? Are my goals clear and interesting? How do I keep track of them?
  
• Character advancement: Do I get the right amount of leveling, choice, and growth?
• Environmental interaction: How do people and things react to me? How do my actions get reflected in the world? How does the world and its denizens communicate combat, exploration, story advancement, and character advancement to me?
• Economy: What are the collectibles (items, people, things)? How and when do I manage them? Are these all character based or is there some meta economy as well?
  
• Accessibility: How do we ensure that I get to see all the content? How do we solve for players getting lost or killed in battle?
  

I'm sure there's more. I'll need to work on refining this list as I go.

Updates

I just did a little maintenance to my right side columns. I'm also trading my Gamefly copy of The Simpsons Game for Golden Compass (the book).

Demo updates:

• Tried the Two Worlds demo for about 5 minutes. The controls and animations felt very last gen. The options UI was hard to read and use. My first encounter was with a bear that killed me. Buh-bye.

Games I'm playing updates:

• I finally stopped fooling myself re: Halo 3. There's no way I'm going to play through the single player campaign unless I do it co-op with a friend. There are simply too many other awesome single player games right now.
• I also stopped dragging my feet on Overlord. I strangely became quite attached to this fantasy RPG version of Pikmin. I loved the concept of minions and was taken back to the good old days of Wizardry III: Return of Werdna in that I got to play the bad guy. Anyhow, it's going back to Gamefly so that I can get my hands on the next game in my Q.
• I've decided (for now) to play through Half Life 2 again. I started off just showing it to my girlfriend and got caught up in it. I would like to see Episodes 1 & 2. It's just like I remembered it: Awesome!
  

Orange Box & Puzzle Quest... Oh, my!

Well, it looks like I may need to add Puzzle Quest (for XBLA) to my currently playing list. And, sadly, Overlord may have to be demoted to the "done with" section before I finish it because of the goodness that is Orange Box and my soon to be delivered Ratchet & Clank: Future Tools of Destruction. I just can't play as many games as I used to :(

Puzzle Quest is quite fun. Even though I skip through the story elements of the RPG (thank goodness the cut scenes are skippable), I do enjoy the strategic outergame that has been layered on. I haven't plumbed its depths, yet (I'm just getting started) but it seems like there will be some interesting layers of strategy to discover.

Orange Box just keeps getting better. I played through Portal a second time to try and find all the security cameras (I missed two) and had the pleasure of sharing the end credits sequence with my girlfriend. Hilarious. It's on "the youtubes" if you don't mind seeing a delicious spoiler. It reminds me of the fun we had recording the credits music to Rise of Legends and adds a level of polish that is truly Valve-worthy.

I then started up Half Life 2 again. I'd already played through he PC version, but wanted to show my girlfriend the opening sequences. It's as good as I remember it and I'm now at risk of playing it through again before engaging Ep. 1 and 2 (which I haven't played yet). Valve gets the importance of writing, learn-as-you-play, and polish. The only potential fault I can find is that their games are still not quite accessible to the complete newb to first person shooters. They're close, but not quite ready (I watched my girlfriend fail at Portal after getting so tantalizingly close to really "getting it"). Part of it is the really hard-to-solve issue of what to do with your right thumb (people who don't play FPS games like to hover over the face buttons instead of dual wielding the right stick to make look/move more fluid). Part of it is the lack of some sort of fail-safe tech where people can go for an explicit walkthrough of a puzzle/combat situation in order to keep moving forward when they become blocked and frustrated. Bioshock actually did a decent job of this second part -- offering 2 levels of help on objectives: "within fiction" journal entries (that didn't break the 4th wall) and hints for folks who were stuck (that had more explicit instructions without the fiction attached).

These are the delicious issues that the "usability guy" in me loves to sink his teeth into. Start with an already fun and polished product and take it to that next level.