Play Teaches Learning?

Abstract

To provide ideal learning environments for a wider audience, game designers must understand differences in how experienced and less experienced players learn new games. Using a sample of players with different experience levels, our goal is to understand learning processes for a simple real-time strategy game. Data from observations, post-game interviews, and eye movement recordings indicate that the majority of study participants relied on a trial-and-error approach, with more experienced gamers using a structured mental model involving feedback and expectations about making progress. Specifically, experienced gamers in the sample tended to use a top-down learning style emphasizing connections between goals and available actions, and to focus on the functions of game objects. There are also interfaces in which all experience levels of participants share the same opinion. For example, alarming voices/sound effects can catch their attention and be helpful while pop-ups are largely annoying.