A Postmortem on Playtesting: Exploring the Impact of Playtesting on the Critical Reception of Video Games

Pejman Mirza-Babaei; Samantha Stahlke; Günter Wallner; Atiya Nova

doi:10.1145/3313831.3376831

A Postmortem on Playtesting: Exploring the Impact of Playtesting on the Critical Reception of Video Games

Pejman Mirza-Babaei, Samantha Stahlke, Günter Wallner, Atiya Nova

EAISI Foundational

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution › Academic › peer-review

3 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Game studios aim to develop titles that deliver a fun and engaging experience for players. Playtesting promises to help identify opportunities to improve player experience and assist developers in achieving their design intent. However, a lack of research on the added value of playtesting means that many studios are still uncertain about its commercial viability and impact on product success. This gap in understanding is further complicated by the vague definition of "success" afforded by sales figures and review scores. In this paper, we assess reported feature quality of three commercial titles by analyzing playtesting reports and game reviews. By comparing themes and design issues expressed in game reviews to the results of pre-release playtesting for each game, we aim to highlight the value of playtesting and propose a set of guidelines for selecting playtest methods based on the needs of a given game evaluation. Through the real-world case studies presented, this paper contributes to the growing domain of games user research and highlights the value of playtesting in game development.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	CHI 2020 - Proceedings of the 2020 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
Publisher	Association for Computing Machinery, Inc
ISBN (Electronic)	9781450367080
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1145/3313831.3376831
Publication status	Published - 21 Apr 2020
Event	2020 Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, CHI 2020 - Hawaiʻi Convention Center, Honolulu, United States Duration: 25 Apr 2020 → 30 Apr 2020 https://chi2020.acm.org

Conference

Conference	2020 Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, CHI 2020
Abbreviated title	CHI 2020
Country/Territory	United States
City	Honolulu
Period	25/04/20 → 30/04/20
Internet address	https://chi2020.acm.org

Funding

We would like to thank the game studios who participated in this study and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC Discovery Grants Program -GPIN-2014-05763) for supporting this research.

Keywords

game reviews
games user research
playtesting

Access to Document

10.1145/3313831.3376831

Cite this

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Mirza-Babaei, P, Stahlke, S, Wallner, G & Nova, A 2020, A Postmortem on Playtesting: Exploring the Impact of Playtesting on the Critical Reception of Video Games. in CHI 2020 - Proceedings of the 2020 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems., 3376831, Association for Computing Machinery, Inc, 2020 Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, CHI 2020, Honolulu, Hawaii, United States, 25/04/20. https://doi.org/10.1145/3313831.3376831

A Postmortem on Playtesting: Exploring the Impact of Playtesting on the Critical Reception of Video Games. / Mirza-Babaei, Pejman; Stahlke, Samantha; Wallner, Günter et al.
CHI 2020 - Proceedings of the 2020 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. Association for Computing Machinery, Inc, 2020. 3376831.

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution › Academic › peer-review

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A Postmortem on Playtesting: Exploring the Impact of Playtesting on the Critical Reception of Video Games

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Keywords

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