Whitby, Matthew ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3533-2841
(2024)
Designing for Perspective Challenging Experiences in Games.
PhD thesis, University of York.
Abstract
Digital games are seen to be highly appropriate vehicles for supporting reflection. Researchers and game designers have concentrated on creating reflective games, in particular, games that facilitate transformative reflection. However, before a person’s perspective can be transformed, it must first be challenged. Research around how perspective challenges are experienced by players, and what explicitly prompts reflective breakdowns is scarce. Therefore, this thesis aims to understand: (1) how games challenge players’ perspectives, (2) what kinds of experiences that entails, and (3) how to support game developers to design perspective challenges.
The first study involved participants reporting perspective challenging moments within games (N = 101). The results indicate that players identified perspective challenging moments in a wide variety of games, found them be enjoyable, thought provoking, and left a lasting impression. The second investigation utilised micro phenomenological interviews and systematic self-observation diaries to capture players’ lived experience (N = 16). The resulting ’Model of Perspective Challenging Experiences’ captures two types of perspective challenges: (1) endo-game (within the game) and (2) exo-game (outside the game). The model was applied towards reducing mental health stigma in two resources: (1) the ’Designing Games to Challenge the Stigma Around Mental Health’ white paper, and (2) the ’Challenging Perspectives on Mental Health’ (CPMH) Toolkit. The final study evaluated acceptability of the CPMH toolkit by observing game developers
using it in practice (N = 20). A content analysis confirmed that the CPMH toolkit successfully facilitated conversations and game ideation about perspective challenging experiences, where participants attested to the toolkit’s acceptability.
The thesis has four main contributions: (1) a definition for what a perspective challenge is, (2) evidence that perspective challenging experiences has two kinds of triggers: endo-game and exogame, (3) a model of perspective challenging experiences, and (4) two translational resources to support designing perspective challenging experiences.
Metadata
Supervisors: | Iacovides, Ioanna and Deterding, Sebastian |
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Keywords: | Games, Perspective challenge, transformation, reflection, game design, perspective, game experiences |
Awarding institution: | University of York |
Academic Units: | The University of York > Computer Science (York) |
Depositing User: | Mr Matthew Whitby |
Date Deposited: | 23 Feb 2024 16:59 |
Last Modified: | 23 Feb 2024 16:59 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:etheses.whiterose.ac.uk:34357 |
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Filename: DesigningPerspectiveChallengingExperiences_Whitby.pdf
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Supplementary Material
Filename: CPMH_Toolkit.pdf
Description: The CPMH Toolkit created as part of this thesis
Licence:
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial NoDerivatives 4.0 International License
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