Why people watch video games | Starcraft from the Stands
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Why people watch video games | Starcraft from the Stands
- 1. 1 Starcraft from the Stands Understanding the Game Spectator Gifford Cheung, Jeff Huang The Information School, DUB Group University of Washington, Seattle
- 2. 2 Who are these people? How can we understand their roles and design for them?
- 3. 3 Spectators People who follow the in-game experience, but are not direct participants in the game.
- 5. 5 Understanding Performed Computing Designing the Spectator Experience (Reeves et al., 2005) Performing Perception Dalsgaard et Hanson (2008)
- 6. 6 Game/System Design “If the experience is entertaining enough, …people may even consider buying a console mainly for watching games” Drucker (2002)
- 7. 7 WHO are the spectators and WHY do they spectate? How do different STAKEHOLDERS affect the spectator experience? What makes spectating a game ENJOYABLE ?
- 8. 8 Overview • Pick a computer game, Starcraft(1998) & Starcraft II (2010) • Collect online self-reports about spectating (127 stories from game forums, social news sites, online videos, blog posts) • Analyze qualitatively, (Grounded Theory, Strauss & Corbin, 1990) – Themes of spectatorship – Spectator types (9)
- 9. 9 Why Starcraft? Starcraft is very, very popular and is spectated. Starcraft 1 (1998) 11 million units sold • Professional Gaming Circuit in Korea • 2 Dedicated TV Channels • Most popular game at the annual World Cyber Games Starcraft 2 (2010) 4.5 million units sold • Blizzard is sponsoring publicly broadcast tournaments aimed at an international audience. • Video channels online have subscriptions of 300,000+
- 11. 11 Commands are conveyed via mouse & keyboard conventions: left/right-clicks, drag- select, menu buttons, shortcut keys Your battleground is filled with resources (“minerals” and “gas”). Your units obey your commands to build, harvest resources, attack, move, etc… Units are specialized – harvesters, melee combatants, ranged artillery, aircraft, spell- casters, etc… (paper/rock/scissor dynamic) Your buildings expand your capacity to wage war: training new kinds of units, upgrading them, firing on enemies, etc…
- 13. 13 Fog of War
- 16. 16 Findings
- 17. 17 Nine Types • Bystander (uninformed) • Bystander (uninvested) • Curious • Inspired (to play) • Pupil (learning to play) • Unsatisfied (watching is a substitute) • Entertained • Assistant • Commentator
- 18. 18 Bystander (uninformed) Barrier to engagement: Lack of information what?
- 19. 19 Bystander (uninvested) Barrier to engagement: Lack of investment why?
- 21. 21 The Pupil Learning specifically to play ?
- 22. 22 Inspired Engagement: Seeking enthusiasm to play !!!
- 23. 23 Unsatisfied Watching is a substitute for playing sigh.
- 25. 25 Assistant Role: Helps the player
- 27. 27 The Crowd A Community of Spectation
- 30. 30 [ ][ ][ ][ ] The Work of Spectating A case of co-labor. Observer Camera- man
- 31. 31 Who is the performer? “Korean obs [camara men] are much better at making the spectating of SC2 more exciting. That was a great choice to NOT show TLO's [player] tanks [artillery] at the back door, and finally show it right as the roaches [units] get in range. … I've seen a lot of this stuff in Korean matches where someone is setting up an ambush or building lots of a surprise unit, and the obs focuses on other [parts of the map] and shows the stuff at the last moment.”
- 32. 32 "if I watch [videos] on youtube i use paper+ducktape to cover the scores at the top of the screen and the "time-tracker" or how you wanna call it at the bottom, so I don't know the scores and the length of the match... BUT: I have to switch to fullscreen - so I have to close my eyes so that I can barely see anything and quickly switch to fullscreen without seeing the score or the length of the [video].” The work in spectating?
- 33. 33 [ ][ ][ ][ ] The Work of Spectating A case of co-labor. Observer Camera- man
- 34. 34 What makes Starcraft enjoyable to watch?
- 35. 35 Information Asymmetry Player Information Spectator’s Information
- 36. 36 Information Asymmetry Player Information Choice of strategy Awareness of own army and buildings Spectator’s Information Vision of both players Access to the entire map Limited to what the observer cameraman can pick out
- 37. 37 Design: Enjoyable tension in games can be created by situations where information asymmetry exists.
- 38. 38 Information Asymmetry Player Information Known Spectator’s Information Unknown • Planned build order during the opening, especially “cheese” (unorthodox trick opening play) • Attack strategy, e.g. a multi-pronged invasion, distracting the front while dropping in behind defenses
- 39. 39 Information Asymmetry Player Information Unknown Spectator’s Information Known • The positions and compositions of opposing players’ units; enemy armies may unintentionally collide • Traps laid by one player for another, causing catastrophic damage at inopportune times
- 40. 40 Information Asymmetry Player Information Unknown Spectator’s Information Unknown • Outcome of a close battle • Unpredictable attacks: Reaver Scarabs (bombs) may fizzle or decimate an army.
- 41. 41 Our favorite design implication Given the priority of information, one might suppose that better spectating = more information
- 42. 42 Consider “spoilers” A spoiler is information that that prematurely collapses the desired game suspense for a spectator.
- 43. 43 Solution? Instead of,"how do we give more information to spectators?", as spectators participate in and co-construct their own experience as a body of viewers,
- 44. 44 “Where should we place control over the game information?"
- 45. 45
- 46. 46 Summary 9 Spectator types for Starcraft Uncovering the “Work” of spectating A theory of “Information Asymmetry” Design Idea: Information Control as an relevant consideration Future Directions Continuing discovery of spectating themes and types in other contexts. Further design inquiry
- 47. 47 Thank you! Questions? Photo Credits: flickr user vlidi, Attribution-ShareAlike http://www.flickr.com/photos/vlidi/380031730/ flickr user justinwdavis, Attribution-ShareAlike http://www.flickr.com/photos/justinwdavis/2853952950/
- 48. 48Released in 1998 and 2010 The following are extra slides
- 49. 49 Method
- 50. 50 Data / Methodology • Collected from gaming forums, blog posts, video comments, social news sites • 5 articles, 10 article comments, 8 blog posts, 36 comments, 39 forum posts, 19 videos, and 9 video comments. (Total: 127) • Analyzed via a Grounded Theory approach (Strauss & Corbin, 1990)
- 51. 51 Vicarious a champion of spectators (Huizinga, 1938)
- 52. 52 Communal Narratives “They get it back now to the 30, they're down to the 20... Oh, the band is out on the field!! He's gonna go into the end zone! He's gone into the end zone!!” Announcer Joe Starkley during the Big Game between Berkeley and Stanford, 1982.
- 53. 53 Designing the Spectator Experience (Reeves et al., 2005) Manipulation and Effects • ‘secretive,’ where manipulations and effects are largely hidden; • ‘expressive,’ where they tend to be revealed enabling the spectator to fully appreciate the performer’s interaction; • ‘magical,’ where effects are revealed but the manipulations that caused them are hidden; • ‘suspenseful,’ where manipulations are apparent but effects are only revealed as the spectator takes their turn.
- 54. 54 Bystander (uninformed/uninvested) “i remember watching AoE [Age of Empires] at the austrian WCG finals (never played it tho) it looked so boring, and when one of the 2 players left, i didnt even know why :D”
- 55. 55 Curious “Once I … learn all of this for myself, it will become far less fascinating, but right now it's all new and exciting.” “Before i thought SC was slow, ugly, and ponderous like a drunkin elephant, but as i watched pro gamers go at it, i realized that SC was fast, harsh, and hardcore. I started watching more and more commentary's[sic], learning more about SC then i had ever thought possible.”
- 56. 56 Inspired “Starcraft 2 played by experts is absolutely great to watch. I could definitely get behind some of the players out there. It actually makes me want to fire the game up and try the same shit.” “Watching all the talent and hearing all of these in-depth analyses of advanced strategy has inspired me to go buy the game myself and start playing playerVsplayer online for the first time.”
- 57. 57 Pupil “At the same time I learned the benefits of watching replays of matches where I’d gotten panned, because I’d always come away with some trick or idea (hard not to when SC2 lets you watch how your opponent moved his camera and cursor)”
- 58. 58 Unsatisfied “I started playing the single player game with my son and he is constantly bugging me to play so it is likely I will only get to watch him play and see the story”
- 59. 59 Entertained “On the other hand, I have never really played SC [Starcraft] but I enjoy watching it greatly. My girlfriend has never played games at all and she loves watching SC. Not WC3. [Warcraft 3] Why would that be?”
- 60. 60 Assistant “When Starcraft came out my brother always played it (since we had only 1 computer) and I would always sit next to him and helping him like telling him he is under attack in that section, your research is complete (I know the computer gives you this messages but you can't handle everything at once), it was like I was playing the in-game assistant.”
- 61. 61 Commentator “I really appreciate the insight [commentators] give on players, about their past accomplishments and how they've been doing recently, coming into a match. It's much more enjoyable when you know the players and the stakes.”
- 62. 62 The Crowd “I know if something insane happens, there's going to be an insane reaction. From the crowd, from the commentators, from the players and coaches even! The fact that there's a scene makes a huge difference.”
- 65. 65 Selected Spectating Themes • Spectating involves COLLABORATION Players showing awareness of spectators in play-style Camera-man role Commentator role (Formal & Informal) Spectators actively avoiding spoilers • Next: a theory of enjoyment: Information Asymmetry
Editor's Notes
- Hi my name is Gifford Cheung. I am from the iSchool along with my co-author, Jeff Huang. And everytime I see…. 5 sec By focusing on the people who watch games rather than the people who play games.
- http://www.flickr.com/photos/vlidi/380031730/
- Start with a simple definition, but we believe that we can draw more out of an empirical study about spectators and contribute to existing discussions on design and performance
- As we present our work, I invite you to consider it from two perspectives.
- This is a picture of a DJ who’s primary instrument is the computer. His manipulation of the device is a performance that accompanies the music that he produces. Reeves et al. sensitize us to a typology of performance by considering how “manipulations” and “effects” can be exposed or hidden from the spectator. We hope that our contribution can provide a concrete domain of interest for understanding performance and computing. Performing Perception—staging aesthetics of interaction Dalsgaard et Hanson (2008) carries Reeves et al.’s conversation further by thinking about the user as a simultaneous operator, performer, and spectator.
- Drucker, in a design-oriented paper, speculates that … “quote” Computer-simulated commentary, Cinematography techniques, and participatory broadcast technologies built into the game system So what we have is a lot of thinking about spectatorship in games, empirical studies of sports spectating, and Technical design ideas of improving spectating in games. We’d like to add to that conversation with a better understanding of who these people are. And we though to do that by studying Starcraft spectatorship
- We are directed by the following research question We could go via various CONTEXTS but we decided stakeholders
- Explain a little about Collection and transcription Why sc1 and 2 – at the time of our meeting
- We take from all of this public, and officiated, gaming implies that a similar amount of casual and private spectating is ongoing. Data collection crossed from a beta to release for SC2. This afforded us a chance to explore a wide variety of perspectives on spectatorship.
- I will take a few moments now to introduce Starcraft, as an understanding of its mechanics will go a long way in situating and making sense of our findings.
- The game interface displays a portion of the battlefield in an isometric view that players must pan around to control one’s active units and expanding base of buildings.
- A ‘fog of war’ limits each player’s visual information to only see what their units are in range of. Thus competing players possess incomplete knowledge of their opponent’s positioning and strategy.
- Now, I’d like to speak briefly about 2 spectating technologies and conventions in the game. [click] Replay files (.rep and .sc2replay) preserve every action by the player so that the game can be reloaded by the game engine to be watched again.
- [no click yet]‘Observers’ join games and are granted privileges to see everything. This allows them to watch a game in progress or to video-stream their screen to a larger public. Like the players, observers still need to pan [click] around the battlefield to see the action unfold. In these cases, as “camera-men”, observers must decide how to best direct the viewers attention. Today, an observer’s camerawok is often overlayed with audio commentary [click] and then shared and uploaded online [click]
- Now, on to our findings. Creating initial themes from the stories gave us markers for understanding each person’s story that we collected. From those markers, we clustered the people into spectator types.
- We have 9 – I will walk through each in a quick summary.
- First is the bystander, this person is removed from the experience due to a barrier of understanding. The game is incomprehensible and thus unable to engage him or her for long.
- This barrier Lack of investment Don’t care for stakes or for who wins
- The curious is the type whose engagement is dependant on acquiring knowledge: of the game, of strategies, etc..
- One sub-category of the curious that we encountered was the pupil. This specatator’s attention is specifically driven by a search for lessons that can be incorporated into one’s own play
- The inspired acquire a general sense of excitement about playing. It is not necessarily tied to learning a specific technique.
- One who sees watching as a poor substitute for playing
- The reasons for this enjoyment are as you might expect. the spectacle of battles and graphics, Clearly understood action, novel tactics the emotions evoked during competition We noted one particular theme that seems intrinsic to Starcraft that I will return to later.
- Providing advice or food.
- Provides a running commentary for the other spectators – We have seen official roles, unofficial broadcasts, and casual in-the-crowd commentary. If anyone watched a sports game with friends and has out-predicted a call. You may understand what we found.
- This category represent a sense of membership in a larger social experience that we uncovered in the data.
- At this point, we can return to our “Most Wanted” list and begin to ask directed questions about motivations for watching which will aid our understand and potential design-work. For example, it is interesting that the man with the yellow hat is in the crowd, but is looking directly at another audience member. If we could hear what he is saying, we could begin to map his interests to the types we’ve described.
- Next we would like to highlight two themes from our analysis
- Given this vision, it is valuable for the designer to expand his design awareness about ‘work’ to include more than just the player.
- Something to finish with. There are the expected answers to this question: an engaging narrative, good graphics, entertaining player personalities, etc… we’d like to focus on one that is particualrly interesting to the design of the system that we’d like to label “Information Assymetry”
- Next slide
- . Information asymmetry is the imbalance of information between the player and spectator, where due to the game design, one party is privy to some information and the other is not.
- We assert that… enjoyable tensions in games That is … unknown in the balance between player information and spectator information. We will have some examples that are a bit
- Since what buildings you have constructed dictate what units you can build. Spectator attention at the beginning of a game of Starcraft is focused on what the player decides to build. They must wait as each new building reveals the player’s prepared strategy. Similar questions arise when they must wonder about how the player plans to use the army at his disposal. Conversation at this point involves a great deal of “theorizing” about what the players intentions are, etc…
- Due to the fog of war, players can be unaware of impending collisions between their armies and the armies of their opponents. This kind of tension invites audiences to get wrapped up in a sense of tension, risk, and payoff. We have noticed in videos that include the audience reaction, audible exitement mounting when tensions like this arise.
- Both player and spectators wait for an outcome from the mechanics of the machine
- We have an HCI study of race rally attendees who stand at one corner of the race and really are hungry overall information about what is going on with the race overall. And we don’t dispute this “need for information” (SKIP if over time) However, there are cases where more information is undesirable.
- We have stories of players who sit down to watch a Youtube video by covering the progress bar with duct tape and when they have to maximize…
- Keeping the co-laboring aspect of spectatorhip in mind… We should ask in our design of the game and of the technologies surround a spectated game experience, ““Where should we place control over the game information?"
- Wait for a sec. This does not negate the important of information, but it Directs the designers to consider the nature of The coproduction of a spectator experience And to provide the proper hooks into that in The design of their system.
- http://www.flickr.com/photos/vlidi/380031730/
- Cultural anthropologist finds a culture of PLAY in the vicarious Culture / champion A playfulness ASK: What does it mean to be involved in spectating?
- SPORTS literature has empirical studies of spectatorship that suggest that spectators appreciate aesthetics, achievement (feeling good when the team did well), drama, escape (as an escape from life), knowledge (learning about the game), physical skills, social, and family. Research shows Commentators go a long way in producing an exciting experience…. Just having someone explain what is going on in a game can make it more enjoyable to way
- Manipulations and Effects Secretive {M hidden E hidden} Expressive {M shown E shown} Magical {M hidden E revealed} Suspenseful {M revealed E only just revealed} This shows that people have been thinking about spectatorship, studies spectating for non-digital games like sports, and design These are all grand ideas – you’ll see a lot of insight about design and outside studies about sports and theories about games. However, for the specific phenomenon of games spectating (especially digital games) we could not find an empirical study.
- (1) Spectating takes WORK I like to use the word ECOsystem to describe and interrelated network of relationships that produce a spectating experience. Even a small group in a living room has interdepedencies Ecosystem for information, emotion, social norms, players play for their spectators. Circles of Watching (*) – out-commentating Co-laboring in Spectatorship commentators and observer-cameramen labor to shape the experience for their consumers