Video and online gaming is an enjoyable activity by many individuals and can also play an important role in dealing with life difficulties, e.g., one turns to gaming to escape from reality due to an overwhelming circumstance. The thought of an avid gamer may give the impression of a social loner, but games can actually be quite communal activities. A study found that individuals were drawn to gaming for many reasons that include three main components (Yee, 2006): achievement (to gain power and symbols of wealth or status in the game), social (to be part of a group for social supports through teamwork), and immersion (factors that relate to discovery of information that other players are unaware of and the ability to role play and customize a persona). Gaming improves cognitive function and establishes connections.
This review presents the background, methodology, results, and recommendations of a heuristic evaluation of an online social game Governor of Poker 3 (GOP3). The heuristic inspection was based on four modules (usability, playability, accessibility, and sociality) with a total of 57 heuristics. Game usability is defined as “the degree to which a player is able to learn, control, and understand a game” (Pinelle et all, 2008); Playability “is formed through game usability and gameplay aspects, which are both designed and programmable properties of the game” (Paavilainen et all, 2008); Accessibility “concerns the aspects that ensure the game can be used by all potential players” and Sociability is “concerned with the social dynamics implemented by the game” (Amaro et al, 2016). As heuristic evaluation can serve as useful tool, the goal of the review is to apply the aforementioned principles as guidelines to measure the effectiveness of the GOP3.
Except for accessibility, the results of the review showed that most heuristics were verified for usability. Three issues that required immediate attention are related in the interface not being able to be adjusted. To be able to immerse fully in a game, one would need to have the full access of the environment of the game. There are many benefits to a good user interface, and this is the game’s greatest tool in attracting and converting players.
Background & Methodology
Background
Governor of Poker 3 is a multiplayer social poker game with progression. The journey to becoming a poker pro starts as a cowboy poker rookie at the Beginners Lake (Figure 1) and work all the way up to become a high roller to play with millions of chips. The ultimate goal is to become a VIP+ owing 20B+ chips, winning high stakes Western games at the Billionaires Saloon in The Strip. Features include welcome packages, 7 different poker formats (cash games, Sit & Go tournaments, Spin & Play, Heads Up Challenge, Push or Fold with Royal Poker, Nolimit and Pot Limit), poker teams to team up for rewards and make friends to compete against other teams and challenges, blackjack 21, missions to complete then claim rewards, distinguish oneself by winning rings and badges or trophies, talk with other players through chat and animated emoticons or use them to bluff or taunt. GOP3 can be play from mobile device, tablet, laptop, and desktop.
Figure 1. GOP3's Beginners Lake
Methodology
This review used a 4-module set of heuristics (Usability, Playability, Accessibility, and Sociability) from a paper that was presented at the International Conference on Technology and Innovation in Sports, Health, and Wellbeing at UTAD, Vila Real, Portugal (Amaro et al, 2016).
Table 1. Description of Usability, Playability, Accessibility, and Sociability Heuristics
Results
Heuristic Evaluation
The results were recorded using checklists and pie charts for each one of the 4-module categories. The heuristics were indicated as verified or refuted with “Yes” or “No” options. A third option, “NA”, is to be used if the question is not relevant to the game (Table 2–5 & Fig. 1). A severity scale was also used to allocate the most resources to fix the most concerning issues and to provide an estimate of the need for additional efforts (Table 6).
Table 2. Checklist for Usability Heuristics
Table 3. Checklist for Playability Heuristics
Table 4. Checklist for Accessibility Heuristics
Table 5. Checklist for Sociability Heuristics
Figure 2. Part-to-whole relationship of the checklist results for each category.
Table 6. Severity Scale
Usability Heuristics
It can be observed from Table 2, Figure 2, and Table 6 that most heuristics were verified for usability except for heuristic U8: Interface and/or layout cannot be adjusted, e.g., game window cannot be expanded. Table 2 also shows heuristic U27 with the red checkmark for not providing “context sensitive help while playing”, however, this is not a concern as getting help while playing poker is not relevant so there should be none during the game.
Playability Heuristics
Table 3, Figure 2, and Table 6 also show that most heuristics were verified for playability, with the exception for heuristic P10, the game is not replayable, which is also not relevant for the rule of poker.
Accessibility Heuristics
The results for accessibility heuristic from Table 4, Figure 2, and Table 6 present the biggest concern for GOP3 with two out of seven heuristics in poor rating. Heuristics A3 and A4 state the non-adjustable pointer size and interface/game elements are also not adjustable.
Sociability Heuristics
GOP3 performed the best with the sociability heuristics having perfect scores from Table 5, Figure 2, and Table 6. Figure 3 below shows why this is a sociable game.
Figure 3. A game in the High Rollers Valley’s Red Rock Saloon.
Overview of Recommendation and Impact
Below are suggestions for the findings with bad and poor ratings from Severity Scale (Table 7).
Levels of impact:
- High – may prevent the user from completing a task or accessing information
- Moderate – might cause the user difficulty but the task could be completed
- Low – minor problems that would not significantly affect task completion
Reflection
The 4-module heuristic evaluation discovered issues with individual elements and showed how they impact the overall user experience for the GOP3. As it is a social game, the heuristic set was chosen to focus on the usability, playability, accessibility, and sociability categories. The results showed that the heuristics generated overall good scores for usability, playability, and sociability, but improvement is needed for accessibility. Enhancing the interface to be adjustable would be ideal for better gaming experience as the user interface and experience are two major factors that contribute to a game’s success.
References
Amaro, A. C., Veloso, A. I., & Oliveira, L. (2016, December). Social games and different generations: A heuristic evaluation of Candy Crush Saga [Paper presentation]. TISHW – International Conference on Technology and Innovation in Sports, Health and Wellbeing. doi: 10.1109/TISHW.2016.7847791
Paavilainen, J., Korhonen, H., Koskinen, E., & Alha, K. (2018). Heuristic evaluation of playability: Examples from Social Games Research and Free-to-Play Heuristics. Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/oso/9780198794844.003.001
Pinelle, D., Wong, N., & Stach, T. (2008, April 5-10). Heuristic evaluation for games: Usability principles for video game design [Paper presentation]. Proceeding of the twenty-sixth annual CHI conference. doi: 10.1145/1357054.1357282
Yee, N. (2006). Motivations for Play in Online Games. CyberPsychology & Behavior, 9(6), 772-775. http://doi.org/10.1089/cpb.2006.9.772
