How did games and psychology come together? 'Brain functions common to humans seen in the game UX community and their application to game design” [CEDEC 2024]

In recent years, psychological terms have come into use in connection with game design. At CEDEC 2024, a conference for game developers, there was a lecture about the process: ``'Human brain functions common to the game UX community' and their application to game design.'' In this lecture, we will discuss how games and psychology came to be related. He also talked about the importance of unifying the will within the company to improve UX.

The speakers are: Shinji Yamane

How did games and psychology come together? It is said that the use of psychological terminology in game design stemmed from a movement from ``Western game textbooks''.

You can make games without studying psychology, but when introducing various features to your work, the reason is that you can use psychology as a base to clearly explain the rationale, saying, ``Humans have evolved that way.'' , says Mr. Yamane.

For example, deciding on the length of a menu used to depend on personal experience and the amount of servings, but with the knowledge of psychology, it is possible to determine the length of a menu because humans can only remember up to this length. It can be clearly explained as "I made it." When skills and know-how are passed on from person to person, some things cannot be transferred through personal experience as mentioned above. It also assumes that both the person communicating and the person listening are literate. Even if someone in the arcade game industry tries to explain to someone who only knows mobile games why the work was a hit, it would be difficult to communicate because the knowledge and terminology held by both parties is different.
However,
“If psychological terminology is used as a common language,” such a generational disconnect will be less likely to occur. In recent years, game design courses have been held at universities, and the reason this is possible is because a language has been established that can be explained across generations.





Mr. Yamane says that the influence of psychological terminology in the game industry was due to the game maker Electronic Arts (EA).

First of all, two things that happened in the previous stage: Randy Pausch, a tenured professor at Carnegie Mellon University known for his "last class," took a long research leave to work at EA, and he shared his experience with "An Academic's Field Guide to Electronics." The results were summarized in a paper called ``Arts''. Furthermore, in 2007, EA acquired Bioware, whose founders were all medical doctors or university research assistants, and a doctor with knowledge of university education programs became EA's vice president. These are said to be the starting points.

Because games are a good subject to study human motivation, the Game Developers Conference (GDC), a conference for developers, had a series of speakers from psychological research think tanks.

Also, Mr. Will Wright, known for simulation games such as "Sim City" and "Sim Earth", gives a presentation every year about his new work "Spore" in which a psychology doctor participated in the game design, and other scholars also use the same work as a subject. This was followed up with a paper published in 2013. In addition, In "Left 4 Dead," an experimental psychologist was hired to design the game.Hypotheses for the experience were formulated, equipment was created, and verification was carried out. The relationship between games and psychology has progressed, as demonstrated by Mr. Yamane, In the development of "Left 4 Dead," unique efforts were made in game development, such as creating a machine that measures psychological stimulation from the sweat of the players' hands. There is something reminiscent of research in the attitude of making the records public.




이제 대학에서 게임디자인 강좌가 열리고, 유저 경험(UX) 실험이라는 새로운 시점도 더해져, 게임 디자인의 교과서도 만들어지게 되었다. 그렇다고 해서, 게임 회사가 갑자기 사외 싱크 탱크를 사용했다고 해도, 단점이 발생할 수 있다라고 한다.

게임 디자이너와는 흔히 자신이 하고 싶은 대로 일을 진행하는 인종이며, 작품의 내용에 구출되는 것을 싫어한다. 게다가 상대가 사외 싱크 탱크가 되면 더욱더, 결과적으로 게임 디자이너는 구출되는 계기(테스트 플레이 등)를 후회하게 된다. 실제로 싱크탱크가 의견을 내고도 "수정하는 것은 시간이 맞지 않기 때문에 그대로 발매한다"는 경우가 보인다고 한다.

또, 사내에 UX 디렉터를 고용해도 과제가 있다. UX를 ​​높이기 위해서는 회사 전체의 의지 통일이 필요하지만, UX 디렉터라고 하는 것은 「지금까지의 게임 회사에 없었던 직종」이기 때문에, 선배등의 연결로부터 가르침을 배우는 것이 할 수 없다… … 라고 하는 문제다.

덧붙여 심리학 용어를 사용해도, 잘못된 학설에 걸려 버릴 가능성도 있다고 야마네씨는 지적한다. 이것은 「남녀로 뇌가 다르다」 「우뇌와 좌뇌의 작용이 다르다」라고 하는 설이 가장 되는 것으로, GDC에서는 보수를 생각하는데 도파민설을 버려야 한다고 하는 논문도 나와 있는 등, 잘못되었다 학설을 정정해 나가는 대처도 행해지고 있다고 한다.

하지만 심리학에서도 UX에서도, 구미의 게임 업계가 극복해 온 배경을 밟지 않으면 새로운 성공은 전망할 수 없다. 게임 제작에 있어서의 새로운 개념과 어떻게 마주할지도 근래의 필요한 스텝일 것이다.

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