Suppose I Told You…

Suppose I told you (with you being a game developer or a major label video game publisher) that I could measure player enjoyment. Now, suppose I told you that not only could I measure player enjoyment, I could identify the hidden dimensions of player enjoyment so that you didn’t wreck a title with a crummy expansion.

It’s a horrible multi-phase process, but one that I know how to perform. It would take about a year for a large game with support from the publisher, but it’s very do-able.

The thing of it is, I can actually do this. Most people with a Master’s degree in scientific psychology can do it. Everyone with a PhD in research psychology can definitely do it.

So why isn’t it done?

There’s a way to make sure you don’t hand your players something they will hate. I am seriously baffled by the lack of interest in using social science to guide game development.