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A trace-based approach to identifying users’ engagement and qualifying their engaged-behaviours in interactive systems: application to a social game

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Abstract

Analysing and monitoring users’ engaged-behaviours continuously and under ecologically valid conditions can reveal valuable information for designers and practitioners, allowing them to analyse, design and monitor the interactive mediated activity, and then to adapt and personalise it. An interactive mediated activity is a human activity supported by digital interactive technologies. While classical metric methods fall within quantitative approaches, this paper proposes a qualitative approach to identifying users’ engagement and qualifying their engaged-behaviours from their traces of interaction. Traces of interaction represent the users’ activities with an interactive environment. The basis of our approach is to transform low-level traces of interaction into meaningful information represented in higher-level traces. For this, our approach combines three theoretical frameworks: the Self-Determination Theory, the Activity Theory and the Trace Theory. Our approach has been implemented and tested in the context of the QUEJANT Projet. QUEJANT targets the development of a system allowing the actors of Social Gaming to analyse players’ engagement from an analysis of their activity traces. In order to demonstrate the feasibility of our approach, we implemented the whole process in a prototype and applied it to 12 players’ interaction data collected over four months. Based on these interaction data, we were able to identify engaged and non-engaged users and to qualify their types of engaged-behaviours. We also conducted a user study based on a validation of our results by experts. The high prediction rate obtained confirms the performance of our approach. We finally discuss the limitations of our approach, the potential fields of application and the implications for digital behavioural interventions.

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Notes

  1. According to ISO 9241-210, user experience refers to “a person’s perceptions and responses that result from the use or anticipated use of a product, system or service”.

  2. See http://www.selfdeterminationtheory.org for a list of practical applications of the SDT.

  3. YouRiding: http://www.youriding.com.

  4. In digital gaming, gameplay is a blanket term which refers to the structure, the dynamics or the interactive aspects of a game.

  5. Retention rate is the percentage of the people who used a service in month 1 and are still using it in month 2.

  6. kernel for Trace-Based Systems.

  7. http://www.w3.org/RDF/.

  8. http://www.w3.org/TR/rdf-sparql-query/.

  9. Define, Discover, and Disseminate Knowledge from Observation to Develop Expertise.

  10. When players register for the game, it is stipulated that their activity can be anonymously collected for the purpose of improving the service or the gaming experience.

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Acknowledgments

The research reported in this paper has been conducted within the QUEJANT project which involved the LIRIS Laboratory and the video games companies Corexpert, Intellysurf and Kiniro. Funding for this project was provided by a grant from la Région Rhône Alpes and Le Grand Lyon. The QUEJANT project was labelled by the french competitiveness cluster Imaginove. The authors would like to thank the reviewers and editors of this special issue for their insightful and constructive comments and suggestions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Université de Lyon, CNRS, Université Lyon 1, LIRIS, UMR5205, 7 Avenue Jean Capelle, 69100 , Villeurbanne, France

    Patrice Bouvier

  2. Université de Lyon, CNRS, Université Lyon 2, LIRIS, UMR5205, 5 Avenue Pierre Mendès-France, 69676 , Bron Cedex, France

    Karim Sehaba

  3. Magellan, IAE Lyon, Université Jean Moulin Lyon 3, 6 cours Albert Thomas, BP 8242, 69355 , Lyon Cedex 08, France

    Élise Lavoué

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  1. Patrice Bouvier
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  2. Karim Sehaba
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  3. Élise Lavoué
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Correspondence to Patrice Bouvier.

Additional information

A preliminary version of the approach described in the present article has been presented at the CSEDU 2013 conference (Bouvier et al. 2013a) and has received the Best Paper Award of the conference. A preliminary and shorter version of the implementation section was published at the ICALT 2013 conference (Bouvier et al. 2013b).

Appendix A: Information regarding the nature of engagement communicated to the three experts involved in the user study

Appendix A: Information regarding the nature of engagement communicated to the three experts involved in the user study

We communicated to the experts a document stating our position regarding the nature of engagement and describing, through simple examples, the four types of engagement that we have identified.

Note from the authors: the document was originally in French so we provide an English translation below.

Definition 1

(engagement) We consider the engagement of a player as the desire to have emotions, affect and thoughts directed to and determined by the mediated activity. This “engaged” state means in particular that:

  • The game arouses emotions (such as joy, pride, accomplishment, enjoyment or frustration) for the player.

  • The game occupies the thoughts of the player during the gaming sessions but also outside.

  • The player wishes to continue playing.

Thus, the engagement requires an intellectual and emotional investment from the player which goes beyond the discovery phase of the game. Engagement can be considered as a link between gaming sessions and between the sessions and the player.

Definition 2

(environment-directed engagement) The player engagement can be directed to the game environment. Such engagement includes two types of behaviours:

  • Contemplation: the player attaches importance to the aesthetic of the game (visual, sound), the scenario, the storytelling, the ability to ‘walk’ in the game, etc..

  • Curiosity: the player has fun in the discovery phase of the game, s/he likes configuring the characteristics of the game, s/he wants to understand the game mechanisms, to explore the environment, to discover hidden content, to get further information on the game, etc..

Definition 3

(social-directed engagement) The player engagement can be directed to the other players of the game. In that case, the player plays for example to:

  • Share moments with friends.

  • Connect with others players.

  • Feel the pleasure of social interactions (competition, cooperation) with other players.

  • Establish a position in the group.

Definition 4

(self-directed engagement) The player engagement can be directed to her/his character in the game. In that case, the player has fun in:

  • Managing her/his character.

  • Customizing and differentiating her/his character (name, gender, appearance, equipment).

  • Giving life to her/his character, creating a story.

Definition 5

(action-directed engagement) The player engagement can be directed to the action to carry out in the game. In that case, the player plays to:

  • Take up a challenge (set by the game or by him/herself), or to break records.

  • Feel a sense of accomplishment, skill or excitement.

  • Confront the difficulties and challenges.

  • Develop strategies, improve his/her technique.

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Bouvier, P., Sehaba, K. & Lavoué, É. A trace-based approach to identifying users’ engagement and qualifying their engaged-behaviours in interactive systems: application to a social game. User Model User-Adap Inter 24, 413–451 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11257-014-9150-2

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