Combining Cooperative Design Patterns to Improve Player Experience

Lachlan Bunker & Reza Ryan Part of CW17

Previous research has identified several cooperative design patterns used to facilitate cooperation in games. The effect that these patterns have on player experience individually had been researched, and it has been found that closely-coupled cooperative design patterns have the greatest effect on player experience. However, no research has yet been done into the effect that combining these patterns can have on player experience. Therefore, this research investigates if combining closely-coupled design patterns can improve player experience. Three patterns were chosen to combine: limited resources, interaction with the same object, and complementarity. A prototype game was made for each combination and participants were asked to play the games, and provide feedback on their experience. The combinations were complementarity and interaction, complementarity and limited resources, interaction and limited resources. Based on the games used in the experiment, the results of combining patterns has shown no effect on player experience.