Dissertation: Introduction (part 2)

As promised here is the second part of my Dissertation Introduction. For the story so far please read the previous post, imaginitively titled 'Dissertation Introduction (part 1)' ...

The first part of the research will involve an investigation into the development of interaction devices over the thirty-five year history of the games industry. It is expected that this research will provide a clear insight into how the current generation of console controllers has evolved and help to predict how they might continue to develop in the future.

The research will then proceed to investigate new and emerging technologies in the field of interaction which have the potential to be applied to video game interaction in the future. The joystick has become synonymous with video games but its origins lie in the aircraft industry (Zeller Jr. 2005). At the other end of the scale as far as the home gaming market is concerned, accelerometers (the motion sensing technology behind the Wii Remote and the Sony SIXAXIS controller) have found numerous applications since first being used for collision detection in car airbag systems (Galvin n.d.).

Two areas of interactive technology have been identified at this stage for further investigation. Virtual Reality and Touch Screen technology are considered likely to have an effect on the future of the video gaming industry. In 2005 Sony announced that it had patented a non-invasive, theoretical notion which involves ‘transmitting data directly into the brain’ (Horsnell 2005).

Following this investigation it is the intention to evaluate the primary controllers of the three consoles of the current generation: the Microsoft Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii and Sony’s PlayStation 3. Choosing an appropriate evaluation method will be crucial to the success of this part of the investigation. What may have proven to be the ideal solution, an observation of users performing tasks, has already been rejected in the early feasibility study due to the lack of available time and other related difficulties.

The other issue of concern relates to the nature of the device being evaluated. Specifically, one design is intended to be used in different ways with many contrasting pieces of software. The behaviour of the device changes with the context in which it is being used. This makes it difficult to create a set of tasks for evaluation purposes which are a typical representation of how the device is used. At the current stage of the investigation this is an area for concern and it is hoped that a suitable method can be chosen following further research into the area.

It is anticipated that the main method of data collection and consequent evaluation for this investigation will involve surveying the opinions of people that play video games. The most appropriate method for this data collection appears to be a questionnaire. Questionnaires are cheap to implement on a large scale and can be designed to collect both qualitative and quantitative data (Dix et al. 2004, p.437). There are two considerable drawbacks of this method which are immediately apparent. The first is response rate and the second is time.

Administering the questionnaire to one person at a time could take up vast quantities of research time whereas administering by post and leaving selected participants to answer questions at their leisure could result in an insufficient quantity of respondents. To counter both of these issues it is hoped that access to classes of students can be gained. Using this method should not only allow participants to be supervised (ensuring a response) but also result in the collection of a large quantity of data in a relatively short period of time. The possibility of creating an online questionnaire targeted at games enthusiasts has also been considered.

Using this method would provide a first opportunity to implement this style of research. There is a large amount of literature available which discusses how best to create a questionnaire and perform an analysis of the data collected and this will need to be reviewed and considered before this section of the investigation is undertaken.

Scope of the Investigation

The research will investigate the control devices of home video game consoles. There is an important distinction to be made between game consoles and home computers that play games. It is beyond the scope of this investigation to consider the keyboard and mouse as games controllers because that is not their primary use. There are many examples of home computers that may have been purchased with the sole reason of playing games. For example, Sinclair’s ZX Spectrum, Atari’s ST and Commodore’s VC 20, C64 and Amiga computers all enjoyed commercial success and a large catalogue of games (Forster, 2005).

It is also acknowledged that in some cases peripherals such as keyboards, mice, disk drives and printers were produced as optional extras for machines that were primarily games consoles. Although the investigation will concentrate on the primary controllers of games consoles, i.e. those that were supplied with the original hardware, it is expected that this will not be exclusive and that other input devices will be discussed.

Care will also have to be taken that the control method remains the main focus of the investigation and not the consoles themselves or the game software. The latter is considered to be especially important because the controller is manipulated differently for each game. Although a device such as a universal remote may be used to control a TV, DVD and CD player, the functions are very similar whichever device is being used at the time. For example, pressing ‘PAUSE’ will have the same effect on all three devices. However, pressing the ‘A’ button on a gamepad can have any number of effects within the same game.

So that's the outline of the investigation. I do think it will be difficult to keep the focus of the study on the controller and not the game but it's good to set yourself challenges that you may not be able to overcome - at least not without great difficulty.

There is also a Google Calendar set up to accompany this project which outlines the timescales and milestones of the research.

References

• Dix, A., Finlay, J., Abowd, G. & Beale, R. (2004) Human-Computer Interaction, 2nd edn, Pearson Education Ltd, Harlow



• Forster, W. (2005) The Encyclopedia of Games Machines: Consoles, handhelds & home computer 1972-2005, Gameplan, Utting, Germany



• Galvin, G. J. (n.d.) Accelerometer applications converge



• Horsnell, M. (2005) Sony takes 3-D cinema directly to the brain



• Zeller Jr., T. (2005) A Great Idea That’s All in the Wrist