Design Research Methodology - Assignment 2

27/9/2022-12/10/2022 (week5-week 7)

Ng Jia Xien (0355062)

Design Research Methodology- Assignment 2 (Critical Review)

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Assignment 2

Instruction 

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Task:

Week 5

Recorded Online lectures on Quantitative & Qualitative 

Research tutorial

Week 6

Recorded Online lecture on Data Collection for Secondary Research - Critical Review

Week 7

Recorded Online lecture on Data Collection for Primary Research 

Selecting methods of data collection

First Article

Second Article

Third article

Fourth Article

Last Article

Critical Review 

Introduction

In the past few years, the online game industry has grown rapidly, and many new games have appeared in the game market. However, these games are very familiar in terms of content and gameplay. Under such circumstances, players can easily lose patience with the games, leading to the games losing competitiveness. As a result, there are few games that can be popular in the long term, and even fewer that can avoid losing new players. It is an established fact that game character design plays a major role in the process of user sustainability. Therefore, it is very important to study and research game character design to maintain the competitiveness of games. Here are five articles about the influence of game characters on game sustainability and how to maintain game competitiveness.

Summary

The first article study on game character design based on mythical motif, by Hyemin Park and Gapyuel Seo in 2019, they aim to analyse characters of League of Legends by doing extensive research on the mythological-based characters in League of Legends. In the process, they are focusing on the characteristics of each character and explain their external design. The analysis will include a reference of each character's external shape and abilities from the official homepage of LOL to provide an original and accurate concept design of mythology-motif MOBA game characters.

The second article was about a study on the influence of game character design on users’ continuous immersion, by Shi Lingxi Tian and Tack Woo in 2019. The purpose of this study is to explore the relationship between game character design and user immersion. Today's new games do not allow players to spend a lot of time on the game because they lack elements that attract users. The game character is the most important visual content in the game, so it induces the immersion of players. And through the survey of players, it is found that Chinese traditional style and cartoon style game characters are more likely to increase users' game time and gain players' attention.

Then, the next article is about the analysis of character design theory and learning of character design, by Hagung Kuntjara S.W. and Bethha Almanfaluthi in the year 2017. This article will explain the development of character design and its artistic and design aspects in a constructive way. These analyses can be used to better understand how game designers work and to come up with the right ideas for game characters based on the general idea of the game.

The fourth paper by Dong Woo Ko and Jihye Park 2020 examines the effect of congruence between gamers' ideal self-image and game characters on identity and interaction with game characters, perceived gaming ability and performance, attachment to game characters, and willingness to consume game characters.

Main Body (Critique)

The first article conducted by Hyemin Park and Gapyuel Seo was secondary research, and they explored the journal based on several other research journals and paper-type documents as supporting points. In addition, this is qualitative research as the researchers analyzed the game characters specified in the article from their personal perspectives and viewpoints, and even created their own game characters based on their analysis. It is a pity that this article does not include any data-based research sources, as well as any market or public surveys, and only analyses and research game characters based on other articles online and their own opinions. But the advantage is that the article is quite complete and comprehensive in explaining and organizing information about the mythological background of the game characters. Overall, it is an interesting but authentic paper that could be enhanced by some data investigation.

The second article is a study on the impact of game character design on users' sustained immersion, written by Shi Lingxi Tian and Tack Woo. This study used a primary research approach to audience research by means of a questionnaire. The worthwhile part of this article is the careful selection of the research subjects, as the opinions of players with long gaming experience will be more constructive and credible than those of the public. In addition, the data survey report is organized in a clear and understandable way. The downside is that there is no more in-depth research and analysis on the design of the game characters.

The third article studies character design in games and analyses character design theories by Hagung Kuntjara S.W. and Betha Almanfaluthi. The research method used in this article is qualitative research through a visual construct approach. The constructive approach was used to analyze the game character design theory and the method was used to understand how and why characters are designed by giving examples of character design analysis using the said theory. The feature of this article is that we can get to know and learn the workflow and creation style of professional game character designers. However, the game characters studied are not fixed, and their scope is so broad that the analysis of various game characters is not deep enough. On the whole, the scope of the research is too broad, and the overall theme of the article is not clear.

Next, we critically review the research paper by Dong Woo Ko and Jihye Park. The authors used second-hand information in this study, taking over the findings of others and examining and critiquing them. In addition, theories or hypotheses are generated because inductive reasoning is adopted and supported by empirical evidence. The article examines an online survey with a total of 347 online game players that was distributed through Mechanical Turk, a national crowdsourcing web service in the United States. Structural equation modeling was conducted using a maximum likelihood estimation procedure to examine the relationships among the variables. From the article, it can be found that the literature or data it draws on is very old, and as a report to study the game industry, the latest information should be used to ensure authenticity and correctness. However, the analysis and use of data in the article are worth studying. The author has chosen suitable data to prove his hypothesis and explain and strengthen it well, which makes the overall article still a worthy article.

Last but not least, there is the study of character design methods by Yu Kailin and Cao Yongqin. This is a quantitative study of character design procedures for American cartoons and anime and combines the authors' findings with concepts from product design theory such as mind mapping, formal association and combination, and color planning. In this article, the authors also propose a system called CDM and conduct an audience study to see if the system works. This article analyses the considerations of persona design in the first half. In contrast, the second half focuses on the CDM system and the data analysis report that analyzed the CDM system. Therefore, I do not think this is a particularly good article because the academic research and analysis parts are not in-depth and complete.

Conclusion

 Although there are many aspects of game character design, visual design is not only the first consideration of game character designers but also plays a role in visual stimulation. Therefore, the design of game characters is an important factor in determining the emotional attachment and preference of users to a game. Therefore, it can be said that the design of game characters is one of the most important elements of a game, and game developers display different types of characters inside their games to arouse the interest of users. Even the identity of the character becomes an important evaluation criterion of the game. As well-known game art material, character design in games requires knowledge and constant practice. Designing characters, game storylines, challenges, tasks, and surroundings are inseparable things in video games. As the protagonist of the game, the game character assumes an important role in conveying information about the game and the player. Game characters induce players to immerse themselves in the game. Nowadays, with the development of modern society, players' aesthetics of game characters are changing. Therefore, game designers need to consider players' preferences when developing future games. Designing game characters accordingly to players' hobbies and increasing players' interest in the whole game will make the game operate for a long time.

References

Ko, D. W., & Park, J. (2020). I am you, you are me: Game character congruence with the ideal self. Internet Research, 31(2), 613–634. https://doi.org/10.1108/intr-05-2020-0294

Kuntjara, H., & Almanfaluthi, B. (2021). Character design in games analysis of character design theory. Journal of Games, Game Art, and Gamification, 2(2). https://doi.org/10.21512/jggag.v2i2.7197

Park, H., & Seo, G. (2019). A study on game character design based on mythical motif : Focused on League of Legends. Journal of Digital Contents Society, 20(12), 2329–2340. https://doi.org/10.9728/dcs.2019.20.12.2329

Tian, S.-L., & Woo, T. (2019). Study on the influence of game character design on users' continuous immersion. Journal of Digital Contents Society, 20(6), 1097–1104. https://doi.org/10.9728/dcs.2019.20.6.1097

Kai Lin, Y., & Yung Chin, T. (2022, July). A study of character design method. Journal of Digital Contents Society, 15(1), 2022-1252. https: //www.ijoi-online.org/

Reflection

Week 5- I was changing my proposal every week, but it still didn't meet the lecturer's expectations, and I felt tired and frustrated every week when I received feedback. I thought about changing the whole topic, but I know we don't have much time, so I still have to keep trying.

Week 6- The lecturers are going to participate in events held on campus, so we are working independently this week. I am still working on completing my design research proposal.

Week 7- It was hard to find an article that was relevant and at the same time had to be up to date, and I spent a lot of time looking for it.