Dungeon Crawling for Science! Game Surveying
During the experiment design phase, I have been chosen to conduct Game Surveying in order to find an appropriate play space for our experiment. I will be exploring dungeons in Skyrim to find the perfect setting for our VR/ controller experiment.
Intended Play Experience Goals:
A scary/ horror-like dungeon which is likely to elicit heightened psychophysiological responses
Which will allow us to collect impactful data across the three play conditions
Has effective use of jump scares, suspense, gore, blood and monsters
A ‘horror’ experience must be chosen appropriately to ensure participants are not humored or too frightened by the gameplay. Scary enough that we are able to get good data but not too scary as to deter participants from being involved through the full length of the study.
Is linear
To ensure that every participant experiences the same sequence of events for comparative data analysis.
Plays the same between VR and original game versions
To ensure that every participant experiences the same gameplay between conditions for comparative data analysis.
In addition to exploring Skyrim dungeons that already exist in the game I will also be searching for ‘scary dungeon’ mods (user-made). The main game focus of Skyrim is role-playing and exploration while our goal is to elicit Horror. By searching for user-made scary dungeons I hope to find an experience which is more tailored eliciting fear in its players.
I will also explore the possibilities of including mods which alter the play experience as a whole. Changes to lightning, effects, monster models etc may help to create a more impactful experience.
Predictions
From personal experience with this game I know ‘horror’ mods and dungeon levels do exist. I expect I will be able to find mods which suit our needs for players which have never played Skyrim before. I do have concerns that we will be unable to source participants who have played Skyrim before as their potential ‘horror’ responses will be compromised by their embedded expectations and familiarly with the game.
This expect this will require us to setup a participant collection survey (and appropriate sourcing methods) which allow us to find people who will not have preconceptions about ‘Skyrim as Horror’ to our experiment.











