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Telegrams for Game Experience Researcher! (Patreon)

Published:
2020-11-29 23:01:34
Imported:
2026-06
Tags:

Content

The guest for episode 77 of Broken Silicon will be a UX Researcher with experience working at a AAA Game Studio.  This person's job was to analyze gaming trends and gamer habits, and then work with developers on making a game the best it can be.

He has experience with what influences console/PC performance, the process of shipping a finished product, game design, and really anything involved in making a game!

This is the sort of guest I know many of you (and me) have been trying to get on for a very long time. Put your comments, questions, and concerns below!   Use good grammar, be insightful, and aim to be as thoughtful in your comments as possible - they just may get asked on air!

Comments

Angello

What trends and habits surprised you?

Jason Thomas

How much does console gaming trends effect the pc gaming space?

Guberian

How has the mainstreaming of video games affected the video game industry

MyySharona

First, thanks for coming on, it is really appreciated. I would like to contrast two industries, Music and Gaming. With Music, the industry seems to have a competent grasp of what ‘good’ music is (‘good’ could be defined as successful) and I would think that the gaming industry knows what would make a ‘good’ game. Could you describe what the formula for a good game was, say in the 90s or 00s, and what it has become today?

Joshua Rogers

Hi Tom and guest, I’ve noticed that a lot of the games that I play try to do very similar things, like have cosmetics you can buy, try to be always online, have an open world, etc. Do you think this type of consolidation is something we’re going to see more of?

Andy Crawley

Thanks for coming on. So lately I have had a problem staying interested in games long enough to finish them. They are mostly fun for the first half of the game but if I have to take a break, like work can be really busy, I don't play for a few days at a time, I end up having to force myself to go back to the game. Near the end seems almost grinding to try and finish. Have you seen trends like this and how have developers tried to fix this situation. Btw I'm a 32 year old with 2 kids and normal job. Been gaming all my life. This habit of mine only recently came about since like 6 years ago. Thanks

Tailsprow3r

With the splintering of how Microsoft and Sony will be delivering their first party exclusives (Game Pass vs $70 price with minimal/no MTX) did anything you found in player habits research show which of these approaches might be the one that wins out or is it mainly going to matter about the quality of games in the end rather than the price? Also do you think the subscription model will grow on PC if Microsoft succeeds? Services like EA Play have not really been taken by PC players yet.

Cleansweep

Two questions: 1) Do you think the industry has been doing a better job of addressing the UX issues around subtitles and onscreen text in the past few years? I remember multiple articles/GDC talks/forum threads about how AAA games generally don't do a great job on readability, and in general, it doesn't seem like AAA devs have done much to improve things like text size scaling, despite the prevalence of 55+in 4K TVs at 6+ foot distances from the player. 2) For AAA developers, are things like forums (on Steam or elsewhere) and game specific sub-Reddits the best conduits for getting information to and from the game devs? If not, is there even such a thing, especially when devs/community managers have to sift through tons of posts of highly variable quality?

dj5k

My question for the guest (but feel free to weigh in, Tom): What is/was your impression of Battlelog? (The Web Browser based UI to find matches in Battlefield 3) It seems I was in the minority back then to like using a web browser to search for a game and the game launching in the background until it's ready. I thought it was genius and would still prefer it over the messy and often badly designed in game menus.

UwUThatOneGuy

Hello dear Guest and Tom, my question is about Free2play Games. As F2P can only exist by monetizing something in their game, what type of monetization do you think, is the least harmful for all sociological groups in their playerbase (from kids who play fortnite to adults spending thousands in WOW...) here are three "categories" to start with please add more if u'd like: 1. the Progression-Booster type like Warframe, 2. the only cosmetics type and 3. the collector type like, lately, Genshin Impact. I wish u all a great time, Greetings from Germany.

RORYtheDAWG

Now that the most popular ray tracing capable gaming devices will all be running AMD hardware (consoles), do you expect their to be a gravitation in game studios to focus on AMDs ray tracing methods over Nvidias in order to optimize their games on AMDs less powerful hardware implementation? Or are big game studios more likely to just use minimal levels of ray tracing to ensure the game is playable regardless of hardware until we have a bit more maturity in the hardware ray tracing implementations across the board. Or, do you think their will be a split between PC focused studios and console focused studios in their adoption of ray tracing?

MyySharona

Thanks for taking the time to come on, it is great to have you. I would like to address the consoles. It is safe to assume that Sony has a close partnership with game developers, to the extent that they have come to the table regarding the SSD and its ancillary support within the PS5. The Xbox does have an SSD but the concept for Xbox does not seem to have been given the same forethought. Was the difference in the PS5s SSD so extraordinarily remarkable that Xbox could not have considered it? It all seems to be a tight industry and with similar hardware, with the same partners, how did Xbox diverge? And do you think it makes a difference?

Conor Hoary

Hi Tom and guest my question is simple in the hopes you guys can expand on it. What do you think are biggest weaknesses of PS5 and XSX menus and where do think they should improve? It feels like both haven’t made much development in UI this generation . Do you think this was a missed opportunity?

MyySharona

Hi there, Maestro, thanks for coming on today/tonight/inshallah. My question is about the process for game development. How do know when a game is finished? There are some crowdfunded games that have deployment cycles as long as Cyberpunk, some may be more ambitious, and some aren’t - how do we know when to stop and what does stopping look like from the inside?

Sam Borchers

Hi Tom and guest! Are game developers held back by current console and PC performance? If there was no limit to the performance of available systems, would game developers be able to create breathtaking games that go much further than today’s standard, or are they only capable of similar levels of game improvement, with console and PC performance not being a major limiting factor?

rafa zaya

As an older dad gamer, I've come to love 'story mode' so I can burn through games in the little time I have. But it seems a bit stale - it seems like there's room for improvement beyond game enemies shooting like stormtroopers - any thoughts on how difficulty levels might change/evolve?

Montaign3

Dear Tom and Guest, I have a general question about how developers make decisions when conceptualising, balancing, and monetising games, why they make these specific decisions, and how they impact the experience of different demographics in the player base differently. I am a college student, so I do have extended periods of time when I can game, where I would prefer competitive, multiplayer games that I could learn over time, have interesting asymmetric mechanics, and the freedom to play at a slower pace and win by making good decisions based on the player’s extensive knowledge of the game. I have no objection towards the monetisation of cosmetics, or even that of guns in shooters, if they are difficult to pick up but has a place in the META once its usage is mastered. However, what most devs seem to do is to make their games more fast paced and more ‘balanced’ by removing asymmetrical aspects of the game, even when the specific theme of the game favours it, BFV and faction specific weapons for example. What I’ve heard is that unlike me, the majority of a game’s player base consists of people who not only have less time to play and learn the game, but also much less time to devote to an individual game session, leading the devs to make the decisions listed above. Are these decisions really justified by this fact? Does attracting a larger player base require a general simplification of the game that, in my opinion, makes it less rewarding to play for more than a few hours. Is having a large player base really a good metric of success? How do player engagement and the likelihood for them to spend more money than average players affect decisions? Does quarterly earnings rule it all? In summary, what are the incentives in the industry, how does each studio and publisher strive to meet them, and what does that mean for our experience as players? These are trends that are exhibited well beyond the genre of shooters, but using it as an example hopefully have illustrated my point.

David S

Some questions that might be interesting: 1. how does he see techniques like dlss and AI-Upscaling onTextures(Sth Microsoft is working on) influence games in the future? 2. Will performance and Graphics of Games be dependent on performance of the hardware or on the software side. 3. How will New Rendering Technology like Unreal Engine 5s Demo be applied in future Games? 4. Will polycount/vertex count of models become a metric of the past? 5.What other applience of AI is expected to be used in games beside things like Raytracing and the mentioned above? Will VR ever be more popular then regular Games? I know those are a lot of questions, so im thankfull if you just answer some of those.

Josh Law (adn)

how do you feel lootboxes have affected the gaming industry, specifically the quality of games overall and player enjoyment. do you feel like some games, like for example shadow of war, were ruined by their inclusion?

Shadhahvar

Is there ANY hope of mobile games reflecting the quality and/or model of traditional games?

Authoritarrr

Hey Tom and guest, Cheers for all the content Tom, appreciate the research you put into your pieces. To the UX researcher, where does the balance lie between making a game that monetises well and making a game that people enjoy playing and find unobtrusive? How strong are the forces that pull in both of those directions. Publishers want high profits to satisfy their non-gamer investors, which often conflicts with what gamers want (a fair grind for unlockables, not having advertisements/storefronts shoved in your face, not being always-online, etc...).

Turbo Makes Games

Hello Tom and Guest, In my experience, gathering feedback from players has been invaluable to improving the games I've made. What methods and strategies have you found most effective for gathering feedback from players? What are the things that you always make sure to ask players about when talking to them? Thanks!

yoda king

Hello I have three questions. 1. What do you think of the potential of VR not simply for adoption by consumers but also its storytelling potential. 2. Given the rising costs of game development how will smaller studios or indie studios be able to compete with Triple A companies? 3. I've seen that a lot of funding to numerous companies have been coming from Tencent and Netease both of which are Chinese companies. Do you think people should be worried about this? The latest thing that's worried me is Riot's game Valorant that has kernal level access for its anti cheat.

GPUnk

Do game developers purposefully design games to 'addict' them?Also how were the people that were working with you? Were they rude/pushy or fun and like minded? Also was there a lot of office politics?

Jeremy Lamb

Has the ease of user feedback with developers been a blessing or a curse in your opinion for online games with periodic updates? In my experience it seems that all that ends up happening is constant complaining from each games communities which could be frustrating to a developer. How do developers deal with this and which studios are handling this the best?

Drew

Hopefully it's not too late to ask, but I was wondering if console game developers have to consider TDP/Heat load when creating a game. Is there a point where a game can cause heat problems (assuming a proper environment) due to overwhelming the thermal solution? (Assume dust and ambient temps are acceptable) I saw someone mention it on Reddit and it just didn't sound right to me.

Robert Garcelon

How tightly coupled are the game engines tied to the game genres? As an old time casual gamer, I’m disappointed in the preponderance of “looter-shooter apocalypse” games out there. How much is this tied to the engine design, and are studios at a disadvantage in creating more positive perspective experiences?