The Development and Validation of the Game User Experience Satisfaction Scale (GUESS)

Abstract

Objective: The aim of this study was to develop and psychometrically validate a new instrument that comprehensively measures video game satisfaction based on key factors. Background: Playtesting is often conducted in the video game industry to help game developers build better games by providing insight into the players’ attitudes and preferences. However, quality feedback is difficult to obtain from playtesting sessions without a quality gaming assessment tool. There is a need for a psychometrically validated and comprehensive gaming scale that is appropriate for playtesting and game evaluation purposes. Method: The process of developing and validating this new scale followed current best practices of scale development and validation. As a result, a mixed-method design that consisted of item pool generation, expert review, questionnaire pilot study, exploratory factor analysis ( N = 629), and confirmatory factor analysis ( N = 729) was implemented. Results: A new instrument measuring video game satisfaction, called the Game User Experience Satisfaction Scale (GUESS), with nine subscales emerged. The GUESS was demonstrated to have content validity, internal consistency, and convergent and discriminant validity. Conclusion: The GUESS was developed and validated based on the assessments of over 450 unique video game titles across many popular genres. Thus, it can be applied across many types of video games in the industry both as a way to assess what aspects of a game contribute to user satisfaction and as a tool to aid in debriefing users on their gaming experience. Application: The GUESS can be administered to evaluate user satisfaction of different types of video games by a variety of users.

An Analysis on Serious Games and Stakeholders’ Needs for Vocal Training Game Development

“…Thirteen game user experience scales for evaluation of vocal training games were identified based on a literature review. Among the identified scales, nine scales (usability, narratives, play engrossment, enjoyment, creative freedom, audio aesthetics, personal gratification, social connectivity, and visual aesthetics) were adopted from GUESS (Phan et al, 2016) and the four scales (accuracy, customization, game analytics, and therapy continuity) were identified from the review of the other papers to complement the GUESS scales. The game user epxerience scales can be asserted to have content validity because they were extracted from the papers demonstrating their content validity (Phan et al, 2016) a seesaw game requiring a social interaction between a therapist and a patient.…”

“…A total of 13 scales presented in Table 1 Mayer, 2012;Navarro-Newball et al, 2014;Shtern et al, 2012;Vicsi, 1995;Wattanasoontorn et al, 2013). The statement numbers in Appendix 1 corresponding to each of the user experience scales are indicated in the last column of Table 1; the first 30 statements were adopted from the GUESS study by Phan et al (2016) and the remaining 6 statements were prepared for the four newly added scales and by referring to related papers. Vox Systems provides a more advanced vocal continuity training function in which a patient needs not only to produce a continuous voice to allow a game character to cross a street, but also stop voice production to freeze the character if a car randomly passes…”

“…Nine out of 13 game user experience scales were adopted fromPhan, Keebler, & Chaparro (2016). https://doi.org/10.12963/csd.18531 http://www.e-csd.org 803…”

Validation and Psychometric Properties of the Gameplay-Scale for Educative Video Games in Spanish Children

“…In addition, most of the proposals found during the performed systematic review process are partial and are not specific to video games (much less for serious educational games). One of the most complete revised questionnaires is GUESS (Game User Experience Satisfaction Scale) [8]. GUESS includes attributes to evaluate: Usability/playability, narratives (characters, story, etc.…”

“…However, as the demand for this type of game increases, game developers face the challenge of creating games that are not only effective but also attractive to play. Since there are different opinions on the essential elements that constitute a "good game" [8], it is not easy to determine which criteria should be analyzed to assess the suitability of a video game and, especially, of a serious educational game. It is exceedingly hard to adequately describe and measure a gaming experience because there is a great variety of games and the kinds of experiences that users will have when playing these games will differ considerably [9].…”