Passages

 Video game research

A. Although video games were first developed for adults, they are no longer exclusively

reserved for the grown-ups in the home. In 2006, Rideout and Hamel reported that as

many as 29 percent of preschool children (children between two and six years old) in

the United States had played console video games, and 18 percent had played hand-

held ones. Given young children’s insatiable eagerness to learn, coupled with the fact

that they are clearly surrounded by these media, we predict that preschoolers will both

continue and increasingly begin to adopt video games for personal enjoyment.

Although the majority of gaming equipment is still designed for a much older target

audience, once a game system enters the household it is potentially available for all

family members, including the youngest. Portable systems have done a particularly

good job of penetrating the younger market.

B. Research in the video game market is typically done at two stages: some time close

to the end of the product cycle, in order to get feedback from consumers, so that a

marketing strategy can be developed; and at the very end of the product cycle to ‘fix

bugs’ in the game. While both of those types of research are important, and may be

appropriate for dealing with adult consumers, neither of them aids in designing better

games, especially when it comes to designing for an audience that may have particular

needs, such as preschoolers or senior citizens. Instead, exploratory and formative

research has to be undertaken in order to truly understand those audiences, their

abilities, their perspective, and their needs.

C. In the spring of 2007, our preschool-game production team at Nickelodeon had a

hunch that the Nintendo DS - with its new features, such as the microphone, small size

and portability, and its relatively low price point - was a ripe gaming platform for

preschoolers. There were a few games on the market at the time which had characters

that appealed to the younger set, but our game producers did not think that the game

mechanics or design were appropriate for preschoolers. What exactly preschoolers

could do with the system, however, was a bit of a mystery. So we set about doing a

study to answer the query: What could we expect preschoolers to be capable of in the

context of hand-held game play, and how might the child development literature inform

us as we proceeded with the creation of a new outlet for this age group? Our context in

this case was the United States, although the games that resulted were also released

in other regions, due to the broad international reach of the characters. In order to

design the best possible DS product for a preschool audience we were fully committed

to the ideals of a ‘user-centered approach’, which assumes that users will be at least

considered, but ideally consulted during the development process. After all, when it

comes to introducing a new interactive product to the child market, and particularly

such a young age group within it, we believe it is crucial to assess the range of physical

and cognitive abilities associated with their specific developmental stage.

D. Revelle and Medoff (2002) review some of the basic reasons why home

entertainment systems, computers, and other electronic gaming devices, are often

difficult for preschoolers to use. In addition to their still developing motor skills (which

make manipulating a controller with small buttons difficult), many of the major stumbling

blocks are cognitive. Though preschoolers are learning to think symbolically, and

understand that pictures can stand for real-life objects, the vast majority are still unable

to read and write. Thus, using text-based menu selections is not viable. Mapping is yet

another obstacle since preschoolers may be unable to understand that there is a direct

link between how the controller is used and the activities that appear before them on

screen. Though this aspect is changing, in traditional mapping systems real life

movements do not usually translate into game-based activity.

E. Over the course of our study, we gained many insights into how preschoolers

interact with various platforms, including the DS. For instance, all instructions for

preschoolers need to be in voice-over, and include visual representations, and this has

been one of the most difficult areas for us to negotiate with respect to game design on

the DS. Because the game cartridges have very limited memory capacity, particularly in

comparison to console or computer games, the ability to capture large amounts of

voice-over data via sound files or visual representations of instructions becomes

limited. Text instructions take up minimal memory, so they are preferable from a

technological perspective. Figuring out ways to maximise sound and graphics files,

while retaining the clear visual and verbal cues that we know are critical for our

youngest players, is a constant give and take. Another of our findings indicated that

preschoolers may use either a stylus, or their fingers, or both although they are not very

accurate with either. One of the very interesting aspects of the DS is that the interface,

which is designed to respond to stylus interactions, can also effectively be used with

the tip of the finger. This is particularly noteworthy in the context of preschoolers for two

reasons. Firstly, as they have trouble with fine motor skills and their hand-eye

coordination is still in development, they are less exact with their stylus movements;

and secondly, their fingers are so small that they mimic the stylus very effectively, and

therefore by using their fingers they can often be more accurate in their game

interactions.