玩家遊戲動機與角色扮演遊戲化身設計：情感設計觀點的初探性研究

Abstract

隨著科技的發展，線上遊戲在人們的娛樂活動具有越來越大的影響力，其中最主要的代表為多人線上角色扮演遊戲。角色扮演遊戲是利用化身讓玩家扮演一個角色融入遊戲的虛擬環境，因此化身設計對於玩家而言是相當重要的，而玩家本身的動機也會影響對於化身的態度。過往遊戲相關研究對於玩家動機與化身設計角度探討的遊戲設計之研究卻不多，藉此本研究從該角度出發，希望能對化身在設計提出相關之建議。 本文之研究目的旨在，探討遊戲環境中玩家動機與化身之關係。本文選擇魔獸世界作為研究環境，並將其玩家依照Yee(2006)的動機問卷分成三種類型。採用線上問卷來了解玩家心目中的化身價值。最後請不同動機得分高的玩家5位（每類型各5位）進行深度訪談。最後，採用活動理論作為質化分析的架構。 研究結論發現：(1) 三類型玩家所在意的化身設計主要有兩大因素：「化身本體造型與比例」及「化身裝備設計」；(2) 三類型玩家會被化身設計影響其遊戲經驗；(3) 雖然不分動機類型的玩家都在意化身設計，但卻並未達到顯著。本文結果期待能對化身設計提出有效的建議，以供未來研究進行參考。

As the digital technology rapidly development, online games, especially Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games (MMORPGs), have become an important role in people daily life. Players cast themselves through the interface of avatars into the game world. It is believed that players’ gaming motivations might highly related to their thinkings towards the design of the avatar interface. However, few studies have considered exploring such issue. The research theme of the present study thus was to explore the relationships between the players and the avatar design in online games. The World of Warcraft (“WOW”) was chosen as the research environment and players were categorized into three different types of gaming motivation by using Motivation Questionnaire (Yee, 2006). An online suvey followed after to collect the data of how these three different types of players value the parts of their avatars designs. Finally, 15 players (5 from each group based on higher motivation scores) were selected for the the further interviews. Activity theory is the primary framework of the qualitative analysis. In conclusion, this study find: (1) “outlook” and “equipment” are the two key avatar design issues to all three groups of players; (2) all three groups of players highly value the effect of the avatar design of affecting their gaming experiences and (3) although players with different motivation types did show different concerns in regarding to the avatar designs, there was no significant difference. The study results expect to be a useful reference that could benefit the design of future game developments.