電子遊戲專家與生手之表現差異研究

Abstract

本研究主要從空間能力、記憶力、問題解決等三方面，探討電子遊戲專家與生手之表現差異。本研究以電子遊戲一詞，概括意指電腦遊戲、電視遊戲器遊戲、大型遊戲機遊戲、掌上型遊戲器、手持設備遊戲、連線遊戲、線上遊戲等透過網際網路連線下之之遊戲形式，以及虛擬實境中的遊戲。 本研究之自變項為專家和生手，專家係指會玩「世紀帝國」之任一項系列遊戲者，包括AOE、AOK、AOC任一項；生手係指從未玩過「世紀帝國」電腦遊戲者。本研究之應變項為空間能力、記憶力、問題解決。 實驗共招募30位參與者，包括15位專家與15位生手。本實驗採用之電子遊戲軟體為台灣微軟公司所出版的「世紀帝國II：征服者入侵」，實驗共分二個階段，而所有參與者都必須參與二個階段的實驗，其中實驗階段一主要測量專家和生手的空間能力，及搜集受試者的電腦遊戲經驗、世紀帝國系列遊戲的電腦遊戲資歷、個人基本資料等資訊，實驗以問卷進行施測。實驗階段二主要比較專家和生手之解決問題能力差異，實驗以電腦遊戲AOC為實驗工具，由受試者實際玩一場AOC遊戲，受試者可自訂「種族文明」，其餘遊戲環境則由研究者統一設定，如：「地形」、「兩個敵方之種族文明」、「人數」、「資源」、「遊戲開始時代」等；待遊坃結束則測量參與者之記憶力表現，另外，該場遊戲過程將被存成紀錄檔，以便遊戲結束後對受試者進行深度訪談，並且進一步分析專家和生手解決問題的策略搜尋模式。 本研究結果證實專家之空間組織能力顯著優於生手、專家在「指定事件」之自由回憶表現顯著優於生手、專家在「非指定事件」之再認回憶表現顯著優於生手，另外，專家和生手之問題解決表現具有差異，例如：專家具備較敏銳的問題發現能力，而且專家較能從多元的觀點分析問題，還有瞭解問題的深度和廣度都較生手佳等。若學習的領域需要空間組織能力、記憶力或是問題解決能力以協助學習吸收時，學習者透過電子遊戲去訓練及培養這些能力，然後應用發揮於學習的領域上，可能有助於學習成效。 另外，研究發現，生手非常依賴遊戲畫面之視覺訊息，而專家則只重視重要的視覺訊息，忽略不重要的視覺訊息，而且專家注意遊戲的聲音訊息較生手多。所以針對遊戲介面設計，本研究提出三個建議：(1)遊戲過程的畫面減只呈現重要訊息，將次要訊息置於選單裡面, 也就是說，透過點選項目，次要的訊息才會呈現於畫面中；(2) 增加聽覺訊息的設計；(3)遊戲物件的設計可從玩家的生活經驗著手，有助於玩家對遊戲物件之功能或操作方式作聯想，或是對劇情發展之聯想。

This research investigates the differences between expert and novice computer game players in their spatial abilities, memory, and problem solving process. Electronic game in this research is defined as computer games, video games, arcade games, and handheld games. A single factor experiment was conducted to study the three research issues. Thirty participants aging from eighteen to thirty years old included fifteen expert computer game players and fifteen novice computer game players. Age of Empires II: The Conquerors introduced by Microsoft was chosen in this research. It is a war and strategy game involving economic development, and diplomatic and war strategy. All participants began to fill out a general information questionnaire concerning their personal characteristics, including age, education, and computer and Internet experience. Then the participants took tests of spatial abilities including 2D rotation scale, 3D rotation scale, and spatial organization scale. 2D rotation scale is designed by Dai (1998), 3D rotation scale and spatial organization scale are designed by Dai, Chen, and Sun (2001). Each participant was given a on-screen instruction. A brief practice session was then conducted to help the participants to understand the operation of the game and the tasks to be performed. Following the practice, each participant played the game individually without connecting to the Internet for forty minutes. On the completion of the tasks, each participant was given free recall and cued recall tests. Then each participant discussed with the experimenter for his/her problem solving process in the experiment. The results indicated that the expert computer game experts performed better in spatial organization test, free recall test, cued recall test than novice computer game players. Also, experts were more sensitive on observing and finding problems than novice and experts analyzed problems more diversely, and perceived problems deeper and broader than novices. Unlike novices, who relied heavily on visual messages, experts found visual messages distracted and uncomfortable and relied on audio messages in the experiment. Based on spatial ability and memory, problem solving is a process of analyzing problems and making solutions. These three cognitive process studied in this research are relevant to game playing and learning. According to the results of problem solving, this research provides two suggestions for designing visual messages in computer games. First of all, reducing subordinate visual messages and keeping major visual messages. Enclosing the subordinate visual messages into the function menu that require users’ requests. In short, players need to select a specific menu in order to start relatively less important messages. Second, increasing the frequency of audio messages. The features of audio messages, attracting players’ attention easily and appearing once at a time, could help players to perceive sudden incidents quickly and respond swiftly. Therefore, it is recommended to increase the types and designs of audio messages, such as different sound effects for different items and diverse volume for various situations.