GR1 -- Analysis

Observations and Interviews

Competitive players want to learn a variety of combos to be used in various situations, as well as keep themselves informed of the newest combos currently available. Their resource for learning combos is a particular wiki and forum, where a post exists for each character in the fighting game. Each character page in the forum has a very long and extensive list of combos in text format.

The competitive player we interviewed was interested in learning a particularly difficult combo. When he first picked the combo from the original forum post, he wasn't aware of how difficult it was. After becoming frustrated, he scrolled through pages and pages of responses for any discussion on this one particular combo. There was instead about 50 pages of discussion on many other combos, but not the particular one he was trying to learn. 

In lieu of a single forum post for each character, where a list of combos for one character are aggregated into one thread, we discussed a system where each combo would have its own page and discussion. This way, discussion specific to a particular combo would be centralized around the page dedicated to that combo. In addition, a rating system for combos could be included to rate the overall difficulty.

Combo researchers spend a lot of time creating new combos. They generally experiment in training mode by themselves, and then post their findings to the same forums that competitive players read regularly.

The combo researcher we interviewed had come up with his own combo that wasn't listed on the forum thread already. He replied to the character thread and requested that his combo be added to the compiled list of combos for that particular character.  However, the original poster of the thread stopped maintaining the first two posts that had the master list of all combos, and our interviewee's combo was not added. The last dozen of posts in the thread were full of complaints about the lack of updates.

We discussed a system where not all combos would be organized under one forum post that the thread starter would be obligated to maintain. Instead, in an app catered specifically for the Persona 4 Arena fighting game, combos would be organized first by character, and then further by combo type (defined by various situations where the player might begin to use this combo). Users would be able to add combos as seen fit.

Casual players are interested in playing the game, but don't necessarily have the time to invest in learning combos for many different situations. Instead, they are more interested in learning a single "bread and butter" combo to improve their gameplay.

The casual player we interviewed had not spent a lot of time researching combos before. We presented him with the same forum page we had discussed with the other two interviewees. The first thing he saw was a very long list of cryptic numbers and letters. He found the number notation confusing, as the numbers were a mapping from the computer keypad to the joystick. (For example, 5 would indicate a neutral joystick position, 2 would indicate crouching, and 236 would indicate quarter-circle-forward motion). In addition, he wasn't sure where to begin finding a single combo that was generally useful in many situations.

We discussed an interface that would have support for a more graphical notation for joystick and button inputs, where the numbers could be replaced by arrows and button letters were replaced by button graphics. He expressed concern that he used a custom button configuration on his gamepad, so we also discussed an option for a visual indicator of buttons that reflected the custom gamepad configurations (for example, if "light punch" were remapped, this should be reflected in the visual indication of button presses). We also considered an interface that let users know under what sorts of situations the combo could be used.

User Classes

Our major user classes include players who want to find and learn combos (casual combo users and competitive combo users), and players who want to share their own discovered combos (combo creaters). Both competitive and casual users are interested in the ability to assess one combo's usefulness in comparison to another, and casual users are interested in a simpler notation for combo moves.  Combo creaters are interested in a convenient way to add and edit combos to an organized list.

Needs and Goals

Both combo users and combo creaters can benefit from the following:

• A difficulty rating system, to let users know what to expect when trying to learn a particular combo
• Combo specific discussion pages, to prevent cluttering and improve organization
• Combos as their own editable entities, to prevent the situation where forum posters abandon their combo compendium threads
• A second graphical notation for button inputs, to aid new users in learning new combos
• The ability to tag combos with specific situations in which the combo would be useful, to give the users context with which to use the combos

Additional Comments

Studio feedback introduced two additional considerations to our project:  the game designers/company, and time's role in the execution of combos.  The game designers themselves may have an investment in such a forum, as it is a convenient grouping of their most serious customers, and we will consider the advantages and disadvantages of counting them as an additional user class.  Secondly, for some combos, the communication of timing or a certain rhythm may be important to a combo's success, and providing support for such information is another worthwhile aspect to investigate.