Player modeling is the structuring and use of data to understand how a player operates within a game. In educational games, it's used to determine strengths and weaknesses in a user's understanding of taught material; in online multiplayer games, it can be used to inform the matchmaking process (although often in a very limited fashion). Player models are used to predict player behavior, tailor game content, and improve game experience. For You and the Garden, we take a slightly different approach to player modeling, treating it instead as a form of empathy between a computer system and a human agent. With certain modifications to the design of a player modeling system, we believe that it can change from a tool to employ on the user to a framework from which to engage with the user.
There are two primary foci within the domain of player modeling that we believe can be examined to make more empathetic systems. These are "what you collect" and "what you do with it."
What you collect: When looking at the types of information to collect in player modeling, there are many different points of data that can be composed into a model. Trying to document everything will produce an overwhelming and unwieldy collection, so there need to be heuristics to evaluate what you should keep and what you ignore. Many player modeling systems, particularly educational and matchmaking systems, put a heavy emphasis on measuring results; what did the player achieve? Towards a more empathetic system, we instead seek to inhabit the player's point of reference. Empathy is about putting yourself in someone else's position, and as such we find it important to prioritize information that will provide us with the player's perspective. We like to look at data that tells us what the player is looking at, where they are spending their time, what types of behaviors they are performing in the world.
What you do with it: Player modeling often feels like something that belongs in an advertising agency; it collects a bunch of information about the user and makes it useful towards some agenda. Fortunately, this goal is often the improvement of the user experience rather than getting you to purchase something, but it still is an attempt to make the user a subject within a system - it's not listening to you and responding; it's observing you and acting. To create a more empathetic model, we believe that the data collected should not be used to make decisions for the player, but instead to empower the choices that the player can make about their game experience. Player modeling should not be a replacement for listening to the player, but instead a way to enhance that listening.