The Impact of Interface and Gameworld Design on Player Experience - The Case of Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain

Abstract

This thesis was carried out within the Games and Transgressive Aesthetics project, located at the department of Information Science and Media Studies, at the University of Bergen. The goals for this project is however separate from those of its parent project, and instead focuses solely on the interface design in the digital game Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain (Kojima Productions, 2016). The thesis is presented through a multidisciplinary approach to digital games, with a human-computer interaction perspective. The overall intent of the thesis is therefore to present a study in which a group of participants were observed while playing the game, with the objective of gaining empirical data on what role the interface and gameworld design had on each individual participant’s experiences. Ultimately, the study revealed a digital game that, despite clear problems regarding its interfaces, still provides the player with an entertaining gameplay experience, held up solely by the strength of its gameworld interface and engaging gameplay. The thesis will outline both how the study was performed, as well present the results and analyse these using a theoretical basis of human-computer interaction and game studies.