evaluatingdesign.com

Almost every gamer website rates games across different (sometimes arbitrary) categories. Reviewers assign a number of stars, or use a point system (usually 5 or 10) across several categories (such as graphics, sound, concept, etc.). User preferences are also often assigned by using rating scales.

It has been noted, however, that preference or perceived subjective value for a particular game item does not necessarily translate into a user’s subjective utility - in other words, a user’s evaluation of what they are actually willing to pay. This creates a gap between subjective preference ratings (”Rate this game’s graphics on a scale of 1-10″) and what value users actually ascribe to the game (”Rate how much you’d pay for graphics on this game”).

This study is using survey measures to look at the correlations between user’s rating of game items and user’s subjective utility. As the study measures are still in development, more information on the measures and the results will be placed here soon.