Case study: Wargaming

Large-scale playtests

Summary

Wargaming is an award-winning online game developer and publisher. One of the leaders in the free-to-play MMO market. The company released over 15 titles gaining millions of fans worldwide.

Sector

Video Games

Our role

Recruitment of participants
Games User Research (GUR)
Playtests
Focus Group

Challenge

How to conduct playtests on 132 players?

Wargaming approached us with the need to organise playtests of their game on a large research sample in order to verify game’s mechanics and players’ experience.

0

players

0

gaming stations

over

0

research hypothesis verified

How we approached the challenge

I

Kick off

Description

We began the project with meetings with Wargaming, during which we discussed in detail key issues related to the project.

Tasks

Research methodology
Research sample
Equipment requirements
Security and confidentiality related issues

II

Organization of space and equipment

Description

Conducting research on such a big sample required organising appropriate space, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. Eventually we managed to prepare 4 dedicated testing rooms and 25 very efficient gaming stations. The entire research has been live streamed for the client, who had a preview of screens and audio from all research computers and was able to see the entire rooms and hear the sounds.

Tasks

25 gaming stations setup
Video streaming
4 testing rooms

III

Playtests and focus groups

Description

We conducted playtests on 132 players within 2 weeks. In order to help respondents take part in the research, test sessions took place in the afternoon. Prior to joining the playtest, each person was obligated to sign a NDA. Respondents left their mobile phones in specially prepared containers, so as to take additional care of the security.

Tasks

Playtest followed by focus groups
25 gamers playing at once
132 gamers in total
Confidentiality as a critical issue

IV

Hypothesis verification

Description

Our client prepared a list of over 100 hypothesis, which they wanted to check during the project. Analyzing the data, we verified each of the assumptions in the division into 3 groups of respondents.

Tasks

100 hypothesis to be verified

V

Preparation of a report

Description

The final report was developed according to the client’s guidelines, so that they could easily compare the results with data gathered beforehand. We focused on identifying recommendations, the implementation of which will help eliminate the problems encountered during the research.

Tasks

Report with recommendations
Video clips with the most interesting observations
Report presentation & online workshops with the Client

Result

Over 100 research hypothesis verified in 2 weeks, thanks to playtests that involved 132 representatives of the target group.

Conducting research on such a big scale required 4 dedicated testing rooms and 25 very efficient gaming stations. The entire research has been live streamed for the client.

Playtest involved 132 players. Prior to joining the playtest, each person was obligated to sign a NDA. Because of confidentality issues respondents left their mobile phones in specially prepared containers, so as to take additional care of the security.

We have verified over 100 hypothesis and prepared a detaild report. We focused on identifying recommendations, the implementation of which will help eliminate the problems encountered during the research.