GAMERS for Multiplayer Game Design

What is GAMERS?

GAMERS is a framework for evaluating, planning, measuring, and improving social experiences in multiplayer games and beyond. It separates design concerns into six distinct areas of focus:

[G] Groupness — Unity and mutuality
[A] Assurance — Safeness and trustability
[M] Mastery — Sportsmanship and growth
[E] Exchange — Social satisfaction and prosociality
[R] Repetition — Repeat play and meaningful connections
[S] Setting — Environment and narrative influence

In their own way, and with their own specific subtopics, each area creates player value (e.g., more social satisfaction) and business value (e.g., greater retention).

Overview of the GAMERS framework. Image courtesy of TIGG.

Groupness is important to any game or product that assembles players around shared interests. The goal is to make every group feel like a team because when groups feel this way (i.e., cohesive) they naturally foster prosocial behavior, curb disruption, and create a sense of belonging for all members. Subtopics for Groupness include:

Group cohesion
Group identity
Roles
Size

Assurance focuses on the feelings of safety (safeness) and trust (trustability). These concerns go significantly beyond reacting to disruptive behavior by looking at ways to build confidence and a sense of security throughout the entire player experience. Subtopics include:

Expectation setting
Learning
Onboarding
Policy
Interventions
Social scaffolding

Mastery is about sportsmanship and growth. Even if your multiplayer game is PvE, the qualities of sportsmanship, such as respect and self-improvement, are still relevant. For digital thriving, Mastery is particularly important because it focuses on personal thriving through getting good at something. Subtopics include:

Sportsmanship (of course)
Mastery-orientation
Ego-centered climates
Self-determination
Motivation (intrinsic and extrinsic)

Exchange gets its name from Social Exchange Theory, which posits that all social interactions are an exchange of sorts with different kinds of rewards. For designers, this is really useful. It makes win-win interactions a priority, unlocking new game opportunities. Exchange focuses on social satisfaction and prosociality. Its subtopics include (but are not limited to):

Mutually beneficial action
Prosocial action
Bond-building
Fostering cooperation

Repetition is concerned with repeat play and meaningful connections. You can think of Repetition as retention through a thriving personal network of complimentary playmates that includes not only friends, but also secondary connections. For game companies this is particularly important because players with strong extended networks play and spend more than those with few or no friends. In addition to things that drive repeat play, subtopics include:

Reputation
Social capital
Social norms

Setting is about ensuring the built environment shapes social behavior in healthy ways. Subtopics for Setting include:

Space and encounters
Character design and representation
Narrative
World-building

This video goes into more detail:

Using GAMERS to plan and measure features

The approach we recommend for using the GAMERS framework to plan and measure features is the same basic process that Google developed for their Heart Framework. HEART is a powerful tool for identifying UX metrics.

Google HEART framework as a whiteboard. — Google HEART framework. Image courtesy of Google.

HEART stands for Happiness, Engagement, Adoption, Retention, and Task Success. The framework is arranged as a grid with these sections:

Categories — Key areas of focus.
Goals — What you’re trying to achieve.
Signals — High-level indicators of change (behaviors, attitudes).
Metrics — Specific measures. Quantitative and qualitative.

Development teams use HEART by working step-by-step from left to right:

Align on a goal for each category that’s relevant to their product or project.
Determine what their goal or goals are for the chosen categories.
Identify things to look for that can indicate change.
Determine which metrics can be used to measure those changes.

Once measures are in place, the team can gauge how well the new features are working toward their goals and adjust accordingly.

We can use the same basic process for GAMERS, though we include feature brainstorming as part of the second step — something we’ve found particularly useful in design workshops.

Process overview for using GAMERS to determine social experience metrics. — Steps for using GAMERS to plan and measure features. Image courtesy of TIGG.

Here is an example of the kinds of results you can get from this process:

GOALS / FEATURES	SIGNALS	METRICS
Goal: Players grow skills faster by watching more replays of others Feature: Post-game replays showing the game’s MVP player	Players spend significant time watching post-game replays	Average daily replay views Duration of replay views

Light brainstorming workshop using GAMERS

To get a more thorough understanding of how to use GAMERS to plan and measure features, let’s go through the process step-by-step in this light brainstorming workshop. Though you may use this process any way you like, we will be describing the process as instructions to a workshop facilitator.

0. Setup a grid

Step zero is about creating a grid that your workshop attendees will use. It’s not nice to make your attendees do this kind of activity (because they won’t learn anything from it), so we highly recommend doing the setup yourself ahead of time (hence the name “step zero”).

We also recommend making the “Goals / Features” column extra wide to accommodate the many stickies your attendees will generate.

GAMERS metrics grid — Step zero. Image courtesy of TIGG.

Please note: For the sake of keeping the example images simple, we’re only showing the first three categories.

1. Identify relevant categories

Step 1 of using GAMERS for social experience metrics. — Step one. Image courtesy of TIGG.

Start the workshop by having your attendees look at the six categories with the intention of choosing those most relevant to their game. Encourage them to ask themselves:

Which areas are most important?
Where are there known problems?
Are there any areas we’ve previously overlooked?

It’s okay if they don’t use all six, because not all areas are relevant all the time. For instance, Repetition, being about repeat play and meaningful connection, is often not relevant during early stages of game development (i.e., can’t repeat playing something you can’t yet play).

2. Determine goals and features

Step 2 is about deciding what teams want to achieve (goals) and how they want to achieve it (features).

First, attendees should determine a goal for each of the relevant categories. Have them put their goals on the grid.

Step 2 (goals) of using GAMERS for social experience metrics. — Step two: Goal choice. Image courtesy of TIGG.

When they’re done, they should move on to brainstorming which features could best support those goals. These ideas should be added next to their respective goals.

Step 2 (features) of using GAMERS for social experience metrics. — Step two: Feature idea generation. Image courtesy of TIGG.

Next, the attendees should choose one feature per goal and mark them any way they choose (in the image below, they’re simply moved further to the right). Tell the group to prioritize based on feasibility (time, budget) and impact (player, business).

Step 2 (choosing features) of using GAMERS for social experience metrics. — Step two: Feature choice. Image courtesy of TIGG.

3. Define signals

Now that goals and features are in place, the group is ready to talk about signals — high-level indicators of change.

Step 3 of using GAMERS for social experience metrics. — Step three: Signals. Image courtesy of TIGG.

Attendees should add their signals to the grid under the Signals column.

You may find that the group wants to skip directly to metrics, but encourage them to complete the step. Thinking high-level about indicators of change does two important things:

Provides a fallback in case the chosen metrics prove to be unfeasible.
Ensures that participants who aren’t well-versed in metrics can join in the discussion.

Once there are signals on the grid for every goal / feature set, you can move on to metrics.

4. Establish metrics

Step 4 of using GAMERS for social experience metrics. — Step four: Metrics. Image courtesy of TIGG.

Metrics are the specific measurements the team will use to measure success. For example, if the signal was “players will express more confidence,” a metric could be something like “Player Confidence Index.”

Attendees should now work together to identify the best metrics that align to their signals and add them to the grid.

5. Analyze and iterate

The final step of the process is where teams gather their metrics data to see if they’re succeeding. Unfortunately, getting data isn’t easily done during the course of a workshop, so you can consider this the end.

Now what?

Hopefully at this point you have a better understanding of what GAMERS framework can do for you! To continue reading about other complementary frameworks, we recommend the following articles: