Assessing the Comprehensiveness of the Co-operative Performance Metric: A Mixed-Method Analysis Using Portal 2.

The Co-operative Performance Metric (CPM) is the only existing tool for evaluating co-located game play experiences but has not yet been extensively studied. To observe how effectively the CPM captured co-located and co-operative player behaviour, this study investigates the comprehensiveness of the CPM by comparing a CPM analysis of co-located gameplay with a much more time-consuming video ethnographic analysis. Five pairs of participants played the puzzle game Portal 2 for one hour, while their interactions were video recorded and analysed. Results indicate that the CPM successfully captures many co-operative behaviours relating to player experience, with some exceptions. The most important missing components were the social effects; 1) prior experience playing the game, and 2) whether players were friends. Thus, with some small modifications, the CPM can function as a quick but comprehensive assessment of co-operative player behaviour, social effects, and game genre.