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Appendix G: Participant Comparison Survey Comments
The following are the collected responses to the question "Comments? Any additional comments regarding your preference for one interface over another:"
Group TS
- the menu-based game had a much denser story and ran much, much faster in my browser. these factors definitely influenced my decision -- honestly, i work in the command line 40 hours a week and i *wanted* to like the first one better, but it was too slow :(
- The command line was more challenging and more fun. The only thing I liked about the menu better was that I knew what I was able to do better
- I'd like to combine command line with an action window so what I can do is viewable, but I can still type what I want to do.
- I definitely liked the command line interface much better, since I have a game in LISP in one of my previous projects. I like the use of the keyboard in playing the game, since it involves more interaction with the audience. To compare these two interfaces to regular lectures and inverted classroom, the command line interface represents the inverted classroom, which invokes more involvement with the audience, whereas menu-based interface represents regular lectures, where there is basically no interaction with the audience (based on a set of pre-set choices).
- Menu is simple and makes things clearer, useful in a more linear game. With the command line, the players have more flexibility to experiment, so it seems better for exploration/puzzle games.
- The menu-based UI is definitely better (except for movement from zone to zone). However, menus alone can not save either game since they seem to be suffering from poor game design (imho obviously) and very questionable decisions as far as introducing key game mechanics.
- It's a lot easier to figure out what to do when the possible options are put out before you, even if it does feel more realistic not to have them there.
Group ST
- When you can see all the commands in a bar like in Captain Fate, it gets really overwhelming when choosing what you should do. Although I think that the type of interface tends to change the feel of the game. In Captain Fate I felt like there was no object, I just chose things randomly from the menu, things that I wanted to do. In The Queens Heart I always felt that there was some specific task that I was trying to accomplish, so I formed specific commands that helped me achieve what I thought I was supposed to do.
- The menu interface was really complicated to understand. I didn't know if i should click in the words or figure out which menu item i should click next
- I like the first game better, there was a clear task.
- The command line style was more compact and easier to use overall.
- The goblin game was more interesting and engaging, mysterious, but also less satisfying and conclusive. I am not sure if that is because of the CLI, or because of the content.
