Investigating the Usability of a Speech Agent-based Role-playing Game

Sam Davern, Orla Cooney, Iona Gessinger, Benjamin R. Cowan

Abstract: A small number of role-playing games can be played on speech agents like Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant. These offer a new, accessible way for people to access a game genre that is most commonly played on video game consoles or PCs. A sample of 8 participants were asked to play 15-20 minutes of The Bard’s Tale: Warlocks of Largefearn using Amazon Alexa after which they took part in a semi-structured interview. The interviews and play sessions were transcribed and analysed using inductive thematic analysis. Six themes were generated: Technical Issues, Frustration, Immersion, Memory and Cognitive Load, Simplicity vs. Detail, and Speech Agents as a Medium for Games. Participants found the experience interesting and novel but were frustrated by a number of user experience issues, and had notable strain placed on their memory and cognitive load among other problems. A list of 10 design guidelines for speech agent-based role-playing games was created.