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Conducting Value Investigations on Valorant
In-game Intervention Design


My Role: VSD Researcher/Designer
Team: Sydney Morales, Athena Le & Tiffany Lu

Black Valorant Logo on red background

Project Scope 🕹️

  • ​Methods: Stakeholder Analysis, User Survey, User Interviews, Value-oriented Coding Manual, Competitive Analysis, Harms & Benefits Analysis

  • Tools: Miro, Google Docs, Google Forms

  • Duration: April - June 2024 (9 weeks)

 

Discovering Valorant gamers’ values to design an in-game intervention that encourages healthy gaming habits

Context 🎮

Valorant is a 5v5 first-person shooter (FPS) game developed by Riot Games, whose immense popularity has brought concerns about excessive gaming - when gamers play for unhealthily prolonged periods of time.

 

No in-game intervention currently exists to address the negative effects of excessive gaming within Valorant despite the large player base.

 

This project idea started from our own observations of friends who started neglecting school and life responsibilities to play Valorant.

Playable characters in Valorant posing while holding weapons

Playable characters from Valorant

Objective 🎯

Our objective is to create a support system within Valorant's gaming environment to promote mental well-being and awareness by focusing on comprehending Valorant gamers' values.

How might we design an in-game intervention that encourages Valorant gamers to develop healthier gaming habits?

Design Process ✏️

Our design process was split into three value investigations:

1. Conceptual Investigation

2. Empirical Investigation

3. Technical Investigation

  • Stakeholder Analysis

  • Literature Review

  • User Survey

  • Semi-structured Interviews

  • Value-oriented Coding Manual

  • Competitive Analysis

  • Harms & Benefits Analysis

  • Solution Development

The conceptual investigation was focused on defining stakeholder groups and deepening our understanding of the problem space within gaming and mental health.

Stakeholder Analysis 👥

To start our investigation, we identified different stakeholders to understand the diverse interests impacted by our solution.

Direct Stakeholders

  • Valorant Players

  • Riot Games

  • Valorant Developers & Designers

  • Professional Valorant Gamers & Coaches

These stakeholders are directly impacted by our solution, including the potential positive and negative effects on gaming.

Indirect Stakeholders

  • Parents

  • Friends

  • School

  • Workplace

  • Broader Gaming Community

These stakeholders are indirectly influenced by gaming's impact on players' behavior, social interactions, and other life commitments.

Literature Review 📚

Our goals for the literature review were to understand the causes of excessive gaming and the qualities of solutions that successfully mitigate excessive gaming.

Key Takeaways:

1.  Excessive play stems from several reasons

Games are used for achievement needs, social interactions, and stress coping, affecting whether it leads to excessive play.

2. Interventions should be engaging and supportive

Effective interventions against excessive play must be engaging, supportive, and aligned with health and social outcomes.

Articles Used:

The empirical investigation was focused on understanding our users and uncovering the key values they hold to incorporate into our solution
 

User Survey 📝

We drafted and sent out a user survey to better understand Valorant gamers and their gaming habits, and received 29 responses.

Pie chart depicting survey responses for: "Why do you play games?"

"Why do you play games?"

 

37.9%: To spend time with friends

31%: To pursue game-related goals

Pie chart depicting responses: "Have you ever experienced physical discomfort while gaming?"

"Have you ever experienced physical discomfort (e.g., headaches, eye strain) while gaming?"

 

62.1%: Yes

37.9%: No​​

Pie chart depicting survey responses for: "Do you feel in control of your gaming habits?"

"Do you feel in control of your gaming habits?"

 

51.7%: Yes

34.5%: Sometimes

13.8%: No

Survey Findings:

1. Motivations for gaming

Primary reasons for gaming were socializing and pursuing in-game goals, supporting the values of social connection and self-achievement.

2. Negative health effects

The majority of survey participants reported experiencing physical discomfort while gaming, emphasizing the need for an in-game intervention.

3. Lacking sense of control

Only half of the participants felt they had complete control over their gaming habits, indicating an underlying factor is influencing gamer's control.

Semi-structured Interviews 🎥

We conducted three semi-structured interviews with Valorant players which provided further evidence for the two main motivations for playing Valorant: to play with friends or to climb in rank.​

We created personas based on motivations for gaming: The Social Gamer and the Competitive Gamer.

Image depicting the Social Gamer, Brandon, who Plays Valorant to spend time with friends. He values Social Connection, Escapism, and Fun
Image depicting the Competitive Gamer, Henry, who Plays Valorant to climb leaderboards. He values Self Achievement, Improvement, and Independence

"I played Valorant for 3 and a half hours because my friends and I were on a winning streak and we didn’t want to stop the momentum”

“Some days it’s hard to stop playing - that’s how loss streaks usually happen. I think ‘I’m going to play until I win’”

Interview Findings:

1. Awareness of when to stop playing

Although the personas have different motivations for playing Valorant, they share a certain amount of awareness of when they need to stop playing

2. Desire to Win

A strong desire to win may cause players, especially Competitive gamers, to continue playing until they win, disregarding their need to stop.

3. Peer Pressure

Social gamers who play with friends who share the same desire to win can create peer pressure to continue playing because they "can't end on a loss."

Value-oriented Coding Manual 📔

We analyzed recurring themes based on interview responses, which enabled us to directly link quotes to values and produce a summary of the users' key values.

Value-oriented Coding Manual, a three-column chart with code/theme, the corresponding user quote, and an interpretive summary of the theme

Value-oriented Coding Manual: this helped us gain an overview of our empirical findings and systematically create interpretations of Valorant gamers' values.

Lastly, the technical investigation refined our approach by analyzing existing solutions, which revealed several significant shortcomings and further informed our final solution design

Competitive Analysis 🔎

To explore existing solutions, we researched related interventions, apps, and in-game solutions.

MapleStory's system displays a red message at the bottom of the screen when players play for an extended period of time.

1. MapleStory: MapleStory’s direct intervention for when their users play for a very long time, is through a red message at the bottom.

 

+ Message reminder & suggestion

+ Shows how long you’ve played for

+ Can intervene in their game session

- Notification is not noticeable

- Not an FPS game

Screenshot of RescueTime app screens tracking total mobile and desktop time, along with daily goals.

2. RescueTime: an external software that automatically tracks how much time the user has spent on apps and websites without manual entry

 

+ Raises awareness of time spent

- External solution/app

Screenshot of the Forest App screens, where users can stay productive using the gamified Pomodoro method to plant trees by earning gold.

3. Forest App: a gamified productivity app that helps users stay productive by utilizing the Pomodoro method. The gamified portion includes planting trees and earning gold to buy different types of trees.

 

+ Raises awareness of time spent

+ Fun, engaging and gamified solution

- External solution/app

Harms & Benefits Analysis ⚖️

We analyzed the harms and benefits of our different solution ideas while considering the values of fun, self-care, self-awareness, and social connection.

1. Gaming Statistics Notification: 

Notifying the user “Your headshot % is decreasing for the past 3 games.”

+ Raises self-awareness

+ A downward performance trend may encourage  gamers to take a break

- Could make gamers angry & perceive the notification as criticism

- Players could continue to play until their statistics improve

2. Discord Add-On: 

Collective Discord messages/reminders to the group playing - “You all have been playing for 5 hours!”

Helps social gamers to not feel peer-pressured to continue playing

​+ Increases group awareness of playing time

Not catered to competitive gamers

-​ Could create a negative impact on Discord’s reputation

Users may not see the message

3. Suggestions & Reminders During Queue:

Characters provide actionable suggestions while the user waits for games - “Let’s stretch your legs!”

Increases self-awareness by briefly taking them out of their competitive mindset

​+ Encourages fun, health-promoting activities to relax

Users who don't play often may not care to follow the suggestions

Users could take offense to suggestions

Our Solution 💎

For our final solution, we decided to implement actionable suggestions & reminders the user can easily follow as they wait for the game to start, improving their self-awareness and encouraging healthy gaming habits in a fun, engaging way.

Solution Goals:

  1. Preserve fun values by using Valorant characters to deliver notifications

  2. Remind social gamers to value self-care even when friends are still playing

  3. Raise self-awareness by recommending practical actions to benefit health

Key Features:

  • Actionable Suggestion Notifications

  • Valorant Character Integration

  • Player Interaction & Autonomy

A Valorant character tells the user "You've played for 2 hours, make sure to grab some water!" while holding a glass of water.

Water Break

The Valorant character kindly reminds players to stay hydrated and drink water after playing for a few hours.

A Valorant character tells the user "You've played for 3 hours, take a stretch break with me!" while in a stretching pose.

Stretch Break

The Valorant character leads players through a series of stretches to help them feel refreshed after they have played for a long time.

A Valorant character tells the user "Don't look at me! Stare at the nearest wall!" while acting shy.

Eye Break

The Valorant character advises players to look away from the screen to give their eyes a much-needed rest to protect them from strain.

A Valorant character tells the user "It's 2am and I'm getting sleepy... last game?" while lying on its side. Users can select "I'm not sleepy!" or "OK last game!"

Sleep Reminder

The Valorant character reminds the team of the late time, allowing them to vote on whether they want to stop playing after the game.

A Valorant character tells the user "Most voted yes to last game!"

End Result 📍

Our approach encourages healthy habits, promotes mindfulness, and self-care among Valorant players. By understanding the values of Valorant gamers, we identified various reasons for excessive play and developed interventions tailored to these reasons.

Reflection 🔮

This project was focused on understanding users’ values when developing a solution, which led to insightful findings that helped solidify our goals for the final design.

  • If we had more time, we would create high-fidelity prototypes of our solution and conduct usability testing to validate our solution with Valorant gamers and gain feedback to iterate on.

  • If I could approach this project differently, I would work with mental health professionals and game designers to ensure our intervention effectively promotes well-being and integrates into the game.

Overall, this was a fun and insightful project that allowed me to realize the importance of understanding users' values when designing solutions for them.

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