Interviewing Mike Ambinder (Valve) next week, any questions you'd like me to ask?

[Foda]

As the title says, I'll be interviewing Mike Ambinder next week for my thesis on biofeedback. For those that don't know him, Mike Ambinder is a comp sci/psychologist who is pioneering the use of biofeedback over a Valve. You can find his GDC 2011 presentation here: [URL]http://valvesoftware.com/publications/2011/ValveBiofeedback-Ambinder.pdf[/URL]

If you have any questions [B]related to my topic[/B] post them here and I'll be sure to ask him.

EDIT: Answers!

[quote]Where did the idea of using biological responses for game data come from?[/quote]
So at Valve, we're always looking for new ways of gameplay and new ways to control the game. Measuring the feedback given from biological responses seemed like a great way to do this and it gives us a lot of data we can use. We also have the ability to later make conclusions without interrupting a gameplay session.

[quote]Valve does not have solid "roles", so how did other employees jump on the project?[/quote]
Overall really good. You have to present your ideas to get the approval of others, and the overall response was pretty good and everyone liked the idea of using biofeedback for more conclusive testing.

[quote]What where some issues/mistakes you encountered?[/quote]
Mistakes where mostly due to misinterpreting data and events in game.

[quote]What have you learned/developed since the 2011 presentation?[/quote]
We're still doing a lot of R&D on it, but mainly we're using the method of measuring skin resistance the most. We use the skin resistance devices because they’re fairly cheap; you can pick one up for around 10$ or so.

[quote]Without revealing anything sensitive about future projects, how is Valve using Biofeedback to raise the bar with gameplay[/quote]
Mainly exploring gameplay methods and ideas. We worked a lot with Portal 2’s eye tracking and have been using it for DOTA2 as well.

[quote]For user testing, what do you think is the most effective form of biofeedback or most effective combination?[/quote]
Skin resistance remains the solid way of measurement, but really the focus area is attempting to eliminate background data and getting a correlation between events in-game and responses.

[quote]Is there a corelation between Valve seeking hardware developers and this?[/quote]
No, but we're still exploring potential hardware to use and of course getting prices that would be reasonable for the consumer is also fairly difficult.

[quote]Do you think data was biased due to the testers knowing they where being observed?[/quote]
Of course. Isolating data and getting an average is one of the most important things while observing. I'll of course admit that there was, and always will be bias but we've been working very hard to get rid of that and to try and associate results with events.

[20k]

"Do you think the possibility of a NIA like device which is suitable for gaming/general input is reasonable within a few years (or perhaps sooner)?"

[danharibo]

What do you think of Google Glass, does it overlap with what Valve is working on & could we see the two technologies working together?

[Geel]

Would you like to use biofeedback to study the effect of me playing Half-Life 3?

[acpm]

the last time we had a thread like this it had about three pages full of questions. then the whole thing mysteriously went silent and we never heard answers, or got confirmation there was even an interview to begin with

i'm hoping this doesn't end up the same way

[Foda]

[QUOTE=amcfaggot;35609413]the last time we had a thread like this it had about three pages full of questions. then the whole thing mysteriously went silent and we never heard answers, or got confirmation there was even an interview to begin with

i'm hoping this doesn't end up the same way[/QUOTE]

I have a confirmed time of 1pm EST next Tuesday.

[QUOTE=geel9;35608624]Would you like to use biofeedback to study the effect of me playing Half-Life 3?[/QUOTE]

One of the questions I'll be asking: "Without revealing unannounced projects, how does Valve plan to utilize biofeedback in future titles?"

[QUOTE=Icedshot;35608196]"Do you think the possibility of a NIA like device which is suitable for gaming/general input is reasonable within a few years (or perhaps sooner)?"[/QUOTE]

Also related to another question I'll ask: "Is there any relation to the recent hardware projects at Valve and your work?"

[acpm]

[QUOTE=Sam Za Nemesis;35611031]I have found something named trackir in the Alien Swarm SDK, what is it exactly and what did they use it for[/QUOTE]

[url=http://www.naturalpoint.com/trackir/]exactly what you'd think[/url]

[OldFusion]

-snip-

[Foda]

[QUOTE=Sam Za Nemesis;35611031]I have found something named trackir in the Alien Swarm SDK, what is it exactly and what did they use it for[/QUOTE]

Valve used eye-tracking and head tracking for experiments of alternative control in Portal 2.

[Natrox]

Will your questions also cover user testing using biofeedback? User testing as in monitoring testers playing development builds to see if the desired response to certain points in the game are met.

If so:

"For user testing, what do you think is the most effective form of biofeedback or most effective combination?"

[whatthe]

Rather than a question, ask them to use the technology (biofeedback and wearable computing) to create the best psychic based game (PSI-OPS, Second Sight) ever made.

[20k]

Bump, would love to see the answers. Its been a week now

[Jookia]

Man posts thread on FP, man goes to interview valve, man never seen again.

[ROBO_DONUT]

You're not taking into account Valve time dilation.

[Foda]

[QUOTE=Jookia;35839083]Man posts thread on FP, man goes to interview valve, man never seen again.[/QUOTE]
It was actually over the phone.

[QUOTE=Icedshot;35838506]Bump, would love to see the answers. Its been a week now[/QUOTE]
[QUOTE=ROBO_DONUT;35840839]You're not taking into account Valve time dilation.[/QUOTE]

I updated with answers. My phone is not able to record phone calls, so the answers are paraphrased from what we talked about.

Manly, we talked about how Valve is still doing a lot of R&D with this project. Even though the progress might seem slow, there's still a lot of intrest at Valve regarding alternative control schemes and developing better gameplay mechanics using such devices.

[willer]

"Can other employees at Valve count to 3?"