Who Played the Game Correctly?

In this paper we examine a formative playful assessment called Beats Empire, in which learners use data analysis skills to take on the role of a music studio manager. We look at log data of players from classroom implementation of the game, finding 3 signatures: low activity, high activity with low data usage, and data-informed gameplay. Drawing from field notes and play-aloud interviews, we contextualize these data signatures in player conceptions of the game. We find that our data-informed player employed a number of contexts in interacting with the game, such as domain knowledge, game strategies, and perceptions of popular music. Furthermore, we find that money earned within the game, and achieving a win state (while both intuitively good metrics for assessment), are not as informative as gameplay signatures. We conclude by emphasizing that all 3 approaches to play are valid, and that each represents its own design challenge in terms of tuning the gameplay as well as creating supporting material to help players provide formative assessment to various types of players.