We're now going to move from Goals, Roles, and Rules, onto our list of questions. To do this will involve a break in the conversation and we want to do this as naturally as possible, so we're going to use the player's own language as the bridge.

For example, to move onto discussing the progression system we could say, “You mentioned levelling up, tell me more about that”. This was the reason for starting the interview by asking about Rules, it allows the player to mention many of the game's systems which we can then refer to. Using this method we can steer the conversation to almost any point we like, and as the interview progresses, more systems will arise in conversation.

However, if you want to discuss a feature that hasn't arisen in conversation yet, there are two strategies to use:

1. You could wait until later in the interview to see if it arises naturally.
   
   

2. Direct the conversation to a general area related to the feature and see if it comes up in conversation. For example, if you're interested in assessing if the player is aware of a specific UI element you could first say, "Is there a way to tell if the game is in <state>', and see if the element is mentioned.

Key Takeaway

The interview process will involve moving from one topic to the next, and it’s useful to do this as naturally as possible to avoid revealing what you are interested in. Using what the player has previously mentioned is one method of doing this.

Next: 49. Mode 3 - Investigating