The purpose of the interview is to reconstruct the player's mental model of the game, i.e. their representation of how the game works. If the interviewer does this correctly, it will reveal the 'why' behind the player's behaviour, which in turn should inform any improvements in the game's design.

You may think you could perhaps make a reasonable guess at how accurate the player's mental model is of the game based on observations of them during the playtest, but without interviewing the player you will not be sure. Reconstructing an accurate representation of the player's mental model will allow you to:

1. Understand incorrect or unexpected behaviour - why did the player do (or not do) certain actions? We should confirm which in the interview.
   

2. Validate correct behaviour - did the player do an action by choice, or by chance?

You can think of interviewing as a situation where the interviewer pretends to know nothing about the game and their task is to get the player to explain to them how the game works. The resulting explanation is the player's mental model. Of course, it is important that the interviewer does have an understanding of how the game works as this enables them to ask meaningful questions.

Interviewing is the best approach for assessing a player's mental model of the game as it allows for a deep level of questioning. The interviewer can explore a topic, often from multiple viewpoints, until they are satisfied that they understand how the player thinks the game works. This ability to deeply question important design issues leads to insights that are not revealed by any other method. This is why we interview.

Key Takeaway

We interview the player to understand their mental model - their understanding of how the game works. By understanding their understanding of the game we can take a deep dive into what is causing player behaviours that we may not initially understand via observation.

Next: 44. Interview Style