Marketing Study: People pay attention to the stuff they want to learn.

A new study emerging from the Netherlands showed that the motive that drives a person to read an ad directly controls how they look at the ad. Well, this is once again kind of a "no duh" type of finding, but it leads in nice to interface design in games. What do people look at when they are looking at your game? Depending on where the gameplay and the current goals of the player, they might be looking at things you put little or no effort in to.

For example, when I am in combat while playing World of Warcraft, I don't look at my avatar, I look at my ability buttons. I could care less how cool my guy looks as he's beating down that Murlock, I'm looking at the refresh timer so I can launch my next special attack. If I'm playing alone, I may look at my health bar, but, mostly, it's all about the refresh bar. How much time did they put in to that refresh bar as opposed to the dozens of animations that are going on in a typical combat "dance"?

The same thing might happen if I enter a town. What am I looking for in a town? I'm looking for places to shop and sell. How do I know where stuff is? The signs on the buildings. As I walk through a town, I'm not looking at the cool architecture, I'm looking for information to tell me where I need to go.

When making games, be mindful not only of how pretty stuff is (which is important in this day and age), but what the player is actually looking for when he enters a scene. Maybe you're putting too much effort into the wrong thing.