Reactions

## Playtest

In December 2020, close structured playtests and interviews are conducted to evaluate the proof-of-concept prototype. The developer recruited participants by unrandomized snowball sampling: some participants were introduced to this study by other participants. Five participants are all female college students, aged 19 to 25 (mean=22.4, SD.=2.059), have experienced in mainstream Chinese social media platforms and are aware of the issue of toxic speech. The playtest consists of four steps: (a) collecting their personal information related to this project, (b) having themselves read the tutorial scene and then a brief introduction of the features that are not included in the tutorial scene; (c) have participants explore the playable demo scene on the researcher’s device (remotely or face-to-face); and (d) ask participants for their thoughts, comments and interpretations of what they have been shown. During the formal playtest period, the developer did not inform participants about the true purpose of the project.

Tasks and questions were given to participants during the playtest. After the step (a) and (b), they were asked about where need to be clarified by the researcher and then quickly summarise the message they got from the two steps. During step (c), participants were given a task to perform on the demo: to create as much dead Tama body as possible in the flask, by using the abilities they have at the right time. They could attempt for unlimited times and ended an attempt at any time if they believed that it is necessary. In step (d), participants were asked to tell the researcher what the message is they got from the game, or what they guess the message is that the game is made to tell. After they articulated their answers, the researcher revealed the background and purpose of this project and asked participants if their perception and attitude changed.

### Result

In general, the result of playtesting is positive. Participants showed little confusion or misunderstanding about the tutorial; all participants completed the challenge in step (c) without instruction from the researcher; 3 out of 5 participants got the message of the game correct; 2 participants reported high motivation to keep playing a completed version.

3 notable insights would guide future iteration.

1. First, whether the participants like the game or not is largely dependent on their history of playing mobile game. Participants projected their preference on games in general on this project and gave their judgement of the game based on the genre. For participants who had enjoyed the collection and/or strategy games, the game appeared to be more interesting.
2. Second, participants are surprisingly more motivated to explore the game when they are aware that there is a serious and probably dark back story behind the narrative. Even if some participants had a strong opinion of the matter of topic or had related uncomfortable experience, none of the participants reported aversive feeling towards the game.
3. Third, written texts and other verbal communication are more attractive to participants as players. Such types of messages are more efficient in terms of telling factorial information, compared to Tama's behaviour.