Seb Long

Games User Research Lesson I find myself repeating often:

Not all players want to play ‘optimally’.

No amount of tutorializing or encouragement will convince them to engage in your cool combat system. Either allow for a ‘punch everything’ strategy or accept that those players will churn.

24.07.2025 13:19 — 👍 17    🔁 3    💬 1    📌 2

Given recent conversations in the industry, I wanted to highlight some amazing organizations, resources, and community-driven groups working hard to advance accessibility in gaming. There’s a lot of great work happening — and it deserves more visibility.

A thread ♿️♥️

13.05.2025 16:31 — 👍 208    🔁 141    💬 5    📌 3

A graphic featuring small gaming-related illustrations including controllers and a laptop featuring the Advancing Accessibility logo - a bespoke illustration of an old fashioned game controller where one half forms a wheelchair. The text reads "Interested in developing accessibility awareness in your game and engaging all of your potential players? Come and meet us at GDC. Email hello@playerresearch.com to set up a chat with us

From inclusive design consultancy to training, testing and user research, our Advancing Accessibility team is here to help you break down barriers and empower more players to engage with your games. Email our team on hello@playerresearch.com to set up a meeting at GDC or beyond! #Accessibility #A11y

11.03.2025 11:02 — 👍 10    🔁 4    💬 0    📌 0

What Issues Are Impacting Female Gamers and the Industry Itself? Let's talks about where female players are still excluded from games and how we can help to create more inclusive experiences during game development and playtesting.

Dive in with us to talk about barriers to female players, representation in games, and the importance of inclusive playtesting for game dev! An important topic for every day, but especially for International Women's Day. #IWD25

07.03.2025 16:06 — 👍 2    🔁 1    💬 0    📌 1

4 panel comic: P1: Begins with a caption box. "There's a scene in Twin Peaks - The Return where David Lynch --as Gordon Cole-- utters the words: Beneath, is a caricatured drawing of Gordon Cole saying "FIX THEIR HEARTS, OR DIE" P2: Another caption. "Those words have been going through my head on repeat today" Beneath, a silhouette of my head forms in negative space formed in a pink-red background. Within the head are multiples of the phrase spoken by Cole. P3: A massive "FIX THEIR HEARTS OR DIE" dominates the panel, formed, again, in the negative space. P4: Sandwiched between two caption boxes --one top, one bottom-- is the image of a man yelling with unbridled rage. The top caption reads "so many people need to hear those words with their whole person--" The bottom finishes with "--however, maybe those people are already lost to us"

fix their hearts or die

11.11.2024 12:51 — 👍 8411    🔁 2162    💬 60    📌 38

5 tongue-in-cheek game writing exercises that are a more realistic representation of what most game writers do (in my experience) than a branching dialog tree:

14.01.2025 17:57 — 👍 2507    🔁 684    💬 43    📌 56

Some talks that I have given:

Reward in games (without the dopamine neurotrash): youtu.be/xkg9ocYDLr8?...

Human Error and game design: youtu.be/JyuR2fKvQ20?...

What road safety can teach us about reducing toxicity in games: youtu.be/WMYoCuZ3Fa8?...

03.01.2025 20:13 — 👍 28    🔁 1    💬 2    📌 0

"still doing the games thing, yeah? nintendos and that?" Says Joey from Friends, looking like your uncle.

25.12.2024 00:57 — 👍 433    🔁 49    💬 3    📌 5

Innovating Audio Accessibility in Star Wars Outlaws - Interview with Jennissary of Descriptive Audio Works Ahead of The Game Awards, we sat down with Jenna to talk about the work done on improving Star Wars Outlaws' accessibility and accessibility in gaming as a whole.

Check out this video interview I had with Gamereactor! "Audio Accessibility in Star Wars Outlaws" www.gamereactor.eu/video/714833...

12.12.2024 16:49 — 👍 9    🔁 3    💬 0    📌 0

Egyptian Blue Bes ceramic Statue from the British museum shop, kind of looks like a tiny suspicious bear? He's adorable

A middle Egyptian turquoise hippo from the met. He looks despondent and adorable. He has line art of reeds painted on his back and face.

A ceramic baby rattle from the met shaped like a pig. However it doesn't look much like a pig, it's giving creature saying ooooooo. It's adorable.

Little red earthenware bowl from the met. It has two little humanoid feet on the bottom and looks like he's standing shyly. Adorable.

Every museum should have a Little Guys Tour, and at the end of the tour you can buy reproductions of all the little guys

11.12.2024 21:20 — 👍 6144    🔁 1762    💬 212    📌 278

As a producer, I totally agree. And everyone knows it as well - even the publishers. But we rather lie to them/ourselves and possibly burn out trying to stick to a timeline made up 3+ years ago. I was gonna write a similar thread about it, too.

12.12.2024 09:23 — 👍 3    🔁 1    💬 0    📌 0

Found out that my personal website contact form has been jettisoning emails into the ether for the last couple months, at the least. Terribly sorry if I haven't gotten back to you — do try again?

08.12.2024 17:24 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

Was there ever a good time? 🤣

02.12.2024 18:17 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0

A screenshot of the home page of the We Can Fix It In UI Notion Wiki. Displays a list of links to various community resources, such as books, insights and career advice.

Did you know about @wecanfixitinui.com ? The community of 1,900+ members working in Games UI, UX and UR who've amassed easily the biggest collection of resources for folks looking to start a career in the field or learn something new.

Go check it out!
wecanfixitinui.com

02.12.2024 15:21 — 👍 104    🔁 37    💬 4    📌 3

We're hiring: Games User Researchers in Brighton, UK and Montreal, Canada. Experienced & early-career roles. Come join our team of player research specialists, contributing to the world's best games.
➞ Details playerresearch.com/careers/

#gamedev #gamejobs #gamesUR #playerresearch

25.11.2024 11:48 — 👍 7    🔁 4    💬 0    📌 2

Optimist: The cup is half full.

Pessimist: The cup is half empty

Games User Researcher: It was unclear that the cup was an interactive part of the environment so the majority of players missed this narrative moment

24.11.2024 15:46 — 👍 140    🔁 21    💬 3    📌 2

The image repeats the text of the post.

Games UX Research Tip:

Organize your note taking document before a test. At least put large sections into that make sense for the game (e.g. Front end, First Game, Second Game, Third game, etc)

Then make sub sections (e.g. Store, Battle Pass, Locker, Starter Island, Bus, Landing, Combat,

24.11.2024 12:48 — 👍 2    🔁 1    💬 1    📌 0

for #GamesUR folks, this is one of the most important things you can do for our industry & your peers this year.

I used the results of this survey when I was breaking into the industry to advocate for a competitive salary for myself, & continue to use it to benchmark how my pay is doing. DO IT!!!

14.11.2024 21:45 — 👍 8    🔁 9    💬 0    📌 0

Amazon.com: The Secret Science of Games eBook : Hopson, John: Kindle Store Amazon.com: The Secret Science of Games eBook : Hopson, John: Kindle Store

My book, "The Secret Science of Games", is free on Kindle for the next two days!

Some of my favorite lines:

"In a conflict between science and fun, science should lose."

"The best data is the data you already have."

www.amazon.com/Secret-Scien...

#gamedev #UX #UXR #gamesur

13.11.2024 15:46 — 👍 8    🔁 5    💬 1    📌 0

😅 Thanks!

28.10.2024 06:21 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

Ok folks, here you go!

If you're a UX Researcher or UX Designer (or other UX specialist that posts UX-related content regularly) in video games or any other affiliated industry, and are not on this list already — please comment so that I can add you!

go.bsky.app/EoGb8YX

21.10.2024 12:02 — 👍 58    🔁 26    💬 26    📌 2

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27.10.2024 19:58 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0

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21.10.2024 16:34 — 👍 5    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0