SAVEstate: A Method for Documenting Player Reflection in Digital Games

2026-07-19

AI Summary

Existing research on game user experience predominantly emphasizes hedonic dimensions—such as immersion and flow—yet struggles to capture eudaimonic experiences tied to reflection, meaning-making, and personal growth. To address this gap, this work proposes the SAVEstate method, which centers on documentation as a core mechanism within a two-phase reflective framework integrating in-action and post-action reflection. This approach systematically tracks players’ real-time meaning construction during gameplay and their subsequent retrospective sense-making. An open-source desktop application was developed to facilitate deployment of the method, and multi-player experiments successfully linked immediate and delayed reflections, demonstrating its efficacy in concurrently observing meaning-generation processes across multiple participants.

Abstract

In recent years, interest in eudaimonic player experiences (PX) - concerning reflection, meaning-making, and personal growth - has increased. However, most games user research methods are not well-suited to study eudaimonic PX, as they have been developed to evaluate features of hedonic PX, such as flow, immersion, and playability. To more deeply explore eudaimonic PX, we require methods that can 1) investigate how moment-to-moment PX shapes player reflection and 2) explore how players reengage and reinterpret their experiences longitudinally. In this paper, we present SAVEstate, a method that uses documentation as a means of studying player reflection. SAVEstate consists of two phases: reflection-in-action and reflection-on-action, which allow researchers to probe players' in-situ reflections and how they reengage with their gameplay, respectively. Using SAVEstate, we were able to observe in-situ meaning-making and connect it to post-game reflection-on-action, and view synchronous sensemaking across multiple participants. We also developed an open-source desktop application for researchers to adapt in their own SAVEstate deployments. We discuss implications for how researchers might use SAVEstate to conduct future research in meaningful PX.

Problem

• eudaimonic player experiences
• player reflection
• meaning-making
• games user research
• longitudinal engagement

Innovation

• SAVEstate
• eudaimonic player experience
• reflection-in-action
• reflection-on-action
• meaning-making