Problem Statement
People who play fighting games find it difficult to discover, learn, and share advanced tactics executed with a precise series of button presses (combos). Fighting game mechanics vary widely, so our web app would be specific to the popular fighting game Persona 4 Arena.
Observations and Interviews
Competitive players want to learn a variety of combos to be used in various situations, as well as keep themselves informed of the newest combos currently available. Their resource for learning combos is a particular wiki and forum, where a post exists for each character in the fighting game. Each character page in the forum has a very long and extensive list of combos in text format.
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We discussed an interface that would have support for a more graphical notation for joystick and button inputs, where the numbers could be replaced by arrows and button letters were replaced by button graphics. He expressed concern that he used a custom button configuration on his gamepad, so we also discussed an option for a visual indicator of buttons that reflected the custom gamepad configurations (for example, if "light punch" were remapped, this should be reflected in the visual indication of button presses). We also considered an interface that let users know under what sorts of situations the combo could be used.
User Classes
Our major user classes include players who want to find and learn combos (casual combo users and competitive combo users), and players who want to share their own discovered combos (combo creaters). Both competitive and casual users are interested in the ability to assess one combo's usefulness in comparison to another, and casual users are interested in a simpler notation for combo moves. Combo creaters are interested in a convenient way to add and edit combos to an organized list.
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