How can i help you?: preliminary studies about user strategies and preferences during a game

Digital games have become very popular and yet there is little study on how gamers learn a game. In this paper, we present a preliminary study in this matter, conducted by means of a survey to investigate gamers' preferences and strategies while playing and learning a game. Participants were also asked about the importance of help systems in games and whether they contribute in the learning process. As results, we observed that help is in fact important, that the ideal kind of help depends on the type of game, and that help must not compromise the gameplay or the fun.