A Palette of Deepened Emotions: Exploring Emotional Challenge in Virtual Reality Games

Recent work introduced the notion of ‘emotional challenge’promising for understanding more unique and diverse player experiences (PX). Although emotional challenge has immediately attracted HCI researchers’ attention, the concept has not been experimentally explored, especially in virtual reality (VR), one of the latest gaming environments. We conducted two experiments to investigate how emotional challenge affects PX when separately from or jointly with conventional challenge in VR and PC conditions. We found that relatively exclusive emotional challenge induced a wider range of different emotions in both conditions, while the adding of emotional challenge broadened emotional responses only in VR. In both experiments, VR significantly enhanced the measured PX of emotional responses, appreciation, immersion and presence. Our findings indicate that VR may be an ideal medium to present emotional challenge and also extend the understanding of emotional (and conventional) challenge in video games

Use of auditory event-related potentials to measure immersion during a computer game

The degree of engagement in a computer game is determined by sensory immersion (i.e. effects of display technology) and challenge immersion (i.e. effects of task demand). Twenty participants played a computer game under two display conditions (a large TV vs. head-mounted display) with three levels of cognitive challenge (easy/hard/impossible). Immersion was defined as selective attention to external (non-game related) auditory stimuli and measured implicitly as event-related potentials (ERPs) to an auditory oddball task. The Immersive Experience Questionnaire (IEQ) was used to capture subjective indicators of immersion. The type of display had no significant influence on ERPs or responses to the IEQ. However, subjective immersion was significantly enhanced by the experience of hard and impossible demand. The amplitude of late component ERPs to oddball stimuli were significantly reduced when demand increased from easy to hard/impossible levels. We conclude that ERPs to irrelevant stimuli represent a valid method of operationalising immersion

Aesthetic Experience and Acceptance of Human Computation Games

Human computation games (HCGs) are applications that leverage games to solve computational problems that are out reach of the capacity of computers. Game aesthetics are critical for HCG acceptance, and the game elements should motivate users to contribute time and effort. In this paper, we examine the effect of aesthetic experience on intention to use HCGs. A between-subjects experiment was conducted to compare a HCG and a human computation system (HCS). Results demonstrated that HCGs provided a greater sense of aesthetic experience and attracted more intentional usage than HCSs. Implications of this study are discussed.Accepted versio

Effects of the heads-up display in the occurrence of immersion : an experiment with gamers

O design de uma interface gráfica num jogo de videogame pode afetar diretamente a experiência de imersão que o jogador vivencia durante a atividade. Existe uma gama de elementos de design de interface que podem afetar o fenômeno da imersão nos videogames, entre eles o heads-up display (HUD). No contexto de videogames, HUD pode ser definido como um conjunto de elementos gráficos projetados na tela para transmitir informações ao jogador durante a execução do jogo. Este estudo tem como objetivo investigar os efeitos do Heads-Up Display (HUD) no processo de imersão num jogo. Para tanto, uma pesquisa com jogadores foi conduzida. A partir deste experimento foram avaliados os efeitos de diferentes elementos do design de HUD, bem como a percepção dos usuários sobre o fenômeno. Os resultados desta pesquisa apontam para algumas diretrizes sobre o design de HUDs em jogos imersivos.The user interface in a videogame can affect the user’s experience of immersion during gameplay. Several components of said interface can affect the phenomena differently, one of them being the heads-up display (HUD). In this context, the HUD can be understood as the combination of all visual elements projected on-screen to convey information to the player. This study aims at investigating the effects of the HUD in the occurrence of immersion within a game. To do so, an experiment with gamers was conducted. From this point, different aspects of immersion were evaluated, as well as the influence of specific elements within the HUD and the perception of gamers about each aspect. The study is concluded by proposing some design elements that should be noted when designing a HUD for an immersive videogame

Is engaging in games rational? : emotional immersion in fun, management and sport

Praca przedstawia analizę fenomenologiczną doświadczenia imersji emocjonalnej w grach należących do zabawy, sportu i zarządzania. Celem tekstu jest odpowiedź na jego tytułowe pytanie. Przywołano hipotezy wyjaśniające doświadczenie imersji emocjonalnej, które zostały zaczerpnięte z teorii racjonalnego działania. Wskazano dwa rodzaje imersji: ten, który spełnia wymagania racjonalności, i ten, który ich nie spełnia.The study presents a phenomenological analysis of emotional immersion in fun, sport and management games. The analysis leads to some explanatory hypotheses, which answer the title question of the text. They come from some theories of rational action. According to them, two types of emotional immersion can take place: the one that meets the requirements of rationality and the one that does not meet them

Investigation of Videogame Flow: Effects of Expertise and Challenge

The number of participants in this expertise and videogame flow test totaled 80 from multiple target locations. Participants engaged in various levels of the videogame SuperMario Bros. Twenty experts and twenty novices experienced the easier level of World 1-2 while the other twenty experts and novices were exposed to the more difficult level World 6-1. After gameplay, participants completed a modified survey measuring flow. This survey, along with overall percentage game score, was analyzed. A significant interaction was found between game level (challenge level) and skill levels in perceived immersion, with significant main effects for expertise in perceived skill, for game level (challenge level) in perceived challenge, and for game level (challenge level) in overall percentage score. No significant correlation was found between perceived skill and overall percentage score, between perceived challenge and overall percentage score, or between perceived immersion and overall percentage score. These findings are relevant for understanding videogame flow in videogames of varying degrees of challenge and in players of different expertise levels. Discussion on these findings highlights the purpose of this paper

Player–video game interaction: A systematic review of current concepts

International audienceVideo game design requires a user-centered approach to ensure that the experience enjoyed by players is as good as possible. However, the nature of player-video game interactions has not as yet been clearly defined in the scientific literature. The purpose of the present study was to provide a systematic review of empirical evidences of the current concepts of player-video game interactions in entertainment situations. A total of 72 articles published in scientific journals that deal with human-computer interaction met the criteria for inclusion in the present review. Major findings of these articles were presented in a narrative synthesis. Results showed that player-video game interactions could be defined with multiple concepts that are closely linked and intertwined. These concepts concern player aspects of player-video game interactions, namely engagement and enjoyment, and video game aspects, namely information input/output techniques, game contents and multiplayer games. Global approaches, such as playability, also exist to qualify player-video game interactions. Limitations of these findings are discussed to help researchers to plan future advances of the field and provide supplementary effort to better know the role of less-studied aspects. Practical implications are also discussed to help game designers to optimize the design of player-video game interactions