Game feature and expertise effects on experienced richness, control and engagement in game play

The extent to which game play is experienced as engaging is an important criterion for the playability of video games. This study investigates how video games can be designed towards increased levels of experienced engagement over time. For this purpose, two experiments were conducted in which a total of 35 participants repeatedly played a video game. Results indicate that experienced engagement is based on the extent to which the game provides rich experiences as well as by the extent to which the game provides a sense of control. In view of the influence of both game features and players’ expertise on the levels of experienced richness and control, it is concluded that game features should be modified over time to maintain optimal levels of engagement

Effects of Narrative Structure and Salient Decision Points in Role Playing Games

This research-in-progress paper reports an experimental study that investigates two research problems: first, how does narrative structure impact the experience of role-playing games (RPGs)? And second, what are the effects of salient decision points on players’ perceptions of narrative structure and game play? Can players perceive branching narrative without salient decision points? Previous research literature was reviewed, two hypotheses were developed based on prior research, and an experiment was designed to test these two hypotheses. The findings will likely shed light on the development of narrative and feedback structures in RPGs and other allied fields, such as digital media, virtual reality, and human-computer interaction

Exploring sociality and engagement in play through game-control distribution

Abstract This study explores how distributing the controls of a video game among multiple players affects the sociality and engagement experienced in game play. A video game was developed in which the distribution of game controls among the players could be varied, thereby affecting the abilities of the individual players to control the game. An experiment was set up in which eight groups of three players were asked to play the video game while the distribution of the game controls was increased in three steps. After each playing session, the players' experiences of sociality and engagement were assessed using questionnaires. The results showed that distributing game control among the players increased the level of experienced sociality and reduced the level of experienced control. The game in which the controls were partly distributed led to the highest levels of experienced engagement, because the game allowed social play while still giving the players a sense of autonomy. The implications for interaction design are discussed

Game feature and expertise effects on experienced richness, control and engagement in game play

The extent to which game play is experienced as engaging is an important criterion for the playability of video games. This study investigates how video games can be designed towards increased levels of experienced engagement over time. For this purpose, two experiments were conducted in which a total of 35 participants repeatedly played a video game. Results indicate that experienced engagement is based on the extent to which the game provides rich experiences as well as by the extent to which the game provides a sense of control. In view of the influence of both game features and players’ expertise on the levels of experienced richness and control, it is concluded that game features should be modified over time to maintain optimal levels of engagement

The Effects of Product Feature Complexity, Market Activity, and Update Scheduling on Mobile App Life Cycles

Rapid advancements in telecommunication devices and the emergence of the mobile app ecosystem have immensely impacted our lives. Innovative apps have helped improve market efficiency in agriculture, contributed to environmental sustainability through peer-to-peer sharing services, and stimulated financial inclusion in developing economies. However, mobile app developers have to deal with challenges that can hinder the app to reach its full potential. In order to achieve commercial success in the hyper-competitive business landscape where freemium business models are dominating, developers need deep understanding on how non-price operational levers such as product design, delivery, and continued service lead to user adoption. From the two essays that comprise this dissertation, the first essay aims to explain user downloads of free mobile apps during the introduction stage in the lifecycle based on app feature designs and launch timings. The second essay estimates the effect of app enhancement updates on app downloads and explores contextual factors such as update regularity, lifecycle stage, and market activity levels that may further influence the effectiveness of the enhancements. Research questions proposed in the essays are answered by statistical analysis of heteroskedasticity-based instrumental variables regression and difference-in-differences analysis on free iOS mobile game app data acquired from app market Application Programming Interface (API) that contains daily performance observations over a 3.5-year time horizon. Data extraction and sample construction relied on naive Bayes tf-idf document classification algorithms and Bass diffusion model predictions which are performed via multi-thread processing on a high-performance cluster computing (HPC) server

Augmented and Virtual Reality for the promotion of the cultural heritage: analysis of museum mission and visitor experience

The thesis discusses the role of Augmented and Virtual Reality technology for the promotion of the cultural heritage, considering both the museum mission and the visitor experience. The research framework represents an integration of the Contextual Model of Learning developed in the field of Museum Visitor Studies, and the cultural-historical Activity Theory, so to consider the different human, environmental and technological dimensions that determine the visitor experience. The research includes two studies. The first study is a qualitative investigation performed at the Ara Pacis Museum in Rome, in order to explore the "design for use" and the "design in use", by collecting data through ethnographic methods and analyzing data through the Service Design Thinking methodology. The second study is an investigation of the museum audience performed using an online questionnaire, to complement and validate the results from study 1. The thesis discusses the results related to the technology as engagement factor, the artifacts ecology and the social interaction among visitors

Playing with value: player engagements with videogames as a negotiation of net cultural worth

This thesis explains the results of a research programme which set out to empirically create a theory relating to players’ experience of videogame playing and the methodology employed in doing so. With the perspective that many empirically derived or tested contemporary theories are not sufficient for accounting for engagement in the majority of cases, a semi-inductive theory generation methodology was selected, interpreted, and employed. The theoretical concept so derived is that in order to engage with a videogame product players must find an overall sense of cultural value in the products they encounter. This sense of value corresponds to games at a feature level, the user making judgements about salient design features, and is not fixed but is constantly evaluated as the player encounters the game, from when they are selecting the concept of a game, through play, to when they are reflecting on the experience in relation to other products. The evaluation of features seems to involve the player 'identifying' with the individual design features in that there is an implicit intra personal questioning of “Am I the kind of person who would play a game with this feature?” which might be described as an expression of the user's personal culture or assumed socially relative self sense. If they feel that they are the kind of person who would play a game with that feature then this value judgement will have a positive influence on their engagement, if they are not then it will affect the user’s engagement negatively. The features so evaluated in this way can be any personally salient design feature at all, such as game mechanics, graphical representation or even packaging. These weighted judgements then act together in summation to determine the player's potential engagement. Also included is a justification for the selection, interpretation, application, and pragmatics of the Classic Grounded Theory Methodology (CGT), as employed in this programme of research. Grounded Theory (GT) was selected as it initially promised to be suitably open and exploratory, and advice relating to CGT was employed most often as it frequently provided the most reasonable set of methods for proceeding. However substantial effort was required in both understanding what the published advice on applying the methodology meant, and how it applied to the current problem. Sections are included which tell the story of the practical process of both attempting to apply the methodology, and understand the implications of that application at the same time, and an attempt is made to summarise tricky areas (potential misunderstandings and seeming myths) and explain the understanding of the methodology relative to these issues as it was was employed in this research. In conclusion the derived theory seems to demonstrate a reasonable degree of 'fit' and 'relevance'; a conclusion which is supported by a survey of academic and industry specialists. As such, the methodology employed might be said to be useful in generating novel theoretical results. Also, the theory can be expressed as a substantive instantiation of existing general theories of human cultural behaviour such as Cooley's 'Looking Glass Self' (1902). It is also felt that the theory could be readily modified to account for further insights into the domain. These conclusions suggest that the hypotheses generated are useful for investigating the domain of videogame play and engagement