Imersão e Heads-Up Displays (HUDs) em videogames

Dissertação (mestrado)—Universidade de Brasília, Departamento de Design, 2014.Este trabalho apresenta uma investigação do efeito do Heads-Up Display (HUD) no processo de imersão em jogos de videogame. Essa investigação tem por objetivo verificar a influência do HUD no processo de imersão, de modo a entender como isso ocorre e qual seu efeito no aproveitamento da experiência de imersão por parte do jogador. O fenômeno da imersão é valorizado tanto por especialistas quanto por jogadores e é intrínseco a outros tipos de mídia como filmes e literatura. A escolha do HUD como objeto de investigação se dá pela sua presença em grande parte dos videogames atuais, bem como pela escassez de estudos acadêmicos especificamente voltados para esse elemento. Neste trabalho, é realizado um levantamento bibliográfico de estudos relacionados a imersão e videogames, seguido de uma série de pesquisas realizadas com usuários por meio de questionários e grupos de foco, e além disso são apresentados estudos de caso de jogos conhecidos. É constatado que o HUD possui influência no processo de imersão de acordo com o volume de informação que ele transmite e de sua apresentação gráfica na interface do jogo, podendo afetar o fenômeno da imersão. Desse modo, ao final são propostas linhas-guia para auxiliar desenvolvedores na criação de HUDs que otimizem a experiência de imersão em jogos, bem como propostos caminhos para estudos adicionais no conceito de imersão em videogames.This study aims at investigating the effects of the Heads-Up Display (HUD) in the phenomenon of immersion in videogames. This investigation is directed at verifying the influence of the HUD and understanding how and to what extent this element affects the experience of immersion for the player. Immersion is considered an important phenomenon in videogames by specialists and gamers alike, and is also present in other media such as literature and cinema. The choice of the HUD as subject is justified by its presence on most videogames and on the lack of academic references focused on the subject. This study presents an analysis of recent literature on videogames and immersion, which is complemented by case studies and data collected directly from videogame users in questionnaires and focus groups. It is verified that the HUD affects the experience of immersion in videogames in both positive and negative ways, according to the amount of information it presents to players and the visual interference it has on the game screen. The study then presents guidelines aimed at helping developers in designing HUDs with positive effects on the experience of immersion, as well as suggesting paths to further studies on the subject

Measuring the experience of playing self-paced games

Self-paced games are digital games which do not require players to make a move within a particular period of time, so the game can be played at whichever speed the player desires. Game experience measures can help game designers and increase understanding of how games create engagement. This thesis aimed to develop new measures of the experience of playing self-paced games. It investigated two possible measures; measuring cognitive load using pupil dilation and measuring attention using irrelevant distractor images. The first approach found a significant difference in pupil dilation between easy and hard variants of a task taken from the game Two Dots. In a subsequent study, participants played three different versions of Two Dots – one of which required no cognitive effort. There was no significant difference in pupil dilation due to cognitive load between the games. It seems likely that although players could use sustained cognitive effort to play the game, they chose not to, and use other strategies instead. I concluded that pupil dilation is unlikely to be an effective measure of game experience. The second approach developed a new measure known as the distractor recognition paradigm. This measure surrounds the game with constantly changing irrelevant images. After playing, participants are tested on how many of these images they recognise. An initial study found a significant difference in images recognised between two very different versions of the game Two Dots. There was also a significant difference in distractors recognised between three more similar games. This was found to be a stronger measure of game attention than using eye tracking and also found to be effective if the distractor images were placed inside the game graphics. This approach succeeded in the aim of the thesis which was to find a new measure of the experience of playing self-paced games