Go with the flow: reinforcement learning in turn-based battle video games

Game flow represents a state where the player is neither frustrated nor bored. In turn-based battle video games it can be achieved by Dynamic Difficulty Adjustment (DDA), whose research has begun rising over the last decade. This paper introduces an idea for incorporating DDA through the use of Reinforcement Learning (RL) to agents of turn-based battle video games. We design and implement an RL agent that shows, in a simple environment, the idea of how a game could achieve balance through adequate choices in actions depending on the player's level of skill. For achieving this purpose, we incorporated the design and implementation of state-action-reward-state-action (SARSA) algorithm to the agent of our implemented game. In addition, we added tracking of the on-going games and depending on the frequency of the player's repeated wins or losses, the rewards of the RL agent are modified. This modification of the rewards has an impact on the RL agent's actions, which involves an increase/decrease of the difficulty of the battle game. The evaluation performed shows that the idea of the paper is demonstrated, since players face personalized challenges that we believe are in range of game flow

Heuristic Evaluation for Gameful Design

© Lennart Nacke, 2016. This is the author’s version of the work. It is posted here for your personal use. Not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in CHI PLAY Companion '16 Proceedings of the 2016 Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play Companion Extended Abstracts, https://doi.org/10.1145/2968120.2987729Despite the emergence of many gameful design methods in the literature, there is a lack of evaluation methods specific to gameful design. To address this gap, we present a new set of guidelines for heuristic evaluation of gameful design in interactive systems. First, we review several gameful design methods to identify the dimensions of motivational affordances most often employed. Then, we present a set of 28 gamification heuristics aimed at enabling experts to rapidly evaluate a gameful system. The resulting heuristics are a new method to evaluate user experience in gameful interactive systemsNatural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of CanadaPeer-reviewe

A Framework and Taxonomy of Videogame Playing Preferences

© Owners/Authors, 2017. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here for your personal use. Not for redistribution. The definitive Version of Record was published in CHI PLAY '17 - Proceedings of the Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play.Player preferences for different gaming styles or game elements has been a topic of interest in human-computer interaction for over a decade. However, current models suggested by the extant literature are generally based on classifying abstract gaming motivations or player archetypes. These concepts do not directly map onto the building blocks of games, taking away from the utility of the findings. To address this issue, we propose a conceptual framework of player preferences based on two dimensions: game elements and game playing styles. To investigate these two concepts, we conducted an exploratory empirical investigation of player preferences, which allowed us to create a taxonomy of nine groups of game elements and five groups of game playing styles. These two concepts are foundational to games, which means that our model can be used by designers to create games that are tailored to their target audience. In addition, we demonstrate that there are significant effects of gender and age on participants’ preferences and discuss the implications of these findings.NSERC || RGPIN-418622-2012 SSHRC || 895-2011-1014, IMMERSe CFI || 35819 Mitacs || IT07255 SWaGUR CNPq, Brazi

A Thing of Beauty: Steering Behavior in an Interactive Playground

Interactive playgrounds are spaces where players engage in collocated, playful activities, in which added digital technology can be designed to promote cognitive, social, and motor skills development. To promote such development, different strategies can be used to implement game mechanics that change player's in-game behavior. One of such strategies is enticing players to take action through incentives akin to game achievements. We explored if this strategy could be used to influence players' proxemic behavior in the Interactive Tag Playground, an installation that enhances the traditional game of tag. We placed the ITP in an art gallery, observed hundreds of play sessions, and refined the mechanics, which consisted in projecting collectible particles around the tagger that upon collection by runners resulted only in the embellishment of their circles. We implemented the refined mechanics in a study with 48 children. The playground automatically collected the players' positions, and analyses show that runners got closer to and moved more towards taggers when using our enticing strategy. This suggests an enticing strategy can be used to influence physical in-game behavior

Affect Recognition using Psychophysiological Correlates in High Intensity VR Exergaming

User experience estimation of VR exergame players by recognising their affective state could enable us to personalise and optimise their experience. Affect recognition based on psychophysiological measurements has been successful for moderate intensity activities. High intensity VR exergames pose challenges as the effects of exercise and VR headsets interfere with those measurements. We present two experiments that investigate the use of different sensors for affect recognition in a VR exergame. The first experiment compares the impact of physical exertion and gamification on psychophysiological measurements during rest, conventional exercise, VR exergaming, and sedentary VR gaming. The second experiment compares underwhelming, overwhelming and optimal VR exergaming scenarios. We identify gaze fixations, eye blinks, pupil diameter and skin conductivity as psychophysiological measures suitable for affect recognition in VR exergaming and analyse their utility in determining affective valence and arousal. Our findings provide guidelines for researchers of affective VR exergames.This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 665992 </p

Interactive Feedforward for Improving Performance and Maintaining Intrinsic Motivation in VR Exergaming

Exergames commonly use low to moderate intensity exercise protocols. Their effectiveness in implementing high intensity protocols remains uncertain. We propose a method for improving performance while maintaining intrinsic motivation in high intensity VR exergaming. Our method is based on an interactive adaptation of the feedforward method: a psychophysical training technique achieving rapid improvement in performance by exposing participants to self models showing previously unachieved performance levels. We evaluated our method in a cycling-based exergame. Participants competed against (i) a self model which represented their previous speed; (ii) a self model representing their previous speed but increased resistance therefore requiring higher performance to keep up; or (iii) a virtual competitor at the same two levels of performance. We varied participants' awareness of these differences. Interactive feedforward led to improved performance while maintaining intrinsic motivation even when participants were aware of the interventions, and was superior to competing against a virtual competitor

MDA: A formal approach to game design and game research

MDA is a formal approach to understanding games – one which attempts to bridge the gap between game design and development, game criticism, and technical game research. We believe this methodology will clarify and strengthen the iterative processes of developers, scholars and researchers alike, making it easier for all parties to decompose, study and design a broad class of game designs and game artifacts

Augmenting co-located social play with biofeedback: An interactional approach

Biofeedback holds great potential for augmenting game play, but research to date has focussed predominantly on single player games. This paper proposes an interactional approach, which emphasises how multiple players engage with biofeedback and one another to make sense of the feedback and to incorporate it into their game play. To explore this approach in the context of the dice game Mia, we designed AMIA (Augmented Mia), a prototype system that gives feedback on heart rate, skin conductance, and skin temperature on a player’s hat or armband. A study with 21 participants showed that biofeedback was ambiguous, but nevertheless participants harnessed it as a hint about their opponents’ strategies, as a means of distraction, as a handicap when players could not see their own feedback as it was presented on their hat, and as a point of connection with other players. We discuss the mechanisms underlying these interactions and present design opportunities along spatial, temporal, and compositional dimensions of biofeedback that encourage and heighten social interaction

Game elicitation: exploring assistance in delayed-effect supply chain decision making

Socio-technical systems are creating work environments that are data-driven and real-time oriented. While algorithms can assist in this complex environment, decision making still predominantly relies on humans. An inadequate presentation of information and limited conception of decision outcomes are thereby potential sources of human error. Misperceptions of feedback and time-delayed effects, for example, contribute to the bullwhip effect observed in supply chains. In this case study, we applied the novel approach of game elicitation (GE) to explore human-centred assistance strategies for delayed-effect decision making.We designed a gaming simulation of a supply chain shortage incident to observe four logistics experts and four non-experts trying to balance the distribution system. Qualitative content analysis of thinking aloud protocols and reflective interviews yielded design suggestions for data presentation, monitoring, and learning regarding delayed-effect decisions. Findings suggest applicability in further domains of digital society, such as privacy decision making

Don’t sweat the small stuff: the effect of challenge-skill manipulation on electrodermal activity

Challenge plays a critical role in enabling an enjoyable and successful player experience, but not all dimensions of challenge are well understood. A more nuanced understanding of challenge and its role in the player experience is possible through assessing player psychophysiology. The psychophysiology of challenge (i.e. what occurs physiologically during experiences of video game challenge) has been the focus of some player experience research, but consensus as to the physiological markers of challenge has not been reached. To further explore the psychophysiological impact of challenge, three video game conditions – varying by degree of challenge – were developed and deployed within a large-scale psychophysiological study (n = 90). Results show decreased electrodermal activity (EDA) in the low-challenge video game condition compared to the medium- and high-challenge conditions, with a statistically non-significant but consistent pattern found between the medium- and high-challenge conditions. Overall, these results suggest electrodermal response increases with challenge. Despite the intuitiveness of some of these conclusions, the results do not align with extant literature. Possible explanations for the incongruence with the literature are discussed. Ultimately, with this work we hope to both enable a more complete understanding of challenge in the player experience, and contribute to a more granular understanding of the psychophysiological experience of play