Don’t You Know That You’re Toxic: Normalization of Toxicity in Online Gaming

Peer ReviewedVideo game toxicity, endemic to online play, represents a pervasive and complex problem. Antisocial behaviours in online play directly harm player wellbeing, enjoyment, and retention—but research has also revealed that some players normalize toxicity as an inextricable and acceptable element of the competitive video game experience. In this work, we explore perceptions of toxicity and how they are predicted by player traits, demonstrating that participants reporting a higher tendency towards Conduct Reconstrual, Distorting Consequences, Dehumanization, and Toxic Online Disinhibition perceive online game interactions as less toxic. Through a thematic analysis on willingness to report, we also demonstrate that players abstain from reporting toxic content because they view it as acceptable, typical of games, as banter, or as not their concern. We propose that these traits and themes represent contributing factors to the cyclical normalization of toxicity. These findings further highlight the multifaceted nature of toxicity in online video games

Greater rewards in videogames lead to more presence, enjoyment and effort

There is currently limited understanding of whether and how different amounts and diversity of virtual rewards impact on the player experience. A repeated-measures experiment was undertaken in which participants (N = 59) were compared on subjective measures (competence, presence-immersion, tension, effort and enjoyment), as well as psychophysiological measures (electrodermal activity and heart-beat rate), during the play of a videogame with three levels of video game reward (high, medium, low). Effort, enjoyment and presence-immersion significantly varied across conditions such that they were greater when all rewards were present compared to one or both of the other conditions. Heart-beat rate was found to vary across conditions consistent with the explanation that greater rewards lead to greater arousal. Our study suggest a number of advantages to greater amount and diversity of virtual rewards in the context of a casual videogame, with potential application to the design of new gamification systems

Enhanced Esports: Community Perspectives on Performance Enhancers in Competitive Gaming

This work explores perceptions of performance enhancer usage in esports. Specifically, we explored the perception of: food and food supplements; non-medical use of prescription drugs; drugs with some social acceptance (e.g. alcohol, nicotine, cannabis); drugs with lower social acceptance (e.g., psychedelics, opioids); and non-invasive brain stimulation (e.g. transcranial direct current stimulation). A mixed-methods approach was used to triangulate findings around three data sets, including both prompted and unprompted online forum comments, as well as survey data. The studies evidence that players are willing to use or are already using enhancers to increase their in-game performance, and that players are generally concerned about the use of enhancers in professional esports contexts. Furthermore, the community perceives that a substantial number of e-athletes use enhancers. The core contribution of this work is a comprehensive investigation into perspectives of esports performance enhancement, which highlights the urgent need for further research, as well as regulation by esports leagues

The psychophysiological evaluation of the player experience

This thesis investigates the role of psychophysiology in the evaluation of the video game player experience. In doing so, it reports results from a program of research assessing the psychophysiological response of players to optimal and sub-optimal play experiences as moderated by challenge. The thesis identifies psychophysiological evaluation as an insightful and distinctive approach for assessing the player experience, proposes recommendations for the use of psychophysiology in related research, and clarifies current understanding of psychophysiological response to video game play

Redefining videogame reward types

The aim of our research is to iteratively refine and begin validating a proposed videogame reward typology and its associated definitions. A mixed methods approach has been taken so as to best evaluate and refine the taxonomy. The views of an expert focus group have been explored and considered. Separately, a review of the videogame rewards observed within recreational videogames has been undertaken and analyzed. The collective findings of both the focus group and the videogame reward review have prompted the redesign of an existing videogame reward taxonomy, resulting in more robust definitions with increased applicability

Paralysis by Analysis: Choking, Clutching, and Reinvestment in Competitive Gameplay

Video games frequently invoke high-pressure circumstances in which player performance is crucial. These high-pressure circumstances are incubators for ‘choking’ and ‘clutching’—phenomena that broadly address critical failures and successes in performance, respectively. The eruption of esports into the mainstream has vitalized the need to understand performance in video games, and particularly in competitive games spaces. In this short workshop paper, we present a selection of findings and insights from a full paper (submitted for review) exploring potential mechanisms behind choking and clutching. We find that propensity to choke is positively predicted by trait reinvestment—a predisposition to ‘focus inwards’ in high pressure contexts, reverting to slower ‘declarative’ processing in lieu of more automated ‘procedural’ processing. We also find that propensity to clutch is positively predicted by player experience with competitive gaming. We propose that such findings can be utilized to scaffold and support performance in high-pressure gaming spaces, such as esports

Making friends in online games: gender differences and designing for greater social connectedness

While online multiplayer games provide an opportunity for players to both maintain and establish new connections, male and female players have been found to experience these environments differently. Interviews (n = 22) and focus groups (n = 14) were used to explore these differences as they impact on creating new social connections, as well as to provide recommendations for the development of new social tools and features that account for these differences. While all participants experienced toxicity and performance pressure as barriers to forming new connections, female players uniquely reported the impacts of misogynistic targeting and stereotype threat. In turn, female players wishing to avoid these stresses would often mask their gender. The common practice of gender misrepresentation by both male and female players impacted female players’ ability to create social connections through voice technology, as well as building their distrust of unknown others. Recommendations are made to build social connectedness between players taking into account the specific constraints faced by female players. These include establishing mentoring opportunities as well as profiling players beyond their immediate skill or rank. Additionally, the desire for control of one’s online identity presents practical challenges that may be overcome through thoughtful design

The social context of video game play: Challenges and strategies

People who play video games do so in a range of social contexts: alone, with people they know and don’t know, in cooperative and competitive settings. However, little is known about what people enjoy or dislike about these contexts of play, or how to best design games to support player preferences. Using open-ended responses from an online survey (N = 326) and a series of interviews (N = 16) this study shows that the solitary context offers immersive, relaxing, autonomous play, as well as the avoidance of unwanted social interactions. Social play, however, provides competence-enhancing experiences (via competition or teamwork or both) via interactions with others. What was disliked about these contexts indicates where design improvements to both the solitary and social play experiences can be made

Operationalising and measuring flow in video games

This paper explores the obstacles associated with designing video game levels for the purpose of objectively measuring flow. We sought to create three video game levels capable of inducing a flow state, an overload state (low-flow), and a boredom state (low-flow). A pilot study, in which participants self-reported levels of flow after playing all three game levels, was undertaken. Unexpected results point to the challenges of operationalising flow in video game research, obstacles in experimental design for invoking flow and low-flow, concerns about flow as a construct for measuring video game enjoyment, the applicability of self-report flow scales, and the experience of flow in video game play despite substantial challenge-skill differences

Psychophysiology of challenge in play: EDA and self-reported arousal

Measuring the video game player experience is a distinctly challenging task. As the experience of 'fun' in games is imprecise and multi-faceted, various psychological and experiential phenomena have been investigated in an effort to evaluate and quantify aspects of the player experience. Psychophysiology provides a useful lens through which to objectively and quantitatively measure and evaluate these phenomena. This study reports current electrodermal activity (EDA) findings from a large-scale ongoing study investigating the psychophysiology of play using electrodermal activity, electroencephalography, electromyography, and electrocardiography. Initial EDA results point to greater arousal the more challenging the play experience. Findings also indicate that EDA potentially reports arousal with greater real-time accuracy than a subjective arousal measure. Ultimately, with this work, we aim contribute to a greater understanding of the psychophysiological evaluation and impact of play