Design and Preliminary Validation of The Player Experience Inventory

© 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/10.1145/2968120.2971805We present the design and preliminary results of the validation of the Player Experience Inventory (PXI). Based on the input of 64 experts in the field of player-computer interaction, we designed and refined this new scale. Our scale is based on the MDA framework (and on Means-End theory, underlying MDA). The PXI incorporates two subscales, one with dimensions at the functional level (i.e., dynamics) and one at the psycho-social level (i.e., aesthetics). The initial results, via principal factor analysis, suggest the scale can be used accurately to evaluate player experience. This work is our first step towards presenting a new, validated survey instrument for player experience evaluation.SIGCHI ACM Special Interest Group on Computer-Human InteractionPeer-reviewe

Uses and Attitudes of Old and Oldest Adults towards Self-Monitoring Health Systems

Oldest adults (80 years and over) are the fastest growing group in the total world population. This is putting pressure on national healthcare budgets, as the distribution of healthcare expenses is strongly age-dependent. One way of mitigating this burden may be to let older adults contribute to their own health directly by using self-management health systems (SMHS). SMHS might help older, including oldest, adults gain insight into their health status, and invite them to take action. However, while many studies report on user evaluations of older adults with one specific sensor system, fewer studies report on older adults’ uses and attitudes towards integrated SMHS. Moreover, most studies include participants with mean ages of 65 rather than 80. In this paper, we report on a qualitative study, consisting of a focus group interview and a user evaluation of an SMHS by 12 participants with a median age of 85 years. Three main findings were derived: Older adults (1) showed heterogeneity in computer skills, (2) found health technologies useful for others – not yet for themselves, and (3) perceived health technologies as a threat to social interaction. These findings suggest that health technologies are not ready for adoption by older adults yet, and further research on making them more accessible and desirable is required

miniPXI:Development and Validation of an Eleven-Item Measure of the Player Experience Inventory

Questionnaires are vital in games user research (GUR) to assess player experience (PX). However, having too many questions in surveys prevents wider uptake among GUR professionals because of games' rapid production cycles. To address this issue, we present the miniPXI - -an eleven-item measure of the popular Player Experience Inventory (PXI) - -providing single items for each of its eleven constructs. To develop the scale and examine its reliability and validity, we present three studies, conducted with 15 experts and 628 digital game players across continents. In the first survey study (n=366, 15 experts), single items were selected. In a second survey study (n=232), we explored reliability and validity of the single-item scale. Participants completed both full and single-item (SI) variants in three days. In the last study (n=30), we established the validity and sensitivity via an experimental evaluation of two games. The results are nuanced; SI reliability estimates for PXI constructs range from .51 to .83 with an average of .68, we could confirm the validity for nine constructs. We conclude that the miniPXI can be a valuable tool for PX evaluations where a longer measure is not feasible, and provide practical considerations for its use.</p

Motives for Motion-based Play. Less flow, more fun

Since the release of the Nintendo Wii console in November 2006, we have witnessed its success, mainly attributed to its innovative Wii remote. This wireless controller can be used as a handheld pointing device that senses motion. Players do not need to familiarize themselves with buttons or button combinations in order to execute actions in a game. Instead, a motion by a player can be mapped directly onto an in-game action, allowing motion-based play . Nintendo s Wii remote resulted not only in providing a new player experience for existing gamers, it also managed to broaden its market demographically, and fostered a wider adoption of gaming by previously non-gaming audiences. Not surprisingly, competitors have followed. Recently, we have witnessed the introduction of motion-based controllers by competitors. PlayStation has launched the PlayStation Move on September 2010. Microsoft launched the Kinect on November 2010. Clearly, motion-based play is here to stay. Notwithstanding the popularity of motion-based play, not all game lovers are equally positive. Several forums run active Wii bashing topics and sarcastic gamers put out spoof trailers and parodies of Wii games, testifying to the frustration of some gamers. These forum posts and parodies suggest that despite the popularity of motion-based play, it cannot provide the benefits that certain gamers seek in digital games. Clearly, the appeal of motion-based play is neither universal nor invariant. In this study, we investigated the appeal of motion-based play: How does it impact the player experience and why do players choose (or not) for motion-based play, rather than for other types of play? .In order to investigate the motives for motion-based play, we employed both qualitative and quantitative research methods, conceptually related to Means-End theory. Our multi-method approach allowed us to investigate the attributes of motion-based play (i.e., features such as the visibility of player movements and the naturalness of the interaction) and link them to the psycho-social consequences that players seek in motion-based play (i.e., benefits such as an enhanced immersion into the virtual world or more social fun amongst players). Therefore, we investigated and observed motion-based play at the home of Wii players via observations and depth-interviews , via questionnaires submitted on a larger scale, as well as via an experimental research design , comparing playing via a motion-based controller to playing with a classic controller. Finally, we interviewed players to understand how attributes link to gratifications (i.e., means-end chains) via a specific interview format, namely Laddering. Our results show that motion-based play does offer physical presence or the sense of being immersed in a virtual world. We conclude that characteristics of motion-based play, especially natural mapping and exploiting existing mental models, leads to physical presence and that physical presence is a motive for motion-based play. Our results also show that the visibility of gross motor movements favors sociality characteristics such as monitoring other players, mutual awareness, and nonverbal communication. Therefore, motion-based play enhances social presence or the salience of the other player. We additionally argued that players would be aware of their performances in front of others, be it co-players or bystanders. A player of motion-based games is not only operating (i.e., controlling the game) and performing (moving in front of the other players), but additionally he is an implicit spectator of his own actions (being aware of how the movements are perceived by the other players). This performer awareness also impacts the player experience and leads to social fun . Participants emphasized the fun of playing and of pretending together, and the importance of laughing together. Via the perception of player movements which often hold a specific socio-cultural meaning, and the humor and fun it induces, players share a bonding experience. Social fun as a motive for motion-based play was particularly emphasized by female players.While our results suggest that motion-based play enhances physical and social presence, our results also show that it offers less flow , the absorption into a challenging gaming activity, an experience that skillful gamers are often looking for. Explanations for this relative absence of flow with motion-based controllers can be attributed to their limited precision, resulting in the perception of insufficient control. This was particularly emphasized by male players. Those players that play from a performance motive and want to be challenged will prefer classic ways of controlling a game, compared to motion-based play. The question arises whether it will be sufficient for the new generation of motion-based controllers to implement more precise technology in order to experience flow. We argue that as long as game controllers demand actions relying on gross motor skills, there will always be a loss of perceived control compared to classic game controllers that focus on fine motor skills.This leads us to the final conclusion that while playing with current motion-based controllers provides more (social) fun, it provides less flow.TABLE OF CONTENTS TABLE OF CONTENTS I LIST OF TABLES VII LIST OF FIGURES VIII ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS XI INTRODUCTION 1 PART 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 5 1 PLAY 7 1.1 Play as an activity with a purpose 7 1.2 Play as a formal system 9 1.3 Games versus play: contest versus representation 11 1.4 Games versus play: artefact versus experience 12 1.5 The paradox of play 12 1.6 Summary 13 2 MOTION-BASED INTERACTION 15 2.1 Motion-based interaction as low-level situated action 15 2.1.1 Enactive interaction 15 2.1.2 Affordances 17 2.1.3 Natural mapping 19 2.2 Motion-based interaction as high-level situated action 21 2.2.1 Mental models of everyday life 21 2.2.2 Socially constructed meanings 22 2.3 Summary 23 3 DEFINING MOTION-BASED PLAY 24 3.1 Diversity of motion-based play 24 3.2 Motion-based play as play via the Wii remote 27 3.3 Summary 28 4 THE PLAYER EXPERIENCE: FLOW AND PRESENCE 30 4.1 Flow 31 4.1.1 The origins of the concept of flow 31 4.1.2 Dimensions of flow 33 4.1.3 Three stages model of flow 37 4.1.4 The messy construct of flow 38 4.1.5 Flow as a situated activity 39 4.1.6 Flow and gaming 40 4.1.7 Flow and motion-based play 46 4.1.8 From flow to presence 47 4.2 (Tele)Presence 49 4.2.1 Presence versus telepresence 49 4.2.2 Different conceptualizations of presence 50 4.2.3 Physical presence and social presence 51 4.2.4 (Tele)presence as a psychological experience 52 4.2.5 Presence and media form 52 4.2.6 Physical presence and gaming 54 4.2.7 Physical presence and motion-based play 54 4.3 Flow versus physical presence 55 4.4 Summary 56 5 PLAY AS A SOCIALLY SITUATED EXPERIENCE 58 5.1 Social presence 59 5.1.1 Sociality characteristics 59 5.1.2 Social presence 60 5.1.3 Co-presence 61 5.2 Performer awareness and performing perception 63 5.2.1 Performer awareness 63 5.2.2 Performing perception 65 5.3 Summary 66 6 A THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK AND RESEARCH QUESTIONS 67 6.1 Theoretical framework 67 6.1.1 Flow, physical presence, social presence, and performer awareness 67 6.1.2 More (social) flow or less flow? 67 6.2 Research questions 69 PART 2: RESEARCH DESIGN 71 7 USES AND GRATIFICATIONS PARADIGM AND MEANS-END THEORY 73 7.1 Player experience 73 7.2 Uses and Gratifications: a communication science perspective 75 7.2.1 The Uses and Gratifications paradigm outlined 75 7.2.2 Three assumptions for adopting the U&G paradigm 76 7.2.3 Research methods associated with the Uses and Gratifications paradigm 77 7.2.4 Uses and Gratifications of game players 78 7.3 Expectancy-Value theory: from high-level gratifications to low-level attributes 79 7.3.1 Expectancy-Value theory 79 7.3.2 Expectancy-Value theory and the Uses and Gratifications paradigm 80 7.4 Means-End theory 81 7.4.1 Attributes, consequences and values 81 7.4.2 Laddering 84 7.4.3 Common assumptions of Means-End theory and the Uses and Gratifications paradigm 88 7.5 Combining Means-End theory with the Uses and Gratifications paradigm 88 7.5.1 Perceived gratifications obtained 88 7.5.2 Perceived gratifications obtained as psycho-social consequences 89 7.6 Summary 90 8 RESEARCH ACTIONS 91 8.1 The permeable bubble: an exploratory user study of the Uses and Gratifications of Wii players 92 8.2 All about us: a survey study on the Uses and Gratifications of Wii players 92 8.3 Less control, more naturalness: an experimental study on motion-based play 93 8.4 Less control, more schadenfreude: a laddering study of motion-based play 93 8.5 Conclusion of the research design 93 PART 3: RESEARCH ACTIVITIES 95 9 THE PERMEABLE BUBBLE: AN EXPLORATORY STUDY OF USES AND GRATIFICATIONS OF WII PLAYERS 97 9.1 Introduction 97 9.2 Method 100 9.2.1 Participants 100 9.2.2 Research Process 102 9.2.3 Process 109 9.2.4 Tools for the research activities 110 9.3 Results: The Permeable Bubble 110 9.3.1 Games played and duration 110 9.3.2 A conceptual model of Wii play 121 9.3.3 Non-motion based play characteristics that contribute to the permeable bubble 131 9.3.4 Typology 133 9.4 Discussion 137 9.5 Conclusion 139 10 ALL ABOUT US: A SURVEY STUDY ON THE USES AND GRATIFICATIONS OF WII PLAYERS 140 10.1 Introduction 140 10.1.1 The Uses and Gratifications Paradigm 141 10.1.2 Existing Uses and Gratifications studies of games 141 10.1.3 Uses and Gratifications of Wii players 144 10.2 Method 148 10.2.1 Participants 148 10.2.2 Scales and measures 149 10.2.3 Software and tools 150 10.3 Results 150 10.3.1 Results regarding play frequencies 150 10.3.2 Motives for Wii play 153 10.4 Discussion 157 10.4.1 Wii uses and play frequencies 157 10.4.2 Wii play, motives and gender 157 10.4.3 Wii play and the gratification sought of physical exercise. 159 10.5 Further work 159 10.6 Conclusion 160 11 LESS CONTROL, MORE NATURALNESS: AN EXPERIMENTAL STUDY ON MOTION-BASED PLAY 161 11.1 Introduction 161 11.2 Motion-based play in a solo-setting 162 11.2.1 Motion-based play and natural mapping 162 11.2.2 Motion-based play and body movements 163 11.2.3 Motion-based play and physically controlled peripherals 164 11.2.4 Motion-based play as an ‘advanced control scheme’ 165 11.2.5 Summarizing results concerning motion-based play in a solo-setting 165 11.3 Motion-based play in a co-located setting 166 11.4 Aim of the present study 167 11.4.1 Hypotheses and research questions 168 11.5 Method 169 11.5.1 Experimental design 169 11.5.2 Measurement instruments 171 11.5.3 Tools for the research activities 172 11.6 Results 172 11.6.1 Perceived controller naturalness and spatial presence 173 11.6.2 Perceived control, game scores and flow 175 11.6.3 Social presence 177 11.6.4 Game experience components 178 11.7 Discussion 179 11.7.1 Perceived controller naturalness and spatial presence 179 11.7.2 Perceived control and Flow 180 11.7.3 Social Presence 181 11.8 Limitations and future work 181 11.9 Conclusion 183 12 LESS CONTROL, MORE SCHADENFREUDE: A LADDERING STUDY OF MOTION-BASED PLAY 184 12.1 Introduction 184 12.2 Means-End chains and motion-based play 185 12.2.1 The permeable bubble: an exploratory study of Uses and Gratifications of Wii players 185 12.2.2 All about us: a survey study on the Uses and Gratifications of Wii players 187 12.2.3 Less control, more naturalness: an experimental study on motion-based play 187 12.2.4 Summary 187 12.3 Method 188 12.3.1 Participants 188 12.3.2 Eliciting the situational context 188 12.3.3 Attribute eliciting via preference indication 189 12.3.4 Laddering 189 12.3.5 Qualitative data analysis 193 12.3.6 Quantitative data analysis 194 12.4 Results 196 12.4.1 Dominant perceptual orientations 196 12.4.2 Means-End chains of male versus female participants 200 12.5 Discussion 202 12.5.1 Social fun vs winning 202 12.5.2 Steering wheel provides less control 202 12.5.3 Ease-of-use: control versus intuitiveness 203 12.5.4 Steering wheel leads to immersion 203 12.5.5 Less control and more Difficulty leads to social fun 204 12.5.6 Oversensitivity leads to less control 204 12.6 Limitations of the study 205 12.7 Conclusion 205 PART 4: DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION 207 13 GENERAL CONCLUSION 209 13.1 Summary of the research results 209 13.1.1 Physical presence 209 13.1.2 Flow 210 13.1.3 Social presence and performer awareness 211 13.1.4 Influences of social presence and performer awareness on flow and physical prescence 213 13.1.5 Social flow 213 13.1.6 Gender and motion-based play 214 13.2 Contribution to the theory of motion-based play 214 13.3 Contribution to the methodology 216 13.4 Limitations of the current study 217 13.5 Generalizing our findings to other types of motion-based play 219 13.5.1 Motion-based play is playing via gross motor skills 221 13.5.2 The new generation of motion-based controllers 221 13.6 Implications for the design of motion-based play 223 13.6.1 Offer a sense of realism 223 13.6.2 Choose the correct sensing technology 225 13.6.3 Ease-of-use = control plus intuitiveness 225 13.6.4 Avoid using motions if there are no opportunities for offering realism 226 13.6.5 Realism leads to social presence 226 13.6.6 Exploit the performer awareness 226 13.6.7 Failing is fun 227 REFERENCES 229 APPENDICES 273 APPENDIX I: LADDERUX – A TOOL FOR THE QUANTITATIVE ANALYSIS OF LADDERING DATA 275 13.7 Quantitative analysis of Laddering data 275 13.7.1 Quantitative analysis of laddering data 276 13.8 Software tools for Laddering research 282 13.9 Laddering tools for User eXperience evaluations 282 13.10 Working with LadderUX 285 13.10.2 Validation of the LadderUX software 294 13.11 LadderUX: Conclusions and future work 296 APPENDIX II: VALIDATION OF LADDERUX 297 APPENDIX III: OVERVIEW OF CODES FOR THE LADDERING STUDY 301 APPENDIX IV: DUTCH QUESTIONNAIRE FOR “ALL ABOUT US: A SURVEY STUDY ON THE USES AND GRATIFICATIONS OF WII PLAYERS”” 303 APPENDIX V: ENGLISH VERSION OF THE QUESTIONNAIRE FOR “ALL ABOUT US: A SURVEY STUDY ON THE USES AND GRATIFICATIONS OF WII PLAYERS”” 311 APPENDIX VI: STATISTICAL ANALYSIS FOR “ALL ABOUT US: A SURVEY STUDY ON THE USES AND GRATIFICATIONS OF WII PLAYERS” 319 APPENDIX VII: DUTCH QUESTIONNAIRE FOR “LESS CONTROL, MORE NATURALNESS: AN EXPERIMENTAL STUDY ON MOTION-BASED PLAY” 331 APPENDIX VIII: ENGLISH VERSION OF THE QUESTIONNAIRE “LESS CONTROL, MORE NATURALNESS: AN EXPERIMENTAL STUDY ON MOTION-BASED PLAY” 347 APPENDIX IX: STATISTICAL ANALYSIS FOR “LESS CONTROL, MORE NATURALNESS: AN EXPERIMENTAL STUDY ON MOTION-BASED PLAY” 359 SUMMARY 381 SAMENVATTING 383 RÉSUMÉ 387nrpages: 271status: publishe

Innovate play, not technology

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The Unlikeability of a Cuddly Toy Interface: An Experimental Study of Preschoolers' Likeability and Usability of a 3D Game Played with a Cuddly Toy Versus a Keyboard

We report on a comparative study of the likeability and usability of a cuddly toy inter-face versus a keyboard interface. We put 35 preschoolers to the test and asked them to play a 3D game via a keyboard and via a cuddly toy interface. Afterwards the usability (user-friendliness) and the likeability (joy-of-use) of both interfaces were assessed. Our results indicate that the cuddly toy interface was neither more likeable nor more usable than the keyboard interface. Based on additional qualitative data, we argument that the causes might be fatigue, a lack of meaningful use of gestures, and the occurrence of 'satisficing'.status: publishe

Analyzing Cognitive Functioning via Card Game Play: Presenting a Toolkit and a Case Study

Paper presented during the Forum on Video Games for Mental Health at CHI Play 2018.status: Published onlin

The Extended Likeability Framework: A Theoretical Framework for and a Practical Case of Designing Likeable Media Applications for Preschoolers

A theoretical framework and practical case for designing likeable interactive media applications for preschoolers in the home environment are introduced. First, we elaborate on the theoretical framework. We introduce the uses and gratifications paradigm (U&G). We argue that U&G is a good approach to researching likeability of media applications. Next, we complete the U&G framework with expectancy-value (EV) theory. EV theory helps us move from theoretical insights to concrete design guidelines. Together, the U&G framework and the EV model form the foundation of our extended likeability framework for the design and evaluation of interactive media applications, for preschoolers in the home environment. Finally, we demonstrate a practical case of our extended likeability framework via the research project CuTI. The CuTI project aims at revealing those particular user gratifications and design attributes that are important to support playful behaviour and fun activities of preschoolers in the home environment