Pressure at Play: Measuring Player Approach and Avoidance Behaviour through the Keyboard


van den Hoogen Wouter Braad Eelco Ijsselsteijn Wijnand
2014 DiGRA '14 - Proceedings of the 2014 DiGRA International Conference

With the increased adoption of real-time objective measurements of player experience, advances have been made in characterising the dynamically changing aspects of the player experience during gameplay itself. A direct coupling to player action, however, is not without challenges. Many physiological responses, for instance, have an inherent delay, and often take some time to return to a baseline, providing challenges of interpretation when analysing rapidly changing gameplay on a micro level of interaction. The development of event-related, or phasic, measurements directly coupled to player actions provides additional insights, for instance through player modelling, but also through the use of behavioural characteristics of the human computer interaction itself. In this study, we focused on the latter, and measured keyboard pressure in a number of different, fast-paced action games. In this particular case, we related specific functional game actions (keyboard presses) to experiential player behaviour. We found keyboard pressure to be higher for avoidance as compared to approach-oriented actions. Additionally, the difference between avoidance and approach keyboard pressure related to levels of arousal. The findings illustrate the application potential of qualifying players’ functional actions at play (navigating in a game) and interpret player experience related to these actions through players’ real world behavioural characteristics like interface pressure.

 

Effects of Sensory Immersion on Behavioural Indicators of Player Experience: Movement Synchrony and Controller Pressure


Hoogen Wouter M. van den IJsselsteijn Wijnand A. Kort Yvonne A.W. de
2009 DiGRA '09 - Proceedings of the 2009 DiGRA International Conference: Breaking New Ground: Innovation in Games, Play, Practice and Theory

In this paper we investigate the relation between immersion in a game and the player’s intensity of physical behaviours, in order to explore whether these behaviours can be reliably used as indicators of player experience. Immersion in the game was manipulated by means of screen size (20" vs 42" screen), and sound pressure level (60dBA vs 80 dBA), according to a 2 x 2 design. The effects of these manipulations on self-reported experience (including arousal and presence) and behavioural intensity (controller tilt and button pressure) were measured. Results showed that sound pressure level in particular strongly influenced both the self-reported measures of people's affective reactions and feelings of presence and the force people applied to the interface device. Results from controller tilt demonstrated that participants did move along with the dynamics of the game. The measure was, however not sensitive to either of the two manipulations of sensory immersion. In the paper the implications for the use of behavioural indicators of player experience in general and the feeling of presence are discussed.