Virtual skin: Assessing Player Experience of Attractiveness with the User Experience Questionnaire (UEQ)

There are numerous subfields within visual communication, one of which is new media, alongside conventional practices such as advertising, photography, the web, animation, and signage. Blogs, social media, video games, email and the pervasiveness of smartphones have all resulted in the emergence of new media that are inextricably linked to the internet and the online environment. since the first mobile game, "Tetris", in 1994 and “Snakes" in 1997, the visual element in mobile games has evolved significantly, culminating in the modern-day mobile gaming world. These changes have involved progress from the black and white images of the early games to the variety of colours used in game visuals today and the creation of virtual goods in-app games. A skin is one of these virtual goods or items and is synonymous with a virtual appearance, outfit or cosmetic item that can be used to modify and enhance the appearance of a player's avatar. This is a cosmetic item and purely aesthetic in nature, serving no functional purpose. Among players, the desire for a skin is undeniable. Apart from the "beauty factor," another hidden value is inherent in players' perceptions of their interactions with purely aesthetic items. To determine the attractiveness of the skin in mobile games, preliminary research on skin evaluation was conducted to ascertain players' perceptions of recent virtual skins they had used in-game. The purpose of the study was to identify players’ perceptions of the attractiveness of the skin they used. To conduct the research, the Standard User Experience Questionnaire (UEQ) was used to determine the attractiveness of the skin as a virtual product. The UEQ is composed of six scales and twenty-six items that assess attractiveness on a hedonic and pragmatic level. Thirty respondents were chosen, and data analysis was performed using UEQ Data Analysis Tools. The product's benchmark was divided into five UX quality categories: excellent, good, above average, below average, and bad. The results indicate that stimulation is an excellent proxy for the UX quality of skin and efficiency is above average; meanwhile, attractiveness, perspicuity, dependability, and novelty were below average.

"My Soul Got a Little Bit Cleaner"

Videogames receive increasing acclaim as a medium capable of artistic expression, emotional resonance, and even transformative potential. Yet while discussions concerning the status of games as art have a long history in games research, little is known about the player experience (PX) of games as art, their emotional characteristics, and what impact they may have on players. Drawing from Empirical Aesthetics, we surveyed 174 people about whether they had an art experience with videogames and what emotions they experienced. Our findings showcase the prominence of epistemic emotions for videogame art experiences, beyond the negative and mixed emotional responses previously examined, as well as the range of personal impacts such experiences may have. These findings are consistent with art experience phenomena characteristic of other art forms. Moreover, we discuss how our study relates to prior research on emotions and reflection in PX, the importance of games' representational qualities in art experiences, and identify lines of further inquiry. All data, study materials, and analyses are available at https://osf.io/ryvt6/.

"The Small Decisions Are What Makes it Interesting"

Games and play research at CHI employs psychological theory to investigate the ways that varied qualities of people, videogames, and play contexts contribute to nuances in player experience (PX). Play is often characterised as self-endorsed and freely chosen behaviour, and self-determination theory (SDT) proposes that this autonomous quality contributes to wellbeing restoration. However, prior research has produced only inconsistent support for this claim. In this study, 148 participants experienced an autonomy-satisfying or -frustrating puzzle before playing Spore, a videogame likely to satisfy autonomy. Need-frustrated participants showed comparatively greater improvement in autonomy, vitality, and intrinsic motivation when playing Spore, and in-game autonomy satisfaction was shown to index post-play wellbeing outcomes. However, further results were mixed, and only competence frustration was found to predict ill-being outcomes. These findings are contextualised by post-study interviews that investigate the ways that autonomy, wellbeing, and motivation emerge in and through play in daily life.

Under Pressure

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 work, we explore the potential mechanisms behind choking and clutching and how they are related to player traits and tendencies. We report the results of multiple regression analyses, finding that the propensity to choke is positively correlated with Reinvestment, Obsessive Passion, and Public Self-Consciousness, as well as Approach and Avoidance coping styles. Likewise, we find that the propensity to clutch is negatively correlated with Social Anxiety, and positively with Private Self-Consciousness and player experience with competitive gaming. We propose that these findings can be utilized to scaffold and support performance in high-pressure gaming spaces, such as esports. This work represents an initial step in the empirical exploration of choking and clutching in competitive video game contexts.

The Puzzle Challenge Analysis Tool. A Tool for Analysing the Cognitive Challenge Level of Puzzles in Video Games

Video games are often designed around puzzles and problem-solving, leading to challenging yet engaging experiences for players. However, it is hard to measure or compare the challenge level of puzzles in video games. This can make designing appropriately challenging puzzles problematic. This study collates previous work to present refined definitions for challenge and difficulty within the context of video games. We present the Puzzle Challenge Analysis tool which can be used to determine the best metrics for analysing the challenge level of puzzles within video games. Previous research has focused on measuring the difficulty of simple action video games, such as Pac-Man, which can be easily modified for research purposes. Existing methods to measure challenge or difficulty include measuring player brain activity, examining game features and player scores. However, some of these approaches cannot be applied to puzzles or puzzle games. For example, approaches relying on game scores will not work for puzzle games with no scoring system, where puzzles are either solved or not. This paper describes the design and development of the Puzzle Challenge Analysis tool using two case studies of commercial video games The Witness and Untitled Goose Game. The tool is also tested for generalisability on a third commercial puzzle video game, Baba Is You. This proposed tool can help game designers and researchers to objectively analyse and compare puzzle challenge and produce more in-depth insights into the player experience. This has implications for designing challenging and engaging games for a range of player abilities.

To Be or Not to Be Stuck, or Is It a Continuum?

Players can get stuck in video games, which impedes their process to their goal and results in unfavorable outcomes like negative emotions, impediments of flow, and obstacles for learning. Currently, it is not easily possible to assess if a player is stuck, as no widely accepted definition of "being stuck" in games exists. We conducted 13 expert interviews and a systematic literature review with 104 relevant papers selected from 4022 candidates. We present a definition of "being stuck" that conceptualizes the state as a continuum and contextualize it within related concepts. Our stuck continuum can be applied to regulate the player's stuck level. We propose a taxonomy of measures that are useful for the detection of the level of stuckness and discuss the effectiveness of countermeasures. Our stuck concept is crucial for game developers creating an optimal player experience in games.

Evaluating Tutorial-Based Instructions for Controllers in Virtual Reality Games

Virtual reality (VR) has disrupted the gaming market and is rapidly becoming ubiquitous. Yet differences between VR and traditional mediums, such as controllers that are visible in the virtual world, enable entirely new approaches to instruction. In this paper, we present four studies, each using a different VR game. Within each study, we compared three different modalities of tutorials: Text (text-only), Text+Diagram (text with controller diagrams), and Text+Spatial (text with controller tooltips appearing on top of the player's virtual controllers). Data from our studies show that the importance of tutorial modality depends greatly on game type. In a third-person shooter, Text+Spatial led to significantly higher controls learnability than Text and Text+Diagram, and also led to significantly higher performance, player experience, and intrinsic motivation than Text. In a puzzle game, Text+Spatial led to significantly higher controls learnability and performance than Text. Additionally, Text+Diagram led to significantly higher controls learnability than Text. However, in a wave shooter and a rhythm game, differences between conditions were negligible on all measures. Our studies show that game type is an important factor to consider when designing tutorial modality.

Identifying Commercial Games with Therapeutic Potential through a Content Analysis of Steam Reviews

While evidence supports that some commercial off-the-shelf video games may promote mental wellbeing, it is an extensive time investment to experimentally identify games that benefit players. The time delay between commercial games research and commercial game development can render such research out-of-date. In this work, we explore player-written game reviews as a way to expeditiously identifying games with potential benefits for mental wellbeing. Through a content analysis of review data, we found that players publicly disclose experiences consistent with self-care. Our analysis generated categories related to coping and recovery, emotional regulation, social connectedness, and obsessive play. Through this process, we identified several games as strong candidates for further research. Our work contributes to an emerging research agenda of commercial video games as therapy (VGTx), by providing a technique for rapidly identifying games with therapeutic potential. Further, we demonstrate that Steam user reviews are a valuable source of affective player experience data-a contribution with broad implications for player experience research.