Publications: Article

Year 2017

The maturing of gamification research

@article{Nacke2017,
author = {Nacke, Lennart E. and Deterding, Sebastian},
doi = {10.1016/j.chb.2016.11.062},
journal = {Computers in Human Behavior},
title = {{The maturing of gamification research}},
year = {2017},
volume = {71}
}

Year 2014

BrainHex: A Neurobiological Gamer Typology Survey

@article{nacke2014brainhex,
abstract = {This paper briefly presents a player satisfaction model called BrainHex, which was based on insights from neurobiological findings as well as the results from earlier demographic game design models (DGD1 and DGD2). The model presents seven different archetypes of players: Seeker, Survivor, Daredevil, Mastermind, Conqueror, Socialiser, and Achiever. We explain how each of these player archetypes relates to older player typologies (such as Myers-Briggs), and how each archetype characterizes a specific playing style. We conducted a survey among more than 50,000 players using the BrainHex model as a personality type motivator to gather and compare demographic data to the different BrainHex archetypes. We discuss some results from this survey with a focus on psychometric orientation of respondents, to establish relationships between personality types and BrainHex archetypes.},
author = {Nacke, Lennart E and Bateman, Chris and Mandryk, Regan L},
doi = {10.1016/j.entcom.2013.06.002},
journal = {Entertainment Computing},
mendeley-groups = {HCI Games Group Publications},
number = {1},
pages = {55--62},
publisher = {Elsevier},
title = {{BrainHex: A Neurobiological Gamer Typology Survey}},
url = {https://hcigames.com/download/brainhex-a-neurobiological-gamer-typology-survey},
volume = {5},
year = {2014}
}

This paper briefly presents a player satisfaction model called BrainHex, which was based on insights from neurobiological findings as well as the results from earlier demographic game design models (DGD1 and DGD2). The model presents seven different archetypes of players: Seeker, Survivor, Daredevil, Mastermind, Conqueror, Socialiser, and Achiever. We explain how each of these player archetypes relates to older player typologies (such as Myers-Briggs), and how each archetype characterizes a specific playing style. We conducted a survey among more than 50,000 players using the BrainHex model as a personality type motivator to gather and compare demographic data to the different BrainHex archetypes. We discuss some results from this survey with a focus on psychometric orientation of respondents, to establish relationships between personality types and BrainHex archetypes.

Year 2013

A Regression-Based Method for Lightweight Emotional State Detection in Interactive Environments

@article{nogueira2013regression,
Abstract = {With the popularity increase in affective computing techniques the number of emotion detection and recognition systems has risen considerably. However, despite their steady accuracy improvement, they are yet faced with application domain transferability and practical implementation issues. In this paper, we present a novel methodology for modelling individuals' emotional states in multimedia interactive environments, while addressing the aforemen- tioned transferability and practical implementation issues. Our method relies on a two-layer classification process to classify Arousal and Valence based on four distinct physiological sensor inputs. The first classification layer uses several regression models to normalize each of the sensor inputs across participants and experimental conditions, while also correlating each input to either Arousal or Valence. The second classification layer then employs decision trees to merge the various regression outputs into one optimal Arousal/Valence classification. The presented method not only exhibits convincing accuracy ratings -- 89\% for Arousal and 84\% for Valence - but also presents an adaptable and practical ap- proach at emotional state detection in interactive environment experiences.},
Address = {Angra do Heroísmo, Açores, Portugal},
Author = {P. A. Nogueira, R. A. Rodrigues, E. Oliveira, and L. E. Nacke},
Img = {http://hcigames.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/A-Regression-Based-Method-for-Lightweight-Emotional-State-Detection-in-Interactive-Environments.png},
Journal = {Proceedings of epia 2013},
Publisher = {Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg},
Title = {A Regression-Based Method for Lightweight Emotional State Detection in Interactive Environments},
Url = {https://hcigames.com/download/a-regression-based-method-for-lightweight-emotional-state-detection-in-interactive-environments},
Year = {2013},

With the popularity increase in affective computing techniques the number of emotion detection and recognition systems has risen considerably. However, despite their steady accuracy improvement, they are yet faced with application domain transferability and practical implementation issues. In this paper, we present a novel methodology for modelling individuals' emotional states in multimedia interactive environments, while addressing the aforemen- tioned transferability and practical implementation issues. Our method relies on a two-layer classification process to classify Arousal and Valence based on four distinct physiological sensor inputs. The first classification layer uses several regression models to normalize each of the sensor inputs across participants and experimental conditions, while also correlating each input to either Arousal or Valence. The second classification layer then employs decision trees to merge the various regression outputs into one optimal Arousal/Valence classification. The presented method not only exhibits convincing accuracy ratings -- 89\% for Arousal and 84\% for Valence - but also presents an adaptable and practical ap- proach at emotional state detection in interactive environment experiences.

Contextual Influences on Mobile Player Experience--A Game User Experience Model

@article{engl2012contextual,
Abstract = {In this paper we are discussing a new model of mobile gameplay experience with a special focus on contextual influences of play in ubiquitous environments. The model was developed based on prior general gameplay models which were extended and refined based on the results and personal experiences taken from several evaluative user field studies with mobile games. The experimental results point to two different playing contexts: home and mobile, which were evaluated with a gameplay experience questionnaire (GEQ). The GEQ showed significant difference in negative affect and immersion between mobile and home setting, which are moderated by several influencing contextual factors. This leads us to propose a contextual gameplay experience model that accounts for spatial, temporal, social, cultural, and psychological influences in an external context. The implications of the contextual gameplay model are discussed in light of future research.},
Author = {S. Engl and L. E. Nacke},
Doi = {10.1016/j.entcom.2012.06.001},
Img = {http://hcigames.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Contextual-Influences-on-Mobile-Player-Experience–A-Game-User-Experience-Model.png},
Journal = {Entertainment Computing},
Number = {1},
Pages = {83-91},
Publisher = {Elsevier},
Title = {Contextual Influences on Mobile Player Experience--A Game User Experience Model},
Url = {https://hcigames.com/download/contextual-influences-on-mobile-player-experience-a-game-user-experience-model},
Volume = {4},
Year = {2013},

In this paper we are discussing a new model of mobile gameplay experience with a special focus on contextual influences of play in ubiquitous environments. The model was developed based on prior general gameplay models which were extended and refined based on the results and personal experiences taken from several evaluative user field studies with mobile games. The experimental results point to two different playing contexts: home and mobile, which were evaluated with a gameplay experience questionnaire (GEQ). The GEQ showed significant difference in negative affect and immersion between mobile and home setting, which are moderated by several influencing contextual factors. This leads us to propose a contextual gameplay experience model that accounts for spatial, temporal, social, cultural, and psychological influences in an external context. The implications of the contextual gameplay model are discussed in light of future research.

The Effect of Sound on Visual Fidelity Perception in Stereoscopic 3-D

@article{rojas2013effect,
Abstract = {Visual and auditory cues are important facilitators of user engagement in virtual environments and video games. Prior research supports the notion that our perception of visual fidelity (quality) is influenced by auditory stimuli. Understanding exactly how our perception of visual fidelity changes in the pres- ence of multimodal stimuli can potentially impact the design of virtual environments, thus creating more engaging virtual worlds and scenarios. Stereoscopic 3-D display technology provides the users with additional visual information (depth into and out of the screen plane). There have been relatively few studies that have investigated the impact that auditory stimuli have on our perception of visual fidelity in the presence of stereoscopic 3-D. Building on previous work, we examine the effect of auditory stimuli on our perception of visual fidelity within a stereoscopic 3-D environment.},
Author = {D. Rojas, B. Kapralos, A. Hogue, K. Collins, L. E. Nacke, S. Cristancho, C. Conati, and A. Dubrowski},
Doi = {10.1109/TCYB.2013.2269712},
Img = {http://hcigames.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/The-Effect-of-Sound-on-Visual-Fidelity-Perception-in-Stereoscopic-3-D.png},
Journal = {IEEE Transactions on Cybernetics},
Number = {6},
Pages = {1572-1583},
Publisher = {IEEE},
Title = {The Effect of Sound on Visual Fidelity Perception in Stereoscopic 3-D},
Url = {https://hcigames.com/download/the-effect-of-sound-on-visual-fidelity-perception-in-stereoscopic-3-d},
Volume = {43},
Year = {2013},

Visual and auditory cues are important facilitators of user engagement in virtual environments and video games. Prior research supports the notion that our perception of visual fidelity (quality) is influenced by auditory stimuli. Understanding exactly how our perception of visual fidelity changes in the pres- ence of multimodal stimuli can potentially impact the design of virtual environments, thus creating more engaging virtual worlds and scenarios. Stereoscopic 3-D display technology provides the users with additional visual information (depth into and out of the screen plane). There have been relatively few studies that have investigated the impact that auditory stimuli have on our perception of visual fidelity in the presence of stereoscopic 3-D. Building on previous work, we examine the effect of auditory stimuli on our perception of visual fidelity within a stereoscopic 3-D environment.

Year 2012

Analysing Social Metrics in an Online Game Site

@article{mcewan2012analysing,
Abstract = {Understanding real-time coordination behaviour around multiplayer games is important as it allows designers to make informed decisions about supporting player communities. However, studying existing sites is difficult because of the amounts and range of data involved. In this paper, we argue for using social accounting metrics to investigate large game sites.},
Address = {Montréal, QC, Canada},
Author = {G. McEwan, C. Gutwin, R. L. Mandryk, and L. E. Nacke},
Img = {http://hcigames.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Analysing-Social-Metrics-in-an-Online-Game-Site.png},
Journal = {Proceedings of grand 2012},
Publisher = {GRAND},
Title = {Analysing Social Metrics in an Online Game Site},
Url = {https://hcigames.com/download/analysing-social-metrics-in-an-online-game-site},
Year = {2012},
BdskUrl1 = {https://hcigames.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Analysing-Social-Metrics-in-an-Online-Game-Site.pdf}}

Understanding real-time coordination behaviour around multiplayer games is important as it allows designers to make informed decisions about supporting player communities. However, studying existing sites is difficult because of the amounts and range of data involved. In this paper, we argue for using social accounting metrics to investigate large game sites.

Year 2011

Developing a Triangulation System for Digital Game Events, Observational Video, and Psychophysiological Data to Study Emotional Responses to a Virtual Character

@article{matias2011developing,
Abstract = {Game researchers are currently lacking comprehensive data analysis tools that triangulate game events, event-related survey data, and psychophysiological data. Such a tool would allow a comprehensive analysis of player engagement in digital games. The development of this tool was motivated by an experimental psychology study that asked whether emotional reactions to congruent and incongruent emotional stimuli within an intrinsically motivated game task are the same as within the traditional experimental picture-viewing paradigm. To address the needs of our study, we used the Source SDK (Valve Corporation) for creating a system that automates event logging, video management psychophysiological data markup. The system also allowed recording of self-report measures at individual play events without interrupting the game activity.},
Author = {J. M. Kivikangas, L. E. Nacke, and N. Ravaja},
Doi = {10.1016/j.entcom.2011.03.006},
Img = {http://hcigames.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Developing-a-Triangulation-System-for-Digital-Game-Events-Observational-Video-and-Psychophysiological-Data-to-Study-Emotional-Responses-to-a-Virtual-Character.png},
Issn = {18759521},
Journal = {Entertainment computing},
Number = {1},
Pages = {11-16},
Publisher = {Elsevier},
Title = {Developing a Triangulation System for Digital Game Events, Observational Video, and Psychophysiological Data to Study Emotional Responses to a Virtual Character},
Url = {https://hcigames.com/download/developing-a-triangulation-system-for-digital-game-events-observational-video-and-psychophysiological-data-to-study-emotional-responses-to-a-virtual-character},
Volume = {2},
Year = {2011},
BdskUrl1 = {https://hcigames.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Developing-a-Triangulation-System-for-Digital-Game-Events-Observational-Video-and-Psychophysiological-Data-to-Study-Emotional-Responses-to-a-Virtual-Character.pdf},
BdskUrl2 = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.entcom.2011.03.006}}

Game researchers are currently lacking comprehensive data analysis tools that triangulate game events, event-related survey data, and psychophysiological data. Such a tool would allow a comprehensive analysis of player engagement in digital games. The development of this tool was motivated by an experimental psychology study that asked whether emotional reactions to congruent and incongruent emotional stimuli within an intrinsically motivated game task are the same as within the traditional experimental picture-viewing paradigm. To address the needs of our study, we used the Source SDK (Valve Corporation) for creating a system that automates event logging, video management psychophysiological data markup. The system also allowed recording of self-report measures at individual play events without interrupting the game activity.

LAIF: A Logging and Interaction Framework for Gaze-Based Interfaces in Virtual Entertainment Environments

@article{nacke2011laif,
Abstract = {Eye tracking is starting to be used for evaluation and interaction in virtual environments. Especially digital games can benefit from an integrated approach, using eye tracking technology for analysis and interaction. One benefit is faster development of gaze interaction games, which can be automatically evaluated in iterative development cycles. For this purpose, we present a framework of programming libraries that enables rapid game development and gameplay analysis within an experimental research environment. The framework presented here is extensible for different kinds of logging (e.g., psychophysiological and in-game behavioral data) and facilitates studies using eye-tracking technology in digital entertainment environments. An experimental study using gaze-only interaction in a digital game is presented and highlights the framework's capacity to create games and evaluate novel entertainment interfaces.},
Author = {L. E. Nacke, S. Stellmach, D. Sasse, J. Niesenhaus, and R. Dachselt},
Doi = {10.1016/j.entcom.2010.09.004},
Img = {http://hcigames.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/LAIF-A-Logging-and-Interaction-Framework-for-Gaze-Based-Interfaces-in-Virtual-Entertainment-Environments.png},
Journal = {Entertainment computing},
Keywords = {digital games,eye tracking,gameplay logging,interactive techniques,software tool,xna},
Number = {4},
Pages = {265-273},
Publisher = {Elsevier},
Title = {LAIF: A Logging and Interaction Framework for Gaze-Based Interfaces in Virtual Entertainment Environments},
Url = {https://hcigames.com/download/laif-a-logging-and-interaction-framework-for-gaze-based-interfaces-in-virtual-entertainment-environments},
Volume = {2},
Year = {2011},
BdskUrl1 = {https://hcigames.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/LAIF-A-Logging-and-Interaction-Framework-for-Gaze-Based-Interfaces-in-Virtual-Entertainment-Environments.pdf},
BdskUrl2 = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.entcom.2010.09.004}}

Eye tracking is starting to be used for evaluation and interaction in virtual environments. Especially digital games can benefit from an integrated approach, using eye tracking technology for analysis and interaction. One benefit is faster development of gaze interaction games, which can be automatically evaluated in iterative development cycles. For this purpose, we present a framework of programming libraries that enables rapid game development and gameplay analysis within an experimental research environment. The framework presented here is extensible for different kinds of logging (e.g., psychophysiological and in-game behavioral data) and facilitates studies using eye-tracking technology in digital entertainment environments. An experimental study using gaze-only interaction in a digital game is presented and highlights the framework's capacity to create games and evaluate novel entertainment interfaces.

Towards a Framework of Player Experience Research

@article{nacke2011towards,
Abstract = {Player Experience (PX), user experience in the specific context of digital games, is currently a nebulous term with no commonly accepted definition or coherent backing theory. In this paper, a brief overview of the current stateof-the-art of PX knowledge is presented, with a specific emphasis on comparing PX research with the massive amount of knowledge currently being generated about user experience in other areas of HCI, notably productivity applications. Furthermore, to outline the current gaps in the knowledge of PX and integrate current research into a unified theoretical framework, creating a shared point of reference for the decidedly multi-disciplinary PX research.},
Address = {Bordeaux, France},
Author = {L. E. Nacke and A. Drachen},
Img = {http://hcigames.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Towards-a-Framework-of-Player-Experience-Research.png},
Journal = {Proceedings of the international workshop on evaluating player experience in games at fdg 2011},
Title = {Towards a Framework of Player Experience Research},
Url = {https://hcigames.com/download/towards-a-framework-of-player-experience-research},
Year = {2011},
BdskUrl1 = {https://hcigames.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Towards-a-Framework-of-Player-Experience-Research.pdf}}

Player Experience (PX), user experience in the specific context of digital games, is currently a nebulous term with no commonly accepted definition or coherent backing theory. In this paper, a brief overview of the current stateof-the-art of PX knowledge is presented, with a specific emphasis on comparing PX research with the massive amount of knowledge currently being generated about user experience in other areas of HCI, notably productivity applications. Furthermore, to outline the current gaps in the knowledge of PX and integrate current research into a unified theoretical framework, creating a shared point of reference for the decidedly multi-disciplinary PX research.

Year 2010

BioS-Play: Workshop on Multiuser and Social Biosignal Adaptive Games and Playful Applications

author = {Engl, Stephan AND Nacke, Lennart},

BioS-Play is a workshop targeted to explore the focused domain of biosignal adaptive games and playful application in a multiuser or social context. Using biosignal instrumentation is an established process in medical domains and experimental psychology. During recent years there have been many efforts in industry and research to develop applications, games and various kinds of interfaces which use biosignal analysis in real time. However, most of these applications are single user setups. According to our earlier work we have realized that there is great potential in developing biosignal adaptive applications for multiuser and social scenarios. The applications we have been developing have been either games or playful applications. Games have unique characteristics, which work well for biosignal augmentation. In addition, games can be used in a laboratory setup for exploring the social biosignal interaction design elements overall in a structured and efficient way. Ultimately, we believe that combination of biosignal adaptation, social and multiuser context, and playful interaction is useful for various kinds of situations and can elicit never before- seen experiences. The workshop organizers have several years of experience in researching games, psychophysiology, multiuser application development, and combination of them all. The workshop will be organized with a help of the Presemo presentation environment, which is also a biosignal, adaptive, social, and playful system. The workshop aims at creating new collaborations by facilitating networking of interested researchers and discussing research future research ventures in this domain, distributing knowledge among participants and developing a roadmap related to the future development in this field. Workshop participants are expected to show interest in developing biosignal prototypes or running experiments with experimental psychophysiological systems. In addition to game researchers and individuals with experience in analyzing and working with biosignals, we hope that also people with experience or strong interest in multiuser applications and social interaction will join the session.

Bringing Digital Games to User Research and User Experience

booktitle = {Mensch & Computer 2010 Entertainment Interfaces Track},

In recent years, the gaming industry has grown up and digital games have become more complex products. With this maturity comes an increasing need for formal playtesting methods from user research and scientific methods from academia. Employing user research methods in game development, especially combined qualitative (e.g., questionnaires, interviews) and quantitative (e.g., EEG, EMG, game metrics) methods lead to a better understanding of the relationship and interactions between players and games. This panel gathers game user research industry and academic experts for discussing current methodological advancements and future challenges in playtesting, usability, playability evaluation, and general game user research.

Critic-Proofing: Robust Validation Through Data-Mining

editor = {} ,

Critic-proofing is a modified heuristic evaluation technique, specifically designed to provide a fine-grained, prioritized list of heuristic violations. The critic-proofing technique weights the severity of a problem based on the frequency that similar problems are found in similar games. The severity ratings are calculated using data collected from game reviews, and the severity assigned to a problem during the heuristic evaluation process. However, heuristic techniques have had limited adoption within the video game industry. One reason for this is the perceived lack of validity and robustness of game specific heuristic principles. In this paper, we introduce and outline a new data- mining project designed to validate game-specific heuristic techniques, especially the critic-proofing technique by using the popular game-review aggregation website Metacritic.

Designing Affective Games with Physiological Input

pages = { 9-18 },

With the advent of new game controllers, traditional input mechanisms for games have changed to include gestural interfaces and camera recognition techniques, which are being further explored with the likes of Sony's PlayStation Move and Microsoft's Kinect. Soon these techniques will include affective input to control game interaction and mechanics. Thus, it is important to explore which game designs work best with which affective input technologies, giving special regard to direct and indirect methods. In this paper, we discuss some affective measurement techniques and development ideas for using these as control mechanisms for affective game design using psychophysiological input.

Electroencephalographic Assessment of Player Experience: A Pilot Study in Affective Ludology

publisher = {},

Psychophysiological methods, such as electroencephalography (EEG), provide reliable high-resolution measurements of affective player experience. In this article, the authors present a psychophysiological pilot study and its initial results to solidify a research approach they call affective ludology, a research area concerned with the physiological measurement of affective responses to player-game interaction. The study investigates the impact of level design on brainwave activity measured with EEG and on player experience measured with questionnaires. The goal of the study was to investigate cognition, emotion, and player behavior from a psychological perspective. For this purpose, a methodology for assessing gameplay experience with subjective and objective measures was developed extending prior work in physiological measurements of affect in digital gameplay. The authors report the result of this pilot study, the impact of three different level design conditions (boredom, immersion, and flow) on EEG, and subjective indicators of gameplay experience. Results from the subjective gameplay experience questionnaire support the validity of our level design hypotheses. Patterns of EEG spectral power show that the immersion-level design elicits more activity in the theta band, which may support a relationship between virtual spatial navigation or exploration and theta activity. The research shows that facets of gameplay experience can be assessed with affective ludology measures, such as EEG, in which cognitive and affective patterns emerge from different level designs.

Gameplay Experience Testing with Playability and Usability Surveys-An Experimental Pilot Study

address = {}

This pilot study investigates an experimental methodology for gathering data to create correlations between experiential factors measured by a gameplay experience questionnaire and player quality measures, such as playing frequency, choice of game, and playing time. The characteristics of two distinct games were examined concerning the aspects of game experience, subjective game quality, and game usability. Interactions within the three aspects were identified. The results suggest that gameplay experience dimensions flow and immersion are similarly motivating in different game genres, which however might not be equally enjoyable. On the one hand, usability ratings may be positively influenced when a game provides immersion and flow or on the other hand, flow and immersion may be negatively influenced by poor usability ratings. These results emphasize the need for an approach to classify games based on correlation patterns involving game experience, quality, and usability.

Methods for Evaluating Gameplay Experience in a Serious Gaming Context

}

This paper presents an approach to formalize gameplay experience evaluation methods applied during the process of player-game interaction and a roadmap for applying these mechanisms in the context of serious games. Based on related work of user experience and player experience models, we propose a three-layer framework of gameplay experience. We also discuss potential use of this framework within the field of game-based learning and serious gaming for sports and health.

More Than a Feeling: Measurement of Sonic User Experience and Psychophysiology in a First-Person Shooter Game

@article{Nacke2010b,
Abstract = {The combination of psychophysiological and psychometric methods provides reliable measurements of affective user experience (UX). Understanding the nature of affective UX in interactive entertainment, especially with a focus on sonic stimuli, is an ongoing research challenge. In the empirical study reported here, participants played a fast-paced, immersive first-person shooter (FPS) game modification, in which sound (on/off) and music (on/off) were manipulated, while psychophysiological recordings of electrodermal activity (EDA) and facial muscle activity (EMG) were recorded in addition to a Game Experience Questionnaire (GEQ). Results indicate no main or interaction effects of sound or music on EMG and EDA. However, a significant main effect of sound on all GEQ dimensions (immersion, tension, competence, flow, negative affect, positive affect, and challenge) was found. In addition, an interaction effect of sound and music on GEQ dimension tension and flow indicates an important relationship of sound and music for gameplay experience. Additionally, we report the results of a correlation between GEQ dimensions and EMG/EDA activity. We conclude subjective measures could advance our understanding of sonic UX in digital games, while affective tonic (i.e., long-term psychophysiological) measures of sonic UX in digital games did not yield statistically significant results. One approach for future affective psychophysiological measures of sonic UX could be experiments investigating phasic (i.e., event-related) psychophysiological measures of sonic gameplay elements in digital games. This could improve our general understanding of sonic UX beyond affective gaming evaluation.},
Author = {L. E. Nacke, M. N. Grimshaw, and C. A. Lindley},
Doi = {10.1016/j.intcom.2010.04.005},
Issn = {09535438},
Journal = {Interacting with computers},
Keywords = {action video games,affective gaming,emotion,entertainment,gameplay experience,psychophysiology,sonic user experience (ux),sonic ux,ux},
MendeleyTags = {emotion,gameplay experience,psychophysiology,sonic ux,ux},
Number = {5},
Pages = {7},
Title = {More Than a Feeling: Measurement of Sonic User Experience and Psychophysiology in a First-Person Shooter Game},
Url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.intcom.2010.04.005},
Volume = {22},
Year = {2010},
BdskUrl1 = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.intcom.2010.04.005}}

The combination of psychophysiological and psychometric methods provides reliable measurements of affective user experience (UX). Understanding the nature of affective UX in interactive entertainment, especially with a focus on sonic stimuli, is an ongoing research challenge. In the empirical study reported here, participants played a fast-paced, immersive first-person shooter (FPS) game modification, in which sound (on/off) and music (on/off) were manipulated, while psychophysiological recordings of electrodermal activity (EDA) and facial muscle activity (EMG) were recorded in addition to a Game Experience Questionnaire (GEQ). Results indicate no main or interaction effects of sound or music on EMG and EDA. However, a significant main effect of sound on all GEQ dimensions (immersion, tension, competence, flow, negative affect, positive affect, and challenge) was found. In addition, an interaction effect of sound and music on GEQ dimension tension and flow indicates an important relationship of sound and music for gameplay experience. Additionally, we report the results of a correlation between GEQ dimensions and EMG/EDA activity. We conclude subjective measures could advance our understanding of sonic UX in digital games, while affective tonic (i.e., long-term psychophysiological) measures of sonic UX in digital games did not yield statistically significant results. One approach for future affective psychophysiological measures of sonic UX could be experiments investigating phasic (i.e., event-related) psychophysiological measures of sonic gameplay elements in digital games. This could improve our general understanding of sonic UX beyond affective gaming evaluation.

Playability and Player Experience of Casual Games

@article{calvi2004playability,
Abstract = {This workshop focuses on the development and use of biometrics tests and data harvesting to evaluate games. Although all game genres are addressed, casual games are considered the preferred focus, since playtesting metrics are very much in demand and yet not much often used within the casual gaming industry, although already standard practice in the larger game development studios. The focus of this workshop consists therefore in defining which methods are best to apply in the domains mentioned above, and in analyzing their efficacy and applicability.},
Address = {Leuven, Belgium},
Author = {L. Calvi, S. Gualeni, K. Nuijten, L. E. Nacke, and K. Poels},
Journal = {Proceedings of Fun and Games 2010},
Title = {Playability and Player Experience of Casual Games},
Url = {https://hcigames.com/download/playability-and-player-experience-of-casual-games},
Year = {2010},
BdskUrl1 = {https://hcigames.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Playability-and-Player-Experience-of-Casual-Games.pdf}}

This workshop focuses on the development and use of biometrics tests and data harvesting to evaluate games. Although all game genres are addressed, casual games are considered the preferred focus, since playtesting metrics are very much in demand and yet not much often used within the casual gaming industry, although already standard practice in the larger game development studios. The focus of this workshop consists therefore in defining which methods are best to apply in the domains mentioned above, and in analyzing their efficacy and applicability.

Year 2009

Affective Ludology, Flow and Immersion in a First-Person Shooter: Measurement of Player Experience

@article{Nacke_AL2009,
Abstract = {Gameplay research about experiential phenomena is a challenging undertaking,given the variety of experiences that gamers encounter when playing and whichcurrently do not have a formal taxonomy, such as flow, immersion, boredom, andfun. These informal terms require a scientific explanation. Ludologists alsoacknowledge the need to understand cognition, emotion, and goal- orientedbehavior of players from a psychological perspective by establishing rigorousmethodologies. This paper builds upon and extends prior work in an area forwhich we would like to coin the term "affective ludology." The area isconcerned with the affective measurement of player-game interaction. Theexperimental study reported here investigated different traits of gameplayexperience using subjective (i.e., questionnaires) and objective (i.e.,psychophysiological) measures. Participants played three Half-Life 2 game leveldesign modifications while measures such as electromyography (EMG),electrodermal activity (EDA) were taken and questionnaire responses werecollected. A level designed for combat-oriented flow experience demonstratedsignificant high-arousal positive affect emotions. This method shows thatemotional patterns emerge from different level designs, which has greatpotential for providing real-time emotional profiles of gameplay that may begenerated together with self- reported subjective player experience descriptions.},
Author = {L. E. Nacke and C. A. Lindley},
Img = {http://hcigames.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Affective-Ludology-Flow-and-Immersino-in-a-First-Person-Shooter-Measurement-of-Player-Experience.png},
Journal = {Loading},
Keywords = {3dve,Game design,affect,affective computing,affective_computing,attention,biofeedback,biometric,effects,emg,emotion,emotional,enjoyment,experience,experimentation,flow,flow_experience,game design,gamedesign,gameexperience,gamemetrics,gameplay,gameplay experience,games,immersion,physiology,playability,player experience,psychophysiology,user experience,ux},
MendeleyTags = {3dve,affect,affective computing,affective_computing,attention,biofeedback,biometric,effects,emg,emotion,emotional,enjoyment,experience,experimentation,flow,flow_experience,game design,gamedesign,gameexperience,gamemetrics,gameplay,games,immersion,physiology,playability,player experience,psychophysiology,user experience,ux},
Number = {5},
Title = {Affective Ludology, Flow and Immersion in a First-Person Shooter: Measurement of Player Experience},
Type = {Journal article},
Url = {https://hcigames.com/download/affective-ludology-flow-and-immersion-in-a-first-person-shooter-measurement-of-player-experience},
Volume = {3},
Year = {2009},
BdskUrl1 = {https://hcigames.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Affective-Ludology-Flow-and-Immersino-in-a-First-Person-Shooter-Measurement-of-Player-Experience.pdf}}

Gameplay research about experiential phenomena is a challenging undertaking,given the variety of experiences that gamers encounter when playing and whichcurrently do not have a formal taxonomy, such as flow, immersion, boredom, andfun. These informal terms require a scientific explanation. Ludologists alsoacknowledge the need to understand cognition, emotion, and goal- orientedbehavior of players from a psychological perspective by establishing rigorousmethodologies. This paper builds upon and extends prior work in an area forwhich we would like to coin the term "affective ludology." The area isconcerned with the affective measurement of player-game interaction. Theexperimental study reported here investigated different traits of gameplayexperience using subjective (i.e., questionnaires) and objective (i.e.,psychophysiological) measures. Participants played three Half-Life 2 game leveldesign modifications while measures such as electromyography (EMG),electrodermal activity (EDA) were taken and questionnaire responses werecollected. A level designed for combat-oriented flow experience demonstratedsignificant high-arousal positive affect emotions. This method shows thatemotional patterns emerge from different level designs, which has greatpotential for providing real-time emotional profiles of gameplay that may begenerated together with self- reported subjective player experience descriptions.

Brain Training for Silver Gamers: Effects of Age and Game Form on Effectiveness, Efficiency, Self-Assessment, and Gameplay Experience.

@article{NackeEtAl2009a,
Abstract = {In recent years, an aging demographic majority in the Western world has come to the attention of the game industry. The recently released "brain-training" games target this population, and research investigating gameplay experience of the elderly using this game form is lacking. This study employs a 2 x 2 mixed factorial design (age group: young and old x game form: paper and Nintendo DS) to investigate effects of age and game form on usability, self-assessment, and gameplay experience in a supervised field study. Effectiveness was evaluated in task completion time, efficiency as error rate, together with self-assessment measures (arousal, pleasure, dominance) and game experience (challenge, flow, competence, tension, positive and negative affect). Results indicate players, regardless of age, are more effective and efficient using pen-and-paper than using a Nintendo DS console. However, the game is more arousing and induces a heightened sense of flow in digital form for gamers of all ages. Logic problem-solving challenges within digital games may be associated with positive feelings for the elderly but with negative feelings for the young. Thus, digital logic-training games may provide positive gameplay experience for an aging Western civilization.},
Author = {L. E. Nacke, A. Nacke, and C. A. Lindley},
Doi = {10.1089/cpb.2009.0013},
Img = {http://hcigames.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/Brain-Training-for-Silver-Gamers-Effects-of-Age-and-Game-Form-on-Effectiveness-Efficiency-Self-Assessment-and-Gameplay-Experience.png},
Issn = {1557-8364},
Journal = {CyberPsychology & Behavior},
Keywords = {80 and over,Adaptation,Adolescent,Adult,Aged,Aging,Aging: psychology,Cognition,Consumer Satisfaction,Female,Humans,Male,Play and Playthings,Play and Playthings: psychology,Problem Solving,Psychological,Self Assessment (Psychology),Video Games,Video Games: classification,Video Games: psychology,Young Adult,arousal,assessibility,brain,effects,eldergames,elderly,enjoyment,geq,mannequin,mental,motivation,performance,psychology,research,survey,usability,ux},
Language = {en},
MendeleyTags = {arousal,assessibility,brain,effects,eldergames,elderly,enjoyment,geq,mannequin,mental,motivation,performance,psychology,research,survey,usability,ux},
Number = {5},
Pages = {493-499},
Pmid = {19772440},
Publisher = {Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. 140 Huguenot Street, 3rd Floor New Rochelle, NY 10801 USA},
Title = {Brain Training for Silver Gamers: Effects of Age and Game Form on Effectiveness, Efficiency, Self-Assessment, and Gameplay Experience.},
Type = {Journal article},
Url = {https://hcigames.com/download/brain-training-for-silver-gamers-effects-of-age-and-game-form-on-effectiveness-efficiency-self-assessment-and-gameplay-experience.},
Volume = {12},
Year = {2009},
BdskUrl1 = {https://hcigames.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Brain-Training-for-Silver-Gamers-Effects-of-Age-and-Game-Form-on-Effectiveness-Efficiency-Self-Assessment-and-Gameplay-Experience..pdf},
BdskUrl2 = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1089/cpb.2009.0013}}

In recent years, an aging demographic majority in the Western world has come to the attention of the game industry. The recently released "brain-training" games target this population, and research investigating gameplay experience of the elderly using this game form is lacking. This study employs a 2 x 2 mixed factorial design (age group: young and old x game form: paper and Nintendo DS) to investigate effects of age and game form on usability, self-assessment, and gameplay experience in a supervised field study. Effectiveness was evaluated in task completion time, efficiency as error rate, together with self-assessment measures (arousal, pleasure, dominance) and game experience (challenge, flow, competence, tension, positive and negative affect). Results indicate players, regardless of age, are more effective and efficient using pen-and-paper than using a Nintendo DS console. However, the game is more arousing and induces a heightened sense of flow in digital form for gamers of all ages. Logic problem-solving challenges within digital games may be associated with positive feelings for the elderly but with negative feelings for the young. Thus, digital logic-training games may provide positive gameplay experience for an aging Western civilization.

Game Experience: Components and Methods of Measurement

@article{nacke2009game,
Abstract = {In this talk, we will have a look at game experience models and what components they consist of. Next, we continue to identify what components could potentially be measured using the methodology established in the EU-funded FUGA project. We establish a basic model of player experience and propose how this is useful for game industry and research.},
Address = {Espoo, Finland},
Author = {L. E. Nacke},
Journal = {Proceedings of fuga 2009},
Publisher = {Helsinki Institute for Information Technology (HIIT)},
Title = {Game Experience: Components and Methods of Measurement},
Url = {http://www.bth.se/fou/forskinfo.nsf/all/62867664e5785865c12575c800422fcf},
Year = {2009},
BdskUrl1 = {http://www.bth.se/fou/forskinfo.nsf/all/62867664e5785865c12575c800422fcf}}

In this talk, we will have a look at game experience models and what components they consist of. Next, we continue to identify what components could potentially be measured using the methodology established in the EU-funded FUGA project. We establish a basic model of player experience and propose how this is useful for game industry and research.

Year 2017

Incentives and Gamification

@article{Gonczarowski2017,
author = {Gonczarowski, Yannai A. and Tondello, Gustavo F.},
doi = {10.1145/3123766},
journal = {XRDS: Crossroads, The ACM Magazine for Students},
mendeley-groups = {HCI Games Group Publications},
number = {1},
pages = {9--11},
title = {{Incentives and Gamification}},
volume = {24},
year = {2017}
}

Games User Research and Gamification in Human-Computer Interaction

@article{Nacke2017xrds,
author = {Nacke, Lennart E.},
doi = {10.1145/3123748},
issn = {15284972},
journal = {XRDS: Crossroads, The ACM Magazine for Students},
mendeley-groups = {HCI Games Group Publications},
number = {1},
pages = {48--51},
title = {{Games User Research and Gamification in Human-Computer Interaction}},
url = {http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?doid=3140569.3123748},
volume = {24},
year = {2017}
}

Gamified and Persuasive Systems as Behavior Change Agents for Health and Wellness

@article{Kappen2017b,
author = {Kappen, Dennis L. and Orji, Rita},
doi = {10.1145/3123750},
issn = {15284972},
journal = {XRDS: Crossroads, The ACM Magazine for Students},
mendeley-groups = {HCI Games Group Publications},
number = {1},
pages = {52--55},
title = {{Gamified and Persuasive Systems as Behavior Change Agents for Health and Wellness}},
url = {http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?doid=3140569.3123750},
volume = {24},
year = {2017}
}

The Impact of Health-Related User Interface Sounds on Player Experience

@article{Robb2017,
abstract = {Background. Understanding how sound functions on informational and emotional levels within video games is critical to understanding player experience of games. User interface sounds, such as player-character health, are a pivotal component of gameplay across many video game genres, yet have not been studied in detail. Method. To address this research gap in user interface sounds, we present two studies: The first study examines the impact of the presence or absence of player-health sounds on player experience. The second study explores the impact of the types of sound used to indicate player health. We use mixed methods with qualitative and physiological measures. Results. Our results reveal that despite the presence of visual cues, sound is still important to game design for conveying health-related information and that the type of sound affects player experience.},
author = {Robb, James and Garner, Tom and Collins, Karen and Nacke, Lennart E.},
doi = {10.1177/1046878116688236},
journal = {Simulation {\&} Gaming},
month = {jun},
number = {3},
pages = {402--427},
publisher = {SAGE Publications},
title = {{The Impact of Health-Related User Interface Sounds on Player Experience}},
url = {http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1046878116688236},
volume = {48},
year = {2017}
}

Background. Understanding how sound functions on informational and emotional levels within video games is critical to understanding player experience of games. User interface sounds, such as player-character health, are a pivotal component of gameplay across many video game genres, yet have not been studied in detail. Method. To address this research gap in user interface sounds, we present two studies: The first study examines the impact of the presence or absence of player-health sounds on player experience. The second study explores the impact of the types of sound used to indicate player health. We use mixed methods with qualitative and physiological measures. Results. Our results reveal that despite the presence of visual cues, sound is still important to game design for conveying health-related information and that the type of sound affects player experience.

Year 2018

Online-only friends, real-life friends or strangers? Differential associations with passion and social capital in video game play

@article{PERRY2018,
title = "Online-only friends, real-life friends or strangers? Differential associations with passion and social capital in video game play",
journal = "Computers in Human Behavior",
year = "2018",
volume = "79",
issn = "0747-5632",
doi = "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2017.10.032",
url = "http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0747563217306052",
author = "Ryan Perry and Anders Drachen and Allison Kearney and Simone Kriglstein and Lennart E. Nacke and Rafet Sifa and Guenter Wallner and Daniel Johnson",
keywords = "Video games, Passion, Social capital, Relationships, Online, Multiplayer"
}

The present study tests a recently proposed model in which social video game play supports wellbeing by contributing to a harmonious type of engagement with the game. Players (N = 2030) of the online-only multiplayer first-person shooter game, Destiny, reported the frequency they played with real-life friends, online-only friends and strangers, their type of engagement with the game – measured as harmonious and obsessive passion, and completed a wellbeing measure of social capital. Telemetry data also recorded their total time playing over the duration of the study. A structural equation model supported the prediction that harmonious – but not obsessive – passion would mediate the positive association between playing with others and social capital. The findings also supported a supplementary hypothesis that the three types of social relationships would be differentially associated with two forms of social capital – bridging versus bonding – as a function of the closeness of social ties. Real-life friends was positively associated with bonding, strangers with bridging, and online-only friends with both. Overall, these results emphasise that social interactions in (and around) online multiplayer video games are effective for building social capital, and do so by ensuring game play is in harmony with other goals and values.

Towards a Trait Model of Video Game Preferences

@article{Tondello2018d,
abstract = {Typologies for understanding players' preferences towards different gameplay styles have gained popularity in research. However, attempts to model players' preferences are based on type models instead of trait models, contrary to the latest personality research. One such model, BrainHex, was designed as an interim model to enable investigations towards a definitive player trait model. However, it lacks empirical validation in support of its psychometric properties. The present work analysed a dataset with over 50,000 respondents to devise a player traits model based off the BrainHex scale. Results indicate three player traits: action, aesthetic, and goal orientation. Furthermore, we analysed the games listed by participants as examples of what they enjoy, to understand which factors influence player preferences. Results illustrate that the emergent player traits and participants' genders and attitudes towards story can partially explain player preferences towards certain games. Finally, we present the implications towards a definitive player traits model.},
author = {Tondello, Gustavo F. and Valtchanov, Deltcho and Reetz, Adrian and Wehbe, Rina R. and Orji, Rita and Nacke, Lennart E.},
doi = {10.1080/10447318.2018.1461765},
journal = {International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction},
keywords = {BrainHex,Games,Games User Research,Motivation,Player Traits,Player Typology,Scale Design},
title = {{Towards a Trait Model of Video Game Preferences}},
volume = {34},
number = {8},
pages = {732--748},
year = {2018}
}

Typologies for understanding players’ preferences toward different gameplay styles have gained popularity in research. However, attempts to model players’ preferences are based on type models instead of trait models, contrary to the latest personality research. One such model, BrainHex, was designed as an interim model to enable investigations toward a definitive player trait model. However, it lacks empirical validation in support of its psychometric properties. The present work analyzed a dataset with over 50,000 respondents to devise a player traits model based off the BrainHex scale. Results indicate three player traits: action, esthetic, and goal orientation. Furthermore, we analyzed the games listed by participants as examples of what they enjoy, to understand which factors influence player preferences. Results illustrate that the emergent player traits and participants’ genders and attitudes toward story can partially explain player preferences toward certain games. Finally, we present the implications toward a definitive player traits model.

Year 2019

Older Adults’ Physical Activity and Exergames: A Systematic Review

@article{Kappen2019a,
abstract = {Exertion games, also referred to as exergames, have become popular because they combine physical activity (PA) with game mechanics, such as actions, challenges, and achievements. Exergames have been also used to encourage PA among older adults, as technological interventions to help achieve the latters' health and wellness goals and as aids to rehabilitation. To the best of our knowledge, no systematic review of empirical studies on exergaming and older adults' PA has been reported in the literature. Our review indicates that exergames make a measurable contribution to the improvement of health and wellness goals of older adults. Our systematic review identifies 9 categories and 19 themes of exergame applications in the domain of older adults' PA. We aggregate these categories and themes into three broader exergaming clusters, of “training,” “rehabilitation,” and “wellness.” Additionally, we outline pathways for future empirical research into applying exergames as health and wellness interventions...},
author = {Kappen, Dennis L. and Mirza-Babaei, Pejman and Nacke, Lennart E.},
doi = {10.1080/10447318.2018.1441253},
issn = {15327590},
journal = {International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction},
publisher = {Taylor {\&} Francis},
title = {{Older Adults' Physical Activity and Exergames: A Systematic Review}},
volume = {35},
number = {2},
pages = {140--167},
year = {2019}
}

Exertion games, also referred to as exergames, have become popular because they combine physical activity (PA) with game mechanics, such as actions, challenges, and achievements. Exergames have been also used to encourage PA among older adults, as technological interventions to help achieve the latters’ health and wellness goals and as aids to rehabilitation. To the best of our knowledge, no systematic review of empirical studies on exergaming and older adults’ PA has been reported in the literature. Our review indicates that exergames make a measurable contribution to the improvement of health and wellness goals of older adults. Our systematic review identifies 9 categories and 19 themes of exergame applications in the domain of older adults’ PA. We aggregate these categories and themes into three broader exergaming clusters, of “training,” “rehabilitation,” and “wellness.” Additionally, we outline pathways for future empirical research into applying exergames as health and wellness interventions for older adults through physical activities.

Defining Gameful Experience as a Psychological State Caused by Gameplay: Replacing the Term ‘Gamefulness’ with Three Distinct Constructs

@article{Landers2018,
title = {Defining Gameful Experience as a Psychological State Caused by Gameplay: Replacing the Term ‘Gamefulness’ with Three Distinct Constructs},
author = {Richard N. Landers and Gustavo F. Tondello and Dennis L. Kappen and Andrew B. Collmus and Elisa D. Mekler and Lennart E. Nacke},
doi = {10.1016/j.ijhcs.2018.08.003},
year = {2019},
volume = {127},
pages = {81--94},
date = {2018-08-28},
journal = {International Journal of Human-Computer Studies},
abstract = {Background and Aim: Gamefulness is commonly cited as the primary goal of gamification, a family of approaches employed in education, business, healthcare, government, and elsewhere. However, gamefulness is defined imprecisely across the literature. To address this, we present a theory of gamefulness that splits gamefulness into more specific constructs and outlines their effects in a process model.
Method: We integrate extant literature from psychology, human-computer interaction, and other fields to define gameful design, systems, and experiences. Most critically, we argue that gameful experience is the core focal construct of this theory and define it as an interactive state occurring when a person perceives non-trivial achievable goals created externally, is motivated to pursue them under an arbitrary set of behavioral rules, and evaluates that motivation as voluntary.
Results: We present six resulting propositions: (1) gameful systems lead to gameful experiences, (2) gameful systems impact psychological characteristics, (3) effective gameful design leads to a gameful system, (4) gameful systems lead to behavioral change, (5) behavioral change causes the distal outcomes gamification designers target, and (6) individual differences moderate the effectiveness of gameful systems.
Conclusion: Gameful experience theory provides researchers with a unified foundation to study gamification from any social scientific lens.},
keywords = {},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {article}
}

Background and Aim: Gamefulness is commonly cited as the primary goal of gamification, a family of approaches employed in education, business, healthcare, government, and elsewhere. However, gamefulness is defined imprecisely across the literature. To address this, we present a theory of gamefulness that splits gamefulness into more specific constructs and outlines their effects in a process model. Method: We integrate extant literature from psychology, human-computer interaction, and other fields to define gameful design, systems, and experiences. Most critically, we argue that gameful experience is the core focal construct of this theory and define it as an interactive state occurring when a person perceives non-trivial achievable goals created externally, is motivated to pursue them under an arbitrary set of behavioral rules, and evaluates that motivation as voluntary. Results: We present six resulting propositions: (1) gameful systems lead to gameful experiences, (2) gameful systems impact psychological characteristics, (3) effective gameful design leads to a gameful system, (4) gameful systems lead to behavioral change, (5) behavioral change causes the distal outcomes gamification designers target, and (6) individual differences moderate the effectiveness of gameful systems. Conclusion: Gameful experience theory provides researchers with a unified foundation to study gamification from any social scientific lens.

Empirical Validation of the Gamification User Types Hexad Scale in English and Spanish

@article{Tondello2018e,
abstract = {Gamification, the use of game elements in non-game systems, is now established as a relevant research field in human-computer interaction (HCI). Several empirical studies have shown that gameful interventions can increase engagement and generate desired behavioural outcomes in HCI applications. However, some inconclusive results indicate that we need a fuller understanding of the mechanisms and effects of gamification. The Gamification User Types Hexad scale allows us to parse different user motivations in participants‘ interactions with gameful applications, which are measured using a self-report questionnaire. Each user type represents a style of interaction with gameful applications, for example, if the interactions are more focused on achievements, socialization, or rewards. Thus, by scoring an individual in each one of the user types of the Hexad model, we can establish a profile of user preferences for gameful interactions. However, we still lack a substantial empirical validation of this scale. Therefore, we set out to validate the factor structure of the scale, in both English and Spanish, by conducting three studies, which also investigated the distribution of the Hexad‘s user types in the sample. Our findings support the structural validity of the scale, as well as suggesting opportunities for improvement. Furthermore, we demonstrate that some user types are more common than others and that gender and age correlate with a person‘s user types. Our work contributes to HCI research by further validating the utility of the Gamification User Types Hexad scale, potentially affording researchers a deeper understanding of the mechanisms and effects of gameful interventions.},
author = {Tondello, Gustavo F. and Mora, Alberto and Marczewski, Andrzej and Nacke, Lennart E.},
doi = {10.1016/j.ijhcs.2018.10.002},
issn = {10715819},
journal = {International Journal of Human-Computer Studies},
keywords = {Gameful Design,Gamification,Hexad,User Types},
publisher = {Elsevier},
title = {{Empirical Validation of the Gamification User Types Hexad Scale in English and Spanish}},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhcs.2018.10.002},
year = {2019},
volume = {127},
pages = {95--111},
}

Gamification, the use of game elements in non-game systems, is now established as a relevant research field in human-computer interaction (HCI). Several empirical studies have shown that gameful interventions can increase engagement and generate desired behavioural outcomes in HCI applications. However, some inconclusive results indicate that we need a fuller understanding of the mechanisms and effects of gamification. The Gamification User Types Hexad scale allows us to parse different user motivations in participants’ interactions with gameful applications, which are measured using a self-report questionnaire. Each user type represents a style of interaction with gameful applications, for example, if the interactions are more focused on achievements, socialization, or rewards. Thus, by scoring an individual in each one of the user types of the Hexad model, we can establish a profile of user preferences for gameful interactions. However, we still lack a substantial empirical validation of this scale. Therefore, we set out to validate the factor structure of the scale, in both English and Spanish, by conducting three studies, which also investigated the distribution of the Hexad's user types in the sample. Our findings support the structural validity of the scale, as well as suggesting opportunities for improvement. Furthermore, we demonstrate that some user types are more common than others and that gender and age correlate with a person's user types. Our work contributes to HCI research by further validating the utility of the Gamification User Types Hexad scale, potentially affording researchers a deeper understanding of the mechanisms and effects of gameful interventions.

Year 2016

"It was Colonel Mustard in the Study with the Candlestick": Using Artifacts to Create An Alternate Reality Game-The Unworkshop

Workshops are used for academic social networking, but connections can be superficial and result in few enduring collaborations. This unworkshop offers a novel interactive format to create deep connections, peer- learning, and produces a technology-enhanced experience. Participants will generate interactive technological artifacts before the unworkshop, which will be used together and orchestrated at the unworkshop to engage all participants in an alternate reality game set in local places at the conference.

Year 2020

Development and validation of the player experience inventory: A scale to measure player experiences at the level of functional and psychosocial consequences

@article{Abeele2020,
abstract = {Games User Research (GUR) focuses on measuring, analysing and understanding player experiences to optimise game designs. Hence, GUR experts aim to understand how specific game design choices are experienced by players, and how these lead to specific emotional responses. An instrument, providing such actionable insight into player experience, specifically designed by and for GUR was thus far lacking. To address this gap, the Player Experience Inventory (PXI) was developed, drawing on Means-End theory and measuring player experience both at the level of Functional Consequences, (i.e., the immediate experiences as a direct result of game design choices, such as audiovisual appeal or ease-of-control) and at the level of Psychosocial Consequences, (i.e., the second-order emotional experiences, such as immersion or mastery). Initial construct and item development was conducted in two iterations with 64 GUR experts. Next, the scale was validated and evaluated over five studies and populations, totalling 529 participants. Results support the theorized structure of the scale and provide evidence for both discriminant and convergent validity. Results also show that the scale performs well over different sample sizes and studies, supporting configural invariance. Hence, the PXI provides a reliable and theoretically sound tool for researchers to measure player experience and investigate how game design choices are linked to emotional responses.},
author = {Abeele, Vero Vanden and Spiel, Katta and Nacke, Lennart and Johnson, Daniel and Gerling, Kathrin},
doi = {10.1016/j.ijhcs.2019.102370},
issn = {10959300},
journal = {International Journal of Human Computer Studies},
keywords = {GUR,Game experience,Games user research,Means-End theory,Measurement instrument,PX,Player experience,Scale development,Scale validation},
number = {October 2019},
pages = {102370},
publisher = {Elsevier},
title = {{Development and validation of the player experience inventory: A scale to measure player experiences at the level of functional and psychosocial consequences}},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhcs.2019.102370},
volume = {135},
year = {2020}
}

Games User Research (GUR) focuses on measuring, analysing and understanding player experiences to optimise game designs. Hence, GUR experts aim to understand how specific game design choices are experienced by players, and how these lead to specific emotional responses. An instrument, providing such actionable insight into player experience, specifically designed by and for GUR was thus far lacking. To address this gap, the Player Experience Inventory (PXI) was developed, drawing on Means-End theory and measuring player experience both at the level of Functional Consequences, (i.e., the immediate experiences as a direct result of game design choices, such as audiovisual appeal or ease-of-control) and at the level of Psychosocial Consequences, (i.e., the secondorder emotional experiences, such as immersion or mastery). Initial construct and item development was conducted in two iterations with 64 GUR experts. Next, the scale was validated and evaluated over five studies and populations, totalling 529 participants. Results support the theorized structure of the scale and provide evidence for both discriminant and convergent validity. Results also show that the scale performs well over different sample sizes and studies, supporting configural invariance. Hence, the PXI provides a reliable and theoretically sound tool for researchers to measure player experience and investigate how game design choices are linked to emotional responses.

Year 2008

A QoS-based Search Engine for Semantic Web Services

@inproceedings{tondello2008qos,
  title={A QoS-based Search Engine for Semantic Web Services},
  author={Tondello, Gustavo Fortes and Siqueira, Frank}
}

This paper presents a Semantic Web Services search engine that focus on the discovery of Web Services that fulfill a defined set of QoS constraints. Our approach relies on the use of the QoS-MO ontology, which provides means for specifying the QoS characteristics of Web Services, and the SPARQL language, which allows the specification of queries for discovering Web Services based on a set of QoS constraints. A prototype of this search engine has been developed, with both a programming and a Web-based interface, resulting in a simple and efficient implementation which validates the proposed mechanism.

Year 2018

Emotion-based Dynamic Difficulty Adjustment Using Parametrized Difficulty and Self-Reports of Emotion

@inproceedings{frommel2018emotion,
author = {Frommel, Julian and Fischbach, Fabian and Rogers, Katja and Weber, Michael},
title = {Emotion-Based Dynamic Difficulty Adjustment Using Parameterized Difficulty and Self-Reports of Emotion},
year = {2018},
isbn = {9781450356244},
publisher = {Association for Computing Machinery},
address = {New York, NY, USA},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1145/3242671.3242682},
doi = {10.1145/3242671.3242682},
booktitle = {Proceedings of the 2018 Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play},
pages = {163–171},
numpages = {9},
keywords = {adapt, dda, emotion, adaptivity, dialogue, self-report, difficulty},
location = {Melbourne, VIC, Australia},
series = {CHI PLAY ’18}
}
  

Research has shown that dynamic difficulty adjustment (DDA) can benefit player experience in digital games. However, in some cases it can be difficult to assess when adjustments are necessary. In this paper, we propose an approach of emotion-based DDA that uses self-reported emotions to inform when an adaptation is necessary. In comparison to earlier DDA techniques based on affect, we use parameterized difficulty to define difficulty levels and select the suitable level based on players' frustration and boredom. We conducted a user study with 66 participants investigating performance and effects on player experience and perceived competence of this approach. The study further explored how self-reports of emotional state can be integrated in dialogs with non-player characters to provide less interruption. The results show that our emotion-based DDA approach works as intended and yields better player experience than constant or increasing difficulty approaches. While the dialog-based self-reports did not positively affect player experience, they yielded high accuracy. Together, these findings indicate our emotion-based approach works as intended and provides good player experience, thus representing a useful tool for game developers to easily implement reliable DDA.

Year 2020

Validation of User Preferences and Effects of Personalized Gamification on Task Performance

@article{Tondello2020a,
abstract = {Personalized gamification is the tailoring of gameful design elements to user preferences to improve engagement. However, studies of user preferences have so far relied on self-reported data only and few studies investigated the effects of personalized gameful systems on task performance. This study shows that personalized gamification works in practice as predicted by survey studies and leads to higher task performance. We asked 252 participants in two studies to interact with a customized (experimental) or a generic (control) online gameful application to classify images. In the customized version, they could select the game elements that they wanted to use for their experience. The results showed significant correlations between participants' choice of gameful design elements and their Hexad user type scores, which partly support existing user preference models based on self-reported preferences. On the other hand, user type scores were not correlated with participants' preferred game elements rated after interacting with the gameful system. These findings demonstrate that the Hexad user types are a viable model to create personalized gameful systems. However, it seems that there are other yet unknown factors that can influence user preferences, which should be considered together with the user type scores. Additionally, participants in the experimental condition classified more images and rated their experience of selecting the game elements they wanted to use higher than in the control, demonstrating that task performance improved with personalization. Nonetheless, other measures of task performance that were not explicitly incentivized by the game elements did not equally improve. This contribution shows that personalized gameful design creates systems that are more successful in helping users achieve their goals than generic systems. However, gameful designers should be aware that they must balance the game elements and how much they incentivize each user behavior, so that the business goals can be successfully promoted. Finally, we analyzed participants' qualitative answers about their experience with the generic and the customized gameful applications, extracting useful lessons for the designers of personalized gameful systems.},
author = {Tondello, Gustavo F and Nacke, Lennart E},
doi = {10.3389/fcomp.2020.00029},
keywords = {Hexad user types,adaptation,customization,gameful design,gamification,hexad user types,personalization},
pages = {29},
title = {{Validation of User Preferences and Effects of Personalized Gamification on Task Performance}},
volume = {2},
year = {2020}
}

Personalized gamification is the tailoring of gameful design elements to user preferences to improve engagement. However, studies of user preferences have so far relied on self-reported data only and few studies investigated the effects of personalized gameful systems on task performance. This study shows that personalized gamification works in practice as predicted by survey studies and leads to higher task performance. We asked 252 participants in two studies to interact with a customized (experimental) or a generic (control) online gameful application to classify images. In the customized version, they could select the game elements that they wanted to use for their experience. The results showed significant correlations between participants' choice of gameful design elements and their Hexad user type scores, which partly support existing user preference models based on self-reported preferences. On the other hand, user type scores were not correlated with participants' preferred game elements rated after interacting with the gameful system. These findings demonstrate that the Hexad user types are a viable model to create personalized gameful systems. However, it seems that there are other yet unknown factors that can influence user preferences, which should be considered together with the user type scores. Additionally, participants in the experimental condition classified more images and rated their experience of selecting the game elements they wanted to use higher than in the control, demonstrating that task performance improved with personalization. Nonetheless, other measures of task performance that were not explicitly incentivized by the game elements did not equally improve. This contribution shows that personalized gameful design creates systems that are more successful in helping users achieve their goals than generic systems. However, gameful designers should be aware that they must balance the game elements and how much they incentivize each user behavior, so that the business goals can be successfully promoted. Finally, we analyzed participants' qualitative answers about their experience with the generic and the customized gameful applications, extracting useful lessons for the designers of personalized gameful systems.

Demystifying the First-Time Experience of Mobile Games: The Presence of a Tutorial Has a Positive Impact on Non-Expert Players’ Flow and Continuous-Use Intentions

The purpose of video game tutorials is to help players easily understand new game mechanics and thereby facilitate chances of early engagement with the main contents of one’s game. The mobile game market (i.e., phones and tablets) faces important retention issues caused by a high number of players who abandon games permanently within 24 h of downloading them. A laboratory experiment with 40 players tested how tutorial presence and player expertise impact on users’ psychophysiological states and continuous-use intentions (CUIs). The results suggest that in a simple game context, tutorials have a positive impact on non-expert players’ perceived state of flow and have no effect on expert players’ perceived flow. The results also suggest that flow has a positive impact on CUIs for both experts and non-experts. The theoretical contributions and managerial implications of these results are discussed.

Playing in the backstore: interface gamification increases warehousing workforce engagement

In a warehouse setting, where hourly workers performing manual tasks account for more than half of total warehouse expenditure, a lack of employee engagement has been directly linked to company performance. In this article, the authors present a laboratory experiment in which two gamification elements, goal setting and feedback, are implemented in a wearable warehouse management system (WMS) interface to examine their effect on user engagement and performance in an item picking task. Both implicit (neurophysiological) and explicit (self-reported) measures of engagement are used, allowing for a richer understanding of the user's perceived and physiological state.

Me, Myself, and Not-I: Self-Discrepancy Type Predicts Avatar Creation Style

In video games, identification with avatars—virtual entities or characters driven by human behaviour—has been shown to serve many interpersonal and intraindividual functions (like social connection, self-expression, or identity exploration) but our understanding of the psychological variables that influence players’ avatar choices remains incomplete. The study presented in this paper tested whether players’ preferred style of avatar creation is linked to the magnitude of self-perceived discrepancies between who they are, who they aspire to be, and who they think they should be. One-hundred-and-twenty-five undergraduate gamers indicated their preferred avatar creation style and completed a values measure from three different perspectives: their actual, ideal, and ought selves. The average actual/ideal values discrepancy was greater among those who preferred idealized avatars versus those who preferred …

What is it Like to Be a Game?-Object Oriented Inquiry for Games Research, Design and Evaluation

@article{spiel2020like,
  title={What is it Like to Be a Game?-Object Oriented Inquiry for Games Research, Design and Evaluation},
  author={Spiel, Katta and Nacke, Lennart},
  journal={Frontiers in Computer Science},
  volume={2},
  pages={18},
  year={2020},
  publisher={Frontiers}
}

Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) researchers more and more challenge the notion of technologies as objects and humans as subjects. This conceptualization has led to various approaches inquiring into object perspectives within HCI. Even though the development and analysis of games and players is filled with notions of intersubjectivity, games research has yet to embrace an object oriented perspective. Through an analysis of existing methods, we show how Object-Oriented Inquiry offers a useful, playful, and speculative lens to pro-actively engage with and reflect on how we might know what it is like to be a game. We illustrate how to actively attend to a game's perspective as a valid position. This has the potential to not only sharpen our understanding of implicit affordances but, in turn, about our assumptions regarding play and games more generally. In a series of case studies, we apply several object-oriented methods across three methodological explorations on becoming, being, and acting as a game, and illustrate their usefulness for generating meaningful insights for game design and evaluation. Our work contributes to emerging object-oriented practices that acknowledge the agency of technologies within HCI at large and its games-oriented strand in particular.

Year 2015

Collaborative Multi-Touch Clinical Handover System for the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit

@article{kamaleswaran2015collaborative,
  title={Collaborative Multi-Touch Clinical Handover System for the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit},
  author={Kamaleswaran, Rishikesan and Wehbe, Rina R and Pugh, J Edward and Lennart, Lennart and McGregor, Carolyn and James, Andrew},
  journal={electronic Journal of Health Informatics},
  volume={9},
  number={1},
  pages={5},
  year={2015}
}

A critically ill infant admitted to a neonatal intensive care unit requires complex, critical,
and coordinated care performed by multidisciplinary healthcare teams. Since the infant’s care is
not provided by a single, individual physician during the infant’s hospital stay, clinical handover
is essential to enable the transfer of health information between physicians involved in the infant’s
care. O

Vanishing scares: biofeedback modulation of affective player experiences in a procedural horror game

@article{nogueira2016vanishing,
  title={Vanishing scares: biofeedback modulation of affective player experiences in a procedural horror game},
  author={Nogueira, Pedro A and Torres, Vasco and Rodrigues, Rui and Oliveira, Eug{\'e}nio and Nacke, Lennart E},
  journal={Journal on Multimodal User Interfaces},
  volume={10},
  number={1},
  pages={31--62},
  year={2016},
  publisher={Springer}
}

To understand the impact of emotionally driven
games on player experience, we developed a procedural horror game (Vanish) capable of run-time level, asset, and event
generation. Vanish was augmented to interpret players’ physiological data as a simplified emotional state, mapping it to
a set of adaptation rules that modify the player experience.
To explore the effects of adaptation mechanisms on player
experience, we conducted a mixed-methods study on three
different versions of the game, two of which integrated varying biofeedback mechanisms. Players’ affective experiences
were objectively measured by analysing physiological data.
Additionally, subjective experience was recorded through
the use of the Game Experience Questionnaire. Our study
confirmed that biofeedback functionality had a statistically
significant effect on the ratings of player experience dimensions: immersion, tension, positive affect, and negative affect.
Furthermore, participants reported noticeable differences in
player experience, favouring the added depth present in the
biofeedback-enabled iterations of the game. In the future,
these conclusions will help to develop more immersive and
engaging player experiences.

Modelling human emotion in interactive environments: Physiological ensemble and grounded approaches for synthetic agents

@inproceedings{nogueira2015modelling,
  title={Modelling human emotion in interactive environments: Physiological ensemble and grounded approaches for synthetic agents},
  author={Nogueira, Pedro A and Rodrigues, Rui and Oliveira, Eug{\'e}nio and Nacke, Lennart E},
  booktitle={Web Intelligence},
  volume={13},
  number={3},
  pages={195--214},
  year={2015},
  organization={IOS Press}
}

With the rising research in emotionally believable agents, several advances in agent technology have been made, ranging from interactive virtual agents to emotional mechanism simulations and emotional agent architectures. However, creating an emotionally believable agent capable of emotional thought is still largely out of reach. It has been proposed that being able to accurately model human emotion would allow agents to mimic human behaviour while these models are studied to create more accurate theoretical models. In light of these challenges, we present a general method for human emotional state modelling in interactive environments. The proposed method employs a three-layered classification process to model the arousal and valence (i.e., hedonic) emotional components, based on four selected psychophysiological metrics. Additionally, we also developed a simplified version of our system for use in real-time systems and low-fidelity applications. The modelled emotional states by both approaches compared favourably with a manual approach following the current best practices reported in the literature while also improving on its predictive ability. The obtained results indicate we are able to accurately predict human emotional states, both in offline and online scenarios with varying levels of granularity; thus, providing a transversal method for modelling and reproducing human emotional profiles.

Year 2017

LiverDefense: how to employ a tower defense game as a customisable research tool

@article{10.1007/s00371-016-1314-0,
author = {Brich, Julia and Rogers, Katja and Frommel, Julian and Weidhaas, Martin and Br\"{u}ckner, Adrian and Mirabile, Sarah and Dorn, Tamara and Riemer, Valentin and Schrader, Claudia and Weber, Michael},
title = {LiverDefense: How to Employ a Tower Defense Game as a Customisable Research Tool},
year = {2017},
issue_date = {April 2017},
publisher = {Springer-Verlag},
address = {Berlin, Heidelberg},
volume = {33},
number = {4},
issn = {0178-2789},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1007/s00371-016-1314-0},
doi = {10.1007/s00371-016-1314-0},
abstract = {In game-related research, it is often necessary to create different versions of a game prototype and gather information about players. To make this possible even for non-programmers, we present LiverDefense, an educational Tower Defense game about the basic functions of the human liver, which can be used as a customisable research tool. LiverDefense can be customised via human-readable XML files both in its degree of difficulty and the content of Likert scale questionnaires to be presented to the player. As a proof of concept, LiverDefense has been successfully employed in a psychological study focused on exploring the effect of perceived control over gameplay on players' emotions. We report on the analysis of this study with regard to enjoyment and frustration and the resulting insights on using LiverDefense as a customisable research tool.},
journal = {Vis. Comput.},
month = apr,
pages = {429–442},
numpages = {14},
keywords = {Game design, Bio-medical education, Educational games, Questionnaire integration, Customisable games}
}

In game-related research, it is often necessary to create different versions of a game prototype and gather information about players. To make this possible even for non-programmers, we present LiverDefense, an educational Tower Defense game about the basic functions of the human liver, which can be used as a customisable research tool. LiverDefense can be customised via human-readable XML files both in its degree of difficulty and the content of Likert scale questionnaires to be presented to the player. As a proof of concept, LiverDefense has been successfully employed in a psychological study focused on exploring the effect of perceived control over gameplay on players' emotions. We report on the analysis of this study with regard to enjoyment and frustration and the resulting insights on using LiverDefense as a customisable research tool.

Year 2005

On the automatic configuration of application-oriented operating systems

@INPROCEEDINGS{1387109,
  author={G. F. {Tondello} and A. A. {Frohlich}},
  booktitle={The 3rd ACS/IEEE International Conference onComputer Systems and Applications, 2005.}, 
  title={On the automatic configuration of application-oriented operating systems}, 
  year={2005},
  volume={},
  number={},
  pages={120-},
  doi={10.1109/AICCSA.2005.1387109}}

This paper presents an alternative to achieve automatic run-time system generation based on the application oriented systems design method. Our approach relies on a static configuration mechanism that allows the generation of optimized versions of the operating system for particular classes of applications, promoting a better utilization of available resources. The EPOS operating system, with its strategies and tools, is taken as a case-study along the text to exemplify and corroborate the proposed ideas.

Year 2015

Mobile Augmented Reality as an Orientation Aid: A Scavenger Hunt Prototype

@inproceedings{10.1109/IE.2015.37,
author = {Rogers, Katja and Frommel, Julian and Breier, Larissa and Celik, Sinan and Kramer, Harry and Kreidel, Stefan and Brich, Julia and Riemer, Valentin and Schrader, Claudia},
title = {Mobile Augmented Reality as an Orientation Aid: A Scavenger Hunt Prototype},
year = {2015},
isbn = {9781467366540},
publisher = {IEEE Computer Society},
address = {USA},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1109/IE.2015.37},
doi = {10.1109/IE.2015.37},
abstract = {Orientation in public environments is a critical skill for new arrivals, yet also one that is usually only learned gradually through trial and error. This paper suggests the use of pervasive augmented reality (AR) for the design of a serious game that teaches navigational skills in a public environment. Many AR scavenger hunt games confront players with new environments by default, however they rarely focus explicitly on teaching navigational skills. We propose a concept that utilises augmented reality techniques for increased immersion and motivation, while upholding the real-world sense of presence for an easy transfer of orientation skills to everyday life. For this purpose, we implemented a first prototypical serious game in the form of an AR scavenger hunt. A preliminary evaluation regarding its usability produced promising results. As such, the prototype constitutes a first proof of concept. In future iterations, it will be further developed as an adaptive AR serious game, and evaluated in respect to its efficacy in teaching orientation and navigation skills.},
booktitle = {Proceedings of the 2015 International Conference on Intelligent Environments},
pages = {172–175},
numpages = {4},
series = {IE '15}
}

Orientation in public environments is a critical skill for new arrivals, yet also one that is usually only learned gradually through trial and error. This paper suggests the use of pervasive augmented reality (AR) for the design of a serious game that teaches navigational skills in a public environment. Many AR scavenger hunt games confront players with new environments by default, however they rarely focus explicitly on teaching navigational skills. We propose a concept that utilises augmented reality techniques for increased immersion and motivation, while upholding the real-world sense of presence for an easy transfer of orientation skills to everyday life. For this purpose, we implemented a first prototypical serious game in the form of an AR scavenger hunt. A preliminary evaluation regarding its usability produced promising results. As such, the prototype constitutes a first proof of concept. In future iterations, it will be further developed as an adaptive AR serious game, and evaluated in respect to its efficacy in teaching orientation and navigation skills.

Year 2014

P.I.A.N.O.: Faster Piano Learning with Interactive Projection

@inproceedings{10.1145/2669485.2669514,
author = {Rogers, Katja and R\"{o}hlig, Amrei and Weing, Matthias and Gugenheimer, Jan and K\"{o}nings, Bastian and Klepsch, Melina and Schaub, Florian and Rukzio, Enrico and Seufert, Tina and Weber, Michael},
title = {P.I.A.N.O.: Faster Piano Learning with Interactive Projection},
year = {2014},
isbn = {9781450325875},
publisher = {Association for Computing Machinery},
address = {New York, NY, USA},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1145/2669485.2669514},
doi = {10.1145/2669485.2669514},
abstract = {Learning to play the piano is a prolonged challenge for novices. It requires them to learn sheet music notation and its mapping to respective piano keys, together with articulation details. Smooth playing further requires correct finger postures. The result is a slow learning progress, often causing frustration and strain. To overcome these issues, we propose P.I.A.N.O., a piano learning system with interactive projection that facilitates a fast learning process. Note information in form of an enhanced piano roll notation is directly projected onto the instrument and allows mapping of notes to piano keys without prior sight-reading skills. Three learning modes support the natural learning process with live feedback and performance evaluation. We report the results of two user studies, which show that P.I.A.N.O. supports faster learning, requires significantly less cognitive load, provides better user experience, and increases perceived musical quality compared to sheet music notation and non-projected piano roll notation.},
booktitle = {Proceedings of the Ninth ACM International Conference on Interactive Tabletops and Surfaces},
pages = {149–158},
numpages = {10},
keywords = {camit, interactive projection, music, piano roll notation, instrument learning, muscial expression, piano},
location = {Dresden, Germany},
series = {ITS '14}
}

Learning to play the piano is a prolonged challenge for novices. It requires them to learn sheet music notation and its mapping to respective piano keys, together with articulation details. Smooth playing further requires correct finger postures. The result is a slow learning progress, often causing frustration and strain. To overcome these issues, we propose P.I.A.N.O., a piano learning system with interactive projection that facilitates a fast learning process. Note information in form of an enhanced piano roll notation is directly projected onto the instrument and allows mapping of notes to piano keys without prior sight-reading skills. Three learning modes support the natural learning process with live feedback and performance evaluation. We report the results of two user studies, which show that P.I.A.N.O. supports faster learning, requires significantly less cognitive load, provides better user experience, and increases perceived musical quality compared to sheet music notation and non-projected piano roll notation.

Year 2017

A comparison of system-controlled and user-controlled personalization approaches

@inproceedings{10.1145/3099023.3099116,
author = {Orji, Rita and Oyibo, Kiemute and Tondello, Gustavo F.},
title = {A Comparison of System-Controlled and User-Controlled Personalization Approaches},
year = {2017},
isbn = {9781450350679},
publisher = {Association for Computing Machinery},
address = {New York, NY, USA},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1145/3099023.3099116},
doi = {10.1145/3099023.3099116},
abstract = {Personalizing interactive systems including games increases their effectiveness. This paper explores and compares two main approaches to personalization: system-controlled and user-controlled adaptation. The results of large-scale exploratory studies of 1768 users show that both techniques to personalizing systems share seven common strengths of increasing users' perception of a system's relevance, usefulness, interactivity, ease of use, credibility and trust, and also increases users' self-efficacy. The results also reveal some unique strengths and weaknesses peculiar to each of the approaches that designers should take into consideration when deciding on a suitable adaptation technique to use in personalizing their systems. Users prefer system- over user-controlled adaptation.},
booktitle = {Adjunct Publication of the 25th Conference on User Modeling, Adaptation and Personalization},
pages = {413–418},
numpages = {6},
keywords = {persuasive technology, user-control, tailoring, adaptation, behaviour change, health, hci, personalization, system-control},
location = {Bratislava, Slovakia},
series = {UMAP '17}
}

Personalizing interactive systems including games increases their effectiveness. This paper explores and compares two main approaches to personalization: system-controlled and user-controlled adaptation. The results of large-scale exploratory studies of 1768 users show that both techniques to personalizing systems share seven common strengths of increasing users' perception of a system's relevance, usefulness, interactivity, ease of use, credibility and trust, and also increases users' self-efficacy. The results also reveal some unique strengths and weaknesses peculiar to each of the approaches that designers should take into consideration when deciding on a suitable adaptation technique to use in personalizing their systems. Users prefer system-over user-controlled adaptation.

Year 2018

Exploring intended and unintended uses of (e)books as design inspiration for ambient displays in the home

@article{moser2018exploring,
  title={Exploring intended and unintended uses of (e) books as design inspiration for ambient displays in the home},
  author={Moser, Christiane and Aslan, Ilhan and Neureiter, Katja and Randelshofer, Ivana and Sundstroem, Petra and Tscheligi, Manfred},
  year={2018}
}

Books at home are used for more than reading, such as collecting them, using them as decoration, or expressing personality. In order to get a better understanding of intended and unintended uses of printed books, we conducted seven book tours in different homes followed by semi-structured interviews. This data was complemented with a large-scale online survey with 300 respondents. We describe our findings focusing on storage, sorting, decoration, and self-expression and how they inspired us to develop a digital bookshelf (ambient display) as a technology probe to explore decoration with eBooks in the home. We argue for a transition from decoration with printed books to eBooks as design inspiration that does not simply replicate a bookshelf as ambient display, but makes eBooks tangible by combining users' habits with qualities of digital material.

Year 2019

Analysing gamification elements in educational environments using an existing Gamification taxonomy

@article{toda2019analysing,
  title={Analysing gamification elements in educational environments using an existing Gamification taxonomy},
  author={Toda, Armando M and Klock, Ana CT and Oliveira, Wilk and Palomino, Paula T and Rodrigues, Luiz and Shi, Lei and Bittencourt, Ig and Gasparini, Isabela and Isotani, Seiji and Cristea, Alexandra I},
  journal={Smart Learning Environments},
  volume={6},
  number={1},
  pages={16},
  year={2019},
  publisher={Springer}
}

Gamification has been widely employed in the educational domain over the past eight years when the term became a trend. However, the literature states that gamification still lacks formal definitions to support the design and analysis of gamified strategies. This paper analysed the game elements employed in gamified learning environments through a previously proposed and evaluated taxonomy while detailing and expanding this taxonomy. In the current paper, we describe our taxonomy in-depth as well as expand it. Our new structured results demonstrate an extension of the proposed taxonomy which results from this process, is divided into five dimensions, related to the learner and the learning environment. Our main contribution is the detailed taxonomy that can be used to design and evaluate gamification design in learning environments.

Year 2020

Validating the effectiveness of data-driven gamification recommendations: An Exploratory study

@article{toda2020validating,
  title={Validating the effectiveness of data-driven gamification recommendations: An Exploratory study},
  author={Toda, Armando and Palomino, Paula and Rodrigues, Luiz and Oliveira, Wilk and Shi, Lei and Isotani, Seiji and Cristea, Alexandra},
  journal={arXiv preprint arXiv:2008.05847},
  year={2020}
}

Gamification design has benefited from data-driven approaches to creating strategies based on students characteristics. However, these strategies need further validation to verify their effectiveness in e-learning environments. The exploratory study presented in this paper thus aims at verifying how data-driven gamified strategies are perceived by the students, ie, the users of e-learning environments. In this study, we conducted a survey presenting 25 predefined strategies, based on a previous study, to students and analysed each strategys perceived relevance, instanced in an e-learning environment. Our results show that students perceive Acknowledgement, Objective and Progression as important elements in a gamified e-learning environment. We also provide new insights about existing elements and design recommendations for domain specialists.

Which one is the best? A quasi-experimental study comparing frameworks for unplugged gamification

@article{oliveira2020one,
  title={Which one is the best? A quasi-experimental study comparing frameworks for unplugged gamification},
  author={Oliveira, Wilk and Toda, Armando M and Palomino, Paula T and Rodrigues, Luiz and Isotani, Seiji},
  journal={RENOTE},
  volume={18},
  number={1},
  year={2020}
}

Despite many studies proposing and evaluating frameworks to design
gamified environments in education, there is still difficulty in making end-users
(e.g., teachers, instructors, and designers) use these services and assess which
ones are most appropriate for their context. We tackled this challenge by comparing two frameworks to design a gamified non-virtual class, through a quasiexperimental study. Our main results indicate that one of the frameworks (Six
Steps to Gamification - 6D) proved to be more adaptable to the context and the
other (GAMIFY-SN) was more complete to associate the gamification elements
within the instructor’s final objectives in the gamified class. Thus, our results
promote a contribution to end-users through insights on which the most suitable
framework to use in each situation.

Year 2019

Teaching Interactive Fiction for Undergraduate Students with the Aid of Information Technologies: An Experience Report

@article{palomino2019teaching,
  title={Teaching Interactive Fiction for Undergraduate Students with the Aid of Information Technologies: An Experience Report},
  author={Palomino, Paula T and Toda, Armando M and Oliveira, Wilk and Rodrigues, Luiz and Isotani, Seiji},
  journal={RENOTE-Revista Novas Tecnologias na Educa{\c{c}}{\~a}o},
  volume={17},
  number={3},
  year={2019}
}

This paper presents an experience report concerning the use of a platform called “Storium” in the subject of “Interactive Fiction” for undergraduate students, from a Digital Design Course. The objective was to use the learning theories of constructivism and multimedia learning to create an instructional plan devised to teach the students how to create complex interactive narratives and stories from a practical perspective. During the course, the students learned the subject’s theoretical concepts and applied them directly, creating their own interactive fiction. The results from this research proposes a new approach, using digital tools whose resources provides an environment for the creation of interactive narratives. These narratives can be used to aid future designs of instructional plans for complex writing concepts.

Thinking Inside the Box: How to Tailor Gamified Educational Systems Based on Learning Activities Types

@inproceedings{rodrigues2019thinking,
  title={Thinking Inside the Box: How to Tailor Gamified Educational Systems Based on Learning Activities Types},
  author={Rodrigues, Luiz and Oliveira, Wilk and Toda, Armando and Palomino, Paula and Isotani, Seiji},
  booktitle={Brazilian Symposium on Computers in Education (Simp{\'o}sio Brasileiro de Inform{\'a}tica na Educa{\c{c}}{\~a}o-SBIE)},
  volume={30},
  number={1},
  pages={823},
  year={2019}
}

Selecting gamification elements suitable for specific players (personalization) has been sought to improve the impacts of Gamified Educational Systems (GES). However, the lack of context might be a factor on the inconsistent results of those approaches. To address this lack, we introduce a method for personalizing GES based on learning activities types. The assumption is that selecting gamification elements for specific types of learning activities has the potential to improve GES impact on users by considering the context of each activity and, thus, contributing to their learning process. We describe how to apply our approach, how it differs from user-based methods, as well as discuss three cases of application and challenges yet to be tackled.

Automatic game experience identification in educational games

@inproceedings{oliveira2019automatic,
  title={Automatic game experience identification in educational games},
  author={Oliveira, Wilk and Rodrigues, Luiz and Toda, Armando and Palomino, Paula and Isotani, Seiji},
  booktitle={Brazilian Symposium on Computers in Education (Simp{\'o}sio Brasileiro de Inform{\'a}tica na Educa{\c{c}}{\~a}o-SBIE)},
  volume={30},
  number={1},
  pages={952},
  year={2019}
}

One of the main challenges in the field of educational games is the automatic and implicit users' game experience identification. To face this challenge, we present an exploratory study by using a data-driven based approach for collecting and identifying this experience. We used two different data-mining techniques aiming to associate the user's data logs from an educational game with their game-like experience. Our main results indicate that it is possible to extract the automatic and implicit acquisition of the student's game experience in educational games and demonstrate how user's data logs drive their experiences. We also provided different associations between user data logs in educational games and the student's game experience.

Exploring content game elements to support gamification design in educational systems: narrative and storytelling

@inproceedings{palomino2019exploring,
  title={Exploring content game elements to support gamification design in educational systems: narrative and storytelling},
  author={Palomino, Paula and Toda, Armando and Oliveira, Wilk and Rodrigues, Luiz and Cristea, Alexandra and Isotani, Seiji},
  booktitle={Brazilian Symposium on Computers in Education (Simp{\'o}sio Brasileiro de Inform{\'a}tica na Educa{\c{c}}{\~a}o-SBIE)},
  volume={30},
  number={1},
  pages={773},
  year={2019}
}

There are currently several studies on gamification applied to learning systems, aiming to encourage students to do certain tasks and improving their learning. According to several researches, most frameworks for gamification already developed are structural (eg scoring systems, ranking, etc.), with very few content-related frameworks. Importantly, to the best of our knowledge, there is no known narrative framework available. Therefore this paper analyses data obtained from a survey about the students' preferred game elements in an educational context, using Association Rule Mining and focusing on the rules found concerning Narrative and Storytelling elements. Our study showed that Narrative and Storytelling are tightly related. We thus provide insights of their use in groups of other game elements, enabling the creation of gamified instructional design strategies based on these aspects.

Year 2020

How to Gamify Learning Systems? An Experience Report using the Design Sprint Method and a Taxonomy for Gamification Elements in Education

@article{toda2019gamify,
  title={How to Gamify Learning Systems? An Experience Report using the Design Sprint Method and a Taxonomy for Gamification Elements in Education},
  author={Toda, Armando M and Palomino, Paula T and Oliveira, Wilk and Rodrigues, Luiz and Klock, Ana CT and Gasparini, Isabela and Cristea, Alexandra I and Isotani, Seiji},
  journal={Journal of Educational Technology \& Society},
  volume={22},
  number={3},
  pages={47--60},
  year={2019},
  publisher={JSTOR}
}

One of the main goals of gamification in educational settings is to increase student motivation and engagement. To facilitate the design of gamified educational systems, in recent years, studies have proposed various approaches (e.g., methodologies, frameworks and models). One of the main problems, however, is that most of these approaches are theoretical, and do not provide a proof-of-concept. This paper advances the state of the art by providing a practical way to help implement this kind of system. In this study, we present, for the first time, how one can apply gamification elements in a learning system using the Design Sprint method, to guide designers and developers on replicating this process. Additionally, as starting point, we use a taxonomy composed of 21 game elements, proposed to be used within learning environments, organised into five game element categories, according to their goal/usage. Our main contribution is to present how to systematically implement the gamification elements focused on educational ends, which is of special value to practitioners, designers and developers.

Year 2019

A Taxonomy of Game Elements for Gamification in Educational Contexts: Proposal and Evaluation

@inproceedings{toda2019taxonomy,
  title={A taxonomy of game elements for gamification in educational contexts: Proposal and evaluation},
  author={Toda, Armando and Oliveira, Wilk and Klock, Ana and Palomino, Paula and Pimenta, Marcelo and Bittencourt, Ig and Shi, Lei and Gasparini, Isabela and Isotani, Seiji and Cristea, Alexandra},
  booktitle={2019 IEEE 19th International Conference on Advanced Learning Technologies (ICALT)},
  volume={2161},
  pages={84--88},
  year={2019},
  organization={IEEE}
}

Gamification has been widely employed in the educational domain over the past eight years when the term became
a trend. However, the literature states that gamification still lacks
formal definitions to support the design of gamified strategies.
This paper aims to create a taxonomy for the game elements,
based on gamification experts’ opinions. After a brief review
from existing work, we extract first the game elements from the
current state of the art, and then evaluate them via a survey with
19 gamification and education experts. The resulting taxonomy
taxonomy included the description of 21 game elements and their
quantitative and qualitative evaluation by the experts. Overall,
the proposed taxonomy was in general well accepted by most of
the experts. They also suggested expanding it with the inclusion
of Narrative and Storytelling game elements. Thus, the main
contribution of this paper is proposing a new, confirmed taxonomy
to standardise the terminology used to define the game elements
as a mean to design and deploy gamification strategies in the
educational domain.

Narrative for Gamification in Education: Why Should you Care?

@inproceedings{palomino2019narrative,
  title={Narrative for gamification in education: why should you care?},
  author={Palomino, Paula Toledo and Toda, Armando M and Oliveira, Wilk and Cristea, Alexandra I and Isotani, Seiji},
  booktitle={2019 IEEE 19th International Conference on Advanced Learning Technologies (ICALT)},
  volume={2161},
  pages={97--99},
  year={2019},
  organization={IEEE}
}

Gamification applied to education studies are focusing to encourage students to perform specific tasks, however many of these studies are still inconclusive about how much gamification can influence engagement. Also, the frameworks used to apply gamification in those systems are mainly structural (e.g. scoring and ranking systems) rather than content frameworks (where the game elements are applied to the content). Therefore, this paper aims at creating a narrative definition exclusively for gamification purposes. First, we developed an empirical research starting with a literature review of the narrative concept in other medias, such as games. Then, we mapped these definitions into features and crossed the similarities and differences across them, to find a common ground that could be applied in gamification contexts. Our results show that the narrative element definition to use in gamification contexts best drifts from the games ones, however its definition is unique to the point it could be isolated and used in future frameworks. We also found that the characteristics of this concept resembles some of User Experience.

Year 2020

Game Atmosphere: Effects of Audiovisual Thematic Cohesion on Player Experience and Psychophysiology

@inproceedings{10.1145/3410404.3414245,
author = {Ribeiro, Giovanni and Rogers, Katja and Altmeyer, Maximilian and Terkildsen, Thomas and Nacke, Lennart E.},
title = {Game Atmosphere: Effects of Audiovisual Thematic Cohesion on Player Experience and Psychophysiology},
year = {2020},
isbn = {9781450380744},
publisher = {Association for Computing Machinery},
address = {New York, NY, USA},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1145/3410404.3414245},
doi = {10.1145/3410404.3414245},
abstract = {Game atmosphere and game audio are critical factors linked to the commercial success of video games. However, game atmosphere has been neither operationalized nor clearly defined in games user research literature, making it difficult to study. We define game atmosphere as the emerging subjective experience of a player caused by the strong audiovisual thematic cohesion (i.e., the harmonic fit of sounds and graphics to a shared theme) of video game elements. We studied players' experience of thematic cohesion in two between-subjects, independent-measures experiments (N=109) across four conditions differing in their level of audiovisual thematic fit. Participants' experiences were assessed with physiological and psychometric measurements to understand the effect of game atmosphere on player experience. Results indicate that a lack of thematic fit between audio and visuals lowers the degree of perceived atmosphere, but that while audiovisual thematic dissonance may lead to higher-intensity negative-valence facial events, it does not impact self-reported player experience or immersion.},
booktitle = {Proceedings of the Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play},
pages = {107–119},
numpages = {13},
keywords = {music, player experience, games, dissonance, audio, atmosphere},
location = {Virtual Event, Canada},
series = {CHI PLAY '20}
}

Game atmosphere and game audio are critical factors linked to the commercial success of video games. However, game atmosphere has been neither operationalized nor clearly defined in games user research literature, making it difficult to study. We define game atmosphere as the emerging subjective experience of a player caused by the strong audiovisual thematic cohesion (i.e., the harmonic fit of sounds and graphics to a shared theme) of video game elements. We studied players' experience of thematic cohesion in two between-subjects, independent-measures experiments (N=109) across four conditions differing in their level of audiovisual thematic fit. Participants' experiences were assessed with physiological and psychometric measurements to understand the effect of game atmosphere on player experience. Results indicate that a lack of thematic fit between audio and visuals lowers the degree of perceived atmosphere, but that while audiovisual thematic dissonance may lead to higher-intensity negative-valence facial events, it does not impact self-reported player experience or immersion.

Personal Space in Play: Physical and Digital Boundaries in Large-Display Cooperative and Competitive Games

@inproceedings{10.1145/3313831.3376319,
author = {Wehbe, Rina R. and Dickson, Terence and Kuzminykh, Anastasia and Nacke, Lennart E. and Lank, Edward},
title = {Personal Space in Play: Physical and Digital Boundaries in Large-Display Cooperative and Competitive Games},
year = {2020},
isbn = {9781450367080},
publisher = {Association for Computing Machinery},
address = {New York, NY, USA},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1145/3313831.3376319},
doi = {10.1145/3313831.3376319},
abstract = {As multi-touch displays grow in size and shrink in price, they are more commonly used as gaming devices. When co-located users play games on a single, large display, establishing and maintaining their physical and digital territories poses a social challenge to their interaction. To gain insight into the mechanisms of establishing and maintaining users' physical and digital territories, we analyze territorial interactions in cooperative and competitive multiplayer gameplay. Participants reported weighing each game interaction based on perceived intent to determine how socially acceptable they deemed each behaviour. In light of our observations, we contribute and discuss implications for the design of multi-user, large display, co-located, touchscreen games that consider display properties, digital and physical space, permeability of boundaries, and asymmetry of play to create interactions between players.},
booktitle = {Proceedings of the 2020 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems},
pages = {1–14},
numpages = {14},
keywords = {collaboration and group work, digital territory, loosely-coupled interaction, shared spaces, large displays, games and entertainment software, physical territory},
location = {Honolulu, HI, USA},
series = {CHI '20}
}

As multi-touch displays grow in size and shrink in price, they are more commonly used as gaming devices. When co-located users play games on a single, large display, establishing and maintaining their physical and digital territories poses a social challenge to their interaction. To gain insight into the mechanisms of establishing and maintaining users' physical and digital territories, we analyze territorial interactions in cooperative and competitive multiplayer gameplay. Participants reported weighing each game interaction based on perceived intent to determine how socially acceptable they deemed each behaviour. In light of our observations, we contribute and discuss implications for the design of multi-user, large display, co-located, touchscreen games that consider display properties, digital and physical space, permeability of boundaries, and asymmetry of play to create interactions between players.

Year 2014

Design guidelines for Gamifying reading applications

@INPROCEEDINGS{7405433,
  author={R. R. {Wehbe} and J. {Robb} and J. {Clarke} and J. {Costa} and L. E. {Nacke}},
  booktitle={2014 IEEE Games Media Entertainment}, 
  title={Design guidelines for Gamifying reading applications}, 
  year={2014},
  volume={},
  number={},
  pages={1-4},
  doi={10.1109/GEM.2014.7405433}}

Reading competes with an increasing number of leisure activities like video games. Consequently, written language skills are receding. Thus, motivating people to read is a problem that seems well-suited to gamification (i.e., the use of game design to motivate people to read). To investigate ways in which to gamify reading, we conducted a survey pilot study about how adding game mechanics to reading would encourage people to read more. We investigated the social nature of people talking about reading and the process of recommending books. We interviewed a gender-balanced group of participants to obtain more information about their reading habits for leisure, work, or academia. Our results indicate that people are reading for self-improvement purposes and not primarily for social reasons.

Year 2020

Technology Facilitates Physical Activity Through Gamification: A Thematic Analysis of an 8-Week Study

@article{DBLP:journals/fcomp/KappenMN20,
  author    = {Dennis L. Kappen and
               Pejman Mirza{-}Babaei and
               Lennart E. Nacke},
  title     = {Technology Facilitates Physical Activity Through Gamification: {A}
               Thematic Analysis of an 8-Week Study},
  journal   = {Frontiers Comput. Sci.},
  volume    = {2},
  pages     = {530309},
  year      = {2020},
  url       = {https://doi.org/10.3389/fcomp.2020.530309},
  doi       = {10.3389/fcomp.2020.530309},
  timestamp = {Fri, 23 Oct 2020 15:51:32 +0200},
  biburl    = {https://dblp.org/rec/journals/fcomp/KappenMN20.bib},
  bibsource = {dblp computer science bibliography, https://dblp.org}
}
a service of Schloss Dagstuhl - Leibniz Center for Informatics	homebrowsesearchabout
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Gamification has enabled technology to facilitate behavior change through increasing the engagement and motivation of people in health and wellness domains. While research on physical activity (PA) and why older adults engage in PA exists, there are not many long-term studies on how gamification influences technology use and adherence to PA by older adults. We conducted a synchronous, 8-week, experimental study with older adults in the 50+ age group. Participants were randomized into three groups: Gamified technology, non-gamified technology and a control group. We conducted a weekly semi-structured interview with them focused on their PA motivations, setting up goals, accomplishments, fears or barriers, (immediate and long-term) rewards, and tracking in PA. Thematic analysis (TA) of the interview data showed these distinct variations in themes for the three groups over the 8-week period. This indicates that motivational affordances or gamification elements can be customized for older adults to suit their current health conditions and PA participation barriers. We define gamification design guidelines for PA motivation of older adults based on self-determination theory, setting up progressive goals, accomplishments to track PA quality, intangible rewards, and activity tracking.

Gamification of Older Adults’ Physical Activity: Thematic Analysis of an Eight-Week Experimental Study

@article{kappen2020gamification,
  title={Gamification of Older Adults’ Physical Activity: Thematic Analysis of an Eight-Week Experimental Study},
  author={Kappen, Dennis L and Mirza-Babaei, Pejman and Nacke, Lennart E},
  journal={Frontiers in Computer Science},
  volume={2},
  pages={44},
  year={2020},
  publisher={Frontiers}
}

Gamification technology has served as behaviour change mechanism for increasing the engagement and motivation of consumers in many areas including health and wellness domains. While research on physical activity (PA) and motivation to participate in PA in the context of older adults exist, there are fewer studies on the usage of gamified technology by older adults over longer periods of time. We conducted a mixed-method, eight-week, synchronous, three-condition experimental study with older adults in the 50+ age group. Participants were randomized into Group 1 (gamified), Group 2 (non-gamified) and a control group. The weekly semi-structured interview questions focused on their motivation for PA, setting up goals, accomplishments, fears or barriers, rewards and tracking in PA. Thematic analysis of the interview data showed distinct variations in emergent themes for the three groups over an eight-week …

Year 2016

Playtesting for indie studios

@inproceedings{10.1145/2994310.2994364,
author = {Mirza-Babaei, Pejman and Moosajee, Naeem and Drenikow, Brandon},
title = {Playtesting for Indie Studios},
year = {2016},
isbn = {9781450343671},
publisher = {Association for Computing Machinery},
address = {New York, NY, USA},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1145/2994310.2994364},
doi = {10.1145/2994310.2994364},
abstract = {Creating video games is a lengthy and demanding process. Financial success for games studios often depends on making games that deliver a fun and engaging experience for a diverse audience of players. Therefore, understanding how players interact and behave during gameplay is of vital importance. Playtesting aims to assist developers to achieve their design intent and help to identify and resolve potential problem areas during development. However, playtests are not always feasible or affordable for smaller, independent game developers (indie studios) because they require specialized equipment and expertise. In addition to this, there is a lack of research on the value of playtesting for indie studios, which means most indie developers are not convinced of the value of user research and playtesting. This paper reports on our collaboration with six commercial indie developers conducting eleven rounds of playtesting session. Through these collaborations, our paper contributes to this growing domain by highlighting the value of playtesting for indie developers and discussing the user research process and approaches based on indie developers' needs and budget.},
booktitle = {Proceedings of the 20th International Academic Mindtrek Conference},
pages = {366–374},
numpages = {9},
keywords = {game development, indie developers, case studies, playtesting, user experience, games user research},
location = {Tampere, Finland},
series = {AcademicMindtrek '16}
}

Creating video games is a lengthy and demanding process. Financial success for games studios often depends on making games that deliver a fun and engaging experience for a diverse audience of players. Therefore, understanding how players interact and behave during gameplay is of vital importance. Playtesting aims to assist developers to achieve their design intent and help to identify and resolve potential problem areas during development. However, playtests are not always feasible or affordable for smaller, independent game developers (indie studios) because they require specialized equipment and expertise. In addition to this, there is a lack of research on the value of playtesting for indie studios, which means most indie developers are not convinced of the value of user research and playtesting. This paper reports on our collaboration with six commercial indie developers conducting eleven rounds of playtesting session. Through these collaborations, our paper contributes to this growing domain by highlighting the value of playtesting for indie developers and discussing the user research process and approaches based on indie developers' needs and budget.

Year 2010

How Mobile is Mobile Gaming? Contextual Influences on Mobile Player Experience–A Model Proposition

@inproceedings{mci/Engl2010,

In this paper we are discussing a new model of mobile gameplay experience with a special focus on contextual influences of play in ubiquitous environments. The model was developed based on prior general gameplay models which were extended and refined based on the results and personal experiences taken from several evaluative user field studies with mobile games. The experimental results point to two different playing contexts: home and mobile, which were evaluated with a gameplay experience questionnaire (GEQ). The GEQ showed significant difference in negative affect and immersion between mobile and home setting, which are moderated by several influencing contextual factors. This leads us to propose a contextual gameplay experience model that accounts for spatial, temporal, social, cultural, and psychological influences in an external context. The implications of the contextual gameplay model are discussed in light of future research.

Psychocological Correlations with Gameplay Experience Dimensions

@article{drachen2010psychocological,
  title={Psychocological Correlations with Gameplay Experience Dimensions},
  author={Drachen, Anders and Nacke, L and Yannakakis, G and Pedersen, A},
  year={2010}
}

In this paper, we report a case study using two easy-todeploy psychophysiological measures – electrodermal
activity (EDA) and heart rate (HR) – and correlating
them with a gameplay experience questionnaire (GEQ) in
an attempt to establish this mixed-methods approach for
rapid application in a commercial game development
context. Results indicate that there is a statistically significant correlation (p < 0.01) between measures of psychophysiological arousal (HR, EDA) and self-reported UX
in games (GEQ), with some variation between the EDA
and HR measures. Results are consistent across three
major commercial First-Person Shooter (FPS) games.

Year 2011

Evaluating Player Experience in Games

Year 2013

Social Player Analytics in a Facebook Health Game

@article{nacke2014social,
  title={Social player analytics in a Facebook health game},
  author={Nacke, Lennart E and Klauser, Matthias and Prescod, Paul},
  journal={한국 HCI 학회 학술대회},
  pages={180--187},
  year={2014}
}