Browsing by Author "Nacke, Lennart"

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Atmosphere & Challenge: An Exploration of Dissonant Player Experiences
(University of Waterloo, 2019-05-23) Ribeiro, Giovanni; Nacke, Lennart
Dissonance means an unusual combination of any two things. Two dissonant experiences in video games which could lead to undesirable player states are thematic dissonance and difficulty dissonance. Thematic dissonance potentially annoys players by breaking the atmosphere, and difficulty dissonance by preventing players with low skill from progressing past unbalanced challenges, resulting in rage-quits. This thesis seeks to deepen the understanding of dissonant experiences in video games through two experiments measuring the player experience as affected by different audio and practice conditions respectively. Results indicate that the experience colloquially referred to as a rage-quit is directly affected by avatar death events and game-specific skill and is related to lower levels of heart rate variability (HRV) and higher levels of electrodermal activity (EDA), which implicates feelings of stress. This project successfully advances the definition of video game atmosphere as the level of subjective thematic fit or association between the audio and visual components of a game’s setting, and indicates that musical thematic dissonance may lead to higher intensity negative valence facial events.
Computer-based Deceptive Game Design in Commercial Virtual Reality Games: A Preliminary Investigation
(Association for Computing Machinery, 2024-10-14) Hadan, Hilda; Zhang-Kennedy, Leah; Nacke, Lennart
As Virtual Reality (VR) games become more popular, it is crucial to understand how deceptive game design patterns manifest and impact player experiences in this emerging medium. Our study sheds light on the presence and effects of manipulative design techniques in commercial VR games compared to a traditional computer game. We conducted an autoethnography study and developed a VR Deceptive Game Design Assessment Guide based on a critical literature review. Using our guide, we compared how deceptive patterns in a popular computer game are different from two commercial VR titles. While VR’s technological constraints, such as battery life and limited temporal manipulation, VR’s unique sensory immersion amplified the impact of emotional and sensory deception. Current VR games showed similar but evolved forms of deceptive design compared to the computer game. We forecast more sophisticated player manipulation as VR technology advances. Our findings contribute to a better understanding of how deceptive game design persists and escalates in VR. We highlight the urgent need to develop ethical design guidelines for the rapidly advancing VR games industry.
Culture Clash: When Deceptive Design Meets Diverse Player Expectations
(Association for Computing Machinery, 2024-10-14) Hadan, Hilda; Sgandurra, Sabrina; Zhang-Kennedy, Leah; Nacke, Lennart
Deceptive game designs that manipulate players are increasingly common in the gaming industry, but the impact on players is not well studied. While studies have revealed player frustration, there is a gap in understanding how cultural attributes affect the impact of deceptive design in games. This paper proposes a new research direction on the connection between the representation of culture in games and player response to deceptive designs. We believe that understanding the interplay between cultural attributes and deceptive design can inform the creation of games that are ethical and entertaining for players around the globe.
Dynamic Personalization of Gameful Interactive Systems
(University of Waterloo, 2019-07-17) Fortes Tondello, Gustavo; Vogel, Daniel; Nacke, Lennart
Gameful design, the process of creating a system with affordances for gameful experiences, can be used to increase user engagement and enjoyment of digital interactive systems. It can also be used to create applications for behaviour change in areas such as health, wellness, education, customer loyalty, and employee management. However, existing research suggests that the qualities of users, such as their personality traits, preferences, or identification with a task, can influence gamification outcomes. It is important to understand how to personalize gameful systems, given how user qualities shape the gameful experience. Current evidence suggests that personalized gameful systems can lead to increased user engagement and be more effective in helping users achieve their goals than generic ones. However, to create these kinds of systems, designers need a specific method to guide them in personalizing the gameful experience to their target audience. To address this need, this thesis proposes a novel method for personalized gameful design divided into three steps: (1) classification of user preferences, (2) classification and selection of gameful design elements, and (3) heuristic evaluation of the design. Regarding the classification of user preferences, this thesis evaluates and validates the Hexad Gamification User Types Scale, which scores a person in six user types: philanthropist, socialiser, free spirit, achiever, player, and disruptor. Results show that the scale’s structural validity is acceptable for gamification studies through reliability analysis and factor analysis. For classification and selection of gameful design elements, this thesis presents a conceptual framework based on participants’ self-reported preferences, which classifies elements in eight groups organized into three categories: individual motivations (immersion and progression), external motivations (risk/reward, customization, and incentives), and social motivations (socialization, altruism, and assistance). And to evaluate the design of gameful applications, this thesis introduces a set of 28 gameful design heuristics, which are based on motivational theories and gameful design methods and enable user experience professionals to conduct a heuristic evaluation of a gameful application. Furthermore, this thesis describes the design, implementation, and pilot evaluation of a software platform for the study of personalized gameful design. It integrates nine gameful design elements built around a main instrumental task, enabling researchers to observe and study the gameful experience of participants. The platform is flexible so the instrumental task can be changed, game elements can be added or removed, and the level and type of personalization or customization can be controlled. This allows researchers to generate different experimental conditions to study a broad range of research questions. Our personalized gameful design method provides practical tools and clear guidelines to help designers effectively build personalized gameful systems.
The Effects of Juicy Game Design on Exergames
(University of Waterloo, 2022-12-21) Durmanova, Katerina; Nacke, Lennart; Hancock, Mark
Visual embellishments(VEs) have been increasingly included in most modern video games and in various digital applications. One aspect of these graphical inclusions is called Juicy game design. It refers to user feedback that is not integral to game completion presented through a variety of modalities. Previous research on this topic has provided insight into some effects of juicy game design, however there is a lack of understanding of the thresholds between different levels of embellishments. For the purpose of my thesis work, my research addresses how various levels of visual embellishments affect participants' perceived enjoyment of exercise media and how embellishments affect participants’ motivation to exercise. It aims to explore the overall implications of juicy game design in an exercise game setting. To accomplish this I conducted a detailed survey study with three different levels of juicy design - High, Medium and Low, using the exergame Sphery Racer as a basis for the graphics. Participants (N=100) were recruited from Prolific in which I administered the PANAS, Godin Leisure-Time Exercise Questionnaire, and a comparison task on Qualtrics. Through my statistical analysis, my results show enjoyment of media is heavily tied to whether or not there is any presence of embellishment however once a certain embellishment threshold is passed enjoyment does not continue to increase. In some cases, less visually embellished stimuli are favourable as an encouragement to work out more frequently, however, result in an overall more boring and lacklustre experience. Through these findings, I was able to validate previous research and add additional insight to the field of exergame design.
Financial Literacy through Gameful Design
(University of Waterloo, 2021-01-29) Cen, Jian-Lan Andrew; Nacke, Lennart
Canadians have been found to have little to no expendable income and find debt management difficult. Alongside the growing push towards digital service platforms replacing traditional brick and mortar solutions within the financial industry. Utilizing this motivation, and in partnership with Toronto Dominion (TD) Bank as a part of a MitacsAccelerate Internship, I propose a study to investigate methodologies within gamification and visual rhetorical accommodation to create potential digital solutions that alleviate these user experiences when dealing with financial situations. More specifically, how might we utilized personalization and visual rhetoric design within financial tools and services, in this case, credit cards, to assist the user’s knowledge translation of financial status, which I hypothesize will alleviate negative user debt and spending behaviours. In this work, I conducted an online study following a semi-structured interview with 60participants. Participants were recruited via an online user recruitment platform, UserInterviews. Participants were equally distributed across 4 conditions and a control group. The interview process began by probing participants about their current behaviours with their online banking and credit card platform. The interview then proceeded to present each participant with condition affected replica’s or TD’s online banking platform, Easy-Web. They were asked for initial impressions and presented a scenario in which participants cognitively walked through using the potential platform. First impressions and qualitative data about user experiences were then collected for analysis. Through the analysis, we discovered that users demonstrated positive effects in response to goal-setting oriented solutions and simulations of real-world consequences of their actions. In summary, our work opens up a venue for exploration as the field of gamification expands into financial settings, and provides experienced designers with a set of guidelines that could inform designs within financial settings.
LightPlay: An Ambient Light System for Video Game Indicators and Notifications
(University of Waterloo, 2020-08-11) Fung, Kin Pong; Vogel, Daniel; Nacke, Lennart
Video games often have indicators and notifications to convey in-game information. However, displaying these visuals on-screen come with trade-offs, such as consuming screen real estate and an inability for them to be configured independently from its host screen; denying users freedoms such as increasing indicator and notification brightness levels for better awareness without increasing the brightness of main content. As an alternative, we introduce LightPlay, an ambient light system set on the back border of a monitor to display video game indicators and notifications. We compare the speed, error rate, and perceived workload, between on-screen and ambient light indicators and notifications in a first-person camera view video game environment. Results show that ambient lights provide 17.5% faster times for capturing attention compared to on-screen indicators. In addition, ambient lights performed at least as well as on-screen across all other tested metrics. Based on these results, LightPlay could be an effective replacement for on-screen methods of displaying indicators and notifications, allowing users to reclaim screen real estate and configuration flexibility without sacrificing performance. Additionally, we outline possible designs and applications for LightPlay in video games.
Meetings in the Metaverse: Exploring Online Meeting Spaces through Meaningful Interactions in Gather.Town
(University of Waterloo, 2022-01-26) Tu, Joseph; Nacke, Lennart
Online meetings and communication spaces have become a part of many people's work during the global COVID-19 pandemic. While we rely on computer-mediated communication (CMC) daily, we need to be engaged to be productive in and enthusiastic about these online conversations. Only sparse research exists about what factors contribute to engagement to better enhance communication. Engagement can occur in different communication modalities in online meetings aside from text chat. For the purposes of my thesis work, I investigated verbal communication (audio) and nonverbal communication (video) in online meetings, compared to emerging forms of online meetings with graphical image representations (avatar). This research addresses a research gap on understanding if engagement differs between communication modalities. Understanding whether engagement differs between each modality can help us determine what to focus on when designing online communication tools. In my thesis, I used a mixed-methods approach to study the engagement and interactions in online communication tools. I investigated whether the differences in online meetings using audio only, video only, avatar with video, and avatar without video play an important role in terms of engagement, interaction, and presence. I conducted a power analysis to determine the number of participants required for this study, collected the data online, and analyzed the quantitative and qualitative data I gathered. My findings show seven themes that I constructed using thematic analysis. These themes provide answers to my research questions together with the statistical data on user engagement and social presence. Finally, I conclude my thesis with design guidelines for future iterations of (CMC) tools such as the emerging Metaverse platform.
Player Agency, Decision-Making, and Morality in Cinematic Choice-Based Adventure Games
(University of Waterloo, 2022-04-29) Arrambide Figueroa, Maria Karina; Nacke, Lennart
Cinematic choice-based adventure games (CCAGs) offer examples of complex decision-making and player agency through plot construction and player choices. These games are a perfect example and opportunity to explore players’ decision-making processes that impact the game narrative. These story-driven games normally focus on advancing the narrative, allowing players to experience the story from different contexts based on their decisions. There has been an increase in the popularity of these games and more complex mechanics are implemented, allowing the player to partake in the decision-making process of the narrative. Research in the human-computer interaction and games user research fields has indicated that player agency represents a core concept that affects how players experience a game. However, there is a lack of empirical research investigating the implementation of agency, decision-making, choice, and morality in CCAGs. This gap provides an opportunity to first understand diverse conceptualizations and theoretical analysis on these core concepts. As a result of this gap, my thesis presents a theoretical analysis and empirical research on player agency, decision-making, choice, and morality in games. In my thesis, I address the main research question: (1) What can be learned from previous theoretical and empirical work on CCAGs to identify research gaps that can help understand how elements such as player agency, decision-making, and morality are being implemented in these games, and how these elements affect player experience? To further clarify these main research question, my thesis is divided in three main chapters where I address the following research questions: Chapter 3 RQ1. How are the key factors of CCAGs (agency, decision-making, choice, meaningfulness) conceptualized across disciplines? RQ2. How might we apply these cross-disciplinary perspectives to study player experience in CCAGs? Chapter 4 RQ3. How does the decision-making process in CCAGs affect agency and experience? RQ4. How does player agency and sense of control over the decisions influence the motivation for players to make a decision within a CCAG? RQ5. How is agency perceived based on different conditions, such as playing the game (i.e., exerting agency) vs. watching gameplay (i.e., agency exerted by another person)? Chapter 5 RQ6. How do players’ real-life morality translate to in-game decisions, specifically in CCAGs? RQ7. Are moral decisions influenced by players’ connection with game characters? RQ8. How does Moral Foundations Theory (MFT) explain players’ morality based on the relevance of specific moral foundations? To address these research questions, I conducted a scoping review investigating key factors in interactive narrative games (chapter 3), a hybrid thematic analysis on player agency and decision-making analyzing a commercial game (chapter 4), and finally a reflexive thematic analysis on morality and moral foundations analyzing a commercial game as well (chapter 5). The user studies presented in this research were conducted in a pre-pandemic environment (chapter 4) and pandemic environment (chapter 5). The first user study was conducted in a laboratory setting while the latter was conducted remotely. A remote study presented challenges when conducting semi-structured interviews with the participants. These challenges and limitations are discussed in chapter 5. Although challenges were present, both studies provided the opportunity to contribute insights on player agency and morality in CCAGs. At the same time, opportunities for future work and to further expand the investigation into player agency, decision-making, choice, and morality in story-driven games were identified. Chapter 3 evidenced the lack of empirical research on player agency and new opportunities to expand this knowledge. Overall, my thesis focuses on understanding concepts found in games, specifically in CCAGs. I present an analysis of player agency, decision-making, choice, meaningfulness, and morality in games. In the first part of this dissertation, I present a theoretical understanding of these key concepts. The second part of this thesis presents empirical research on these concepts and the investigation of morality in games. This thesis can be of great benefit to game developers and designers because it provides an in-depth investigation that can help improve CCAGs while increasing player experience. Chapter 3 provides preliminary guidelines to expand on empirical research on key concepts such as agency and decision-making. Subsequent findings in chapter 4 and chapter 5 provide an understanding into perceived agency and moral dilemmas in games, which can help optimize mechanics behind player choices.
Skipping Through the Shadowlands: Exploring the Relationship between Game Narrative and Player Experience in World of Warcraft
(University of Waterloo, 2021-09-21) Wang, Derrick; Nacke, Lennart
Video games feature narratives in non-traditional formats, such as fragments mixed in with gameplay and spread across the game environment and even the real world. These fragments connect with each other. They form a system delivering the overarching story. Although game narratives have been well-studied in both academia and industry, the relationship between game narratives and player experience yet remains underdeveloped. Many games allow players to skip narratives, but it is uncertain what impact skipping parts of the narrative (therefore missing the information) may have on the player experience of a game. In this thesis, I propose a structured overview of narrative systems consisting of 11 non-interactive narrative forms currently existing in World of Warcraft (WoW) -- namely a hierarchical distinction between in-game (i.e., internal) and out-of-game (i.e., external) narratives. I conducted an online survey study among WoW players to learn about their experience and preference for the game's narrative. More importantly, I investigated whether and why they choose to skip narratives in the game. WoW served as a perfect game example for this study because it is centered on narrative but still playable without. It features fragmented storytelling on a pre-written overarching narrative, scattered in many distinct narrative forms both inside and out of the game. Moreover, almost all gameplay elements WoW features can be found in other game genres that include narrative. Thus, it is possible to extrapolate findings from this study to other games. I discovered that players generally acknowledge the existence of all 11 narrative forms in WoW and have clear preferences and reasons to consume or skip each form. These results strongly support my proposed hierarchy of narrative forms, suggesting that game designers should prioritize narrative forms featuring higher-fidelity assets such as film-grade, lifelike cinematic cutscenes when designing fragmented narratives, and have back-up plans (to repeat narrative arcs) in case players miss key information that affects gameplay.
The great AI witch hunt: Reviewers’ perception and (Mis)conception of generative AI in research writing
(Computers in Human Behavior: Artificial Humans, 2024-10-24) Hadan, Hilda; Derrick, Wang; Mogavi, Reza Hadi; Tu, Joseph; Zhang-Kennedy, Leah; Nacke, Lennart
Generative AI (GenAI) use in research writing is growing fast. However, it is unclear how peer reviewers recognize or misjudge AI-augmented manuscripts. To investigate the impact of AI-augmented writing on peer reviews, we conducted a snippet-based online survey with 17 peer reviewers from top-tier HCI conferences. Our findings indicate that while AI-augmented writing improves readability, language diversity, and informativeness, it often lacks research details and reflective insights from authors. Reviewers consistently struggled to distinguish between human and AI-augmented writing but their judgements remained consistent. They noted the loss of a “human touch” and subjective expressions in AI-augmented writing. Based on our findings, we advocate for reviewer guidelines that promote impartial evaluations of submissions, regardless of any personal biases towards GenAI. The quality of the research itself should remain a priority in reviews, regardless of any preconceived notions about the tools used to create it. We emphasize that researchers must maintain their authorship and control over the writing process, even when using GenAI's assistance.
Using AI-Supported Onboarding Systems in Video Games to Improve Player Experience
(University of Waterloo, 2024-04-15) Choong, Lydia; Nacke, Lennart; Zhao, Jian
Video games face the challenge of providing onboarding that motivates new players to engage with a game beyond their initial experience. Interactive media inherently influences players’ cognitive load during the learning process; video games must therefore determine a method of teaching new players game mechanics without exceeding their mental capacity for processing new information. Too much guidance can cause player frustration or boredom, while too little guidance can overwhelm. Instead of using restrictive onboarding methods, this thesis proposes that video games can use artificial intelligence systems that handle some in-game decisions to reduce new players’ cognitive load. To demonstrate this concept I designed and evaluated Joker, a turn-based strategy game with an AI-supported onboarding system that suggests an action on the player’s turn. I conducted a mixed-methods within-subjects study (n = 20) to examine the impact of AI-supported suggestions on new players’ cognitive load and to better understand the relationship between AI-supported onboarding systems and player experience. Results indicate that AI-supported suggestions successfully reduce players’ cognitive load, but that too low of a cognitive load negatively impacts players’ ability to learn from the AI-supported suggestions. Players primarily learn through lived game experience, and they strongly value interaction, agency, and personalization during the onboarding process. Future implementations of AI in onboarding should therefore ensure that AI-supported onboarding methods maintain a player’s ability to learn, and additionally use these dynamic systems to provide increased player control over the onboarding experience.