Xiaowen Fang

An Online Survey System on Computer Game Enjoyment and Personality

This paper discusses the development of an online survey instrument to measure the game enjoyment and player characteristics like age, gender and personality traits. A research framework of game play is proposed based on a review of prior research on computer game enjoyment, game characteristics, personality theories, effects of computer game play, and technology acceptance model. The proposed framework suggests that an appropriate fit between characteristics of the player and gaming technology will result in greater enjoyment while social influence may moderate effects of the fit. The survey will allow the researcher to establish the fit profiles between player characteristics and game play.

Facilitating conditional probability problems with visuals

In tasks such as disease diagnosis, interpretation of evidence in criminal trials and management of security and risk data, people need to process conditional probabilities to make critical judgments and decisions. As dual-coding theory and the cognitive theory of multimedia learning (CTML) would predict, visual representations (VRs) should aid in these tasks. Conditional probability problems are difficult and require subjects to build a mental model of set inclusion relationships to solve them. Evidence from neurological research confirms that mental model construction relies on visual spatial processing. Prior research has shown conflicting accounts of whether visuals aid in these problems. Prior research has also revealed that individuals differ in their ability to perform spatial processing tasks. Do visuals help solve these problems? Do visualization interface designers need to take into account the nuances of spatial processing and individual differences? This study uses a 3×2 factorial design to determine the relationship between subjects spatial abilities (high or low) and visual and text representations on user performance and satisfaction.

Extraversion and computer game play: who plays what games?

In the last two years, our research group has been conducting online surveys on enjoyment of computer game play and player personalities. From the preliminary data we collected as of now, we observed positive relationship between the personality trait, extraversion, and players choice of games. This paper presents a research project that attempts to explore this relationship and investigate the reasons why this relationship exists using interview method. The expected findings will likely help game designers improve interaction designs in computer games.

Improving User Performance in Conditional Probability Problems with Computer-Generated Diagrams

Many disciplines in everyday life depend on improved performance in probability problems. Most adults struggle with conditional probability problems and prior studies have shown user accuracy is less than 50%. This study examined user performance when aided with computer-generated Venn and Euler-type diagrams in a non-learning context. Following relational complexity, working memory and mental model theories, this study manipulated problem complexity in diagrams and text-only displays. Partially consistent with the study hypotheses, complex visuals outperformed complex text-only displays and simple text-only displays outperformed complex text only displays. However, a significant interaction between users spatial ability and the use of diagram displays led to a reversal of performance for low-spatial users in one of the diagram displays. Participants with less spatial ability were significantly impaired in their ability to solve problems with less relational complexity when aided by a diagram.

Introducing Emotional Interfaces to Healthcare Systems

The use of healthcare websites is gaining importance in the United States. It is conceivable that when using healthcare websites, the users may not be in a happy or euphoric emotional state, and would like to be comforted. In this paper, we argue that using emotional interfaces in healthcare systems will attract users, and motivate them to stay, participate and return. We suggest a possible future state for emotional interfaces in healthcare systems. In this context, we present a review of relevant theories and research studies from Computer Science and Psychology, and a subjective ranking of some well-known healthcare websites in the United States with respect to their hedonic and emotional values. Lastly, we discuss our proposal for developing emotional interfaces for healthcare websites.

A Lexical Analysis of Nouns and Adjectives from Online Game Reviews

The objective of this study is to develop playability heuristics by a lexical analysis of nouns and adjectives used in online game reviews. A revised lexical approach is adopted to analyze nouns and adjectives from 821,122 online reviews. Ninety seven (97) factors are extracted from the analysis. Based on the nouns and adjectives highly loaded on these factors, a new heuristic development process is introduced and 116 playability heuristics are developed. This study significantly expands the pool of playability heuristics that can be used by game developers for computer game design. The lexical method in this study demonstrates its effectiveness in developing interface design guidelines when a large number of online reviews are available on a system or product. It can be extended to other fields as well.

Narrative Control and Player Experience in Role Playing Games: Decision Points and Branching Narrative Feedback

This paper reports an experimental study that investigated two research problems: first, how does narrative structure mediate the phenomenological experience(s) of role-playing games (RPGs)? Does branching narrative feedback heighten the experience of role-playing in terms of Flow and character identification? And second, what are the effects of salient decision points (narrative controls) on the player perception of narrative structure and complexity as well as control over the player-character? Does higher perceived complexity lead to heightened effectence and Flow? To what extent are these effects context-dependent in terms of narrative feedback mechanisms and overall structure? Two hypotheses were developed based on prior research: 1. Branching narrative in an RPG leads to improved game play experiences compared to linear narrative and 2. Presence of salient decision points in a RPG leads to improved experiences of game play. A 2x2 factorial experiment was conducted to test these hypotheses.

Home Automation Internet of Things: Adopted or Diffused?

The term Internet of Things has become very popular over the past few years. Major tech organizations and manufacturers are dedicating big portions of their focus on developing the foundations of the Internet of Things, including IBM, Cisco, Google, and many others. Most companies are developing tools and applications that are targeted to different industries like: home automation, smart cities, manufacturing, logistics, etc. This study is focused on the Home Automation and how the Internet of Things is disrupting the regular “non-smart” homes we once knew. This research is planned to study the effects of the Home Automation devices and tools currently available in the market and measure how adopted “accepted” they are within the general community. We will also measure how much disruption is it causing to the non-smart home appliances and devices industry, and how is the industry is being reshaped to cater for this newly developed market.

Gamification Framework: Using Lexical Approach on Social Media Application Online Reviews

In the field of Gamification, much work has been devoted to designing gamified software using game design elements. However, there is presently insufficient research on designing gamified software investigating both entertainment and utilitarian elements [1]. Also, there are many ambiguous uses of this technology and technical difficulties, because of the limited documentation of Gamification data usage in the industry [2]. This study is inspired by the revised lexical approach [3] to investigate Gamification framework by analyzing large-scale online SMAs’ reviews. It includes the following major steps: (1) Collecting and downloading a large body of online reviews; (2) Employing Basic Natural Language Processing techniques to build a dictionary of Gamification descriptive adjectives; (3) Extracting users ratings of adjectives; (4) Conducting factor analyses to identify Gamification traits based on adjectives; (5) Conducting card sorting technique to further simplify the complex factor structure discovered in the factor analysis. This study demonstrates a new perspective to conduct research in the intersection of Game Studies and HCI (entertainment and utilitarian aspects). Gamification traits are identified for creating design guidelines and evaluating Gamification.

Sources of Computer Game Enjoyment: Card Sorting to Develop a New Model

Understanding what makes computer games enjoyable is important not only for game design, but for the design of any interactive experience where it is important that users will want to use the design. We define enjoyment broadly as the positive evaluation of your experience. Existing models of game enjoyment are either not comprehensive enough, were not generated by empirical research, or both. We aim to fill this gap in the literature with a card sorting study exploring participants’ experience and mental models around what leads to computer game enjoyment. A broad literature review identified 167 sources of enjoyment. Our research group conducted an open card sort with these items to identify 24 initial categories of enjoyment sources. Sixty participants will sort the 167 sources of enjoyment into the 24 categories, plus a “not a source of enjoyment” category. After every ten participants, we will calculate inter-rater agreement with Randolph’s free-marginal multi-rater kappa. We hope this research will lead to a new, more comprehensive and content valid model of the sources of computer game enjoyment.