Yaw Yvonne de Kort

It is always a lot of fun!: exploring dimensions of digital game experience using focus group methodology

This paper focuses on digital game experience: the feelings and experiences people have when they play digital games. Digital game experience is not a one-dimensional concept. Great variety exists in game genres and game players, and game experiences will differ accordingly. To date, game experience is studied in a rather fragmented way. As such, the field still lacks a common vocabulary and a shared taxonomy of the different dimensions of game experience. In this paper we describe a focus group study and present a tentative, but comprehensive categorisation of game experience. Focus groups with various types of gamers were organised to capture a full first-hand account of game experiences and second, findings were discussed in an expert meeting in which empirical findings were consolidated with existing theoretical findings. The categorisation bears relevance for both game theorists and game developers wanting to get to the heart of digital game experience.

Is This My Hand I See Before Me? The Rubber Hand Illusion in Reality, Virtual Reality, and Mixed Reality

This paper presents a first study in which a recently reported intermodal perceptual illusion known as the rubber hand illusion is experimentally investigated under mediated conditions. When ones own hand is placed out of view and a visible fake hand is repeatedly stroked and tapped in synchrony with the unseen hand, subjects report a strong sense in which the fake hand is experienced as part of their own body. In our experiment, we investigated this illusion under three conditions: (i) unmediated condition, replicating the original paradigm, (ii) virtual reality (VR) condition, where both the fake hand and its stimulation were projected on the table in front of the participant, and (iii) mixed reality (MR) condition, where the fake hand was projected, but its stimulation was unmediated. Dependent measures included self-report (open-ended and questionnaire-based) and drift, that is, the offset between the felt position of the hidden hand and its actual position. As expected, the unmediated condition produced the strongest illusion, as indicated both by self-report and drift towards the rubber hand. The VR condition produced a more convincing subjective illusion than the MR condition, although no difference in drift was found between the mediated conditions. Results are discussed in terms of perceptual mechanisms underlying the rubber hand illusion, and the illusions relevance to understanding telepresence.

Shared Fun Is Doubled Fun: Player Enjoyment as a Function of Social Setting

Although the social relevance of digital gaming has been discussed and investigated in cultural and sociological readings, social context has been largely neglected in terms of in-game player experience. In this paper we present a study in which player experience is empirically tested comprehen-sively, with the focus on the interplay between player enjoyment and social context. Self reports on the Game Experience Questionnaire and an aggression state questionnaire were explored for three play configurations: virtual, mediated, and co-located co-play. Additionally, effects of familiarity and winning vs. losing were tested. Results indicate that a co-located co-player significantly adds to the fun, challenge, and perceived competence in the game. Aggression was influenced by familiarity and performance. The effect of social context was mediated by the level of social presence. These findings illustrate that social context is an important determinant of player enjoyment and should be incorporated in models of player experience.

The effect of similarities in skin texture and hand shape on perceived ownership of a fake limb

In the rubber-hand illusion (RHI), people attribute an artificial object to their own body. In the present study, we investigate the extent to which RHI is affected by visual discrepancies between the artificial object and a human hand. We tested Armel and Ramachandrans (2003) hypothesis that people will experience a stronger RHI when the artificial object is a skin-like textured sheet instead of a tabletop. We did not find support for their hypothesis, but the strength of the RHI diminished when the texture of a hand-shaped object did not resemble the human skin (manipulated by putting a white glove over the cosmetic prosthesis). We provide an alternative explanation for this finding, based on a skill-based sensorimotor account of perceived body ownership. Such an explanation supports Armel and Ramachandrans more general claim that discrepancies in the nature of expected and felt touch diminish the RHI.

Virtual laboratories: comparability of real and virtual environments for environmental psychology

Virtual environments have the potential to become important new research tools in environment behavior research. They could even become the future (virtual) laboratories, if reactions of people to virtual environments are similar to those in real environments. The present study is an exploration of the comparability of research findings in real and virtual environments. In the study, 101 participants explored an identical space, either in reality or in a computer-simulated environment. Additionally, the presence of plants in the space was manipulated, resulting in a 2 (environment) 2 (plants) between-subjects design. Employing a broad set of measurements, we found mixed results. Performances on size estimations and a cognitive mapping task were significantly better in the real environment. Factor analyses of bipolar adjectives indicated that, although four dimensions were similar for both environments, a fifth dimension of environmental assessmenttermedarousalwas absent in the virtual environment. In addition, we found significant differences on the scores of four of the scales. However, no significant interactions appeared between environment and plants. Experience of and behavior in virtual environments have similarities to that in real environments, but there are important differences as well. We conclude that this is not only a necessary, but also a very interesting research subject for environmental psychology.

Lighting in retail environments: Atmosphere perception in the real world

Although ambient lighting and atmosphere are intuitively related, there is a paucity of empirical, naturalistic data supporting such a relation. The objective of this study was to investigate the contribution of lighting in evoking an atmosphere in the real world, amongst the extensive set of other cues available there. In a field study involving 57 clothing stores, lighting attributes (e.g. brightness, contrast, glare and sparkle) and context (i.e. the shop’s interior) were assessed and quantified independently. These data were then used to predict four dimensions of perceived atmosphere in hierarchical regression analyses. Lighting attributes and interior qualities were both related to perceived atmosphere. This indicated that, even given the substantial contribution of design elements in retail environments, lighting plays a role in evoking atmosphere.

Influence of social setting on player experience of digital games

Recent studies have indicated that playing games against other people is more fun and more exciting than playing alone. The current study aims to further explore the influence of social setting on player experience in digital games; in particular, it sets out to test the level of social presence of the co-player as a determinant of player experience. Dependent variables include a comprehensive self-report measure of player experience (the GEQ) and state aggression. The first results demonstrate significant differences in playing against a computer, a mediated other, or a co-located other on player experience in terms of positive affect, competence, tension and hostility.

Fun and Sports: Enhancing the Home Fitness Experience

The current paper describes research that is aimed to elucidate our understanding of technology factors that may help users of home exercise equipment to stay motivated for doing regular work-outs. In particular, we investigated the effects of immersion and coaching by a virtual agent on intrinsic motivation and the sense of presence of participants cycling on a stationary home exercise bike. A basic two-by-two within-subjects experimental design was employed whereby participants were presented with a virtual racetrack with two levels of immersion (high vs. low) and two levels of a virtual coach (with vs. without). Results indicate a clear positive effect of immersion on both motivation and presence. The virtual coach significantly lowered the perceived control and pressure/tension dimensions of intrinsic motivation, but did not affect the enjoyment dimension. The presence of the virtual coach also reduced negative effects associated with VEs.

Pleasure to Play, Arousal to Stay: The Effect of Player Emotions on Digital Game Preferences and Playing Time

This study investigated how player emotions during game-play, measured through self-report and physiological recordings, predict playing time and game preferences. We distinguished between short-term (immediately after game-play) and long-term (after 3 weeks) playing time and game preferences. While pleasure was most predictive for short-term playing time and game preferences, arousal, particularly for game preferences, was most predictive on the longer term. This result was found through both self-report and physiological emotion measures. This study initiates theorizing about digital gaming as a hedonic consumer product and sketches future research endeavors of this topic.

Effects of dynamic lighting on office workers: First results of a field study with monthly alternating settings

Dynamic lighting is designed to have positive effects on well-being and performance. In a field experiment we tested whether these effects are detectable and stable over time when employed in actual work settings. The study consists of two tranches, one following a monthly alternating experimental design, the other a yearly alternating one. This paper reports on the first tranche. In a dual balanced design, office workers experienced dynamic or static lighting according to an a-b-a /b-a-b scheme over three consecutive periods (N = 142, 90, 83). Questionnaire data suggest no significant differences for need for recovery, vitality, alertness, headache and eyestrain, mental health, sleep quality, or subjective performance, although employees were more satisfied with the dynamic lighting. Implications and limitations of the study are discussed.