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Experimental Evidence for Suspense as Determinant of Video Game Enjoyment
Abstract
Based on theoretical assumptions from film psychology and their application to video games, the hypothesis is tested that suspense is a major factor in video game enjoyment. A first-person shooter game was experimentally manipulated to create either a low level or a high level of suspense. Sixty-three participants were randomly assigned to experimental conditions; enjoyment was assessed after playing by a 10-item rating scale. Results support the assumption that suspense is a driver of video game enjoyment.
... Winning a game produces more enjoyment than losing (Rany 2003;Wilson and Kerr 1999), which is likely due to distinct positive emotions a player feels after winning (versus distinct negative emotions a player feels after losing). One factor leading to enjoyment that many agree is emotionally tinged is suspense, as research on video games suggests suspense involves the emotions of hope and fear (Jarvinen 2008;Klimmt et al. 2009b). In reviewing the literature on cognitive appraisal theory (Ortony, Clore, and Collins (1988), a theory that suggests cognitive triggers of particular emotions, Jarvinen (2008) suggests suspense in video games is comprised of hope, fear, and uncertainty. ...
... Uncertainty is suggested to be embodied into the game via the player's ability to perform particular tasks (i.e., "margin of error"). Empirical research in games finds suspense positively affects game enjoyment (Shafer 2014;Klimmt et al. 2009b). In their experimental study, Klimmt et al. (2009b) found suspense positively affected enjoyment. ...
... Empirical research in games finds suspense positively affects game enjoyment (Shafer 2014;Klimmt et al. 2009b). In their experimental study, Klimmt et al. (2009b) found suspense positively affected enjoyment. Additionally, Shafer (2014) had participants play a video game, after which several variables proposed to affect suspense and enjoyment were measured. ...
Prior research in games finds that suspense positively influences game enjoyment and that suspense consists of hope, fear, and uncertainty. Nonetheless, this prior work does not specify the mechanisms that increase suspense nor does it fully identify the suspense-related emotions felt at a game’s conclusion. This conceptual research fills this gap in the literature by presenting a model of suspense in games. This model proposes that game rewards and punishments positively influence hope and fear, respectively. Further, dynamic fluctuations in the probability of winning/losing are proposed to amplify suspense. Four outcome emotions are proposed to occur at the conclusion of the game–satisfaction, relief, disappointment and/or anguish, and the player’s perceived effort is expected to amplify those emotions. Finally, the outcome emotions and the suspense felt prior to the outcome are both proposed to influence game enjoyment. This research, then, offers managers a toolbox for creating more suspenseful and, thus, enjoyable consumer games.
... Ook binnen game studies werd onderzoek gevoerd naar het plezier van speelgedrag. Een aantal studies beschrijven bepaalde eigenschappen van video games, zoals competitie en spanning, die een invloed op video game enjoyment kunnen hebben (bv: Klimmt, Rizzo, Vorderer, Koch, & Fischer, 2009). In navolging van De Schutter (2011) werd besloten om de term 'enjoyment' niet naar het Nederlands te vertalen, aangezien er geen accurate vertaling voor handen is. ...
... Video game enjoyment, als motivatie om te video gamen, wordt vanuit meerdere factoren verklaard (Klimmt, Roth, Vermeulen, Vorderer, & Roth, 2012) waaronder flow (Csikszentmihalyi, 1997;Sherry, 2004), suspense (Klimmt et al., 2009), zelfverbetering -wat samenhangt met identificatie (Hefner, Klimmt, & Vorderer, 2007), controle (Klimmt, Hartmann, & Frey, 2007) en competitie (Vorderer, Hartmann, & Klimmt, 2003). Sherry (2004) grijpt terug naar de flow-theorie van Csikszentmihalyi (1997) om videogame enjoyment te kaderen. ...
... Ook de beleving van spanning of suspense werd in verband gebracht met video game enjoyment (Klimmt et al., 2009). Deze experimentele studie geeft aan dat spanning een invloed op video game enjoyment heeft, en brengt op deze manier twee vroegere studies samen: Zillmann (1996), die vanuit de filmpsychologie onderzoek naar spanning in films verricht, en Klimmt (2003), die Zillmann's theorie herinterpreteerde en op video games toepaste. ...
... Theoretical accounts of curiosity as motivating an urgent need to resolve uncertainty (e.g., seeking outcomes or answers) stand in contrast with real-world examples where prolonged anticipation and uncertainty are paradoxically preferred (17,18), such as in narratives (17), close contests in sports, (19) and video games (20,21). In fact, people even specifically avoid early resolution (22,23) by adopting self-control mechanisms to decrease the likelihood of information exposure (24,25). ...
... gathering. Thus, curiosity experienced during information gathering can encourage prolonging the state of uncertainty, similar to how people prefer to experience movies, sports, or narratives that unfold across time (17,(19)(20)(21)(22). However, higher curiosity still predicted continuing a video even after participants made correct, highly confident guesses. ...
When people feel curious, they often seek information to resolve their curiosity. Reaching resolution, however, does not always occur in a single step but instead may follow the accumulation of information over time. Here, we investigated changes in curiosity over a dynamic information-gathering process and how these changes related to affective and cognitive states as well as behavior. Human participants performed an Evolving Line Drawing Task, during which they reported guesses about the drawings’ identities and made choices about whether to keep watching. In Study 1, the timing of choices was predetermined and externally imposed, while in Study 2, participants had agency in the timing of guesses and choices. Using this dynamic paradigm, we found that even within a single information-gathering episode, curiosity evolved in concert with other emotional states and with confidence. In both studies, we showed that the relationship between curiosity and confidence depended on stimulus entropy (unique guesses across participants) and on guess accuracy. We demonstrated that curiosity is multifaceted and can be experienced as either positive or negative depending on the state of information gathering. Critically, even when given the choice to alleviate uncertainty immediately (i.e., view a spoiler), higher curiosity promoted continuing to engage in the information-gathering process. Collectively, we show that curiosity changes over information accumulation to drive engagement with external stimuli, rather than to shortcut the path to resolution, highlighting the value inherent in the process of discovery.
... In this paper, we present a machine-assisting method for effective annotation of tension development. Tension is a means to keep the attention of the reader or audience, studied mainly in the field of storytelling (Zillmann (1980); Klimmt et al. (2009) ;Niehaus and Young (2014)). Tension also plays a critical role in discourse development (Lehne and Koelsch, 2015). ...
... Tension is a psychological concept that is related to emotion and suspense. Tension has been studied along with suspense for the literature, movies, and games (Brewer and Lichtenstein (1982); Zillmann (1980); Klimmt et al. (2009)). Lehne and Koelsch (2015) proposed a general psychological model for tension without any further restriction on its domain, defining the magnitude of tension as the interval between positive and negative expectations of the outcome. ...
... Video game enjoyment thereby stems inter alia from the pleasant experience to try out new roles, explore new places and temporarily escape from daily worries. Additionally, scholars investigated several other links between interactive storytelling and enjoyment such as making moral decisions in the game (e.g., Hartmann & Vorderer, 2010) or experiencing suspense due to the unknown outcome VIDEO GAMES 6 of the narrative (Klimmt, Rizzo, Vorderer, Koch, & Fischer, 2009). Finally, many video games allow cooperative or competitive social interactions with other players which may also impact players' enjoyment. ...
... The degree of correspondence between the racing game experience and driving a real car is considerably greater than for most other video game genres (e.g., the social portrayal of violence in fighting games is typically not quite as "realistic"). This is a plausible explanation for the fact that research on this specific video game effect has accumulated evidence that playing racing games promotes risky and reckless driving in the real world (e.g., Fischer et al., 2009). ...
... However, the very primary goal of games is enjoyment. Fang et al. [9] seek to define and measure enjoyment during a game, while Lin et al. [10] or Klimmt et al. [11], Klimmt et al. [12], and Klimmt et al. [13] study the conditions of its occurrence (see [14] for a review of quantitative studies on enjoyment in video games). Vorderer et al. [15] endeavor to define a theoretical framework of enjoyment for games. ...
... As shown in Table 3, XPs strongly correlate with the objective challenging level of the rounds: more than three-quarters (76%) of the boredom and relaxation states are experienced while playing the two easiest games (Introduction and Tank), whereas almost 80% of anxiety and flow experiences arise with the most challenging games (Sniper and Difficult). 11 A more detailed analysis of Table 3 shows that bored gamers are proportionally more numerous in the Introduction game, while anxious ones are mainly found in the Difficult round. Similarly, the relaxation state arises mostly during the two easiest games, while flow is experienced while playing the two difficult ones. ...
Applied to video games, Csikszentmihalyi’s work on flow evidences that a positive gaming experience is intrinsically self-rewarding and primarily determined by the skill/challenge balance. A multi-layered measure of enjoyment is built to take these components into account. Gamers were asked to report the concentration-enjoyment they experienced during a first-person shooter game, and to better assess the gap between skill and challenge, the challenge enjoyment was also rated. Along with concentration level, concentration enjoyment is used to build a gaming experience typology that accounts for the self-rewarding component. An enjoyment-based challenge mapping is also drawn up, crossing challenge enjoyment and challenge level. The results show that this integrative enjoyment measure strengthens the causal link between challenge and gaming experience. Most importantly, the findings suggest that challenge or concentration-based enjoyment measures outweigh the standard concentration and difficulty measures as they are more likely to ensure a pleasant and positive experience (flow or relaxation) for the gamers. Indeed, regardless of the reported level of challenge, a gamer is more likely to have a positive experience when challenged at a level she perceives as pleasant. This article emphasizes the importance for game publishers of gathering enjoyment-based concentration and challenge assessments to ensure a positive gaming experience and gamers’ commitment.
... Namely, frustration indicates little or no progress toward the goal (Csikszentmihalyi & Csikszentmihalyi, 1988); it also shows that challenges are demanding. During the process of overcoming large/demanding challenges, individuals experience suspense and concentration experience, which facilitate their enjoyment during the gameplay process (Alexander et al., 2013;Klimmt, Rizzo, et al., 2009;Lee et al., 2003), thus reducing the magnitude of the negative link (as predicted by H1) between frustration and achievement satisfaction. That is, by comparing these two impacts (as hypothesized by H1 and H3), we hypothesize the following. ...
... Prior research has also identified how enjoyment is an important motivation to play games, including genres such as massively multiplayer online (MMOs) games (Yee et al., 2012) and online first-person shooters (Jansz & Tanis, 2007). Furthermore, research has found multiple aspects of games to elicit game enjoyment, including successful competitive outcomes and competing against other human players (Caroux et al., 2015;Vorderer et al., 2003), control and character customization (Kim et al., 2015;Klimmt et al., 2007), suspense (Klimmt et al., 2009), and character identification (Bowman et al., 2016;Hefner et al., 2007). More recently, Daneels et al. (2018) found that perceived realism, specifically the dimensions of perceptual pervasiveness and character involvement, was predictive of the enjoyment of shooting games. ...
This study investigates players’ perceived realism of historical video games. Perceived realism is understood as a multidimensional concept, going beyond the more traditional use of ‘realism’ in historical game studies, where it often refers to the plausibility or accuracy of historical reconstructions. The study further examines how perceived realism relates to players’ enjoyment of historical games. Specifically, this study analyses Assassin's Creed, Assassin's Creed Unity and Assassin's Creed Odyssey. Through an online survey among 1,317 respondents, this study found that the five-dimensional structure of perceived realism holds for historical games. The three games differed in their perceptions of social realism, perceptual pervasiveness, freedom of choice and enjoyment. Finally, perceptual pervasiveness and character involvement were identified as strong predictors of enjoyment in historical games. This study contributes towards further validation of the perceived realism scale across game genres and pleads for a systematic use of the multidimensional term ‘realism’ in historical game research.
... Suspense in the context of games has been somewhat explored, especially theoretically: it's been shown to increase game enjoyment [17], [18], and there has been work on modelling suspense within games, based on hope and fear [3], [19], [20]. However, measurements of suspense in games, and explorations of its mechanisms, are few in number [20], [21], and there has been no research to date within the genre of strategy games. ...
This paper investigates the concept of tension-players feeling suspense while trying to achieve an opposed objective in two parts: validating the relationships between its components, and exploring in-game events that elicit changes in tension and perceived power. Participants play through a strategy game scenario with objectives designed to tweak tension's components: investment, perceived player power, perceived opponent power, and uncertainty. A questionnaire then measures tension and its components for each objective, and asks players for events that changed their perceptions of power and of tension. We find that the relationships between tension's components match theory, with the exception of investment, which needs further investigation. By using thematic analysis on players' experiences of power-changing and tension-changing events, we find that controlling information and resources that players have appears to be effective in manipulating tension indirectly, with fog-of-war being a potent tool to achieve this. We also find that providing windows of opportunity to players with no hope can either result in high tension or fall flat.
... After the main experiment, study participants completed a posttest survey that asked participants' explicit and implicit memory of the brands. Game enjoyment was also included as a control variable by asking participants to assign ratings to a single-item scale ("I found playing the game enjoyable") from Klimmt et al. (2009). The two playing groups did not show statistically significant differences in game enjoyment, t(89) 5 À1.27, p 5 0.207, and thus the effect of game enjoyment was controlled. ...
Purpose
This study aims to examine the impacts of brand congruity of in-game brand placement on esports consumers' implicit and explicit memory.
Design/methodology/approach
A 2 × 2 × 2 experimental design ( N = 224) was used with an automobile racing game, NASCAR Heat 5. A series of statistical analyses, including MANOVA and logistic regressions, was conducted to test the proposed hypotheses.
Findings
The results revealed that ads on virtual billboards in the video game primed participants to create an implicit memory. Also, incongruent brands that were not very familiar to gamers provided greater impact than congruent brands.
Originality/value
This research is the first to test both implicit and explicit memory and provide practical evidence for the possibility of implicit memory building in the esports context. In addition, the current study also examined the impact of congruity to answer the previously inconsistent results.
... Prior research has also identified how enjoyment is an important motivation to play games, including genres such as massively multiplayer online (MMOs) games (Yee et al., 2012) and online first-person shooters (Jansz & Tanis, 2007). Furthermore, research has found multiple aspects of games to elicit game enjoyment, including successful competitive outcomes and competing against other human players (Caroux et al., 2015;Vorderer et al., PERCEIVED REALISM AND ENJOYMENT OF HISTORICAL VIDEO GAMES 9 2003), control and character customization (Kim et al., 2015;Klimmt et al., 2007), suspense (Klimmt et al., 2009), and character identification (Bowman et al., 2016;Hefner et al., 2007). ...
Research on historical video games has often used the term ‘realism’ to refer to the plausibility or accuracy of a game’s reconstruction of history, but previous research on games has understood realism as a multidimensional concept and connected it to players’ perception and experience during gameplay. The present study investigates players’ perceived realism (i.e., the extent to which an audience perceives a media text as realistic) of historical video games, based on a multidimensional measurement scale previously validated in the context of shooter games. The study further examines whether perceived realism positively relates to players’ experiences of enjoyment of historical games. Specifically, this study analyzes three games from the Assassin’s Creed (AC) series: Assassin’s Creed 1, Assassin’s Creed Unity and Assassin’s Creed Odyssey. By conducting an online survey among 1317 respondents, this study found that the five-dimensional structure of perceived realism (i.e., simulational realism, freedom of choice, character involvement, perceptual pervasiveness, and social realism) holds for historical video games. Differences in perceptions of social realism, perceptual pervasiveness, and freedom of choice between the three AC games were also observed. Finally, perceptual pervasiveness and character involvement were identified as strong predictors of enjoyment in historical games, supporting similar findings in shooting games and claims that perceived realism is an important antecedent of players’ enjoyment experiences. This study contributes towards further validation of the perceived realism scale across game genres, while also pleading for a systematic use of the multidimensional term ‘realism’ in historical game research.
... There are also other variables that directly and indirectly influence perceived enjoyment. For instance, Klimmt et al (2009a) find that a higher level of suspense makes a video game more enjoyable. The notion of suspense has further been explained as the two emotions of hope and fear. ...
The global digital gaming industry has grown rapidly in recent years. Rapid technological advancements are changing the ways in which players can interact with video games as individuals and collectives. In addition to the increased penetration of games, the reasons for which people play and employ games need careful attention. In this paper, we have systematically reviewed the peer-reviewed journal articles (n = 91) relevant to the gamers’ motivations of playing digital games. In addition to analysing the publication trends, we have identified and discussed a set of six key motivational themes (immersion and flow, gratification and affect, escapism, social interaction, identification, and goal orientation). Subsequently, we call for further research on theoretical and methodological advancement as well as individual/social wellbeing and dark sides of digital gaming in relation to players’ motivation.
... While these two experiential qualities are conceptually distinct, entertainment scholars will agree that a given entertainment medium may cause hedonic and eudaimonic experiences simultaneously and that users' experiences of the same medium will vary between individuals with regard to the intensity of hedonic and eudaimonic components (Oliver & Bartsch, 2011). For the case of video game entertainment, most past work has focused on hedonic player experiences such as suspense (Klimmt, Rizzo, Vorderer, Fischer, & Koch, 2009), but initial evidence for eudaimonic responses to video games has been reported as well (Oliver et al., 2016). For the current project of developing an integrated model of video game entertainment, this widely adopted metaconcept of hedonia and eudaimonia will therefore serve as outcome element that enables a firm connection of the model to existing general theorizing on media entertainment. ...
Video games have inspired substantial activity in past entertainment research. Based on an analysis of the core characteristics of this highly popular medium (agency, narrative, aesthetics, and sociality) that are all uniquely shaped by interactivity, we propose a multiprocess model that can explain the great majority of gamers’ hedonic and eudaimonic entertainment experiences. These key processes are (1) agentic experience of effectance and competence, (2) cycles of suspense and performance-driven relief, (3) escapist and meaningful self-transformation, (4) connectedness with virtual and real others, and (5) other-praising emotions from narrative-aesthetic appeal. Temporal shifts of salience and importance for the overall experience and synergistic interactions among processes are suggested to explain both the enduring motivation of many gamers and the strong, robust, and reliable capacity of games to facilitate “some” or even “great” entertainment.
... Players experience flow mostly when there is a balance between their ability and the difficulty level [43]. Tension, which can be seen as a positive experience in the current literature [44][45][46], is, in this context, seen as a negative emotional state [47][48][49][50][51]. Finally, there is challenge or competition, representing the subjective sense of being challenged [43,[52][53][54]. ...
In the present study, we attempted to investigate whether it is the game experience that underlies processes leading to increased risk-taking while playing video racing games (VRGs). The aim of the study was to examine the indirect effect of playing VRGs on risky driving behaviour through various dimensions of the game experience. Thus, we examined the subjective experience of participants playing various VRGs and questioned whether this influenced subsequent driving behaviour. The results of the present study show that aspects of the playing experience, in particular “flow” and “competence”, appear to be important in the regulation of risk appetite. It can be assumed that, rather than the mere playing of VRGs, the type of game experience during play is determinant for subsequent risk propensity while driving.
... Although the severity of the expectancy violations depicted in The Last Jedi might have made for good storytelling (and thus higher critical reviews), the damage wrought by these violations to viewers' PSRs with the generally beloved hero, Luke Skywalker, might have decreased their enjoyment of the film. Of course, research also shows that the experience of suspense can enhance enjoyment of entertainment media (Klimmt, Rizzo, Vorderer, Koch, & Fischer, 2009). Because expectancy violations should elicit some degree of surprise in audiences, it remains possible that they might actually increase enjoyment. ...
Integrating the predictions of disposition theory and expectancy violations theory, a longitudinal survey assessed adults’ parasocial relationships with characters in a popular movie franchise before and after the release of the latest film installment of that franchise. Consistent with disposition theory, characters’ immoral behavior in the film weakened participants’ parasocial relationships with those characters. However, analyses conducted using a novel statistical technique (i.e., response surface analysis) revealed that further shifts in the strength of these relationships occurred when characters subverted participants’ expectations regarding their typical moral behavior. Specifically, participants’ relationship with the film’s primary villain strengthened when he was perceived as behaving more morally than expected, whereas their relationship with the film’s primary hero weakened when he was perceived as behaving either more or less morally than expected. These findings highlight the need for more nuanced examinations of disposition formation processes.
... The information asymmetry between game streamers and spectators creates different levels of suspense, and make the gameplay more entertaining to watch-they compared the suspense of watching a Starcraft contents online to spectating gladiator battles in the ancient Roman Colosseum. These mechanisms are critical, as suspense has been found to positively impact the playing of video games [80] and that suspense in gaming is somewhat connected with the variable levels of control one has over the on-screen action [34]. In contrast to one of the opening arguments of our manuscript, Edge [25] suggested that video game spectators might be considered participants in play insofar as they have entered the "magic circle" of the game (an argument echoed in [16]). ...
... Oliver (1993) supports that enjoyment is directly related to reactivity and suspense, and it has a clear influence on the audience's suspension of disbelief [4], [5]. These effects have been studied in different fields such as psychology [6], [7], narratology [8], [9], learning [10], and video games [11], among others. ...
Broadcast video games need to provide amusement to both players and audience. To achieve this, one of the most consumed genres is suspense, due to psychological effects it has on both roles. Suspense is typically achieved in video games by controlling the amount of delivered information about the location of the threat. However, previous research suggests that players need more frequent information to reach similar amusement than viewers, even at the cost of jeopardizing viewers’ engagement. In order to obtain models that maximize amusement for both interactive and passive audiences, we conducted an experiment in which a group of subjects played a suspenseful video game while another group watched it remotely. The subjects were asked to report their perceived suspense and amusement, and the data were used to obtain regression models for two common strategies to evoke suspense in video games: by alerting when the threat is approaching, and by random circumstantial indications about the location of the threat. Results suggest that the optimal level is reached through randomly providing the minimal amount of information that still allows players to counteract the threat. We reckon that these results can be applied to a broad narrative media, beyond interactive games.
... In contrast to other affective reactions such as suspense (Klimmt, Rizzo, Vorderer, Koch, & Fischer, 2009) that presumably reoccur during playing at relatively high frequencies, one might argue that awe is probably a "rare" element in the affective experience that players go through. ...
... That is, differences in game features including the mechanics, reward systems and difficulty levels may also impact the experiences derived through gaming, particularly in respect of flow ( Sweetser and Wyeth, 2005 ). Indeed, it is well documented that certain game features are related to game experiences such as immersion or enjoyment (e.g., Elson et al., 2015;Klimmt et al., 2009 ). As such, future research may benefit from the inclusion of current type of game as a prompt level variable to be included with statistical models. ...
Although research extols the positive effects of social gaming, the dynamic processes underlying these effects remain unclear. In a hitherto unused approach in this field, we utilised a Smartphone App to model the effect of in-vivo flow and gaming context on positive mood. We also explored individual-level factors including demographic gaming variables (average hours per week playing, gamer-type, preferred type of play) and Big-5 personality traits. Data was obtained from 41 gamers producing a total of 2796 data-points. Multi-level modelling revealed positive mood was associated with in-vivo reports of flow in gameplay, current context and individual-level variance in the number of hours typically spent engaged in playing per week. Specifically, in-vivo positive mood was higher for players when playing online with friends (relative to those playing solo). Higher reports of flow were, nonetheless, associated with decreases in positive mood. Finally, players who indicated playing less frequently experienced higher positive mood, relative to those who played more. These findings support and extend previous work which explores the emotional affordances of gaming and highlight the importance of obtaining situated measures of experiences. They demonstrate that positive mood in gaming is not static, but changeable depending on one’s current gaming environment and flow.
... The score created by Brian Tyler thus contributed to the entertainment experience, primarily by sustaining and increasing positive emotions. Interestingly, the music made players also feel fewer negative emotions; while this converges with the increase in positive emotions in the sense that adding music makes players feel more positive overall, future research will have to disentangle the connections among music, aversive elements of the gaming experience such as suspense and anxiety (Klimmt, Rizzo, et al., 2009), and overall evaluation of the game. ...
Aesthetic elements such as soundtrack music have been neglected in game entertainment research. Based on previous work in games research and the psychology of film soundtracks (Cohen, 2001), we test the hypotheses that soundtrack music contributes to players‘ enjoyment via intensification of emotions (affective route) and via amplification of the sense of spatial presence and identification with the game character (cognitive routes). Study 1 tested these assumptions with N = 68 young male players of an episode of Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag®, either with the original soundtrack music present or absent, and reported game enjoyment, as well as scores of the assumed mediator variables afterward. In Study 2, N = 59 young males played an episode of Alien: Isolation® with soundtrack music present or absent and reported their horror experience, as well as the experiential facets as in study 1. Findings clearly show an indirect effect of soundtrack music on enjoyment through positive emotions (study 1) and an impact of (shocking) music on players’ horror experience (study 2). However, a mediation of the effect of soundtrack music on game enjoyment via spatial presence or identification was not established. We discuss implications for future research in game entertainment.
... In words of Smuts (2008, p. 282): "If uncertainty is integral to the creation of suspense, then how is it that some films can still be suspenseful on repeated viewings?" Directly or not, so far there have been many attempts to solve this paradox, either from -mainly-theoretical (Brewer, 1996;Carroll, 1996a;Prieto-Pablos, 1998;Smuts, 2009;Uidhir, 2011b;Manresa, 2016) and experimental perspective (Comisky and Bryant, 1982;Iwata, 2009;Klimmt et al., 2009;Ian, 2012), analyzing the real impact of the uncertainty in suspense. In all cases, to resolve the paradox of suspense, the two workable options are proposed (Uidhir, 2011b, p. 163): deny the necessity of uncertainty or deny repeater suspense. ...
Suspense is a key narrative issue in terms of emotional gratifications. Reactions in response to this type of entertainment are positively related to enjoyment, having a significant impact on the audience's immersion and suspension of disbelief. Related to computational modelling of this feature, some automatic storytelling systems include limited implementations of suspense management system in their core. In this way, the interest of this subject in the area of creativity has resorted to different definitions from fields as narratology and the film industry, as much as several proposals of its constituent features. Among their characteristics, uncertainty is one of the most discussed in terms of impact and need: while many authors affirm that uncertainty is essential to evoke suspense, others limit or reject its influence. Furthermore, the paradox of suspense reflects the problem of including uncertainty as a component required in suspense creation systems. Due to this need to contrast the effects of the uncertainty in order to compute a general model for automatic storytelling systems, we conducted an experiment measuring suspense experienced by a group of subjects that read a story. While a group of them were told the ending of the story in advance, the members of the other group experimented the same story in chronological order. Both the subjects' reported suspense and their physiological responses are gathered and analyzed. Results provide evidence to conclude that uncertainty affects the emotional response of readers, but independently and in a different form than suspense does. It will help to propose a model in which uncertainty is processed separately as management of the amount of knowledge about the outcome available to the spectator, which acts as a control signal to modulate the input features, but not directly in suspense computing.
... Enjoyment and pleasure is critical and crucial elements nowadays in education as students may feel bored and disengaged with traditional methods (Shernoff et al. 2003). Several scholars considered enjoyment as a pivotal factor in learning and opted to study the factors that influence enjoyment, see for example (Baek and Touati 2017;Shafer et al. 2011;Klimmt et al. 2009;Klimmt et al. 2007). Mobile devices are a mixed bag of productivity and entertainment, and hence, mobile learning enjoyment should clearly be considered as a pivotal factor to any m-learning initiative (Huang et al. 2007, Sarrab et al. 2016, Sharma et al. 2016a. ...
The proliferation of mobile computing technologies is playing major role in the growth of mobile learning (M-learning) market around the globe. The purpose of this paper is to develop a research model in the lines of commonly used models the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) and Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) by incorporating constructs namely flexibility learning, social learning, efficiency learning, enjoyment learning, suitability learning, and economic learning that can predict M-learning adoption in a developing country. The data were collected from 388 students from all major universities/colleges in the capital city (Muscat) of Oman. The neural network modeling was employed to predict M-learning adoption. The neural network modeling results showed that flexibility learning, social learning, efficiency learning, enjoyment learning, suitability learning, and economic learning variables have significant influence on the intention of students to accept mobile learning. The key outcomes of this study suggest important determinants that can assist academic administrators and telecommunication service providers to enhance the adoption of M-learning with the help of suitable strategy.
... The general pattern indicates that readers find literary texts interesting when the content is suspenseful, coherent, and thematically complex, accounting for approximately 54% of the variance in situational interest, where suspense made the single greatest contribution, explaining roughly 34% of variation (Schraw et al., 2001, p. 445). This feature is not constrained only to the classic narratives field: Klimmt et al. (2009) experiments within the video-games industry conclude that players find suspenseful games versions more enjoyable than nonsuspenseful ones (p. 31). ...
Suspense is a key narrative issue in terms of emotional gratification, influencing the way in which the audience experiences a story. Virtually all narrative media uses suspense as a strategy for reader engagement regardless of the technology or genre. Being such an important narrative component, computational creativity has tackled suspense in a number of automatic storytelling. These systems are mainly based on narrative theories, and in general lack a cognitive approach involving the study of empathy or emotional effect of the environment impact. With this idea in mind, this paper reports on a computational model of the influence of decorative elements on suspense. It has been developed as part of a more general proposal for plot generation based on cognitive aspects. In order to test and parameterise the model, an evaluation based on textual stories and an evaluation based on a 3D virtual environment was run. In both cases, results suggest a direct influence of emotional perception of decorative objects in the suspense of a scene.
... The small number of existing accounts of suspense within games (e.g. Frome and Smuts, 2004;Klimmt et al., 2009) have taken the approach of emphasizing the similarity between games and fi lms, arguing that these media both trigger emotions in a similar way. For example, in 'Helpless spectators', Frome and Smuts state that: videogames can be most effective in generating suspense not by highlighting their unique ability to be interactive, but, to the contrary, limiting interactivity at key points, thereby turning players into helpless spectators like those that watch fi lms. ...
As a complex and hybrid medium, games are at once a ‘text’ that can be read and an activity that demands that players participate in the construction of its structure. This article seeks to articulate the relationship and interactions between games and their players, with a specifi c focus on suspense as a type of player involvement. Previous studies lack a description of the specifi c qualities of game suspense or the participatory aspects that are responsible for triggering the emotion. By examining how the textual and structural characteristics of the game trigger specifi c types of suspense, this article explores the involvement of a player between the virtual world and the actual confi gurative act of play, where personal success and failure are at stake.
... Suspense is related with behavioral account in such a way that gamers are amused because of condition of uncertainty in combination with emotions of hope and fear (Klimmt, 2009). Suspense is neither a positive emotion nor negative emotion but thereby defining a situation in between these two attributes because players don't know what next is going to happen which affectively lures a player into the game. ...
In this study, a new perspective has been introduced that how leadership can help influencing customers in an intelligent manner through behavioral sense making. Behavioral sense making can be utilized by leaders while sensing behavior and emotions of customers in a game designing organization. As compared to other organizations where role of leadership is only limited and restricted to service climate and any substantial efforts are neither made to maintain a contact between leadership behavior and customer’s behavior. In
many other financial organizations, role of general manager is only limited to enhance the service climate and to motivate employees so that they can enhance customer satisfaction. However, in gaming industry where leaders have involved themselves in script writing, story-writing, production, and direction of games so they develop a front-line behavioral relation with customers through these activities. Therefore, it is important to present a different behavioral based knowledge managed leadership model for such organizations.
... To this end, brand recall, brand recognition, and attitude toward the brand were the three dependent variables for testing the main hypotheses tests, and game enjoyment and tennis involvement were used as covariates. Game enjoyment and tennis involvement were measured by asking participants to assign ratings to two single-item scales ("I found playing the game enjoyable" and "I consider myself a fan of tennis") from Klimmt, Rizzo, Vorderer, Koch, and Fischer (2009) and Kowert, Domahidi, Festl, and Quandt (2014), respectively. ...
The purpose of this research was to examine the effect of sport video game difficulty and brand congruity on gamers’ brand recall, brand recognition, and attitudes toward the brand using a controlled experimental design. A total of 116 participants were recruited to play an interactive sport video game and randomly assigned to one of two game difficulty conditions (easy vs. hard). They were then asked to respond to questions concerning the brands featured in the in-game advertisements. The procedure entailed a pretest survey, main experiment, and posttest survey. Data analysis was conducted through use of McNemar’s test, repeated measures analysis of covariance, and binary logistic regression. Findings revealed significant effects for game difficulty and brand congruity on brand recognition (but not brand recall) and attitudes toward the brand. This study contributes to the growing body of literature that suggests video game settings and brand placement are key considerations for achieving desired advertising results.
... Employees can also be given a chance to enter draws with specific number of points. This system gives every employee a chance to win gifts and also adds an element of surprise and uncertainty, which has been shown by previous research to increase enjoyment and engagement in activities [28,29]. ...
Persuasive technology capitalizes on the use of technology and the art of persuasion to change the behaviors and attitudes of people without the use of coercion. They have been used at workplaces to achieve positive outcomes like increase in employee motivation, engagement and productivity. While a number of researchers have investigated the effectiveness of Cialdini’s principles of persuasion, little or no research has been conducted in the context of work environments. In many workplaces, it is important that employees provide detailed records of their activities for easy tracking of an organization’s day-to-day activities and future historical reference. However, research has shown that some employees find it difficult to comply. In an attempt to address this problem, we carried out a pilot study among 20 healthcare Applied Behavior Analysis(ABA) frontline employees, working with autistic patients. The study is aimed at investigating how effective Cialdini’s principles of persuasion are in motivating employees to record details about the sessions they have with patients. A Two-Way Mixed ANOVA analysis showed that ABA frontline employees are most susceptible to Commitment and Reciprocity, followed by Authority, and least susceptible to Consensus and Scarcity. These results suggest that designers of gamified persuasive systems tailored to healthcare ABA frontline staff should focus on implementing Commitment, Reciprocity and Authority as persuasive strategies aimed at motivating them in engaging in sufficient and quality data entry.
... Elizabeth J. Lyons: From the perspective of what we know about persuasion and behavior change, I would predict that a rich cast of interesting characters and opportunities to identify with them would be very important. From the perspective of what we know about game enjoyment and motivation, I would predict that suspense 46 and promotion of feelings of autonomy, competence, and relatedness 42 would be very important. Story likely has more impact on relatedness, but changes to the game related to story can positively or negatively impact feelings of autonomy and competence. ...
... In their sum, the current findings are congruent with prior research that suggests there exists a dynamic interplay between video game characteristics and the elicitation of player enjoyment (e.g., Klimmt et al., 2007;Klimmt, Rizzo, et al., 2009;Lin, 2010). Future research should continue to explore this interplay, especially as it relates to the conditional effects of performance on enjoyment. ...
Purpose. The purpose of this work was to explore the relationship between gender, game performance factors, and player enjoyment of a first-person shooter (FPS) video game. Drawing upon the notion that FPS games are gendered spaces in which men are both the intended and ideal participants, we predicted that women’s game enjoyment, in contrast to men’s, would rest on their ability to positively violate negative expectancies associated with FPS games by performing at a high level.
Method. Two inter-related studies were employed. The first (preliminary) study used an online survey to assess gender-based expectancy differences. The second (main) study was lab-based. Here, participants played the FPS game COUNTER-STRIKE: GLOBAL OFFENSIVE and provided data on perceived game performance and session enjoyment.
Results. The data indicated that men’s enjoyment of a FPS game was not influenced by game performance while women’s enjoyment was, in fact, significantly influenced by both subjective self-relative and objective performance dimensions.
Conclusions. The present findings may provide a partial explanation for the persistence of the gender gap relative to FPS preference. Moreover, the current work extends the current scholarly understanding of expectancy value theory (EVT) by investigating the effect of expectancy violations associated with one’s own behavior.
... Facing the popularity of video games in educational settings and the complexity of player psychology, researchers had begun to investigate various factors that contribute to enjoyment, including interactivity (Klimmt, Hartmann, & Frey, 2007), suspense (Klimmt, Rizzo, Vorderer, Koch, & Fischer, 2009), competition (Vorderer, Hartmann, & Klimmt, 2003), and spatial presence and perceived reality (Shafer, Carbonara, & Popova, 2011). To date, little empirical work has been done to describe the association between individual traits and video game enjoyment, particularly in mobile game settings. ...
... While game refinement theory is focusing on how to measures attractiveness between games, this research focuses on how to measure the attractiveness between matches in the same game. If we can figure out a reasonable model to compare the enjoyment between matches, it means that we can truly understand about the enjoyment in game [11], at least more than before. So, we can improve the entertainment impact of the game by using this idea as a basis. ...
This work is an attempt to improve the quality of game by focusing on the enjoyment. We propose a new model for quantifying enjoyment of individual match in games which focuses on the uncertainty of game outcome. We believe that if the outcome of the game is unknown, it means that the game is exciting and it still be attractive. We select table tennis as a representative of simple games and we select DotA 2 as a representative of complex games. The results confirm that our model works well. 1. Background/ Objectives and Goals Nowadays, there are so many video games in game industry and it is implemented in many platform such as mobile, personal computer, game console and so on. Some of them are so popular but others are not so. There are many reasons behind this fact such as its story, animation and graphics, setting of the gameplay and so on [10] [20]. Beside video games, there are other games which can be considered as a game such as sports and board game. With the same consideration, some sports and some board games are so popular while some of them are not. Even though in the same game, some matches are exciting, but others are not so. For example, why is this football match so exciting and why do many viewers want to watch this match? If we can clearly understand this point, we can improve the quality of the game under consideration. Enjoyment is perhaps the most important issue in successful game design [9]. Previously, game refinement theory [7] measures enjoyment of many games in various domains of game [21]. It finally can propose the appropriate range of game refinement value which sophisticated game should have. While game refinement theory is focusing on how to measures attractiveness between games, this research focuses on how to measure the attractiveness between matches in the same game. If we can figure out a reasonable model to compare the enjoyment between matches, it means that we can truly understand about the enjoyment in game [11], at least more than before. So,
... Similarly to flow, video game enjoyment can be described as a positive player experience, and a potential negative influencer of player cessation. Enjoyment both influences and is influenced by multiple elements at the same time (Klimmt, Roth, Vermeulen, Vorderer, & Roth, 2012), including flow (Csikszentmihalyi, 1997;Sherry, 2004), suspense (Klimmt, Rizzo, Vorderer, Koch, & Fischer, 2009), identification with the player character (Hefner, Klimmt, & Vorderer, 2007), control (Klimmt, Hartmann, & Frey, 2007) and competition (Vorderer, Hartmann, & Klimmt, 2003). ...
Purpose
Esports game developers are incorporating interactive virtual shopping (IVS) experiences into their products to facilitate consumer–brand interactions. Despite the potential influence of IVS, existing research lacks an understanding of its impact on consumers’ overall affect– particularly game enjoyment, a critical factor in sustaining engagement with esports products – and on attitudinal change toward brands in the real world.
Design/methodology/approach
An experiment was designed to examine the impact of shopping in the virtually interactive esports marketplace on game enjoyment. Mediating effects of positive change in brand attitude, perceived realism and character attachment and the moderating effect of self-avatar gender congruity were investigated using SPSS PROCESS Macro. Additionally, the impact of brand popularity on the relationship between IVS and brand attitude was examined using analysis of covariance (ANCOVA).
Findings
There was a positive impact of IVS on game enjoyment, mediated by a positive change in brand attitude, perceived realism and character attachment. Self-avatar gender congruity moderated the mediation effect of perceived realism. Notably, less popular brands exhibited a greater change in brand attitude compared to more popular brands.
Originality/value
The findings add to the body of literature on esports, particularly in investigating the role of IVS within the esports virtual world and advancing research on cognitive appraisal theory. This study informs practitioners in the esports industry about the value of creating interactive virtual marketplaces, as they serve to benefit sponsoring brands and enhance game enjoyment for players.
Video games are an interesting example of technologies/media able to generate complex emotions. Indeed, part of the emotions commonly arising in the experience of video gamers are quite negative. On the one hand, video gamers may feel frustration and anger due to the difficulty of the gameplay. On the other hand, they may experience sadness, anxiety and fear due to the immersion into emotionally rich narratives. Yet, video gamers seem to appreciate gaming technologies generating negative emotions, and the research on media frequently highlights a counterintuitive positive relation between negative affect and enjoinment/well-being outcomes. Starting from these premises, the present chapter is aimed to review the negative emotions typical of video games, in order to understand in what ways they can concur in generating an overall positive experience. Then, the chapter discusses implications for research on video games as positive technologies, namely technologies able to promote well-being in their users.
The purpose of this chapter is to theorize social anxiety as an inhibitor of socially interactive Facebook use. This chapter identifies different types of Facebook use based on the extent of social interaction involved. They are socially passive use, social interaction feature, and game feature use. Further, borrowing from self-presentational perspective of social anxiety, it proposes a conceptual framework that explains the role of social anxiety in each type of Facebook use. The study proposes that while social anxiety does not influence socially passive Facebook use, it could be a significant inhibitor of social interaction feature and game feature use. The paper also posits that the level of social anxiety experienced in game features might be higher as compared to that of social interaction features. The paper also highlights the role of a self-assessment process that mediates social anxiety and resulting Facebook use. This paper has significant research implications as it invites future researchers to examine the role of social anxiety in Facebook use more diligently by considering the extent of social interactivity involved in each use type.
Enjoyment is a widely assessed dimension of the video game player’s experience. A systematic literature review and a meta-analysis were conducted to provide a more comprehensive view of the elements of game design that affect the feeling of enjoyment, as well as its assessment techniques. The review showed that the studies covered major aspects of game design, such as in-game contents, input/output information, and, to a lesser extent, multiplayer aspects. The meta-analysis showed that only the presence of music in the game had a significant effect on enjoyment. Other factors, including more studied factors such as game difficulty and control mode, did not show significant effects. Implications for future research are discussed, such as further investigation of the effects of both player and game characteristics diversity on enjoyment in isolation and in interaction with game design factors, systematic use of standardized scales to measure enjoyment, and use of multidimensional scales or physiological measures.
The concept of media enjoyment has both delighted and frustrated entertainment scholars for several decades. Although a rich body of research highlights how media experiences can entertain, amuse, and enlighten audiences, the scholarship is conceptually, theoretically, and methodologically fragmented. In this synthesis paper, we first tackle conceptual issues, reviewing prior research that has both supported and challenged a hedonic approach to enjoyment. We then argue the enjoyment-as-attitude approach best explains the processes through which audiences experience enjoyment. We conclude by addressing definitional, methodological, and other implications for this approach. Areas for future research are also discussed.
In this study, the effect of sense of suspense on flow experience, perceived fun in sports, and intention to use virtual reality platforms for the sport participation were examined. An experiment was implemented to compare gamified virtual reality experiences where a sense of suspense was stimulated by outcome uncertainty. Virtual reality sports content programmed with artificial intelligence was developed for experimentation. A multivariate analysis of covariance analysis was conducted to test established hypotheses. The experimental group with a higher sense of suspense presented higher flow, fun, and usage intention. While most studies have centered on one’s response to the entity that stimulates suspense, this study emphasizes the significance of gamification using suspense to induce targeted behavioral intentions. The authors further discuss the implications to scholars and practitioners.
Rejection consists of a range of behaviors from ignoring another to explicitly excluding someone from an encounter. Currently available experimental tasks have shown that rejection has strong emotional, behavioral, and physical effects, but the tasks have some limitations. We argue that video games can address these limitations and have developed a new experimental task (ScrollQuest) to show the potential of video games as rejection research tools. The primary goal of the present study was to explore the effects of ScrollQuest. We analyzed data from 116 young adults who played both ScrollQuest and the rejection experimental task Cyberball. Playing ScrollQuest had more negative effects on mood, more negative interpretation effects were observed after playing ScrollQuest, and ScrollQuest was perceived as more enjoyable, compared to Cyberball. Our findings suggest that ScrollQuest might be an effective new experimental task to study rejection in a digital environment, but more work is needed to improve ScrollQuest.
Suspense is a cognitive and affective state that is often experienced in the anticipation of information and contributes to the enjoyment and consumption of entertainment such as movies or sports. Ely et al. proposed a formal definition of suspense which relies upon predictions about future belief updates. In order to empirically evaluate this theory, we designed a task based on the casino card game Blackjack where a variety of suspense dynamics can be experimentally induced. Our behavioural data confirmed the explanatory power of this theory. We further compared this formulation with other heuristic models inspired by studies in other domains such as narratives and found that most heuristic models cannot well account for the specific temporal dynamics of suspense across wide range of game variants. We additionally propose a way to test whether experiencing greater levels of suspense motivates more game-playing. In summary, this work is an initial attempt to link formal models of information and uncertainty with affective cognitive states and motivation.
Suspense is one key feature in modern storytelling. One of the mechanisms to deliver a suspenseful experience to an audience is by means of controlling the information provided. The media, however, has a very strong impact on what kind of information can be delivered and how. Moreover, modern storytelling is usually conveyed interactively, in such a way that the audience is also part of the story. In this paper, we experiment and analyse the different impact of information management in interactive and non-interactive storytelling. We report on an experiment measuring the reported perceived amusement in interactive and non-interactive versions of a potentially suspenseful story, and we provide evidence that a passive, non-interactive audience usually prefers less information than
an active interactive audience. The study provides informed insight on how these results could be used in real scenarios to deliver appropriate levels of information to enhance the perception of suspense.
Mobile games that were enjoyed by Indonesian gamers mostly are non-local games designed by developers in foreign countries. Local games have not been able to attract Indonesia players in its full potential. Innovations are needed when designing player experience in order to attract more players. Clash of Clans is a game that attracted many Indonesian players. Hence, its player experience design has been proven to be effective for Indonesian players. The purpose of this study is to identify the player experience from Clash of Clans and analyzes how game elements in this game works. The method used in this research is a quantitative method, using GEQ (Game Experience Questionnaire) as the research’s instrument. Approximately around
173 Indonesian players have been involved in this research. The result from this study is a player experience identification in Clash of Clans. Positive Affects are highly experienced by Clash of Clans players. The
lowest player experience in Clash of Clans is tension. This study also generated a mapping of game elements that made up the Clash of Clans player experience. The result can be used as a guidance by local game developers in the process of designing player experience to attract more players, especially local players.
Keywords: player experience, game experience, game, GEQ, Clash of Clans.
Video game streaming platforms have reached high popularity within the last years. As one of these popular platforms, Twitch provides users with the opportunity to participate in several gaming situations: They can simultaneously watch in-game actions, the streamer playing the game, and additionally, they can interact with the streamer and other viewers by using the chat. In an online survey, the current study explored how individuals (N = 548) experience media enjoyment when using Twitch. Findings indicate that social aspects of using Twitch predominantly contribute to enjoyment. Approaches toward the phenomenon of video game streaming as well as implications for research on the usage of second screens and Social TV are discussed.
Game applications for purposes such as education, finance or health have attracted considerable interest. However, development of these gameful applications is not adequately supported by knowledge of the fundamental mechanisms of game engagement. In this paper, to study game engagement, we review existing theories about game engagement. There are many theoretical studies on game engagement scattered across different disciplines, but they have not been organized into a focused study of game engagement. By synthesizing and organizing this information, a comprehensive account of game engagement can be developed.
Suspense is a complex phenomenon and a key narrative issue in terms of emotional gratification. However, despite its complexity, existing automatic storytelling systems based on suspense commonly implement it by restricting the success options of the main character. In order to provide coverage to other components of suspense, in this paper we focus on elements that potentially influence the anticipation of the protagonist's final state. In particular, we present a study of how the threat's resources impact the foreseen outcome of the scene. To achieve this, we collected a list of threat resources and possible outcomes from a set of suspense films. Then suspense evoked by each these resources and outcomes were gathered. These data were analysed and classified to obtain the most common resource-anticipated outcome pairs. An automatic story generation system was adapted to generate plots including these pairs but not show the outcome to the audience. Results evidence that it is possible to omit the outcome in suspenseful automated storytelling if the threat resource is given.
Successful exergames should lead players not only to achieve enough level of energy expenditure but also to engage in the play itself. The aim of this study is to review studies that explored the psychological effects of playing exergames, from the viewpoint of player engagement. Peer-reviewed journal articles in English collected via database search (Science Direct, Web of Science, ACM Digital Library) from 2011 to 2015 were considered, and 45 experimental studies were selected out of 911 studies. The results show that a variety of psychological effects of engagement including enjoyment, immersion, and flow were measured in the exergame studies. In addition, physiological variables (e.g., energy expenditure), feedback modality (e.g., auditory and tactile), and play modes (e.g., solitary or group play mode) are related to psychological effects of playing exergames. Finally, salient methodological issues (e.g., validated measurement, sample size calculation) in the studies are identified and discussed.
One of the most common purposes of storytelling is to amuse the audience. Triggering different emotions and feelings is a common method for entertaining with stories. Among these, suspense is strongly linked to narrative, and delivering a suspenseful feeling along the story to increase the fun is an effective, well tested practice when producing stories. Specifically, controlling the amount of information is a part of how suspense is provoked, but the information flow varies across different media. In this paper, we explore the impact of the amount of given information and the perception of amusement in suspenseful narrative settings.We provide evidence that non-interactive audiences prefer less information and more suspense, and interactive audiences find a higher amount of information more enjoyable. To validate this hypothesis, an experimental escape story in which a threat approaches the main character is presented to a number of subjects. Interactive and non-interactive versions have been tested, and the relation between given information, perceived suspense and amusement has been analysed, producing results supporting the hypothesis.
Survival horror video-games have acquired great acceptance in recent years. Immersion, ease of play, virtual reality gadgets and emotional intensity have helped to popularise them. Famous youtubers still perform their videos based on these games, counting millions of viewers even if the design of them is very similar in terms of atmosphere, limited actions and mapping. Usually conceived as suspense-evoking threatening environments to explore and escape, this similarity may lead to think about automatising the generation of products of this genre. In this paper, suspense definitions are reviewed from the view of emotional effects. Further, we propose a formula relating suspense to dimensions valence, arousal and dominance. Finally, we present an experiment that supports its application for a horror game.
Introduction and statement of problem. Despite the success of music games with instrument-shaped controllers, little is known about what makes these kind of controllers entertaining. The aim of this article is to shed light on the enjoyment mechanisms of such music games and their particular controllers.
Review of the literature. The literature’s theoretical foundation lies in the concept of natural mapping, i.e. the similarity of actions performed in the real world and their representation within the videogame. A review of the literature finds that most approaches are too simplistic, as they limit game enjoyment with natural mapping to higher intuitiveness. In contrast, challenge can also foster game enjoyment.
Methodology. Two parallelized sample groups (N=20) played three levels of a music game with increasing difficulty with either a Guitar Hero controller or with a real guitar. Perceived difficulty and game enjoyment were collected via questionnaires.
Analysis. A 2x3 mixed-design ANOVA was conducted for significance testing. It revealed a significant increase in enjoyment and perceived difficulty both for advanced game levels and the real guitar. A posteriori multiple regression showed that the increase in enjoyment with the real guitar could not be attributed to the higher challenge it produced alone.
Conclusions and recommendations for further research. The results suggest that intuitiveness is not the single factor for music game enjoyment with natural controllers. Further research might investigate the role of simulation and identification with attractive roles, as both could act as sources for game enjoyment and natural mapping might facilitate these factors. Applications for learning and teaching should consider debriefing as a method to facilitate transfer of the game experience into the real world.
In order to bridge interdisciplinary differences in Presence research and to establish connections between Presence and “older” concepts of psychology and communication, a theoretical model of the formation of Spatial Presence is proposed. It is applicable to the exposure to different media and intended to unify the existing efforts to develop a theory of Presence. The model includes assumptions about attention allocation, mental models, and involvement, and considers the role of media factors and user characteristics as well, thus incorporating much previous work. It is argued that a commonly accepted model of Spatial Presence is the only solution to secure further progress within the international, interdisciplinary and multiple-paradigm community of Presence research.
Playing video games: motives, responses, consequences
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