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The Impact of Game Peripherals on the Gamer Experience and Performance
Abstract
Game peripherals refer to the input-output devices assisting players to interact with video games. An interesting phenomenon related to game peripherals is bringing your own peripherals (BYOP) which means video game players, especially the advanced players, usually tend to use their own devices to play video games. An important reason for the popularity of BYOP is the players’ belief that the best tools to play the game are their own devices, in terms of game experience and performance. Thus, the game peripherals used in the BYOP situation imply the excellent quality. However, the limited research on the game peripherals leads to the lacking understanding of what determines the good game peripherals and how the good game peripherals influence players’ positive gaming experience and their performance. In order to call for more attention to the research on game peripherals and players’ cognition, this paper focuses on two important dimensions of game peripherals (i.e., controller fit and vividness of interfaces) and their influences on players’ positive in-game experience (i.e., sense of control, immersion and enjoyment). Furthermore, this research also discusses the relationship between positive gaming experience and in-game performance. A relational framework including seven propositions is proposed to guide and suggest future research on the game peripherals’ influences and the positive gaming experience in the field of player-video game interaction.
... As noted by Scacchi (2018), professional sim racing gamers preferred (if not required) high-end equipment including various input devices such as a steering wheel, foot pedals and transmission gear selectors (the combination of these elements is usually known as a "rig") to facilitate immersion and make the experience more realistic. The customization of hardware is so important for gamers that even in-presence tournaments nowadays allow players to bring their own equipment, a phenomenon known as Bring Your Own Peripheral (BYOP) (Ke and Wagner, 2019). However, the assumption that more realistic hardware leads to better performances has found little support in literature. ...
... This would also explain the conflicting results that are highlighted by Bowman et al. (2017), with some studies reporting that controllers were perceived as more natural and intuitive in some cases and less in others. An alternative system was presented by Ke and Wagner (2019), where the authors proposed to evaluate controllers focusing on two dimensions based on the Task-Technology-Fit (TTF) model: one that evaluates the fit between the peripheral and the game (game-controller fit), and one that evaluates the fit between the peripheral and the user (player-controller fit). Both these definitions of natural interfaces intersect, but do not satisfy, the definition given by Valli (2008), where "naturalness" is defined in terms of experience based on individuals' capacity to learn and discover the world by manipulating physical objects, making "natural" a subjective experience. ...
Despite its significant role in the history of videogames, the world of racing games is still fairly unexplored. In this paper, we present the result of a study aimed at understanding how different hardware peripherals such as controllers and racing wheels can influence the perception of racing games, and how tracks’ features correlate with players’ liking of a given track based on the peripheral in use. A survey has been conducted on players who currently own a copy of F1, 2020, asking them to evaluate how much they like to hotlap and race on each circuit featured in the game, and what device they generally use to play. These results have been matched against objective classifications of racing tracks to find correlations between players’ preferences, the device in use, and circuits’ features. Different sets of variables have been analyzed, including physical features such as corners, height variation and length, racing features like average speed, gear shifts per lap and fastest lap, and non-racing features such as the number of real F1 races held on that track. Results show that players do prefer fast circuits with a lower number of gear shifts and corners regardless of their length, but they also indicate that this is more prominent on historical circuits, supporting the idea of potentially influencing external factors. Results also show that little difference is produced by using devices with different levels of natural mapping.
... Within the research field of HCI, scholars are usually interested in the users' emotional experience (say, the enjoyment and excitement) (e.g., [24,25]) and the immersive experience (say, the flow experience and absorption) (e.g., [43]). The overall attraction of the hedonic information systems, especially video games, is highly dependent on the emotional and immersive feeling which users can experience during the system engagement [43]. ...
... Therefore, emotion describes a complicate psycho-neural process of interaction between subjective and objective variables mediated by neural and hormonal systems [26,37]. For the improvement of systems design and user experience, the fulfillment of users' emotional experience is one of the important dimensions [25]. ...
Electroencephalography (EEG) is a popular method for detecting and recording electrical activity in the human brain. Using this method, we can explore the relationships between specific brain activities and certain mental states. Even though neuroscience measurements are reliable and useful, the specific methods are not quite popular within human-computer interaction (HCI) research and practice, since traditional devices for neurophysiological data acquisition are professional knowledge dependent and expensive. The emergence of inexpensive, off-the-shelf wireless EEG devices encourages researchers and designers to probe the new perspective of HCI. In this paper, we present a pilot study which attempts to connect the EEG data obtained by a wireless EEG device (i.e., Emotiv EPOC plus) to an electronic device (i.e., a Particle-based 8*8*8 LED array) enabled by the infrastructure of the Internet of Things (IoT). Specifically, this study visualizes the two general types of human emotions and the human absorptive state on the LED array through multidimensional display patterns. We hope this study can be regarded as the pilot for the brain-computer interface building with commercial EEG products and electronic devices enabled by IoT. Furthermore, the study can also serve as reference for creative scientific visualization of human mental states with physical electronic devices.
This study explores the effects of the perspective-taking of non-player characters (NPCs) on enhancing game immersion in prosocial virtual reality (VR) games. Prosocial games are games focusing on helping others. Game researchers have been keen to investigate factors that influence the immersive experience in digital games. Previous studies show that VR allows people to take the perspective of others, inducing empathy and prosocial behaviour in the real world. In this lab-based study, we explore whether and how taking the perspective of other game characters – NPCs in a prosocial VR game – influences players’ in-game empathy towards NPCs and game immersion. Participants first experienced either a robot’s perspective of being destroyed by fire in VR or read a text description about the same event. Then, they participated a prosocial VR game in which they saved robots. The findings show that perspective-taking experiences indirectly enhance participants’ game immersion via the effects of closeness with the destroyed robot and empathy towards the four robots protected by the player. This indirect effect is moderated by players’ weekly exposure to video games. These results suggest that VR-based perspective-taking of NPCs can indirectly enhance gameplay experiences in prosocial VR games. Theoretical and game design implications are discussed.
With hundreds of new games being released every week, designers rely on existing knowledge to design control schemes for their products. However, in the case of games with new game mechanics, designers struggle to implement new button schemes due to the lack of research on players’ adaptation to new and non-standard controls. In this study we investigated PC players habits when playing a game they have no knowledge of, and how they adapt to its non-standard control scheme. Data was collected by using a specifically designed game instead of relying on pre-existing ones, allowing us to design specific game mechanics to exploit users’ habits and monitor players’ behaviour in their home environments. Preliminary results seem to indicate that PC players do pay attention to control schemes and are able to quickly learn new ones, but they also prefer to make mistakes in favour of execution speed.
Practices such as mindfulness, introspection, and self-reflection are known to have positive short and long-term effects on health and well-being. However, in today's modern, fast-paced, technological world tempted by distractions these practices are often hard to access and relate to a broader audience. Consequently, technologies have emerged that mediate personal experiences, which is reflected in the high number of available applications designed to elicit positive changes. These technologies elicit positive changes by bringing users' attention to the self—from technologies that show representation of quantified personal data, to technologies that provide experiences that guide the user closer in understanding the self. However, while many designs available today are either built to support or are informed by these aforementioned practices, the question remains: how can we most effectively employ different design elements and interaction strategies to support positive change? Moreover, what types of input and output modalities contribute to eliciting positive states? To address these questions, we present here a state of the art scoping review of immersive interactive technologies that serve in a role of a mediator for positive change in users. We performed a literature search using ACM Digital Library, Web of Science, IEEE Xplore, and Design and Applied Arts Index (beginning of literature—January 1, 2018). We retrieved English-language articles for review, and we searched for published and unpublished studies. Risk of bias was assessed with Downs and Black 26-item QAT scale. We included 34 articles as relevant to the literature, and the analysis of the articles resulted in 38 instances of 33 immersive, interactive experiences relating to positive human functioning. Our contribution is three-fold: First we provide a scoping review of immersive interactive technologies for positive change; Second, we propose both a framework for future designs of positive interactive technologies and design consideration informed by the comparative analysis of the designs; Third, we provide design considerations for immersive, interactive technologies to elicit positive states and support positive change.
This study evaluates the effectiveness of augmented reality (AR) as an e-commerce tool using two products—sunglasses and watches. Study 1 explores the effectiveness of AR by comparing it to a conventional website. The results show that AR provides effective communication benefits by generating greater novelty, immersion, enjoyment, and usefulness, resulting in positive attitudes toward medium and purchase intention, compared to the web-based product presentations. Study 2 compares the paths by which consumers evaluate products through AR versus web with a focus on interactivity and vividness. It is revealed that immersion mediates the relationship between interactivity/vividness and two outcome variables — usefulness and enjoyment in the AR condition compared to the web condition where no significant paths between interactivity and immersion and between previous media experience and media novelty are found. Participants' subjective opinions about AR are examined through opinion mining to better understand consumer responses to AR.
This study explores how a video game player’s sense of being in a game world (i.e., spatial presence) is impacted by the use of a virtual reality head-mounted display (VR HMD). Research focused on VR (as realized with the use of HMDs) has fallen by the wayside since the early 1990s due to the limitations in the technology. With modern reimagining of VR HMDs, there is now an opportunity to reexamine the impact it has on gaming experience. This article explores the results of an experiment in which university students played video games using either a VR HMD or a standard monitor while playing a first-person shooter video game. Control interface was also manipulated between incomplete tangible mapped devices (Razer Hydra) and directionally mapped devices (mouse and keyboard). Results indicated that VR HMDs have a positive impact on a players’ level of spatial presence and feelings of controller naturalness. Controller naturalness also impacted spatial presence regardless of display condition.
Innovations in technology have led to the introduction of exer- cise devices that feature interactive virtual worlds, often referred to as exergames. Using the theory of model matching, this study seeks to determine if controller naturalness and perceived realism are predictors of immersion in an exercise-based virtual environ- ment and, in turn, if perceived immersion is a predictor of enjoy- ment of this exercise experience. Participants rode a 3-mile virtual course on an Expresso HD upright bicycle and then reported their attitudes toward the experience. Findings suggest that extending the theory of mental models from traditional video game play to the study of certain exergame-based technologies is an appro- priate application of the theory. Additionally, given the influence of immersion on the overall enjoyment of the fitness experience identified in this study, these findings also have implications for the development and use of exergames that are immersive, realistic, and utilize naturalistic controllers to promote commit- ment to physical activity.
Affective tones abound in work teams. Drawing on the affect infusion model and social identity theory, this study proposes that team affective tone is related to team performance indirectly through team identification and team cooperation. Data from 141 hybrid-virtual teams drawn from high-tech companies in Taiwan generally supported our model. Specifically, positive affective tone is positively associated—while negative affective tone is negatively associated—with both team identification and team cooperation; team identification is positively associated with team cooperation; and team cooperation is positively associated with team performance. Managerial implications and limitations are discussed.
Previous research links violent video game play and aggression, and shows that playing games using natural mapping motion capturing controllers increases immersion and perceptions of realism. We extend current research by experimentally testing whether the “weapons effect” emerges when using a realistic gun controller to play a violent first-person shooter video game. The results provide compelling evidence that using a realistic firearm controller positively impacts cognitive aggression. Participants playing with the gun controller also experienced increased perceptions of game realism and feelings of immersion. The findings raise concerns about the harmful effects of popular realistic firearm controllers and are discussed in terms of the model matching hypothesis and the weapons effect.
Video game design requires a user-centered approach to ensure that the experience enjoyed by players is as good as possible. However, the nature of player-video game interactions has not as yet been clearly defined in the scientific literature. The purpose of the present study was to provide a systematic review of empirical evidences of the current concepts of player-video game interactions in entertainment situations. A total of 72 articles published in scientific journals that deal with human-computer interaction met the criteria for inclusion in the present review. Major findings of these articles were presented in a narrative synthesis. Results showed that player-video game interactions could be defined with multiple concepts that are closely linked and intertwined. These concepts concern player aspects of player-video game interactions, namely engagement and enjoyment, and video game aspects, namely information input/output techniques, game contents and multiplayer games. Global approaches, such as playability, also exist to qualify player-video game interactions. Limitations of these findings are discussed to help researchers to plan future advances of the field and provide supplementary effort to better know the role of less-studied aspects. Practical implications are also discussed to help game designers to optimize the design of player-video game interactions.
The current study implements the drive theory of social facilitation to explain the influence of audience presence in video game play. This integration is an important one for research aiming to understand the experience of video game play, as the social aspect of video game play is a relevant dimension of the technology often ignored in research on gaming experiences. The study finds a significant positive association between non-gaming cognitive abilities (such as hand–eye coordination and mental rotation ability) and performance at a first-person shooter. Data also support the social facilitation hypothesis: Game play in the presence of a physical audience significantly predicts increased game performance. Social facilitation effects are only found for low-challenge games where the drive-inducing capacity of task challenge is minimized. Resultant influences on game enjoyment are less clear.
The future of communication and advertising is mobile. There is, however, little empirical evidence as to exactly how mobile advertising works. This research examines the role of mental imagery elicited by mobile advertising and its mediating effect on trust in the advertising message (ad trust) and purchase intention. Using a 2 × 2 factorial experimental design, we examined the influence of the type of message – SMS vs. MMS – and type of content – informational vs. transformational – on the three dimensions of mental imagery: vividness, quantity and elaboration. Results show a greater impact of MMS mobile ads and transformational ads on vividness and elaboration, while SMS mobile ads have a greater impact on the quantity dimension. The study also suggests that ad trust can be improved by enhancing the mental imagery elicited by mobile ads. Vivid and elaborate mental imagery mediates the effect of the type of ad on ad trust and exerts a positive influence on purchase intention. These findings have important implications for mobile advertisers since overcoming trust issues remains a major obstacle in the adoption of this medium. In addition, practical aspects of mobile ads’ conception and design are discussed and directions for future research are suggested.
This investigation examines how video game interactivity can affect presence and game enjoyment. Interactivity in the form of natural mapping has been advocated as a possible contributor to presence experiences, yet few studies to date have investigated this potential. The present work formulates a preliminary typology of natural mapping and addresses how several types of mapping impact the experience of a video game, with the expectation that more natural mapping leads to increased spatial presence affecting enjoyment. Two studies were conducted. In the first study, 48 participants played a golfing video game using one of two controller types (Nintendo Wiimote or gamepad). In the second, 78 participants played a driving video game using an even more natural controller (steering wheel) or one of three other controller types. Participants then completed measures of perceived naturalness, presence, and enjoyment. Results of both studies were generally consistent with expectations.
The influence of video game realism and controller naturalness on aggression was examined with an experiment that manipulated game realism and controller naturalness. Perceived controller naturalness increased perceptions of realism of the game and led to greater immersion. The more realistic game was perceived as such and led to greater immersion. Ultimately, greater immersion led to more cognitive aggression. Results are discussed in terms of a mental models approach and the process of model matching.
Existing research suggests that consumers’ choices of vacations may be significantly influenced by mental imagery processing, which is considered to be high elaboration cognitive processing. This study first aimed to identify imagery-eliciting Web site features, and second to test their influence on persuasion-related outcomes such as attitude strength, confidence, and attitude resistance. A total of 252 subjects participated in a Web-based experiment to examine the influence of selected Web site features on individual imagery processing and its effect on consumers’ attitudes and expectations. The data was analyzed primarily using a structural equation modeling methodology. Structural model results revealed that the mental imagery construct strongly influenced the measured communication effects. In terms of inducing mental imagery processing, only pictures were found to make a significant difference. The findings stress the importance of researching mental imagery processing in tourism and provide practical implications for the design of persuasive destination Web sites.
Hedonic-motivation systems (HMS) — systems used primarily to fulfill users’ intrinsic motivations — are the elephant in the room for IS research. Growth in HMS sales has outperformed utilitarian-motivation systems (UMS) sales for more than a decade, generating billions in revenue annually; yet IS research focuses mostly on UMS. In this study, we explain the role of intrinsic motivations in systems use and propose the Hedonic-Motivation System Adoption Model (HMSAM) to increase understanding of the adoption of HMS. Instead of a minor, general TAM extension, HMSAM is a HMS-specific system acceptance model grounded in an alternative theoretical perspective grounded in flow-based cognitive absorption (CA). The HMSAM extends van der Heijden’s (2004) model of hedonic system adoption by including CA as a key mediator of perceived ease of use (PEOU) and behavioral intentions to use (BIU) hedonic-motivation systems. Results from experiments involving 665 participants confirm that in a hedonic context, CA is a more powerful and appropriate predictor of BIU than PEOU or joy, and that the effect of PEOU on BIU is fully mediated by CA sub-constructs. This study lays a foundation, provides guidance, and opens up avenues for future HMS, UMS, and mixed-motivation system research.
In Artificial Reality experiences, i.e. interactive, unencumbered, full-body, 2D vision-based virtual reality (VR) experiences (heirs of the seminal Videoplace by Myron Krueger) there are two possible interaction paradigms, namely: first-person and third-person –which differ significantly from the classic VR first- and third-person notions. Up until now, these two paradigms had not been compared or objectively analyzed in such systems. Moreover, most systems are based on the third-person paradigm without a specific justification, most probably due to the influence of the original Videoplace system and because it is the only paradigm available in commercial development tools and leisure systems. For example, many rehabilitation projects have chosen to use these VR systems because of their many advantages. However, most of these projects and research have blindly adopted the third-person paradigm. Hence, the field of virtual rehabilitation has analyzed the beneficial properties of these systems without considering the first-person paradigm that could potentially present better adequacy. To find and understand potential differences between the two paradigms, we have defined an application categorization from which we developed two full-body interactive games and set up an experiment to analyze each game in both paradigms. We studied how 39 participants played these games and we quantitatively and qualitatively analyzed how each paradigm influenced the experience, the activity and the behavior of the users and the efficiency in accomplishing the required goals. We present the results of these experiments and their general implications, and especially for virtual rehabilitation due to the potential impact these systems may have in the wellbeing of many people.
Implementation is the process of gaining targeted organizational members' appropriate and committed use of an innovation. Our model suggests that implementation effectiveness-the consistency and quality of targeted organizational members' use of an innovation-is a function of (a) the strength of an organization's climate for the implementation of that innovation and (b) the fit of that innovation to targeted users' values. The model specifies a range of implementation outcomes (including resistance, avoidance, compliance, and commitment); highlights the equifinality of an organization's climate for implementation; describes within- and between-organizational differences in innovation-values fit; and suggests new topics and strategies for implementation research.
Available for online reading at: http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/259164?uid=16780720&uid=3739704&uid=2129&uid=2&uid=70&uid=3&uid=16749656&uid=67&uid=62&uid=3739256&sid=21101428091251
Emotions have firmly established their place in sport psychology research over the past 40 years. For many decades following World War II, mainstream psychology researchers placed negative emotions (e.g., anxiety) ahead of positive emotions (e.g., happiness) but positive emotions are now a genuine, promising field of research because of their influence on specific components of performance (e.g., attention) and psychological well-being. The benefits of these emotions have hitherto not been wholly realized in a sport context, especially in their capacity to generate greater self-efficacy, motivation, attention, problem-solving, and coping with adversity. Although the sport emotion literature is sprinkled with studies that specifically examined positive emotion in sport settings, the breadth and depth of this research is too thin to make bold claims about the value of positive emotions in the emotion-performance relation. There are, however, at least three theoretical models available to sport psychologists to better understand the influence of positive emotions on sport performance and two of these models are specifically designed for sport contexts. Not only can these models deepen and widen this knowledge base, but they can also support interventions in applied settings to improve performance and psychological well-being.
Abstract We explored the relationship between emotions, cognitive interference, concentration disruption and performance in youth sport. In Study 1, 150 youth sport athletes (M(age) = 13.13 years, s = 1.79) completed measures of emotion, cognitive interference, and concentration disruption for their most recently completed competition. In Study 2, 46 female rhythmic gymnasts (M(age) = 10.30 years, s = 1.74) completed measures of emotion immediately before competition, and measures of cognitive interference and concentration disruption immediately after competition. Study 1 showed that anxiety and dejection were associated with more interfering thoughts and greater disruptions in concentration, whereas the effects of anger and happiness on interfering thoughts differed relative to the age of participants. Specifically, anger was associated with more interfering thoughts only in younger athletes and happiness was associated with fewer interfering thoughts only in older athletes. Study 2 showed that emotions experienced before competition were not strongly associated with cognitive interference or concentration disruption, but athletes reporting more thoughts of escape in competition were less successful in the competition as measured by objective performance scores. These findings demonstrate that emotions are important for cognitive interference and concentration disruption, and provide some initial evidence that cognitive interference is important for performance in youth sport.
This paper describes an experiment to assess the influence of immersion on performance in immersive virtual environments. The task involved Tri-Dimensional Chess, and required subjects to reproduce on a real chess board the state of board learned from a sequence of moves witnessed in a virtual environment. Twenty four subjects were allocated to a factorial design consisting of two levels of immersion (exocentric screen based, and egocentric HMD based), and two kinds of environment (plain and realistic). The results suggest that egocentric subjects performed better than exocentric, and those in the more realistic environment performed better than those in the less realistic environment. Previous knowledge of chess, and amount of virtual practice were also significant, and may be considered as control variables to equalise these factors amongst the subjects. Other things being equal, males remembered the moves better than females, although female performance improved with higher spatial ability test score. The paper also attempts to clarify the relationship between immersion, presence and performance, and locates the experiment within such a theoretical framework.
Advances in virtual reality (VR) technology exert increasingly influential impacts on tourism. Drawn upon a presence perspective and a process theory, this research aims to explore how VR technology may help enhance theme park visitors' experience and behaviors. Data was collected from 396 theme park visitors who had experienced VR roller coaster over the past twelve months. Results of stepwise regression analysis suggest that users' sense of presence is predominantly driven by their feeling of control, followed by participation, effectiveness, curiosity, vividness, temporal association, and enjoyment provided by VR system. Results of simple linear regression analyses reveal positive impacts of sense of VR presence on visitors' overall theme park experience and intentions to revisit and recommend. Further sensitivity tests are performed using Hayes’ PROCESS model to accommodate the potential influence of two individual factors (i.e., personal innovativeness and VR familiarity) on the results. Theoretical and managerial implications are presented.
The study of the subjective gameplay experience spans multiple disciplines. Despite decades of interest, little agreement has been found regarding the way particular constructs—namely immersion, involvement, presence, and flow—are used to describe this concept. Without the consistent usage of well-defined constructs, it is difficult to further scientific understanding of this domain. This work examines the theoretical evolution of the key subjective gameplay experience constructs and proposes the Revised Game Engagement Model (R-GEM) as a way to frame future research in this area. The R-GEM was examined in a study which manipulated key aspects of the popular video game, Minecraft. The results of the study supported many proposed aspects of the R-GEM and revealed ways in which the model could be further refined. Specific individual differences that affected the various subjective game engagement states were identified. Additionally, suggested measures for the R-GEM constructs were provided.
Gamification has recently become a popular topic in marketing practice. It is perceived as being a promising way to provide improved consumer experiences and to positively influence consumer behavior. An inherent characteristic of gamification is the gameful experience of consumers when using a gamified application. However, no existing measure captures the gameful experience consumers feel when they engage with gamified applications. Based on an extensive literature review and six consecutive studies, the authors develop and validate a new gameful experience scale [GAMEX] for measuring gameful experience in gamification. The results confirm that the GAMEX is a reliable and valid measure, which is useful for both, researchers and practitioners, and easy to apply in different gamification settings.
Purpose
Although microblogs have become an important information source, the credibility of their postings is still a critical concern due to the open and unregulated nature. To understand the antecedents of microblog information credibility, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the dual-role of cognitive heuristics (i.e. the additivity and bias roles) and the effect of gender differences.
Design/methodology/approach
This study collected data via an online field survey of active microblog users, and a total of 204 valid responses was received.
Findings
This study demonstrates the dual-role of source credibility and vividness, the additivity role of microblog platform credibility, and the bias role of social endorsement. Furthermore, this study also found out gender difference that the additivity role of cognitive heuristics was stronger for men while bias role was stronger for women.
Research limitations/implications
This research enriches the microblog literature by examining the cognitive heuristic determinants as key predictors of microblog information credibility, and contributes to the information credibility literature by identifying and analyzing the dual-role effect of cognitive heuristics and corresponding gender differences.
Practical implications
This study can help organizations better manage their reputation, especially during the reputation crises, and also serves as a reminder to microblog platform operators of the importance of their microblog platform credibility.
Social implications
This study can help organizations better manage their reputation, especially during the reputation crises, and serves as a reminder to the microblog platform operators of the importance of their microblog platform credibility.
Originality/value
This study investigates the dual-role effect of cognitive heuristics (i.e. the additivity role and bias role) and corresponding gender differences that are less touched on before, and thus provides a more nuanced understanding of the more complex effects of cognitive heuristics.
The post replying behavior in online communities (OCs) has garnered little consideration, even though the feedback behavior represents the central social dynamic of OCs and greatly determines the vibrancy of OCs. To fill this gap, this study aims to identify major sharing post-related variables that explain the heterogeneity in the post replying behavior in knowledge sharing OCs. The research model is validated through a panel dataset assembled from an online travel community. The results reveal that sharing post length and vividness, contributors’ expertise and degree centrality, and members’ social interactions have significant associations with the number of replying posts.
Employees’ extended use of enterprise systems becomes an important concern for firms striving to reap benefits from IT investment. This paper proposes a person-environment-technology (PET) research model to explain how system self-efficacy, leader-member exchange, and system modularity, jointly impact employees’ extended use. The model is tested with a survey on enterprise system users in six firms which have already implemented enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems, and several meaningful findings are yielded. First, except for leader-member exchange, both system self-efficacy and modularity are found to positively and directly affect extended use. Second, leader-member exchange, rather than exerting a direct effect, can positively moderate the effects of system self-efficacy and modularity on extended use. Third, system modularity can strengthen the relationship between system self-efficacy and employees’ extended use .The limitations and implications for research and practice are discussed.
Online product recommendation (OPR) provided by product recommender systems as well as consumers is a crucial service in social shopping communities (SSCs) for improving consumers’ shopping experience and fostering long-term relationships. However, little is understood about how these two sources of recommendations influence consumers' decision-making and their implications for customer loyalty. This study develops a model to examine how the positive (enablers) and negative (inhibitors) factors of OPR’s quality influence consumer decision process, and how the decision process ultimately influences customer loyalty. The results indicate that consumer product screening cost and decision-making quality significantly influence customer loyalty. Consumer product screening cost is negatively associated with self reference and positively associated with deceptiveness and information overload. Product evaluation cost is positively affected by self reference, deceptiveness and information overload and negatively affected by vividness. And consumer decision-making quality is positively associated with self reference and negatively associated with deceptiveness and information overload. Consumer product screening cost and product evaluation cost are comparatively more negatively influenced by inhibitors than enablers. Moreover, UGC level plays a negative moderating role on the relationships between product screening cost and customer loyalty, and between product evaluation cost and customer loyalty.
Online learning courses have expanded the educational landscape to distant and disadvantaged areas. Although such courses have generated extensive interest, there is as yet sparse literature evaluating the determinants of online course acceptance, especially in developing countries. Seeking to close this gap, this study examines the factors influencing students' adoption of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) in a developing country by applying an integrated framework incorporating the task-technology fit model, social motivation, and self-determination theory. In addition, the study investigates the moderating effect of perceived reputation on students' adoption behavior. A self-administered survey was employed for data collection and valid responses from 414 participants were used for testing the proposed model. The data was analyzed using structural equation modeling through Smart-PLS. The results establish the significant contribution of task characteristics and technology characteristics in facilitating task-technology fit, and that the fit positively influences behavioral intentions. Moreover, social recognition, perceived competence, and perceived relatedness have positive and significant effects on the behavioral intentions of the students. This research also reveals that perceived reputation has an important moderating effect on the students' usage behavior. The study results provide both practical and theoretical insights to enrich the understanding of the paradigm shift due to MOOCs and online education.
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.
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.
Considerable research shows that positive affect improves performance on creative tasks and negative affect improves performance on analytic tasks. The present research entertained the idea that affective feelings have flexible, rather than fixed, effects on cognitive performance. Consistent with the idea that positive and negative affect signal the value of accessible processing inclinations, the influence of affective feelings on performance on analytic or creative tasks was found to be flexibly responsive to the relative accessibility of different styles of processing (i.e., heuristic vs. systematic, global vs. local). When a global processing orientation was accessible happy participants generated more creative uses for a brick (Experiment 1), successfully solved more remote associates and insight problems (Experiment 2) and displayed broader categorization (Experiment 3) than those in sad moods. When a local processing orientation was accessible this pattern reversed. When a heuristic processing style was accessible happy participants were more likely to commit the conjunction fallacy (Experiment 3) and showed less pronounced anchoring effects (Experiment 4) than sad participants. When a systematic processing style was accessible this pattern reversed. Implications of these results for relevant affect-cognition models are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record
Objective:
Although it is generally understood that exergames can be beneficial, more research is needed to understand how in-game experiences influence enjoyment and the likelihood for continued use of these types of games. Therefore, the objective of this research is to understand how player performance in an exergame affects psychological responses (autonomy, competence, and presence), enjoyment of the experience, and likelihood for future play.
Subjects and methods:
Sixty-two college students (mean age, 20.32 years) participated in an experiment where they played a challenge event on the "Biggest Loser" exergame for the Nintendo (Kyoto, Japan) Wii™ console. Participants were given up to two chances to see if they could "win" the challenge event. A lab assistant recorded player performance for each session in minutes and seconds (range, 30 seconds-10 minutes). The attempt in which the participant achieved the greatest amount of time playing was used as a measure of player performance. After playing, subjects filled out a questionnaire with items pertaining to enjoyment, competence, autonomy, presence, and future intentions for continued use of the exergame.
Results:
The results suggest that player achievement (longer time spent playing) directly and indirectly predicts feelings of autonomy, competence, presence, enjoyment, and future intentions to play. Individuals who performed better felt more autonomous and experienced greater presence, leading to greater enjoyment. Enjoyment and presence were found to mediate the relationship between player performance and future intentions to play an exergame.
Conclusions:
This study suggests that performance in exergames is related to psychological experiences that fuel enjoyment and the likelihood for future exergame use. The theoretical and practical significances of these findings are discussed, as well as future research involving exergames.
Many studies have shown that there is a positive impact of serious educational games (SEGs) on student learning. Because of the game graphics, animations, sounds, and narratives, the learners can immerse in the virtual surroundings. Once they immersed, they might try their best to solve the in-game tasks. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to develop a SEG-Bio Detective and to evaluate its impact on student science learning outcomes. Moreover, we further investigated the relationships between students' game immersion experience and their science learning and problem solving. The obtained results showed that student science learning can be significantly improved through Bio Detective play, but there were no significant correlations between game immersion and learning outcomes. Comparing the problem-solving patterns and problem-solving abilities between students with high- and low immersion experience, we found that students with high immersion experience had a more complete problem-solving pattern and a better problem-solving performance than students with low game immersion experience.
In recent years, there is an increased interest to apply computer games to facilitate training and learning, with the expectation that simulated environment can improve trainees' performance and enjoyment in the learning activities at a relatively low cost. Such expectation is that better immersive capabilities of the computer game environment would lead to better performance, as well as making the exercise more enjoyable. The aim of this research is to confirm such belief, by defining and testing an integrated model of game immersion, enjoyment and performance. To this end, this study posits that visual aspects (in our case, vividness and visual appeal) embedded within the game design would enhance immersion, and ultimately impact on enjoyment and performance. Eighty subjects participated in an empirical test, for which World of Warcraft (WOW)-Mists of Pandaria was selected as the context. The results indicate that vividness is highly related to immersion, while immersion has significant impact on enjoyment and performance.
This study provides an exploratory analysis of the effects of the various characteristics of users, games, and repurchase behavior of users in an online game context. Many previous studies considered intentions to purchase and repurchase game items; however, few examined repurchase behavior. Our analysis included a sample of 2,060,685 observations (out of a total of 84,434,287) in one year based on the field data of purchase behavior from a game company. Analysis results show that users’ purchase behavior is the most significant factor, and time-related characteristics such as the recency of purchase, purchase frequency, and purchase cycle are important factors that influence repurchase decisions. In contrast, it is found that purchase amount, game characteristics, and user characteristics are not significant. Our findings imply that any analysis of repurchase behavior should address “unconscious” purchase behavior, such as habits, immersion, and impulse buying, in addition to conscious purchase behavior.
Effects of field-of-view (FOV) in a virtual environment (VE) on presence, enjoyment, memory, and simulator sickness (SS) were studied. A refined scale designed to assess subjects' engagement, enjoyment, and immersion (E(2)I) was developed. Items to examine subjects' memory of the VE were included. SS was examined using the Simulator Sickness Questionnaire (SSQ). Using a within subjects design, data were collected from 10 subjects at four FOVs (60degrees, 100degrees, 140degrees, and 180degrees). The VE, Crayolaland, was presented in a driving simulator. Results indicated that presence, enjoyment, and SS varied as a function of display FOV. Subjects exhibited higher SSQ and presence subscale scores with increasing FOV. SSQ and presence values approached asymptotes for FOVs beyond 140degrees. Presence and SS were positively correlated; enjoyment and SS were negatively correlated.
Retaining consumers and facilitating their continuance are crucial for mobile service providers. Based on the theories of task-technology fit (TTF) and use-context fit (UCF), a research model that reflects the two fitness effects on consumers’ mobile channel continuance was developed and empirically tested against data collected from 358 mobile banking consumers of a national commercial bank in China. The results confirm the usefulness of the two fitness theories in explaining the mobile channel continuance and identify the concurrence effects of TTF and UCF on consumers’ mobile channel continuance. Specifically, this study found that task features and technology characteristics significantly affect TTF, which further determines mobile channel continuance. UCF was found to be an important antecedent of TTF and a significant determinant of mobile channel continuance. This study also found that perceived utilitarian and hedonic values influence mobile channel continuance directly and indirectly via UCF.
Seventy-two male college undergraduates at a large southeastern university played a video game in one of two conditions: using a traditional handheld controller or using motion-based controls. Results showed that using motion-based controls significantly increased measures of hostility, identification with the avatar, and impacted a sense of self presence with the game. Results indicate motion-based controls, although helping to create a bond with the game's avatar, do not necessarily create a feeling of immersion into the game environment.
This research aims to propose an extended Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) that will provide better understanding of the acceptance of purchasing using smartphones. In fact, satisfaction toward the visit of the mobile Web site and the perceived enjoyment are added to the original model. A questionnaire was used to collect data from 400 French purchasers and non-purchasers. The structural model analysis has highlighted two differences between the two individuals’ profiles. The first is the positive and significant impact of perceived enjoyment on the intention to use smartphones to make purchases, since it is only significant amongst the purchasers. The second difference concerns the impact of satisfaction on the intention to use smartphones for purchases, which is significant only among the purchasers. Managerial implications are further discussed.
Dissociative experiences create a feeling of being outside one’s own body. Oftentimes, people experiencing these states claim to be off in another place and find they are losing time. Gamers who experience a high level of presence with their games echo these sorts of claims. A gaming experiment was conducted to determine if those people scoring high in having dissociative episodes experience presence more so than those scoring low in having dissociative episodes. The experiment also manipulated the variables of controller type (steering wheel versus traditional controller) and stereoscopic dimension (2D versus 3D) to determine if they interacted with ratings of dissociative episodes. Enjoyment of the game, which has been theoretically linked to presence, was also measured. After 146 participants played a racing game under the different manipulated conditions, the study confirmed that dissociation was highly related to sense of presence in a game and enjoyment. Playing the game with a steering wheel, as opposed to traditional controller, also created a greater sense of presence and enjoyment. 3D, as opposed to 2D, did not impact sense of presence or enjoyment. No interactions among the three variables occurred.
In the following article, the author explores the notion of playing computer games as sports by sketching out the labors and sensations of Counter-Strike teams playing at pro/am e-sports local area network (LAN) tournaments. How players are engaged physically in practice and play is described in this qualitative study through the core themes of movement, haptic engagement, and the balanced body. Furthermore, the research describes how technologies in play are laboring actors too; the players and technologies in this study are rendered as networked, extended, and acting in and on the same fields of play. In asking is there a “sport” in e-sports, this study questions the legitimacy of a traditional sports ontology and simultaneously tackles the notion of engagement with computer game play as a legitimate sporting endeavor.
Long waits online undermine users' evaluations of Web sites and their providers, triggering abandonment behaviors. Yet e-business researchers and practitioners have not perfected mechanisms to respond to online wait issues. A filler interface that runs during the wait for search results may influence online users' perceived waiting time (PWT); however, no scientific investigation has attempted to design effective filler interfaces for managing online waits. By adopting resource allocation theory, cognitive absorption theory, and human computer interaction (HCI) theories (competition for attention, visual search, and motion effect), we design diverse filler interfaces and investigate their effects on antecedents of PWT. The proposed research model considers cognitive absorption factors such as temporal dissociation, focused immersion, and heightened enjoyment as antecedents of PWT, which in turn triggers three outcomes: affective appraisals, cognitive appraisals, and Web site use intention. A multistage, multimethod approach is used to test the research hypotheses. In the first stage, we compare a filler interface condition with a no-filler interface condition, and find the superiority of a filler interface with respect to inducing focused immersion and temporal dissociation. In the second stage, we conduct two controlled experiments to examine whether filler interfaces with various designs (varying the presence and relevance of image, text, and image motion) distinctly influence antecedents of PWT and confirm their distinctive effects on focused immersion, temporal dissociation, and heightened enjoyment. In addition, by conducting a structural equation modeling analysis, we find that our research model explains 51 percent, 51 percent, 44 percent, and 45 percent of the variance in PWT, affective appraisals, cognitive appraisals, and Web site use intention respectively. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings are provided.
Many studies have shown the positive impact of serious educational games (SEGs) on learning outcomes. However, there still exists insufficient research that delves into the impact of immersive experience in the process of gaming on SEG-based science learning. The dual purpose of this study was to further explore this impact. One purpose was to develop and validate an innovative measurement, the Game Immersion Questionnaire (GIQ), and to further verify the hierarchical structure of game immersion by construct validity approaches, including exploratory factor analysis (EFA) (n = 257) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) (n = 1044). The second purpose was to investigate the impact of game immersion on science learning through SEG play (n = 260). Overall, the results supported the internal structure of the GIQ with good reliability and validity, and the inter factor bivariate correlations for each construct indicated a high internal consistency. Players did learn from playing an SEG, and game immersion experience did lead to higher gaming performance. Moreover, players' gaming performance plays a role in mediating the effect of immersion on science learning outcomes through SEG play. However, as players became more emotionally and subjectively attached to the game, the science learning outcomes were not definitively reliable.
Technology-mediated distance learning is becoming increasingly important to business curricula. However, little theoretical development or empirical research has examined teaching effectiveness in distance learning. Thus, this article draws from research in management communications, education, and information systems to develop an initial conceptualization of influences on technology-mediated distance learning outcomes. It then reports on an exploratory study utilizing both qualitative and quantitative techniques to examine 247 students' reactions to such distance learning.
