Being enjoyably challenged is the key to an enjoyable gaming experience: an experimental approach in a first-person shooter game.

Anne Corcos

doi:10.1080/20009011.2018.1474668

Abstract

ABSTRACTApplied 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.

Highlights

Based on Csikszentmihalyi’s [1] work, a great deal of research has been carried out to corroborate the flow approach and, more generally, to study the interplay between game difficulty and player experience (XP)
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 for the gamers
These results stress the need for a concentration enjoyment measure, and support the relevance of a measure encompassing the self-rewarding dimension of gaming experiences

Summary

Introduction

Based on Csikszentmihalyi’s [1] work, a great deal of research has been carried out to corroborate the flow approach and, more generally, to study the interplay between game difficulty and player experience (XP). Its originality lies in the fact that it emphasizes two elements which have been given limited attention in the literature so far: first, for a gaming experience to be positive it has to be self-rewarding regardless of the outcome of the game, and second, a necessary condition for the skills and challenge to be balanced is that the gamer needs to enjoy the challenge level To account for these features, we use a multi-dimensional measure of the enjoyment experienced during the game. The originality of this study is that it broadens the definition of gamer enjoyment by encompassing reflexive measures of the pleasure induced by the concentration and the challenge faced while playing This analytical framework is of interest for several reasons. A highly concentrated gaming episode does not necessarily result in a positive experience

CORCOS

Results

Conclusion