Exploring Players’ Curiosity-Driven Behaviour in Unknown Videogame Environments

Abstract

Curiosity is a fundamental trait of human nature, and as such, it has been studied and exploited in many aspects of game design. However, curiosity is not a static trigger that can just be activated, and game design needs to be carefully paired with the current state of the game flow to produce significant reactions. In this paper we present the preliminary results of an experiment aimed at understanding how different factors such as perceived narrative, unknown game mechanics, and non-standard controller mapping could influence the evolution of players’ behaviour throughout a game session. Data was gathered remotely through a puzzle game we developed and released for free on the internet, and no description on potential narrative was provided before gameplay. Players who downloaded the game did it on their free will and played the same way they would with any other game. Results show that initial curiosity towards both a static and dynamic environment is slowly overcome by the sense of challenge, and that interactions that were initially performed with focus lose accuracy as result of players’ attention shift towards the core game mechanics.