Analyzing 3D telemetry data collected from competitive video games on the Internet can support players in improving performance as well as spectators in viewing data-driven narratives of the gameplay. In this paper, we conduct an in-depth qualitative ...

General anxiety is a common mental health condition across the world, with many barriers preventing people from accessing treatments. A growing body of evidence suggests that serious games offer appealing and effective solutions for anxiety. Despite ...

Immersive virtual reality (VR) exergames blend playful environments with physical activities. In such games, providing continuous cues, i.e., real-time indications of how the movements are being performed, can guide players and improve the execution of ...

Toxic behavior is known to cause harm in online games. Players regularly experience negative, hateful, or inappropriate behavior. Interventions, such as banning players or chat message filtering, can help combat toxicity but are not widely available or ...

Over the last decade, the free-to-play (F2P) game business model has gained popularity in the games industry. We examine the role of deceptive design during a game's transition to F2P and its impacts on players. Our analysis focuses on game mechanics and ...

In response to the unique challenges of Mixed Reality (MR) game development, we developed GAMR, an analytics tool specifically designed for MR games. GAMR aims to assist developers in identifying and resolving gameplay issues effectively. It features ...

The convergence of gaming and gambling, known as "gamblification", has been a topic of increasing interest in recent years. Loot boxes, i.e., rewards offering randomized content in exchange for money or time, have been a particular focal point. Research ...

Heuristics present a cheap and effective way of evaluating usability. However, in video games, evaluating unique player experiences that are dependent on individual preferences and abilities presents a challenge that goes beyond usability. Video games ...

The narrative experience of perennial games---ongoing, live games---revolves around the community that plays it. These games serve a fractured form of storytelling, which leaves it to the community to determine what counts as part of the story; or what ...

Virtual reality (VR) games intensify storytelling experiences by letting players take the role of a character. However, in contrast to films, novels, or games, VR experiences often remain centered around one single character without using the potential ...

This work explores the use of functional Near Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS) to assess cognitive activity during videogame play, and compare it to cognitive activity during cognitive tasks that assess executive control. To this end, we assessed ...

The size of most virtual environments exceeds the tracking space available for physical walking. One solution to this disparity is to extend the available walking range by augmenting users' actual movements. However, the resulting increase in visual flow ...

Visual indicators provide important in-game information, but displaying them on screen consumes space and increases clutter. In addition, the option to increase indicator brightness above levels possible in standard monitors can substantially improve ...

Game developers, researchers, and players recognize the harm of toxic behaviour in online games-yet toxicity persists. Players' coping strategies are limited to tools that focus on punishing toxic players (e.g., muting, blocking, reporting), which are ...

The esports market has been growing exponentially has been growing exponentially with much interest from industry and academia. Perhaps because of this growth, there is a lack of agreement on what esports actually encompasses. We conducted a systematic ...

Many games use engagement rewards as incentives for players to engage, e.g., daily login rewards, repeatable challenges, or seasonal rewards like holiday skins. These rewards may serve players by facilitating enjoyment or motivation; however, they may ...

Video games frequently feature 'open world' environments, designed to motivate exploration. Level design patterns are implemented to invoke curiosity and to guide player behavior. However, evidence of the efficacy of such patterns has remained ...

Escape rooms exist in various forms, including real-life facilities, board games, and digital implementations. The underlying idea is always the same: players have to solve many diverse puzzles to (virtually) escape from a locked room. Within the last ...

Cognitive-physical exercises can reduce the progression of dementia. However, traditional methods often induce problems (e.g., lack of motivation), whereas the success of recent virtual reality (VR) exergames such as Beat Saber may provide a playful, ...

Validation of serious games tends to focus on evaluating their design as a whole. While this helps to assess whether a particular combination of game mechanics is successful, it provides little insight into how individual mechanics contribute or detract ...