Human factors of telephone-mediated interactive electronic games

Three experiments explore performance and preference when multi-person electronic games are connected in a telephone network. The first experiment examines the effect of delay in one-player games. The second experiment examines both delay and type of voice channel in a two-player game. The third experiment compares voice channels to no voice channel. Overall, the data suggest that moderate interaction delay is preferred to no delay, presumably because moderate delay makes the game more challenging. In addition, voice channels are preferred to no voice channel, but the type of voice channel may depend on the game and players.