Developing a triangulation system for digital game events, observational video, and psychophysiological data to study emotional responses to a virtual character

Game researchers are currently lacking comprehensive data analysis tools that triangulate game events, event-related survey data, and psychophysiological data. Such a tool would allow a comprehensive analysis of player engagement in digital games. The development of this tool was motivated by an experimental psychology study that asked whether emotional reactions to congruent and incongruent emotional stimuli within an intrinsically motivated game task are the same as within the traditional experimental picture-viewing paradigm. To address the needs of our study, we used the Source SDK (Valve Corporation) for creating a system that automates event logging, video management psychophysiological data markup. The system also allowed recording of self-report measures at individual play events without interrupting the game activity.

[1]  Bruce Phillips,et al.  Tracking real-time user experience (TRUE): a comprehensive instrumentation solution for complex systems , 2008, CHI.

[2]  Regan L. Mandryk,et al.  Identifying emotional states using keystroke dynamics , 2011, CHI.

[3]  M. Bluemke,et al.  The influence of violent and nonviolent computer games on implicit measures of aggressiveness. , 2010, Aggressive behavior.

[4]  Randy J. Pagulayan,et al.  User-centered design in games , 2012 .

[5]  T. A. Williams,et al.  Technology in mental health care delivery systems , 1980 .

[6]  C. Judd,et al.  Across the thin blue line: police officers and racial bias in the decision to shoot. , 2007, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[7]  Katherine Isbister,et al.  Game Usability - Advice from the Experts for Advancing the Player Experience , 2008 .

[8]  Lennart E. Nacke,et al.  Log Who's Playing: Psychophysiological Game Analysis Made Easy through Event Logging , 2008, Fun and Games.

[9]  S. Wolfson,et al.  The effects of sound and colour on responses to a computer game , 2000, Interact. Comput..

[10]  Zhiwei Guan,et al.  The validity of the stimulated retrospective think-aloud method as measured by eye tracking , 2006, CHI.

[11]  Ashish Kapoor,et al.  Automatic prediction of frustration , 2007, Int. J. Hum. Comput. Stud..

[12]  E. Vesterinen,et al.  Affective Computing , 2009, Encyclopedia of Biometrics.

[13]  Alessandro Canossa,et al.  Towards gameplay analysis via gameplay metrics , 2009, MindTrek '09.

[14]  Sophie Stellmach.  A psychophysiological logging system for a digital game modification , 2007 .

[15]  N. Ravaja.  Contributions of Psychophysiology to Media Research: Review and Recommendations , 2004 .

[16]  Guillaume Chanel,et al.  A review of the use of psychological methods in game research , 2011 .

[17]  Regan L. Mandryk,et al.  Using psychophysiological techniques to measure user experience with entertainment technologies , 2006, Behav. Inf. Technol..

[18]  Samuel D. Bradley,et al.  Death with a story: How story impacts emotional, motivational, and physiological responses to first-person shooter video games , 2004 .

[19]  Lennart E. Nacke,et al.  More than a feeling: Measurement of sonic user experience and psychophysiology in a first-person shooter game , 2010, Interact. Comput..

[20]  D. Watson,et al.  Development and validation of brief measures of positive and negative affect: the PANAS scales. , 1988, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[21]  J. Matias,et al.  Review on psychophysiological methods in game research , 2010 .

[22]  U. Dimberg.  Facial reactions to facial expressions. , 1982, Psychophysiology.

[23]  J. Cacioppo,et al.  Handbook Of Psychophysiology , 2019 .

[24]  N. Branscombe.  Effects of hedonic valence and physiological arousal on emotion: A comparison of two theoretical perspectives , 1985 .

[25]  Alan J. Dix,et al.  Using frustration in the design of adaptive videogames , 2004, ACE '04.

[26]  Raimund Dachselt,et al.  LAIF: A logging and interaction framework for gaze-based interfaces in virtual entertainment environments , 2011, Entertain. Comput..

[27]  D. Kort,et al.  D3.3 : Game Experience Questionnaire:development of a self-report measure to assess the psychological impact of digital games , 2007 .

[28]  Masood Mehmood Khan,et al.  Automated Facial Expression Classification and affect interpretation using infrared measurement of facial skin temperature variations , 2006, TAAS.

[29]  P. Lang.  Behavioral treatment and bio-behavioral assessment: computer applications , 1980 .

[30]  K. Isbister,et al.  Chapter 14 – Physiological Measures for Game Evaluation* , 2008 .

[31]  Veikko Surakka,et al.  Real-time estimation of emotional experiences from facial expressions , 2006, Interact. Comput..

[32]  F. Strack,et al.  The influence of mood on the intensity of emotional responses: Disentangling feeling and knowing , 2001 .