A taxonomy and state of the art revision on affective games

Abstract Affective games are a sub-field of affective computing that tries to study how to design videogames that are able to react to the emotions expressed by the player, as well as provoking desired emotions to them. To achieve those goals it is necessary to research on how to measure and detect human emotions using a computer, and how to adapt videogames to the perceived emotions to finally provoke them to the players. This work presents a taxonomy for research on affective games centring on the aforementioned issues. Here we devise as well a revision of the most relevant published works known to the authors on this area. Finally, we analyse and discuss which important research problem are yet open and might be tackled by future investigations in the area of affective games.

[1]  Lennart E. Nacke,et al.  Electroencephalographic Assessment of Player Experience , 2011 .

[2]  Eva Hudlicka,et al.  Guidelines for Designing Computational Models of Emotions , 2011, Int. J. Synth. Emot..

[3]  Kostas Karpouzis,et al.  A Game-Based Corpus for Analysing the Interplay between Game Context and Player Experience , 2011, ACII.

[4]  Christian Martyn Jones,et al.  Acoustic Emotion Recognition for Affective Computer Gaming , 2008, Affect and Emotion in Human-Computer Interaction.

[5]  Christian Werner Becker-Asano,et al.  WASABI: Affect simulation for agents with believable interactivity , 2008 .

[6]  Nagisa Munekata,et al.  Entertainment feature of a game using skin conductance response , 2004, ACE '04.

[7]  Lennart E. Nacke,et al.  Affective Ludology, Flow and Immersion in a First- Person Shooter: Measurement of Player Experience , 2009, ArXiv.

[8]  Georgios N. Yannakakis,et al.  Towards affective camera control in games , 2010, User Modeling and User-Adapted Interaction.

[9]  Andrea Bonarini,et al.  Modeling enjoyment preference from physiological responses in a car racing game , 2010, Proceedings of the 2010 IEEE Conference on Computational Intelligence and Games.

[10]  Claire Dormann,et al.  Once More With Feeling , 2013, Games Cult..

[11]  Carlos Cotta,et al.  Procedural Content Generation for Real-Time Strategy Games , 2015, Int. J. Interact. Multim. Artif. Intell..

[12]  Shahrel Nizar Baharom,et al.  Emotional Design for Games: A Framework for Player-Centric Approach in the Game Design Process , 2014, MUE 2014.

[13]  Dimitrios Tzovaras,et al.  Automatic Recognition of Boredom in Video Games Using Novel Biosignal Moment-Based Features , 2011, IEEE Transactions on Affective Computing.

[14]  Guillaume Chanel,et al.  Emotion Assessment From Physiological Signals for Adaptation of Game Difficulty , 2011, IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics - Part A: Systems and Humans.

[15]  Yvonne de Kort,et al.  Effects of Sensory Immersion on Behavioural Indicators of Player Experience: Movement Synchrony and Controller Pressure , 2009, DiGRA Conference.

[16]  Ayman El-Baz,et al.  Using physiological signal analysis to design affective VR games , 2015, 2015 IEEE International Symposium on Signal Processing and Information Technology (ISSPIT).

[17]  Anton Nijholt,et al.  Affective Pacman: A Frustrating Game for Brain-Computer Interface Experiments , 2009, INTETAIN.

[18]  Cyrus Shahabi,et al.  Automating the detection of breaks in continuous user experience with computer games , 2005, CHI Extended Abstracts.

[19]  Shaomei Wu,et al.  Exploring the use of physiology in adaptive game design , 2011, 2011 International Conference on Consumer Electronics, Communications and Networks (CECNet).

[20]  Rosalind W. Picard Affective Computing , 1997 .

[21]  Carlos Cotta,et al.  Geometrical vs topological measures for the evolution of aesthetic maps in a RTS game , 2014, Entertain. Comput..

[22]  Rafael A. Calvo,et al.  Affect Detection: An Interdisciplinary Review of Models, Methods, and Their Applications , 2010, IEEE Transactions on Affective Computing.

[23]  Eugénio C. Oliveira,et al.  A Hybrid Approach at Emotional State Detection: Merging Theoretical Models of Emotion with Data-Driven Statistical Classifiers , 2013, 2013 IEEE/WIC/ACM International Joint Conferences on Web Intelligence (WI) and Intelligent Agent Technologies (IAT).

[24]  Chui Yin Wong,et al.  Methodologies for Evaluating Player Experience in Game Play , 2011, HCI.

[25]  Mijin Kim,et al.  Computational Modeling of Players’ Emotional Response Patterns to the Story Events of Video Games , 2017, IEEE Transactions on Affective Computing.

[26]  Lennart E. Nacke,et al.  Flow and immersion in first-person shooters: measuring the player's gameplay experience , 2008, Future Play.

[27]  Changchun Liu,et al.  Dynamic Difficulty Adjustment in Computer Games Through Real-Time Anxiety-Based Affective Feedback , 2009, Int. J. Hum. Comput. Interact..

[28]  Rita Cucchiara,et al.  Affective level design for a role-playing videogame evaluated by a brain–computer interface and machine learning methods , 2017, The Visual Computer.

[29]  Kostas Karpouzis,et al.  Fusing Visual and Behavioral Cues for Modeling User Experience in Games , 2013, IEEE Transactions on Cybernetics.

[30]  Georgios N. Yannakakis,et al.  Generic Physiological Features as Predictors of Player Experience , 2011, ACII.

[31]  Melissa Federoff,et al.  Player-centred game design , 2006, CHI EA '06.

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

[33]  M. Grimshaw,et al.  Game Sound Technology and Player Interaction: Concepts and Developments , 2010 .

[34]  Regan L. Mandryk,et al.  Physiological indicators for the evaluation of co-located collaborative play , 2004, CSCW.

[35]  Benjamin A. Clegg,et al.  Measuring Game Engagement , 2014 .

[36]  Regan L. Mandryk,et al.  A fuzzy physiological approach for continuously modeling emotion during interaction with play technologies , 2007, Int. J. Hum. Comput. Stud..

[37]  Licia Calvi,et al.  How psychophysiology can aid the design process of casual games: a tale of stress, facial muscles, and paper beasts , 2012, FDG.

[38]  Joost Broekens,et al.  Foundations for modelling emotions in game characters: Modelling emotion effects on cognition , 2009, 2009 3rd International Conference on Affective Computing and Intelligent Interaction and Workshops.

[39]  Regan L. Mandryk,et al.  Biofeedback game design: using direct and indirect physiological control to enhance game interaction , 2011, CHI.

[40]  Manfred Tscheligi,et al.  Facial expressions as game input with different emotional feedback conditions , 2008, ACE '08.

[41]  Jonathan Klein,et al.  Frustrating the user on purpose: a step toward building an affective computer , 2002, Interact. Comput..

[42]  Cyrus Shahabi,et al.  Continuous archival and analysis of user data in virtual and immersive game environments , 2005, CARPE '05.

[43]  K. Kallinen,et al.  Phasic Emotional Reactions to Video Game Events: A Psychophysiological Investigation , 2006 .

[44]  Alessandro Canossa,et al.  Defining personas in games using metrics , 2008, Future Play.

[45]  Guillaume Chanel,et al.  Boredom, engagement and anxiety as indicators for adaptation to difficulty in games , 2008, MindTrek '08.

[46]  Eva Hudlicka,et al.  Affective game engines: motivation and requirements , 2009, FDG.

[47]  Chee Weng Khong,et al.  A Review of Affective Design towards Video Games , 2012 .

[48]  Regan L. Mandryk,et al.  A continuous and objective evaluation of emotional experience with interactive play environments , 2006, CHI.

[49]  Nagisa Munekata,et al.  A Biofeedback Game with Physical Actions , 2010, ICEC.

[50]  Simon Brown,et al.  Affective gaming: measuring emotion through the gamepad , 2003, CHI Extended Abstracts.

[51]  Nadia Magnenat-Thalmann,et al.  Intelligent virtual humans with autonomy and personality: State-of-the-art , 2007, Intell. Decis. Technol..

[52]  Ludmila I. Kuncheva,et al.  Technological Advancements in Affective Gaming: A Historical Survey , 2014 .

[53]  Ana Paiva,et al.  A Generic Emotional Contagion Computational Model , 2011, ACII.

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

[55]  Alan J. Dix,et al.  Affective Videogames and Modes of Affective Gaming: Assist Me, Challenge Me, Emote Me (ACE) , 2005, DiGRA Conference.

[56]  Luca Chittaro,et al.  Affective computing vs. affective placebo: Study of a biofeedback-controlled game for relaxation training , 2014, Int. J. Hum. Comput. Stud..

[57]  Boyan Bontchev,et al.  Assessing engagement in an emotionally-adaptive applied game , 2016, TEEM.

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

[59]  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..

[60]  W. IJsselsteijn,et al.  Exploring Behavioral Expressions of Player Experience in Digital Games , 2008 .

[61]  Georgios N. Yannakakis,et al.  Correlation between heart rate, electrodermal activity and player experience in first-person shooter games , 2010, Sandbox '10.

[62]  Richard L. Hazlett,et al.  Measuring emotional valence during interactive experiences: boys at video game play , 2006, CHI.