Greater rewards in videogames lead to more presence, enjoyment and effort

• There is currently limited understanding of whether and how different amounts and diversity of virtual rewards impact on the player experience. A repeated-measures experiment was undertaken in which participants (N = 59) were compared on subjective measures (competence, presence-immersion, tension, effort and enjoyment), as well as psychophysiological measures (electrodermal activity and heart-beat rate), during the play of a videogame with three levels of video game reward (high, medium, low). Effort, enjoyment and presence-immersion significantly varied across conditions such that they were greater when all rewards were present compared to one or both of the other conditions. Heart-beat rate was found to vary across conditions consistent with the explanation that greater rewards lead to greater arousal. Our study suggest a number of advantages to greater amount and diversity of virtual rewards in the context of a casual videogame, with potential application to the design of new gamification systems.

Ämnesord

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Psykologi (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Psychology (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

Videogame

Reward

Psychophysiology

Player experience

Publikations- och innehållstyp

ref (ämneskategori)

art (ämneskategori)