Paper Reading #3: The Role of Challenge in the Gaming Experience

Reference Information

Anna Cox, Paul Cairns, Pari Shah, and Michael Carroll. "Not Doing But Thinking: The Role of Challenge in the Gaming Experience." University College London and University of York, 05 May 2012. Web. 03 Sept. 2012.

Authors

Anna L Cox - At University College London studying UCL Interaction Centre
Paul Cairns - Resides at Department of Computer Science at University of York
Pari Shah - Studies Psychology and Language Sciences at University College London
Michael Carroll - At the department of Computer Science at University of York

Article Summary

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This article looked into an important aspect of gaming, increasing the overall experience. It has previously been thought that the more challenging a game is, the more immersed and fun the game appears to a user. The authors instead looked at defining exactly which challenges are the most important and which gaming aspects are the most effected.

The authors created separate control groups with each it's respective study aspect. The first group they studied showed that increased actual involvement with the game did not result in a direct manner with an increased immersion. The gamer sometimes enjoyed the game while other gamers with the same interest did not enjoy playing it.

In other studies, they measured how pressure affects the users who play the games. The users who were playing campaign and experienced an increase in pressure while playing were shown to enjoy the game more and the rewards that followed. Sometimes they rewarded gamers for completing special tasks and other instances they set gamers against each other increase the pressure of playing.



The conclusion of their study, they found that the level of challenge in a game and the effect of immersion it had on the gamers was directly linked to the level of expertise of the players. It was important to note that the players had to also see a possibility of accomplishment with the game as well. Playing a game they know to be impossible decreased the amount of immersion the player had, no matter what pressure and challenges the game had programmed to have.

Related Work

Finding out what aspects of games interest gamers the most was a important widely talked about subject. I found a few papers that were related the same line of study.

• Jose Zagal. Novices, Gamers, and Scholars: Exploring Challenges of Teaching Games. 
• Wolfgang Kramer. What Makes a Game Good?
• John Hallam and Georgios Yannakakis. Capturing Player Enjoyment in Games
• Kyoung Jin Shim. Player Performance, Motivation, and Enjoyment in MMO Games.
• Jiming Wu. The effects of Trust and Enjoyment on intention to play online games.
• Nicole Lazzaro. Why We Play Games: Four Keys to More Emotion Without Story.
• Niklas Ravaja, The Psychophysiology of Gaming: Phasic Emotional Responses to Events
• Barbaros Bostan. Game Challenges and Difficulty Levels: Lessons Learned from RPGs
• Zhi-Hong Chen, Influence of Game Quests on Pupils Enjoyments and Goal-pursuing in Math
• Brendan Sinclair. Teens interest in gaming on the decline, habits and forms.

Most the the papers above studied the effect that certain gaming events or triggers had on gamer's emotional response, which is also like immersion within the game itself.

Evaluation

The authors of this study tried to study their subjects and control groups without a bias. They were merely looking to see if there was a direct link between certain gaming events and the responses the gamers had within the game. Quantitative descriptions such as the time in seconds the players showed signs of pressure and stress and also the amount of subjects immersion within the games as well. The idea of this subject is not novel and is a common topic of marketing employees for game companies.

Discussion

The subject is important and I feel most game developers often overlook this aspect when developing a game. They become immersed themselves with the art of the game and sometimes lose focus of what the gamers actually want in their game. I think having some sort of compensation increases the pressure while playing a game. This actually helps the gamer perform better and in the end (if he's successful), gets to reap the benefits of the rewards of win.

The authors were very quantitative in their study and it was interesting to see how not benefits, but pressure actually affected the gamer instead.