It is heavily debated within the gamification community whether specific game elements may actually undermine users' intrinsic motivation. This online experiment examined effects of three commonly employed design -- points, leaderboard, levels on performance, motivation, perceived autonomy and competence in an image annotation task. Implementation these significantly increased but did not affect autonomy, or Our findings suggest that leaderboards by themselves neither make nor break...

Self-Determination Theory (SDT), a major psychological theory of human motivation, has become increasingly popular in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) research on games and play. However, it remains unclear how SDT advanced HCI research, or scholars engage with the theory. We reviewed 110 CHI PLAY papers that cited to gain better understanding ways contributed research. find SDT, particular, concepts need satisfaction intrinsic have been widely applied analyse player experience inform game...

Human agency and autonomy have always been fundamental concepts in HCI. New developments, including ubiquitous AI the growing integration of technologies into our lives, make these issues ever pressing, as increase their ability to influence behaviours values. However, HCI understandings remain ambiguous. Both are used describe a wide range phenomena pertaining sense-of-control, material independence, identity. It is unclear what degree compatible, how they support development research...

Emotions are key to the player experience (PX) and interest in potential of games provide unique emotional, sometimes uncomfortable experiences is growing. Yet there has been little empirical investigation what game players consider emotionally moving, their causes effects, whether find these rewarding at all. We analyzed 121 players' accounts moving terms feelings thoughts they evoked, different PX constructs, as well game-related personal factors contributing these. found that most enjoyed...

Interest in gamification is growing steadily. But as the underlying mechanisms of are not well understood yet, a closer examination gamified activity's meaning and individual game design elements may provide more insights. We examine effects points -- basic element gamification, meaningful framing acknowledging participants' contribution to scientific cause, on intrinsic motivation performance an online image annotation task. Based these findings, we discuss implications opportunities for...

Despite lacking a formal peer-reviewed publication, the Game Experience Questionnaire (GEQ) is widely applied in games research, which might risk proliferation of erroneous study implications. This concern motivated us to conduct systematic literature review 73 publications, analysing how and why GEQ its variants have been employed current research. Besides inconsistent reporting psychometric properties, we found that misleading citation practices with regards source, rationale number items...

User experience (UX) research has expanded our notion of what makes interactive technology good, often putting hedonic aspects use such as fun, affect, and stimulation at the center. Outside UX, is contrasted to eudaimonic, striving towards one's personal best. It remains unclear, however, this distinction offers UX conceptually empirically. We investigate a possible role for eudaimonia in by empirically examining 266 reports positive experiences with analyzing its relation established...

HCI has become increasingly interested in the use of technology during difficult life experiences. Yet despite considerable popularity, little is known about how and why people engage with games times personal difficulty. Based on a qualitative analysis an online survey (N=95), our findings indicate that offered players much needed respite from stress, supported them dealing their feelings, facilitated social connections, stimulated change growth, provided lifeline existential doubt....

Engaging game characters are often key to a positive and emotionally rich player experience. However, current research treats character attachment in rather generic manner with little regard for the differing emotional qualities that may characterize this attachment. To address gap we conducted qualitative online survey 213 players about they particularly fond of. We identify seven distinct forms of attachment, ranging from feeling excited characters' gameplay competency, admiring them as...

The view of quality in human-computer interaction continuously develops, having past decades included consistency, transparency, usability, and positive emotions. Recently, meaning is receiving increased interest the user experience literature industry, referring to end, purpose or significance with computers. However, notion remains elusive a bewildering number senses are use. We present framework interaction, based on synthesis psychological research. outlines five distinct meaning:...

Dancing is a universal human activity, and also domain of enduring significance in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) research. However, there has been limited investigation into how computing supports the experiences recreational dancers. Concurrently, diverse sizeable dance community emerging VRChat. Little known about these dancers’ experiences, motivations, practices. Yet shedding light could inform both VR technology development design systems that better support embodied complex social...

Recent work introduced the notion of emotional challenge as a means to afford more unique and diverse gaming experiences. However, players' experience has received little empirical attention. It remains unclear whether players enjoy it what exactly constitutes thereof. We surveyed 171 about challenging or an emotionally experience, analyzed their responses with regards made challenging, response, relation core player constructs. found that manifested itself in different ways, by confronting...

Reflection is a core design outcome for HCI, and recent work has suggested that games are well suited prompting supporting reflection on variety of matters. However, research about what sorts reflection, if any, players experience, or benefits they might derive from it, scarce. We report an interview study explored when instances occurred, at level reflected their gaming as reactions. Our findings revealed many considered to be worthwhile activity in itself, highlighting its significance the...

Today's spectrum of playful fitness solutions features systems that are clearly game-first or fitness-first in design; hardly any sufficiently incorporate both areas. Consequently, existing applications and evaluations often lack focus on attractiveness effectiveness, which should be addressed the levels body, controller, game scenario following a holistic design approach. To contribute to this topic as proof-of-concept, we designed ExerCube, an adaptive setup. We evaluated participants'...

Self-determination theory (SDT) has become one of the most frequently used and well-validated theories in HCI research, modelling relation basic psychological needs, intrinsic motivation, positive experience wellbeing. This makes it a prime candidate for 'motor theme' driving more integrated, systematic, theory-guided research. However, its use remained superficial disjointed across various application domains like games, health wellbeing, or learning. workshop therefore convenes researchers...

Games for change have attracted the interest of humanitarian aid organizations and researchers alike. However, their effectiveness to promote behavior such as donating remains unclear. Furthermore, little is known about how key game properties interactivity presentation mode impact these games, or player attitudes experiences relate interplay between behavior. In this study, experimental conditions were systematically varied in mode. Thereby, 234 participants played, watched, read through...

Despite the emergence of many gameful design methods in literature, there is a lack evaluation specific to design. To address this gap, we present new set guidelines for heuristic interactive systems. First, review several identify dimensions motivational affordances most often employed. Then, 28 gamification heuristics aimed at enabling experts rapidly evaluate system. The resulting are method user experience

We present the design and preliminary results of validation Player Experience Inventory (PXI). Based on input 64 experts in field player-computer interaction, we designed refined this new scale. Our scale is based MDA framework (and Means-End theory, underlying MDA). The PXI incorporates two subscales, one with dimensions at functional level (i.e., dynamics) psycho-social aesthetics). initial results, via principal factor analysis, suggest can be used accurately to evaluate player...

Videogames can transform the perspectives and attitudes of players. Prior discussion on this transformative potential has typically been limited to non-entertainment videogames with explicit transformational goals. However, recreational gaming appears hold considerable for igniting deeply personal experiences profound transformation in Towards understanding phenomenon, we conducted an explorative autoethnographic study. For this, first author played five narrative-driven while collecting...

Self-determination theory (SDT), a psychological of human motivation, is prominent paradigm in human-computer interaction (HCI) research on games. However, our prior literature review observed trend towards shallow applications the theory. This follow-up work takes broader view -- examining SDT scholarship games, wider corpus SDT-based HCI games (N=259), and perspectives from industry practitioner conference to help explain current SDT. Our findings suggest that perfunctory originate part...