Game features can create access barriers that undermine player experience for all users, and impede some users from playing. While segments of the games industry have made headway in reducing the number of barriers that players face, the extent to which these barriers remain present in contemporary commercial game titles has been largely unmeasured. We address this problem by measuring the implementation of accessibility features, and where games can improve. We conducted a content analysis of 30 top-played Steam games using the “basic accessibility features” from the Game Accessibility Guidelines. Our results show a positive trend: nearly two-thirds of basic accessibility features were fully implemented. However, there remains substantial room for improvement, as basic features are intended as a baseline, not a gold standard. Our work highlights that under-implemented accessibility features could be better supported at low cost and effort—highlighting a clear path to improvement for games industry stakeholders.

Abstract This study investigates the concept of psychological need frustration within the context of video games. We explore the potential of discrete in-game events, specifically the usage of widely popular ‘stun’ mechanics, to induce feelings of need frustration in players. We designed, developed and experimentally tested a bespoke video game with four conditions: No Stuns, Avoidable Stuns, Unavoidable Stuns and Layered Stuns (a combination of avoidable and unavoidable stuns). Our findings show that Unavoidable Stuns lead to statistically significantly greater autonomy need frustration. This finding has important implications for games research, as psychological need frustration is linked to negative effects on player engagement and wellbeing. Our results also highlight that a variety of stun mechanics can undermine psychological need satisfaction. Taken together, this work makes a meaningful contribution to HCI and games literature, showcasing that game mechanics can be designed in a way that undermines psychological needs. Research Highlights A study was conducted to investigate psychological needs frustration in a video game. Autonomy need frustration scores were higher in the presence of unavoidable stuns This study provides early evidence that psychological need frustration can be induced

This work explores perceptions of performance enhancer usage in esports. Specifically, we explored the perception of: food and food supplements; non-medical use of prescription drugs; drugs with some social acceptance (e.g. alcohol, nicotine, cannabis); drugs with lower social acceptance (e.g., psychedelics, opioids); and non-invasive brain stimulation (e.g. transcranial direct current stimulation). A mixed-methods approach was used to triangulate findings around three data sets, including both prompted and unprompted online forum comments, as well as survey data. The studies evidence that players are willing to use or are already using enhancers to increase their in-game performance, and that players are generally concerned about the use of enhancers in professional esports contexts. Furthermore, the community perceives that a substantial number of e-athletes use enhancers. The core contribution of this work is a comprehensive investigation into perspectives of esports performance enhancement, which highlights the urgent need for further research, as well as regulation by esports leagues.

Self-report assessment is important for research and game development, e.g., to gather data during play. Games can use dialogues with non-player characters (NPCs) to gather self-report data; however, players might respond differently to dialogues than questionnaires. Without guidance on how in-game assessment affects player perceptions and experiences, designers and researchers are in danger of making decisions that harm data quantity and quality, and perceptions of privacy. We conducted a user study to understand self-report collection from NPC dialogues and traditional in-game overlay questionnaires. Data quality and player experience measures autonomy, curiosity, immersion, and mastery did not differ significantly, although NPC dialogues enhanced meaning. NPC dialogues supported an increase in data quantity through voluntary 5-point scales but not via open responses; however, they also increased the perceived intimacy of shared information despite comparable objective intimacy. NPC dialogues are useful to gather quantitative self-report data. They enable a meaningful play experience but could facilitate negative effects related to privacy.

While evidence supports that some commercial off-the-shelf video games may promote mental wellbeing, it is an extensive time investment to experimentally identify games that benefit players. The time delay between commercial games research and commercial game development can render such research out-of-date. In this work, we explore player-written game reviews as a way to expeditiously identifying games with potential benefits for mental wellbeing. Through a content analysis of review data, we found that players publicly disclose experiences consistent with self-care. Our analysis generated categories related to coping and recovery, emotional regulation, social connectedness, and obsessive play. Through this process, we identified several games as strong candidates for further research. Our work contributes to an emerging research agenda of commercial video games as therapy (VGTx), by providing a technique for rapidly identifying games with therapeutic potential. Further, we demonstrate that Steam user reviews are a valuable source of affective player experience data-a contribution with broad implications for player experience research.

This paper outlines the theory-driven design and development of Puppy Island, a serious game for children aged three to five who are living with the chronic illness cystic fibrosis. Puppy Island differs from typical serious games, as its central learning and design objectives relate to long-term wellbeing and empowerment rather than short-term knowledge transfer. The Early Years Learning Framework and Self-Determination Theory informed the design and development of the iPad prototype, while domain experts from industry, academia and the broader cystic fibrosis community were consulted to establish user requirements and evaluate the iterative designs. We analyse the development process, domain expert feedback, and how the game's features relate to core theoretical pillars in order to highlight key lessons that can be applied to future work on serious games with comparable aims or target audiences.

Finding and revisiting objects in visual content collections is common in many analytics tasks. For large collections, filters are often used to reduce the number of items shown, but many systems generate a new ordering of the items for every filter update - and these changes make it difficult for users to remember the locations of important items. An alternative is to show the entire dataset in a spatially-stable layout, and show filter results with highlighting. The spatial approach has been shown to work well with small datasets, but little is known about how spatial memory scales to tasks with hundreds of items. To investigate the scalability of spatial presentations, we carried out a study comparing finding and re-finding performance with two data organizations: pages of items that re-generate item ordering with each filter change, and a spatially-stable organization that presents all 700 items at once. We found that although overall times were similar, the spatial interface was faster for revisitation, and participants used fewer filters than in the paged interface as they gained familiarity with the data. Our results add to previous work by showing that spatial interfaces can work well with datasets of hundreds of items, and that they better support a transition to fast revisitation using spatial memory.

The study examines the relationship of challenge-skill balance and the player experience through evaluation of competence, autonomy, presence, interest/enjoyment, and positive and negative affect states. To manipulate challenge-skill balance, three video game modes -- boredom (low challenge), balance (medium challenge), and overload (high challenge) -- were developed and experimentally tested (n = 45). The study showed that self-reported positive affect, autonomy, presence, and interest/enjoyment differed between the levels. The balance condition generally performed well in terms of positive player experiences, confirming the key role challenge-skill balance plays in designing for optimal play experiences. Interestingly, the study found significantly lower negative affect scores when playing the boredom condition. Greater feelings of competence were also reported for the boredom condition than the balance and overload conditions. Finally, some measures point to overload as a more enjoyable experience than boredom, suggesting possible player preference for challenge > skill imbalance over skill > challenge imbalance. Implications for design and future research are presented.