Game designers and developers benefit from gathering data from players; however, interrupting play with questionnaires can harm experience. Previous work has suggested that embedding questionnaires into games, such as through dialogue choices when interacting with non-player characters (NPCs) can help, but there is no evidence that dialogue choices can model the real-world beliefs of players. In this study we demonstrate two methods of successfully predicting responses to validated scales of sexist beliefs from NPC dialogues that do not differ in their resulting narrative engagement. Our findings open opportunities for better tailoring games and game experiences by modeling players through their in-game interactions.

Through free choice, individuals can exert control over the environment and experience agency. Research has suggested that tailoring aspects of choice to a player's type can provide benefits; however, commercial Role Playing Games (RPGs) generally provide static opposing options from a spectrum (e.g., paragon versus renegade). To inform the design of choices in RPGs, we conducted three studies comparing configurations of dialogue choices across the morality spectrum in an RPG prototype. Study 1 compared two polar (opposing) choices with two moral or two immoral choices. Study 2 contrasted polar choices with similar choices tailored to the player's morality, modelled from their initial 10 decisions. Study 3 compared polar choices with two tailored and one opposing choice. Our results consistently show that including the opposing choice is important to a player's identification with their character, even when we can reliably predict the decision that they will make.

Research on sexism in digital games has suggested that women self-select out of playing sexist games; however, assuming a homogenous gender-based response does not account for the diversity of identities within a gender group. Gender-incongruent responses to recent events like #gamergate implies that the gender of the participant is not paramount to experience, but that their beliefs about gender roles are. To explore the role of sexist beliefs on experience in sexist games, we created three versions of a game that were identical except for the presence of sexist imagery and/or dialogue. We show that enjoyment of sexist games is not predicted by player gender, but by the player's pre-existing beliefs about gender. Furthermore, avatar identification is the pathway through which enjoyment is facilitated. Finally, sexist dialogue does not improve the play experience for anyone rather it harms experience for players of all genders who do not hold sexist beliefs.

Fostering intrinsic motivation with interactive applications can increase the enjoyment that people experience when using technology, but can also translate into more invested effort. We propose that identifying with an avatar in a game will increase the intrinsic motivation of the player. We analyzed data from 126 participants playing a custom endless runner game and show that similarity identification, embodied identification, and wishful identification increases autonomy, immersion, invested effort, enjoyment, and positive affect. We also show that greater identification translates into motivated behaviour as operationalized by the time that players spent in an unending version of the infinite runner. Important for the design of games for entertainment and serious purposes, we discuss how identification with an avatar can be facilitated to cultivate intrinsic motivation within and beyond games.

The social nature of multiplayer games provides compelling play experiences that are dynamic, unpredictable, and satisfying; however, playing digital games with others can result in feeling socially excluded. There are several known harmful effects of ostracism, including on cognition and the interpretation of social information. To investigate the effects of social exclusion in the context of a multiplayer game, we developed and validated a social exclusion paradigm that we embedded in an online game. Called Operator Challenge, our paradigm influenced feelings of social exclusion and access to hostile cognitions (measured through a word-completion task). In addition, the degree of experienced belonging predicted player enjoyment, effort, and the number of hostile words completed; however, the experience measures did not mediate the relationship between belonging and access to hostile cognitions. Our work facilitates understanding the causes and effects of exclusion, which is important for the study of player experience in multiplayer games.