Affective gaming: measuring emotion through the gamepad

ABSTRACT

In search of suitable methods for measuring the affective state of video-game players, this study investigates the hypothesis that the player's state of arousal will correspond with the pressure used to depress buttons on a gamepad. A video game was created that would detect the force of each button press during play. It was found that as the difficulty level of the game increased, players would hit the gamepad buttons significantly harder.

REFERENCES

• 1: Bersak, D., McDarby, G., Augenblick, N., McDarby, P., McDonnell, D., McDonald, B., & Karkun, R. Intelligent Biofeedback using an Immersive Competitive Environment. Online Proceedings for the Designing Ubiquitous Computing Games Workshop (Atlanta GA, Sept 2001), available at: www.viktoria.se/play/workshops/ubigame.ubicomp
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• 3: O'Hair, D.E. Biofeedback: Review, History and Application. Available at: www.users.cts.com/crash/d/deohair/psychoph.html
• 4: Richard Rouse , Steve Ogden, Game Design Theory and Practice, Wordware Publishing Inc., Plano, TX, 2000
• 5: Zen Warriors, available at www.play-ground.co.uk

INDEX TERMS

Keywords:
emotion and affective UI, empirical methods, quantitative, entertainment, input and Interaction technologies