Using physiological measures in conjunction with other UX approaches for better understanding of the player's gameplay experiences

Abstract: The goal of video games is to challenge and entertain the players. Successful video games deliver experience that impact players on a level of arousal. Therefore undertaking a user experience (UX) study is crucial to ensure that a game achieves both critical and financial success. However, traditional usability methods (observation, subjective reporting, questionnaire, and interview) have a number of limitations on game user research. In this study we capture player's physiological measures during a gameplay session, to indicate micro-events that have caused changes in their body signals. At the post-gameplay interviews we ask participants to comment and describe their feelings on the selected events. The aim of this study is not to over-interpret physiological measures, but on using blips in measures to help identify key points in a game, which we then use to investigate further with the participant. This approach provides a method that can identify not only the negative user experience and usability issues but also the events which have a positive impact on player's experience.