Games Institute researchers present work at ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

Katja Rogers, Sukran Karaosmanoglu, Maximilian Altmeyer, Ally Suarez, Lennart E. Nacke.

“Much Realistic, Such Wow! A Systematic Literature Review of Realism in Digital Games”

“Researchers reference realism in digital games without sufficient specificity. Without clarity about the dimensions of realism, we cannot assess how and when to aim for a higher degree of realism, when lower realism suffices, or when purposeful unrealism is ideal for a game and can benefit player experience (PX). To address this conceptual gap, we conducted a systematic review using thematic synthesis to distinguish between types of realism currently found in the digital games literature. We contribute qualitative themes that showcase contradictory design goals of realism/unrealism. From these themes, we created a framework (i.e., a hierarchical taxonomy and mapping) of realism dimensions in digital games as a conceptual foundation. Our themes and framework enable a workable specificity for designing or analyzing types of realism, equip future work to explore effects of specific realism types on PX, and offer a starting point for similar efforts in non-game applications.”

Maximilian Altmeyer, Vladislav Hnatovskiy, Katja Rogers, Pascal Lessel, Lennart E. Nacke.

“Here Comes No Boom! The Lack of Sound Feedback Effects on Performance and User Experience in a Gamified Image Classification Task”

“Sound effects (SFX) complement the visual feedback provided by gamification elements in gamified systems. However, the impact of SFX has not been systematically studied. To bridge this gap, we investigate the effects of SFX - supplementing points (as a gamification element) - on task performance and user experience in a gamified image classification task. We created 18 SFX, studied their impact on perceived valence and arousal (N=49) and selected four suitable SFX to be used in a between-participants user study (N=317). Our findings show that neither task performance, affect, immersion, nor enjoyment were significantly affected by the sounds. Only the pressure/tension factor differed significantly, indicating that low valence sounds should be avoided to accompany point rewards. Overall, our results suggest that SFX seem to have less impact than expected in gamified systems. Hence, using SFX in gamification should be a more informed choice and should receive more attention in gamification research.”

Alexi Orchard, Marcel O'Gorman, Chelsea La Vecchia, Jason Lajoie.

“Augmented Reality Smart Glasses in Focus: A User Group Report”

“Augmented Reality Smart Glasses (ARSG) are a recent development in consumer-level personal computing technology. Research on ARSGs has largely focused on new forms of etiquette for these personal computing devices, but little else has been examined due in part to consumer availability. The most well-known example of ARSGs is Google Glass, which are no longer available for consumer purchase due to privacy concerns. Google has more recently transitioned to industry-focused applications with the Glass Enterprise Edition [1]. Recent consumer-facing iterations on the technology include Snapchat Spectacles and Ray-Ban Stories, which reignite some of the anxieties surrounding wearable cameras. Focals by North, the ARSG product studied in this project, do not have the capacity to record video or audio, thus mitigating the risk of privacy breaches. This study examines how users of Focals employ the device, successfully or not, to facilitate daily activities such as scheduling, communication, wayfinding, and how non-users perceive the interactions of Focals users. Participants wrote blog responses and participated in a focus group on their daily experiences with the glasses; they also speculated on potential uses and features of future iterations relating to accessibility and entertainment purposes. Focals by North, a relatively low-cost ARSG, aims to make this tech mass market to “seamlessly [blend] technology into our world” [2]. However, this study found participants preferred choice when receiving notifications, and greatly questioned the need for notifications to appear in their field of vision. We anticipate that these results will inform frameworks for assessing consumer facing ARSG products in future work.

Robert P Gauthier, Mary Jean Costello, James R Wallace.

"I Will Not Drink With You Today": A Topic-Guided Thematic Analysis of Addiction Recovery on Reddit”

“Recovery from addiction is a journey that requires a lifetime of support from a strong network of peers. Many people seek out this support through online communities, like those on Reddit. However, as these communities developed outside of existing aid groups and medical practice, it is unclear how they enable recovery. Their scale also limits researchers' ability to engage through traditional qualitative research methods. To study these groups, we performed a topic-guided thematic analysis that used machine-generated topic models to purposively sample from two recovery subreddits: r/stopdrinking and r/OpiatesRecovery. We show that these communities provide access to an experienced and accessible support group whose discussions include consequences, reflections, and celebrations, but that also play a distinct metacommunicative role in supporting formal treatment. We discuss how these communities can act as knowledge sources to improve in-person recovery support and medical practice, and how computational techniques can enable HCI researchers to study communities at scale.”

Jeremy Hartmann, Daniel Vogel.

“Enhanced Videogame Livestreaming by Reconstructing an Interactive 3D Game View for Spectators”

“Many videogame players livestream their gameplay so remote spectators can watch for enjoyment, fandom, and to learn strategies and techniques. Current approaches capture the player's rendered RGB view of the game, and then encode and stream it as a 2D live video feed. We extend this basic concept by also capturing the depth buffer, camera pose, and projection matrix from the rendering pipeline of the videogame and package them all within a MPEG-4 media container. Combining these additional data streams with the RGB view, our system builds a real-time, cumulative 3D representation of the live game environment for spectators. This enables each spectator to individually control a personal game view in 3D. This means they can watch the game from multiple perspectives, enabling a new kind of videogame spectatorship experience.”

Max L Wilson, Lennart Nacke.

“How to: Peer Review for CHI (and Beyond)”

“A key challenge for new reviewers is getting the tone and structure of a review right. A skilful reviewer will provide enough information in their review to help editors or Associate Chairs decide about including a paper in a journal or proceedings. This course will help participants understand a) the expectations of different submission types, b) how different venues make decisions, and c) identifying strong contributions, robust methodologies, and clear writing to create reviews for these different settings. Participants will critique anonymised but real reviews, and try to guess the venue they are written for and the recommendation they make.”

Rina R. Wehbe, Siobhan Day Grady, and Christine Bauer.

“Allyship Fireside Chat”

“In this fireside chat, we will discuss what it means to be an ally and to create a supportive CHI community. We aim at generating discussion and suggestions on how to be a supportive community member. Join the discussion with Rina R. Wehbe and invited discussants. You can use The Hub to post your questions.”