Video Game Satisfaction with Adaptive Game AI

1. Video Game Satisfaction with Adaptive Game AI By Aaron Elkin

3. What Makes Video Games Enjoyable? • This is a popular question, which goes back many years. • What Makes Games so Fun? [Malone TW 1980] • Game flow: A Model for Evaluating Player Enjoyment [Sweetser P 2005] • Enjoyment recognition from physiological data in a car racing game [Tognetti 2010] • Explaining the enjoyment of playing video games: the role of competition [Vorderer 2003] • There are specifically agreed upon traits, which are accepted as aspects of a “fun” game. • Challenging • Engages Self-Esteem • Engages Curiosity

4. Why Video Games are fun? • John Snowden, in 2011, from the University of Derby ran a study showing that games became more fun when they implemented an adaptive element in the AI.

5. Research Question • How much does personality affect user’s enjoyment of game play with an adaptive game AI?

6. Methods • Mrs. Pacman Game Types • Generic Game Type - Control • Difficulty Adaptation • Changes the game speed • Changes ghost reversal behavior • Changes ghost strategy • Event Adaptation • Changes the images of the ghosts • Happy, Sad, Chill, Angry • Adds a story element to the game • Changes ghost behavior due to events • Level Ending • Ghost Eating

7. Personality • Big Five Personality Test • Extroversion • Agreeableness • Conscientiousness • Neuroticism • Openness

8. Hypothesis • Game Types • Event Adaptation: • Neuroticism • People high in neuroticism tend to be more worried and have higher stress levels than other people. • Agreeableness • People high in agreeableness tend to be very kind, easy going and are more trusting than other people. • Difficulty Adaptation: • Openness • People high in openness tend to be very creative, and imaginative and are more curious than other people • Conscientiousness • People high in conscientiousness tend to be very well organized, punctual and hard working compared to other people. • Extroversion • People high in extroversion tend to be very talkative, and active people who are generally more affectionate than other people.

9. Procedure • Begin the study by briefing the participants on what this study is. • Issue the personality test • Play the control version of the game • Play the emotional and difficulty adaptation versions of the game • The order of the game will be randomized to control for outside variables. • Issue the satisfaction survey

10. Evaluation • Users will be evaluated as they play the game • What levels the users dies on when they finish a game. • How many points the user accrues in each life. • How many ghosts the player eats during each game. • Users will also be given a satisfaction survey regarding their gaming experience. • How well the user thinks they did in game • How much the user enjoyed each game type • How likely the user would be to want to replay each game type

11. Analysis and Results • Hypothesis Recap • Event Adaptation – Neuroticism, Agreeableness • Difficulty Adaptation – Conscientiousness, Openness, Extroversion • Actual Emotional Correlations • Event Adaptation – Extroversion, Neuroticism • Difficulty Adaptation – Agreeableness, Openness • Control - Conscientiousness

12. Analysis and Results • Player Skill and Preference • Players who scored higher in overall skill were more likely to enjoy the difficulty version (M=6.2) than the event version. (M=5.6) • Skill had no significant correlation with overall game enjoyment scores • Adaptive Game Variants were effective overall • Every participant reported higher enjoyment scores of the adaptive variants than the control version

13. Discussion • Poor predictions from our Hypothesis • The significant correlations in order of strength • Event Adaptation enjoyment and Extroversion • Difficulty Adaptation enjoyment and Player Skill • Difficulty Adaptation and Neuroticism had a strong negative correlation • Control version enjoyment and Conscientiousness

14. Discussion • The strongest correlations • Event adaptation enjoyment and extroversion (r=.88, p<.01) • Difficulty adaptation enjoyment and player skill(r=.68, p=.04) • Difficulty adaptation and neuroticism (r=-.82, p<.01) • Control version enjoyment and conscientiousness. (r=.78, p=.01) • The lack of stronger personality correlations • Fewer participants than we would want • Not a strong enough discrepancy in how people chose enjoyment.

15. Relevance • The video game industry generates over forty billion dollars a year • Computing advancements made in video games can be applied elsewhere • The relationship between personality and video game playing is relevant for marketing purposes • Determining traits that make games more fun for different personality types can aid in making more enjoyable video games in the future.

16. Conclusions • Video Games are a highly relevant industry and this study gives insight into different players gaming preferences. • The results of this study indicate that: • People who are more frequent gamers are more likely to enjoy games that conforms to their skill level • People who are outgoing may be more likely to enjoy games where they feel involved in the story and world • People who get easily stressed are not likely to enjoy games that will be constantly challenging • Extraversion and Neuroticism are the personality levels that are most strongly related to video game preference.

17. Questions?