research-article

Design and evaluation of player experience of a location-based mobile game

Authors:

Tara Carrigy,

Katsiaryna Naliuka,

Natasa Paterson,

Mads HaahrAuthors Info & Claims

NordiCHI '10: Proceedings of the 6th Nordic Conference on Human-Computer Interaction: Extending Boundaries

Pages 92 - 101

https://doi.org/10.1145/1868914.1868929

Published: 16 October 2010 Publication History

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Abstract

This paper reports on the design and evaluation of player experience of a Location-Based Mobile Game set in Dublin, Ireland in which players act as paranormal investigators hunting for ghosts and gathering evidence of paranormal activity. The paper focuses on players' experience of engagement and immersion, which was evaluated through a qualitative user study undertaken over a three-day period with the participation of 19 subjects. We first discuss the concept of immersion in gaming and then review related work before presenting the design and implementation of our prototype and the results of our user study. The results show that the experience succeeds in creating a high level of immersion at several stages in the game and that this immersion can be influenced by several factors including usability, control, modes of interaction, aesthetics, flow and, perhaps most significantly, choice of location.

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Cited By

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Haider AWallner GGerling KVanden Abeele V(2024)An Investigation of the Test-Retest Reliability of the miniPXIProceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/36770588:CHI PLAY(1-24)Online publication date: 15-Oct-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3677058
Haahr MRudenko SJakubowski K(2024)Alice Dalí augmented reality: Evaluating a cultural outdoors game for intergenerational playEntertainment Computing10.1016/j.entcom.2024.100865(100865)Online publication date: Aug-2024
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.entcom.2024.100865
Kim YLu JHöllerer T(2023)Dynamic Theater: Location-Based Immersive Dance Theater, Investigating User Guidance and ExperienceProceedings of the 29th ACM Symposium on Virtual Reality Software and Technology10.1145/3611659.3615705(1-11)Online publication date: 9-Oct-2023
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Index Terms

Design and evaluation of player experience of a location-based mobile game
1. Human-centered computing
  1. Human computer interaction (HCI)
    1. HCI design and evaluation methods
  2. Interaction design
    1. Interaction design process and methods
      1. User centered design

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Reviews

Reviewer: John R Bowditch

A location-based mobile game-played by 19 participants pretending to be paranormal investigators-is presented in this paper. The users' experiences were evaluated to qualitatively assess player engagement and immersion. Location-based mobile games, similar to augmented reality (AR) games, are continually evolving due to the popularity of rich media mobile devices. Viking Ghost Hunt , the game designed and tested for this research, is an adventure/role-playing game based on a ghost story from the Viking period in Dublin, Ireland. There were two design goals set forth by the researchers: "To give meaning to play by maintaining the aesthetics of role-play, and to exploit the characteristics of the locations by integrating them into the game to create an engaging game world." Location awareness, such as the integration of global positioning systems (GPSs) and digital maps, allows for an expansive range of design opportunities for game designers. As the results of this study show, the experience succeeds in creating a high level of immersion at several stages in the game and ... this immersion can be influenced by several factors, including usability, control, modes of interaction, aesthetics, flow, and, perhaps most significantly, choice of location. The research methods are sound and the references used are relevant. This paper provides useful insight into a new and rapidly expanding topic in game and interactive media design. Online Computing Reviews Service

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Published In

NordiCHI '10: Proceedings of the 6th Nordic Conference on Human-Computer Interaction: Extending Boundaries

October 2010

889 pages

ISBN:9781605589343

DOI:10.1145/1868914

General Chairs:
Ebba Þóra Hvannberg
University of Iceland, Iceland
,
Marta Kristín Lárusdóttir
Reykjavik University, Iceland
,
Program Chairs:
Ann Blandford
University College London
,
Jan Gulliksen
Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden

Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

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SIGCHI: ACM Special Interest Group on Computer-Human Interaction

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Association for Computing Machinery

New York, NY, United States

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Published: 16 October 2010

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NordiCHI '10: 6th Nordic Conference on Human-Computer Interaction

October 16 - 20, 2010

Reykjavik, Iceland

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Haider AWallner GGerling KVanden Abeele V(2024)An Investigation of the Test-Retest Reliability of the miniPXIProceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/36770588:CHI PLAY(1-24)Online publication date: 15-Oct-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3677058
Haahr MRudenko SJakubowski K(2024)Alice Dalí augmented reality: Evaluating a cultural outdoors game for intergenerational playEntertainment Computing10.1016/j.entcom.2024.100865(100865)Online publication date: Aug-2024
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.entcom.2024.100865
Kim YLu JHöllerer T(2023)Dynamic Theater: Location-Based Immersive Dance Theater, Investigating User Guidance and ExperienceProceedings of the 29th ACM Symposium on Virtual Reality Software and Technology10.1145/3611659.3615705(1-11)Online publication date: 9-Oct-2023
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Muñoz DPedell SSterling L(2022)Evaluating Engagement in Technology-Supported Social Interaction by People Living with Dementia in Residential CareACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction10.1145/351449729:5(1-31)Online publication date: 20-Oct-2022
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Haahr MWiil P(2022)A Lens to the Past: Using Site-Specific Augmented Reality for Historical InterpretationSerious Games10.1007/978-3-031-15325-9_19(259-265)Online publication date: 22-Sep-2022
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Hameed AKlungre ØPerkis ABolme GBrownridge A(2021)User Evaluation of a Storytelling Application Assisting Visitors in Protected Nature AreasInteractive Storytelling10.1007/978-3-030-92300-6_34(349-359)Online publication date: 4-Dec-2021
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Swedlund KBarr M(2021)The Gilmorehill Mystery: A Location-Based Game for Campus ExplorationEntertainment Computing – ICEC 202110.1007/978-3-030-89394-1_18(236-251)Online publication date: 2-Nov-2021
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Westerholt RLorei HHöfle B(2020)Behavioural Effects of Spatially Structured Scoring Systems in Location-Based Serious Games—A Case Study in the Context of OpenStreetMapISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information10.3390/ijgi90201299:2(129)Online publication date: 22-Feb-2020
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Carneiro NDarin TViana WGuimaraes RSaibel Santos Cde Santana VKronbauer A(2019)What are we talking about when we talk about location-based games evaluation?Proceedings of the 18th Brazilian Symposium on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3357155.3358449(1-13)Online publication date: 22-Oct-2019
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Jones CTheodosis SLykourentzou I(2019)The Enthusiast, the Interested, the Sceptic, and the CynicJournal on Computing and Cultural Heritage 10.1145/329771612:1(1-26)Online publication date: 20-Feb-2019
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