Statistical Signifcance Testing -or Null Hypothesis Signifcance Testing (NHST) -is common to quantitative CHI PLAY research. Drawing from recent work in HCI and psychology promoting transparent statistics and the reduction of questionable research practices, we systematically review the reporting quality of 119 CHI PLAY papers using NHST (data and analysis plan at OSF.io). We fnd that over half of these papers employ NHST without specifc statistical hypotheses or research questions, which may risk the proliferation of false positive fndings. Moreover, we observe inconsistencies in the reporting of sample sizes and statistical tests. These issues refect fundamental incompatibilities between NHST and the frequently exploratory work common to CHI PLAY. We discuss the complementary roles of exploratory and confrmatory research, and provide a template for more transparent research and reporting practices. CCS CONCEPTS• Human-centered computing → Empirical studies in HCI .

Videogames receive increasing acclaim as a medium capable of artistic expression, emotional resonance, and even transformative potential. Yet while discussions concerning the status of games as art have a long history in games research, little is known about the player experience (PX) of games as art, their emotional characteristics, and what impact they may have on players. Drawing from Empirical Aesthetics, we surveyed 174 people about whether they had an art experience with videogames and what emotions they experienced. Our findings showcase the prominence of epistemic emotions for videogame art experiences, beyond the negative and mixed emotional responses previously examined, as well as the range of personal impacts such experiences may have. These findings are consistent with art experience phenomena characteristic of other art forms. Moreover, we discuss how our study relates to prior research on emotions and reflection in PX, the importance of games' representational qualities in art experiences, and identify lines of further inquiry. All data, study materials, and analyses are available at https://osf.io/ryvt6/?view_only=965fa2fd34dc4f728685fe865f09b446

Videogames receive increasing acclaim as a medium capable of artistic expression, emotional resonance, and even transformative potential. Yet while discussions concerning the status of games as art have a long history in games research, little is known about the player experience (PX) of games as art, their emotional characteristics, and what impact they may have on players. Drawing from Empirical Aesthetics, we surveyed 174 people about whether they had an art experience with videogames and what emotions they experienced. Our findings showcase the prominence of epistemic emotions for videogame art experiences, beyond the negative and mixed emotional responses previously examined, as well as the range of personal impacts such experiences may have. These findings are consistent with art experience phenomena characteristic of other art forms. Moreover, we discuss how our study relates to prior research on emotions and reflection in PX, the importance of games' representational qualities in art experiences, and identify lines of further inquiry. All data, study materials, and analyses are available at https://osf.io/ryvt6/.

Statistical Significance Testing -- or Null Hypothesis Significance Testing (NHST) -- is common to quantitative CHI PLAY research. Drawing from recent work in HCI and psychology promoting transparent statistics and the reduction of questionable research practices, we systematically review the reporting quality of 119 CHI PLAY papers using NHST (data and analysis plan at https://osf.io/4mcbn/. We find that over half of these papers employ NHST without specific statistical hypotheses or research questions, which may risk the proliferation of false positive findings. Moreover, we observe inconsistencies in the reporting of sample sizes and statistical tests. These issues reflect fundamental incompatibilities between NHST and the frequently exploratory work common to CHI PLAY. We discuss the complementary roles of exploratory and confirmatory research, and provide a template for more transparent research and reporting practices.

Images are never seen in isolation. Instead, they are perceived within a spatial and temporal tapestry of neighboring images. What impact do other images have on our emotional response toward a particular image? Answers to this basic question have vital implications for a range of fields-especially for visual communication and for curating art, where resources are invested in arranging images within a visual context. Previous studies have provided mixed results, suggesting that juxtaposed images may lead to contrast or assimilation processes increasing and decreasing our liking of an image. But how specific image features in neighboring images (image's ambiguity or formal similarities between images) modulate our affective interpretation of an image has almost never been explored. In Study 1, we compared the emotion perceived in art photographs ("target" images) when displayed on their own versus when displayed in juxtaposition with negatively or positively valenced nonart ("context") images. Additionally, we analyzed the influence of the artwork's perceived ambiguity. In Study 2, we examined the effect of the perceiver's expertise and the formal similarity between the images on the rated valence of the target image. Our results show that the emotion perceived in the artwork contrasted away from or assimilated toward the valence perceived in the context image depending on which evaluative dimension was activated. Moreover, the influence of negative contextual material on the target image's valence was more pronounced. We conclude by saying that the evaluative dimension is part of the pictorial context that influences the affective interpretation of an image.

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Empowering people through technology is a core concern of HCI, yet little is known about how players experience empowerment or disempowerment through videogames. We surveyed 250 participants about their dis-/empowering videogame experiences, investigating why they felt dis-/empowered, and how these experiences related to core player experience constructs including emotion and basic needs satisfaction. While empowering experiences were often positive, and disempowering experiences often negative, we found meaningful exceptions to this, and a surprising complexity in player accounts. We capture this diversity in seven themes. These range from “heroic victories´´ which follow long periods of failure, to positive experiences of disempowerment, which were appreciated for their narrative meaning. By articulating these complex experiences, and relating them to quantitative measures we provide a foundation for understanding of the role of dis-/empowerment in player experience, and highlight avenues for future work. Data and analyses are available at https://osf.io/zhtu8/