From Objective to Subjective Difficulty Evaluation in Video Games

Abstract

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Dynamic Difficulty Adjustment Impact on Players' Confidence

“…(figure 4). Following results of previous research [17], we do not find such easy effect for the other games. One explanation is that the logical game may be closest to the task used in cognitive psychology studies, implying pure logical challenge like mathematical problems or general knowledge questionnaires.…”

“…The current experimentation is investigating a potential influence of DDA systems on players' perception of their chances of success, and thus, on players' confidence. Following the results of our previous research showing the existence of a gap between the objective difficulty of a challenge and the perceived difficulty of the same challenge [17], we want to study the influence of DDA systems on this gap, called the difficulty estimation error. As we suggest that balanced difficulty should boost player's confidence, our hypothesis is that the gap is widened when difficulty is adapted to players skills.…”

“…Perception of difficulty is fundamental: as Nakamura puts it, the most important aspect of difficulty, when it comes to it's impact on game experience, is the player's perception of this difficulty, not the actual one [45]. The thing is that player's perception of difficulty is absolutely not straightforward and can be strongly biased [17]. Furthermore, player's estimation of the useful effort to overcome a challenge depends on multiple factors.…”

Difficulty influence on motivation over time in video games using survival analysis

“…is is even more problematic if we want to assess the impact of di culty on motivation over time, because we hardly can rely on a post experiment questionnaire to accurately evaluate the evolution of di culty throughout the game. It is possible to integrate such an assessment to the gameplay, as Constant et al did for the subjective di culty [5] But this kind of assessment is restricted to turn based games and necessitates a gameplay modi cation. en, we can try to estimate di culty and motivation from the player's actual behavior in the game.…”

Real-World and Virtual-World Practices for Virtual Reality Games: Effects on Spatial Perception and Game Performance

“…Confidence is critical for motivating players in gameplay, as the self-efficacy theory of motivation [37] says that confidence in completing a task is a crucial aspect of motivation. Researchers have been studying confidence in relation to playing digital games; Constant et al [39] conducted an experiment on the deviation between players' estimation of their own success rates and their actual game performance. They determined that participants overestimated their chance of success at the hardest level of a game [39], which was in agreement with related findings in cognitive psychology [40].…”