Natural in the eyes of the (be)holder: A survey on novelty and learning effects in the enjoyment of naturally mapped video game controllers.

Abstract

Video games can be understood as a series of interesting decisions, and the game controllers are key to making those decisions. Advances in gaming technology have encouraged the development of natural user interfaces (NUIs), which should provide a superior user experience as players are able to use preexisting mental models from physical interaction rather than learning an abstract mapping schema. However, anecdotal and previous empirical research suggest the opposite-gamers prefer more familiaralbeit-abstract gamepad controllers. Because the exact nature and mechanism of this preference remains open for investigation, we suggest two rivaling mechanisms related to novelty and learning. Comparing self-identified gamer regarding their last gamepad and NUIs experience in an online quasi-experimental survey design (N ϭ 248), participants in the current study had less experience using NUIs, resulting in lower self-efficacy and enjoyment. Learning effects (via experience with a controller), rather than novelty effects (via exposure to a unique controller), seem to be the most relevant mechanism to understanding how controllers impact game enjoyment. However, both controller novelty and learning effects were significant mediators of the link between controller type and perceived controller naturalness. Our data suggest that perceptions of "natural" do not only depend on technological features of a user interface, but also on the user's previous experiences with the device. As such, users need to build robust mental models of the controllers through experience, which over time become more natural with increasing proficiency. Public Policy Relevance StatementRecent developments in consumer virtual reality technologies, such as head-mounted displays and motion controllers, aim to allow natural interaction with video games and other virtual environments. These developments assume that "naturalness" is a property of the technology itself, although our data suggest that naturalness very much depends on the user's experience with the controller and the perception of the interaction. With video games, traditional handheld gamepads were perceived as more natural than so-called natural user interfaces-a function of player's learned experiences with the former.

That bygone feeling: Controller ergonomics and nostalgia in video game play.

“…Here, we are careful to distinguish perceived naturalness (that a certain controller is seen as more intuitive for a given video game) from more objective measures of naturalness (such as those controllers that progressively embody the natural human senses; Biocca, 1997). For example, Tamborini et al (2010) found that a handheld game controller was perceived as more natural for a bowling video game than an actual bowling ball controller-one explanation being that a video game controller was more familiar to participants (also noted in the study by Liebold et al, 2020). For nostalgic video games, the game and the controller used to play it become perceptually and mentally tied to each other.…”

The effects of interaction fidelity on game experience in virtual reality.

“…Research studies that investigated these new control methods in the 2010s found that these more natural user interfaces (NUIs) tended to produce a heightened sense of presence, greater interactivity, increased realism, and higher levels of enjoyment than traditional gamepad interfaces used to play similar games (Shafer et al, 2011(Shafer et al, , 2014Skalski et al, 2011). However, other evidence suggests that simply having a NUI doesn't always result in a better gaming experience (Bowman et al, 2017;Liebold et al, 2020;Rogers et al, 2015;Seibert & Shafer, 2017). As mentioned, novelty has been forwarded as an explanation for some of the findings of strong impact in the past (Liebold et al, 2020).…”

“…However, Bowman et al (2017) were quite correct in their assertion that discrete qualities of the differences produced by NUIs versus traditional gamepad controllers are unaccounted for. Some progress has been made on that front, with Bowman and colleagues’ own work leading the way (Bowman et al, 2017; Liebold et al, 2020; Rogers et al, 2015). Others have hinted at the possibility that so-called NUIs may not always be perceived as the most natural control method (Seibert & Shafer, 2017), but those findings were thought to be mostly due to failings of the specific NUI in question.…”

“…Others have hinted at the possibility that so-called NUIs may not always be perceived as the most natural control method (Seibert & Shafer, 2017), but those findings were thought to be mostly due to failings of the specific NUI in question. Since then, findings have indicated that players’ perceptions of controller naturalness are dependent on how much experience they have with the controller being utilized (Bowman et al, 2017; Liebold et al, 2020). This has to do with how well-developed the player’s mental model is for that particular controller (Liebold et al, 2020), or how well the mental model is developed for performing certain actions within a virtual video game environment (Rogers et al, 2015).…”

“…A NUI should, by definition, closely represent the movements one would actually make in the real world, and how well using the NUI invokes real-world mental models of the activity determines how natural the controller feels. The fact is that real-world movements have rarely translated into success in gaming with NUIs, as noted by Liebold et al (2020), with the example of tennis on the Wii. Some allusion has been made to the idea that some types of games may lend themselves to the use of NUIs (Bowman et al, 2017).…”