The Convergence of Player Experience Questionnaires

Abstract

Player experience is an important field of digital games research to understand how games influence players. A common way to directly measure players' reported experiences is through questionnaires. However, the large number of questionnaires currently in use introduces several challenges both in terms of selecting suitable measures and comparing results across studies. In this paper, we review some of the most widely known and used questionnaires and focus on the immersive experience questionnaire (IEQ), the game engagement questionnaire (GEQ), and the player experience of need satisfaction (PENS), with the aim to position each of them in relation to each other. This was done through an online survey, in which we gathered 270 responses from players about their most recent experience of a digital game. Our findings show considerable convergence between these three questionnaires and that there is room to refine them into a more widely applicable measure of general game engagement.

"A Game that Makes You Question..."

“…While much of player experience research has focused on concepts such as enjoyment [38] or immersion [13], there has also been recent interest in more complex and richer forms of player experience. Marsh and Costello [37], for instance, call for more work on 'serious experience', which goes beyond purely positive engagement to consider thought-provoking experiences that linger with players well beyond the immediate experience and encourage reflection.…”

Power-Ups in Digital Games

“…We measured one's feeling of competence and autonomy using the Player Experience of Need Satisfaction (PENS) scales [28]. However, we did not include the control, relatedness, or immersion sub-scales, as these experiences were already covered by the IEQ [12]. All items from both questionnaires were ranked from 1 to 7 on a Likert scale.…”

Controlling VR games: control schemes and the player experience

“…The questionnaire measures four factors that contribute to immersion: cognitive involvement, emotional involvement, control, and real-world dissociation. The IEQ is an established questionnaire [50] that considers player control as an aspect of immersion, an aspect highly relevant to our study. Our questionnaire included a subset of 31 questions taken from the original 33-question set (questions 23 and 24 of the questionnaire were omitted because they were not relevant to the present study).…”