The Effect of Bespoke Motion Controllers on Player Immersion

The purpose of this study is to understand the embodied interaction existing in the connection between a bespoke motion controller and a represented activity that it is intended for in a digital VR game. The main goal of the project is to gain knowledge in how bespoke motion controllers can be used to improve player immersion and to enhance player engagement. This research tackles two of the main IGGI themes: embodied interaction (motion controllers, VR consumer technology) and potentially gamification (motion sensing for training).

Embodied interaction in digital games has been shown to affect player arousal and produce neurobiochemical changes when the player is performing a movement. Engagement and social interactions have been found to increase when performing realistic movements in digital games. Different studies showed that the introduction of motion interactivity into the studied media improved targeted outcomes. In short, the use of motion controllers in digital games has the potential to affect the player in a multifactorial manner, however there is a necessity for research to clarify how the technology might be best implemented.

The proposed research PhD will combine qualitative and quantitative methodologies to assess immersion and arousal in using bespoke movement controllers. Thanks to my previous experience with customized consumer motion controllers, having even exhibited a PS Move artistic game on an academic conference, I will build and experimentally test prototype VR games/controllers.

During the PhD study I plan to investigate the game feel of motion controllers and identify possible design patterns. As props are used to immerse into the fictional world and mechanics and story might discord, there could also exist a dissonance between the motion controller and the fictional world, being my intention to study how that might affect player engagement having arousal and immersion as pathways.

The outcomes of the experimental research using real humans as subjects, performed in collaboration with my proposed main and secondary supervisors Dr Sebastian Deterding and Dr Marco Gillies, will have an impact on game designers and game companies working with motion controllers, improving the next generation of motion controlled virtual environments.

The IGGI Centre for Doctoral Training will impact upon:

The Digital Games Industry: IGGI will inject a substantial cohort of 55+ PhD graduates and a wide range of academic research leaders with direct experience of research collaboration with the UK digital games industry. Although large, the UK games industry is fragmented and geographically dispersed, consisting primarily of SMEs. Increasing skill levels and injecting research advances in such a community is best achieved through employment of and engagement with creative and entrepreneurial PhD graduates with good communication skills, and through stable long-term government-funded collaborative projects which offer the opportunity for research engagement at a time to suit the business cycles of games industry partners. IGGI offers the opportunity for a step change, yielding increased profits through an internationally distinctive UK games industry which is technologically advanced and research-aware. The financial barriers to starting a company in this area are low and many IGGI graduates will start their own games businesses, mentored by experienced investors and entrepreneurs, significantly increasing their chances of creating a successful games enterprise. Data mining tools developed during IGGI will allow increased understanding of game players, which can increase profitability of mainstream games.

Parents, Game Players and Wider Society: Large and growing numbers of people are playing digital games with unprecedented enthusiasm. In a recent Forbes magazine article it was suggested that, by the age of 21, the typical child has played an average of 10,000 hours of digital games. Creating games which engage a wider range of players and which increase the social and scientific value obtained through playing games can have massive benefits: both economic ones and ones which harness the massive "cognitive surplus" implied by game players who are clocking up thousands of game hours. The potential benefits here are cultural (e.g. to raise awareness in important areas such as environmental change), scientific (e.g. to conduct experiments which use artificial economies to test economic theory), social (e.g. to educate children about science) and therapeutic (e.g. to use games to increase mobility in the elderly).

Scientists: Gameplay data can provide information about human behaviour and preference on a massive scale - this provides a major new experimental tool for researchers in Economics, Ecology/Biology, Computer Science, Psychology, Mathematics, Media and others. The very recent announcement (20th June) of a proposed call in the EU Horizon 2020 research funding programme on "Advanced digital gaming/gamification technologies" underlines how much the EU values this area and the opportunities for pan-European research in games and sustainability for IGGI.

IGGI Graduates and Supervisors: Digital games are already a major attractor to computer science and digital media courses. IGGI will provide a beacon for innovation in digital games, with heavy competition for PhD places allowing recruitment of top students. For each IGGI graduate, learning and conducting research alongside a strong cohort of students with related but different interests and expertise, with extensive interaction with industry, will give rise to a highly rounded and employable PhD graduate, who will be highly sought by both UK games industry and the growing games research community. Supervisors will gain knowledge at the cutting edge of games and gamification research.

Through the CDT, IGGI investigators, supervisors and students will become well versed in the issues and techniques of the digital games industry, developing a long-term understanding which will, we believe, result in a stronger digital games industry, a wealth of fascinating new research questions, and real benefits for wider society through the now-ubiquitous medium of digital games.