Only for casual players?: investigating player differences in full-body game interaction

Abstract

Full-body motion gestures enable realistic and intuitive input in video games. However, little is known regarding how different kinds of players engage/disengage with full-body game interaction. In this paper, adopting a user-typing approach, we explore player differences and their preferences in full-body gesture interaction (i.e., Kinect). Specifically, we hypothesize three human factors that influence player engagement in full-body game interaction, i.e., the player's motivation to succeed (achiever vs. casual player), motivation to move (mover vs. non-mover), and game expertise (gamer vs. non-gamer). To explore the hypotheses, we conducted an experiment where participants were tasked with playing three different video games supporting full-body game gestures. The results suggest a significant correlation and main effect of the three factors on players' engagement. The results also suggest three important game properties that affect players' preferences: level of cognitive challenge, level of physical challenge and level of realistic interaction.