Evaluating natural interaction techniques in video games

Despite the gaming industry's recent trend for using “natural” interaction techniques, which mimic real world actions with a high level of fidelity, it is not clear how natural interaction techniques affect the player experience. In order to obtain a better understanding, we designed and conducted a study using Mario Kart Wii, a commercial racing game for the Nintendo Wii. We chose this platform due to its seemingly balanced design of both natural and non-natural interaction techniques. Our empirical study of these techniques found that the non-natural interaction techniques significantly outperform their more natural counterparts. We offer three hypotheses to explain our finding and suggest them as important interaction design considerations.