"An Experience That Could Not be Found Anywhere Else": Resonance as an Explanatory Concept for Player Experience Research and Game Design

Paper Title

"An Experience That Could Not be Found Anywhere Else": Resonance as an Explanatory Concept for Player Experience Research and Game Design

Publication Info

• Topic area: Player experience research and game design
• Keywords: Resonance, player experience, eudaimonia, meaningful gameplay, emotional impact, personal connection, transformative gaming, interactive storytelling, game design, HCI

Background and Problem

• Problem / challenge: The concept of resonance in games has been used vaguely and lacks theoretical clarity, limiting its utility for understanding profound player experiences and informing game design.
• Significance: Understanding resonance can help explain why certain game experiences have long-lasting emotional and cognitive impacts, shaping players' attitudes, behaviors, and identities.
• Motivation and related work: Previous studies have linked resonance to emotional impact, reflection, and meaning-making in games, but its usage has been peripheral and inconsistent. This paper builds on psychological and information science theories to explore resonance as a structured explanatory concept.

Solution

• Proposed approach: A qualitative survey of 110 participants to analyze how players characterize resonating game experiences, followed by reflexive thematic analysis to derive actionable insights.
• Novelty:
  1. Empirical evidence of diverse resonating game experiences, highlighting emotional and gameplay mechanics.
  2. Establishing resonance as an explanatory concept for understanding long-lived emotional and cognitive impacts in games.
  3. Concrete implications for game design and player experience research, connecting resonance to themes like eudaimonia, reflection, and empowerment.
• Procedure and key techniques:
  • Conducted an online qualitative survey with open-ended questions about resonating game experiences.
  • Analyzed responses using reflexive thematic analysis to identify themes of resonance.
  • Linked findings to prior theoretical frameworks from psychology and information science.

Results

• Concrete findings:
  • Resonance involves emotional investment, personal connection, real-life outcomes, and interactive qualities.
  • Participants described profound emotional responses (e.g., awe, catharsis, crying), personal relevance (e.g., mirroring life experiences, identity exploration), and transformative impacts (e.g., self-understanding, empowerment).
  • Interactive storytelling and gameplay mechanics were crucial in conveying resonance.
• Advantage over baselines: Provides a structured framework for understanding resonance, bridging gaps in prior vague or peripheral usage of the term.
• Experiments / evaluation:
  • Survey with 110 participants recruited from gaming communities.
  • Reflexive thematic analysis identified four themes: emotional impact, personal connection, real-life outcomes, and interaction.
  • Games frequently mentioned include Outer Wilds, Disco Elysium, and Persona 5.
• Limitations and future work:
  • Sample mostly consisted of men from Western countries, limiting generalizability.
  • Study focused on subjective experiences rather than specific game design elements causing resonance.
  • Future work should explore resonance across diverse cultural contexts and investigate its prevalence and design mechanisms.

Summary

This study establishes resonance as a structured explanatory concept for understanding profound player experiences in games. Through a qualitative survey and thematic analysis, it identifies four interwoven dimensions of resonance: emotional impact, personal connection, real-life outcomes, and interactive qualities. The findings highlight how resonance can evoke long-lasting emotional and cognitive effects, foster self-understanding, and inspire transformative changes in players' lives. By linking resonance to existing theories of meaning and relevance, the paper provides actionable insights for game designers and researchers to create impactful and memorable gaming experiences.