Off-Peak: An Examination of Ordinary Player Experience

Title of the Paper

Off-Peak: An Examination of Ordinary Player Experience

Paper Information

• Authors: April Tyack, Elisa D. Mekler
• Conference: CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '21)
• Date: May 8–13, 2021
• Location: Yokohama, Japan
• Keywords: Player experience, ordinary experience, video games, peak experience, optimal experience

Research Background and Issues

• Existing Problems and Challenges:

  1. Game research in the CHI (Human-Computer Interaction) field often focuses on two types of “peak experiences”: flow and intense emotional experiences (e.g., emotional challenges).
  2. As video games increasingly integrate into daily life, many gaming experiences are no longer highly innovative or extraordinary. However, the current research framework fails to adequately describe these ordinary and common player experiences.
  3. The “ordinary player experience” has long been underexplored in academic research.

• Importance of the Research:

  1. As video games become a widespread cultural phenomenon, ordinary gaming experiences are gradually becoming an essential part of players’ daily entertainment.
  2. Exploring the significance of “ordinary player experience” can help game research reflect on biases in existing theories and more comprehensively understand why games appeal to players.

• Research Motivation and Related Work:

  1. Game research often emphasizes extraordinary experiences, neglecting the everyday, mundane emotional experiences in games.
  2. Psychology and consumer research have increasingly recognized the importance of ordinary experiences, but systematic studies specific to games are still lacking.

Solution

• Core Methods and Innovations:

  1. Proposed and defined the concept of “ordinary player experience,” characterized by:
     • Familiarity: Familiar content and mechanics within the game.
     • Moderate Emotion: Emotional intensity that is neither extremely positive nor extremely negative.
     • Co-attentiveness: Balanced distribution of attention between the game and the external world.
     • Abstract Memorability: Difficulty in recalling specific details, with only vague impressions remaining in memory.
  2. Positioned ordinary experiences and extraordinary experiences as two extremes on a continuous spectrum, emphasizing the fluidity of experiences across different times and contexts.

• Implementation Steps and Key Techniques:

  1. Analyzed literature from HCI, consumer research, and game studies to identify the four core characteristics of ordinary experiences.
  2. Used multiple video game case studies (e.g., Xenoblade Chronicles 2, The Longing) to illustrate the practical manifestations of ordinary experiences.
  3. Explored the potential implications of ordinary experiences for player well-being and future game design.

Research Outcomes

• Specific Results:

  • Developed and systematized the theoretical framework of “ordinary player experience,” providing new conceptual tools and descriptive language for HCI and game research.
  • Incorporated ordinary experiences into the theoretical system, including characteristics such as familiarity, moderate emotion, co-attentiveness, and abstract memorability.
  • Examined the potential of ordinary experiences to enhance player well-being and inform the design of “cozy games.”

• Advantages Compared to Existing Research:

  • Addressed the limitations of current game research that overly focuses on extraordinary experiences, making theoretical studies more comprehensive.
  • Provided new perspectives for fields such as everyday game design and player psychology research.

• Experimental or Evaluation Results:

  • Confirmed the core components of ordinary experiences through literature and case analysis, clarifying their differences and complementarities with extraordinary experiences.
  • Verified the explanatory power of the theory through specific game analyses.

• Limitations and Future Directions:

  • The proposed theory of ordinary experiences has not yet undergone direct empirical validation, requiring further quantitative or qualitative research support.
  • Challenges remain in measuring ordinary experiences, such as defining the vagueness of memory or assessing the moderation of emotions.
  • Future research is encouraged to explore the manifestations of ordinary experiences in board games, applied games, and serious games, as well as differences in perceptions of ordinary experiences across different age groups of players.