Looks Can Be Deceiving: Using Gaze Visualisation to Predict and Mislead Opponents in Strategic Gameplay

In competitive co-located gameplay, players use their opponents' gaze to make predictions about their plans while simultaneously managing their own gaze to avoid giving away their plans. This socially competitive dimension is lacking in most online games, where players are out of sight of each other. We conducted a lab study using a strategic online game; finding that (1) players are better at discerning their opponent's plans when shown a live visualisation of the opponent's gaze, and (2) players who are aware that their gaze is tracked will manipulate their gaze to keep their intentions hidden. We describe the strategies that players employed, to various degrees of success, to deceive their opponent through their gaze behaviour. This gaze-based deception adds an effortful and challenging aspect to the competition. Lastly, we discuss the various implications of our findings and its applicability for future game design.