KickAR: Exploring game balancing through boosts and handicaps in augmented reality table football

Katja Rogers; Mark Colley; David Lehr; Julian Frommel; Marcel Walch; Lennart E. Nacke; Michael Weber

doi:10.1145/3173574.3173740

KickAR: Exploring game balancing through boosts and handicaps in augmented reality table football

Katja Rogers
, Mark Colley
, David Lehr
, Julian Frommel
, Marcel Walch
, Lennart E. Nacke
, Michael Weber

Multimedia

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution › Academic › peer-review

Abstract

When player skill levels are not matched, games provide an unsatisfying player experience. Player balancing is used across many digital game genres to address this, but has not been studied for co-located augmented reality (AR) tabletop games, where using boosts and handicaps can adjust for different player skill levels. In the setting of an AR table football game, we studied the importance of game balancing being triggered by the game system or the players, and whether player skill should be required to trigger game balancing. We implemented projected icons to prominently display game balancing mechanics in the AR table football game. In a within-subjects study (N=24), we found players prefer skill-based control over game balancing and that different triggers are perceived as having different fairness. Further, the study showed that even game balancing that is perceived as unfair can provide enjoyable game experiences. Based on our findings, we provide suggestions for player balancing in AR tabletop games.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	CHI 2018 - Extended Abstracts of the 2018 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
Subtitle of host publication	Engage with CHI
Publisher	Association for Computing Machinery
ISBN (Electronic)	9781450356206, 9781450356213
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1145/3173574.3173740
Publication status	Published - 20 Apr 2018
Event	2018 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, CHI 2018 - Montreal, Canada Duration: 21 Apr 2018 → 26 Apr 2018

Publication series

Name	Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - Proceedings
Volume	2018-April

Conference

Conference	2018 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, CHI 2018
Country/Territory	Canada
City	Montreal
Period	21/04/18 → 26/04/18

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
We thank all volunteers who participated in the study. Author Lennart Nacke gratefully acknowledges NSERC, SSHRC, Mitacs, and CFI for funding his research.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2018 Copyright is held by the owner/author(s).

Funding

We thank all volunteers who participated in the study. Author Lennart Nacke gratefully acknowledges NSERC, SSHRC, Mitacs, and CFI for funding his research.

Keywords

Augmented reality
Foosball
Game balancing
Handicap
Mario kart effect
Player experience

Access to Document

10.1145/3173574.3173740

Cite this

Rogers, K., Colley, M., Lehr, D., Frommel, J., Walch, M., Nacke, L. E., & Weber, M. (2018). KickAR: Exploring game balancing through boosts and handicaps in augmented reality table football. In CHI 2018 - Extended Abstracts of the 2018 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems: Engage with CHI (Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - Proceedings; Vol. 2018-April). Association for Computing Machinery. https://doi.org/10.1145/3173574.3173740

Rogers, Katja ; Colley, Mark ; Lehr, David et al. / KickAR : Exploring game balancing through boosts and handicaps in augmented reality table football. CHI 2018 - Extended Abstracts of the 2018 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems: Engage with CHI. Association for Computing Machinery, 2018. (Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - Proceedings).

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abstract = "When player skill levels are not matched, games provide an unsatisfying player experience. Player balancing is used across many digital game genres to address this, but has not been studied for co-located augmented reality (AR) tabletop games, where using boosts and handicaps can adjust for different player skill levels. In the setting of an AR table football game, we studied the importance of game balancing being triggered by the game system or the players, and whether player skill should be required to trigger game balancing. We implemented projected icons to prominently display game balancing mechanics in the AR table football game. In a within-subjects study (N=24), we found players prefer skill-based control over game balancing and that different triggers are perceived as having different fairness. Further, the study showed that even game balancing that is perceived as unfair can provide enjoyable game experiences. Based on our findings, we provide suggestions for player balancing in AR tabletop games.",

keywords = "Augmented reality, Foosball, Game balancing, Handicap, Mario kart effect, Player experience",

author = "Katja Rogers and Mark Colley and David Lehr and Julian Frommel and Marcel Walch and Nacke, \{Lennart E.\} and Michael Weber",

note = "Funding Information: We thank all volunteers who participated in the study. Author Lennart Nacke gratefully acknowledges NSERC, SSHRC, Mitacs, and CFI for funding his research. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2018 Copyright is held by the owner/author(s).; 2018 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, CHI 2018 ; Conference date: 21-04-2018 Through 26-04-2018",

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Rogers, K, Colley, M, Lehr, D, Frommel, J, Walch, M, Nacke, LE & Weber, M 2018, KickAR: Exploring game balancing through boosts and handicaps in augmented reality table football. in CHI 2018 - Extended Abstracts of the 2018 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems: Engage with CHI. Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - Proceedings, vol. 2018-April, Association for Computing Machinery, 2018 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, CHI 2018, Montreal, Canada, 21/04/18. https://doi.org/10.1145/3173574.3173740

KickAR: Exploring game balancing through boosts and handicaps in augmented reality table football. / Rogers, Katja; Colley, Mark; Lehr, David et al.
CHI 2018 - Extended Abstracts of the 2018 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems: Engage with CHI. Association for Computing Machinery, 2018. (Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - Proceedings; Vol. 2018-April).

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution › Academic › peer-review

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AU - Frommel, Julian

AU - Walch, Marcel

AU - Nacke, Lennart E.

AU - Weber, Michael

N1 - Funding Information: We thank all volunteers who participated in the study. Author Lennart Nacke gratefully acknowledges NSERC, SSHRC, Mitacs, and CFI for funding his research. Publisher Copyright: © 2018 Copyright is held by the owner/author(s).

PY - 2018/4/20

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N2 - When player skill levels are not matched, games provide an unsatisfying player experience. Player balancing is used across many digital game genres to address this, but has not been studied for co-located augmented reality (AR) tabletop games, where using boosts and handicaps can adjust for different player skill levels. In the setting of an AR table football game, we studied the importance of game balancing being triggered by the game system or the players, and whether player skill should be required to trigger game balancing. We implemented projected icons to prominently display game balancing mechanics in the AR table football game. In a within-subjects study (N=24), we found players prefer skill-based control over game balancing and that different triggers are perceived as having different fairness. Further, the study showed that even game balancing that is perceived as unfair can provide enjoyable game experiences. Based on our findings, we provide suggestions for player balancing in AR tabletop games.

AB - When player skill levels are not matched, games provide an unsatisfying player experience. Player balancing is used across many digital game genres to address this, but has not been studied for co-located augmented reality (AR) tabletop games, where using boosts and handicaps can adjust for different player skill levels. In the setting of an AR table football game, we studied the importance of game balancing being triggered by the game system or the players, and whether player skill should be required to trigger game balancing. We implemented projected icons to prominently display game balancing mechanics in the AR table football game. In a within-subjects study (N=24), we found players prefer skill-based control over game balancing and that different triggers are perceived as having different fairness. Further, the study showed that even game balancing that is perceived as unfair can provide enjoyable game experiences. Based on our findings, we provide suggestions for player balancing in AR tabletop games.

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ER -

Rogers K, Colley M, Lehr D, Frommel J, Walch M, Nacke LE et al. KickAR: Exploring game balancing through boosts and handicaps in augmented reality table football. In CHI 2018 - Extended Abstracts of the 2018 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems: Engage with CHI. Association for Computing Machinery. 2018. (Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - Proceedings). doi: 10.1145/3173574.3173740

KickAR: Exploring game balancing through boosts and handicaps in augmented reality table football

Abstract

Publication series

Conference

Bibliographical note

Funding

Keywords

Access to Document

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Cite this