User Experience With Dynamic Difficulty Adjustment Methods for an Affective Exergame: Comparative Laboratory-Based...

Area of Science:

• Human-Computer Interaction
• Game Design
• Affective Computing

Background:

• Affective exergames dynamically adjust difficulty to match user state.
• Physiological measurements offer insights into player psychology but require extra sensors.
• Few studies compare physiological-based dynamic difficulty adjustment (DDA) with performance-based or manual DDA.

Purpose of the Study:

• To compare five DDA methods in an affective exergame: manual, random, performance-based, personality-performance-based, and physiology-personality-performance-based (all-data).

Main Methods:

• Fifty participants played an exergame (Pong) for 18 minutes, with difficulty adjusted every 2 minutes.
• Five DDA methods were applied to adjust ball speed and paddle size.
• Physiological responses were recorded, and players self-reported difficulty preferences; post-game surveys assessed user experience.

Main Results:

• The all-data method showed the highest accuracy in adjusting difficulty parameters.
• No significant differences in intrinsic motivation or flow experience were found across DDA methods.
• Accuracy of difficulty adjustments correlated with player enjoyment and perceived pressure.

Conclusions:

• Current evidence does not support using physiological measurements for improved user experience in affective exergames.
• The accuracy of difficulty adjustments, not the inclusion of physiological data, is linked to user experience.
• Further research should focus on developing more effective DDA algorithms for exergames.