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A Good Reason to Die: How Avatar Death and High Challenges Enable Positive Experiences

Published: 02 May 2017 Publication History

Abstract

Appropriate challenges and challenge-skill balance are usually key to positive player experiences. However, some games such as the successful series Dark Souls are notorious for their excessive difficulty. Yet, there has been little empirical investigation of why players enjoy games they constantly struggle and fail with. We surveyed 95 participants right after the release of Dark Souls III about their experiences with the game, employing both open questions and different player experience measures. Players generally enjoyed challenging play sessions and mostly reported positive experiences, with achievement and learning moments strongly contributing to positive experiences. However, these factors themselves were enabled by negative events such as difficulties and avatar death. Our findings showcase that negative events bear a potential for forming positive and meaningful experiences, thus expanding previous knowledge about the role of challenge and failing in games. Moreover, the significance of hard-earned achievements extends present design conventions.

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      cover image ACM Conferences
      CHI '17: Proceedings of the 2017 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
      May 2017
      7138 pages
      ISBN:9781450346559
      DOI:10.1145/3025453
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      Published: 02 May 2017

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      1. avatar death
      2. challenge
      3. enjoyment
      4. failure
      5. games
      6. player experience

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      • (2024)Self-Determination Theory and HCI Games Research: Unfulfilled Promises and Unquestioned ParadigmsACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction10.1145/367323031:3(1-74)Online publication date: 15-Jun-2024
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      • (2024)The Trick is to Stay Behind?: Defining and Exploring the Design Space of Player Balancing MechanicsProceedings of the 2024 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3613904.3642441(1-16)Online publication date: 11-May-2024
      • (2024) Cultural Insights in Souls-Like Games: Analyzing Player Behaviors, Perspectives, and Emotions Across a Multicultural Context IEEE Transactions on Games10.1109/TG.2024.336623916:4(758-769)Online publication date: Dec-2024
      • (2024)The Basic Needs in Games Scale (BANGS)International Journal of Human-Computer Studies10.1016/j.ijhcs.2024.103289188:COnline publication date: 1-Aug-2024
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      • (2023)Objective Difficulty-Skill Balance Impacts Perceived Balance but Not Behaviour: A Test of Flow and Self-Determination Theory PredictionsProceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/36110657:CHI PLAY(1179-1205)Online publication date: 4-Oct-2023
      • (2023)‘I Just Wanted to Get It Over and Done With’: A Grounded Theory of Psychological Need Frustration in Video GamesProceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/36110287:CHI PLAY(217-236)Online publication date: 4-Oct-2023
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