Work in Progress

To Save or To Sacrifice?: Understanding Meaningful Choices in Games

Authors:

Sharon T. Steinemann,

Klaus OpwisAuthors Info & Claims

CHI PLAY '17 Extended Abstracts: Extended Abstracts Publication of the Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play

Pages 495 - 502

https://doi.org/10.1145/3130859.3131309

Published: 15 October 2017 Publication History

Abstract

Playing digital games can confront the player with choices that are emotional, morally ambivalent and highly personally meaningful. Past research suggests that meaningful choices have the potential to positively affect prosocial behavior. Up to now however, it is unclear what specific characteristics make in-game choices meaningful. The goal of this work-in-progress was therefore to shed light on this topic. Coding qualitative answers to a preliminary online survey found that meaningful choices were often characterized by a combination of different options from which the player had to choose one: moral, strategic or emotional. Being able to choose between these types of options and knowing that these choices would have consequences lead to choices that were experienced as meaningful. Crucially, almost all choices reported also contained a social component. Steps for future research based on these findings are discussed.

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Cited By

Whitby MIacovides IDeterding S(2023)“Conversations with pigeons”: Capturing Players’ Lived Experience of Perspective Challenging GamesProceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/36110517:CHI PLAY(833-855)Online publication date: 4-Oct-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3611051
Gallist NLattner MLankes MHagler J(2022)Build Your World – Meaningful Choices in a Hybrid Stage PlayInteractive Storytelling10.1007/978-3-031-22298-6_45(697-704)Online publication date: 4-Dec-2022
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1007/978-3-031-22298-6_45
Whitby MDeterding SIacovides IArnedo JNacke LVanden Abeele VToups Dugas P(2019)"One of the baddies all along"Proceedings of the Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play10.1145/3311350.3347192(339-350)Online publication date: 17-Oct-2019
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3311350.3347192
Show More Cited By

Index Terms

To Save or To Sacrifice?: Understanding Meaningful Choices in Games
1. Applied computing
  1. Computers in other domains
    1. Personal computers and PC applications
  2. Law, social and behavioral sciences

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Information & Contributors

Information

Published In

cover image ACM Conferences

CHI PLAY '17 Extended Abstracts: Extended Abstracts Publication of the Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play

October 2017

700 pages

ISBN:9781450351119

DOI:10.1145/3130859

General Chairs:
Ben Schouten
Eindhoven University of Technology and Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences, the Netherlands
,
Panos Markopoulos
Eindhoven University of Technology, the Netherlands
,
Phoebe O. Toups Dugas
New Mexico State University, USA
,
Program Chairs:
Paul Cairns
University of York, UK
,
Tilde Bekker
Eindhoven University of Technology, the Netherlands

Copyright © 2017 Owner/Author.

Permission to make digital or hard copies of part or all of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for third-party components of this work must be honored. For all other uses, contact the Owner/Author.

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SIGCHI: ACM Special Interest Group on Computer-Human Interaction

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Association for Computing Machinery

New York, NY, United States

Publication History

Published: 15 October 2017

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CHI PLAY '17

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SIGCHI

CHI PLAY '17: The annual symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play

October 15 - 18, 2017

Amsterdam, The Netherlands

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Cited By

Whitby MIacovides IDeterding S(2023)“Conversations with pigeons”: Capturing Players’ Lived Experience of Perspective Challenging GamesProceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/36110517:CHI PLAY(833-855)Online publication date: 4-Oct-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3611051
Gallist NLattner MLankes MHagler J(2022)Build Your World – Meaningful Choices in a Hybrid Stage PlayInteractive Storytelling10.1007/978-3-031-22298-6_45(697-704)Online publication date: 4-Dec-2022
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1007/978-3-031-22298-6_45
Whitby MDeterding SIacovides IArnedo JNacke LVanden Abeele VToups Dugas P(2019)"One of the baddies all along"Proceedings of the Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play10.1145/3311350.3347192(339-350)Online publication date: 17-Oct-2019
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3311350.3347192
Iten GSteinemann SOpwis KMandryk RHancock MPerry MCox A(2018)Choosing to Help MonstersProceedings of the 2018 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3173574.3173915(1-13)Online publication date: 21-Apr-2018
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3173574.3173915

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