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“Conversations with pigeons”: Capturing Players’ Lived Experience of Perspective Challenging Games

Published: 04 October 2023 Publication History

Abstract

Video games are increasingly designed to provoke reflection and challenge players’ perspectives. Yet we know little about how such perspective-challenging experiences come about in gameplay. In response, we used systematic self-observation diaries and micro-phenomenological interviews to capture players’ (n=15) lived experience of perspective challenges in purposely sampled games including Hatoful Boyfriend, The Stanley Parable, or Papers, Please. We found a sequence of trigger, reflection, and transformation constituting perspective-challenging experiences, matching Mezirow’s model of transformative learning. Most of these were game-related or ‘endo-game’, suggesting that medium self-reflection could be an overlooked part of everyday game reflection and appreciation. Reflections were accompanied by a wide range of emotions, including frequent epistemic emotions, and emotions could change drastically even during short gameplay experiences. Actual perspective change or transformation was rare. We construct a model of granular types of triggers, reflections, and transformations that can aid reflective game design.

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  • (2024)Vitality structures in ‘addictive’ game designOpen Research Europe10.12688/openreseurope.17177.24(47)Online publication date: 14-Oct-2024
  • (2024)Questions without Answers: Enjoyment of Irresolution in Mystery Player ExperienceProceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/36771008:CHI PLAY(1-28)Online publication date: 15-Oct-2024
  • (2024)A Design Framework for Reflective PlayProceedings of the 2024 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3613904.3642455(1-21)Online publication date: 11-May-2024

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  1. “Conversations with pigeons”: Capturing Players’ Lived Experience of Perspective Challenging Games

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    cover image Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction
    Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction  Volume 7, Issue CHI PLAY
    November 2023
    1360 pages
    EISSN:2573-0142
    DOI:10.1145/3554313
    Issue’s Table of Contents
    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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    Published: 04 October 2023
    Published in PACMHCI Volume 7, Issue CHI PLAY

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    1. games
    2. lived experience
    3. perspective
    4. perspective challenge
    5. reflection

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    • EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Intelligent Games and Game Intelligence (IGGI)

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    • (2024)Vitality structures in ‘addictive’ game designOpen Research Europe10.12688/openreseurope.17177.24(47)Online publication date: 14-Oct-2024
    • (2024)Questions without Answers: Enjoyment of Irresolution in Mystery Player ExperienceProceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/36771008:CHI PLAY(1-28)Online publication date: 15-Oct-2024
    • (2024)A Design Framework for Reflective PlayProceedings of the 2024 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3613904.3642455(1-21)Online publication date: 11-May-2024

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