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Inferring Player Experiences Using Facial Expressions Analysis

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Published:02 December 2014Publication History

ABSTRACT

Understanding player experiences is central to game design. Video captures of players is a common practice for obtaining rich reviewable data for analysing these experiences. However, not enough has been done in investigating ways of preprocessing the video for a more efficient analysis process. This paper consolidates and extends prior work on validating the feasibility of using automated facial expressions analysis as a natural quantitative method for evaluating player experiences. A study was performed on participants playing a first-person puzzle shooter game (Portal 2) and a social drawing trivia game (Draw My Thing), and results were shown to exhibit rich details for inferring player experiences from facial expressions. Significant correlations were also observed between facial expression intensities and self reports from the Game Experience Questionnaire. In particular, the challenge dimension consistently showed positive correlations with anger and joy. This paper eventually presents a case for increasing the application of computer vision in video analyses of gameplay.

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      • Published in

        cover image ACM Other conferences
        IE2014: Proceedings of the 2014 Conference on Interactive Entertainment
        December 2014
        259 pages
        ISBN:9781450327909
        DOI:10.1145/2677758

        Copyright © 2014 ACM

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        Publication History

        • Published: 2 December 2014

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        IE2014 Paper Acceptance Rate27of42submissions,64%Overall Acceptance Rate64of148submissions,43%

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