Using Game-Play Metrics to Analyze User Experience of Playing Health-Promoted Somatosensory Video Game

Abstract: Player experience evaluation is important for understanding game design and deployment problems. Unlike subjective approach which is built upon data expressed by the player, gameplay metrics based approach is based on objective and detailed data collected during gameplay. For Kinect-based somatosensory video games (SVG), gameplay metrics contains the objective gameplay experiences as well as the gameplay performance. Method: This paper analyzes the gameplay metrics collected from two Kinect-based SVG to study their gameplay experiences. The first game is designed for sit-to-stand training. Fifteen chronic rehabilitation patients played the game for two months. Their objective experience is measured using the head movement data collected from the Kinect sensor. Their game performance is the time to complete the game. The second game is designed for upper-limb exercise. Eight elderly played the game 2 times per week for 6 weeks. Their objective experience is measured using the hand movement speed derived from Kinect sensor. The gameplay performance is the gaming scores. Result & Discussion: The objective experiences have moderately strong correlation with the player’s motor ability; whereas the game performance is not related to motor ability. One of the reasons is that the SVG performance is affected not only by the player’s motor ability but also by their psychological status. Conclusion: The objective gameplay experiences of a properly designed Kinect SVG can be used for motor ability evaluation; whereas the gameplay performance can be used for more comprehensive assessment that considers both the motor ability and the psychological motivations.

Keywords: Somatosensory Video Game, Game Play Metrics, Player Experience, Objective, Game Performance

DOI: 10.54941/ahfe100485

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