1. Video Game Satisfaction with Adaptive Game AI By Aaron Elkin

3. What Makes Video Games Enjoyable?  This is a popular question, which goes back many years. Malone TW 1980]  What Makes Games so Fun? [ Malone TW 1980]  Game flow: A Model for Evaluating Player Enjoyment [ Sweetser P 2005]  Enjoyment recognition from physiological data in a car racing game [ Tognetti 2010]  Explaining the enjoyment of playing video games: the role of competition [Vorderer 2003]  There are specifically agreed upon traits, which are accepted as aspects of a “fun” game.  Challenging  Engages Self-Esteem  Engages Curiosity

4. Why Video Games are fun?  John Snowden, in 2011, from the University of Derby ran a study showing that games became more fun when they implemented an adaptive element in the AI.

5. Research Question  How much does personality affect user’s enjoyment of game play with an adaptive game AI?

6. Methods Mrs. Pacman Game Types Generic Game Type - Control Difficulty Adaptation Changes the game speed Changes ghost reversal behavior Changes ghost strategy Event Adaptation Changes the images of the ghosts Happy, Sad, Chill, Angry Adds a story element to the game Changes ghost behavior due to events Level Ending Ghost Eating

7. Personality Big Five Personality Test Extroversion Agreeableness Conscientiousness Neuroticism Openness

8. Hypothesis Game Types Event Adaptation : Neuroticism People high in neuroticism tend to be more worried and have higher stress levels than other people. Agreeableness People high in agreeableness tend to be very kind, easy going and are more trusting than other people. Difficulty Adaptation : Openness People high in openness tend to be very creative, and imaginative and are more curious than other people Conscientiousness People high in conscientiousness tend to be very well organized, punctual and hard working compared to other people. Extroversion People high in extroversion tend to be very talkative, and active people who are generally more affectionate than other people.

9. Procedure  Begin the study by briefing the participants on what this study is.  Issue the personality test  Play the control version of the game  Play the emotional and difficulty adaptation versions of the game  The order of the game will be randomized to control for outside variables.  Issue the satisfaction survey

10. Evaluation  Users will be evaluated as they play the game  What levels the users dies on when they finish a game.  How many points the user accrues in each life.  How many ghosts the player eats during each game.  Users will also be given a satisfaction survey regarding their gaming experience.  How well the user thinks they did in game  How much the user enjoyed each game type  How likely the user would be to want to replay each game type

11. Analysis and Results  Hypothesis Recap  Event Adaptation – Neuroticism, Agreeableness  Difficulty Adaptation – Conscientiousness, Openness, Extroversion  Actual Emotional Correlations  Event Adaptation – Extroversion, Neuroticism  Difficulty Adaptation – Agreeableness, Openness  Control - Conscientiousness

12. Analysis and Results  Player Skill and Preference  Players who scored higher in overall skill were more likely to enjoy the difficulty version (M=6.2) than the event version. (M=5.6)  Skill had no significant correlation with overall game enjoyment scores  Adaptive Game Variants were effective overall  Every participant reported higher enjoyment scores of the adaptive variants than the control version 05/29/12

13. Discussion  Poor predictions from our Hypothesis  The significant correlations in order of strength  Event Adaptation enjoyment and Extroversion  Difficulty Adaptation enjoyment and Player Skill  Difficulty Adaptation and Neuroticism had a strong negative correlation  Control version enjoyment and Conscientiousness 05/29/12

14. Discussion  The strongest correlations  Event adaptation enjoyment and extroversion (r=.88, p<.01)  Difficulty adaptation enjoyment and player skill(r=.68, p=.04)  Difficulty adaptation and neuroticism (r=-.82, p<.01)  Control version enjoyment and conscientiousness. (r=.78, p=.01)  The lack of stronger personality correlations  Fewer participants than we would want  Not a strong enough discrepancy in how people chose enjoyment. 05/29/12

15. Relevance  The video game industry generates over forty billion dollars a year  Computing advancements made in video games can be applied elsewhere  The relationship between personality and video game playing is relevant for marketing purposes  Determining traits that make games more fun for different personality types can aid in making more enjoyable video games in the future.

16. Conclusions  Video Games are a highly relevant industry and this study gives insight into different players gaming preferences.  The results of this study indicate that:  People who are more frequent gamers are more likely to enjoy games that conforms to their skill level  People who are outgoing may be more likely to enjoy games where they feel involved in the story and world  People who get easily stressed are not likely to enjoy games that will be constantly challenging  Extraversion and Neuroticism are the personality levels that are most strongly related to video game preference. 05/29/12

17. Questions?