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Evaluating Difficulty Adjustments in a VR Exergame for Younger and Older Adults: Transferabilities and Differences

Published: 01 December 2022 Publication History

Abstract

Virtual reality (VR) exergames have the potential to train cognitive and physical abilities. However, most of these spatial games are developed for younger users and do not consider older adults with different design requirements. Yet, to be entertaining and efficient, the difficulty of games has to match the needs of players with different abilities. In this paper, we explore the effects of individually calibrating a starting difficulty and adjusting it: i) exactly as calibrated before, ii) 50% more difficult, and iii) 50% less difficult. In a user study, we compare the effects of using these adjustments on reaction times and subjective measures on younger (n=30) and older adults (n=9). The results show that most of the users prefer a faster-paced VR game in terms of enjoyment, but this also resulted in a higher perceived workload. Compared to the younger adults, the older adults rated the game more positive in terms of higher enjoyment and eagerness to play the game again, as well as lower perceived workload. This emphasizes the need for games to be designed for the user group they are intended for; both in terms of cognitive-physical difficulty and game content. Furthermore, we reflect on the transferability of the results obtained from testing with the younger adults and highlight their potential, especially for identifying suggestions and issues with the gameplay.

Supplemental Material

MP4 File
The pdf contains additional descriptive measurements from our study and an explanation of the game levels. Furthermore, the video shows the game flow.
PDF File
The pdf contains additional descriptive measurements from our study and an explanation of the game levels. Furthermore, the video shows the game flow.

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Cited By

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  • (2024)The Jade Gateway to Exergaming: How Socio-Cultural Factors Shape Exergaming Among East Asian Older AdultsProceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/36771068:CHI PLAY(1-34)Online publication date: 15-Oct-2024
  • (2024)Move, React, Repeat! The Role of Continuous Cues in Immersive ExergamesProceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/36770918:CHI PLAY(1-23)Online publication date: 15-Oct-2024
  • (2024)Dynamic Difficulty Adjustment in Virtual Reality Exergaming to Regulate Exertion Levels via Heart Rate MonitoringProceedings of the 30th ACM Symposium on Virtual Reality Software and Technology10.1145/3641825.3689504(1-2)Online publication date: 9-Oct-2024
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cover image ACM Conferences
SUI '22: Proceedings of the 2022 ACM Symposium on Spatial User Interaction
December 2022
233 pages
ISBN:9781450399487
DOI:10.1145/3565970
Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part 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 components of this work owned by others than the author(s) must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected].

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Published: 01 December 2022

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Author Tags

  1. VR
  2. cognitive-physical training
  3. dynamic difficulty
  4. exergames
  5. older adults
  6. serious games
  7. virtual reality

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SUI '22
SUI '22: Symposium on Spatial User Interaction
December 1 - 2, 2022
CA, Online, USA

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Cited By

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  • (2024)Move, React, Repeat! The Role of Continuous Cues in Immersive ExergamesProceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/36770918:CHI PLAY(1-23)Online publication date: 15-Oct-2024
  • (2024)Dynamic Difficulty Adjustment in Virtual Reality Exergaming to Regulate Exertion Levels via Heart Rate MonitoringProceedings of the 30th ACM Symposium on Virtual Reality Software and Technology10.1145/3641825.3689504(1-2)Online publication date: 9-Oct-2024
  • (2024)Designing a Multisensory VR Game Prototype for Older Adults - the Acceptability and Design ImplicationsProceedings of the 2024 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3613904.3642948(1-18)Online publication date: 11-May-2024
  • (2024)LightSword: A Customized Virtual Reality Exergame for Long-Term Cognitive Inhibition Training in Older AdultsProceedings of the 2024 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3613904.3642187(1-17)Online publication date: 11-May-2024
  • (2024)Born to Run, Programmed to Play: Mapping the Extended Reality Exergames LandscapeProceedings of the 2024 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3613904.3642124(1-28)Online publication date: 11-May-2024
  • (2024)Exploring Emotional Responses with Dynamic Difficulty Adjustment Adaptation in Immersive Virtual Reality Exergaming2024 IEEE 48th Annual Computers, Software, and Applications Conference (COMPSAC)10.1109/COMPSAC61105.2024.00089(621-627)Online publication date: 2-Jul-2024
  • (2024)Which Exergame Is Better for Older Adults? an Exploratory Study on User Perspectives of Virtual Reality, Exercube, and 2D ExergamesHCI in Games10.1007/978-3-031-60695-3_11(161-176)Online publication date: 29-Jun-2024
  • (2023)Gaze Assistance for Older Adults during Throwing in Virtual Reality and its Effects on Performance and MotivationProceedings of the 29th ACM Symposium on Virtual Reality Software and Technology10.1145/3611659.3615706(1-11)Online publication date: 9-Oct-2023
  • (2023)Sphere Saber: A Virtual Reality Exergame to Study Age-Related Differences in Selective Visual Attention and Information ProcessingProceedings of the 2023 ACM Symposium on Spatial User Interaction10.1145/3607822.3614534(1-10)Online publication date: 13-Oct-2023
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