Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction

We are excited to present PACM HCI's 2024 issue on games and play research, which contains 63 original and highly relevant articles covering the entire spectrum of HCI games research. As in the previous year, we used three recommendations ' 'Accept with ...

Today's videogames are often intertwined with profound religious narratives, content, characters, and artifacts - but how do player communities understand the role of religion in games, and what is the impression of believers on the use, portrayal, and ...

In response to the unique challenges of Mixed Reality (MR) game development, we developed GAMR, an analytics tool specifically designed for MR games. GAMR aims to assist developers in identifying and resolving gameplay issues effectively. It features ...

Emotional dimensions significantly impact user experience (UX) and are essential in assessing interactions in entertainment systems. However, relying solely on subjective post-event indicators fails to capture dynamic emotional changes during the system ...

Underneath their compelling audiovisual surface, games require players to carry out mundane interaction work, such as pointing, typing, or steering. However, many of these underlying building blocks are not defined rigorously, hampering synthesis and ...

Repeated measurements of player experience are crucial in games user research, assessing how different designs evolve over time. However, this necessitates lightweight measurement instruments that are fit for the purpose. In this study, we conduct an ...

In gamification users show increased motivation and engagement towards tasks. So far, this effect has mostly been empirically tested based on the visual depiction of game elements, while research on the use and addition of auditory aspects is sparse. In ...

Numerous digital games and media with historical themes aim to educate or engage audiences with heritage. When developing a historical video game, some of the most critical design decisions are centered around finding the balance between an accurate ...

Mobile games occupy more market share than PC and console titles combined, while the designers responsible for delighting billions with their app store offerings remain relatively overlooked by avid players and academic researchers alike. Marginalized ...

Climate change is one of humankind's grand challenges, and how we think about it influences how we perceive its risks and act. Understanding people's mental models of climate change (that is, how they internally represent it) and potentially challenging ...

Augmented Reality (AR) has been largely deployed on smartphones in recent years. AR gaming, featured with geo-reference, is anchored to our real-world environments. Nevertheless, designing such AR user interaction in-the-wild is under-explored. Therefore,...

Athletes often learn suboptimal techniques that place a ceiling on their performance or put them at risk of injury. Adopting a new technique can lead to a short-term dip in performance while learning it, which can be demotivating and cause an athlete to ...

In the ongoing process of the digital transformation of society, corresponding competencies are required from children more than ever. The concept of computational empowerment (CE) promotes confident and reflective engagement with digital technology, ...

The games research community has developed substantial knowledge on designing engaging experiences that draw players in. Surprisingly, less is known about player disengagement, with existing work predominantly addressing disengagement from the ...

Universities have increasingly diverse student populations. While a greater variety of students' backgrounds, skills and abilities exist, this does not necessarily mean they have more inclusive interactions. A lack of inclusive interactions can cause ...

The COVID-19 pandemic, the rise of telehealth and virtual medicine, and the increased accessibility of commercial VR headsets have created opportunities to revitalize the physical therapy field and introduce more innovative tools to complement ...

Player Experience (PX) in video games is a multifaceted construct encompassing affective, perceived, and subjective dimensions. While extensively explored in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) and games user research studies, the practical evaluation of PX,...

Digital games can provide effective recovery from stress, with players turning to a variety of genres-including those with game mechanics that can be considered stressors themselves, i.e., action mechanics. We examine whether action mechanics undermine ...

Attempts to digitize pinball have been met with skepticism; however, VR presents a new opportunity to access and enjoy this popular game. In a controlled study (N=60), we investigated how physical pinball, VR pinball, and PC pinball differ in terms of ...

Regulations require video games to provide transparency regarding loot box odds to keep players informed, leading many games to disclose probabilities in various ways; yet, the extent of players' comprehension of loot box mechanics remains unclear. We ...

The interest in enhancing video game interactions through wearable technology has grown, yet accessible gaming with wearables remains underexplored. This study employs participatory design fiction, enabling disabled gamers to envision a future with ...

Over the last decade, the free-to-play (F2P) game business model has gained popularity in the games industry. We examine the role of deceptive design during a game's transition to F2P and its impacts on players. Our analysis focuses on game mechanics and ...

There are numerous benefits from regularly walking in nature, and today's mobile technologies have the potential to encourage people to do so. Past research has showed that gamified map-based apps and location-based games (LBGs) have the capability to ...

An increasing number of game platforms, such as Roblox, enable game creators to develop user-generated games (UGGs). Yet, these platforms often come under scrutiny for hosting UGGs that contain harmful content, ranging from sexually explicit material to ...

Many videogames require players to perform under pressure; however, not all players respond equivalently to pressure: why are some players more likely to tilt (lose control during play) or choke (perform poorly relative to their ability) whereas others ...

Modern digitally-augmented boardgames have, with few exceptions, relied primarily on mobile devices rather than taking advantage of other components such as microcontrollers, sensors, and actuators. What alternative shapes might such games take? And what ...

Data analytics is commonly used to enable storytelling and enhance esport coverage. One prominent use of it is win prediction, where machine learning models predict the winner of the game before its conclusion. However, predictions are most commonly ...

Toxic behavior is known to cause harm in online games. Players regularly experience negative, hateful, or inappropriate behavior. Interventions, such as banning players or chat message filtering, can help combat toxicity but are not widely available or ...

Playing partial information, restricted communication, cooperative (PIRCC) games with humans have proven challenging for AI, due to our reliance on social dynamics and sophisticated cognitive techniques. Yet, recent advances in generative AI may change ...

Indie game developers are often defined as game developers who are typically not employed by or affiliated with tech giants or large gaming companies/publishers. Although people may decide to "go indie" for various purposes, indie game development has ...