An Exploratory Pilot Study on Human Emotions during Horror Game Playing

Enhancements in technology have allowed games to expand the variety of ways for new and better experiences. These experiences are often expressed by the players through their emotions either internally, externally, or in both manners. Nevertheless, it is crucial for developers to make sure that the players are not overwhelmed with emotions eventually ruining the experiences. With the introduction of immersive modalities, games can read the emotions of the players, allowing the developers ensure that the game does not overwhelm the players in any way. This is done by having the game adapt to the readings of the player's emotions, allowing the players to cope and regulate their emotions frequently. The technologies can also allow players suffering from emotional illnesses to regulate their emotions and support studying methods of regaining control over their emotions. In this project, an immersive modality for emotional valence recognition is integrated into a horror game that includes the feature of adapting to the emotions of the players. It also aims to determine how well the readings from the modality are, by comparing them with the self-evaluation report of participants. The chosen modality for emotion recognition is facial emotion readings through a camera. To test the consistency and accuracy of the modality with the personal experiences of the players, the results from a self-evaluated questionnaire containing personal experiences answers are compared with the readings from the modality using the Pearson's Correlation Coefficient formula indicating their correlation strength. Moreover, the research explores the temporal effect of induced emotional states in situations where the game play experience varies. The results show a moderately reliable consistency result of the facial emotion recognition modality and the self-evaluated emotional states. Finally, while initial results indicate that induced emotions may have a temporal effect, more data is needed to validate this observation.