Exploring Emotional Responses with Dynamic Difficulty Adjustment Adaptation in Immersive Virtual Reality Exergaming

Immersive Virtual Reality (IVR) exergaming presents a promising avenue to integrate physical exercise with engaging virtual experiences, potentially encouraging sustained physical activity. However, maintaining user motivation over extended periods poses a significant challenge. Recent research has introduced the Dynamic Difficulty Adjustment (DDA) mechanism, dynamically regulating exergame difficulty based on specific conditions to enhance user adaptation. While prior studies have predominantly focused on gaming performance to adjust difficulty, they often overlook the emotional impact on user motivation. This study investigates users' emotional responses to the game timer change (TC) as a DDA mechanism during IVR exergaming. Results indicate that subjects in the TC-implemented game displayed more neutral emotions, concomitant with improved gaming performance. Conversely, subjects in the game without TC exhibited a broader range of detected emotions (sad and happy), suggesting difficulties in adapting to in-game difficulty levels incongruent with their gaming abilities. Overall, this study establishes a foundation for future research in affective computing-based IVR exergaming, aiming to develop an intelligent autonomous DDA mechanism tailored to users' physical and mental conditions.