Evaluating the Effects of Player Data Visualizationson Player Experience in Video Games

Abstract

The incorporation of asynchronous online features has become increasingly popular in single-player gaming experiences. Since the advent of game analytics, researchers and developers have been keen on visualizing player data for various purposes. Many commercial games indicate that player data can increase engagement and that it can extend the playing experience by enabling inter-player relationships. This thesis aims to evaluate the player experience effect of three visualization methods that depict ratio data as spatial and diegetic interfaces within binary wayfinding scenarios. Our method relies on the miniPXI-measure as well as custom questionnaires. We implemented a 3D adventure game prototype and incorporated an online data collection architecture using WebSockets and a Node.js-backend running in the AWS-cloud. We conducted an online user study by publishing the prototype as a free demo on itch.io. Our findings indicate that players feel drawn to less frequented paths as opposed to popular routes due to an increased sense of exclusivity. Diegetic player data visualizations such as our particle system tend to increase curiosity and decrease level completion time. These results indicate that the particle-visualization is more effective in providing wayfinding-aid compared to 2D-widgets or spatial trails. We can attest to the vast ludic potential of the cascading player data. Our results indicate that it can shape the playing experience in considerable ways. We hope that future work further explores player data visualizations and that our findings help game developers in creating more engaging experiences.

Date of Award	2025
Original language	English
Supervisor	Michael Lankes (Supervisor)