Removing the HUD: The impact of non-diegetic game elements and expertise on player involvement

TY - GEN

T1 - Removing the HUD

T2 - 2nd ACM SIGCHI Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play, CHI PLAY 2015

AU - Iacovides, Ioanna

AU - Cox, Anna

AU - Kennedy, Richard

AU - Cairns, Paul

AU - Jennett, Charlene

PY - 2015/10/5

Y1 - 2015/10/5

N2 - Previous research has shown that player involvement can be influenced by a range of factors, from the controllers used to the perceived level of challenge provided by the game. However, little attention has been paid to the influence of the game interface. Game interfaces consist of both diegetic (that can be viewed by the player-character, e.g. the game world) and non-diegetic components (that are only viewed by the player, e.g. the heads-up display). In this paper we examine two versions of a first-person shooter game to investigate how immersion is influenced through interacting with a diegetic and non-diegetic interface. Our findings suggest that the removal of non-diegetic elements, such as the heads-up display, is able to influence immersion in expert players through increasing their cognitive involvement and sense of control. We argue that these results illustrate the importance of considering the role of expertise in relation to how particular design choices will influence the player experience.

AB - Previous research has shown that player involvement can be influenced by a range of factors, from the controllers used to the perceived level of challenge provided by the game. However, little attention has been paid to the influence of the game interface. Game interfaces consist of both diegetic (that can be viewed by the player-character, e.g. the game world) and non-diegetic components (that are only viewed by the player, e.g. the heads-up display). In this paper we examine two versions of a first-person shooter game to investigate how immersion is influenced through interacting with a diegetic and non-diegetic interface. Our findings suggest that the removal of non-diegetic elements, such as the heads-up display, is able to influence immersion in expert players through increasing their cognitive involvement and sense of control. We argue that these results illustrate the importance of considering the role of expertise in relation to how particular design choices will influence the player experience.

KW - Diegesis

KW - Game user experience

KW - Immersion

KW - Player involvement

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84959308063&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1145/2793107.2793120

DO - 10.1145/2793107.2793120

M3 - Conference contribution

AN - SCOPUS:84959308063

SN - 9781450334662

SP - 13

EP - 22

BT - CHI PLAY 2015 - Proceedings of the 2015 Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play

PB - ACM

Y2 - 5 October 2015 through 7 October 2015

ER -