Even in virtual
worlds, life is what you make of it. A study has found that gamers have more
fun when they think a video game has been updated with fancy new features –
even when that’s not true. A professor of human-computer interaction at the
University of York, UK, wondered if the placebo effect translates into the
world of video games after watching a TV programme about how a sugar pill had
improved cyclists’ performance. To test their idea, researchers asked 21 people
to play two rounds of Don’t Starve, an adventure game in which the player must
collect objects using a map in order to survive. In the first round, the
researchers told the players that the map would be randomly generated.
In the second,
they said it would be controlled by an adaptive AI that could change the map
based on the player’s skill level. After each round, the players filled out a
survey. In fact, neither game used AI – both versions of the game were
identically random. But when players thought that they were playing with AI,
they rated the game as more immersive and more entertaining. Some thought the
game was harder with AI, others found it easier – but no one found it equally
challenging. A different experimental design, with 40 new subjects, confirmed
the effect. This time, half of the players were put in a control group and told
that the game was random, while the other half thought the game had built-in
AI.
More
information: