A review of affective user-centered design for video games

In recent years, there have been increasing interests in the field of Human Computer Interaction (HCI) towards gaming. Due to the competitive industry and high demand for novelty in today´s world, gaming has now become a valuable and stimulating research setting for HCI researchers to study its interface and interaction design, input devices, graphical user interface, social communication and development processes. Video games have advanced technologically and visually, and seem to demand greater levels of engagement from their users. The degree of interaction designed into a game is vital to effectively generate a constructive or destructive player (user) experience. The success of the gaming industry has bred a desire to accurately understand and measure player responses to video gaming, thus making video games a perfect test-bed for HCI explorations. This paper will attempt to address and review the literature on affective user-centered design principles, elements and methodologies that are applicable in video games.