Comparing game input modalities: A study for the evaluation of player experience by measuring emotional state and game usability

With the launch of new game controllers such as the Microsoft Kinect for Xbox, novel forms of game interaction are introduced such as gestures and voice. These new control mechanisms raise some questions regarding the user experience. In this paper, an initial study is presented for evaluating the user´s experience and motivation, by measuring the emotional state (self report measures), during a simple game scenario. A game was designed and implemented in order to test this hypothesis. To investigate this topic a comparative study of two similar prototypes (mouse input vs. Kinect input) of a 2D game about the history of photography was conducted. Two different groups tested these two prototypes. The first findings from the pilot experiments indicated that using voice and gestures as an input method caused higher user valence and dominance than the use of mouse. In addition, users seemed to find the mouse version more user-friendly but they reported more satisfied playing the Kinect version.