Affective Videogames and Modes of Affective Gaming: Assist Me, Challenge Me, Emote Me Kiel Mark Gilleade, Alan Dix Computing Department Lancaster University Lancaster, LA1 4YR, UK +44 (0)1524 510339, 510319 gilleade@comp.lancs.ac.uk, alan@hcibook.com Jen Allanson Allanson Consulting 100 Barnham Drive, Childwall Liverpool, L16 5ES, UK +44 (0)151 2800901 jenallanson@acm.org ABSTRACT In this paper we describe the fundamentals of affective gaming from a physiological point of view, covering some of the origins of the genre, how affective videogames operate and current conceptual and technological capabilities. We ground this overview of the ongoing research by taking an in-depth look at one of our own early biofeedback-based affective games. Based on our analysis of existing videogames and our own experience with affective videogames, we propose a new approach to game design based on several high-level design heuristics: assist me, challenge me and emote me (ACE), a series of gameplay "tweaks" made possible through affective videogames. Keywords affective videogames, affective feedback, biofeedback, physiology INTRODUCTION [Jill] I don���t know what happened. [Chris] Barry. Where���s Barry? So opens the mansion scene to Capcom���s survival-horror Resident Evil (Capcom, 1996) - and with it one of the gaming world���s first tentative steps toward realisation of the emotionally- immersive, narrative cinematic experience. These days, experiences such as that offered by Resident Evil on the PSone, are increasingly common-place. We are emotionally-fickle creatures if affect is not conveyed properly during game play (e.g. if Resident Evil could not inspire fear in the player), then the player���s suspension of disbelief can be negatively affected and so spoil the gaming experience. Current advances in computation and memory capabilities mean that videogames are more than capable of conveying affect just as Proceedings of DiGRA 2005 Conference: Changing Views ��� Worlds in Play. �� 2005 Authors & Digital Games Research Association DiGRA. Personal and educational classroom use of this paper is allowed, commercial use requires specific permission from the author.

well as traditional media (e.g. film, books). As a result, emotionally-engaging games are becoming more reliant on the imagination of game designers than on the constraints of the currently available technology to promote emotive experiences. However the interactive nature of the videogame allows us to go one step further than traditional media. Unlike the latter videogames are dynamic entities, they change according to how the player interacts with them. At the moment, these interactions are based purely on the input the player consciously decides to use in the game world (i.e. actions executed through the game controller). However these actions are not the only thing going on with the player during play there are unseen physiological responses (e.g. heartbeat rate variations) taking place within the player's body as well as various behavioral responses (e.g. gestures, facial expressions, body postures). Such responses are useful in identifying the current emotional state the player is in. If this information could be somehow collected and invested in the game dynamics the affective bandwidth of future games could be increased (i.e. bi-directional, game affects player, player affects game and so on) allowing for the emotive ���tweaking��� of conventional gaming experiences or the creation of whole new ones. This form of gameplay is commonly referred to as affective gaming where the player's current emotional state is used to manipulate gameplay. TOWARDS AFFECTIVE VIDEOGAMES In order to have an affective videogame, both player and videogame have to be responsive to the affective signals of the other. For players, this has always been so as emotional beings we respond both to the general game-playing experience (e.g. enjoying play), and to the more provocative affective elements a videogame offers (e.g. emotionally-packed stories). Indeed players of the 1983 text-based game Planetfall (Infocom, 1983) responded emotionally even years later when they recalled Floyd, a robot in the game that sacrificed itself in order to save the player [8]. However in conventional videogames the system has no means of assessing the player���s emotion beyond the conscious control instructions (e.g. go left, go right). In order to have truly affective videogames the system needs to be able to sense aspects of the player's emotions more directly. Biofeedback From a physiological point of view affective gaming can be instrumented through biofeedback - a technique that allows the user to view the otherwise invisible physiological processes that occur within the body. In applied biofeedback [12], such information can be used to treat medical conditions such as migraines and incontinence. During biofeedback therapy a display of the biological process pertaining to the condition being treated allows a patient to begin to exert a limited amount of conscious control over these processes and so begin treatment. However furnishing a videogame with biological information during gameplay does not make a game affective. Bionic Breakthrough (Breakout clone), an Atari videogame presented back at the 1983 Consumer Electronics Show measured electrical activity in a player's forehead muscles (device was called the Atari MindLink), but this was merely in order to control the movements of the paddle and so replace conventional input (i.e. joystick). For a physiological receptive game to become affective, it needs to propagate affective feedback [3]. Just replacing conventional input (i.e. conscious command decisions executed through physical interactions with a game pad), is what we regard as a straight-forward biofeedback game.