Chapter 4
Assessing the Core Elements of the Gaming
Experience
Eduardo H. Calvillo-Gámez, Paul Cairns, and Anna L. Cox
Abstract This chapter presents the theory of the Core Elements of the Gaming
Experience (CEGE). The CEGE are the necessary but not sufficient conditions
to provide a positive experience while playing video-games. This theory, formu-
lated using qualitative methods, is presented with the aim of studying the gaming
experience objectively. The theory is abstracted using a model and implemented
in questionnaire. This chapter discusses the formulation of the theory, introduces
the model, and shows the use of the questionnaire in an experiment to differentiate
between two different experiences.
In loving memory of Samson Cairns
4.1 The Experience of Playing Video-games
The experience of playing video-games is usually understood as the subjective rela-
tion between the user and the video-game beyond the actual implementation of the
game. The implementation is bound by the speed of the microprocessors of the
gaming console, the ergonomics of the controllers, and the usability of the inter-
face. Experience is more than that, it is also considered as a personal relationship.
Understanding this relationship as personal is problematic under a scientific scope.
Personal and subjective knowledge does not allow a theory to be generalised or
falsified (Popper 1994). In this chapter, we propose a theory for understanding the
experience of playing video-games, or gaming experience, that can be used to assess
and compare different experiences.
This section introduces the approach taken towards understanding the gam-
ing experience under the aforementioned perspective. It begins by presenting an
E.H. Calvillo-Gámez (B)
División de Nuevas Tecnologías de la Información, Universidad Politécnica de San Luis Potosí,
San Luis Potosí, México
e-mail: e.calvillo@upslp.edu.mx
47R. Bernhaupt (ed.), Evaluating User Experience in Games, Human-Computer
Interaction Series, DOI 10.1007/978-1-84882-963-3_4,
C
© Springer-Verlag London Limited 2010

48 E.H. Calvillo-Gámez et al.
overview of video-games and user experience in order to familiarise the reader with
such concepts. Last, the objective and overview of the whole chapter are presented.
4.1.1 Introduction to Video-games
A video-game is, at its most basic level, the implementation of a game in a computer-
based console that uses some type of video output. Providing a formal definition of
a video-game was one of the first challenges that game studies faced. Since many
things can be considered a game, the following definition is used:
A game is a rule-based system with a variable and quantifiable outcome, where different
outcomes are assigned different values, the player exerts effort in order to influence the
outcome, the player feels emotionally attached to the outcome, and the consequences of the
activity are negotiable (p. 36) (Juul 2005).
We extend the definition by specifying that the rules are covered by a story, as
suggested by Koster (2005). The key part in the above definition is that the player
“exerts effort”. In other words, the user of the video-game has an active role in the
interaction process. Thus, when discussing the experience of playing video-games,
we are referring to the process of interaction between player and video-game. Our
focus is not on the creation, implementation or design of the video-game. Nor is
it the motivation of the user to engage with a particular game or the psychological
implications that the user may have after engaging with it. The focus is, as we have
called it, the gaming experience, the experience of playing video-games on a one-to-
one basis of the interaction between player and game. This concept will be untangled
as we move forward within the chapter. First, in order to understand what we mean
by experience, we proceed with a discussion of the concept of user experience.
4.1.2 Introduction to User Experience
The concept of user experience is understood as the subjective relationship between
user and application (McCarthy and Wright 2004). It goes beyond the usability of
the application, focusing on the personal outcome that the user gets from interacting
with the application while performing a task. Considering user experience only as a
personal or subjective outcome is problematic within the scope of scientific knowl-
edge. Scientific knowledge allows us to generalise about our understanding of the
world. If we identify the phenomenon being studied as personal, then it would not be
possible to provide a general description of the phenomenon. For this reason, unlike
video-games, we do not provide a current definition for user experience. Rather, we
will provide a definition which we build and use to understand the experience of
playing video-games.