The Effects of Latency and In-Game Perspective on Player Performance and Game Experience

Abstract

Previous work shows that high latency, a prolonged delay between player in- and system output, negatively affects player experience and performance. However, previous work also comes to contrary conclusions about how the in-game perspective alters the latency sensitivity of video games. Currently, it is unclear if the in-game perspective independently modulates latency's effects. To investigate how a game's in-game perspective interacts with latency, we developed a shooting game incorporating three perspectives (First-Person-, Third-Person-, and Bird's-Eye-View). In a study, participants (N = 36) played with two levels of latency (low and high) and the three perspectives. We show that latency reduces performance and experience, independent of the perspective. Moreover, Bayesian analysis suggests that the in-game perspective does not interact with latency and does not affects performance or experience. We conclude that more robust means to categorize latency sensitivity of video games than the in-game perspective are required.