Designing Closeness to Increase Gamers' Performance
Players' Motivations in Games
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Colusso, Lucas
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Hsieh, Gary
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Munson, Sean A.
Proceedings of the ACM CHI'16 Conference on Human Factors in Computing
Systems
2016-05-07
v.1
p.3020-3024
© Copyright 2016 ACM
Summary: Designers often make use of social comparisons to motivate people to perform
better. In this paper, we present the concept of closeness to comparison to
improve the efficacy of social comparison feedback. Specifically, we test two
design strategies related to closeness: (1) comparing users to a target
described as a similarly experienced player and (2) adjusting the visual
representation of performance so player scores appear closer to the comparison
target. We evaluate the effects of these strategies for social comparison on
player performance in an online game. In a controlled experiment with 425
participants, both feedback techniques improved game performance, but only for
experienced players. We conclude with design implications for helping designers
create social comparisons that motivate higher game performance.