Effect of Cooperation on Players' Immersion and Enjoyment
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Scholars' Mine Masters Theses Student Theses and Dissertations Spring 2016 Effect of cooperation on players' immersion and enjoyment Lakshmi Sushma Daggubati Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarsmine.mst.edu/masters_theses Part of the Technology and Innovation Commons Department: Recommended Citation Daggubati, Lakshmi Sushma, "Effect of cooperation on players' immersion and enjoyment" (2016). Masters Theses. 7499. https://scholarsmine.mst.edu/masters_theses/7499 This thesis is brought to you by Scholars' Mine, a service of the Missouri S&T Library and Learning Resources. This work is protected by U. S. Copyright Law. Unauthorized use including reproduction for redistribution requires the permission of the copyright holder. For more information, please contact [email protected]. i EFFECT OF COOPERATION ON PLAYERS’ IMMERSION AND ENJOYMENT by LAKSHMI SUSHMA DAGGUBATI A THESIS Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the MISSOURI UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree MASTER OF SCIENCE IN INFORMATION SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY 2016 Approved by Dr. Fiona Fui-Hoon Nah Dr. Keng Siau Dr. Richard Hall ii 2016 Lakshmi Sushma Daggubati All Rights Reserved iii ABSTRACT This research examines the effect of cooperative versus non-cooperative game play on immersion and enjoyment in online games. It draws on the self-determination theory to generate the research hypotheses and explain the observed phenomenon. A within-subject experimental design (N=38) was used to evaluate the effects of cooperative versus non-cooperative game play on enjoyment and immersion by having participants play in a manipulated game mode in a controlled gaming environment. The participants’ subjective responses were assessed to understand their user experience in cooperative and non-cooperative gaming environments. The results suggest that both immersion and enjoyment were significantly enhanced in cooperative game play. Keywords: Cooperation, Immersion, Enjoyment, and Self-determination Theory iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS First of all, I would like to convey my wholehearted gratitude to my advisor, Dr. Fiona Fui-Hoon Nah, for her continuous support, guidance, enthusiasm, and patience throughout this research. Her encouragement gave me the freedom to explore on my own, and her guidance assisted me in recovering from my mistakes. It has been a great experience working with her and I have learned a lot under her supervision. Also, it has been a pleasurable experience to become one of her co-authors for a paper presented at the 2015 HCI International Conference and published in the Lecture Notes for Computer Science. I look forward to having more publications from this thesis and other collaborative research work. Aside from my advisor, I would like to thank my thesis committee members, Dr. Keng Siau and Dr. Richard Hall, for their insightful comments, support, and challenging questions. I thank my fellow research students, Sri Chaitanya Sanaboina and Samuel Smith, for assisting me with the experiment for this research. In addition, many friends have offered intellectual and emotional support to help me overcome obstacles and stay focused on my graduate studies. I greatly value their friendship and I deeply appreciate their belief in me. Last but not the least, I would also like to thank my mom, elder brother, and my uncle. They were always encouraging me with their best wishes, and supported me. v TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ABSTRACT ....................................................................................................................... iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ................................................................................................. iv LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS ............................................................................................ vii LIST OF TABLES ........................................................................................................... viii SECTION 1. INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................................... 1 2. LITERATURE REVIEW ........................................................................................... 3 2.1. COOPERATIVE PLAY AND ENJOYMENT ................................................... 3 2.2. PRIOR RESEARCH ON IMMERSION ............................................................ 4 3. THEORETICAL FOUNDATION & HYPOTHESES ............................................... 6 3.1. TRANSPORTATION THEORY........................................................................ 6 3.2. SELF-DETERMINATION THEORY................................................................ 7 3.3. HYPOTHESIS GENERATION ......................................................................... 8 3.3.1. Cooperation and Immersion ..................................................................... 8 3.3.2. Cooperation and Enjoyment ..................................................................... 9 3.3.3. Immersion and Enjoyment. .................................................................... 10 4. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY ............................................................................. 12 4.1. EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN ............................................................................ 12 4.2. RESEARCH PROCEDURES ........................................................................... 12 4.3. MEASUREMENT ............................................................................................ 13 4.3.1. Cooperation Orientations Scale .............................................................. 14 4.3.2. Immersion. .............................................................................................. 14 4.3.3. Enjoyment .............................................................................................. 15 4.3.3.1 Cooperation manipulation check ................................................15 4.3.3.2 Subject background questionnaire ..............................................16 4.4. PILOT TESTS .................................................................................................. 16 5. DATA ANALYSIS .................................................................................................. 17 5.1. MEASUREMENT VALIDATION .................................................................. 17 vi 5.2. REPEATED MEASURES (PAIRED T-TEST) ANALYSES ......................... 20 5.2.1. Immersion. .............................................................................................. 20 5.2.2. Enjoyment. ............................................................................................. 20 5.2.3. Immersion on Enjoyment. ...................................................................... 20 6. DISCUSSIONS ........................................................................................................ 22 7. LIMITATIONS AND FUTURE RESEARCH ........................................................ 23 8. CONCLUSIONS ...................................................................................................... 24 APPENDICES A. COUNTER-STRIKE GAME COMMANDS.......................................................... 25 B. PRACTICE INSTRUCTIONS ................................................................................ 27 C. GAMING SESSION 1 INSTRUCTIONS .............................................................. 29 D. GAMING SESSION 2 INSTRUCTIONS ............................................................... 31 E. SUMMARY OF LITERATURE REVIEW ............................................................. 33 BIBLIOGRAPHY ............................................................................................................. 37 VITA ................................................................................................................................. 42 vii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Page Figure 3.1 Research Model ............................................................................................... 11 viii LIST OF TABLES Page Table 4.1. Measurement Scale for Cooperation Orientation ............................................ 14 Table 4.2. Measurement Items for Immersion .................................................................. 15 Table 4.3. Measurement Items for Enjoyment.................................................................. 15 Table 4.4. Measurement Scale for Cooperation Manipulation Check .............................. 16 Table 5.1. Results of Factor Analysis for No Cooperation ............................................... 18 Table 5.2. Results of Factor Analysis for Cooperation ..................................................... 18 Table 5.3. Paired Samples Tests ....................................................................................... 19 Table 5.4. Descriptive Statistics........................................................................................ 19 Table 5.5. ANOVA Results ............................................................................................. 21 Table 5.6 Results of Hypotheses Testing .......................................................................... 21 1 1. INTRODUCTION Research in the field of game science is emerging. Past research on digital games has concentrated mainly on the adverse effects of gaming, such as gaming addiction (Grüsser, Thalemann, & Griffiths, 2007) and violent content and its impact (Bushman & Anderson, 2002). The focus of the current research is to understand