Player-Game Interaction Through Affective Sound - Game Sound Technology and Player Interaction: Concepts and Developments - page 269

games (Mandryk & Atkins, 2007; Nacke &
Lindley, 2008; Ravaja, et al., 2008).

Thus, we suggest that for measurement of
emotional responses to game sound, three broad
strategies are available for a full, scientific com-
prehension of player experiences. This means
that there are at least three ways of understanding
the emotional player experience in games (each
illustrated by a particular stratagem) but the third,
being a combination of the previous two, is likely
to be the most accurate:

The current popularity of dimensional models
of emotion in psychophysiology can be explained
by the fact that Wundt (1896) was one of the first
researchers to correlate physiological signals,
such as respiration, blood-pressure, and pupil
dilation with his “simple feelings” dimensions.
Bradley and Lang (2007) note that discrete and
dimensional models of emotion need not be mu-
tually exclusive but, rather, these views of emotion
could be seen as complementary to each other.
For example, basic emotions can be classified
within affective dimensions. Finding physiolog-
ical and behavioural emotion patterns as re-
sponses to specific situations and stimuli is one
of the major challenges that psychophysiological
emotion research faces currently. However, new
evidence from neurophysiological functional
Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) studies
supports the affective circumplex model of emo-
tion (Posner et al., 2009), showing neural networks
in the brain that can be connected to the affective
dimensions of valence and arousal: in this case,
affective pictures were used as stimuli. The mea-
surement of emotions induced by sound stimuli
in a game context is, however, more complex. To
identify how a certain sound, or a game element
in general, is perceived, a subjective investigation
is necessary, usually done after the experimental
session. Gathering subjective responses in addi-
tion to psychophysiological measurements of
player affect allows cross-correlation and valida-
tion of certain emotional stimuli that may be
present in a gaming situation. This 'after-the-fact'
narration is not, however, without its self-evident
problems. A further major challenge remains the
distinction between auditory and visual stimuli
within games, as many games evoke highly im-
mersive, audio-visual experiences, which can also
be influenced by setting, past experiences, and
social context.

1. As objective, context-dependent experi-
ence - Physiological measures (using sensor
technology) of how a player's body reacts to
game stimuli can inform our understanding
of these emotions
2. As subjective, interpreted experience -
Psychological measures of how players
understand and interpret their own emo-
tions can inform our understanding of these
emotions
3. As subjective-objective, interpreted and con-
textual experience - Inferences drawn from
physiological reactions and psychological
measures allow a more holistic understand-
ing of experience.

One of our primary research goals is to un-
derstand gaming experience, which has been
connected to positive emotions (Clark, Lawrence,
Astley-Jones, & Gray, 2009; Fernandez, 2008;
Frohlich & Murphy, 1999; Hazlett, 2006; Mandryk
& Atkins, 2007), but also to more complex expe-
riential constructs like, for example, immersion
(Calleja, 2007; Ermi & Mäyrä, 2005; Jennett, et al.,
2008), flow (Cowley, Charles, Black, & Hickey,
2008; Csíkszentmihályi, 1990; Gackenbach, 2008;
Sweetser & Wyeth, 2005) or presence (Lombard
& Ditton, 1997; Slater, 2002; Zahorik & Jenison,
1998). Thus, we will provide an overview of the
current understanding of immersion, flow and
presence in games and then provide suggestions
as to how this could be measured using objective
and subjective approaches.