Publikationen

Gameplay experience is shaped by players expectations towards the game and how game features are presented to them. We created two modified versions of the classic TETRIS game: one that adapts game difficulty based on players performance and one that additionally adapts to players eye movements. An initial analysis of exploratory study results indicates that eye-movement-based adaptive difficulty in TETRIS might not affect player performance and that framing the use of adaptive difficulty might only have a limited influence on both players game experience and perceived competence.

Difficulty in TETRIS is adjusted by adapting the speed with which blocks fall. In this contribution, we describe results of an exploratory study in which we investigated relationships between players performance and their subjective assessment of difficulty and fun. We tested five different algorithms that, instead of adjusting game speed, adjust difficulty by choosing blocks based on the current game state. With our results, we establish pile height and bumpiness as parameters that indicate the performance of a player during a live game, discuss the inherent difficulty of different block choosing algorithms and show how the relationship between fun and perceived difficulty varies for distinct player groups. With regard to adapting difficulty, we argue that one can still teach an old dog such a TETRIS a lot of new tricks.