<p>Inlevelse i den digitala spelvärlden är ett utspritt begrepp bland spelare och spelutvecklare, men har termen samma innebörd för alla. Detta forskningsarbete tar upp tidigare forskning inom ämnet inlevelse i digitala spel men också vad spelare idag anser om termen och vilka faktorer de anser är viktiga att fokusera på när man vill skapa ett inlevelserikt spel i genren first-person shooter. Genom en litteraturundersökning av tidigare forskning samt en enkätundersökning framgår det att inlevelse kan delas in i tre olika nivåer: involvering, försjunkning och total inlevelse. Forskningsarbetet bekräftar tidigare forskning på området och för ämnet om inlevelse i first-person shooter genren vidare, där inlevelsen styrs av spelelementens fyra pelare: estetik, spelmekanik, story och teknik men är också högst beroende av en spelares personlighet, mentalitet och inställning till det spel denne spelar. Enkätundersökningen pekar också på ytterligare faktorer som kan stärka respektive hämma inlevelsen i FPS.</p> / <p>The term immersion is widely used in the video game industry, but there is still a lack of signs on what immersion really is, or if people are using the term with the same meaning behind it. This paper describes previous research relating to the subject but also what gamers think about immersion, and what different factors that they deem important to focus on when creating an immersive digital video game in the first-person-shooter genre. With research of previous work in the field and a survey on immersion showed that immersion can be seen in three different levels: engagement, engrossment and total immersion. This research paper confirms previous research in the field and moves the research of immersion in first-person shooters forward, where immersion is governed by the four pillars of game elements: aesthetics, game mechanics, story and technology but is also highly influenced by the gamers personality, mentality and attitude towards the game the gamer is playing. The research paper also indicates other elements which can enhance or limit the feeling of immersion in FPS.</p>

Context. People in recent times are getting engaged more often in playing video games. Few play for enjoyment, few play for stress relaxation and so on. Generally, the degree of involvement of a player with the game is described as game immersion. People when immersed into playing a game doesn't realize that they are getting dissociated with the outside world and are losing track of time. Objectives. In this research, the main objective is to explore the relationship between the game immersion and game experience using the five factors of game immersion. In addition, the study also involves exploring different methods that can be used to measure game immersion. Methods. In this research, initially literature review has been conducted to explore the meaning of game immersion and also different methods that can be used to measure it and next user studies in the form an experiment was conducted to measure game immersion. After the experiment was conducted regression analysis was performed on the data obtained from the results to describe the relation between game immersion and game experience. Results. After the experiment participants were asked to answer the IEQ questionnaire and the answers obtained from the questionnaire are analyzed using regression analysis. An inverse linear regression was observed between game immersion and game experience. Conclusions. After analyzing the data, from the observed inverse linear regression, it is concluded that game immersion levels decrease with the increase in the game experience.

Inlevelse i den digitala spelvärlden är ett utspritt begrepp bland spelare och spelutvecklare, men har termen samma innebörd för alla. Detta forskningsarbete tar upp tidigare forskning inom ämnet inlevelse i digitala spel men också vad spelare idag anser om termen och vilka faktorer de anser är viktiga att fokusera på när man vill skapa ett inlevelserikt spel i genren first-person shooter. Genom en litteraturundersökning av tidigare forskning samt en enkätundersökning framgår det att inlevelse kan delas in i tre olika nivåer: involvering, försjunkning och total inlevelse. Forskningsarbetet bekräftar tidigare forskning på området och för ämnet om inlevelse i first-person shooter genren vidare, där inlevelsen styrs av spelelementens fyra pelare: estetik, spelmekanik, story och teknik men är också högst beroende av en spelares personlighet, mentalitet och inställning till det spel denne spelar. Enkätundersökningen pekar också på ytterligare faktorer som kan stärka respektive hämma inlevelsen i FPS. / The term immersion is widely used in the video game industry, but there is still a lack of signs on what immersion really is, or if people are using the term with the same meaning behind it. This paper describes previous research relating to the subject but also what gamers think about immersion, and what different factors that they deem important to focus on when creating an immersive digital video game in the first-person-shooter genre. With research of previous work in the field and a survey on immersion showed that immersion can be seen in three different levels: engagement, engrossment and total immersion. This research paper confirms previous research in the field and moves the research of immersion in first-person shooters forward, where immersion is governed by the four pillars of game elements: aesthetics, game mechanics, story and technology but is also highly influenced by the gamers personality, mentality and attitude towards the game the gamer is playing. The research paper also indicates other elements which can enhance or limit the feeling of immersion in FPS.

Analog games misses a lot of quick games in terms of game time and play time in the FPS genre. This genre often takes more time to play in an analog game. Could the game play become quicker by examining the different game mechanics in order to give the players a smoother game play by a reduction of downtime. Game mechanics that could be found in a digital FPS game such as Doom III, were converted to a prototype. These digital gameplay mechanics were converted so that an analog game could be played simultaneously. These game mechanics decrease the game time and down time in a way that a game using a turn based game order would not. The digital game Doom III was used to create the prototype and eight analog games of different types and genres were examined to collect more unique game mechanics. All were suited for a multiplayer type of gameplay. To get an understanding of what game elements were well liked in both digital and analog games, a questionnaire was created with twelve questions. The participants answered questions on the subjects of their favourite genre, missing game mechanics in both digital and analog games, well liked game mechanics, and also what the participants thought was impossible to create in a game in terms of game mechanics. The results of both the analysis of the eight analog games and the answers from the participants created the base plan for the development of the prototype focusing on low downtime, re-playability, and an average amount of luck. Several game mechanics were discussed and some of them were play tested. This resulted in keeping some game mechanics while others were removed because these game mechanics did not provide a rewarding gameplay. Several game mechanics were nearly impossible to implement without the use of a digital representation. An example on this type of issue was the first person view in the digital game. The perception of skill based game mechanics could be moved to an analog board game but would have to be determined by other game mechanics instead of the player’s physical capabilities. The conclusion lead to a prototype that could be played in an hour, which is a low game time for games in this genre. The FPS gameplay mechanics was converted to an analog game, but all game mechanics could not be transferred to the prototype without a conversion. / Gränsvägen 29 372 37 Ronneby Phone +46(0)708 35 04 45

This thesis explores the perceived enjoyability of Deep Reinforcement learning AI agents (DeepRL agent) that strives towards optimality within the First Person Shooter game Unreal Tournament 2004 (UT2004). The DeepRL agent used in the experiments was created and then trained within this game against the AI agent which comes with the UT2004 game (known here as a trivial UT2004 agent). Through testing the opinions of participants who have played UT2004 deathmatches against both the DeepRL agent and the trivial UT2004 agent, the data collected in two participant surveys shows that the DeepRL agent is more enjoyable to face than a trivial UT2004 agent. By striving towards optimality the DeepRL agent developed a behaviour which despite making the DeepRL agent a great deal worse at UT2004 than the trivial UT2004 agent was more enjoyable to face than the trivial UT2004 agent. Considering this outcome the data suggests that DeepRL agents in UT2004 which are encouraged to strive towards optimality during training are “enjoyable enough” in order to be considered by game developers to be “good enough” when developing non-trivial opponents for games similar to UT2004. If the development time of a DeepRL agent is reduced or equal in comparison with the development time of a trivial agent then the DeepRL agent could hypothetically be preferable.

Hit registration algorithms in First-Person Shooter games define how the server processes gunfire from clients. Network conditions, such as latency, cause a mismatch between the game worlds observed at the client and the server. To improve the experience for clients when authoritative servers are used, the server attempts to reconcile the differing views when performing hit registration through techniques known as lag compensation. This thesis surveys recent hit registration techniques and discusses how they can be implemented and evaluated with the use of a modern game engine. To this end, a lag compensation model based on animation pose rewind is implemented in Unreal Engine 4. Several programming models described in industry and research are used in the implementation, and experiences from further integrating the techniques into a commercial FPS project are also discussed. To reason about the accuracy of the algorithm, client-server discrepancy metrics are defined, as well as a hit rate metric which expresses the worst-case effect on the shooting experience of a player. Through automated tests, these metrics are used to evaluate the hit registration accuracy. The rewind algorithm was found to make the body-part-specific hit registration function well independently of latency. At high latencies, the rewind algorithm is completely necessary to make sure that clients can still aim at where they perceive their targets to be and expect their hits to be registered. Still, inconsistencies in the results remain, with hit rate values sometimes falling below 50%. This is theorized to be due to fundamental networking mechanisms of the game engine which are difficult to control. This presents a counterpoint to the otherwisegained ease of implementation when using Unreal Engine.

In First-Person shooter video games, spread is a mechanic that adds a random artificial inaccuracy to the player’s shots. Movement-amplified spread is a particular implementation of spread which amplifies the inaccuracy based on the speed the player is moving at. As a consequence, players that are moving are unable to fire accurate shots, whereas players standing still remain accurate. The purpose of this thesis is to study the effects of movement-amplified spread of different intensities on gameplay dynamics. To this end, we created a First-Person shooter target practice course for testers to complete 15 times. For every third completion we made movement-amplified spread more intense. The results showed that as movement-amplified spread increased, testers were more prone to halt before shooting, firing more shots and engaging with targets at a somewhat shorter distance. / I förstapersonsskjutare, även kallat FPS, är spread en spelmekanik som applicerar enslumpmässig inexakthet till spelarens precision när de skjuter. Movement-amplified spread ären specifik implementering av spread som amplifierar inexaktheten baserat på spelarens rörelse och hastighet. Som en konsekvens av detta så har spelare som rör på sig svårt att samtidigt vara träffsäkra, medan spelare som står still förblir precisa. Syftet med denna uppsats är att studera hur effekterna av en ökande movement-amplified spread påverkar spelkänsla och dynamik i spel. För detta har vi byggt en FPS hinderbana med stationära mål som testare har fått springa igenom 15 gånger. För vart tredje genomförande har vi ökat intensiteten av movement-amplified spread. Resultaten visar att när movement-amplified spread ökade, så var testarna mer benägna att stanna före de avlossade skott, de sköt mer eller så sprang de närmare för att bekämpa måltavlorna på ett kortare avstånd.

Command and control (C2) environments are complex, dynamic and rich in information. Thus, measuring the performance of an agent in a C2-system, in this case a platoon commander, poses a challenging task for the researcher. To measure the performance of a platoon commander in this thesis, the OODA loop is used as a model for representing the four processes in which the platoon commander is engaged in during a military C2 mission. In accordance with these processes, performance measurements for the platoon commander are identified. The relevance of the performance measurements, to the C2 tasks and goals of the platoon commander, are tested through three studies conducted in a simulated warfare scenario, and two workshops, one with a platoon commander and one with two scientists. As a result of the studies and workshops, an assessment tool for measuring the C2 tasks and goals of the platoon commander, is developed. This assessment tool consists of modified versions of the Crew Awareness Rating Scale (CARS), the Situation Awareness Global Assessment Technique (SAGAT) and the NASA-Task Load Index (NASA-TLX), as well as generic performance measurements measuring fratricide, deaths and completion of overarching goal.

Background. Visualizations are used in games to help players find and complete objectives, such as shooting all enemies or finding the hidden treasure. Different methods to do this involve outlines of various colors as well as markers floating above targets. To the best of the author’s knowledge, no research regarding how these outlines affect player performance exists. Objectives. The objective for this thesis is to find out how an outline around a target in a First Person Shooter game affects the accuracy and the shooting speed for the player. Methods. In order to collect the data a small game was developed where players completed two levels, where one had targets with outlines while the targets on the other level did not. The metrics for the experiment include time to shoot and distance from the center of the target to where the shot lands. Time to shoot is also used to get the time to re-shoot, if the previous shot missed the target. Results. The data collected during the experiment show that having an outline around a target lowers the time needed for players to shoot at it, both when it first shows up but also if the first shot missed and the player must shoot again. Having an outline also lowers the accuracy, with more misses and a longer distance from the point where a shot landed to the center of the targets. The results are statistically significant. Conclusions. Having outlines might help players find targets faster, at the cost of accuracy. However, more research is needed regarding the different aspects of the outline. / Bakgrund. Visualiseringar används i spel för att hjälpa spelare att hitta och slutföra objekt, så som att skjuta alla fiender eller hitta den gömda skatten. Olika metoder för att göra detta är bland annat outlines, en aura runt ett objekt, i olika färger och markörer som flyter ovanför mål. Dock så har det inte hittats någon forskning om hur dessa outlines påverkar spelarnas prestation. Syfte. Målet med denna tes är att ta reda på hur en outline runt ett mål i ett spel av genren First Person Shooter påverkar träffsäkerheten och skjuthastigheten för spelaren. Metod. För att samla ihop datan som behövdes utvecklades ett litet spel där spelare spelade två nivåer, där en hade outlines och den andra inte hade det. För att kunna jämföra resultatet används tiden till skott samt avståndet mellan målets mittpunkt och positionen där ett skott landade. Tiden till skott används även för att få tidenför att skjuta igen, om det förra skottet missade måltavlan. Resultat. Datan som samlades in under experimentet visar att om det finns en outline runt en måltavla minskade tiden som en spelare behövde för att skjuta, både när målet först dök upp och om första skottet missade och spelaren behövde skjuta igen. Att ha en outline minskade även träffsäkerheten hos spelarna, med fler missade skott och en längre sträcka från punkten där skottet träffade till mitten av målet. Datan är statistiskt signifikant. Slutsatser. Att ha outlines hjälper spelare att skjuta snabbare, till kostnad av en lägre träffsäkerhet. Dock behövs mer forskning gällande de olika aspekterna av outlines.

In this study, a video game prototype was developed to research the impacts of diegetic and non-diegetic interfaces on two facets of player experience in the context of video games, game difficulty and immersion. A total of 10 participants took part in a play session where they played the prototype, which was followed by semi-structured interviews where the participants discussed their perceived player experience. The transcribed interviews were then analyzed using a thematic analysis approach to find recurring patterns in relation to perceived difficulty and immersion. The findings of this study showed that diegetic interfaces were perceived as more difficult but more immersive in general, while the opposite was true for non-diegetic interfaces. / I den här studien utvecklades en spelprototyp för att undersöka effekterna av diegetiska och icke-diegetiska gränssnitt på två aspekter av spelupplevelse i samband med videospel, spelsvårighetsgrad och fördjupning. Totalt deltog 10 deltagare i en spelsession där prototypen spelades, vilket följdes av semistrukturerade intervjuer där deltagarna diskuterade sin spelupplevelse. De transkriberade intervjuerna analyserades sedan med en tematisk analysmetod för att hitta återkommande mönster i relation till deltagarnas upplevd svårighetsgrad och fördjupning. Resultaten av denna studie visade att diegetiska gränssnitt upplevdes som svårare men mer fördjupande i allmänhet, medan motsatsen gällde för icke-diegetiska gränssnitt.