FUGA – FUN OF GAMING

MEASURING THE HUMAN EXPERIENCE OF MEDIA

ENJOYMENT

Project funded by the European Commission under the 6th Framework Programme: New and Emerging Science and Technology (NEST)Contract: FP6-NEST-28765Duration: May 1, 2006 - April 30, 2009

OBJECTIVE

Digital (e.g., computer and console) gaming is the fastest-growing form

of entertainment media1, and enormous resources are invested in the

creation of new digital games. In addition to entertainment, digital

games are more and more used for therapeutic, educational, and work-

related purposes. However, established methods to measure gaming

experience with high temporal resolution are lacking,.

The main objective of the FUGA project is to create novel methods and

improve existing measures in order to examine how the different

aspects of gaming experience (e.g., different emotions and cognitions)

can be assessed comprehensively and with high temporal resolution.

The operational goals of FUGA include the establishment of the

construct validity, reliability, and predictive validity of the Game

Experience measures that are based on the different measurement

techniques (e.g., psychophysiological recordings, brain imaging). A

further goal is to develop a prototype of an emotionally adaptive game.

FUGA is an interdisciplinary research project that builds bridges across

neurosciences, psychology, physiology, communication research,

computer science, and vision research. FUGA uses several methods,

including fMRI, laboratory and mobile recordings of other

psychophysiological signals, eye-tracking, IAT, and tracking of

behavioral responses, to examine how Game Experience can be

measured. These methods are new in the context of games and their

usage requires new ways to extract relevant parameters from the data.

Digital games attract hundreds of millions of players on a regular basis, have created revenues that built a

substantial new branch of the ICT industries, and impose new research challenges to many scientific disciplines.

Surprisingly enough, although the players certainly know that gaming can be a lot of fun, game developers and

scientists are lacking established methods to measure the “fun of gaming”, or Game Experience. The FUGA

research project, unifying six top-class European partners, is devoted to test and establish a set of scientific

Game Experience measures.

Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion © Bethesda Softworks; Half life 2: Lost Coast © Valve Corporation

IMPACT

The construct validation of the Game Experience measures will

significantly advance the foundation of the methodology of game

research. The innovative measurement approach provided by FUGA

can be applied when designing new digital games for different

purposes (e.g., entertainment, education, therapy). Superior tools to

measure game products' entertainment value will support European

game companies to design games that suit customer requirements

most precisely, which will be a unique advantage in the extremely

competitive digital game markets of the world. Thus, aside of the

scientific impact of cutting-edge methodological research, FUGA is

expected to contribute to the rise of the European game industry.

PARTNERS

Chaired by Center for Knowledge and Innovation Research, Helsinki

School of Economics (FIN), six top-class European research partners,

including Helsinki Institute for Information Technology (FIN), Gotland

University (SWE), Hannover University of Music and Drama (GER),

University of Aachen (GER), and Eindhoven University of Technology

(NL), cooperate to achieve the objective of FUGA in its three-year

duration.

1 PriceWaterhouseCoopers Global Entertainment and Media Outlook: 2006-2010 report

http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=9793

For further information please visit our project website:

www.hse.fi/fugaOr contact the Coordinator Niklas Ravaja (CKIR): ravaja@hse.fi