Exploring Compatible Interaction Preferences with a Puzzle Video Game

This study examines whether pairing players with complementary interaction preferences improves teamwork in Alien Bar, a cooking puzzle game, arguing that task-directed preferences, modeled along Focus (self versus others) and Challenge (facilitate versus complicate), have been understudied relative to personality-based frameworks such as the MBTI and the Five Factor Model. Thirty-one pairs (62 participants) completed a four-phase procedure of roughly 35 minutes, including a single-player tutorial, team training, and an individual survival round, with non-parametric analyses applied to preference variables alongside video game familiarity and interpersonal closeness.

The central findings concern perceived competence and performance rather than enjoyment. Self-Challenger players achieved the strongest survival outcomes and helped their partners' success, and Others-Facilitator players also reported elevated competence, while Others-oriented pairings showed lower ability. Only one pairwise comparison, against Others-Facilitator partners, survived Bonferroni correction, so most effects should be regarded as tentative. Enjoyment was instead associated with video game familiarity and genre liking, and interpersonal closeness positively influenced perceived competence.

The authors also find that pre-game preference estimates matched in-game behavior only about 37 to 65 percent of the time, suggesting that the task itself substantially shapes how players interact. Given the small sample, individual and time-limited design, and multiple-comparison constraints, the authors recommend replication with larger and more controlled samples before drawing firm conclusions about compatible interaction preferences in cooperative puzzle gameplay.