ACM SIGCHI

Horror, Guilt and Shame: Uncomfortable Experiences in Digital Games

Digital games frequently utilize uncomfortable experiences—such as anxiety, guilt, and disgust—as deliberate design elements to deepen player engagement.

• Uncomfortable gameplay experiences—including anxiety, guilt, and disgust—are common and often integral to player engagement, with players frequently reporting that these moments make games more memorable or rewarding.
• Discomfort in digital games is primarily driven by five factors: high-pressure uncertainty, loss of control, feelings of personal responsibility for negative outcomes, the tragedy of character death, and unwanted exposure to disturbing themes.
• Players often require time and physical distance from the game to process intense negative emotions, with some needing to step away from the screen to recover from experiences like character loss or high-stress encounters.

Agonistic Games: Multiperspective and Unsettling Games for Social Change

This analysis examines the development and theoretical framework of Agonistic Games (AGs), a specialized subset of serious games designed to foster social change by challenging polarized historical narratives.

Adapting Cognitive Task Analysis to Elicit the Skill Chain of a Game

Cognitive Task Analysis provides a robust, empirical framework for mapping the skill chains of video games, shifting the industry focus from designer-led assumptions to the actual cognitive processes players employ.