Greater rewards in videogames lead to more presence, enjoyment and effort

Highlights • Existing research has often focussed on single reward types in videogames • The current study explored the impact of varying amount and diversity of rewards • Effort, enjoyment and sense of presence were greater in response to greater rewards • Heart-rate measures indicate greater arousal in response to greater rewards • Greater amount and diversity of rewards has a positive influence on player experience Abstract There is currently limited understanding of whether and how different amounts and diversity of virtual rewards impact on the player experience. A repeated-measures experiment was undertaken in which participants (N = 59) were compared on subjective measures (competence, presence-immersion, tension, effort and enjoyment), as well as psychophysiological measures (electrodermal activity and heart-beat rate), during the play of a videogame with three levels of video game reward (high, medium, low). Effort, enjoyment and presence-immersion significantly varied across conditions such that they were greater when all rewards were present compared to one or both of the other conditions. Heart-beat rate was found to vary across conditions consistent with the explanation that greater rewards lead to greater arousal. Our study suggest a number of advantages to greater amount and diversity of virtual rewards in the context of a casual videogame, with potential application to the design of new gamification systems. Keywords videogame; reward; psychophysiology; player experience