Investigating Perceived and Mechanical Challenge in Games Through Cognitive Activity

TL;DR

This study tackles how to quantify game challenge by comparing mechanical versus visual manipulations across four minigames using EEG. The authors record frontal-band EEG (gamma and alpha) while participants play 60s sessions, and analyze bandpower alongside a shortened CORGIS questionnaire to assess perceived difficulty. They report a robust increase in frontal gamma power for mechanically harder versions across all games, while visual difficulty yields gamma increases in only two of four games and shows minimal, inconsistent effects in alpha and self-report. The findings suggest gamma-band activity over frontal regions as a promising continuous marker for cognitive load during gameplay, with potential applications for dynamic difficulty adjustment, though broader replication and expanded neural measures are needed to generalize. $ ext{Key frequencies include } ext{gamma} ext{ in } 30 ext{--}60 ext{ Hz}$ and $ ext{alpha} ext{ in } 8 ext{--}12 ext{ Hz}$, and electrodes over the frontal cortex $F_p1/F_p2$ are emphasized as the primary signals. $ $

Abstract

Game difficulty is a crucial aspect of game design, that can be directly influenced by tweaking game mechanics. Perceived difficulty can however also be influenced by simply altering the graphics to something more threatening. Here, we present a study with 12 participants playing 4 different minigames with either altered graphics or mechanics to make the game more difficult. Using EEG bandpower analysis, we find that frontal lobe activity is heightened in all 4 of the mechanically challenging versions and 2/4 of the visually altered versions, all differences that do not emerge from the self-reported player experience. This suggests that EEG could aid researchers with a more sensitive tool for investigating challenge in games.

Figures (1)

• Figure 1: Screenshots of the four games. The baseline versions are on top and the visually altered versions are below.