Thesis Title:
Unpacking casual game engagement across time scales
Thesis Abstract:
More than 3 billion people play video games worldwide. With extensive screen and video game time becoming increasingly more common, especially in adolescents since the COVID-19 pandemic, video games have become a focal point of public health. Most video game research distinctly neglects players of casual mobile games over long periods of time. Existing research therefore doesn’t exactly create an accurate depiction of what drives casual mobile game engagement. This project aims to use an ecological momentary assessment study, a detailed panel study, in-app telemetry and follow-up interviews of players of Candy Crush Saga, to identify casual game engagement factors. Interpretable machine learning methods and statistical approaches will be used to quantify and compare the relative contributions of these engagement factors. The results of this project will be used to guide game developers and policy makers on the promotion of healthy casual gaming habits, contribute to psychological research on game addiction, and use interpretable AI to predict player engagement.
Primary Supervisor:
Prof Sebastian Deterding