Random rewards in video games and their impact on player engagement

Sammanfattning: By their very nature, video games are designed to be engaging which has played a major factor in their commercial success. Reward systems are an important aspect when it comes to creating an engaging experience as they serve as motivators for the player. Many such reward systems incorporate varying degrees of randomness. This brings the question of how the implementation of random rewards affects the gameplay experience and in particular, how it affects the level of engagement with the player. To investigate this, two versions of a simple video game were created, one with a randomized rewards system and one with a non-random rewards system. The study was conducted with the help of 17 participants where 15 were from the Media technology program at kth and the other 3 had a similar background. Participants were divided into two groups where both groups got to play both versions of the game but one would start with the random version and one with the non random version. After playing both versions of the game participants got to fill in a questionnaire with questions about their experience with the game. The result of the study did not show a significant difference between the two versions in terms of player engagement. The non random version was however seen as more enjoyable as well as allowing significantly greater autonomy when playing the game. Overall the result indicated that a non random rewards system may result in players enjoying the game more as compared to randomized one. That said, because the reason for players enjoying the game was in large part due to how the rewards system affected the gameplay experience, the result might not be applicable to rewards systems which affect gameplay in different ways other than the one used for the study.