Comparing users' performance and game experience between a competitive and collaborative brain-computer interface

ABSTRACT

The recent advancements in Brain-Computer Interfaces (BCIs) technology made possible for its employment in entertainment applications, such as brain-controlled games. However, there are still many challenges to overcome in the design and development of such applications, especially when considering the interaction between multiple users. This paper presents the results of a controlled experiment aimed at comparing the performance and game experience of both competitive and collaborative matches in a multiplayer BCI game. In the experiment, sixteen subjects were divided in pairs into two groups, and each pair played a total of five competitive or collaborative matches of the attention-based game. Quantitative and qualitative data were collected to investigate key features of the subjects' interaction with both the BCI platform and the other players. It was found that there is no statistically significant difference in performance between the subjects of both groups, and between multiplayer and single player modes. Although the group playing competitively reported overall better scores for game experience, there was no statistically significant difference between groups. There were significant correlations between performance and positive aspects of game experience for both modes, and multiplayer matches were significantly shorter than single player ones, although this effect could not be attributed to the mode of interaction alone.

KEYWORDS:

• BCI
• EEG
• HCI
• game
• neurofeedback

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the Physical Artifacts of Interaction Research Group (PAIRG) at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte (UFRN). We also would like to thank the resources of the PAIRG's Laboratory of Physical and Physiological Computing (PAIRG L2PC) at UFRN, and the subjects who volunteered to participate in the experiment.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Steady-state visually evoked potential. A control signal in which a brain response is evoked based on a repetitive visual stimulus.

Additional information

Funding

This work was partially funded by the Brazilian National Council of Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq) [grant number 130158/2015-1] and by the Brazilian Federal Agency for Support and Evaluation of Graduate Education (CAPES) [grant number 88882.375573/2019-01].