Video Game Interfaces and Diegesis: The Impact on Experts and Novices’ Performance and Experience in Virtual Reality

ABSTRACT

When playing action video games, an optimal experience implies the presence of a head-up display that informs players on their status in regard of their goal like health points or their localization in the environment. However, how can this type of information can be integrated in new gaming contexts like virtual reality? Should this information be integrated into the game universe (diegetic design) or stay out of it (non-diegetic design)? For this purpose, the performance, presence, and enjoyment of 41 players have been measured during a virtual reality first-person shooter game session with a diegetic and a non-diegetic interface. The results showed that diegetic integration has a positive effect on the player’s performance but not on the subjective experience (presence and enjoyment). The study also shed light on the moderator role of expertise in action games on this effect because the diegetic interface only benefited novice players.

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the AD2RV non-profit association for the development of the game.

Disclosure of potential conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Additional information

Funding

This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

Notes on contributors

Quentin Marre

Quentin Marre is a PhD student in cognitive psychology in Université Toulouse Jean Jaurès. He received an MSc in Research in Psychology from the Université Toulouse Jean Jaurès in 2019. His research focuses on learning, human-machine interaction, the embodied cognition theory and mental imagery.

Loïc Caroux

Loïc Caroux is an associate professor in cognitive ergonomics at the University of Toulouse Jean Jaurès, France. He received his PhD in cognitive ergonomics in 2012 from the University of Poitiers, France. His research interests deal with human factors/ergonomics in everyday computing systems.

Jean-Christophe Sakdavong

Jean-Christophe Sakdavong is lecturer in Computer Science and Cognitive Ergonomics at the University of Toulouse Jean Jaurès, France. He is a member of the CLLE research laboratory (CNRS UMR5263) and is conducting researches in Cognitive Psychology and Ergonomics on the effects of Virtual Reality on Learning and VR Video Games ergonomics.