The Role of Suspense in Gaming: Inducing Consumers’ Game Enjoyment

Abstract

Prior research in games finds that suspense positively influences game enjoyment and that suspense consists of hope, fear, and uncertainty. Nonetheless, this prior work does not specify the mechanisms that increase suspense, nor does it fully identify the suspense-related emotions felt at a game’s conclusion. This conceptual research fills this gap in the literature by presenting a model of suspense in games. This model proposes that game rewards and punishments positively influence hope and fear, respectively. Further, dynamic fluctuations in the probability of winning/losing are proposed to amplify suspense. Four outcome emotions are proposed to occur at the conclusion of the game—satisfaction, relief, disappointment, and/or anguish—and the player’s perceived effort is expected to amplify those emotions. Finally, the outcome emotions and the suspense felt prior to the outcome are both proposed to influence game enjoyment. This research, then, offers managers a toolbox for creating more suspenseful and enjoyable consumer games.

Keywords:

• games
• gamification
• advergames
• suspense
• enjoyment
• hope
• fear
• probability

Notes

Notes

1 In contrast with other conceptualizations of hope (e.g., Lazarus 1991; MacInnis and de Mello 2005), hope is not proposed as a situation in which one “hopes” to avoid a negative outcome. Rather, hope herein is a feeling associated with approach or desire for a particular outcome; thus, it is pleasant in nature. Avoiding a negative outcome is proposed to instead elicit fear.

2 A third situation is fearful suspense: Given that a player would not likely play a game with only potentially painful outcomes (which would elicit only fear), this context is not typically relevant in a game context and, thus, not discussed herein.

3 We assume that a player’s perceptions of variations in the probability are due to actual changes in the probability.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Julie Guidry Moulard

Julie Guidry Moulard (PhD, Texas A&M University) is an Associate Professor of Marketing and the Balsley-Whitmore Endowed Professor in Business at Louisiana Tech University.

Michael Kroff

Michael Kroff is an Associate Professor of Marketing at Southern Utah University.

Kathrynn Pounders

Kathrynn Pounders (PhD, Louisiana State University) is an Assistant Professor in the Stan Richards School of Advertising and Public Relations, University of Texas at Austin.

Cassandra Ditt

Cassandra Ditt is a Doctoral Candidate at Louisiana Tech University.