Affective videogames

Affective videogames are those where player and game interchange affective signals. They differ from traditional games, which may be designed to cause emotional responses in users, but seldom have access to the player's emotional state; this state may be accessed by using biofeedback devices.^[1] A particularly simple form of biofeedback is available through gamepads that measures the pressure with which a button is pressed: this has been shown to correlate strongly with the players' level of arousal;^[2] at the other end of the scale are brain–computer interfaces.^[3][4]

Affective games have been used in medical research to support the emotional development of autistic children.^[5]

History

As of 2013 there are different games on this genre for different platforms, in this category or genre of games can be included:

• Big Huggin' (For PC): It is a videogame designed and based on Critical Design, and at difference of classic videogames, it its not controlled by mouse or keyboards, and it is not intended to promote violence. The control of the game is based on hugs made to a 30-inch custom Teddy Bear that is used instead of controls.^[6]
• Leslie Lover (For Android)
• Stolen Kisses (For Android).

See also

• Affective games
• Affective computing
• Positive affectivity

References

1. Gilleade, Kiel Mark; Dix, Alan; Allanson, Jen (2005). Affective Videogames and Modes of Affective Gaming: Assist Me, Challenge Me, Emote Me (PDF). Proc. DiGRA Conf.
2. Sykes, Jonathan; Brown, Simon (2003). Affective gaming: Measuring emotion through the gamepad. CHI '03 Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems. doi:10.1145/765891.765957. ISBN 1581136374. CiteSeerX: 10.1.1.92.2123.
3. Nijholt, Anton; Plass-Oude Bos, Danny; Reuderink, Boris (2009). "Turning shortcomings into challenges: Brain–computer interfaces for games". Entertainment Computing 1 (2): 85–94. doi:10.1016/j.entcom.2009.09.007.
4. Reuderink, Boris; Nijholt, Anton; Poel, Mannes (2009). Affective Pacman: A Frustrating Game for Brain-Computer Interface Experiments. Intelligent Technologies for Interactive Entertainment (INTETAIN). pp. 221–227. doi:10.1007/978-3-642-02315-6_23. ISBN 978-3-642-02314-9.
5. Khandaker, M (2009). "Designing affective video games to support the social-emotional development of teenagers with autism spectrum disorders". Studies in health technology and informatics 144: 37–9. PMID 19592726.
6. "Big Huggin". gameartshow.siggraph.org. Retrieved 2015-04-02.