Adaptation in Affective Video Games: A Literature Review

Playing computer games is a predominantly emotional than rational process. Video games with affect-based adaptation measure player’s behavior signals and recognize player’s emotional states in order to adapt specific game features in a dynamic manner and to improve player’s engagement, immersion, excitement, and challenge. The present review deals with models for the presentation of emotions, techniques for measuring behavioral signals, emotion recognition and adaptation mechanisms applied in video games with affective feedback including methods for their assessment and validation. Studies using self-reports, observational methods and psychophysiological measurements of both autonomic and central nervous systems including processing and interpretation of signals are systematically reviewed with regard to their results concerning emotional adaptation in games. Next, the article provides a comparative analysis of affect-based adaptation methods and techniques applied in 14 adaptive video games developed in last ten years. Based on this comparison, we summarized future directions in research, design and evaluation of video games with affective adaption.