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A new study has found gamers enjoy playing video games more when they believe it’s been upgraded with impressive features – even if it hasn’t.
After watching a TV programme about the positive results a sugar pill had on cyclists’ performances, Paul Cairns, a professor of human-computer interaction at the University of York, wondered if the placebo effect was present in the gaming world too.
Paul and a team at the university asked 21 gamers to play two rounds of Don’t Starve, an action-adventure game in which players have to collect objects by day and fight monsters by night to survive.
The players were told the first round of the game featured a randomly generated map and the second would be created by an “adaptive AI”, that adjusts the map depending on their abilities.
What they didn’t know is that both versions of the game were the same – neither used AI, with the gaming maps both created at random.
Nevertheless, after playing both rounds, the gamers ranked the AI version more immersive and entertaining than the former. Some commented the game with AI was harder, while others found it easier, but not one found the versions equally challenging.
