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Don't Break my Flow: Effects of Switching Latency in Shooting Video Games
Article
Halbhuber, David, Schwind, Valentin and Henze, Niels
(2022)
Don't Break my Flow: Effects of Switching Latency in Shooting Video Games.
Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction 6 (CHI PL), Art. no. 229.
DOI to cite this document: 10.5283/epub.53769
Abstract
Latency is inherently part of every interactive computing system and particularly important for video games. Previous work shows that constant latency above 25 ms reduces game experience and player performance. However, latency in the wild varies and is never constant due to multiple factors, such as updates in routing tables, users changing their location, or the system's workload. It is unclear ...
Latency is inherently part of every interactive computing system and particularly important for video games. Previous work shows that constant latency above 25 ms reduces game experience and player performance. However, latency in the wild varies and is never constant due to multiple factors, such as updates in routing tables, users changing their location, or the system's workload. It is unclear if switching latency impairs the gaming experience stronger than a constant high latency. To elucidate, we conducted an experiment with 264 participants playing a shooting video game induced with 0 ms, 33 ms, and 66 ms controlled latency. While playing, the game switched between different latency levels based on three frequencies. Our analysis shows that switching latency significantly impaired the participants' flow. Additionally, we found effects on the perceived tension, the experienced challenge, and the players' performance. We conclude that games should prioritize constant latency, even if that entails artificially adding latency.
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Details
| Item type | Article | ||||
| Journal or Publication Title | Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction | ||||
| Publisher | Association for Computing Machinery | ||||
| Open Access Type | Assoc. of Comp. Machinery (ACM) | ||||
| Volume | 6 | ||||
| Number of Issue or Book Chapter | CHI PL | ||||
| Page Range | Art. no. 229 | ||||
| Date | October 2022 | ||||
| Date of publication | 15 Feb 2023 08:35 | ||||
| Institutions | Languages and Literatures > Institut für Information und Medien, Sprache und Kultur (I:IMSK) > Professur für Medieninformatik (Prof. Dr. Niels Henze) Informatics and Data Science > Department Human-Centered Computing > Professur für Medieninformatik (Prof. Dr. Niels Henze) | ||||
| Identification Number |
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| Keywords | video games, latency, switching latency | ||||
| Dewey Decimal Classification | 000 Computer science, information & general works > 004 Computer science | ||||
| Status | Published | ||||
| Refereed | Yes, this version has been refereed | ||||
| Created at the University of Regensburg | Partially | ||||
| URN of the UB Regensburg | urn:nbn:de:bvb:355-epub-537697 | ||||
| Item ID | 53769 |
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