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Halbhuber, David ; Schwind, Valentin ; Henze, Niels

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 typeArticle
Journal or Publication TitleProceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction
PublisherAssociation for Computing Machinery
Open Access TypeAssoc. of Comp. Machinery (ACM)
Volume6
Number of Issue or Book ChapterCHI PL
Page RangeArt. no. 229
DateOctober 2022
Date of publication15 Feb 2023 08:35
InstitutionsLanguages 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
ValueType
10.1145/3549492DOI
Keywordsvideo games, latency, switching latency
Dewey Decimal Classification000 Computer science, information & general works > 004 Computer science
StatusPublished
RefereedYes, this version has been refereed
Created at the University of RegensburgPartially
URN of the UB Regensburgurn:nbn:de:bvb:355-epub-537697
Item ID53769

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