"It is always a lot of fun!"

TLDR

Digital game experience, encompassing diverse feelings and behaviors across genres and players, is currently studied in a fragmented way and lacks a common vocabulary or shared taxonomy. The study aims to describe a focus group investigation and propose a tentative, comprehensive categorisation of game experience. The authors conducted focus groups with diverse gamers to capture first‑hand accounts of game experience, then discussed findings in an expert meeting to consolidate empirical and theoretical insights. The resulting categorisation is relevant for game theorists and developers seeking to understand digital game experience.

Abstract

This paper focuses on digital game experience: the feelings and experiences people have when they play digital games. Digital game experience is not a one-dimensional concept. Great variety exists in game genres and game players, and game experiences will differ accordingly. To date, game experience is studied in a rather fragmented way. As such, the field still lacks a common vocabulary and a shared taxonomy of the different dimensions of game experience. In this paper we describe a focus group study and present a tentative, but comprehensive categorisation of game experience. Focus groups with various types of gamers were organised to capture a full first-hand account of game experiences and second, findings were discussed in an expert meeting in which empirical findings were consolidated with existing theoretical findings. The categorisation bears relevance for both game theorists and game developers wanting to get to the heart of digital game experience.