PUGS: Player Uncertainty in Games Scale
Players' experience of uncertainty in digital games

Please cite when you use this questionnaire:
Power, C., Cairns, P., Denisova, A., Papaioannou, T., & Gultom, R. (2019). Lost at the Edge of Uncertainty: Measuring Player Uncertainty in Digital Games. International Journal of Human–Computer Interaction, 35(12), 1033-1045. https://doi.org/10.1080/10447318.2018.1507161

Source: https://alenadenisova.com/paper-power-2019.html#questionnaire

HOW TO USE IT
- Give the questionnaire after a play session. In the validation study it followed a typical play session of a game of the player's choice; in the experiment, it followed a set puzzle.
- Present the 24 items in random order.
- Use a 5-point agreement scale, from Strongly disagree (1) to Strongly agree (5), as in the development and validation studies.

INSTRUCTIONS FOR PLAYERS
Thinking about the game you have just played, please indicate how much you agree or disagree with each of the following statements.
(The paper does not give a set wording for these instructions; this is a neutral suggestion.)

RESPONSE SCALE
1 Strongly disagree
2 Disagree
3 Neither agree nor disagree
4 Agree
5 Strongly agree

ITEMS

Decision-making (Internal uncertainty about how actions and choices shape the outcome.)
1. My actions were not influencing the outcome of the game.
2. I could not choose which actions were better.
3. I could not say if the game had more than one outcome.
4. I did not know how my performance influenced the outcome.
5. I did not know how the outcome(s) were connected to what I did.

Exploration (Gathering information about the game to resolve uncertainty.)
6. I needed to discover things to make progress.
7. I needed to explore in order to know what to do next.

Taking action (Internal uncertainty about carrying out actions in the game.)
8. I felt I was stuck during the game.
9. I found it difficult to keep track of all elements in the game.
10. The game mechanics were overwhelming.
11. I think what I was doing in the game was not right.
12. I was not confident that I could perform some actions in the game.
13. The actions I had to perform were too demanding for my skills.
14. I struggled to do the right actions.

Problem solving (Internal uncertainty about how to achieve the game's goals.)
15. I knew how each goal could be achieved. [reverse-scored]
16. I understood the game mechanics. [reverse-scored]
17. I knew how to play the game when I started. [reverse-scored]
18. I often felt lost.
19. I could find the solutions required for achieving the goals of the game. [reverse-scored]

External (Uncertainty from chance and unpredictability, outside the player.)
20. The game was unfair.
21. Unpredictable random elements were influencing my performance.
22. I was relying on chance in the game.
23. Random elements in the game were preventing me from achieving my goal.
24. The outcome of my actions was mainly influenced by chance.

SCORING
- Reverse-score items 15, 16, 17 and 19 (on a 5-point scale, 1 becomes 5, 2 becomes 4, and so on).
- Then sum the responses within each subscale. Higher scores mean more uncertainty of that kind.

NOTES
- Decision-making, taking action and problem solving are closely related and largely reflect a general sense of internal uncertainty. They are still worth scoring separately: in the validation experiment, only decision-making and problem solving dropped when players had more time with the puzzle.
- Exploration and external uncertainty are distinct from the other three subscales and from each other.