Short paper · 2016

The Convergence of Player Experience Questionnaires

Denisova, A., Nordin, A. I., & Cairns, P.

ConferenceProceedings of the Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play (CHI PLAY'16), 2016

Teaser figure: correlations between total scores on the IEQ, GEQ and PENS (r = .80, .81 and .69) from 270 players, with further findings on overlapping immersion items and PENS loading on two factors. — Open full-size image

In short

Many questionnaires measure player experience, which makes it hard to choose between them or compare studies. We compared three widely used ones, the Immersive Experience Questionnaire (IEQ), the Game Engagement Questionnaire (GEQ) and the Player Experience of Need Satisfaction (PENS), using an online survey of 270 players about their most recent game.

How the study worked

Participants: 270 valid responses (287 respondents), from 32 countries
Task: Reflect on their most recent experience of playing a digital game
Questionnaires: IEQ, GEQ and PENS combined into one online survey, all items as present-tense statements on a 7-point scale
Recruitment: Online forums such as the Steam Users’ Forum, Twitter and relevant Facebook groups

Items that did not fit every game

The three questionnaires were merged into one, with every item rephrased as a statement: for example, the IEQ question “To what extent did you find the game easy?” became “I find the game easy”.

Questionnaire	Item	Why it was a problem
PENS	Relationships with other players	As many single-player games do not provide opportunities for this experience, this question was viewed as confusing.
IEQ	Wanting to “win” the game	Not all games have a clear ending.
GEQ	“I feel scared”	Does not necessarily apply to many games.
GEQ	“I feel different” and “Things seem to happen automatically”	Vaguely phrased questions … provided too many opportunities for interpretation.

The appeal of it isn’t like Skyrim or The Witcher in the sense I want to be immersed in another world but more of the sense you get when you play a sport.

A League of Legends player

Key findings

Total scores on the three questionnaires were highly correlated (IEQ–GEQ r = .80), suggesting that immersion and engagement address the same underlying experience.
The PENS immersion items overlapped most with the other two questionnaires, and the PENS subscales grouped into two factors rather than five.
Some items do not fit every game, such as relatedness in single-player games, leaving room for a refined, game-independent measure of engagement.

Read and cite

PDF (accepted version) Publisher's version (DOI)

APA citation

Denisova, A., Nordin, A. I., & Cairns, P. (2016). The Convergence of Player Experience Questionnaires. In Proceedings of the Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play (CHI PLAY'16) (pp. 33-37). https://doi.org/10.1145/2967934.2968095