IEEE Consumer Electronics Magazine - May 2018 - 58

Consumer enjoyment has been
viewed as a central component
of games, especially digital games.
Fernandez et al. [15] discussed video-game evaluation
from the model-driven development perspective. They presented a usability evaluation method that can be used in all
stages of development. The proposed method used the ISO/
IEC 25010 [16] standard and defined attributes and metrics
especially for the video-game domain. The attributes were
appropriateness, recognizability, ease of use, learnability,
helpfulness, attractiveness, and technical accessibility. This
method of evaluation is limited to the early stage of modeldriven development.
The few researchers who considered consumer-centered
factors in the digital game-development process did so with
limited scope [8]. In this article, we survey the literature and
present the five factors we consider to have the most impact
for successful game development.

KEY CONSUMER FACTORS
In the past, researchers have highlighted the concept of a consumer-centered approach to the game-development process.
The following five important factors were identified from
the literature as elements that can directly or indirectly
contribute to the development of high-quality digital games
from the consumer perspective.

CONSUMER ENGAGEMENT
Consumer engagement, an important aspect of any successful
product, is also considered critical for digital game success.
Charlton and Danforth [17] defined engagement as "a high
degree of involvement in computer usage." One of the main
issues highlighted in their research was the psychological
behavior of addiction to computer-related activities from which
consumers can suffer [18], [19]. They stated that this type of
behavior was related only to personality variables (i.e., low
emotional stability or high extraversion) and was not considered as an engagement factor.
Several studies have been carried out by researchers to
investigate the consumer engagement concept in digital games.
This concept is closely related to the consumer level of motivation in terms of presence, immersion, or perceived realism.
Presence is the most popular concept in terms of consumer
engagement, and it is well adapted to the digital game environment. Stanney and Salvendy [20] defined presence as "the
subjective experience of being in one place or environment
even when one is located at another." Lee [21] proposed three
dimensions of presence: spatial presence (associated with distant or virtual objects), social presence (associated with distant or virtual social actors), and self-presence (associated
with a represented self or virtual actor). Retaux [22] suggested
a method to evaluate variations in presence using video
58 IEEE Consumer Electronics Magazine

may 2018

recording during a single game session and authenticated it by
case study. The concept of immersion is a "psychological state
characterized by perceiving one's self to be enveloped by,
included in, and interacting with an environment that provides
a continuous stream of stimuli and experiences" [20]. Based
on game narrative factors, Qin et al. [23] proposed a survey
questionnaire for immersion and validated it for seven factors
in the game narrative: concentration, curiosity, empathy, comprehension, challenge, familiarity, and the skills and control of
corresponding players. Jennett et al. [24] suggested an experimental method to evaluate the player's level of immersion by
recording eye movements. The researchers agreed that the
immersive tasks within the game help a player to pay attention
to important game tasks. Malliet [25] referred to the subjective realism that a game consumer experiences with respect to
the virtual world as perceived realism. Ribbens and Malliet
[26] proposed that the perceived realism of a video game
depends on many factors from the virtual world, such as freedom of choice, realism of the simulation, authenticity of subject matter, character involvement, authenticity of characters,
perceptual pervasiveness, and social realism.
The engagement factor for digital games is a complex topic.
Researchers have approached this from different, yet overlapping,
perspectives. For example, some have used the presence concept
to describe a kind of psychological state in which a player experiences the virtual world as a real world [21]. However, some have
questioned how presence contributes to the player's experience
and finally leads to enjoyment. Arguably, similar concepts have
been explored under different names along with their own scholarly foci and rationales; these concepts include absorption,
immersion, and realism. Several studies have discussed the concept of engagement in digital games and have proposed various
methods for evaluating the engagement process, e.g., SchoenauFog [14]. Usually, the term game engagement in digital games
refers to the consumer experience during game play and is
strongly related to the level of motivation expressed by the consumer. The consumer engagement variable for measuring the
success of digital games has not yet been explored in the literature. The game engagement factor in the digital games considered by this study consists of presence, immersion, and perceived
realism as experienced by game consumers.

CONSUMER ENJOYMENT
Consumer enjoyment has been viewed as a central component
of games, especially digital games. The enjoyment factor in
games can be described as the positive response of an individual to the game content and its media technology. Enjoyment
is also seen as a central concept in human-computer interaction and is a frequently assessed dimension when measuring
user experience.
The concept of enjoyment within digital games is interpreted differently across genres, individuals, content, and platforms.
It is important to study how it is discussed by researchers
because this will provide insight into our understanding of the
digital game enjoyment factor from a consumer perspective.
Similarly, Sweetser and Wyeth [27] also stated that the definition

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