How can we help? Towards a design framework for performance-accommodation mechanisms for users struggling with input

Abstract

Maintaining balance between challenge and skills in games is critical for enjoyment, and can be applied to accommodate player performance as well as system performance for low accuracy input devices. Previous work has explored different performance-accommodation mechanisms (PAMs) for balancing, but studies have focused mainly on variables not directly related to how the PAMs lower challenge level. This paper identifies different levels of PAMs, then offers a first attempt at a coherent framework of action-level PAMs based on how they modify the mapping from player input to output.CCS Concepts: • Human-centered computing → HCI theory, concepts and models.

Implementing Performance Accommodation Mechanisms in Online BCI for Stroke Rehabilitation: A Study on Perceived Control and Frustration

“…Alternatively, game mechanics can be used to assist users, such that they maintain interest in the training, and the mechanics conceal the actual BCI performance. The game mechanics represent a type of dynamic difficulty adjustment [ 42 ], which regulate the game’s challenge to accommodate for imperfect user input, and are named performance accommodation mechanisms (PAMs) [ 43 ]. PAMs are used to match the challenge of the game to the player’s skill level.…”

“…A PAM may be defined in the following way: “ A game mechanism to increase the player’s enjoyment by lowering the game’s challenge level to accommodate for poor performance of the player, input device or system ” [ 43 ]. PAMs may be divided into five overall groups (although other smaller and more specific groupings may exist): Augmented success, mitigated failure, input override, rule change, and shared control [ 43 ]. In this study, we focus on the first three listed PAMs.…”