Exploring the use of physiology in adaptive game design

This paper explores the use of human physiology in adaptive game mechanics. The study shows evidence that galvanic skin response (GSR) can react to stress changes caused by game difficulties and that GSR positively and significantly correlates with negative game events (frustration events) rather than positive events (success events); moreover, continuous failures during game playing can trigger distress (negative stress), which may be detected by combining GSR and heart rate signals. This exploratory study provides an initial step toward incorporating human physiology into adaptive design mechanics for video games and promotes the measurement of stress in game environments as user cost. © 2011 IEEE.