The Game Experience Questionnaire

This document contains the English version of the Game Experience Questionnaire. The development and testing of the Game Experience Questionnaire is described in project Deliverable 3.3. The Game Experience Questionnaire has a modular structure and consists of : 1. The core questionnaire 2. The Social Presence Module 3. The Post-game module. In addition to these modules, a concise in-game version of the GEQ was developed. All three modules are meant to be administered immediately after the game-session has finished, in the order given above. Part one and two probe the players’ feelings and thoughts while playing the game; Part 3, the post-game module, assesses how players felt after they had stopped playing. Part 1 is the core part of the GEQ. It assesses game experience as scores on seven components: Immersion, Flow, Competence, Positive and Negative Affect, Tension, and Challenge. For a robust measure, we need five items per component. As translation of questionnaire items, no matter how carefully performed, sometimes results in suboptimal scoring patterns, we have added a spare item to all components. After the first use of the translated GEQs, scale analyses will be performed to check whether any item should be discarded or replaced. Part 2, the social presence module, investigates psychological and behavioural involvement of the player with other social entities, be they virtual (i.e., in-game characters), mediated (e.g., others playing online), or co-located. This module should only be administered when at least one of these types of co-players were involved in the game. Part 3, the post-game module, assesses how players felt after they had stopped playing. This is a relevant module for assessing naturalistic gaming (i.e., when gamers have voluntarily decided to play), but may also be relevant in experimental research. The In-game version of the GEQ is a concise version of the core questionnaire. It has an identical component structure and consists of items selected from this module. The in-game questionnaire is developed for assessing game experience at multiple intervals during a game session, or play-back session. This should facilitate the validation of continuous and real-time indicators some of the partners in the FUGA project are developing.