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The body language of fear: fearful nonverbal signals in survival-horror games

Research output: Contribution in Book/Report/Proceedings - With ISBN/ISSNConference contribution/Paperpeer-review

Published
Publication date23/06/2015
Host publicationProceedings of DiGRAA 2015 Conference: Inclusivity in Australian Games and Game Studies
PublisherDigital Games Research Association - DiGRA
<mark>Original language</mark>English

Abstract

In this paper, we present an exploration of players’ nonverbal body expressions when playing survival-horror games. We compared physiological signals and body expressions of 16 participants playing two games: a survival-horror game (Slender: The Eight Pages) and a custom-built baseline game with the same map and controls (Treasure Hunt). We show that the hard fun style of Survival-Horror games makes full body expressions an unsuitable modality for affect recognition, but scary game events are clearly expressed by their physiological signals.