Pathways of Desire: Enhancing Navigation and Sense of Community Through Player-Generated Desire Paths

要旨

Navigating is essential in many video games. However, previous work suggests that many games still suffer from navigational problems that decrease enjoyment. In this paper, we focus on "Desire Paths", informal trails collectively created by pedestrians representing the most convenient route. While they are known to be useful wayfinding aids, it is unclear how they affect navigation and experience in games. We therefore investigated diegetically visualized player trajectory data in a 2D game through virtual footprints that were persistently visible for all subsequent players. Through a mixed-methods study involving 50 participants, we found that virtual footprints improved navigation by guiding players to points of interest and reducing disorientation for early players. However, visual clutter from excessive footprints reduced their effectiveness in later stages. They also fostered a sense of community, especially for late-stage players and prompted exploration of yet undiscovered areas. We further discuss design implications and future research directions.

受賞
Honorable Mention
著者
Michael Lankes
University of Applied Sciences Upper Austria, Hagenberg, Austria
Günter Wallner
Johannes Kepler University Linz, Linz, Austria
Martin Kocur
University of Applied Sciences Upper Austria, Hagenberg, Austria
DOI

10.1145/3706598.3713191

論文URL

https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3706598.3713191

動画

会議: CHI 2025

The ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (https://chi2025.acm.org/)

セッション: Game Experience

Annex Hall F205
7 件の発表
2025-05-01 01:20:00
2025-05-01 02:50:00
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