The Impact of Agency and Familiarity in Cooperative Multiplayer Games

Abstract

Many online videogames make use of characters controlled by both humans (avatar) and computers (agent) to facilitate game play. However, the level of agency a teammate shows potentially produces differing levels of social presence during play, which in turn may impact on the player experience. To better understand these effects, two experimental studies were conducted utilising cooperative multiplayer games (Left 4 Dead 2 and Rocket League). In addition, the effect of familiarity between players was considered. The trend across the two studies show that playing with another human is more enjoyable, and facilitates greater connection, cooperation, presence and positive mood than play with a computer agent. The implications for multiplayer game design is discussed