Exploring the Emotional-Behavioral Relationship in Action Role-Playing Games: Diverse Player Responses to Varying Difficulty Challenges

One of the core objectives of video games is to elicit a range of emotional experiences in players, where the art and interactive levels in games induce a variety of positive and negative emotional responses. However, due to differing player types, the same game content can lead to diverse emotional experiences, which are reflected in the players’ gaming behaviors. This study aims to explore the correlation between dynamic emotional changes and game difficulty during gameplay, and to investigate the potential impact of different personality types on gaming behavior. Utilizing action role-playing games as an experimental platform, we employed self-assessment and behavioral observation as methods to collect player experience data. We then analyzed the emotional variations and corresponding behavioral feedback of different types of players when faced with challenges of varying difficulties through statistical analysis. Our results indicate a significant increase in negative emotions and arousal levels when players face high-difficulty challenges. Additionally, we observed that players with high neuroticism displayed more aggressive behaviors, whereas those with low extraversion and low openness exhibited more exploratory behaviors. This study provides preliminary insights into the complex relationship between emotions and gaming behaviors among different types of players when faced with challenges of varying difficulties.