The Effects of Enriched Narratives on Presence and Motion Sickness in Game-Guiding

In recent years, the game-streaming industry has become increasingly popular, and diverse styles of game-streaming have emerged. “Game-guiding” stands out as a genre in the game-streaming industry that strongly emphasizes on providing viewers with a feeling of high presence and a satisfying watching experience. However, motion sickness is still a potential risk. Previous studies have suggested mixed results regarding the correlation between presence and motion sickness, and presence could be enhanced by enriched narratives that described not only the progress of the game but also the details in the game environment. It is assumed that the enriched narratives may also be used to enhance the presence and reduce motion sickness of the viewers in the game-guiding context. This study investigated the effects of the enriched narratives and game experience on the feeling of presence in the game-guiding context. Fifteen participants with various game experiences were recruited to watch a horrific game-guiding video (Fig. 1) and subjectively report their feelings of presence and motion thickness through a Presence Questionnaire (PQ) and a Simulator Sickness Questionnaire (SSQ). Their heart rate and electrical dermal activity were measured simultaneously with response time to visual and auditory probes in the video to indicate their attention level. While objective evidence was not found, subjective reports showed that the enriched narratives significantly increased presence scores related to sensory factors in PQ and reduced the nausea scores in SSQ. The implications of the results for the game-guiding are discussed.