Exploring player experience in a collaborative story crafting table-top game : a non-competitive perspective

Abstract

Table-top story crafting games have gained popularity for their gameplay experiences which allow players to collaboratively or competitively construct narratives within a structured framework. The aim of this research is to evaluate any differences in player experience between a fully collaborative, which was designed and developed for the purposes of this study, and an existing competitive story crafting table-top game via a quantitative approach. To evaluate this, nine-tenths of the Player Experience Inventory (PXI) model is used. As per findings, collaborative story crafting had deeper meaning and offered a stronger sense of skill than in a competitive dynamic. Both games similarly achieved limited immersion while providing similar autonomy, curiosity and aesthetic pleasure. Moreover, the collaborative game had more manageable controls, slightly better balance in challenges as well as more defined goals and rules.