Single-Player Game Genres and Emotional Performance: Relationships Between Gameplay Exposure and Player Experience

Abstract

Digital games provide diverse experiential structures that may influence players’ psychological experiences and emotional functioning. While previous studies have frequently examined multiplayer interaction in relation to social well-being and motivation, less attention has been given to how different single-player game genres support psychological need satisfaction and player experiences. Grounded in Self-Determination Theory (SDT), this study investigates the emotional performance of single-player game genres through player experience dimensions including relatedness, competence, autonomy, immersion, and intuitive control. From a Kansei perspective, emotional performance refers to the extent to which interactive systems facilitate desirable affective and psychological experiences during interaction. An online survey was conducted with 122 adult digital game players to examine gameplay exposure across multiple single-player genres and player experiences measured using the Player Experience of Need Satisfaction (PENS) framework. Correlation and multiple regression analyses were performed to examine relationships between gameplay exposure and experiential outcomes. The results showed that gameplay exposure generally demonstrated positive associations with player experience dimensions. However, after controlling for demographic variables and overlapping gameplay behaviors, most genre effects became non-significant. Fighting game exposure was the only genre that significantly predicted relatedness and immersion. The findings suggest that broad genre classifications alone may have limited explanatory power for emotional performance and that specific experiential characteristics embedded within games may play a more important role in shaping psychological experiences.