Low-level visual features of video game interfaces and player expertise

The goal of the present study is to investigate how the low-level visual features of video game interfaces, and in particular their backgrounds, influence players' performance in a typical video game task (a shooting task), and how their action video game expertise modulates this influence. We designed an experiment in which background complexity, task difficulty and player expertise were manipulated. Results showed that players' performance was impaired by task difficulty and that this impairment was attenuated for expert players, because of their enhanced attentional skills. However, even if players' performance was also impaired by background complexity, this impairment was not modulated by player expertise. Design recommendations based on manipulations of the interfaces' visual features are proposed to establish the level of challenge in action video games.