Towards Understanding Waiting in Video Games

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A1 Alkuperäisartikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä
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Date

2025-10-05

Department

Department of Computer Science
Department of Art and Media

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Language

en

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Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction, Volume 9, issue 6, pp. 510-541

Abstract

Waiting is an everyday activity that is often present in video games. Waiting situations in games can take place during, for instance, loading screens, turn-based action, and cutscenes. Experiences of waiting can encompass a variety of emotions in players, such as anticipation, frustration, and boredom. Thus, understanding how waiting relates to players’ overall experience can be beneficial when designing or analysing games. However, academic discussion on waiting in games is quite scattered, and there is no comprehensive overview available on the subject. This paper contributes a semi-systematic literature review on the topic, augmented with a follow-up survey study. Based on the survey findings, we outline five perspectives from which waiting experiences can be analysed. These are 1) causes of waiting, 2) player goals for waiting, 3) player behaviour when waiting, 4) felt experience of waiting, and 5) player reasoning and decision-making. Our findings give an overview of sources of waiting in games and highlight that, in addition to affecting players' emotions, waiting is an aspect of gameplay that has an effect on players' decisions and behaviour.

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Keywords

Player experience, Video games, Waiting

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DOI

10.1145/3748613

Citation

Tepponen, N, Bhatnagar, P, Väkevä, J & Hämäläinen, P 2025, 'Towards Understanding Waiting in Video Games', Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction, vol. 9, no. 6, GAMES018, pp. 510-541. https://doi.org/10.1145/3748613

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https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:aalto-202510087587

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[article-cris] Perustieteiden korkeakoulu / SCI