INFT3800 Ethics Consideration of a Research Solved  

The research will investigate the way enhanced sound displays can be used to support tasks in computer games. Typically games make use of sound to improve the player's sense of immersion in the game. However, sound displays can also be used to provide an additional layer of information that supports a player in completing a task in the game. The project will examine the current use of sound in a first-person shooter game. The intention is to examine the way the sound display does or does not support players in performing their tasks, how and if sound can be used to enhance user performance in games and if this can be generalised to other types of human computer interaction. To do this, an experiment will be used to test player performance in the game using desktop computer, both with and without the sound display.

In this research, the participants will be asked to take part in a trial using a commercial first-person shooter game called Call of Duty: Ghosts. For this experiment we will use the standard team death match game mode. Students, staff of university of Newcastle or any adult with 18 years of age or older are potential participants for this research. Only Individuals with no related-problems to visual nor auditory perception will be allowed to take part in this research.  

The game is played in two teams of between four to eight players. However for the purpose of this experiment, each participant will play on their own against a set number of computer controlled soldiers. The difficulty of these computer controlled soldiers will be set to "regular" to replicate the actions of a normal human player.

Each participant will play in two sound modes (sound off and sound on) on two set game maps (one small and one large). The order of presentation (sound and non-sound) will be randomly allocated between participants. Each game played will be 5-10 minutes in length.

Performance information and the detailed gameplay will be recorded through the use of a game capture kit for the Xbox One. This allows later playback for detailed analysis and the measurement of objective performance statistics. At the end of the trial players will also be asked to complete a short questionnaire. This will gather non-identifying demographic information about participants and also use Likert-scale and open-ended questions to ask participants about their experiences in the game. Observation and interview with audio/video will also be used to capture the after test experience qualities of each participant. Data gathered are only to be analysed from the participants who have agreed that their data to be used in this research.   

The result of this research will be published as an international journal paper. All data during and after this research will be kept safe and proper disposal of the data will be undertaken when the minimum retention period for the data has been reached.