The Impact of Game Peripherals on the Gamer Experience and Performance

Game peripherals refer to the input-output devices assisting players to interact with video games. An interesting phenomenon related to game peripherals is bringing your own peripherals (BYOP) which means video game players, especially the advanced players, usually tend to use their own devices to play video games. An important reason for the popularity of BYOP is the players’ belief that the best tools to play the game are their own devices, in terms of game experience and performance. Thus, the game peripherals used in the BYOP situation imply the excellent quality. However, the limited research on the game peripherals leads to the lacking understanding of what determines the good game peripherals and how the good game peripherals influence players’ positive gaming experience and their performance. In order to call for more attention to the research on game peripherals and players’ cognition, this paper focuses on two important dimensions of game peripherals (i.e., controller fit and vividness of interfaces) and their influences on players’ positive in-game experience (i.e., sense of control, immersion and enjoyment). Furthermore, this research also discusses the relationship between positive gaming experience and in-game performance. A relational framework including seven propositions is proposed to guide and suggest future research on the game peripherals’ influences and the positive gaming experience in the field of player-video game interaction.