CHI PLAY 2025
Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction, Volume 9, Number 6

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Article: play25foreword-fm000-p (type: Frontmatter) doi:

Editorial Message

Article: play25foreword-fm001-p (type: Frontmatter) doi:

Looking through the Lens: Contextualizing and Operationalizing Design Recommendations for Rehabilitation Games for Young People
Maria Aufheimer, Kathrin Gerling, T. C. Nicholas Graham, André Rodrigues, and Zeynep Yildiz
(Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Karlsruhe, Germany; Queen's University, Kingston, Canada; Universidade de Lisboa, Lisboa, Portugal)
Games for physical therapy can motivate patients, and HCI research has provided various recommendations for their design. However, such recommendations often remain at a high level: They are rarely reviewed with patients or appraised through application to game design and analysis. We address this gap by refining and operationalizing existing lessons for therapeutic games for young people. First, we report on semi-structured interviews with young people (aged 7–16) and parents, reviewing the lessons. Second, we operationalize them using an established collection of game design patterns to provide concrete guidance for game design and analysis. We critically appraise our approach through application to two games for physical therapy, Liberi and Wii Fit. Results show that high-level design implications can be made actionable using existing game design patterns, and we contribute a practical approach for the analysis and design of games for physical therapy.
Publisher's Version Article: play25main-p2560-p (type: Full Paper) doi:10.1145/3748596

Supplementary Material: Supplementary PDF file containing: * Section A; Interview questions listed alongside their related SDT concepts, the key lesson they relate to, and the themes from prior work they were based on. * Section B; A priori codes based on the themes of prior work, alongside their definition, description, and related ...

SoulGarden: A Gamified Meditation Application to Enhance Meditation Habits, Enjoyment, Mindfulness, and Mental Well-Being
Oliver Braese, Jeanine Kirchner-Krath, Marc Schubhan, Donald Degraen, and Maximilian Altmeyer
(Saarland Informatics Campus, Saarbrücken, Germany; Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nürnberg, Nürnberg, Germany; University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand; Saarland University of Applied Sciences, Saarbrücken, Germany)
Meditation can enhance mental well-being, but practicing meditation regularly can be challenging. In this work, we present SoulGarden - a gamified, web-based meditation app that draws on the narrative of personal growth, a guiding avatar and several progress-related mechanics to increase users' enjoyment in meditation and thereby enhance their meditation habits, mindfulness, and mental well-being. We conducted a within-subjects field study spanning four weeks (N=30) in which we evaluated the effectiveness of SoulGarden by comparing it to a non-gamified version and baseline measures. Our results show users meditated a lot using SoulGarden and the addition of gamification increased user enjoyment, frequency of meditation, and mindfulness. Thus, we contribute evidence for the potential of gamification to increase engagement and enhance mindfulness in meditation practices, ultimately paving the way to more effective mental health interventions.
Publisher's Version Article: play25main-p3496-p (type: Full Paper) doi:10.1145/3748597

Killing with Kindness: The Influence of Spectator Presence and Tone on Performance in Competitive Video Games
Nicole A. Beres and Madison Klarkowski
(University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Canada; Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia)
When playing competitive video games, players are subject to various pressures that may jeopardise performance outcomes. Prominent among these pressures is spectatorship: that is, the expectation that one maintains high performance under scrutiny by teammates, audience members, or others. In this work, we explore the influence of spectatorship—and the tonality of response—on player performance in a competitive racing video game. We report results from a mixed-methods laboratory experiment (n=85), counter-intuitively finding that supportive spectatorship is more detrimental to performance than critical spectatorship. We contend that performance may be undermined by expectation threat, nervous activation, and presentational concerns, as well as participant trait self-consciousness. This work makes a novel contribution to the empirical investigation of spectatorship influence on video game performance—positing implications for both game developers and high-pressure gaming spaces, such as esports.
Publisher's Version Article: play25main-p1950-p (type: Full Paper) doi:10.1145/3748598

Auxiliary materials: Auxiliary materials including experiment protocol runsheet, extended thematic analysis write-up, and the guided gameplay sheet.

Online Moderation in Competitive Action Games: How Intervention Affects Player Behaviors
Rafal Kocielnik, Zhuofang Li, Mitchell Linegar, Deshawn Sambrano, Fereshteh Soltani, Min Kim, Nabiha Naqvie, Grant Cahill, Animashree Anandkumar, and R. Michael Alvarez
(California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, USA; Activision Publishing, Santa Monica, USA; Activision-Blizzard-King, Santa Monica, USA)
Online competitive action games have flourished as a space for entertainment and social connections, yet they face challenges from a small percentage of players engaging in disruptive behaviors. This study delves into the under-explored realm of understanding the effects of moderation on player behavior within online competitive action games on an example of a popular title - Call of Duty®:Modern Warfare®II. We employ a quasi-experimental design and causal inference techniques to examine the impact of moderation in a real-world industry-scale moderation system. We further delve into novel aspects around the impact of delayed moderation, as well as the severity of applied punishment. We examine these effects on a set of four disruptive behaviors including cheating, offensive username, chat, and voice. Our findings uncover the dual impact moderation has on reducing disruptive behavior and discouraging disruptive players from participating. We further uncover differences in the effectiveness of quick and delayed moderation and the varying severity of punishment. Our examination of real-world gaming interactions sets a precedent in understanding the effectiveness of moderation and its impact on player behavior. Our insights offer actionable suggestions for the most promising avenues for improving real-world moderation practices, as well as the heterogeneous impact moderation has on different players.
Publisher's Version Article: play25main-p8538-p (type: Full Paper) doi:10.1145/3748599

Breaking the News: Taking the Roles of Influencer vs. Journalist in a LLM-Based Game for Raising Misinformation Awareness
Huiyun Tang, Songqi Sun, Kexin Nie, Ang Li, Anastasia Sergeeva, and Ray LC
(University of Luxembourg, Esch-sur-Alzette, Luxembourg; University College London, London, UK; University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia; Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden; University of Luxembourg, Luxembourg, Luxembourg; City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Hong Kong)
Effectively mitigating online misinformation requires understanding of their mechanisms and learning of practical skills for identification and counteraction. Serious games may serve as tools for combating misinformation, teaching players to recognize common misinformation tactics, and improving their skills of discernment. However, current interventions are designed as single-player, choice-based games, which present players with limited predefined choices. Such restrictions reduce replayability and may lead to an overly simplistic understanding of misinformation and how to debunk them. This study seeks to empower people to understand opinion-influencing and misinformation-debunking processes. We created a Player vs. Player (PvP) game in which participants attempt to generate or debunk misinformation to convince the public opinion represented by LLM. Using a within-subjects mixed-methods study design (N=47), we found that this game significantly raised participants' media literacy and improved their ability to identify misinformation. Qualitative analyses revealed how participants' use of debunking and content creation strategies deepened their understanding of misinformation. This work shows the potential for illuminating contrasting viewpoints of social issues by LLM-based mechanics in PvP games.
Publisher's Version Article: play25main-p8920-p (type: Full Paper) doi:10.1145/3748600

Wildfire Games: A Community Approach to Designing Serious Games as Interventions for Wildfire Preparedness
M. J. Johns, Mário Escarce Junior, Alison Crosby, Yiyang Lu, Magy Seif El-Nasr, Edward F. Melcer, and Katherine Isbister
(University of California at Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, USA; University of California at Santa Cruz, Santa Clara, USA)
As wildfires increasingly threaten communities worldwide, those at risk can benefit from community-centric approaches to designing interventions. A multi-layered approach can make members of the community powerful co-designers by incorporating their ideas alongside insights from experts and designers to successfully create and deploy an intervention.
We took a community-centered Research through Design approach to develop a Serious Game to promote wildfire preparedness in two communities. Participatory Design workshops, interviews, and targeted user studies allowed us to leverage local knowledge of residents and expertise of stakeholders at distinct stages where their insight could be best utilized.
Based on this work, we propose a process for designing Serious Games as interventions for complex societal challenges by utilizing community and expert involvement throughout iteration. Our findings suggest that the games we designed following this process lead to concrete learning and opportunities for discussion, and offer flexibility for integration with other community initiatives.
Publisher's Version Article: play25main-p2330-p (type: Full Paper) doi:10.1145/3748601

In-Car Gaming: A Scoping Review and Future Agenda
Johanna Eiting, Jonathan Stief, and Benedikt Morschheuser
(Otto-Friedrich-Universität Bamberg, Bamberg, Germany; CARIAD, Wolfsburg, Germany)
While gaming increasingly permeates many facets of our daily lives, it is also gaining relevance as an in-car experience. However, despite the growing interest in in-car gaming within both research and practice, we lack a structured understanding of the phenomenon's main research fields and prevailing characteristics. Thus, this paper presents the findings of a scoping review of 42 relevant papers on gaming in cars. We identified five emerging research substreams: in-car game prototypes, gaming during automated driving, theoretical considerations for in-car gaming, effects of gaming while driving, and technology enabling in-car gaming. Furthermore, we provide an overview of the research's major characteristics about the game, gaming device, vehicle, and user. We reflect on trends recognized in our review, discuss contradictory results, for instance, regarding safety, and question whether a unique in-car gaming experience may exist. We propose research questions based on identified trends and gaps to guide future HCI research in this field.
Publisher's Version Article: play25main-p4774-p (type: Full Paper) doi:10.1145/3748602

ExerCube vs. Virtual Reality: A Comparative Study of Exergame Technologies for Older Adults
Sukran Karaosmanoglu, Sebastian Cmentowski, Lennart E. Nacke, and Frank Steinicke
(Universität Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany; Eindhoven University of Technology, Eindhoven, Netherlands; University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Canada)
Insufficient physical activity is a major challenge in our aging society. Although exergames can provide enjoyable exercise opportunities for older adults, it remains unclear which display technology is best suited to reach this goal. This paper compares two popular exergame technologies with different immersion levels: (i) a virtual reality head-mounted display (VR-HMD) and (ii) the ExerCube, a commercial projection-based system. We conducted a within-participants study (N=34) with older adults to evaluate player experience, presence, cybersickness, game performance, and physical exertion. Both display types provided a comparably high player experience and physical exertion that can benefit older adults’ physical well-being. The VR-HMD offered superior presence, while the ExerCube led to higher performance and physical activity. Our findings advance the understanding of how different exergame technologies affect older adults’ experiences. We present research and design implications to guide the future development of age-appropriate exergames.
Publisher's Version Article: play25main-p4643-p (type: Full Paper) doi:10.1145/3748603

	Video Figure: Impressions from the gameplay of Winter Wonderland
	Interview Questions: Interview questions used in the user study of this paper

Crowdsourcing Environment Data with Gamified Augmented Reality Mini-Games
Samuli Laato, Timo Nummenmaa, Hironori Yoshida, Philip Chambers, Ville-Veikko Uhlgren, Botao Amber Hu, Bastian Kordyaka, and Juho Hamari
(University of Turku, Turku, Finland; Tampere University, Tampere, Finland; School of Systems Information Science, Hakodate, Japan; University of Eastern Finland, Joensuu, Finland; Reality Design Lab, New York City, USA; Åbo Akademi University, Turku, Finland)
Remote sensing for observing and recording our surroundings is becoming mainstream. Technologies, such as light, detection, and ranging (LiDAR), are now part of consumer mobile devices and provide a variety of novel interaction opportunities with the environment. Mobile remote sensing also provides affordances for crowdsourcing through location-based applications such as games and gamified systems. While such use cases today are technologically feasible, there is a lack of understanding of how and what kinds of interactions and applications would be both (1) engaging and motivating for users and also (2) maximize the volume and quality of the data being gathered. In this study, we investigate these challenges by developing and testing four gamified augmented reality prototypes that use LiDAR for collecting point cloud data during location-based gaming. Through field testing, interviews, and surveys with 21 participants, followed by reflexive thematic analysis, we identified five themes of dynamics, which exemplify tensions and challenges to designing gamified AR crowdsourcing. The findings primarily point to hazards in design that may undermine user motivation as well as constraints of the environments themselves in facilitating and affording meaningful and rich (gameful) interaction.
Publisher's Version Article: play25main-p2580-p (type: Full Paper) doi:10.1145/3748604

EmoEcho: Towards Understanding the Design of Emotion Mimicry in Digital Social Games
Zhuying Li, Jiaming Sun, and Xiaolan Peng
(Southeast University, Nanjing, China; Institute of Software at Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China)
Despite the growing exploration of body games for social interaction, current approaches predominantly focus on physical mimicry while overlooking the critical emotional dimension of bodily expression. We address this gap by investigating emotion mimicry as a novel game mechanic for enhancing social presence and interpersonal connection. This paper introduces EmoEcho, a two-player 2D side-scrolling game that integrates emotion mimicry into its core mechanics. In EmoEcho, one player's facial expressions trigger game events while the second player must mimic these expressions to interact with game elements. Through a controlled comparative study (N=24, 12 pairs) contrasting emotion-based input against conventional keyboard controls, we demonstrate that emotion mimicry significantly enhanced social presence and overall game experience. Qualitative interviews further suggest that emotion mimicry enriched player experience via intriguing emotion-based embodied interaction, collaborative emotion co-creation, and development of shared emotional experiences. Our findings extend the understanding of social body games beyond physical mimicry to the emotional domain and provide actionable design implications for creating emotional social games. This work opens new space for game designers to leverage face-to-face emotional expressions as a powerful interface for creating meaningful social play experiences.
Publisher's Version Article: play25main-p8945-p (type: Full Paper) doi:10.1145/3748605

Player-Centric Data Visualization for Metroidvania Games: Insights and Use Cases: The Case of Hollow Knight
Oliver Gstöttenbauer, Claire Dormann, and Günter Wallner
(Johannes Kepler University Linz, Linz, Austria; Eindhoven University of Technology, Eindhoven, Netherlands)
Interest in data-informed play has accelerated in recent years across player communities, particularly within the competitive gaming scene. As such research on analytics tools for players has concentrated predominantly on popular esports games and genres. However, such tools could be of interest to players of other genres as well given a general tendency for self-tracking. In this work we focus on Metroidvania games, studying a multi-view dashboard for visualizing gameplay data from Hollow Knight. Using an insight-based evaluation methodology and interviews with 12 participants we study 1) insights players infer from the dashboard and 2) use cases such a tool can enable within the context of Metroidvania games. Our results reveal that in addition to common performance-related use cases, participants found personal satisfaction when viewing the visualizations and considered them to be an opportunity for social engagement. Participants mostly used the map and events view to infer insights but also relied on recalled data and their existing familiarity with the game. Based on our findings we further reflect on future research directions. Through this we contribute to developing a broader understanding of computational support tools for players.
Publisher's Version Article: play25main-p6861-p (type: Full Paper) doi:10.1145/3748606

	Video of the System: A short video showcasing the system used in the study.
	Playthrough Description and Code Book: The auxiliary material contains a) a more detailed description of the playthroughs assigned to the participants during the study and b) the code book used to code the use cases.

Predicting Quality of Video Gaming Experience using Global-Scale Telemetry Data and Federated Learning
Zhongyang Zhang, Jinhe Wen, Zixi Chen, Dara Arbab, Sruti Sahani, Kent Giard, Bijan Arbab, Haojian Jin, and Tauhidur Rahman
(University of California at San Diego, San Diego, USA; University of California at San Diego, La Jolla, USA; Arizona State University, Phoenix, USA; Intel Corporation, Santa Clara, USA)
Frames Per Second (FPS) significantly affects the gaming experience. Providing players with accurate FPS estimates prior to purchase benefits both players and game developers. However, we have a limited understanding of how to predict a game's technical performance on a specific device. In this paper, we first conduct a comprehensive analysis of a wide range of factors that may affect game FPS on a global-scale dataset to identify the determinants of FPS. This includes player-side and game-side characteristics, as well as country-level socio-economic statistics. Furthermore, recognizing that accurate FPS predictions require extensive user data, which raises privacy concerns, we propose a federated learning-based model to ensure user privacy. Each player and game is assigned a unique learnable knowledge kernel that gradually extracts latent features for improved accuracy. We also introduce a novel training and prediction scheme that allows these kernels to be dynamically plug-and-play, effectively addressing cold start issues. To train this model with minimal bias, we collected a large telemetry dataset from 224 countries and regions, 100,000 users, and 835 games. Our model achieved a mean Wasserstein distance of 0.469 between predicted and ground truth FPS distributions, outperforming all baseline methods.
Publisher's Version Article: play25main-p3321-p (type: Full Paper) doi:10.1145/3748607

Videogame Rewards and Non-player Character Neediness: How the Moral Context of Helping in Videogames Shapes Reasoning and Moral Satisfaction
Blake Kammermann, Stephanie J. Tobin, Daniel Johnson, and Selen Türkay
(Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia)
Prosocial behaviour in videogames can enhance well-being outcomes and increase engagement in post-game prosocial behaviours, such as donations to charity. While some studies show that rewarding in-game helping can diminish charitable donations, others find no significant effects. An enhanced moral context for helping, driven by awareness of need, offers a potential explanation for the mixed findings. This study examined how the in-game moral context, manipulated through non-player character (NPC) neediness, influences the effect of rewards on post-game charitable donations, using a 2 (High Need, Low Need) x 2 (Reward, No Reward) experimental design. Results from 170 participants show no significant effects on charitable donations, high NPC neediness evoked greater moral satisfaction for helping, and in-game rewards for helping increased strategic reasoning. A significant interaction between rewards and NPC neediness was found on reasoning, where the No Reward/Low Need condition had the highest moral reasoning for helping, but also the lowest moral satisfaction from helping. This discrepancy between moral reasoning and moral satisfaction is discussed, along with practical methods to manipulate and measure NPC neediness, and recommendations to improve the research of moral decision-making in videogames.
Publisher's Version Article: play25main-p6107-p (type: Full Paper) doi:10.1145/3748608

Constructing a Community of Play: Black Sims Players and Game Modding
Angela D. R. Smith, Gianna Williams, Gabriella Thompson, and Alexandra To
(University of Texas at Austin, Austin, USA; Northeastern University, Boston, USA)
Video games are celebrated for providing unique interactive experiences that allow players to construct their own narratives through play. However, Black gamers have been repeatedly denied representational agency to craft their own narrative and design game characters that reflect their true selves. To explore how a community of Black gamers has used game modifications (mods) to address representation, we conducted a qualitative study of 22 Black players of "The Sims" life simulation game. We investigate how "Black simmers" create and integrate mods and custom content to represent Black identities and culture in their gameplay through the lens of a 'community of play.' As a sensitizing concept, we also understand participants' testimonies through the lens of Black feminist thought. We found that participants have cultivated a community that exists as a site of theoretical praxis. Further, the community centers mentoring, collective care, storytelling, and Black joy, as well as performs the labor necessary to preserve this gaming space for Black players -- drawing further implications for resisting hegemonic whiteness in the games industry through a pluriversal game design practice.
Publisher's Version Article: play25main-p6784-p (type: Full Paper) doi:10.1145/3748609

Gendered Toxicity in Competitive Gaming: Women’s Perceptions and Responses
Elena Koung, Zinan Zhang, Xinning Gui, and Yubo Kou
(Pennsylvania State University, University Park, USA)
Women’s participation in competitive gaming continues to grow. Despite growing attention to women’s presence and challenges in gaming, research has largely overlooked their unique experiences with toxicity in competitive environments. Our study addresses this gap by examining the perspectives of 28 women who play competitive games at varying levels. Through reflexive thematic analysis of semi-structured interviews, we discovered how women are being harmed by gendered toxicity and desire for justice. We present two key findings: 1) the forms of gendered toxicity women perceive in competitive gaming and 2) how women respond to their experiences with gendered toxicity. Using women-centered perspectives, our research deepens the understanding of how gendered toxicity marginalizes women and highlights confrontational strategies that seek justice and drive change. We demonstrate that gendered toxicity sustains a sexist meritocracy and exposes the limitations of existing interventions and mitigation strategies. Our findings encourage game developers and industry practitioners to design more inclusive moderation systems and competitive gaming events.
Publisher's Version Article: play25main-p8379-p (type: Full Paper) doi:10.1145/3748610

If You Build It, They Will Comment: Distributed Mentoring in an Online Game Modding Community
Elizabeth Reid, Laura Paul, Rafael Alves Heinze, and Regan L. Mandryk
(University of Victoria, Victoria, Canada; University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Canada)
Modifications to video games add value for players and developers, driving new interest in existing games. If developers want to provide better mod support in the future, it is important to understand how mod communities share technical and creative knowledge. However, informal learning theories developed in other fan spaces, like distributed mentoring, have not been investigated in game mod communities, and it is unknown whether modders leverage game mod site features to build knowledge of their craft through similar knowledge-sharing practices. Therefore, this project investigates the extent to which distributed mentoring occurs in a popular game modding community. Through a deductive qualitative analysis comparing mod comments to fanfiction reviews, results indicate that game mod comments show evidence for all seven attributes of distributed mentoring, albeit in distinct ways. In particular, game mod comments contain more back-and-forth discussions that lead to reciprocal learning for both mod creators and the commentors themselves.
Publisher's Version Article: play25main-p3702-p (type: Full Paper) doi:10.1145/3748611

Democratizing Game Modding with GenAI: A Case Study of StarCharM, a Stardew Valley Character Maker
Hamid Zand Miralvand, Mohammad Ronagh Nikghalb, Mohammad Darandeh, Abidullah Khan, Ian Arawjo, and Jinghui Cheng
(Polytechnique Montréal, Montréal, Canada; Université de Montréal, Montréal, Canada)
Game modding offers unique and personalized gaming experiences, but the technical complexity of creating mods often limits participation to skilled users. We envision a future where every player can create personalized mods for their games. To explore this space, we designed StarCharM, a GenAI-based non-player character (NPC) creator for Stardew Valley. Our tool enables players to iteratively create new NPC mods, requiring minimal user input while allowing for fine-grained adjustments through user control. We conducted a user study with ten Stardew Valley players who had varied mod usage experiences to understand the impacts of StarCharM and provide insights into how GenAI tools may reshape modding, particularly in NPC creation. Participants expressed excitement in bringing their character ideas to life, although they noted challenges in generating rich content to fulfill complex visions. While they believed GenAI tools like StarCharM can foster a more diverse modding community, some voiced concerns about diminished originality and community engagement that may come with such technology. Our findings provided implications and guidelines for the future of GenAI-powered modding tools and co-creative modding practices.
Publisher's Version Article: play25main-p4820-p (type: Full Paper) doi:10.1145/3748612

Video demo of StarCharM user interaction: Video demo of StarCharM user interaction

Towards Understanding Waiting in Video Games
Nina Tepponen, Prabhav Bhatnagar, Jaakko Väkevä, and Perttu Hämäläinen
(Aalto University, Espoo, Finland)
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.
Publisher's Version Article: play25main-p6917-p (type: Full Paper) doi:10.1145/3748613

A Qualitative Exploration of How Children and Parents Experience and Structure Disengagement from Games
Meshaiel M. Alsheail, Kathrin Gerling, and Zeynep Yildiz
(Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Karlsruhe, Germany)
Disengagement from games can be challenging for players, and various attempts have been made to provide parents with the tools to limit children’s playing time. However, little is known about how children experience disengagement, and how children and parents jointly navigate the process of exiting a play session. To address this gap, we conducted semi-structured interviews with 25 participants, including 13 children (ages 4–9) and 12 parents. Through Thematic Analysis, we show that children – like adults – struggle to exit play if they have not yet reached a point of closure and are unsatisfied with their experience. At the same time, parents experience frustration when establishing limits, and many found it difficult to account for the state of a play session. On this basis, we highlight the relevance of disengagement-friendly game design and mediation strategies, and provide recommendations for children’s disengagement from play sessions while protecting their player experience.
Publisher's Version Article: play25main-p6300-p (type: Full Paper) doi:10.1145/3748614

From In-Game Behaviors to Learning Gains: Constructing Bayesian Networks for Stealth Assessment
Wenyi Lu, Joseph Griffin, James Laffey, Troy D. Sadler, and Sean Goggins
(University of Missouri, Columbia, USA; University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, USA)
This study examines the use of Bayesian Networks (BNs) for Stealth Assessment (SA) in digital game‐based learning (DGBL) environments. By integrating in‐game behavior tracking with embedded assessment scores, we investigate how interactive gameplay fosters learning gains. Data were collected from 632 middle school students participating in Mission HydroSci (MHS), a first-person 3D narrative adventure designed to teach water science and scientific argumentation. Using Static Bayesian Networks (SBNs), we modeled probabilistic dependencies among various in‐game behaviors, including evidence‐based argumentation, tool usage, dialogue engagement, and spatial exploration, and corresponding learning outcomes measured via pre‐ and post-assessments. Our analysis reveals distinct behavioral profiles strongly linked to positive learning gains. In particular, behavior patterns, including repeated engagement in argumentation tasks, strategic tool usage, and goal-oriented spatial exploration, emerge as key predictors of enhanced performance. Insights from the BN analysis inform the design of more effective DGBL environments and highlight the potential for real-time, adaptive assessment mechanisms that maintain gameplay immersion. Overall, this research offers a data-driven framework for understanding and optimizing learning trajectories in DGBL, providing practical guidelines for educators and game designers to enhance digital learning interventions.
Publisher's Version Article: play25main-p2031-p (type: Full Paper) doi:10.1145/3748615

Appendix of the article: Upload the long appendix section of the article

Fake Game but Real Play: Exploring Player Motivations and Coping Strategies with Fake Games
Sam Moradzadeh, Jeffrey Seihoon Oh, Xinning Gui, and Yubo Kou
(Pennsylvania State University, University Park, USA)
Fake games are an emerging form of games characterized by misleading advertising (external referent) and perceived inauthenticity in gameplay (internal referent). While previous research has examined game authenticity, deceptive advertising, and game design, there is a lack of understanding about why players engage with fake games despite their deceptive nature and how they cope with the fakeness of these games. To address these questions, we conducted an interview study with 30 mobile game players. Through reflexive thematic analysis, we identified four motivations for playing fake games, such as curiosity and easy entertainment, and four coping mechanisms, including adaptive and reconciled play. We discuss how players uniquely interact with the fakeness of fake games and how these games form a distinct ecosystem at the intersection of digital platforms, digital marketplaces, and game developers. We conclude with implications for research and design to mitigate their impact and improve the gaming environment.
Publisher's Version Article: play25main-p3614-p (type: Full Paper) doi:10.1145/3748616

Exploring Player Experience Factors for Designing Persuasive Recruitment Games
Joe Cutting, Robert M. Klassen, Michael Saiger, Sophie Thompson-Lee, and Rebecca J. S. Snell
(University of York, York, UK; University of Oxford, Oxford, UK)
Persuasive games, designed to change attitudes and inspire behavior change, have attracted significant interest. In particular, persuasive recruitment games are increasingly in demand due to under recruitment in many occupations. However, research on persuasive games often lacks clear design guidance and tends to focus on individual player experience factors, rather than identifying and prioritizing the most influential ones that should shape design decisions. Our study (n = 957) examined how player experience impacts recruitment interventions aimed at encouraging careers in teaching. We compared three approaches; a persuasive game, a “realistic job preview” (RJP) and a control game. Effectiveness was measured by increases in Interest (in teaching), Person-vocation (PV) fit and Self-efficacy. Results showed that the persuasive game was the most effective at increasing Interest, while the RJP had the greatest impact on PV fit and Self-efficacy. Interest was primarily influenced by experiences of meaning, followed by mastery. Conversely, mastery followed by meaning were the strongest influences on PV fit and Self-efficacy. Experiences of immersion or autonomy had no significant effect on persuasion. We discuss how understanding which aspects of game experience have most impact can aid the design of persuasive games for recruitment and other purposes. 
Publisher's Version Article: play25main-p9500-p (type: Full Paper) doi:10.1145/3748617

	Full dataset: Full dataset collected during the study
	Questionnaire Items: Full text of all questionnaire items used in the study
	Video of teacher recruitment game: Abridged playthrough video of the teacher recruitment game

Effect of Reward Types on Motivation and Recall in a Geology Game
Aisha Darmansjah and Selen Türkay
(Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia)
A 15-minute geology-based game (Fig. 1) was designed and developed for a 2x2 between-subjects randomised experiment examining the impact of different reward types on motivation and learning outcomes in an educational video game. Predicated on the presence or absence of certain reward types, the four conditions were: access rewards, glory rewards, both types of rewards, and no rewards (control). From 143 adult participants, it was found that those who played the game experienced broadly high learning outcomes and motivation, though these results were not significantly tied to any reward type. To provide further context for these findings, feedback from players was analysed and it was found that the presentation of information and how said information tied back into the gameplay were, in the players’ minds, the most important components for facilitating the players’ engagement and learning. The lack of impact the rewards had in contrast to the broader gameplay experience has some interesting implications for the design and development of educational games.
Publisher's Version Article: play25main-p3905-p (type: Full Paper) doi:10.1145/3748618

Fluid Roles for Close-Knit Gaming: Households Playing Digital Games
Heidi Rautalahti, Rongjun Ma, Amel Bourdoucen, Yajing Wang, and Janne Lindqvist
(Aalto University, Espoo, Finland)
Households increasingly play and engage with video games. We examined how households play video games among 20 interviewees coming from varied and familial households. Our study focused on interactions, examining how gaming influences daily household dynamics. Previous studies have focused mainly on the impact on relationships. Looking at households led us to observe fluid role dynamics around gaming. Our findings map the stages of how households play games from gaining plausible momentum, actions, conversations, and roles taken during game sessions, and reflections after gaming. Our findings highlight a novel role of the Gamer Host leading the game session and attending to everyone's enjoyment. Our observations exemplify the supportive and positive social outcomes close-knit gaming can afford and implications for achieving harmonious gaming in households. Our findings tie to prospects on communal and social aspects on technology use providing new perspectives on user experiences in an immediate social environment.
Publisher's Version Article: play25main-p2691-p (type: Full Paper) doi:10.1145/3748619

First Contact with Dark Patterns and Deceptive Designs in Chinese and Japanese Free-to-Play Mobile Games
Gloria Xiaodan Zhang, Yijia Wang, Taro Leo Nakajima, and Katie Seaborn
(Institute of Science Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan; Tokyo Institute of Technology, Tokyo, Japan; Stuttgart Media University, Stuttgart, Germany; University of Cambridge, UK)
Mobile games have gained immense popularity due to their accessibility, allowing people to play anywhere, anytime. Dark patterns and deceptive designs (DPs) have been found in these and other gaming platforms within certain cultural contexts. Here, we explored DPs in the onboarding experiences of free-to-play mobile games from China and Japan. We identified several unique patterns and mapped their relative prevalence. We also found that game developers often employ combinations of DPs as a strategy (“DP Combos”) and use elements that, while not inherently manipulative, can enhance the impact of known patterns (“DP Enhancers”). Guided by these findings, we then developed an enriched ontology for categorizing deceptive game design patterns into classes and subclasses. This research contributes to understanding deceptive game design patterns and offers insights for future studies on cultural dimensions and ethical game design in general.
Publisher's Version Article: play25main-p5182-p (type: Full Paper) doi:10.1145/3748620

RollAbility: A Case Study of Aligning the Design of Game-Based Wheelchair Skills Training with Clinical Protocols and Player Experience Goals
Douwe Ravers, Dmitry Alexandrovsky, Mari Naaris, Marco J. Konings, Elegast Monbaliu, Hans Hallez, and Kathrin Gerling
(KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium; Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Karlsruhe, Germany; KU Leuven, Bruges, Belgium)
Interactive technology and games provide promising methods for wheelchair skills training. This paper introduces RollAbility, a rehabilitative game for powered wheelchair skills training aimed at children and teenagers with complex movement disorders. The game combines clinical best practices and standardized training protocols with player experience goals. Developed through an iterative process with rehabilitation experts and game designers, RollAbility utilizes the Wheelchair Skills Training Program [Kirby et al. '23] and integrates key insights from Aufheimer's [CHI '23] motivation studies in physical therapy to ensure both therapeutic and engaging gameplay. Evaluated through exploratory sessions with children, therapists, and clinical experts, results show that RollAbility effectively merges clinical protocols with an engaging game format. However, balancing player autonomy and therapist guidance remains a critical consideration. This work offers a blueprint for designing therapeutic games that align clinical protocols with engaging player experiences.
Publisher's Version Article: play25main-p2879-p (type: Full Paper) doi:10.1145/3748621

“It’s Not My Fault”: Exploring Attributional Patterns in eSports Player Toxicity
Bastian Kordyaka
(Åbo Akademi University, Turku, Finland)
Toxicity is a widespread challenge in various esports titles that continues to grow despite implementing various countermeasures. Attribution theory, consisting of the dimensions of locus of causality, stability, and internal and external control, offers a promising way to understand toxicity better, as how players interpret events in the game influences their perceptions and, ultimately, their toxic behavior. Given that attribution to external factors can reinforce and normalize toxic behavior in esports, this study investigates the timely topic of associations between toxic behavior and player attributions. To do so, we conducted an online survey with 217 League of Legends players. Our stepwise regression analysis indicates that players’ perceptions of external causality play a role in normalizing toxic behavior, whereas the perception that such behaviors are temporary enhances their execution. Additionally, the age of participants showed a substantial negative relationship with toxic normalization and toxic perpetration, indicating that older participants were significantly less likely to accept or engage in toxic behavior. In summary, players do not perceive toxic behavior as their responsibility, which explains the challenge of deriving effective intervention strategies against toxicity.
Publisher's Version Article: play25main-p7459-p (type: Full Paper) doi:10.1145/3748622

Linking Player Types to User Experience: Considerations for the Design of a Platform for the Education on Sensitive Topics
Federica Gini, Eftychia Roumelioti, Gianluca Schiavo, Simone Bassanelli, Maria Paola Paladino, Massimo Zancanaro, and Annapaola Marconi
(University of Trento, Trento, Italy; Fondazione Bruno Kessler, Trento, Italy)
Gamification has been widely applied in educational contexts to enhance students' motivation and engagement. Its effectiveness has been shown to vary based on individual user preferences, such as age, gender, and player type. This study investigates the relationship between player types and user experience in StandByMe, a gamified educational platform designed to raise awareness about gender-based violence. A total of 61 high school students used the platform for about 35 minutes and completed a user experience questionnaire and the Hexad scale for player types. Results indicate that Free spirits reported higher motivation and overall user experience, while Achievers exhibited lower engagement, possibly due to a lack of clearly structured challenges. Socializers and Disruptors showed no significant relation with user experience. Additionally, demographic factors such as age and gender were related to participants' fun levels and perception of challenge. These findings highlight how users' player type predicts the user experience of a gameful system and should be considered during the design phase. Future research should explore adaptive gamification approaches and specific design modifications to enhance user experience across all player types, both within the StandByMe platform and, more broadly, in gameful systems for the education of sensitive topics.
Publisher's Version Article: play25main-p7156-p (type: Full Paper) doi:10.1145/3748623

“I Like to Be More Empathetic”: Exploring Refugee and Resident Perspectives on Games Designed to Foster Empathy for Refugees
Ameneh Safari, Aswathi Surendran, Rainer Malaka, and Anke V. Reinschluessel
(University of Bremen, Bremen, Germany; University of Galway, Galway, Ireland; University of Konstanz, Konstanz, Germany)
Studies show that evoking empathy can positively affect the host society's acceptance of refugees, whose numbers are increasing due to political instability and environmental disasters. To examine how commercially available serious games designed to foster empathy with refugees are perceived by refugees and residents, we invited both groups to play two games: Path Out and Bury Me, My Love. Following the gaming session, we used semi-structured interviews, creating a safe space, with the refugees (n=6) to ask about their personal experiences. Residents (n=5) joined a focus group to facilitate a broader discussion. Our results show that the employed game mechanics, such as decisions with unclear consequences and narratives, generally evoked empathy. Yet, the residents missed a more extensive background on the circumstances to create a deeper connection with the games’ protagonists, and both groups wished for more agency, leaving them with a feeling of passivity. These aspects are crucial to take into account when designing new games to foster empathy for marginalized groups.
Publisher's Version Article: play25main-p2861-p (type: Full Paper) doi:10.1145/3748624

GNNetic: Unpacking Player Decisions in Multiplayer Card Games to Drive Interface Design Improvements and Personalized Skill Enhancement: An Online Rummy Case Study
Anurag Garg and Divyansh Jain
(Gameskraft, Bangalore, India)
Player decision-making in multiplayer card games presents opportunities to improve human interaction with complex systems. We introduce GNNetic, a Relational Graph Convolutional Network for game analysis in card games. By encoding card relationships and game context as a graph, GNNetic frames each discard choice in Rummy (case study) as a graph-classification task learned from expert play, enabling the identification of players’ action deviations. We leverage these insights to address core HCI challenges in game design, interface optimization, and player development. GNNetic helps surface recurring patterns of suboptimal play that may indicate design-induced errors, informing iterative refinements to enhance usability and reduce cognitive load during gameplay. Our analysis and summative study demonstrate this potential: UI enhancements informed by GNNetic (Companion Mode in practice games) reduce common errors like joker discards by ~31% and invalid declarations by ~27%. We also propose Skill Arena—a post-game visualization that renders these deviations accessible, providing feedback to foster metacognitive awareness and facilitate skill enhancement. GNNetic achieves a ~15x reduction in model size with ~6.5% accuracy improvement over larger baselines. By bridging expert strategy with interface design, this work paves the way for more intuitive UIs and targeted skill enhancement in card games, demonstrating tangible performance gains through interface improvements.
Publisher's Version Article: play25main-p4551-p (type: Full Paper) doi:10.1145/3748625

More Than Just Microtransactions: Predatory Monetization in User-Generated Games
Zinan Zhang, Sam Moradzadeh, Xinning Gui, and Yubo Kou
(Pennsylvania State University, University Park, USA)
Predatory monetization in video games refers to purchasing systems that hide or postpone the complete financial consequences until players are already deeply committed, both financially and emotionally. These systems manipulate players into spending against their genuine interests, benefiting game companies while causing potential financial harm. This issue has drawn increasing scholarly and societal attention, but little research has explored how players perceive the influence of predatory monetization on their gaming experiences. Through an interview study with 23 players of popular user-generated games hosted on platforms such as Roblox and Minecraft and a reflexive thematic analysis, we identified three key influences of predatory monetization: felt manipulation, monetized interpersonal relationships, and risks with mitigation strategies. We further describe social monetization, where monetization and players’ social experiences are closely intertwined, as well as the ecosystem of predatory monetization, where multiple stakeholders play interconnected roles in enabling and sustaining predatory monetization practices. Finally, we offer design implications for mitigating the negative influences of predatory monetization.
Publisher's Version Article: play25main-p6597-p (type: Full Paper) doi:10.1145/3748626

Bridging Cultural Representation and Game Making: Analyzing the Experiences, Outcomes, and Lessons of Early-Stage Game Developers in a Professional Development Program
Max Chen and Gillian Smith
(Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Worcester, USA)
As the game industry expands, an increasing number of students and hobbyists are entering the game development field, eager to create their own titles. However, there is a lack of structured training programs that effectively prepare them for industry demands. Games convey meaningful messages through stories, assets, and mechanics, yet how early-stage developers make creative decisions while building production skills remains unclear. We explored skill development and cultural representation in game design during a 10-week professional development program at MassDigi with early-stage developers from the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Our findings reveal three observed strategies as themes through which developers incorporate their personal experiences and cultural backgrounds into game development to achieve cultural representation, as well as four themes that address developers' skill set improvement and personal growth during this process. We recommend structuring programs by considering these themes to enhance self-expressive game design and support skill development through a peer learning community.
Publisher's Version Article: play25main-p4800-p (type: Full Paper) doi:10.1145/3748627

A Qualitative Exploration on the Role of Videogames during Difficult Times: An Emotion Regulation Perspective
Jessica Formosa, Selen Türkay, Regan L. Mandryk, and Daniel Johnson
(Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia; University of Victoria, Victoria, Canada)
Videogames are used by many during difficult times to help alleviate stressors. Recent research suggests that videogames may facilitate recovery through regulating emotions and promoting positive wellbeing outcomes. However, there are still concerns that a reliance on videogames to manage difficult situations can be problematic. Through semi-structured interviews (N=28), this study aimed to explore the role of videogames in this context to better understand the motivations behind gameplay, the emotional regulatory effect it has and, in turn, how this influences wellbeing. Key patterns of engagement emerged, suggesting that, during difficult times, individuals actively use videogames to meet important needs and regulate difficult emotions through the use of escapism. Moreover, the findings suggest that, even when gaming during these times appears to be rigid, the activity may still provide players wellbeing benefits.
Publisher's Version Article: play25main-p7030-p (type: Full Paper) doi:10.1145/3748628

Sonomancer: Exploring Sonic Control Schemes for Audio Augmented Reality Games
Jacob Bhattacharyya, Alessandro Vinciarelli, and Stephen Anthony Brewster
(University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK)
Audio augmented reality (AAR) games allow for audio-only game experiences which blend real and virtual worlds. Despite being sound-based in their output, these games utilise a small number of control schemes, and rarely deploy control schemes that are also sonic in nature. We present the first evaluation of sonic control schemes for AAR gameplay. We present a systematic literature review that collates the control schemes and game scenarios deployed in existing AAR games, and a user study comparing these traditional control schemes with sonic controls -- speech, music, and sonic gesture -- in minigames corresponding to the most common game scenarios. Our results show that while there are some key differences between these control schemes, sonic controls show promise for use in AAR gameplay, and could be deployed in scenarios where AAR developers currently reach for established control schemes.
Publisher's Version Article: play25main-p3098-p (type: Full Paper) doi:10.1145/3748629

How Do You Want to View This? Generative AI, Creative Ethos, and TTRPG Hobbyists
Josiah D. Boucher, Gillian Smith, and Yunus Doğan Telliel
(Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Worcester, USA)
This paper presents a study that examines tabletop roleplaying game (TTRPG) players' understanding, attitudes, and perceptions of generative AI (GAI) as it intersects with this creative, hobbyist domain. While general findings regarding challenges and potential harms of GAI are well-explored, much of this exploration centers workplaces concerned with productivity and efficiency. This study values the contrast provided by TTRPG hobbyists in the relatively underexplored domain of a non-professional, creative community that tends to lack corporate pressures. Through a qualitative study using ethnographic interviews and a shared image-generation activity, we explore how TTRPG hobbyists are responding to GAI systems in this environment and describe our participants' mental model of GAI ecosystems. We found that they tend to treat GAI as its own creative medium, using vocabulary attentive to distinct design affordances of GAI systems rather than seeing it simply as a “tool”. Further, we develop the term "creative ethos" to describe how research participants evaluate and navigate such affordances to align with ethical values of creativity fostered by TTRPGs, especially focusing on participants’ aspirations to support artists and resist unethical GAI futures.
Publisher's Version Article: play25main-p1436-p (type: Full Paper) doi:10.1145/3748630

Game Playbooks 2.0: An Updated Strategy for Supporting Game-Based Behavior Change Interventions
Erin J. K. Truesdell, Veronica U. Weser, Thomas S. Murray, Abigail Crocker, Asher Marks, Richard A. Martinello, and Kimberly Hieftje
(New Jersey Institute of Technology, Newark, USA; Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, USA)
As scholarly communities move towards fully realizing the immense potential of playful and interactive technologies, game-based behavior change interventions have proven to be effective in a variety of health behavior contexts. Due to the large number of stakeholders and the diversity of backgrounds within teams creating such interventions, it is vital that teams co-create and have access to shared documents, language, and understanding throughout the development process. Game Playbooks provide a critical tool to ensure unity between project goals, relevant theoretical frameworks, and game design techniques and decisions. These documents are co-created by and shared among the project team, connecting intervention goals and behavioral frameworks to game mechanics and assessment strategies, ensuring consistency between intervention requirements, design, and evaluation. Using the Game Playbook from an intervention surrounding hand and phone hygiene among caregivers of infants in neonatal intensive care units as an illustrative example, we offer insights into the development process for Game Playbooks and how our team’s process has evolved over the course of a decade of developing game-based behavior change interventions. This paper serves as a practical guide to crafting a living document through which intervention teams may communicate, share ideas, and develop effective game-based behavior change interventions.
Publisher's Version Article: play25main-p5237-p (type: Full Paper) doi:10.1145/3748631

Me, the Elephant, and the Virtual World: Exploring Copresence in VR
Jisu Park, Soyoun Jang, and Jay David Bolter
(Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, USA)
Fostering mindful relationships with nature is crucial for addressing the environmental crisis. Virtual Reality (VR) shows potential for ecological engagement, but its impact depends on how nature is framed and experienced. This paper explores copresence, the feeling of togetherness, as a design approach for cultivating reciprocal and attentive interactions with nonhuman entities. Drawing on expert interviews, we developed Eyes of the Wild, a VR wildlife experience. In a between-subjects study (n = 32), we examined how copresence, manipulated by enabling or disabling mutual awareness and behavioral responsiveness (e.g., animals responding to user presence), might support nature-connectedness. Surveys showed pre-post improvements across both conditions, with no significant differences between groups. However, qualitative findings revealed nuanced engagement patterns, including temporal-spatial dynamics, perceptual asymmetries, and the complexities of copresent interactions, which shaped participants' sense of trust and connection with nonhuman others. These insights underscore the potential and challenges of leveraging copresence for nature-centric VR.
Publisher's Version Video Article: play25main-p3172-p (type: Full Paper) doi:10.1145/3748632

“I Would Not Be This Version of Myself Today”: Elaborating on the Effects of Eudaimonic Gaming Experiences
Nisha Devasia, Georgia Kenderova, Michele Newman, Julie A. Kientz, and Jin Ha Lee
(University of Washington, Seattle, USA)
While much of the research in digital games has emphasized hedonic experiences, such as flow, enjoyment, and positive affect, recent years have seen increased interest in eudaimonic gaming experiences, typically mixed-affect and associated with personal meaningfulness and growth. The formation of such experiences in games is theorized to have four constituent elements: motivation, game use, experience, and effects. However, while the first three elements have been relatively well explored in the literature, the effects - and how they may influence positive individual outcomes - have been underexplored thus far. To this end, in this work, we investigate the perceived outcomes of eudaimonic gaming and how different components of the experience influence these effects. We conducted a survey (n = 166) in which respondents recounted meaningful gaming experiences and how they affected their present lives. We used a mixed-methods approach to classify effects and identify significant subcomponents of their formation. We contribute an empirical understanding of how meaningful gaming experiences can lead to positive reflective, learning, social, health, and career effects, extending current theoretical models of eudaimonic gaming experiences and offering implications for how researchers and practitioners might use these findings to promote positive outcomes for players.
Publisher's Version Article: play25main-p3591-p (type: Full Paper) doi:10.1145/3748633

LLMs May Not Be Human-Level Players, But They Can Be Testers: Measuring Game Difficulty with LLM Agents
Chang Xiao and Zixiaofan Yang
(Boston University, Boston, USA; Columbia University, New York, USA)
Recent advances in Large Language Models (LLMs) have demonstrated their potential as autonomous agents across various tasks. One emerging application is the use of LLMs in playing games. In this work, we explore a practical problem for the gaming industry: Can LLMs be used to measure game difficulty? We evaluate the feasibility of using LLM agents to test game difficulty, focusing on two widely played games: Wordle and Slay the Spire. Our results reveal an interesting finding: although LLMs may not perform as well as the average human player, their performance, when guided by simple, generic prompting techniques, shows a statistically significant and strong correlation with difficulty indicated by human players. This suggests that LLMs could potentially serve as human-like agents for measuring game difficulty during the development process, as their assessments may align closely with those of human players. Based on our experiments, we also propose general principles and guidelines for integrating LLMs into the game testing workflow.
Publisher's Version Article: play25main-p5064-p (type: Full Paper) doi:10.1145/3748634