Does a segmented health bar affect a player´s preference for a game? A pilot study

Health mechanisms in games evoke strong emotions in players, which can affect their overall perception and experience with a game. We undertook a pilot study (N=32) to examine what affect a change from a single health bar to a segmented health bar would have on player´s perception and game preference. We designed a segmented health bar for the game BrowserQuest without health regeneration. The original BrowserQuest version uses a single bar and the regenerative health mechanism to represent avatar health. Our experiment assessed which version of the game the players preferred and whether their perception of the segmented health bar affected their choice. We created a Perception Score metric to evaluate whether players had a negative, neutral or positive perception of the segmented health bar. Our pilot study indicated that a majority of players preferred the game with the segmented health bar. While player perception of the segmented health bar was positive there was no correlation between health bar perception and the player´s age, frequency of playing, or gender.