The influence of a chatbot’s conversational competitiveness on the user experience in a game use case

Abstract

Chatbots have become a popular tool in recent years, such as in education and in serious gaming. However, implementations in these fields often are more demotivating than a traditional solution. In this study, a chatbot was developed that can play the game Connect Four at a challenging difficulty level to demotivate the user. A competitive and neutral dialog style were compared to assess whether a chatbot could appear convincingly human through “trash-talking” and thereby motivate the user. The user experi-ence was measured using concepts from the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) as well as two extending aspects: Social Presence and Joy. Results suggest that competitiveness does not have a significant effect on the user experience. However, Social Presence and Joy seem to be good predictors of Behavioral Intention to Use and Attitude Toward Using, respectively, looking at correlation tests.