Correlating Facial Expressions and Subjective Player Experiences in Competitive Hearthstone

In this study, we used recordings of players’ facial expressions that are captured during competitive Hearthstone games to analyse the correlation between in-game player affective responses and subjective post-game self-reports. With this, we aimed to examine whether eye gaze, head pose and emotions gathered as objective data from face recordings would be associated with subjective experiences of players which were collected in the form of a post-game survey. Data was collected during a live offline Hearthstone competition, which involved a total of 17 players and 31 matches played. Correlation analyses between in-game and post-game variables show that players’ facial expressions and eye gaze measurements are associated with both players’ attention to the opponent and their mood influenced by the opponent. In future research, these results may be used to implement predictive player models.