Dance Enhanced: Investigating how earning content through exertion impacts dance game enjoyment

Dance games are one of the most popular types of bodycontrolled console games, making them ideal candidates for initiating exertion in players who do not exercise regularly. However, in order to become effective tools for consistent cardiovascular exercise, dance games need to maintain interest over a long time span. One solution that could help with long-term engagement is the addition of more narrative, competitive, and decorative elements. While other gameplay genres utilize this content to keep players involved, motion-controlled dance games are just beginning to incorporate these elements. We built Dance Enhanced, a website designed to offer earnable content to players of the game Dance Central 2. We conducted a four-week study comparing a group of participants playing the game alone with a group that also had access to the website. In this paper, we discuss the methodology for designing and operating this study, as well as our results, which indicated the potential for higher interest in competition, characters and storylines when presented with extra content.