Inclusive esports: Sense of Agency and Fairness through Pre-Training-Based Assistive Methods

Esports strengthen connections with society for people with disabilities. However, due to the competitive nature of the gaming industry, many games are not sufficiently playable for individuals with upper limb disabilities. Additionally, unlike non-esports games, esports involves competition through gaming, which means that unconditional assistance for players with disabilities can evoke a sense of unfairness among able-bodied players. To address this problem, we propose an esports support method for players with upper limb disabilities that provides skill assistance based on pre-training. The proposed method is designed so that the assistance is triggered by user actions, and the degree of assistance reflects the user’s prior training. This approach aims to reduce the perceived unfairness of assistance while preserving a sense of agency. Interview survey results suggest that appropriate assistance levels can maintain this sense of agency. However, achieving complete fairness remains challenging.