Digital Games Research

Drawing on the self-concept activation and goal-priming account of the
priming effect, this study examined how self-concept—i.e., ideal self,
ought self, and actual self—can be harnessed as a model for avatar
customization in digital games to promote healthy-eating behavior.
Female participants (N = 133) customized an avatar in a digital
game to reflect either the ideal, ought, or actual self. Participants then
selected food items for their avatar within the digital game as well as
food items for themselves to eat afterward. Results suggest that for
participants using an ought-self avatar, the extent to which they were
conscious of their health was positively related to healthier food choice
both within and after playing the game. No such effect emerged for
participants who used an ideal- or actual-self avatar, indicating that
participants formed the goal of being healthy only with regard to the
ought self. This study demonstrates that avatar customization in a digital game can serve a regulatory function by representing individuals’ duties and responsibilities, thus, causing them to adopt such attributes manifested in their avatar during and after the game.

Metaphorics in Polish political browser games pictures the browser games in the development process. The Reader learns about them as the metaphors of the political processes taking place in Poland in the years 2005-2013. The applications analyzed in this elaboration contain scenarios visualizing the processes, their reasons, courses and consequences. They also picture the role played in them by political actors, resembling the real-life politicians, imaged in the game’s world, or the so-called typical heroes – politicians seen as generalized characters that cannot be given names or surnames. The browser games of this type are not developments featuring contents that the Reader would find in manuals dwelling on political theory and political systems. No one will become a political scientist even after playing dozens of games. They provide a moving commentary by the Internet community on the current situation at a given time and place and to the realities of the life of individuals and societies.


W Metaforyce polskich politycznych gier przeglądarkowych przedstawiam gry przeglądarkowe w procesie rozwojowym. Czytelnik poznaje je jako metafory procesów politycznych zachodzących w Polsce w latach 2005-2013. Aplikacje analizowane w tej książce zawierają scenariusze wizualizujące owe procesy, ich przyczyny, przebieg i konsekwencje. Obrazują też rolę, jaką odgrywają w nich aktorzy polityczni przypominający realnie istniejących polityków, odwzorowywanych w świecie gry, albo tzw. bohaterów typu – polityków postrzeganych jako postaci uogólnione, których nie sposób nazwać rzeczywistymi imionami i nazwiskami. Gry przeglądarkowe tego rodzaju nie są jednak wytworami zawierającymi treści, które Czytelnik znajdzie w podręcznikach traktujących o teorii polityki czy o systemach politycznych. Po ukończeniu kilku, a nawet kilkudziesięciu gier nie stanie się politologiem. Są to bowiem poruszające świadomość komentarze społeczności internetowej do aktualnej w danym czasie i miejscu sytuacji i do realiów życia jednostek i społeczeństw.

Basing on an understanding of digital games as cultural objectivations, this article suggests interpreting them as sites of memory, or in other words as 'carrier' of cultural memory. By merging game studies, literary studies, and memory studies, we aim at providing a theoretical framework useful to frame different kinds of representation within (and beyond) digital games towards cultural memory. The framework is inspired by Paul Ricoeur and his threefold model of textual mimesis and favours an approach to digital games that takes into account how they represent and re-configure preexistent cultural forms, and therefore get refigured into novel ones during, after, and beyond the game experience.

Digital games provide a fruitful comparison to ideologies because they resemble ideologies as an organizing structure entered into and because they serve as a systematic test case for alternatively organized (ideological) worlds. They do so perhaps more so than linear narrative media, as game-play presents both fictional worlds, systems and a spect-actor present as participatory agent.
By addressing the structural parallels between ideology and digital games as organizations of quasi-natural conventions, I argue in this thesis that games have the capacity to model, propose and reflect on ideologies. Comparing roughly twenty years of scholarship on ideological play, ludology, narratology, game design, proceduralism and play-centred studies, I argue that games dynamically present stylized simulations of a possible world, occurring to the subject of play in a here-and-now that at once grants autonomy while doing so in a paradoxically rigid structure of affordances, constraints and desires.
That subject of play, meanwhile, is split between played subject (the presented avatar and the game’s content), the playing subject as demanded by the ludic power structure of rules and the interpreting subject that is tasked to understand and inform the process of game-play.
Through close analyses of Cart Life, the Stanley Parable and Spec Ops: the Line I argue for game-play as a dialectical process, past academic scholarship that posits either games as procedural systems of interpellation or play as mythical unrestrained creativity. An understanding of game-play as dialectical process akin to the relation between subjects and ideological power structures furthermore demands a recognition of the critical potential of game-play. Through theatrical techniques of enstrangement, game-play may reveal uncritical familiarity with the quasi-natural conventions of ideology – be they generic, social or political.

via https://openaccess.leidenuniv.nl/handle/1887/28571

—Multi-thread architectures are the current trends for both PCs (multi-core CPUs and GPUs) and game consoles such as the Microsoft Xbox 360 and Sony Playstation 3. GPUs (Graphics Processing Units) have evolved into extremely powerful and flexible processors, allowing its use for processing different data. This advantage can be used in game development to optimize the game loop. As reported in the literature, GPGPUs have been used in processing some steps of the game loop, while most of the game logic is still processed by the CPU. This proposal differs by presenting an architecture designed to process practically the entire game loop using the GPU. Two test cases, a crowd simulation and a 2D game shooter prototype called GpuWars, are presented to illustrate the proposed architecture.

Abstract (DE): In Anbetracht einer verstärkten Beschäftigung mit Computerspielen aus der Perspektive des Ecocriticism („Green Game Studies“), bietet der Artikel ein kritisches Analyseschema zur Repräsentation und Wahrnehmung von Klima und Wetter in Computerspielen an. Der Artikel baut hierzu auf einer medienästhetischen und medienökologischen sowie einer existenzial-ludologischen Perspektive auf; verbunden werden die methodischen Zugänge mit Begriffen der Klimatologie. Durch den Methodenmix können die Autor_innen Vorschläge machen, wie durch einen Blick auf das Klima als Akteur im Spiel für die Computerspielforschung neue Analyseebenen in verschiedenen populären Computerspielen gewonnen werden. Erprobt wird das Betrachtungsschema an Spielen wie No Man’s Sky, Zelda: Breath of the Wild, das Artgame Walden und die Serious Games Block’hood und Stadtklima Architekt.

Abstract (EN): In view of an increasing number of works dealing with computer games from the perspective of ecocriticism (“green game studies”), this article offers a critical analytical schema regarding the representation and perception of climate and weather in computer games. The article draws from perspectives from media-aesthetics and media-ecology as well as from existential-ludology and combines them with concepts from climatology. This mixed-methods approach renders possible to analyze climate as an actor in computer game research and thereby gains new layers of analysis for popular computer games. The critical analytical schema is being tested with popular games such as No Man’s Sky and Zelda: Breath of the Wild, artgames such as Walden as well as serious games such as Block’hood and Stadtklima Architekt (Urban Climate Architect).

The presented paper off ers a short general introduction to frustration followed by a discourse on frustration as an integral part of gaming experience with the core distinction between positive in-game frustration and negative at-game frustration. The potential of frustration to increase motivation to play, emotional engagement and immersion is outlined. The paper includes comprehensive research using the means of a questionnaire (n=159) and content analysis (n=327) identifying types of frustrating situations in games, perceived sources of frustration, the behavioural impact of frustration and the relationship between locus of control and ascribed source of frustration. Results showed toxic behaviour as a leading cause of frustration. The most common declared behavioural output of frustration caused by the toxic behaviour of other players was quitting a game for a certain amount of time. Frustration showed the most motivational potential within the category of frustrating situations related to gamers e.g. being stuck in a part of the game, losing, not succeeding, etc. At-game frustration concerns mainly the category called the "game itself". Most often the game was blamed for insuffi ciencies in game mechanics or game design, malfunctioning and technical issues within the game. The presented research did not show a statistically signifi cant association between the source of frustration and a participant's locus of control. The paper has potential in terms of game design and research of emotion, motivation or immersion.

Knowledge about the experiences of flow by older adults through the engagement of digital games is scarce. This article describes an important element of an international , multicenter, randomized, controlled trial which utilized three purpose-built exergames to facilitate physical activity and to assist with fall prevention of adults aged 65þ years in their homes. Measurement of flow was assessed through the distribution of the Activity Flow State Scale in participants assigned to the intervention group after completion of the trial. Results were analyzed across three areas: study centers, age-groups (50–69 years, 70–78 years, 79–84 years, and 85þ), and gender. A positive trend in results was shown by participants from Valencia and Cologne and by gender. Future work should consider qualitative data collection to complement the quantitative data and to provide an in-depth understanding of users' experiences with exergames.

Neste capítulo busco expor uma das formas de manifestar a paradoxal “desconfiança-confiança” nos jogos e seu envolvimento orgânico na sociedade contemporânea. Para isso, procuro discutir brevemente o potencial narrativo dos jogos, direta (dentro dos jogos) e indiretamente (sobre os jogos), através de acontecimentos recentes no Brasil.

Travis Baldree is a video game designer and developer (Fate, Torchlight, Rebel Galaxy), co-founder of Runic Games (2008) and co-founder and CEO of Double Damage Games (2014). This interview covers his career to date and includes discussion of the Fate series; Mythos; Diablo; Runic Games; Torchlight; Hob; Double Damage Games; Rebel Galaxy; game design; video game journalism; the gaming industry in relation to gender, race and ethnicity; accessibility; randomization, aesthetics, atmosphere and humour in games; in-game art and voice work; and the appeal of sandbox games.

In this paper, we propose a comprehensive and empirically grounded taxonomy of monetized random reward mechanisms (RRMs), which we created through an examination of over one hundred free-to-play and paid-to-play games released in the US, Germany, and Japan. RRMs have recently gained increased attention within game studies. However, few attempts have been made to clarify the structure and implementation of RRMs and their cultural and societal influence. We offer an evidence-based classification of RRMs, aiming to contribute to a wide range of related academic research activities and social debates and to facilitate crossdisciplinary discussion. Borrowing from recent literature, we deconstructed the way RRMs are implemented in 108 games. We identified three major strategies and 40 types of implementation. In particular, this taxonomy covers the majority of RRMs implemented in publicly available mobile games worldwide and will play an essential role in facilitating constructive discuss...

Kişisel olarak deneyimlenmeyen olaylar dolayımlar üzerinden hatırlanmaktadır. Müzeler, anıtlar gibi mekânların yanı sıra her türlü medya geçmiş bilgisini edinmeye ve hatırlamaya yardımcı olmaktadır. Ancak medya ürettiği kurgulanmış geçmiş nedeniyle belleği bugünün esasına göre yeniden inşa etmektedir. Tarihsel olayların simülasyonlarını oluşturarak oyunculara ileten dijital oyunların bellek ile ilişkisi de diğer ortamlara benzemekte, tarihi imge ve anlatı kaynağı olarak hatırlamaya yardımcı (mnemonic aids) olarak işlev görmektedir. Bu bağlamdan yola çıkan bu çalışmada Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi’nin ulusal tarih inşası çerçevesinde Nusrat oyunu Roland Barthes’ın düz anlam ve yan anlam ayrımından hareketle göstergebilimsel perspektifle analiz edilmiştir.

Events which are not personally experienced are remembered through media. Places such as museums and monuments as well as all kinds of media help to learn and remember historical knowledge. However, the media is rebuilding the memory based on the present understanding of the history which is fictionalized. Digital games simulate historical events and transmit them to the players. The relationship between digital games and memory resembles other media platforms and serves a source of historical image and narrative that functions as a “mnemonic aids”. Within this context, in this study, Nusrat game is analyzed with a semiotic perspective based on Roland Barhes’ denotation and connotation levels, in the scope of the Justice and Development Party’s national history construction.

Background: Falls in older people represent a major age-related health challenge facing our society. Novel methods for delivery of falls prevention programs are required to increase effectiveness and adherence to these programs while containing costs. The primary aim of the Information and Communications Technology-based System to Predict and Prevent Falls (iStoppFalls) project was to develop innovative home-based technologies for continuous monitoring and exercise-based prevention of falls in community-dwelling older people. The aim of this paper is to describe the components of the iStoppFalls system.

The multidisciplinary character of game studies enables the implementation of knowledge from various study fields, and so explores games in different terms. However, not all approaches have so far gained sufficient attention. This study introduces the meaning of evolutionary psychology as well as points out its significance and certain neglect in relation to present digital games research. The exploratory study aims to contribute to the creation of a theoretical framework for the research of digital games from the perspective of evolutionary psychology. Partial
goals include summarization, characteristics, and applications within the gaming discourse illustrating far-reaching ways in which evolutionary theory could potentially advance digital games research and hence enrich the game studies in general.

By analysing the recent emerging labour movement of Korean digital game workers, this article seeks to explore a relatively novel issue-the importance of a politics of body in digital labour. By employing Elaine Scarry's concept of 'language of agency' and 'analogical substantiation', the article first investigates how digital game workers express their work experiences and their embodied pain by analysing the mechanism of 'crunch' practice. Second, by examining 'karoshi (overwork to death)' and a series of suicides of digital game workers in Korea, it seeks to explore the problem of death as the final form of bodily pain-focusing on how these death events led workers to develop new forms of politics and solidarity by organising labour unions. Finally, by analysing the newly established digital game worker unions' opposition to the violation of worktime regulation as a 'struggle for recognition', this research illuminates how digital game workers not only acquire self-respect but also achieve social recognition for their bodies as working labour. By examining this labour union organisation practice in Korea, the study ultimately argues that recognising the politics of body in digital labour offers the possibility that an emerging social category of precariat can actually co-exist and connect with the existing social class of proletariat.

Digital games are social objects created based on our culture and society and at the same time they contribute to shaping our world. Through a critical perspective of digital games and technology, it is possible to discuss the unfolding of these artefacts in our society and also understand their relevance beyond an instrumental view. In this paper, we present a brief reflection based on two researches developed by the authors: the first, regarding the link between digital games and people with disabilities; and the second, about contributions of digital games to a critical education. Our goal with this work is to highlight the emancipatory and participatory potential present in the critical vision of digital games.

Este trabalho tem como objetivo contribuir para o adensamento das publicações que promovam um adensamento da discussão sobre métodos de investigação sobre jogos eletrônicos no Brasil. O trabalho procura demonstrar como a importância como a escolha do referencial teórico-metodológico influencia no resultado obtido através da pesquisa sobre um jogo digital,  discute alguns problemas metodológicos encontrados em pesquisas sobre história e jogos eletrônicos. Por fim,  e propõe soluções para esses problemas, com base na pesquisa realizada sobre a concepção da História no jogo Assassin’s Creed 2.

Partindo de um entendimento da ideia de social advindo da obra simmeliana, esta pesquisa procura compreender as dinâmicas sociais de uma equipe de jogadores semiprofissionais do Multiplayer Online Battle Arena (MOBA) League of Legends (League ou LoL) na comunidade competitiva local de Belém, no Pará. Por meio de uma abordagem microssociológica, objetiva-se depreender o processo de formação e manutenção do tecido social entre jogadores que se engajam no jogo digital competitivo organizado, também conhecido como esporte eletrônico (e-sport) ou jogo pro. Este estudo concentra-se na compreensão de como as dinâmicas grupais entre os jogadores e entre as equipes são manifestas nesse contexto competitivo particular, de como o tecido social é criado e desenvolvido no cerne desse grupo, procurando entender de que modo ele constitui uma variedade de nuances nas dinâmicas sociais, e mais estreitamente na comunicação, na camaradagem e na organização do time. Para tanto, a partir de um estudo etnográfico realizado com uma equipe da cidade, privilegia-se um arcabouço teórico que se vale de uma matriz teórica multidisciplinar, engendrando elementos dos campos dos estudos da Comunicação, Game Studies, dos Esportes e das Ciências Sociais, articulando estes por meio de uma sensibilidade antropológica e sociológica. Em termos gerais, conclui-se que o caminho para a progressão competitiva na carreira para profissional se encontra dependente de um ativo processo de socialização entre jogadores e equipes em uma identificação profissional decorrente de toda uma série de atores e forças. Ademais, a pesquisa demonstra que embora um viés funcional seja responsável por estimular a formação do tecido social na maioria dos times do cenário local, subsiste uma particular experiência social de relevância crescente, um ethos de camaradagem criado tanto entre jogadores em um time, quanto entre equipes, que opera como um poderoso vetor seja para a manutenção do tecido social, seja para um fim instrumental/funcional – da progressão competitiva – diante dos desafios rumo à profissionalização. O período de convivência, observação e contato com os interlocutores data de junho de 2016 a fevereiro de 2018.
Palavras-chave: Game Studies. Jogos Digitais. Esportes Eletrônicos (e-Sports). Dinâmicas Sociais. League of Legends.


Stemming from an understanding of the idea of social particular to the simmelian work, this research seeks to understand the social dynamics of a team of semiprofessional players of the Multiplayer Online Battle Arena (MOBA) League of Legends (League or LoL) in the local competitive community of Belém, in the Pará. Through a micro-sociological approach, the objective is to understand the process of formation and maintenance of the social fabric among players who engage in the organized competitive digital game, also known as electronic sport (e-sport) or pro gaming. This study specifically focuses on understanding how group dynamics between players and teams is manifested in this particular competitive context, of how the social fabric is created and developed at the core of that group by trying to understand how it constitutes a variety of nuances in social dynamics, inserting more specifically in communication, camaraderie and team organization. In order to do so, based on an ethnographic study carried out with a team from the city, a theoretical framework based on a multidisciplinary theoretical matrix is developed, engendering elements of the fields of Communication Studies, Game Studies, Sports and Social Sciences, articulating these through an anthropological and sociological sensibility. In general terms, it is concluded that the path to competitive career progression for professionals is strongly dependent on an active process of socialization between players and teams in a professional identification resulting from a whole series of actors and forces. In addition, the research demonstrates that although a functional bias is responsible for stimulating the formation of the social fabric in most teams of the local scenario, there is a particular social experience of growing relevance, an ethos of camaraderie created both among players in a team, as well as between teams, that operates as a powerful vector either for the maintenance of the social fabric or for an instrumental/functional end - of the competitive progression - facing the challenges towards professionalization. The period of coexistence, observation and contact with the interlocutors dates from June 2016 to February 2018.
Keywords: Game Studies. Digital Games. Electronic Sports (e-Sports). Social Dynamics. League of Legends.

Η ιστορική εκπαίδευση αναπροσδιορίζεται από τις ευρύτερες εξελίξεις που διατρέχουν τις κοινωνίες σε συνάρτηση με τις σχετικές συζητήσεις γύρω από την επιστημολογία του γνωστικού αντικειμένου. Η ψηφιακή μετατόπιση των κοινωνιών τροποποίησε και τους συσχετισμούς λειτουργίας της ιστορικής εκπαίδευσης, αφού τα υποκείμενα των κοινωνιών έχουν ήδη εξοικειωθεί με εναλλακτικές ψηφιακές αφηγήσεις πέρα από το δομημένο σχολικό περιβάλλον.  [...] Οι βιομηχανίες των βίντεο παιχνιδιών (video games) παράγουν συνεχώς νέα προϊόντα και οι προβλέψεις για το μέλλον δείχνουν μία κλιμακωτή αύξηση στην παραγωγή σχετικού υλικού.  [...]  Η μεταφορά των ψυχαγωγικών παιχνιδιών στην εκπαιδευτική πραγματικότητα έχει ξεκινήσει και επίσημα μέσω της εταιρείας Microsoft και τη μετατροπή του παιχνιδιού Minecraft σε Minecraftedu [...] Με βάση, λοιπόν, αυτές τις αλλαγές θα σκιαγραφήσουμε το ρόλο των βίντεοπαιχνιδιών (video games) με ιστορικό περιεχόμενο και θα αναστοχαστούμε σχετικά με τη διδακτική προσέγγιση τους στο μάθημα της ιστορίας.

(in press). British Journal of Educational Technology.
ABSTRACT
The Selene: A Lunar Construction GaME instructional video game is robust research environment (institutional review board-approved) for investigating learning, affect, and the CyGaMEs Metaphorics approach to instructional science video game design, embedded assessment, and informatics analysis and reporting. CyGaMEs applies analogical reasoning theory to translate fundamental scientific phenomena into embodied, procedural, goal-driven, instructional gameplay and concurrent metrics of learning. Selene also collects integrated measures of affect operationalized as flow dimensions skill and challenge. Selene is a free, online Flash/Flex game available 24/7 to registered players. The player (mean age = 13; N = 3,882; female  = 1,915; male  = 1,908; players of Spanish-language version = 157) dataset collected between April 6, 2010 and May 30, 2014 is anonymized, open, and downloadable within Wheeling Jesuit University’s data repository. Dataset files contain timestamped, tab-delimited, player log data for gesture-level gameplay; Timed Report progress toward each game/learning goal; flow dimensions; non-gameplay assessments; demographics; paradata; and repository lexicons. Dataset analyses using traditional statistical methods (e.g., multi-level modeling, interrupted time-series) study learning trajectories, learning moments, affect (flow dimensions), persistence, gender differences, dashboard effects, and the interactions among them. CyGaMEs Selene translates Timed Reports into real-time, online dashboard report visualizations players and their registered educators can understand and use.

This paper presents the results of an innovative conceptual framework called C2Learn [Fostering Co-Creativity in Learning through Digital Games], a European research project in Technology-Enhanced Learning. This project aims to foster co-creativity in learning through digital gaming activities. The challenge was to implement these activities in history education, which remains a subject of memorization of historical names and events. History education in Greece does not develop students’ imagination in an historical context. As such, students believe that history has nothing in relation to their lives and they face it as a given subject. In this research, students optimized teachers’ stimuli so as to develop their imagination in an historical context. Our hypotheses related to the following questions:
Do students actually believe that history is a creative subject?
Does this implementation give students an historical sense?
Does digital gaming develop students’ imagination and afterwards their creativity?
Do students acquire historical knowledge through this procedure?

Sixty-eight students 12 years old derived from a rural private school in Greece voluntarily took part in this research. A storytelling game based on digital cards was developed for the history course in the sixth grade primary school. Α story full of challenges was created based on contemporary history events set in Greece in the 19th century. Students completed open-ended questions about history and creativity before and after the pilot implementation and they made judgments and justifications. The research findings give answers to the research questions and provide a basis for equivalent teaching history approaches in future.

As Chair for the International Center for Information Ethics, I am responsible for promoting and maintaining the founding vision of the academic community of ICIE, for managing its global-wide membership, its advisory board, and for attending to and updating global chapters, credentials, contacts, and communications.