Social gaming: A systematic review

Digital games often constitute a shared activity where people can spend time together, communicate and socialize. Several commercial titles place social interaction at the center of their design. Prior works have investigated the social outcomes of gaming, and factors that impact the experience. Yet, we lack a comprehensive understanding of how social gaming has been approached and explored before. In this work, we present a systematic review covering 263 publications, gathered in February 2021, that study gaming experiences involving more than one person, with a focus on the social element that emerges among partakers (players and/or spectators). We contribute with a systematized understanding of (1) how the topic is being defined and approached, (2) what facets (mainly in terms of outcomes and determinants of the experience) are being acknowledged and (3) the methodologies leveraged to examine these. Our analysis, based on mixed deductive and inductive coding, reveals relevant gaps and tendencies, including (1) the emphasis in novel technologies and unconventional games, (2) the apparent negligence of player diversity, and (3) lower ecological validity associated with totally mediated evaluations and a lack of established constructs to assess social outcomes

Massively Multiplayer Online Game in-game persuasive features and influence

Abstract. This bachelor’s thesis investigates the in-game persuasive mechanisms and their effects in Massively Multiplayer Online (MMO) games. The gaming industry has grown to massive proportions in recent years and the MMO game genre along with it. The topic is very relevant with persuasive and coercive game mechanics being ever more prevalent nowadays, especially related to monetization. This thesis attempts to answer how MMO games persuade the player and what effects the persuasion has on the player. In other words, which kind of persuasive methods are utilized by the game environment to affect the player and what potential consequences this might have on the person playing. The background section discusses the Persuasive Systems Design (PSD) model, as well as the thin line between persuasion and coercion. The definition of an MMO game and some of its history is also examined. The research was conducted in the form of a literature review and material from 2003 to 2020 was used. The main material was obtained from scientific online journals and books. This thesis investigates the game mechanics by attempting to categorize them into the PSD model principles which are primary task support, dialogue support, credibility support and social support, while separately including the ones that did not fit into this model. The most prevalent category found was social support. Games are never neutral as they always affect the user somehow. This intended or unintended influence can be investigated through the game environment. It can be highly positive, but deceptive or coercive game mechanics are nowadays commonly used and contribute to problematic usage. The topic of this research contains a lot of ethical questions, and it is important to pay attention to how games implement and use their methods of influence. Western laws are still behind regarding this issue, and games avoid legality issues related to, for example, in-game virtual gambling. The discussion is conducted by looking at the potential effects of gaming from the perspective of issues, ethics and solutions. This research can be used as a general overview of the topic and while not contributing new information to the field, it can work as a basis for future work. A look at potential future avenues is provided

Virtual Reality Games for Motor Rehabilitation

This paper presents a fuzzy logic based method to track user satisfaction without the need for devices to monitor users physiological conditions. User satisfaction is the key to any product’s acceptance; computer applications and video games provide a unique opportunity to provide a tailored environment for each user to better suit their needs. We have implemented a non-adaptive fuzzy logic model of emotion, based on the emotional component of the Fuzzy Logic Adaptive Model of Emotion (FLAME) proposed by El-Nasr, to estimate player emotion in UnrealTournament 2004. In this paper we describe the implementation of this system and present the results of one of several play tests. Our research contradicts the current literature that suggests physiological measurements are needed. We show that it is possible to use a software only method to estimate user emotion

Living City, A Collaborative Browser-Based Massively Multiplayer Online Game

This work presents the design and implementation of our Browser-based Massively Multiplayer Online Game, Living City, a simulation game fully developed at the University of Messina. Living City is a persistent and real-time digital world, running in the Web browser environment and accessible from users without any client-side installation. Today Massively Multiplayer Online Games attract the attention of Computer Scientists both for their architectural peculiarity and the close interconnection with the social network phenomenon. We will cover these two aspects paying particular attention to some aspects of the project: game balancing (e.g. algorithms behind time and money balancing); business logic (e.g., handling concurrency, cheating avoidance and availability) and, finally, social and psychological aspects involved in the collaboration of players, analyzing their activities and interconnections

Perfil de la investigación académica sobre Juegos Masivos en Línea para Múltiples Jugadores (JMLMJ) 2000-2009: Horizontes para la investigación educativa

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.17227/01234870.38folios75.94Whilst there exists a large body of publications around Massively Multiplayer On-line Role-Play Gaming (MMORPG), there is little profiling academic research on this type of game. This study aims at unveiling what, when, where and who constitute scholarly work in research about MMORPG. A 777-register dataset was configured with primary documents taken from 16 databases and two web-portals. The dataset was drilled down using specialized text-mining software. Findings revealed four main research interests that comprise the games themselves, gaming experiences, systems architecture and educational MMORPG. It was also found that research on this topic started out in 2002 and some milestones of emerging research were charted out. The most prolific organizations and authors were also identified in which the USA, Canada and Italy occupy outstanding places. It is recommended that research profiling studies be carried out to extendmore informed literature reviews and support further research questions.La investigación sobre Juegos Masivos en Línea para Múltiples Jugadores (JMLMJ) es amplia; sin embargo, no hay mucha literatura especializada que perfile la investigación sobre este tipo específico de juegos. El presente estudio persigue describir el qué, el cuándo, el dónde y el quién que constituyen trabajo investigativo y académico sobre los JMLMJ. Se configuró una base de datos de 777 registros con documentos de investigación provenientes de 16 bases de datos académicas y dos portales web. La base de datos que se organizó fue explorada utilizando un software especializado en minería de textos. Los resultados revelan cuatro tendencias principales en la investigación sobre los JMLMJ: los juegos en sí mismos, las experiencias de juego, los sistemas de arquitectura de estos juegos y los JMLMJ relacionados con el fenómeno educativo. Se encontró que la investigación sobre estos juegos se origina en 2002 y se encontraron rutas de investigación relacionadas como desarrollo del campo. Se identificaron los autores más prolíficos quienes son provenientes de organizaciones en USA, Canadá e Italia. Se recomienda la realización de estudios de perfil para ampliar las revisiones de literatura que sustente la formulación de preguntas de investigación

Re-engineering jake2 to work on a grid using the GridGain Middleware

With the advent of Massively Multiplayer Online Games (MMOGs), engineers and designers of games came across with many questions that needed to be answered such as, for example, "how to allow a large amount of clients to play simultaneously on the same server?", "how to guarantee a good quality of service (QoS) to a great number of clients?", "how many resources will be necessary?", "how to optimize these resources to the maximum?". A possible answer to these questions relies on the usage of grid computing. Taking into account the parallel and distributed nature of grid computing, we can say that grid computing allows for more scalability in terms of a growing number of players, guarantees shorter communication time between clients and servers, and allows for a better resource management and usage (e.g., memory, CPU, core balancing usage, etc.) than the traditional serial computing model. However, the main focus of this thesis is not about grid computing. Instead, this thesis describes the re-engineering process of an existing multiplayer computer game, called Jake2, by transforming it into a MMOG, which is then put to run on a grid