Privacy in Gaming

Video game platforms and business models are increasingly built on collection, use, and sharing of personal information for purposes of both functionality and revenue. This paper examines privacy issues and explores data practices, technical specifications, and policy statements of the most popular games and gaming platforms to provide an overview of the current privacy legal landscape for mobile gaming, console gaming, and virtual reality devices. The research observes how modern gaming aligns with information privacy notions and norms and how data practices and technologies specific to gaming may affect users and, in particular, child gamers. After objectively selecting and analyzing major players in gaming, the research notes the many different ways that game companies collect data from users, including through cameras, sensors, microphones, and other hardware, through platform features for social interaction and user-generated content, and by means of tracking technologies like cookies and beacons. The paper also notes how location and biometric data are collected routinely through game platforms and explores issues specific to mobile gaming and pairing with smartphones and other external hardware devices. The paper concludes that transparency as to gaming companies’ data practices could be much improved, especially regarding sharing with third party affiliates. In addition, the research considers how children’s privacy may be particularly affected while gaming, determining that special attention should be paid to user control mechanisms and privacy settings within games and platforms, that social media and other interactive features create unique privacy and safety concerns for children which require gamer and parent education, and that privacy policy language is often incongruent with age ratings advertised to children and parents. To contribute additional research value and resources, the paper attaches a comprehensive set of appendices, on which the research conclusions are in part based, detailing the technical specifications and privacy policy statements of popular games and gaming platforms for mobile gaming, console gaming, and virtual reality devices

Smartphones

Many of the research approaches to smartphones actually regard them as more or less transparent points of access to other kinds of communication experiences. That is, rather than considering the smartphone as something in itself, the researchers look at how individuals use the smartphone for their communicative purposes, whether these be talking, surfing the web, using on-line data access for off-site data sources, downloading or uploading materials, or any kind of interaction with social media. They focus not so much on the smartphone itself but on the activities that people engage in with their smartphones

Location-based technologies for learning

Emerging technologies for learning report - Article exploring location based technologies and their potential for educatio

Mobile Exergames: Exploring Methods for Generating Challenges based on the Context of Physical Interaction

À medida que as tecnologias móveis evoluem, a indústria de jogos móveis também evolui. Com telemóveis quase tão poderosos como os computadores ou consolas, a procura pelo desenvolvimento de jogos móveis aumenta. Herdando a interação física que os exergames oferecem, como os lançados para a Microsoft Kinect, Nintendo Wii ou PlayStation Move, os exergames móveis procuram entregar uma experiência de interação física através do uso de dispositivos móveis.A entrega nos jogos vem do equilibrio que existe entre a abilidade de completar um desafio e a dificuldade das mecânicas que o compõem. Nos exergames móveis, é a localização e movimentação do jogador que compõem as mechanics desenvolvidas.O objetivo principal deste projeto foi desenhar, desenvolver e avaliar uma framework para exergames móveis que permitesse desenvolver exergames novos e mais imersivos, mais depressa.Para atingir os objetivos, foi feita uma revisão bibliográfica sobre exergames, jogos baseados na localização e jogos móveis, o seu planeamento, desenvolvimento e os problemas que acarretam. O resultado do estudo permitiu recolher informação suficiente para definir os elementos principais que deveriam compor a framework para exergames móveis. Esses elementos foram, depois, mapeados em módulos e estruturas e serviços que pudessem alimentar framework e permitessem a criação de exergames móveis com base em novas mecânicas de interação física.Para avaliar o resultado do projeto, a framework foi testada com o desenvolvimento de um exergame móvel. A conclusão é que a framework expectada tem flexibilidade suficiente para criar novas mecânicas de exergames, possíveis de integrar com outras mecânicas, como fábulas e baseadas em localização.As mobile technology evolves, so does the mobile game industry. With smartphones almost as powerful as desktop computers or game consoles, development of mobile games increases. Inheriting the physical interaction that exergames provide, like those released for Microsoft Kinect, Nintendo Wii or PlayStation Move, mobile exergames aim to deliver physically-interactive experiences through the use of mobile devices.The immersion in games comes from balancing the skill level at completing a predefined challenge to the difficulty of the mechanics which compose that challenge. On mobile exergames, the player's location and motion information compose the mechanics that are developed.The primary goal of this project is to design, develop and evaluate a mobile exergames framework that can speed-up the development of new and more immersive exergame mechanics based on user context retrieved from location and motion sensors on a mobile decive.To achieve those goals, I started by performing a review on the topic of exergames, location-based games and mobile games, their design, development and problems. The result of the study provided enough information to define the core elements that should compose a mobile exergames framework. The core elements were then mapped into modules and structures and services thatcould feed the framework in a way that allowed developers to create mobile exergames based on new physically-interactive mechanics.To evaluate the results of project, the framework was tested with the development of a mobile exergame. The conclusion is that the expected resulting framework provides enough flexibility to create new exergame mechanics and that it can be integrated with other mechanics, such as storytelling and location-based