An empirical examination of factors associated with Game Transfer Phenomena severity

Game Transfer Phenomena (GTP) (i.e. altered perceptions, spontaneous thoughts and behaviors with game content) occur on a continuum from mild to severe. This study examined the differences between mild, moderate and severe levels of GTP. A total of 2,362 gamers’ participated in an online survey. The majority of gamers experienced mild levels of GTP. The factors significantly associated with severe levels of GTP were: (i) being students, (ii) being aged 18 to 22, (iii) being professional gamers, (iv) playing videogames every day in sessions of 6 hours or more, (iv) playing to escape from the real world, (v) recalling dreams always or very often, (vi) having a sleep disorder, mental disorder or reported dysfunctional gaming, and (vii) having experienced distress or dysfunction due to GTP. In addition, having used drugs and experiencing flashbacks as side-effects of drug use were significantly less likely to be reported by those with mild levels of GTP. In general, the findings suggest that those with higher levels of GTP share characteristics with profiles of gamers with dysfunctional gaming (e.g., problematic and/or addictive gaming)

Developing a virtual zoological museum

Abstract. This is a documentation of our work developing a virtual zoological museum. Although it’s challenging to create a virtual museum that lives up to the original, Unity3D and virtual reality technology are utilized in order to provide experiences that a traditional museum cannot. As we aim to digitize the museum that once was in University of Oulu, different ways of designing an educating and engaging virtual museum visit are explored. The animals of the museum can be interacted with, being able to play back animations and audio while also providing information in text form. An interactive forest was also developed as a more natural and lively environment. Furthermore, 360° photos of local forests were added to improve the representation of nature. Virtual reality support was programmed for Oculus Rift, allowing movement and interaction as if one was there in real life. In order to achieve a comfortable experience, some performance optimization has been done to reach stable frame rates. We evaluated users’ sense of presence, experienced Game Transfer Phenomena (GTP), system usability and content quality. Based on our tests, users found the virtual museum visit enjoyable and immersive overall despite being distracted by some aspects, like the quality of the display. Users were also mostly satisfied with the environments and the quality of the animals. Experienced Game Transfer was low, however. All in all, this concept for creating a virtual museum has appeared to be successful, and it could be developed further.Virtuaalisen eläintieteellisen museon kehittäminen. Tiivistelmä. Tämä on dokumentaatio virtuaalisen eläintieteellisen museon kehittämisestä. Vaikka onkin haastavaa luoda virtuaalinen museo, joka on verrattavissa alkuperäiseen, hyödyntämällä Unity3D:tä ja virtuaalitodellisuusteknologiaa on mahdollista tarjota kokemuksia, mitä perinteinen museo ei pysty. Digitalisoidessamme sitä museota, joka Oulun Yliopistolla ennen oli, tutkimme erilaisia keinoja kehittää opetuksellinen ja kiinnostava virtuaalimuseovierailu. Museon eläimet ovat interaktiivisia, pystyen toistamaan animaatioita ja ääniä sekä antamaan tietoa tekstin muodossa. Interaktiivinen metsä luotiin tarjoamaan luonnollisemman ja elävämmän ympäristön. Lisäksi 360° kuvia paikallisista metsistä lisättiin parantaakseen luonnon edustusta. Virtuaalitodellisuustuki lisättiin Oculus Rift:ille, sallien liikkumisen ja vuorovaikuttamisen kuin olisi siellä todellisessa elämässä. Luodakseen mukavan kokemuksen, sovelluksen suorituskykyä on optimoitu saavuttaakseen vakaan kuvan päivitystaajuuden. Evaluoimme käyttäjien läsnäolon tunnetta, koettua Game Transfer -ilmiötä (GTP), järjestelmän käytettävyyttä ja sisällön laatua. Testien perusteella käyttäjät kokivat museovierailun miellyttävänä sekä immersiivisenä yleisesti ottaen, vaikka jotkin piirteet, kuten näytön laatu, häiritsivät. Käyttäjät olivat myöskin pitkälti tyytyväisiä ympäristöihin ja eläinten laatuun. Koettu Game Transfer oli kuitenkin vähäistä. Kaikenkaikkiaan tämä virtuaalimuseo konsepti vaikuttaa toimivalta, ja sitä voisi kehittää pidemmälle

Proteus Effect profiles: how do they relate with disordered gaming behaviours?

Gamers represent themselves in online gaming worlds through their avatars. The term “Proteus Effect” (PE) defines the potential influences of the gamers’ avatars on their demeanour, perception and conduct and has been linked with excessive gaming. There is a significant lack of knowledge regarding likely distinct PE profiles and whether these could be differentially implicated with disordered gaming. A normative group of 1022 World of Warcraft (WoW) gamers were assessed in the present study (Mean age = 28.60 years). The Proteus Effect Scale (PES) was used to evaluate the possible avatar effect on gamers’ conduct, and the Internet Gaming Disorder Scale–Short-Form was used to examine gaming disorder behaviors. Latent class profiling resulted in three distinct PE classes, ‘non-influenced-gamers’ (NIGs), ‘perception-cognition-influenced-gamers’ (PCIGs), and ‘emotion-behaviour-influenced-gamers’ (EBIGs). The NIGs reported low rates across all PES items. The PCIGs indicated higher avatar influence in their perception-experience but did not report being affected emotionally. The EBIGs indicated significantly higher avatar influence in their emotion and behaviour than the other two classes but reported stability in their perception of aspects independent of their avatar. Gaming disorder behaviours were reduced for the NIGs and progressively increased for the PCIGs and the EBIGs

User-avatar bond profiles: how do they associate with disordered gaming?

Aims: The avatar constitutes the in-game representation of the gamer. Although aspects of the user-avatar bond (UAB) have been associated with disordered gaming, there is a need for clearer understanding concerning the impact of potential UAB profiles. Methods: To address this need, the present study recruited a normative sample of 1022 World of Warcraft (WoW) players (Mage = 28.55 years, SD = 9.90). Participants completed the User-Avatar Questionnaire (to assess UAB aspects such as identification, immersion, and compensation), the Proteus-Effect Scale (to assess transference of the avatar's behaviour in real life), and the Internet Gaming Disorder Scale–Short-Form (to assess disordered gaming). Results: Latent class analysis indicated the existence of three UAB profiles, 'differentiated gamers' (DGs), 'identified gamers' (IGs) and 'fused gamers' (FGs). The DGs were characterized by low scores across all UAB aspects. The IGs did not report significant Proteus Effect (PE) or immersion behaviours, and despite being more identified with their avatar, did not significantly compensate through it. The FGs presented with higher PE, immersion, and compensation, although they did not significantly identify with their avatars, possibly due to having idealized them. Disordered gaming behaviours were significantly lower for the DGs and sequentially higher for the IGs and the FGs. Preoccupation and mood modification behaviours related to gaming disorder were distinctively associated with FGs. Conclusion: Disordered gaming assessment and treatment implications of the UAB profiles are discussed

Understanding the relationship between the proteus effect, immersion, and gender among world of Warcraft players: an empirical survey study

Online gaming is part of contemporary life, with a range of influences on gamer's behaviour. The convergence and alignment of an individual's attitude and behaviour with features and characteristics of their in-game representation (i.e. their avatar), is conceptualised as the 'Proteus effect' (PE). In the massively multiplayer online role-playing game World of Warcraft (WoW), the Draenei ('exiled ones') are one type of in-game character faction. In the present study, the interplay between choosing the class of Draenei, experiencing game-related immersion, along with the gamer's biological gender was examined in relation to PE behaviours among 404 WoW gamers (males = 299; 74%; females = 104; 26%). Participants completed the Proteus Effect Scale and the Immersion sub-scale of the User-Avatar Questionnaire. A hierarchical regression analysis indicated a significant positive association between immersion and PE behaviours. Furthermore, mediation and moderated mediation analyses suggested that being a Draenei was positively associated with the level of game-related immersion, which in turn associated to higher PE behaviours offline, independent of participants' gender. Results indicate that gamers who are more immersed within the gaming world tend to exhibit elevated PE behaviours. Moreover, being a Draenei in WoW appeared to relate with higher game-immersion experiences, which resulted in higher PE behaviours offline

Mechanisms of the Game Transfer Phenomena: the Role of Cognitive, Emotional, and Personality Variables

Game Transfer Phenomena (GTP) refer to the involuntary transfer of video game experiences into the real world and can manifest as altered sensory perceptions, automatic mental processes, and behavioural responses with video-game content. These experiences are often prompted by external cues related to the video game and occur while performing automatic and cognitively non-demanding tasks. Such habitual daily activities are also conducive to experiencing a variety of spontaneous cognitive phenomena (e.g., mindwandering, involuntary memories, musical earworms) and previous research on GTP has shown that the content and circumstances of GTP experiences bear strong similarities with these spontaneous cognitive phenomena, with the main difference being the video game content in case of GTP. The central aim of this thesis was to explore a novel hypothesis that GTP can be considered as part of a family of spontaneous cognitive phenomena in terms of their frequency, nature and underlying mechanisms. To address this aim, three online and one laboratory study investigated the frequency of GTP and its relation to involuntary cognitive phenomena (daydreaming and mind-popping frequency), psychopathology variables (e.g., schizotypy, anxiety, depression and impulsivity) and cognitive processes (e.g., creativity, working memory capacity) that had been previously associated with involuntary cognitions. The second aim was to provide new evidence about the nature and frequency of GTP in daily life using a structured (online) diary method. The third major aim was to examine the hypothesis that gaming sessions activate a large number of game-related representations that act as primes for subsequent GTP experiences in response to game-related stimuli in one’s environment. Findings across four studies showed that the occurrence of GTP, as assessed by questionnaire and diary methods, tended to be low and closely resembled the frequency reported in the literature for mind-pops. The most prevalent type of GTP were involuntary inner cognitions in the form of thoughts, memories and musical earworms with game-related content, which occurred under very similar circumstances to other spontaneous cognitive phenomena (Study 2). The results of multiple hierarchical regression analyses showed that GTP were predicted by spontaneous cognitions (daydreaming and mind-popping scores) as well as positive schizotypy and the internet gaming disorder (IGD) (Studies 1 to 3). Furthermore, mediation analysis showed that the association of IGD with GTP was partially mediated by positive schizotypy and frequency of mind-pops (Study 1). Results of Study 3 also confirmed that creativity scores predicted GTP, providing further support for potential links between GTP and spontaneous cognitive phenomena. Results of diary Study 2 supported the long-term priming hypothesis by showing that GTP experiences were often reported as being preceded by prior exposure to video games related to the GTP content. The evidence of long-term priming of GTP-related concepts, resulting from playing a video game, was also supported in the laboratory using a lexical decision task over short (10 minutes) and longer delays of 24 hours (Study 4). However, no associations were found between GTP and priming scores in the online word-fragment completion task (Study 3) and the laboratory lexical decision task (Study 4), which calls for further examination of the priming hypothesis in the context of GTP. Taken together, these findings have significant theoretical, methodological and practical implications for research on GTP and involuntary cognitions. Indeed, not only did they replicate some of the findings reported in previous research on GTP, but they also significantly extended the current knowledge on the frequency, nature, and possible underlying mechanisms of GTP. The consistent similarities of GTP with other spontaneous cognitive phenomena demonstrate that this phenomenon can be considered part of a broad family of spontaneous cognitions and open up interesting avenues for future research