Resonating Experiences of Self and Others enabled by a Tangible Somaesthetic Design

Digitalization is penetrating every aspect of everyday life including a human's heart beating, which can easily be sensed by wearable sensors and displayed for others to see, feel, and potentially "bodily resonate" with. Previous work in studying human interactions and interaction designs with physiological data, such as a heart's pulse rate, have argued that feeding it back to the users may, for example support users' mindfulness and self-awareness during various everyday activities and ultimately support their wellbeing. Inspired by Somaesthetics as a discipline, which focuses on an appreciation of the living body's role in all our experiences, we designed and explored mobile tangible heart beat displays, which enable rich forms of bodily experiencing oneself and others in social proximity. In this paper, we first report on the design process of tangible heart displays and then present results of a field study with 30 pairs of participants. Participants were asked to use the tangible heart displays during watching movies together and report their experience in three different heart display conditions (i.e., displaying their own heart beat, their partner's heart beat, and watching a movie without a heart display). We found, for example that participants reported significant effects in experiencing sensory immersion when they felt their own heart beats compared to the condition without any heart beat display, and that feeling their partner's heart beats resulted in significant effects on social experience. We refer to resonance theory to discuss the results, highlighting the potential of how ubiquitous technology could utilize physiological data to provide resonance in a modern society facing social acceleration.Comment: 18 page

Gamification of research methods: an exploratory case

This work investigates the benefits of gamification in the taught research methods unit within the Business Management course. It utilises an exploratory design where the team attempted to use a gamified approach to teaching research methods. Two consecutive cohorts were chosen; both cohorts were studying research methods and had the same assessment, in the same format, and were taught and marked by the same teaching team. The first cohort studied the subject without any attempts in gamifying delivery, the second cohort engaged with a gamified curriculum. The latter cohort exhibited stronger final results and a higher level of engagement thus suggesting that a gamified approach to curriculum delivery enhanced the grade results. This first pilot then led to the development of a bespoke software that is imbued with the philosophical streaks from educational pedagogy and the learning literature to support a gamified approach to education

Player–video game interaction: A systematic review of current concepts

International audienceVideo game design requires a user-centered approach to ensure that the experience enjoyed by players is as good as possible. However, the nature of player-video game interactions has not as yet been clearly defined in the scientific literature. The purpose of the present study was to provide a systematic review of empirical evidences of the current concepts of player-video game interactions in entertainment situations. A total of 72 articles published in scientific journals that deal with human-computer interaction met the criteria for inclusion in the present review. Major findings of these articles were presented in a narrative synthesis. Results showed that player-video game interactions could be defined with multiple concepts that are closely linked and intertwined. These concepts concern player aspects of player-video game interactions, namely engagement and enjoyment, and video game aspects, namely information input/output techniques, game contents and multiplayer games. Global approaches, such as playability, also exist to qualify player-video game interactions. Limitations of these findings are discussed to help researchers to plan future advances of the field and provide supplementary effort to better know the role of less-studied aspects. Practical implications are also discussed to help game designers to optimize the design of player-video game interactions

TV Series and Social Media: Powerful Engagement Factors in Mobile Video Games

The free-to-play business model has become hegemonic in the mobile video game industry, displacing the traditional paid content model that was the norm until the appearance of manufacturers’ app stores. Companies attempt to monetize these games by means of in-game micro-transactions and in-game advertising; thus, it is essential to acquire an enormous number of users because only a small percentage will ultimately make any purchases. To keep players engaged, companies typically put in place marketing and design strategies derived from behavioral telemetry, to maintain a grip on players. We propose an innovative approach, focusing our attention on the impact of having a video game based on a famous TV series. Furthermore, we analyze the effect of social networks on game metrics. The outcome indicates that developing a game based on a TV series and integrating social media with the gameplay improve and reinforce the user’s activation, retention and monetization

Gender-based Engagement Model for Serious Games

Information and Communications Technology (ICT) has an important impact on the economy globally and in many regions. However, there is a lack of female involvement in ICT fields in many countries, thus motivating female students to take up ICT studies should be made a priority. ICT also improves learning quality and increases outcomes while allowing for easier control of learning systems. Serious Games can be used effectively for learning, and to encourage females to study Computer Science. However, engagement and motivation to play certain types of digital games are affected by gender preference factors, but few studies have looked into digital game design for females. Furthermore, most serious games with Computer Science content do not interest young adult females and the effect of social and cultural content in relation to female players’ gaming experience has not been fully explained. Hence this study identified effective serious game elements - motivational elements that influence a player to engage with digital games, effective educational game elements, female preference elements and elements that influence players to engage with the game. The result is a conceptual model for female engagement with serious games. The proposed model will be implemented in a game prototype design to increase the engagement of undergraduate females studying Computer Science

Immersion in digital games: What is immersion in the gaming spectrum?

This work is comprised of two parts. Immersion is a very broad topic that tends to come up in a lot of discussions nowadays, with special focus on the world of digital games. The first part of this dissertation is the analysis the word immersion and all it encompasses, giving the reader a better perception on the matter - “what is immersion?”. To answer this relatively vague question, we must evaluate and define this notion of immersion in all its fields. Not just the digital gaming department, but in others as well. Although, virtual games remain the focus of the dissertation. In the second part of the dissertation, it is presented a case study, based on interviews used to find out what people think immersion is and if it is only connected to digital games. With everything stated, it is the final objective of this dissertation to build a typology based of age and gender of the interviewees, in order to determine what a person of a certain age would find more immersive, and at the same time demystifying and clarifying the notion of immersion.Este trabalho é composto em duas partes. Imersão é um tema muito ambíguo que tende a aparecer em inúmeras discussões nos dias de hoje, com especial foco no mundo dos jogos virtuais. A primeira parte da dissertação é a análise da palavra imersão e todos os seus componentes, dando ao leitor uma melhor percepção sobre o assunto – “o que é imersão?”. Para responder a esta questão relativamente vaga, teremos de avaliar e definir esta noção de imersão em todas as suas variantes. Não apenas no campo dos jogos virtuais, mas noutros também. Apesar de que os jogos virtuais permaneçam o principal foco da dissertação. Na segunda parte da dissertação, é apresentado um estudo de caso baseado em entrevistas, usadas para o efeito de saber o que os entrevistados pensam que é imersão e se está apenas conectado ao mundo dos jogos. Dito isto, é objectivo final desta dissertação, construir uma tipologia baseada no sexo e idade dos entrevistados, de modo a determinar o que uma pessoa de determinada idade achará imersivo e ao mesmo tempo desmistificando e clarificando a noção de imersão