Mood Management and Video-Game Engagement: The Importance of User-Experience and Gender in Assessing the Psychological Effects of Video-Game Play

The overall purpose of this thesis was to investigate the psychological effects of video-game play. The two central goals were to (a) compare and contrast three classic media theories (Mood Management Theory, The Catharsis Hypothesis, and Excitation-Transfer Theory) as they apply to the effects of video-game play, and (b) investigate the importance of user-experience variables and gender in predicting psychological outcomes of play. In a two-group mixed experimental design, all participants underwent a frustration/stress mood-induction procedure before playing a violent or nonviolent video-game. Questionnaires were administered both pre- and post-play to assess affect, arousal, and dominance as well as the subjective game play experience. After playing the video-game, participants in both the violent and nonviolent game conditions reported a reduction in hostility, an improvement in affect, and an increase in arousal and dominance. Further, the self-reported user-experience variables (e.g., flow variables, performance, and enjoyment) accounted for more of the variance in post-play affect than did game content (violent vs. nonviolent). These findings demonstrate that both violent and nonviolent video-game play can lead to short-term psychological benefits as long as the player feels focused, competent, and positive about the game play experience

Understanding personal and contextual factors to increase motivation in gamified systems

Gamification, the use of game elements in non-game contexts, has been shown to help people reaching their goals, affect people's behavior and enhance the users' experience within interactive systems. However, past research has shown that gamification is not always successful. In fact, literature reviews revealed that almost half of the interventions were only partially successful or even unsuccessful. Therefore, understanding the factors that have an influence on psychological measures and behavioral outcomes of gamified systems is much in need. In this thesis, we contribute to this by considering the context in which gamified systems are applied and by understanding personal factors of users interacting with the system. Guided by Self-Determination Theory, a major theory on human motivation, we investigate gamification and its effects on motivation and behavior in behavior change contexts, provide insights on contextual factors, contribute knowledge on the effect of personal factors on both the perception and effectiveness of gamification elements and lay out ways of utilizing this knowledge to implement personalized gamified systems. Our contribution is manifold: We show that gamification affects motivation through need satisfaction and by evoking positive affective experiences, ultimately leading to changes in people's behavior. Moreover, we show that age, the intention to change behavior, and Hexad user types play an important role in explaining interpersonal differences in the perception of gamification elements and that tailoring gamified systems based on these personal factors has beneficial effects on both psychological and behavioral outcomes. Lastly, we show that Hexad user types can be partially predicted by smartphone data and interaction behavior in gamified systems and that they can be assessed in a gameful way, allowing to utilize our findings in gamification practice. Finally, we propose a conceptual framework to increase motivation in gamified systems, which builds upon our findings and outlines the importance of considering both contextual and personal factors. Based on these contributions, this thesis advances the field of gamification by contributing knowledge to the open questions of how and why gamification works and which factors play a role in this regard.Gamification, die Nutzung von Spielelementen in spielfremden Kontexten, kann nachweislich Menschen helfen, ihre Ziele zu erreichen, das Verhalten von Menschen zu beeinflussen und die Erfahrung der User in interaktiven Systemen zu verbessern. Allerdings hat die bisherige Forschung gezeigt, dass Gamification nicht immer erfolgreich ist. So haben Literaturübersichten ergeben, dass fast die Hälfte der Interventionen nur teilweise erfolgreich oder sogar erfolglos waren. Daher besteht ein großer Bedarf, die Faktoren zu verstehen, die einen Einfluss auf psychologische Maße sowie auf das Verhalten von Usern in gamifizierten Systemen haben. In dieser Arbeit tragen wir dazu bei, indem wir den Kontext, in dem gamifizierte Systeme eingesetzt werden, betrachten und persönliche Faktoren von Usern, die mit dem System interagieren, verstehen. Geleitet von der Selbstbestimmungstheorie, einer der wichtigsten Theorien zur menschlichen Motivation, untersuchen wir Gamification und dessen Auswirkungen auf Motivation und Verhalten in Kontexten zur Verhaltensänderung. Wir liefern Erkenntnisse über kontextuelle Faktoren, tragen Wissen über den Einfluss persönlicher Faktoren auf die Wahrnehmung und Effektivität von Gamification-Elementen bei und bieten Möglichkeiten, dieses Wissen für die Implementierung personalisierter gamifizierter Systeme zu nutzen. Unser Beitrag ist mannigfaltig: Wir zeigen, dass Gamification die Motivation durch Bedürfnisbefriedigung und durch das Hervorrufen positiver affektiver Erfahrungen beeinflusst, was letztlich zu Verhaltensänderungen führen kann. Darüber hinaus zeigen wir, dass das Alter, die Absicht, das Verhalten zu ändern, und Hexad-Usertypen eine wichtige Rolle bei der Erklärung von interpersonellen Unterschieden in der Wahrnehmung von Gamification-Elementen spielen. Ebenso zeigen unsere Resultate dass die Anpassung von gamifizierten Systemen auf Basis dieser persönlichen Faktoren positive Auswirkungen auf psychologische und verhaltensbezogene Ergebnisse hat. Letztlich zeigen wir, dass Hexad-Usertypen teilweise durch Smartphone-Daten und Interaktionsverhalten in gamifizierten Systemen vorhergesagt werden können und dass sie auf spielerische Art und Weise erhoben werden können. Dies ermöglicht, unsere Erkenntnisse in der Gamification-Praxis zu nutzen. Auf Basis dieser Ergebnisse schlagen wir ein konzeptuelles Framework zur Steigerung der Motivation in gamifizierten Systemen vor, das die Wichtigkeit der Berücksichtigung sowohl kontextueller als auch persönlicher Faktoren hervorhebt. Diese Erkenntnisse bereichern das Forschungsfeld Gamification, indem sie Wissen zu den offenen Fragen, wie und warum Gamification funktioniert und welche Faktoren in diesem Zusammenhang eine Rolle spielen, beitragen

Digital Gaming and Language Learning: Autonomy and Community

The relationship between digital game play and second language (L2) learning is a particularly tricky issue in East Asia. Though there is an emerging presence of Chinese online games, many more young people are playing the English- or Japanese-language versions of the most popular commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) video games. In other words, most Chinese gamers are playing L2 digital games in their leisure time. Informed by research on out-of-class L2 learning, this paper discusses findings from an exploratory study investigating L2 gaming and learning practices in young people's everyday lives. Drawing on rich data from gaming sessions, stimulated recall, focus group discussion, individual interviews and online discussion forums, this paper argues that gamers exercise autonomy by managing their gameplay both as leisure and learning practices in different dimensions (location, formality, locus of control, pedagogy and trajectory). At the same time, gameplay-as-learning practices are supported by wider communities of digital gamers who take on roles as language teachers and advisers. The paper suggests that activities in these dimensions mediated learning autonomously and from community, and discusses the research and pedagogical implications for L2 gaming and learning.16 page(s

Analyzing the Impact of Spatio-Temporal Sensor Resolution on Player Experience in Augmented Reality Games

Along with automating everyday tasks of human life, smartphones have become one of the most popular devices to play video games on due to their interactivity. Smartphones are embedded with various sensors which enhance their ability to adopt new new interaction techniques for video games. These integrated sen- sors, such as motion sensors or location sensors, make the device able to adopt new interaction techniques that enhance usability. However, despite their mobility and embedded sensor capacity, smartphones are limited in processing power and display area compared to desktop computer consoles. When it comes to evaluat- ing Player Experience (PX), players might not have as compelling an experience because the rich graphics environments that a desktop computer can provide are absent on a smartphone. A plausible alternative in this regard can be substituting the virtual game world with a real world game board, perceived through the device camera by rendering the digital artifacts over the camera view. This technology is widely known as Augmented Reality (AR). Smartphone sensors (e.g. GPS, accelerometer, gyro-meter, compass) have enhanced the capability for deploying Augmented Reality technology. AR has been applied to a large number of smartphone games including shooters, casual games, or puzzles. Because AR play environments are viewed through the camera, rendering the digital artifacts consistently and accurately is crucial because the digital characters need to move with respect to sensed orientation, then the accelerometer and gyroscope need to provide su ciently accurate and precise readings to make the game playable. In particular, determining the pose of the camera in space is vital as the appropriate angle to view the rendered digital characters are determined by the pose of the camera. This defines how well the players will be able interact with the digital game characters. Depending in the Quality of Service (QoS) of these sensors, the Player Experience (PX) may vary as the rendering of digital characters are affected by noisy sensors causing a loss of registration. Confronting such problem while developing AR games is di cult in general as it requires creating wide variety of game types, narratives, input modalities as well as user-testing. Moreover, current AR games developers do not have any specific guidelines for developing AR games, and concrete guidelines outlining the tradeoffs between QoS and PX for different genres and interaction techniques are required. My dissertation provides a complete view (a taxonomy) of the spatio-temporal sensor resolution depen- dency of the existing AR games. Four user experiments have been conducted and one experiment is proposed to validate the taxonomy and demonstrate the differential impact of sensor noise on gameplay of different genres of AR games in different aspect of PX. This analysis is performed in the context of a novel instru- mentation technology, which allows the controlled manipulation of QoS on position and orientation sensors. The experimental outcome demonstrated how the QoS of input sensor noise impacts the PX differently while playing AR game of different genre and the key elements creating this differential impact are - the input modality, narrative and game mechanics. Later, concrete guidelines are derived to regulate the sensor QoS as complete set of instructions to develop different genres or AR games

Case of Honor of Kings

학위논문(석사) -- 서울대학교대학원 : 사범대학 체육교육과,글로벌스포츠매니지먼트전공, 2022. 8. 이충근.Electronic sports (esports) is a type of video games that is played competitively according to the rules, whether in teams or individually. Mobile esports is one type of esports which is played on mobile devices. Currently, the top mobile esports in China is Honor of Kings (HoK, known as Arena of Valor as its international version), a game in the genre known as Multiplayer Online Battle Arena (MOBA) with more than 1 million daily active players in China. Previous studies have focused on esports consumption for many years, however, study related to mobile esports consumption is limited especially in China. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to modify a motivation scale for mobile esports consumption (MSMEC) and find out the difference under the normalized COVID-19 pandemic era in China. Based on the concept of video games, this study built MSMEC which combines with the theory of use and gratification as a basic framework as well as motivation scales of video game consumption proposed by previous studies. The original scale was generated through a literature review, which included 11 factors (Entertainment, Knowledge, Control, Design/graphic, Competition, Permanence, Social Interaction, To Pass Time, Diversion, Arousal, Peer Pressure) with a total of 35 items. The revised MSMEC was administered to players who played HoK. The valid responses were 316 players who were passionate about HoK. The results show that the total 10 motives were determined in reliability, validity, and correlation analysis (Entertainment, Knowledge, Control, Design/graphic, Competition, Permanence, Social Interaction, Diversion, Arousal, Peer Pressure). And the results from regression analysis indicate that HoK is most often played for entertainment, knowledge and control reasons under the normalized pandemic era in China.일렉트로닉 스포츠 (Electronic sports, e스포츠) 는 팀이나 개인을 막론하고 규칙에 따라 경쟁적으로 진행되는 비디오 게임의 한 종류이다. 모바일 e스포츠는 모바일 기기에서 재생되는 e스포츠의 한 유형이다. 현재 중국 내 최고의 모바일 e스포츠는 Honor of Kings (HoK, 국제버전 Arena of Valor) 로, 하루 100만 명 이상의 활동 플레이어를 보유한 멀티플레이어 온라인 배틀 아레나 (MOBA) 장르의 게임이다. 이전 연구는 수년 동안 e스포츠 소비에 초점을 맞추었지만, 중국 내 모바일 e스포츠 소비와 관련된 연구는 제한적이다. 따라서, 본 연구의 목적은 모바일 e스포츠 소비 (MSMEC) 에 대한 동기 부여 척도를 수정하고 중국에서 정규화된 COVID-19 대유행 시대에 따른 차이를 알아내는 것이다. 본 연구는 이전 연구에서 비디오 게임의 개념을 기반으로 제안한 비디오 게임 소비의 동기 부여 척도뿐만 아니라 이로의 적용과 만족도를 기본 프레임워크로 결합한 MSMEC를 구축하였다. 문헌고찰을 통해 11가지 요소 (엔터테인먼트, 지식, 제어, 디자인/그래픽, 경쟁, 영구성, 사회적 상호작용, 시간 보내기, 주의를 딴 데로 돌리기, 각성, 동료 압력) 와 35가지 문항이 포함된 척도를 사용하였다. 수정된 MSMEC는 HoK 소비자들에게 배부 되었고, 유효한 응답은 316명으로 모두 HoK에 열정이 있는 소비자들이었다. 본 연구의 신뢰성, 타당성, 상관관계 분석 (엔터테인먼트, 지식, 제어, 디자인/그래픽, 경쟁, 영구성, 사회적 상호 작용, 주의를 딴 데로 돌리기, 각성, 동료 압력) 에서 10가지 동기가 결정되었으며, 회귀 분석 결과로 HoK는 중국 내 대유행 시대에 오락, 지식, 통제의 이유로 가장 자주 소비되는 것으로 나타났다.Chapter 1. Introduction 1 1.1. Background 1 1.2. Introduction of Honor of Kings 4 1.3. Purpose of Research 9 Chapter 2. Literature Review 11 2.1. Esports Research 11 2.2. Esports Genres 15 2.3. Types of Esports Players 19 2.4. Esports under the COVID-19 22 2.5. Theoretical Frameworks of Motivations 22 2.6. Motivations for Esports Participation 26 2.7. Motivations for Esports Consumption 28 Chapter 3. Research Method 32 3.1. Preliminary Phase 32 3.1.1. Item Generation 32 3.2. Quantitative Phase 35 3.2.1. Measurement 36 3.2.2. Data Collection and Procedures 36 3.2.3. Data Analysis 37 Chapter 4. Results 41 4.1. Descriptive Statistics 41 4.2. Reliability and Validity Analysis 42 4.3. Correlation Analysis 46 4.4. Regression Analysis 50 4.5. Cross-Validation of Regression Analysis Results 57 Chapter 5. Discussion 61 5.1. Discussion of Findings 61 5.2. Limitations and Future Research 67 Chapter 6. Conclusion 69 References 73 Appendix 81 국 문 초 록 88석

Aristotelian philosophy applied to interactive virtual media: on the effects of transportation on the player and the practical applications of virtual realities

Virtual reality is a new technology that blurs the line between what a person feels is real and knows is fake; putting the audience ‘inside’ a piece of art, a new ‘world’ that we can experience (like real life) in a first-person perspective. This technology has come about through the development of interactive virtual media, the product of ‘the evolution of poetry’ that Aristotle discovered and explained. Poetry is something that can hold and transfer meaning, specifically it is anything that can offer or represent the ‘what it is likeness’ of a particular concept or truth, this is what I refer to when I use the term ‘Poetry’. The concept of blurring the line between reality and fiction, gives rise to ‘the paradox of fiction’ and has been a component of art from its conception. We lose ourselves in a myth, a book, a song or a play, and we have emotions about imitations of (fictional) events (even though they are fictional), this losing oneself into poetry is what I will term ‘Transportation’. Virtual realities achieve this and can make us feel like we are inside a piece of art, by fully taking control of our perspective (our experiences), by putting the control of the art’s direction in our hands, and importantly, by captivating our full attention. What effects could this have on us as moral agents or as social beings? Aristotle began art criticism in his Poetics, pioneering the philosophy of aesthetics and preparing philosophers for their own explorations of new mediums of art. I plan on continuing this work in an Aristotelian exploration of the use of interactive virtual media and the notion of transportation. Not only will I use the lessons learnt from Aristotle’s work in Poetics, but will also consider an Aristotelian Eudemian framework when looking at the moral concerns of such an advanced form of poetry and the inherent ramifications of the ‘habituation’ that comes with its repetitive use. Such media is often seen as an unproductive and even sometimes damaging pastime, I will argue that not only does all poetry teach us in many ways, but interactive virtual media has the potential to teach us the ‘what it is likeness’ of particular experiences. It allows us to practice and attain ‘know how’ types of knowledge, this will be crucial to my Aristotelian philosophical exploration, and the revelations about the possible dispositional attitudes that could be gained from said practice in virtual environments. I will back this up with a comprehensive explanation of recent revelations in cognitive science, proving evidence for the habituation mechanism and the importance of our implicit memory in our judgement making processes. I will conclude that interactive virtual media provides the perfect medium for transportation, which results in the accumulation of new implicit memories in the player (habituation), and said environments will be able to be utilised for a variety of applications, one possibly being the practice of virtuous activity (Eudemian ethics)

Drive-Based Utility-Maximizing Computer Game Non-Player Characters

This research examines the emergence of the five-string fiddle in contemporary North American fiddle culture within the past ten years. By interacting with leading artistlevel practitioners, the research documents the evolution and impact of the instrument to date in exploring the possibilities the five-string fiddle presents for musical performance and innovation. North American vernacular music and, in particular, the contemporary fiddle playing landscape, exemplifies virtousic and innovative idiomatic technique and improvisation as central to an overarching musical explosion, evidenced in the music of many high level, multi-stylistic contemporary practitioners. Within contemporary American fiddle performance, it is compelling to observe how many of the most innovative and highly regarded players now perform on five-string fiddles. The research uses a qualitative research methodology, drawing on interviews conducted with seven leading American fiddle players, each of whom has adopted the five-string fiddle in their own musical practice. The participants represent a rich cross section of American fiddle culture. They emerged naturally during the course of the literature review, and in-depth listening research, as particularly relevant sample cases. All participants were identified as leading exponents of the diversities encompassed in American fiddle music, between them sharing extensive professional recording, performance and academic experience, and all playing on five-string instruments. The research is further illuminated through practice, reflecting on my own musical work in illustrating how I have personally adopted the five-string fiddle, drawing influence from the research in demonstrating some wider possibilities of the instrument. This enquiry is important as it addresses the lack of specific research to date regarding the five-string fiddle, despite the significanance it holds for some of American fiddle music\u27s leading exponents, and consequently, for fiddle music itself. Equally significant, is the role of the instrument in facilitating the performance of innovative extended instrumental techniques, in particular, the five-string fiddles association with the rhythmic/percussive \u27chop\u27 bow techniques, now, so conspicuous within contemporary groove-based American string music. ix The findings of this research established the definitive emergence of the five-string fiddle, and subscribe that the five-string has now become a widely accepted part of the mainstream instrumentation in American music. This understanding emerges clearly through the words and practice of the participants. From this perspective, the research identifies the musical reasons that inspire the instruments popularity and elaborates through practice, the musical possibilities it presents to others. behaviour selection systems that have been used successfully in industry. The evaluations show that UDGOAP can outperform these systems in both environments. Another novel contribution of this thesis is smart ambiance. Smart ambiance is an area of space in a virtual world that holds information about the context of that space and uses this information to have non-player characters inside the space select more contextually appropriate actions. Information about the context comes from events that took place inside the smart ambiance, objects inside the smart ambiance, and the location of the smart ambiance. Smart ambiance can be used with any cost based planner. This thesis demonstrates dierent aspects of smart ambiance by causing an industry standard action planner to select more contextually appropriate behaviours than it otherwise would have without the smart ambiance

Generalizing Agent Plans and Behaviors with Automated Staged Observation in The Real-Time Strategy Game Starcraft

In this thesis we investigate the processes involved in learning to play a game. It was inspired by two observations about how human players learn to play. First, learning the domain is intertwined with goal pursuit. Second, games are designed to ramp up in complexity, walking players through a gradual cycle of acquiring, refining, and generalizing knowledge about the domain. This approach does not rely on traces of expert play. We created an integrated planning, learning and execution system that uses StarCraft as its domain. The planning module creates command/event groupings based on the data received. Observations of unit behavior are collected during execution and returned to the learning module which tests the generalization hypothesizes. The planner uses those test results to generate events that will pursue the goal and facilitate learning the domain. We demonstrate that this approach can efficiently learn the subtle traits of commands through multiple scenarios

Investigating Avatar Customization as a Motivational Design Strategy for Improving Engagement with Technology-Enabled Services for Health

Technology-enabled services for physical and mental health are a promising approach to improve healthcare globally. Unfortunately, the largest barrier for effective technology-based treatment is participants' gradually fading engagement with effective novel training applications, such as exercise apps or online mental health training programs. Engaging users through design presents an elegant solution to the problem; however, research on technology-enabled services is primarily focused on the efficacy of novel interventions and not on improving adherence through engaging interaction design. As a result, motivational design strategies to improve engagement---both in the moment of use and over time---are underutilized. Drawing from game-design, I investigate avatar customization as a game-based motivational design strategy in four studies. In Study 1, I examine the effect of avatar customization on experience and behaviour in an infinite runner game. In Study 2, I induce different levels of motivation to research the effects of financial rewards on self-reported motivation and performance in a gamified training task over 11 days. In Study 3, I apply avatar customization to investigate the effects of attrition in an intervention context using a breathing exercise over three weeks. In Study 4, I investigate the immediate effects of avatar customization on the efficacy of an anxiety reducing attentional retraining task. My results show that avatar customization increases motivation over time and in the moment of use, suggesting that avatar customization is a viable strategy to address the engagement barrier that thwarts the efficacy of technology-enabled services for health