The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. The study of playability through the case of Slavic lore for immersion in English and Spanish editions of the game

The video games industry is, undoubtedly, one of the most profitable industries. Each year, video game companies release hundreds of different titles, participating in the race for critical acclaim and fans' recognition. Video games are subject to a complex localisation process, allowing international players to fully benefit from their entertainment value, regardless of the language they speak. Building on the concept of playability as the crucial measure of localisation quality, this thesis investigates how localisation affects playability, its key factors and their implication on playability itself. This research focuses on role-playing games (RPG) in which the narrative relies significantly on a given (authentic or fictional) (langua)culture. In this investigation, a handful of scenes from the Polish game The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt were selected to compare how the Slavic elements interplay in different languages. A selection of scenes was analysed in the Polish, English, and Spanish versions. Following the Grounded Theory Method, the scenes were analysed with the application of the theory containing concepts such as othering, self othering, going native, and languaculture. The theory was then compared with the players' experience of the game, displayed on international fora such as Reddit.com or the CD PROJEKT RED forum. The results presented in this thesis show that the gamers' cultural immersion can be compared to the three steps of scientific fieldwork proposed by Malinowski and that it is achieved not only by the mentioned concepts but also by cultural connotations. Moreover, the study suggests that playability depends on gamers' participation and gamers' engagement. It also indicates that the informative and operative text types are used to create functional information; meanwhile, the expressive text category is being used to build the ambience of the game. The multidisciplinary approach and the results can be crucial in improving players' experience in localised games

Attributes of narrative game aesthetics for perceived cultural learning

Previous researches are mostly concerned on non-holistic game aesthetics for learning in various interactive media platforms. There is lack of studies on attributes of narrative games aesthetics which may contribute to perceived cultural learning. Therefore, this study aims to propose a conceptual model of narrative game aesthetics for perceived cultural learning. Three specific objectives were formulated: (i) to determine game aesthetics that contribute to perceived cultural learning in narrative games, (ii) to develop a narrative game based on the determined game aesthetics, and (iii) to produce empirical evidence on the contribution of game aesthetics towards perceived cultural learning. The research methodology comprises of three main phases: conceptual model development, prototype development, and user evaluation. For the first phase, the conceptual model was developed based on previous literature and reviewed by six experts. In the second phase, prototype development was then developed according to the conceptual model. Finally, user evaluation was employed using quasi experiment which involved 43 participants. Data analysis is conducted using descriptive analysis, correlation analysis, and observation. Findings indicate that six out of 10 attributes namely image and graphic; layout; shape and form; texture; voice; and music, are significantly correlated to perceived cultural learning. The observation results also indicate that these attributes can amplify game experience for perceived cultural learning. In a nutshell, this study has identified attributes of narrative game aesthetics for perceived cultural learning. It further provides empirical evidence on contributions of these attributes of narrative game aesthetics to perceived cultural learning. The outcome of this study will provide guidelines for narrative game designers and developers whom interested to inculcate cultural learning in their game

Is Death Only the Beginning? How People Mourn Artificial Characters in Social Media

We analyze the audience response to the death of narrative-driven fictitious characters with predetermined fates, whether part of a virtual or cinematic story, and specifically from video games and TV series. Our aim is to contribute to the studies of identification and empathy with fictitious characters in media, as well as to close the research gap around these studies by specifically focusing on the death of the characters. We collected 3000 online comments on the deaths of 16 characters from video games and TV series. We coded each comment according to the five stages of grief by Kübler-Ross and Kessler and performed quantitative (using LIWC2015 psycholinguistic analysis software) and qualitative analysis (using thematic analysis). Overall, we found a strong resemblance between the processes of grief for real and fictitious characters and uncovered differences of language when discussing the death of a character based on (a) their gender; (b) their role in the story; (c) their interactivity mode; and (d) the form of media. Finally, qualitative analysis revealed unique and novel themes for on-screen deaths, such as (a) the effects of aural cues; (b) nostalgia and beauty; (c) resurrection and transmedia; (d) spoilers; (e) comparisons and real-life connotations; (f) the effects on the franchise; and (g) the effects of the gender of the viewer on these discussions. We discuss our findings in detail, along with implications for future character development.©2023 Sage Publications.fi=vertaisarvioitu|en=peerReviewed

A Digital Game Maturity Model

Game development is an interdisciplinary concept that embraces artistic, software engineering, management, and business disciplines. Game development is considered as one of the most complex tasks in software engineering. Hence, for successful development of good-quality games, the game developers must consider and explore all related dimensions as well as discussing them with the stakeholders involved. This research facilitates a better understanding of important dimensions of digital game development methodology. The increased popularity of digital games, the challenges faced by game development organizations in developing quality games, and severe competition in the digital game industry demand a game development process maturity assessment. Consequently, this study presents a Digital Game Maturity Model to evaluate the current development methodology in an organization. The objective is first to identify key factors in the game development process, then to classify these factors into target groups, and eventually to use this grouping as a theoretical basis for proposing a maturity model for digital game development. In doing so, the research focuses on three major stakeholders in game development: developers, consumers, and business management. The framework of the proposed model consists of assessment questionnaires made up of key identified factors from three empirical studies, a performance scale, and a rating method. The main goal of the questionnaires is to collect information about current processes and practices. This research contributes towards formulating a comprehensive and unified strategy for game development process maturity assessment. The proposed model was evaluated with two case studies from the digital game industry

The Localisation of Video Games

The present thesis is a study of the translation of video games with a particular emphasis on the Spanish-English language pair, although other languages are brought into play when they offer a clearer illustration of a particular point in the discussion. On the one hand, it offers a descriptive analysis of the video game industry understood as a global phenomenon in entertainment, with the aim of understanding the norms governing present game development and publishing practices. On the other hand, it discusses particular translation issues that seem to be unique to these entertainment products due to their multichannel and polysemiotic nature, in which verbal and nonverbal signs are intimately interconnected in search of maximum game interactivity. Although this research positions itself within the theoretical framework of Descriptive Translation Studies, it actually goes beyond the mere accounting of current processes to propose changes whenever professional practice seems to be unable to rid itself of old unsatisfactory habits. Of a multidisciplinary nature, the present thesis is greatly informed by various areas of knowledge such as audiovisual translation, software localisation, computer assisted translation and translation memory tools, comparative literature, and video game production and marketing, amongst others. The conclusions are an initial breakthrough in terms of research into this new area, challenging some of the basic tenets current in translation studies thanks to its multidisciplinary approach, and its solid grounding on current game localisation industry practice. The results can be useful in order to boost professional quality and to promote the training of translators in video game localisation in higher education centres.Open Acces

VideoTag: Encouraging the Effective Tagging of Internet Videos Through Tagging Games

A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the University of Wolverhampton for the degree of Doctor of PhilosophyAbstract The tags and descriptions entered by video owners in video sharing sites are typically inadequate for retrieval purposes, yet the majority of video search still uses this text. This problem is escalating due to the ease with which users can self-publish videos, generating masses that are poorly labelled and poorly described. This thesis investigates how users tag videos and whether video tagging games can solve this problem by generating useful sets of tags. A preliminary study investigated tags in two social video sharing sites, YouTube and Viddler. YouTube contained many irrelevant tags because the system does not encourage users to tag their videos and does not promote tags as useful. In contrast, using tags as the sole means of categorisation in Viddler motivated users to enter a higher proportion of relevant tags. Poor tags were found in both systems, however, highlighting the need to improve video tagging. In order to give users incentives to tag videos, the VideoTag project in this thesis developed two tagging games, Golden Tag and Top Tag, and one non-game tagging system, Simply Tag, and conducted two experiments with them. In the first experiment VideoTag was a portal to play video tagging games whereas in the second experiment it was a portal to curate collections of special interest videos. Users preferred to tag videos using games, generating tags that were relevant to the videos and that covered a range of tag types that were descriptive of the video content at a predominately specific, objective level. Users were motivated by interest in the content rather than by game elements, and content had an effect on the tag types used. In each experiment, users predominately tagged videos using objective language, with a tendency to use specific rather than basic tags. There was a significant difference between the types of tags entered in the games and in Simply Tag, with more basic, objective vocabulary entered into the games and more specific, objective language entered into the non-game system. Subjective tags were rare but were more frequent in Simply Tag. Gameplay also had an influence on the types of tags entered; Top Tag generated more basic tags and Golden Tag generated more specific and subjective tags. Users were not attracted to use VideoTag by the games alone. Game mechanics had little impact on motivations to use the system. VideoTag used YouTube videos, but could not upload the tags to YouTube and so users could see no benefit for the tags they entered, reducing participation. Specific interest content was more of a motivator for use than games or tagging and that this warrants further research. In the current game-saturated climate, gamification of a video tagging system may therefore be most successful for collections of videos that already have a committed user base.University of Wolverhampto

A framework for analyzing playability requirements based on game reviews

Requirements Engineering is an important phase in software development. Game development also requires Requirement Engineering, due to the frequently changes of requirements during the process of the game development [Kasurinen et al., 2014]. However, only a few studies have linked the game development and Requirements Engineering together. Research in related fields is inadequate and needs to be studied in depth Playability is a crucial concept for the game study. For a player, playability is highly related to the player experience, especially the experience of enjoyment. For a video game, the quality of game components affects the degree of playability. Playability is often used for evaluating the video game, but studies focus on playability are insufficient [Korhonen, 2016, p21]. Moreover, few researchers study playability from the perspective of Requirement Engineering. This thesis supposes playability as a kind of non-functional requirements that is important for the game development. The aim of the thesis is to help game designers or testers understand and analyse playability requirements systematically. The thesis work includes two parts, literature review and data analysis. Literature referred to playability, game components and game enjoyment was mainly studied. Based on the literature review, 41 game reviews from GameSpot were collected and analysed by grounded theory. As a result, Playability Framework was developed for understanding and analyzing playability requirements. There are three categories of playability, including Gameplay, Representation and Story. This thesis focuses on Gameplay, since most of data belongs to Gameplay. Furthermore, four elements of Gameplay were concluded, including Goals, Gameworld, Avatar and Player. Through analysing the relationships between the four elements, Gameplay are categorized into three groups, Achievements of goals, Game interaction and Game control. In addition, five attributes that highly affect the quality of gameplay were found during the data analysis, they are Variety, Meaningfulness, Fairness, Pace and Intuitiveness. Based on the framework, the steps of analysing player requirements and the form of playability requirements were also proposed. The result of the thesis can help game designers and testers transfer playability issues into playability requirements, so that the issues can be analyzed and tracked systematically

Heuristics for evaluating video games: A two-tier set incorporating universal and genre-specific elements

The continued significance of video games in contemporary society has led to the production of many heuristic sets by which the playability of games can be evaluated. These sets encompass a wide range of aims and theoretical perspectives, furthermore, they have been developed via a number of distinct methods. This thesis is the result of a two-stage investigation, the first of which was to identify and extract any heuristics that could be considered as having universal relevance, irrespective of the method or theoretical position by which they were developed. The second stage of the investigation complemented this universal list with genre-specific elements, providing a model by which further information can be added in the future. Comparative analysis was used to extract common principles from a selected body of work, resulting in a list of 19 heuristics. In addition, open and axial coding was applied to data sourced from online game reviews, extracting information relating to the Real-Time Strategy genre. This information was then converted into 25 RTS-specific heuristics and integrated with the set developed in the first stage. The results of this study, therefore, clearly demonstrate the existence of a core set of universal heuristics, and the value of incorporating genre-specific information. The finalised set was presented in the form of a deck of cards, with each face representing information according to two different levels of abstraction, thereby increasing accessibility and facilitating use in different contexts. These cards have been made available in a print-ready format and are included as an appendix