Making data playable: A game co-creation method to promote creative data literacy

This article explores how making data playable, i.e. developing exploratory co-creation techniques that use elements of play and games to interpret small to mid-sized datasets beyond the current focus on visual evidence, can help a) promote creative data literacy in higher education, and b) expand existing definitions of data literacy. The article briefly investigates playful characteristics in existing data practices, and discusses how this perspective compares to existing frameworks that define data literacy. In a second step, we present a Discursive Game Design technique to promote creative data literacy. The article reports on findings from a sample workshop, during which students explored how modifying small, hybrid games based on real-world datasets can alter players’ interpretation of the data, but also their perception of how the games operate as epistemic objects within data analysis. Finally, we formulate recommendations on how to adapt the technique to different educational settings

New Consumers of the Digital Age: Game Players

The game market has become one of the fastest growing industries of the digital age. The availability of internet access from anywhere, the diversification of game platforms, the increase in game options and the increase in application stores especially for mobile devices have accelerated this growth in the sector.  The purpose of this study was to determine who the new consumers in the developing game industry are, their various demographics, characteristics and purchasing behaviors. Data which were collected by the survey method from 490 game players who participated in Gamescom, the world's largest game fair held in Cologne, Germany between 20-24 August 2019, were analyzed by descriptive statistics, t-test and one-way anova. As a result of the findings, it has been determined that majority of the participants were female, young adults and students. Almost half of the participants have more than 12 years of gaming experience, play games for an average of 3.76 hours a day and an average of 5.16 days per week, prefer to play at home and on their personal computers the most, majority were core gamers, and the favorite game category was action.

L337 Soccer Moms: Conceptions of Hardcore and Casual in the Digital Games Medium

As digital games have become increasingly significant in the entertainment media landscape, the terms “casual” and “hardcore” have become the primary ways to describe gaming audiences, genres, and gameplay. However, these terms are saturated with outdated stereotypes involving gender, age, and class. Focusing on industrial discourse, this thesis examines this dichotomy, emphasizing areas of discontinuity and overlap to question why these terms have become so ubiquitous in gaming discourse and what functions they fulfill for a variety of groups including the industry, advertisers, and audience members. Ultimately, I suggest that these terms need to be replaced in order to move beyond restrictive stereotypes, proposing a new framework for digital games that takes into consideration user motivation, personal investment, and historical specificity

The Effectiveness of Cooperative Learning Teams Using the BcubeTM Process

Problem. Cooperative learning is attempted by placing students in group learning situations in which they receive assignments without a structured group or team-formation process. This study evaluated the effectiveness of the BcubeTM process with college students as a method of bringing together individuals of varied backgrounds to form cooperative- learning teams. In addition, the affect of the BcubeTM process on a particular learning outcome was also examined. Method. Sixty-three Andrews University students (undergraduate and graduate) were divided into treatment and control groups. After a pretest was administered, the treatment group was given the BcubeTM process which is a method o f team formation that can be used to support cooperative learning strategies. Then all groups were given a learning task followed by a posttest. The Group Styles Inventory and the Group Development Questionnaire collected information from the 11 groups. Three-way analysis o f covariance, three-way analysis o f variance, t tests, Mann- Whitney, and Kruskal-Wallace tests were used to analyze the influence of the BcubeTM process along with gender and ethnicity on the five treatment groups. Results. The control group scored higher than the treatment group on the post test of the learning module. The treatment group perceived themselves more effective than the control group. The treatment group used a higher level of constructive group styles than the control group. The treatment group was observed displaying more traits of an effective group. Conclusions. The control group used a centralized communication pattern to outperform the treatment group on the learning module. This supports previous research findings that simple task completion uses individual or centralized communication patterns whereas complex tasks lend themselves to a decentralized pattern. The treatment group perceived that their group worked together effectively to generate better solutions than they could individually, solutions that they could “buy into.” This suggests that the BcubeTM preparation favorably impacted the treatment group’s self-perception. The treatment group’s perceived higher level use o f constructive group styles suggests that the BcubeTM emphasis on practicing cooperative strategies to accomplish taskwork had a significant affect. The observers’ ratings and qualitative data concurred that the BcubeTM process is an effective classroom cooperative preparation strategy

Nerf This: Copyright Highly Creative Video Game Streams as Sports Broadcasts

Since the 1980s, video games have grown exponentially as an entertainment medium. Once relegated to the niche subcultures of nerds, video games are now decidedly mainstream, drawing over 200 million American consumers yearly. As a result, the industry has stepped up its game. No longer simply a diversion to be enjoyed individually, Americans are increasingly watching others play video games like they might watch television. This practice, where enthusiastic gamers broadcast their video game session online to crowds of viewers, is called “live streaming.” While streaming has become lucrative and popular, American copyright law currently nerfs this nascent industry. Streams are considered unauthorized derivative works, mere adaptations of whichever video game the streamer plays. Therefore, little copyright protection is typically extended to video game streams. As a result, game developers can wield take-down notices with impunity, erasing a streamer’s online content and, with it, their income. However, a potential remedy lies in finding streamers the independent authors of their original online videos, affording them full copyright protection. No court has directly addressed the novel, twenty-first-century issue of copyrighting video game streams, meaning the possibility hangs in a grey area of insufficient legal precedent. For example, the last time the courts considered authorship in video game performance, the games in question were simple, two-dimensional arcade games. Today, many modern, competitive video games have little in common with those simplistic games, featuring infinite play combinations or algorithm-generated worlds that are virtually limitless. As such, the legal analysis of authorship and originality in those 1980s cases would be entirely inapplicable to today’s video game technology. Additionally, while the courts have held video game player performances to be uncopyrightable (based upon those 1980s arcade games), the courts have not looked at video game streams from a modern, twenty-first-century perspective: as broadcasts. Broadcasts are copyrightable audiovisual works that contain player performances, made protectable by originality in the camera work. Initially only discussed in the context of traditional sports broadcasts, there are compelling arguments that video game streams resemble sports broadcasts more than arcade performances in the eyes of copyright law. Viewed from such a lens, streamers could be considered as making their own sports broadcast, dictating what their viewers see—effectively becoming the cameramen for their own “sports” player performances. This Note proposes that video game streams are copyrightable audiovisual works and, as full-fledged original works of authorship, should be afforded protection under the Copyright Act of 1976. Part I of this Note will review the current state of the streaming industry and esports, as well as the case law most applicable to video game copyright disputes. Part II will argue in favor of the copyrightability of streams as audiovisual works, or, more specifically, as original broadcasts containing copyrightable player performances. Finally, Part III will address potential counterarguments such as that Midway Manufacturing Co. v. Artic International, Inc. bars stream copyright, or that streams are classified as merely derivative works or public performances of preexisting video games

Meta-Analysis For Comparing Effect Between Game-Based Learning Versus Gamification Utilized In Nutrition Education

The prevalence of obesity tripled from 1975 to 2016 and was declared as a global epidemic by the World Health Organization (WHO) in 1997 (Haththotuwa et al., 2020; Controlling the global obesity epidemic, 2022). Nutrition education that involves knowledge and behavioral change is one major component addressing the problem ( Controlling the global obesity epidemic, 2022). Therefore, the effectiveness of each learning session is essential (Sharifirad et al., 2013). Thus, many nutrition educators have used gamified nutrition education to improve teaching effectiveness to increase healthy behavior or knowledge (Chow et al., 2020.; Munguba et al., 2008; Azevedo et al., 2019). Two approaches were often used for gamified learning: gamification and GBL (GBL; Browne et al., 2014; Johnson et al., 2016; Chow et al., 2020). Gamification applies a game mechanism to non-game content, while GBL or serious gaming involves a game that was built to achieve educational goals (De Freitas, 2006; Johnson et al., 2016). Despite many positive outcomes promoted by gamified education as a whole (Chow et al., 2020; Hamari et al., 2014), there is disagreement among researchers and professionals regarding how games affect education. This study aims to identify and analyze research literature on the effects of active game, gamification and GBL applied to nutrition knowledge and behavior. The researcher performed a network meta-analysis with three sub-constructs. First, searching journal articles that addressed nutrition education implied an intervention consolidated educational strategies into food choice knowledge, fruit and vegetable consumption, and physical activity to a non-medical background population. Then, the studies were compared on the average effect of treatment indirectly through the control group. Results indicated there were plenty of studies that investigated the effect of gamification or GBL to nutrition education. Out of three focused outcomes: food choice knowledge, fruit and vegetable consumption, and physical activity, only studies focusing on physical activity were able to produce measurable differences by comparing hours per week spent performing physical activity. Comparison of the treatment result showed that gamification had the greatest improvement in facilitating physical activity, but it was non-significant. This suggests that utilizing gamification across the globe would be the more successful intervention strategy, but would require improved heterogeneity of measurements for food knowledge and fruit and vegetable consumption in order to achieve consistent measurable results for comparison