Putting the "Fun Factor" Into Gaming: The Influence of Social Contexts on Experiences of Playing Videogames

The increasingly social nature of gaming suggests the importance of understanding its associated experiences and potential outcomes. This study examined the influence of social processes in gameplay and different gaming contexts on the experience of individual and group flow when engaged in the activity. It also examined the affective experiences associated with different types of social gaming. The research consisted of a series of focus groups with regular gamers. The results of the thematic analysis revealed the importance of social belonging, opportunities for social networking and the promotion of social integration for game enjoyment. However, social experiences could also facilitate feelings of frustration in gameplay as a result of poor social dynamics and competitiveness. The analysis furthermore suggested that group flow occurs in social gaming contexts, particularly in cooperative gameplay. A number of antecedents of this shared experience were identified (e.g., collective competence, collaboration, task-relevant skills). Taken together, the findings suggest social gaming contexts enhance the emotional experiences of gaming. The study demonstrates the importance of examining social gaming processes and experiences to further understand their potential influence on associated affective outcomes. Areas of further empirical research are discussed in reference to the study’s findings

Supporting Worth Mapping with Sentence Completion

Expectations for design and evaluation approaches are set by the development practices within which they are used. Worth Centred Development (WCD) seeks to both shape and fit such practices. We report a study that combined two WCD approaches. Sentence completion gathered credible quantitative data on user values, which were used to identify relevant values and aversions of two player groups for an online gambling site. These values provided human value elements for a complementary WCD approach of worth mapping. Initial worth maps were extended in three workshops, which focused on outcomes and user experiences that could be better addressed in the current product and associated marketing materials. We describe how worth maps were prepared for, and presented in, workshops, and how product owners and associated business roles evaluated the combination of WCD approaches. Based on our experiences, we offer practical advice on this combinination

The role of structural characteristics in video-game play motivation: a Q-methodology study

Until recently, there has been very little naturalistic study of what gaming experiences are like, and how gaming fits into people’s lives. Using a recently developed structural characteristic taxonomy of video games, this study examined the psycho-structural elements of computer games that motivate gamers to play them. Using Q-Sort methodology, 40 gamers participated in an online Q-sort task. Results identified six distinct types of gamers based on the factors generated: (a) story-driven solo gamers; (b) social gamers; (c) solo limited gamers; (d) hardcore online gamers; (e) solo control=identity gamers; and (f ) casual gamers. These gaming types are discussed, and a brief evaluation of similar and unique elements of the different types of gamer is also offered. The current study shows Q-methodology to be a relevant and applicable method in the psychological research of gaming

Games and the art of agency

Games may seem like a waste of time, where we struggle under artificial rules for arbitrary goals. The author suggests that the rules and goals of games are not arbitrary at all. They are a way of specifying particular modes of agency. This is what make games a distinctive art form. Game designers designate goals and abilities for the player; they shape the agential skeleton which the player will inhabit during the game. Game designers work in the medium of agency. Game-playing, then, illuminates a distinctive human capacity. We can take on ends temporarily for the sake of the experience of pursuing them. Game play shows that our agency is significantly more modular and more fluid than we might have thought. It also demonstrates our capacity to take on an inverted motivational structure. Sometimes we can take on an end for the sake of the activity of pursuing that end

Psychologically-Based and Content-Oriented Experience in Entertainment Virtual Environments

In daily life, rich experiences evolve in every environmental and social interaction. Because experience has a strong impact on how people behave, scholars in different fields are interested in understanding what constitutes an experience. Yet even if interest in conscious experience is on the increase, there is no consensus on how such experience should be studied. Whatever approach is taken, the subjective and psychologically multidimensional nature of experience should be respected. This study endeavours to understand and evaluate conscious experiences. First I intro-duce a theoretical approach to psychologically-based and content-oriented experience. In the experiential cycle presented here, classical psychology and orienting-environmental content are connected. This generic approach is applicable to any human-environment interaction. Here I apply the approach to entertainment virtual environments (VEs) such as digital games and develop a framework with the potential for studying experiences in VEs. The development of the methodological framework included subjective and objective data from experiences in the Cave Automatic Virtual Environment (CAVE) and with numerous digital games (N=2,414). The final framework consisted of fifteen factor-analytically formed subcomponents of the sense of presence, involvement and flow. Together, these show the multidimensional experiential profile of VEs. The results present general experiential laws of VEs and show that the interface of a VE is related to (physical) presence, which psychologically means attention, perception and the cognitively evaluated realness and spatiality of the VE. The narrative of the VE elicits (social) presence and involvement and affects emotional outcomes. Psychologically, these outcomes are related to social cognition, motivation and emotion. The mechanics of a VE affect the cognitive evaluations and emotional outcomes related to flow. In addition, at the very least, user background, prior experience and use context affect the experiential variation. VEs are part of many peoples lives and many different outcomes are related to them, such as enjoyment, learning and addiction, depending on who is making the evalua-tion. This makes VEs societally important and psychologically fruitful to study. The approach and framework presented here contribute to our understanding of experiences in general and VEs in particular. The research can provide VE developers with a state-of-the art method (www.eveqgp.fi) that can be utilized whenever new product and service concepts are designed, prototyped and tested.Antoisat kokemukset syntyvät toimiessamme vuorovaikutustilanteissa sekä ympäris-tön että muiden ihmisten kanssa. Näin syntyneet kokemukset vaikuttavat käyttäytymi-seemme ja tuleviin toimiimme. Tutkijoita on alkanut kiinnostaa, miten paremmin ym-märtää kokemuksen rakentumista ympäristön vuorovaikutustilanteissa. Vaikka kiinnostus kokemuksellisuuden ymmärtämiseksi on kasvanut, vielä ei ole yksimielisyyttä siitä, miten kokemusta tulisi tutkia. Olipa lähestymistapa mikä tahansa, tulisi aina kunnioittaa kokemuksen subjektiivista ja psykologisesti moniulotteista luonnetta. Tämä tutkimus edesauttaa tietoisen kokemuksen ymmärtämistä ja arvioimista. Ensin esitellään teoreettinen lähestymistapa psykologiseen ja sisällöllisesti suuntautuneeseen kokemukseen, jossa mieli yhdistyy ympäristön sisältöjen kanssa kokemuskehässä. Lä-hestymistapa on melko yleinen ja sitä voidaan soveltaa moniin eri ihmisen ja ympäris-tön vuorovaikutustilanteisiin. Tässä tutkimuksessa lähestymistapaa sovellettiin viihteellisiin virtuaalisiin ympäristöihin (VY), kuten digitaalisiin peleihin, joiden aikaansaamien kokemusten arvioimiseen kehitettiin tutkimusviitekehys. Tutkimusviitekehyksen kehittämiseksi kerättiin sekä subjektiivista että objektiivista aineistoa CAVE:sta ja lukuisista digitaalisista peleistä (N=2414). Lopullinen versio sisälsi viisitoista faktorianalyysillä muodostettua alakomponenttia, joilla mitattiin läsnäolon tunnetta (presence), osallistumista (involvement) ja flow ta. Yhdessä nämä muodostivat moniulotteisen kokemusprofiilin VY:stä. Tulokset osoittivat yleisiä VY:n kokemiseen liittyviä lainalaisuuksia. Käyttöliittymä vaikuttaa (fyysiseen) läsnäolontunteeseen, joka psykologisesti tarkoittaa huomiokykyä, havainnoimista ja kognitiivista arviota VY:n aitoudesta ja spatiaalisuudesta. Tarinallisuus saa aikaan (sosiaalista) läsnäoloa ja osallistumista sekä vaikuttaa tunteisiin. Psykologisesti nämä liittyvät sosiaaliseen kognitioon, motivaatioon ja emootioihin. Mekaniikka vaikuttaa kognitiiviseen arviointiin ja emootioihin, jotka liittyvät flow n kokemiseen. Myös taustamuuttujat, kuten sukupuoli ja aikaisempi kokemus sekä käyttökonteksti vaikuttavat kokemukseen. VY:t ovat iso osa monien ihmisten arkea ja niihin liitetään monenlaisia uskomuksia ja seuraamuksia. Arvioijan tausta ja motiivit vaikuttavat siihen, liitetäänkö VY:öön nautinto, oppiminen vai riippuvuus. Tämän takia VY:n tieteellinen tutkimus on yhteiskunnallisesti tärkeää ja psykologisesti hedelmällistä. Esitetty lähestymistapa ja viitekehys auttavat ymmärtämään kokemuksia yleisesti ja erityisesti VY:ssä. VY:n kehittäjille tutkimus tarjoaa viimeisintä tietämystä edustavan viitekehyksen (www.eveqgp.fi), jota voidaan hyödyntää kun uusia tuote- ja palvelukonsepteja suunnitellaan ja testataan

Tourists as Mobile Gamers: Gamification for Tourism Marketing

Gaming as a cutting-edge concept has recently been used by some innovative tourism sectors as a marketing tool and as a method of deeper engagement with visitors. This research aims to explore the gamification trend and its potential for experience development and tourism marketing. Using a focus group, this paper discusses gaming and tourism, and explores what drives tourists to play games. The results suggest tourists’ game playing motivation is multidimensional. Players tend to start with purposive information seeking, then move on to an intrinsic stimulation. Socialization is also an important dimension. The research demonstrates several implications for tourism marketing

What kind of video gamer are you?

Producción CientíficaPurpose.- This paper attempts to understand the extent to which the effect of motivations on purchase intention varies for diverse segments of video gamers (depending on their personality). Design/Methodology.- Information was collected from 511 Spanish video game consumers. Structural equation modeling, clustering, and multi-group analysis were then conducted to compare results between segments of gamers. Findings.- Results show that hedonic, social and mainly addiction motivations lead to purchase intention of game-related products. Moreover, we identify a typology of gamer that gives rise to differences in motivations-purchase intention links: (1) Analysts include individuals who are essentially conscientious, prefer inventive or cognitive and simulation games and whose behavior is more influenced by hedonic and social motivations to play; (2) Socializers comprise individuals who are mainly extrovert and emotionally stable gamers and who prefer sports and strategy games. The motivations to play that affect their purchase intentions are mainly social; and (3) Sentinels include individuals that are unmindful and introvert, prefer inventive, cognitive, sports and simulation games, and whose social motivations drive their purchase intentions. Originality.- There are 2,200 million video gamers around the world, although it is assumed that this vast market is not homogeneous, which has implications for consumer motivations and purchase intention. However, the currently available classifications that address this challenge are rather limited. In this sense, the present paper provides valuable insights into understanding how personality offers a useful variable to segment consumers in the video game industry and how it moderates the effect of motivations on purchase behavior.Ministerio de Economía y Competetitividad (proyecto ECO2017-82107-R)Junta de Castilla y León (proyecto VA112P17

An Empirical Study Of Flow Experiences In Social Network Sites

Social network sites (SNS) have simplified and amplified social interaction between online users. The unique hedonic-oriented features provide experiential motives for SNS users. Although SNS is growing popularity, a number of questions remain to be addressed concerning the usage of SNS: What are experiential motives for SNS users? What is the relationship between flow experiences and behavioural intentions within the SNS context? Given the novelty of SNS phenomenon and its unexplored potential in many fields, this study develops a conceptual model derived from reference studies on online services and social psychology. The present study proposes four flow experiences of SNS users such as perceived enjoyment, concentration, escape and social interaction to represent the multidimensional aspect of flow instead of a single dimension. To investigate the research model, this study apply structural equation mode(SEM) analysis with 342 valid replies. As a result, this empirical study indicated that perceived enjoyment was the most important flow experience with SNS, followed by escape and social interaction. Concentration was not a significant predictor of behavioral intentions toward SNS

Self-awareness Group Counseling Model for Prospective Counselors

AbstractThe self-awareness group counseling model is aimed to promote intrapersonal and interpersonal awareness of counseling students. Since self-awareness is thought to be one of the most influential factors in affecting a counselor's profession, activities that promote personal-understanding needs to be a central component in counseling programs. This paper provides a rationale for the need of self-awareness group counseling, as well as the formal education of counseling skills, in national counselor-education programs. The model employs these scopes for the basic self-awareness group model; (1) the scope of self-awareness, (2) self and other perceptions, (3) the discovery of thoughts, emotions and behaviors, (4) the understanding of communication patterns, (5) the ability to give and receive feedback, (6) self evaluations and (7) experiential learning of counseling skills and processes. Each session of the group counseling is structured by psychodramatic activities. Based on the pilot experience, a discussion is made on the perceived effectiveness of the model. Preliminary findings indicate that the counseling students benefit from the group experience in terms of self-understanding