The Role of Videogame Glitch in Adult Learning

This research investigates the responses of three individuals engaging with the Super Mario World (SMW) platform videogame glitches, and how they learned to solve the problem without formal help. This investigation was chosen because it explores connections between media literacy, critical thinking, and play in adults in the context of responding to unexpected technological errors. At the core of this study is the question of how encounters with arbitrary glitches can motivate and elicit critical thinking. Following a case study model, data were collected as the three subjects played SMW and encountered glitches. Questions regarding the (glitchy) game play experience were addressed in the first interview immediately following. The subjects were asked to create a visual essay and keep personal journals, which were gathered after 30 days, and a second interview at that time focused on the overall experience. Several results emerged from the data. Each of the subjects identified and solved for glitches in a way that suggested critical thinking processes. In addition, they all reflected in various ways on the challenges that glitches presented, making connections to larger issues and their everyday lives. The data also showed the importance of memory in these processes. The results suggest that while subjects approached and solved a technological glitch in SMW game play, they simultaneously acquired, developed, and—at least for the duration of the study—sustained new literacy skills and expanded their proficiency with critical thinking. This holds some potential implications for the value of incorporating glitch experiences both inside and outside the classroom, suggesting that videogame play—and particularly glitches in play—can be considered valuable opportunities for learners and teachers alike

The Role of Videogame Glitch in Adult Learning

This research investigates the responses of three individuals engaging with the Super Mario World (SMW) platform videogame glitches, and how they learned to solve the problem without formal help. This investigation was chosen because it explores connections between media literacy, critical thinking, and play in adults in the context of responding to unexpected technological errors. At the core of this study is the question of how encounters with arbitrary glitches can motivate and elicit critical thinking. Following a case study model, data were collected as the three subjects played SMW and encountered glitches. Questions regarding the (glitchy) game play experience were addressed in the first interview immediately following. The subjects were asked to create a visual essay and keep personal journals, which were gathered after 30 days, and a second interview at that time focused on the overall experience. Several results emerged from the data. Each of the subjects identified and solved for glitches in a way that suggested critical thinking processes. In addition, they all reflected in various ways on the challenges that glitches presented, making connections to larger issues and their everyday lives. The data also showed the importance of memory in these processes. The results suggest that while subjects approached and solved a technological glitch in SMW game play, they simultaneously acquired, developed, and—at least for the duration of the study—sustained new literacy skills and expanded their proficiency with critical thinking. This holds some potential implications for the value of incorporating glitch experiences both inside and outside the classroom, suggesting that videogame play—and particularly glitches in play—can be considered valuable opportunities for learners and teachers alike

Performing Both Sides of the Glass: Videogame Affordances and Live Streaming on Twitch

This thesis examines the performative dimensions videogame affordances assume within online, live streaming environments. This approach considers how streamers configure their videogame play in terms of a potential audience, drawing on five semi-structured, in-depth interviews with Australian-based Twitch streamers to analyse how streamers leverage videogame affordances to produce “meaningful moments”. Guiding this thesis is the question of how the player-videogame relationship is maintained, fractured or altered within live-streaming environments such as Twitch

User-Centred BCI Videogame Design

International audienceThis chapter aims to offer a user-centred methodological framework to guide the design and evaluation of Brain-Computer Interface videogames. This framework is based on the contributions of ergonomics to ensure these games are well suited for their users (i.e., players). It provides methods, criteria and metrics to complete the different phases required by ae human-centred design process. This aims to understand the context of use, specify the user needs and evaluate the solutions in order to define design choices. Several ergonomic methods (e.g., interviews, longitudinal studies, user based testing), objective metrics (e.g., task success, number of errors) and subjective metrics (e.g., mark assigned to an item) are suggested to define and measure the usefulness, usability, acceptability, hedonic qualities, appealingness, emotions related to user experience, immersion and presence to be respected. The benefits and contributions of the user centred framework for the ergonomic design of these Brain-Computer Interface Videogames are discussed