626 research outputs found

    Ethics, environment and problem-based learning:how role-playing video games embody cross-curricular themes of finnish upper secondary school curriculum

    Get PDF
    Abstract. Learning and video games have been studied for a while now as a possible learning asset. However, this research is largely generalized, and does not examine specific curricula and how they could employ video games. This study will examine how the cross-curricular themes found in the National Core Curriculum for General Upper Secondary Schools (Finnish National Board of Educations, 2016) are fulfilled by two role-playing video games, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (BioWare, 2003) and Baldur’s Gate: Enhanced Edition (Beamdog, 2012). The study employs qualitative research methods in order to conduct a cross-case analysis of the two games, examining them from a sociocultural, cognitive, and ecological theoretical point of view. The study shows that most of the cross-curricular themes listed were present in the games, and their objectives of instructions were met. The games examined created problem-based learning experiences both in familiarizing the player with the game as well as creating learning experiences that aligned with the cross-curricular themes examined. Especially themes that relied on and promoted empathy were heavily employed in the games. On the other hand, some contradictions could be found in the games, which could be used to affect a deeper learning according to cognitive theories.TiivistelmĂ€. Oppiminen ja videopelit ovat olleet tutkimuksen kohteena viime aikoina laajalti. Kuitenkaan tarkkaa opetussuunnitelmiin kohdistuvaa tutkimusta ei ole suoritettu video pelien osalta, vaan tutkimukset ovat keskittynyt oppimiseen yleisellĂ€ tasolla. TĂ€mĂ€ pro gradu -työ tarkastelee kuinka videoroolipeli Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (BioWare, 2003) sekĂ€ Baldur’s Gate: Enhanced Edition (Beamdog, 2012) toteuttavat aihekokonaisuudet Lukion opetussuunnitelman perusteissa (Finnish National Board of Education, 2015). Tutkimus kĂ€yttÀÀ kvalitatiivisia metodeja vertailevan tapaustutkimuksen toteuttamiseen sosiokulttuurisesta, kognitiivisesta sekĂ€ ekologisesta nĂ€kökulmasta. Tutkimus osoitti, ettĂ€ useimmat aihekokonaisuudet löytyivĂ€t peleistĂ€ ja ettĂ€ niiden tavoitteet toteutuivat peleissĂ€. Pelit loivat ongelmakeskeisiĂ€ oppimiskokemuksia sekĂ€ tutustuttaakseen pelaajan pelin maailmaan ettĂ€ luodakseen opetussuunnitelman aihekokonaisuuksien mukaisia oppimiskokemuksia. Erityisesti teemat, jotka nojautuivat ja kannustivat empatiaan, olivat peleissĂ€ laajalti kĂ€ytössĂ€. Toisaalta pelit sisĂ€lsivĂ€t tiettyjĂ€ ristiriitoja, joita on mahdollista kĂ€yttÀÀ hyödyksi syvemmĂ€n oppimisen luontiin kognitiivisten teorioiden mukaisesti

    The Importance of Play: Identification with Video Game Characters\u27 Intersectional Effects on Bias

    Get PDF
    Video games are steadily becoming one of the largest and most influential forms of media in history. Today, video games are so popular that the Nintendo mascot Mario from the Mario Brothers video game series is more recognized than Disney\u27s Mickey Mouse. The reach and influence of video games is cause for celebration and concern. After all, just like other forms of media video games can influence audiences far beyond their play sessions. Media can influence everything from how individuals treat others, to governmental policies. With such a large scope of influence over who they reach and how they affect society it\u27s necessary to examine how video games represent real world people. Representation in video games has the potential to influence audiences\u27 perceptions of and attitudes towards real people. Video games already come under constant scrutiny for their numerous portrayals of sexist and racist imagery. These negative portrayals can affect real world biases against disenfranchised groups. Which in some cases can even lead to an increase in violence against those groups. Many forms of passive media, such as books and television, have already been analyzed to discern how their use of diverse non-stereotypical representation can combat biases, promote empathy, and encourage tolerance among their audiences. Video games have been researched in a similar manner, but stand apart from these mediums in an important way. Video games allow participants to take an active role in their entertainment. Unlike a book or a movie a video game offers participants control over the characters and the actions those characters take within the story. Video game audiences don’t just witness the narrative, they give it form through their choices and actions. Other researchers have examined how interactivity in video games influences real world biases. The first part of this dissertation provides background information for these past studies. We expanded on this research with three studies of our own featuring race and gender bias. The studies reveal that in video games the experience of watching a character vs playing as a character greatly affects the character’s ability to influence audience biases. Just seeing a female or black character in a video game is a very different experience from playing as them and being able to control their actions. Furthermore, in video games this experience of play via character control produces a unique psychological phenomenon called embodied identification. Embodied identification represents how much a player feels they are physically and/or mentally immersed in a playable character. The level of embodied identification a player experiences directly effects the virtual character’s influence over the player. So, it plays an important role in influencing players and is the main focus of this dissertation. There is also an examination into how embodied identification effects players\u27 attitudes toward underrepresented people. The third of the three studies in this paper includes perhaps the most prolific expansion on past research by incorporating intersectionality into the study. This study allows researchers and developers to better understand how all aspects of a player character\u27s identity influence multiple societal biases. In this way, the study is able to look beyond a singular view of identity; only focusing on race or gender for example, to gain a more complete picture of video games\u27 ability to combat biases and promote tolerance in society

    CGAMES'2009

    Get PDF

    Ethical encounters with autonomous agents

    Get PDF
    Anthropomorphic agents with increasing levels of autonomy are being used in a growing number of applications. This is especially evident in games where characters are designed with human likeness both in appearance and behaviour, with a level of autonomy that allows them to surprise and engage the player. However, with these autonomous system there is the possibility that non-intended behaviours may emerge, exposing the user to potentially ethically questionable encounters. In this position paper we argue for further protections against such glitches through the implementation of artificial ethics-based behavioural safeguards. We begin by outlining the background and specific challenges of this emerging field, before proposing a direction for future research. We conclude with a call to action, arguing that significant cross-disciplinary research, and engagement from the HCI community is required in this area

    Player attitudes to avatar development in digital games: an exploratory study of single-player role-playing games and other genres

    Get PDF
    Digital games incorporate systems that allow players to customise and develop their controllable in-game representative (avatar) over the course of a game. Avatar customisation systems represent a point at which the goals and values of players interface with the intentions of the game developer forming a dynamic and complex relationship between system and user. With the proliferation of customisable avatars through digital games and the ongoing monetisation of customisation options through digital content delivery platforms it is important to understand the relationship between player and avatar in order to provide a better user experience and to develop an understanding of the cultural impact of the avatar. Previous research on avatar customisation has focused on the users of virtual worlds and massively multiplayer games, leaving single-player avatar experiences. These past studies have also typically focused on one particular aspect of avatar customisation and those that have looked at all factors involved in avatar customisation have done so with a very small sample. This research has aimed to address this gap in the literature by focusing primarily on avatar customisation features in single-player games, aiming to investigate the relationship between player and customisation systems from the perspective of the players of digital games. To fulfill the research aims and objectives, the qualitative approach of interpretative phenomenological analysis was adopted. Thirty participants were recruited using snowball and purposive sampling (the criteria being that participants had played games featuring customisable avatars) and accounts of their experiences were gathered through semi-structured interviews. Through this research, strategies of avatar customisation were explored in order to demonstrate how people use such systems. The shortcomings in game mechanics and user interfaces were highlighted so that future games can improve the avatar customisation experience

    Marcus or Mira - Investigating the Perception of Virtual Agent Gender in Virtual Reality Role Play-Training

    Get PDF
    Immersive virtual training environments are used in various domains. In this work we focus on role-play training in virtual reality. In virtual role-play training conversations and interactions with virtual agents are often fundamental to the training. Therefore, the appearance and behavior of the agents plays an important role when designing role-play training.We focus on the gender appearance of agents, as gender is an important aspect for differentiation between characters. We conducted a study with 40 participants in which we investigated how agents gender appearance influences the perception of the agents® personality traits and the self-perception of a participants’ assumed role in a training for social skills. This work contributes towards understanding the design-space of virtual agent design, virtual agent gender identity, and the design and development of immersive virtual reality role-play training

    Points of Reflection: A Case for Moral Engagement Across Video Game Time and Space

    Get PDF
    In the field of video game studies, meaningful action and flow are upheld as primary targets of game design, and key factors in many ontological definitions of what games can and should be. Yet, games are not all action. Within most games one encounters numerous pauses and interruptions of various kinds, including the much-maligned “cut-scenes” that lead or force the player out of an active role at certain moments. Furthermore, not all actions are goal-directed. If they are, they are not necessarily pragmatic. These pauses, interruptions, and nuanced goals are often overlooked, if not actively derided, in the field of game studies. In short, ideas about how players stop and reflect, how their goals and experiences take on emotional and/or moral valences, are under-represented. My work argues that moral reflection does occur even in mainstream games, and that it tends to happen in connection with the very moments game scholars often overlook—in the pauses before or after actions, in the moments of awe or realization, when the controller has been set down or the keyboard pushed away, and yes, even during cut-scenes. Such moments may invite the player into a state of moral reflection, but for this state of moral reflection to be poignant and memorable to the player these moments must also involve a consideration of differing values. Finally, how a game structures the player’s experience of time, from receiving quests to setting out into the game world, from pauses to demanding challenges, and even through the layout of video game spaces lends these points of reflection their crucial impact

    Enter Middle-earth: A Comparison of The Lord of the Rings Online with The Lord of the Rings

    Get PDF
    The purpose of this study has been to explore how the story in The Lord of the Rings is experienced in the game, The Lord of the Rings Online, compared to the book. The focus has been on the concepts of narrative, interaction, immersion, and themes. I have used my own experience from the game in addition to other academic sources when I have examined how the game differs from the book, and when exploring the themes in the book, I have relied on influential Tolkien scholars. What I have found is that the outcome of the narrative is different in the game due to the players’ interaction. The players are a part of the narrative, and they also create their own narrative while playing. The story is also experienced differently due to the different points of view. Immersion gets a new meaning when the players are 'bodily' immersed in the storyworld through avatars, instead of just mentally immersed. Spatial immersion in the game leads to a better understanding of the scope of the storyworld when reading the book. The maps are no longer used only for strategic purposes, but also have affective value due to emotional spatial immersion since the places they depict have become familiar and filled with memories. Since the themes from the book are mainly integrated into the gameplay of combat and the aesthetics of the landscape, they are approached in a more playful way as opposed to the serious approach that the book has. The book’s message is lost because the point of view is from the players, and therefore they do not get insight into the main characters’ thoughts. However, on some occasions, players are directly involved in the story. Instead of reading about the heroic deeds of the main characters, the players themselves are the heroes, which changes the narrative and makes the players the protagonists in their own adventures

    Massively Multiplayer Online Gamers’ Language: Argument for an M-Gamer Corpus

    Get PDF
    The past few decades have seen a steady, and sometimes rapid rise in the production and consumption of Massively Multiple Online Games (MMOGs), spanning a global arena. Players from a wide variety of demographical, economic, geographical, cultural and linguistic backgrounds congregate under the banner of MMOGs and spend a considerable amount of time interacting and communicating with one another, in the context of playing and socializing through such playing. It is only logical then, to see such players become part of larger and extended socio-communal landscapes, wherein they may appropriate multiple roles in conjunction with their MMOG player roles, such as teachers, learners, family members and workplace cohorts. It is also equally logical for a curious mind to speculate the effects of the communication and language characteristics of such gamers on themselves, and the greater communities they may inhabit, investigate the realms of such possibilities, and appropriate knowledge garnered from such investigations to share. That is precisely what this study and paper is about. In this paper, I report the findings of an investigation of the communication and language characteristics of MMOG players, using 23 participants for interviews and journal writing, as well as multiple online documents. The findings suggest that MMOG players share some unique communication and language patterns, based on which they can be justifiably categorized as a sub culture with their own corpus. Additionally, researcher and practitioner implications are also discussed
    • 

    corecore