Microbial Integration on Player Experience of Hybrid Bio-digital Games

© ICST Institute for Computer Sciences, Social Informatics and Telecommunications Engineering 2019. Hybrid bio-digital games physically integrate non-human, living organisms into computer gaming hardware and software. Whilst such type of game can add novelty value, the positive impact of the added biological element on player experience has not yet been verified quantitatively. We conducted a study involving two groups of 20 participants, to compare player experiences of two versions of a video game called Mould Rush, which relies on the growth patterns of micro-organisms commonly known as ‘mould’. Results from self-reporting Game Experience Questionnaire (GEQ) showed that the group who played the version of Mould Rush that integrated real mould, had produced significantly higher mean GEQ scores (p <.001) on the following dimensions: Positive Affect; Sensory and Imaginative Immersion; Positive Experience; and Returning to Reality. Furthermore, results from participant interviews indicated that the slowness of mould growth was enjoyed by those who played real-mould-integrated version of Mould Rush. Contrastingly, the slowness was perceived as a negative feature for those who played the game without integrated mould. We discuss the implications and limitations of all of our findings

Microcosm

Microcosm explores the potential of responsive, evolving games through the lenses of play theory and cybernetics. It aims to provide an engaging play experience while supporting the exploration of dynamic networks. It is inspired by biological models of cell signalling and neural networks. Building on the framework of play theorist James Carse, microcosm is an attempt to create an infinite game that is played not to be won, but to keep all participants in play by continually shifting the relationships and boundaries that constitute the game. Microcosm is populated by virtual organisms that play with the boundaries between organic and artificial, component and whole, human and non-human

SciTech News- 69(1)-2015

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An Investigation into Factors Affecting the Chilled Food Industry

With the advent of Industry 4.0, many new approaches towards process monitoring, benchmarking and traceability are becoming available, and these techniques have the potential to radically transform the agri-food sector. In particular, the chilled food supply chain (CFSC) contains a number of unique challenges by virtue of it being thought of as a temperature controlled supply chain. Therefore, once the key issues affecting the CFSC have been identified, algorithms can be proposed, which would allow realistic thresholds to be established for managing these problems on the micro, meso and macro scales. Hence, a study is required into factors affecting the CFSC within the scope of Industry 4.0. The study itself has been broken down into four main topics: identifying the key issues within the CFSC; implementing a philosophy of continuous improvement within the CFSC; identifying uncertainty within the CFSC; improving and measuring the performance of the supply chain. However, as a consequence of this study two further topics were added: a discussion of some of the issues surrounding information sharing between retailers and suppliers; some of the wider issues affecting food losses and wastage (FLW) on the micro, meso and macro scales. A hybrid algorithm is developed, which incorporates the analytic hierarchical process (AHP) for qualitative issues and data envelopment analysis (DEA) for quantitative issues. The hybrid algorithm itself is a development of the internal auditing algorithm proposed by Sueyoshi et al (2009), which in turn was developed following corporate scandals such as Tyco, Enron, and WorldCom, which have led to a decline in public trust. However, the advantage of the proposed solution is that all of the key issues within the CFSC identified can be managed from a single computer terminal, whilst the risk of food contamination such as the 2013 horsemeat scandal can be avoided via improved traceability