Independent- Sep. 29, 2009

https://neiudc.neiu.edu/independent/1407/thumbnail.jp

Stagnant, April 04, 2011

April Fools Editionhttps://irl.umsl.edu/current2010s/1076/thumbnail.jp

Wait, But Why? Assessing Behavior Explanation Strategies for Real-Time Strategy Games

Work in AI-based explanation systems has uncovered an interesting contradiction: people prefer and learn best from 'why' explanations but expert esports commentators primarily answer 'what' questions when explaining complex behavior in real-time strategy games. Three possible explanations for this contradiction are: 1.) broadcast audiences are well-informed and do not need 'why' explanations; 2.) consuming 'why' explanations in real-time is too cognitively demanding for audiences; or 3.) producing live 'why' explanations is too difficult for commentators. We answer this open question by investigating the effects of explanation types and presentation modalities on audience recall and cognitive load in the context of an esports broadcast. We recruit 131 Dota 2 players and split them into three groups: the first group views a Dota 2 broadcast, the second group has the addition of an interactive map that provides 'what' explanations, and the final group receives the interactive map with detailed 'why' explanations. We find that participants who receive short interactive text prompts that provide 'what' explanations outperform the other two groups on a multiple-choice recall task. We also find that participants who receive detailed 'why' explanations submit the highest reports of cognitive load. Our evidence supports the conclusion that informed audiences benefit from explanations but do not have the cognitive resources to process 'why' answers in real-time. It also supports the conclusion that stacked explanation interventions across different modalities, like audio, interactivity, and text, can aid real-time comprehension when attention resources are limited. Together, our results indicate that interactive multimedia interfaces can be leveraged to quickly guide attention and provide low-cost explanations to improve intelligibility when time is too scarce for cognitively demanding 'why' explanations

Communicative Implications of the Modern Video Game: An Audience-Centered Approach

The advent of the home video game console and three decades of continuously evolving gaming technology has had a profound impact on American culture. While many studies have investigated various sociocultural outcomes and conducted behavioral correlation analyses of video games, few have examined how individuals talk about, or share meaning from the game outside of game play. This analysis first briefly reviews extant video game research and arguments for the increasingly immersive aspect of playing video games, then identifies a lack of focus in the literature on the communicative aspect of audience-centered analysis of these games via gamer-generated blogs and message board interactions. Subsequently, a rhetorical analysis of two independent blogs for World of Warcraft (WoW), a massively multiplayer online (MMO) video game examines, from a communication perspective, the inherent structure of the game, as well as the various methods by which the gamers discuss and share meaning about in-game and out-game experiences. A rhetorical analysis of gamers' out-game talk on WoW-centered message board forums and blogs is then conducted via the lens of dramatism. The theoretical underpinnings of this analysis further concretize the value and necessity of a communicative lens as a privileged voice in the field of video game studies

The Montclarion, April 18, 2013

Student Newspaper of Montclair State Universityhttps://digitalcommons.montclair.edu/montclarion/2001/thumbnail.jp

Portland Daily Press: August 10,1886

https://digitalmaine.com/pdp_1886/1186/thumbnail.jp

Mustang Daily, March 12, 2008

Student newspaper of California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, CA.https://digitalcommons.calpoly.edu/studentnewspaper/7731/thumbnail.jp