Virtual Reality Games for Motor Rehabilitation

This paper presents a fuzzy logic based method to track user satisfaction without the need for devices to monitor users physiological conditions. User satisfaction is the key to any product’s acceptance; computer applications and video games provide a unique opportunity to provide a tailored environment for each user to better suit their needs. We have implemented a non-adaptive fuzzy logic model of emotion, based on the emotional component of the Fuzzy Logic Adaptive Model of Emotion (FLAME) proposed by El-Nasr, to estimate player emotion in UnrealTournament 2004. In this paper we describe the implementation of this system and present the results of one of several play tests. Our research contradicts the current literature that suggests physiological measurements are needed. We show that it is possible to use a software only method to estimate user emotion

Exploring social gambling: scoping, classification and evidence review

The aim of this report is to speculate on the level of concern we might have regarding consumer risk in relation to ‘social gambling.’ In doing so, this report is intended to help form the basis to initiate debate around a new and under-researched social issue; assist in setting a scientific research agenda; and, where appropriate, highlight concerns about any potential areas that need to be considered in terms of precautionary regulation. This report does not present a set of empirical research findings regarding ‘social gambling’ but rather gathers information to improve stakeholder understanding

Game Types, Game-Related Behaviors and Resilience: Creating a Roadmap for Effective Gamification Design in Higher Education

Gamification, or the use of game-based mechanics and thinking in real world applications, is on the rise in educational environments. While various applications seek to increase engagement and motivation for tasks related to student success, research regarding best practices for the design of such systems is lacking. In fact, conflicting outcomes from various gamification studies at the secondary and tertiary education levels suggest that not all gamification designs are effective for increasing student success. Meanwhile, research from the medical field indicates gamification can be used to increase resilience; which has been linked to various student success outcomes including academic performance. To address this issue, this study surveyed 116 first-year, first semester college students at a mid-sized, private, Catholic university in the Southwestern United States to determine if there were any significant relationships between their gaming behaviors and resilience levels and GPA. In addition to completing the Connor-Davidson resilience inventory (CD-RISC), participants reported their regular gaming habits, including game types, social context, motivation, and frequency and duration of play. Demographics, including sex, ethnicity and permanent residence were also used in the analysis. Correlational analysis revealed notable relationships between overall resilience, the five factors that made up the resilience inventory, demographics, and gaming behaviors. Specifically, results showed that female students had resilience scores 4.2% lower than males; while regression analysis revealed students attending the university from ‘out-of-state’, scored 6.7% lower than in-state peers. However, playing role-playing games were associated with a 9.6% higher overall resilience level, Computer games were associated with 6.75-8.0% higher resilience in two of the resilience factors, while multiplayer online games were associated with a 17% higher score for the tenacity factor. Data on motivation and social context was inconclusive, and analysis did not yield substantial conclusions regarding ethnicity. Data shows gaming habits and resilience were not correlated with changes in GPA during the first year of study. Implications for student success are that certain gaming types, including role-playing, multiplayer online and computer games may be more effective for increasing college student resilience, while gaming and resilience may not lead to higher academic achievement in the first-year of college

COLAB: Social Context and User Experience in Collaborative Multiplayer Games

Recent studies have shown that the social context in which people play digital multiplayer games has an effect on their experience. Whether co-players are in the same location (―co-located‖) or in different locations (―mediated‖) changes how they interact with the game and with one another. We set out to explore how these complex psychological dynamics played out in a collaborative multiplayer game, since most of the research to date has been focused on competitive gameplay scenarios. To this end, we designed a two-player puzzle-based gaming apparatus called COLAB, implementing specific features that have been proven to foster collaboration and preclude competition between players. The independent variable was player location; the dependent variable was game experience, as measured by the Social Presence in Gaming Questionnaire and the Game Experience Questionnaire, two comprehensive self-report instruments. We found a significant difference in the game experiences of players collaborating in the same location versus players collaborating in different locations. Specifically, co-located players of the collaborative game experienced significantly higher scores for negative experience than mediated players did, while mediated players experienced significantly higher levels of three key game-experience measures: positive affect, immersion, and flow

Playing with Usability: Why Technical Communicators Should Examine Mobile Games

This thesis examines how technical communicators can look to free, successful mobile games for mobile User Interface (UI) and User Assistance (UA) inspiration and design techniques. The purpose of this thesis is to provide an overview of major game studies theories and situate them within technical communication theory and practices. Technical communicators can leverage game studies theories to augment existing technical communication theories and practices. Specifically, I examine cognitive learning theory in game design, game usability, playability, and user-centered design, and how these theories relate to technical communication, rhetorical, mobile UI/UA, and general usability theories and methods. Additionally, I also note technical communicators can provide depth and fill in existing gaps in game design theory relating to language and textual presentation within games. I demonstrate this value by synthesizing and applying these methods to two successful free mobile games: Supercell\u27s Clash of Clans and Blizzard Entertainment\u27s Hearthstone. In a highly competitive and lucrative environment, top free mobile games provide effective user experiences to engage and retain users. Examining mobile game design provides a creative way for technical communicators to improve their own approaches for user engagement and mobile design

Mood Management Theory in Videogames: Investigating the Relationship Between Game Selection, Game Switching, In-game Choices, and Mood Repair

Maintaining a healthy balance between positive and negative moods is important for mental health. One of the primary benefits of playing videogames is its capacity for mood regulation. Recent studies investigating the psychological effect of playing videogames have shown that videogames exhibit greater potential for improving mood and attenuating negative affect, including boredom, stress, and depression, compared to traditional non-interactive media. In addition to the role of media content consumption for repairing mood, it is also known that an individual’s mood affects their choice of media content, an effect known as “selective exposure theory” (SET). SET centralizes on the individual’s tendency to consume certain media content that reduces their negative affective states and promotes positive moods. The effect of SET has been demonstrated for traditional media (e.g., books, movies, music, television) in both manipulated studies and in the wild. For example, bored TV viewers reduce boredom by watching exciting programs, and elevated stress was associated with increased consumption of comedy and decreased consumption of news. Recently, patterns predicted by SET were shown in videogame consumption in a laboratory setting: participants showed different preferences for task demand level in a game in response to induced stress and induced boredom. However, how selective exposure for mood repair occurs in vivo has not been explored. Do players actively choose different games to accommodate different mood states or do they play the same game but choose different game modes to tailor their experience to their present mood? What do players do in the game to cope with negative emotions in real life? Without this knowledge, designers and researchers cannot optimize the design of games and game features for mood repair. To understand the motivations of players in terms of selecting and switching gaming content, specifically what in-game choices or strategies players employ to cope with negative emotions, and subsequently how these choices facilitate their mood management processes, we conducted a study by surveying 194 US players on how their mood influences their gaming behaviors. We used quantitative analysis to find correlations and patterns among participants’ media consumption, gaming habits and demographic data, and used conceptual thematic analysis to look deeper into retrospective reflection of how participants’ gaming experiences affected their mood states, and to generate insights behind players’ daily gaming experience. Our results suggest that “Mood” is the primary reason for players to be actively playing multiple games within the same period of time, and “Mood” is also the primary determinant of game selection and game switching. Besides choosing different games, players also choose different game modes or choose different playstyles to tailor their gaming experience for their moods. Our findings might help game designers to understand how players make gaming decisions based on their mood states and design games with greater affordance for mood repair

A Network-Agnostic and Cheat-Resistant Framework for Multiplayer Online Games

"Video games are kids' stuff" may be still in the minds of many people. But the video games industry is far beyond its infancy and has already grown into a multi-billion dollar business. The NPD Group reports that in 2007 the revenues generated in the U.S. with video game soft- and hardware for consoles and personal computers reached a total of 18.8 billion dollars, a 40 percent increase over 2006. According to PricewaterhouseCoopers, the global sales will even surpass those of the music industry within the next years. With the success of the Internet, online games are a constantly increasing part of these sales. According to DFC Intelligence, the worldwide online game market will grow to over 13 billion dollars in 2011. The probably most successful online game genre today is that of the so-called Massively Multiplayer Online Games (MMOGs). This kind of games provides vast virtual worlds, where thousands of players can meet and interact simultaneously. Most of these worlds are persistent, i.e. they may be online for years. They are hosted on Internet servers which are online 24/7 and players can join and leave the game whenever they like to. The persistence of the game world allows for long-term development of virtual avatars with individual characteristics and possessions. The leader of the MMOG market today is Blizzard Entertainment with the title World of Warcraft. In the beginning of 2008, World of Warcraft had 10 million subscribers (each paying up to 15 dollars per month) and a market share of 62 percent. Developing todays video games is a complex and cost-intensive task and multiplayer online functionality has a significant share in this. In 2008, the first video game hit the 100 million dollar mark for development costs. In addition to that, publishers of online games need to provide the necessary services to allow their customers to play the game over the Internet. Traditionally, most online games and nearly all MMOGs are built relying on the Client/Server architecture. The client software runs on the player's computers and shows only an audio-visual representation of the game world. It accepts commands issued by the player and transmits them to the server. Processing the commands and managing the state of the game is completely done on the server-side. Thus, to be able to handle hundreds or thousands of players simultaneously, large amounts of computing power and network bandwidth are required. Additionally, the service requires a large staff for server maintenance, software updates, billing and customer services. The provision of the World of Warcraft service did cost about 200 million dollars since its launch in November 2004. In addition to the effort of maintaining a multiplayer online game service after its launch there arises another challenge: keeping the game free of cheaters. A cheater may be defined as a user that performs an action that gives an advantage over his opponents that is considered unfair by the game developer. One must be aware that cheating is a major concern in multiplayer games as it seriously affects the game experience of honest players. Especially for subscription-based online games this is fatal, since customers will cancel their subscriptions if the experience doesn't meet their expectations. Game publishers usually do not hesitate to close the accounts of players that they believe to have cheated. For example, in 2006 Blizzard Entertainment announced in their forums that they have banned 59,000 players from World of Warcraft within a single month

Heuristics for evaluating video games: A two-tier set incorporating universal and genre-specific elements

The continued significance of video games in contemporary society has led to the production of many heuristic sets by which the playability of games can be evaluated. These sets encompass a wide range of aims and theoretical perspectives, furthermore, they have been developed via a number of distinct methods. This thesis is the result of a two-stage investigation, the first of which was to identify and extract any heuristics that could be considered as having universal relevance, irrespective of the method or theoretical position by which they were developed. The second stage of the investigation complemented this universal list with genre-specific elements, providing a model by which further information can be added in the future. Comparative analysis was used to extract common principles from a selected body of work, resulting in a list of 19 heuristics. In addition, open and axial coding was applied to data sourced from online game reviews, extracting information relating to the Real-Time Strategy genre. This information was then converted into 25 RTS-specific heuristics and integrated with the set developed in the first stage. The results of this study, therefore, clearly demonstrate the existence of a core set of universal heuristics, and the value of incorporating genre-specific information. The finalised set was presented in the form of a deck of cards, with each face representing information according to two different levels of abstraction, thereby increasing accessibility and facilitating use in different contexts. These cards have been made available in a print-ready format and are included as an appendix