Evaluation of a Pervasive Game for Domestic Energy Engagement Among Teenagers

In this article, we present Power Agent—a pervasive game designed to encourage teenagers and their families to reduce energy consumption in the home. The ideas behind this mobile phonebased game are twofold; to transform the home environment and its devices into a learning arena for hands-on experience with electricity usage and to promote engagement via a team competition scheme. We report on the game’s evaluation with six teenagers and their families who played the game for ten days in two cities in Sweden. Data collection consisted of home energy measurements before, during, and after a game trial, in addition to interviews with participants at the end of the evaluation. The results suggest that the game concept was highly efficient in motivating and engaging the players and their families to change their daily energy-consumption patterns during the game trial. Although the evaluation does not permit any conclusions as to whether the game had any postgame effects on behavior, we can conclude that the pervasive persuasive game approach appears to be highly promising in regard to energy conservation and similar fields or issues

When The Cat\u27s Away: Techlash, Loot Boxes, And Regulating Dark Patterns In The Video Game Industry\u27s Monetization Strategies

Part I of this Comment briefly overviews dark patterns and demonstrates how parties have needlessly focused on loot boxes\u27 similarity to gambling rather than addressing dark patterns, the actual source of the video game industry\u27s consumer exploitation. Part II summarizes the video game industry\u27s techlash, showcasing ways that the industry has abused its consumers and how consumers have responded, as well as arguing why governmental intervention is necessary to stop the industry from exploiting end users. Part III first analyzes the Protecting Children from Abusive Games Act ( PCAGA ), a bill introduced in 2019 to regulate loot boxes, and explains why this bill would be an ineffective solution for preventing manipulative game design. Additionally, Part III evaluates the Deceptive Experiences To Online Users Act-also known as the DETOUR Act-another bill introduced in 2019 that specifically targets dark patterns. Part III concludes by explaining how a regulatory model based upon the DETOUR Act would be the most effective solution for combatting predatory practices within the video game industry and supporting consumer welfare. Finally, Part IV proposes elements to be included within an effective legislative model for regulating dark patterns in the video game industry

Extracting spatial-temporal features that describe a team match demands when considering the effects of the quality of opposition in elite football

Spatiotemporal patterns of play can be extracted from competitive environments to design representative training tasks and underlying processes that sustain performance outcomes. To support this statement, the aims of this study were: (i) describe the collective behavioural patterns that relies upon the use of player positioning in interaction with teammates, opponents and ball positioning; (ii) and define the underlying structure among the variables through application of a factorial analysis. The sample comprised a total of 1,413 ball possession sequences, obtained from twelve elite football matches from one team (the team ended the season in the top-5 position). The dynamic position of the players (from both competing teams), as well as the ball, were captured and transformed to two-dimensional coordinates. Data included the ball possession sequences from six matches played against top opponents (TOP, the three teams classified in the first 3 places at the end of the season) and six matches against bottom opponents (BOTTOM, the three teams classified in the last 3 at the end of the season). The variables calculated for each ball possession were the following: ball position; team space in possession; game space (comprising the outfield players of both teams); position and space at the end of ball possession. Statistical comparisons were carried with magnitude-based decisions and null-hypothesis analysis and factor analysis to define the underlying structure among variables according to the considered contexts. Results showed that playing against TOP opponents, there was ~38 meters game length per ~43 meters game width with 12% of coefficient of variation (%). Ball possessions lasted for ~28 seconds and tended to end at ~83m of pitch length. Against BOTTOM opponents, a decrease in the game length with an increase in game width and in the deepest location was observed in comparison with playing against TOP opponents. The duration of ball possession increased considerable (~37 seconds), and the ball speed entropy was higher, suggesting lower levels of regularity in comparison with TOP opponents. The BOTTOM teams revealed a small EPS. The Principal Component Analysis showed a strong association of the ball speed, entropy of the ball speed and the coefficient of variation (%) of the ball speed. The EPS of the team in possession was well correlated with the game space, especially the game width facing TOP opponents. Against BOTTOM opponents, there was a strong association of ball possession duration, game width, distance covered by the ball, and length/width ratio of the ball movement. The overall approach carried out in this study may serve as the starting point to elaborate normative models of positioning behaviours measures to support the coaches' operating decisions.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

A Game-Based Learning Application to Help Learners to Practice Mathematical Patterns and Structures

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to develop a game-based mobile application to help learners practice mathematical patterns and structures. Method: The study followed a mixed-method research design and prototyping methodology to guide the study in developing the mobile application. An instrument based on the Octalysis framework was developed as an evaluation tool for the study. Results: The study developed a mobile application based on the Octalysis framework. The application has fully achieved all its intended features based on the rating provided by the students and IT experts. Conclusion: The study successfully developed a mobile learning application for mathematical patterns and structures. By incorporating GBL principles and the Octalysis framework, the app achieved its intended features and received positive evaluations from students and IT experts. This highlights the potential of the app in promoting mathematical learning. Recommendations: This study recommends that the application be further enhanced to include other topics. Incorporating other game-based principles and approaches like timed questions and the difficulty level is also worth pursuing. Actual testing for end-users is also needed to verify the application's effectiveness. Practical Implications: Successful development of a game-based mobile app for practicing mathematical patterns and structures can transform education technology by engaging learners and enhancing their experience. This study provides valuable insights for future researchers developing similar applications, highlighting the potential to revolutionize traditional approaches and create an interactive learning environment for improving mathematical abilities

Reciprocity on the hardwood: passing patterns among professional basketball players.

Past theory and research view reciprocal resource sharing as a fundamental building block of human societies. Most studies of reciprocity dynamics have focused on trading among individuals in laboratory settings. But if motivations to engage in these patterns of resource sharing are powerful, then we should observe forms of reciprocity even in highly structured group environments in which reciprocity does not clearly serve individual or group interests. To this end, we investigated whether patterns of reciprocity might emerge among teammates in professional basketball games. Using data from logs of National Basketball Association (NBA) games of the 2008-9 season, we estimated a series of conditional logistic regression models to test the impact of different factors on the probability that a given player would assist another player in scoring a basket. Our analysis found evidence for a direct reciprocity effect in which players who had "received" assists in the past tended to subsequently reciprocate their benefactors. Further, this tendency was time-dependent, with the probability of repayment highest soon after receiving an assist and declining as game time passed. We found no evidence for generalized reciprocity - a tendency to "pay forward" assists - and only very limited evidence for indirect reciprocity - a tendency to reward players who had sent others many assists. These findings highlight the power of reciprocity to shape human behavior, even in a setting characterized by extensive planning, division of labor, quick decision-making, and a focus on inter-group competition

A Refinement-Based Heuristic Method for Decision Making in the Context of Ayo Game

Games of strategy, such as chess have served as a convenient test of skills at devising efficient search algorithms, formalizing knowledge, and bringing the power of computation to bear on “intractable” problems. Generally, minimax search has been the fundamental concept of obtaining solution to game problems. However, there are a number of limitations associated with using minimax search in order to offer solution to Ayo game. Among these limitations are: (i.) improper design of a suitable evaluator for moves before the moves are made, and (ii.) inability to select a correct move without assuming that players will play optimally. This study investigated the extent to which the knowledge of minimax search technique could be enhanced with a refinement-based heuristic method for playing Ayo game. This is complemented by the CDG (an end game strategy) for generating procedures such that only good moves are generated at any instance of playing Ayo game by taking cognizance of the opponent strategy of play. The study was motivated by the need to advance the African board game – Ayo – to see how it could be made to be played by humans across the globe, by creating both theoretical and product-oriented framework. This framework provides local Ayo game promotion initiatives in accordance with state-of-the-art practices in the global game playing domain. In order to accomplish this arduous task, both theoretical and empirical approaches were used. The theoretical approach reveals some mathematical properties of Ayo game with specific emphasis on the CDG as an end game strategy and means of obtaining the minimal and maximal CDG configurations. Similarly, a theoretical analysis of the minimax search was given and was enhanced with the Refinement-based heuristics. For the empirical approach, we simulated Ayo game playing on a digital viii computer and studied the behaviour of the various heuristic metrics used and compared the play strategies of the simulation with AWALE (the world known Ayo game playing standard software). Furthermore, empirical judgment was carried out on how experts play Ayo game as a means of evaluating the performance of the heuristics used to evolve the Ayo player in the simulation which gives room for statistical interpretation. This projects novel means of solving the problem of decision making in move selections in computer game playing of Ayo game. The study shows how an indigenous game like Ayo can generate integer sequence, and consequently obtain some self-replicating patterns that repeat themselves at different iterations. More importantly, the study gives an efficient and usable operation support tools in the prototype simulation of Ayo game playing that has improvement over Awal