Database of Video Games and Their Therapeutic Properties

There are reported to be 2.96 billion video game players in the world as of 2021 and this number is expected to grow to 3.32 billion by the year 2024. Of that total, 215.5 million video game players live in the United States with a reported average age of 33 years old. Thousands of commercial video games are released every year. There is evidence to support video game technology use as therapeutic media however it predominately utilizes outdated technology or technology designed for a specific purpose also called “serious games.” The problem is that OT practitioners are unaware of the potential therapeutic properties of video games they have not played, so are unable to integrate unfamiliar video games as therapeutic media in clinical practice. The purpose of this capstone project is to develop an online database of commercial video games, and their therapeutic properties, to facilitate their use as therapeutic media in OT practice. To address this problem a webpage was developed in partnership with the Family Gaming Database that cataloged 10 commercial video games from commercially available video game subscription services and the Nintendo Switch. The 10 games were subject to an activity analysis based on the AMPS to determine their therapeutic potential. The resulting webpage contains three main lists in which filters can be applied in order to display games that meet a specific desired criterion. Applicable filters include platform, age rating, difficulty, and specific accessibility features. Keywords: database, occupational therapy, video game, video game

Towards Balancing Fun and Exertion in Exergames: Exploring the Impact of Movement-Based Controller Devices, Exercise Concepts, Game Adaptivity and Player Modes on Player Experience and Training Intensity in Different Exergame Settings

Physical inactivity remains one of the biggest societal challenges of the 21st century. The gaming industry and the fitness sector have responded to this alarming fact by introducing game-based or gamified training scenarios and thus established the promising trend of exergaming. Exergames – games controlled by active (whole) body movements – have been extolled as potential attractive and effective training tools. However, the majority of the exergames do not meet the required intensity or effectiveness, nor do they induce the intended training adherence or long-term motivation. One reason for this is that the evaluated exergames were often not co-designed with the user group to meet their specific needs and preferences, nor were they co-designed with an interdisciplinary expert team of game designers (to ensure a good gaming experience) and sports scientists (for a great training experience). Accordingly, the research results from studies with these exergames are rather limited. To fully exploit the potential of these innovative movement tools and to establish them as attractive and effective training approach, it is necessary to understand and explore both the underlying interdisciplinary theories and concepts as well as possible design approaches and their impact on the game and training experience. This dissertation aims to contribute to a better understanding of well-balanced exergame design. It explores and evaluates how different movement-based control devices, exercise concepts, game adaptations, and player modes influence the attractiveness and effectiveness of exergames. The work provides theoretical and practical contributions to the problem area of effective and attractive exergames. For this purpose, a research and development (R&D) approach with iterative phases was followed. As preliminary work for the contributions of this dissertation, exergames were approached from a theoretical perspective. Underlying multidisciplinary theories and concepts of exergames from relevant fields were analyzed and a generic framework was built, which structured the findings based on three interdependent dimensions: the player, the game controller, and the virtual game scenario. Some commercially available exergames were explored to verify the theory-based assumption that the interposition of technology brings specific transformations in the coupling of perception and action that do not occur in real sports situations. Among other things, the comparative pilot study showed that two different controllers (one gesture-based and one haptic device), which allowed for different physical input, were likely to induce diverse gameplay experiences (e.g., higher feeling of flow and self-location when playing with the haptic device) with differently skilled players. However, certain design-specific differences in the two exergame conditions meant that these results could only be interpreted as a first trend. To overcome the limitations of this preliminary study approach (e.g., unequal game design of the commercial exergames and very sports-specific movement concept), Plunder Planet, an adaptive exergame environment, was iteratively designed with and for children and allowed for a single- and cooperative multiplayer experience with two different controller devices. The user-centered design was further informed by insights from the growing body of related R&D work in the field of exergames. The first study presented in this dissertation compared the subjectively experienced attractiveness and effectiveness of Plunder Planet when played with different motion-based controllers. Besides a generally great acceptance of the exergame, it was found that the haptic full-body motion controller provided physical guidance and a more cognitively and coordinatively challenging workout, which was more highly rated by experienced gamers with fewer athletic skills. The gesture-based Kinect sensor felt more natural, allowed more freedom of movement, and provided a rather physically intense but cognitively less challenging workout, which was more highly rated by athletic players with less gameplay experience. Furthermore, experiments were made with an exploratory adaptive algorithm that enabled the cognitive and the physical challenge of the exergame to be manually adapted in real-time based on the player’s fitness and gaming skills. The first and the second study also compared an adaptive with a non-adaptive single player version of Plunder Planet. It could be shown that the (well-balanced) adaptive version of the exergame was better valued than the non-adaptive version with regard to the experienced and measured attractiveness (motivation, game flow, spatial presence experience, balance of cognitive and physical challenge) and effectiveness (heart rate, physical exertion, balance of cognitive and physical challenge) by differently skilled players. Finally, and contrary to the findings from related work, the results of the third study proved that the specifically designed controller technology could be used as an “enabler”, “supporter” and “shaper” of bodily interplay in social exergaming. Based on these promising findings, the goal became to further explore the effectiveness of exergames, refine the adaptive game difficulty algorithm, and explore further attractiveness- and motivation-boosting design approaches. Therefore, the ExerCube, a physically immersive and adaptive fitness game setting, was developed. It was iteratively designed with and for adults and allowed for cooperatively and competitive exergame experiences. With its physically immersive game setup, the ExerCube combines a mixed version of the advantages of both previously tested controllers. A coordinatively and cognitively challenging functional workout protocol with scalable intensity (moderate to high) was developed and the subjective experience of the ExerCube training was compared with a conventional functional training with a personal trainer. The fourth study showed that the game-based training gave signs of reaching a similar intensity to the personal training, but was more highly rated for flow, motivation, and enjoyment. Based on this exploratory comparison of the ExerCube with a personal trainer session, valuable avenues for further design could be identified. Among other things, it could be proved that the player’s focus during the ExerCube session was more on the game than on the own body. Players experienced stronger physical exertion and social pressure with the personal trainer and a stronger cognitive exertion and involvement with the ExerCube. Furthermore, a refined version of the previously tested adaptive game difficulty algorithm was implemented and automated for the first time for purpose of this study. Again it was shown that the adaptive version had benefits with regard to subjectively experienced attractiveness (motivation, game flow, balance of cognitive and physical challenge) and effectiveness (physical exertion, balance of cognitive and physical challenge) compared to the non-adaptive version. In order to further enhance the gaming experience, experiments were also conducted with sound designs and an adaptive audio design with adaptive background music and sound feedback was implemented. It was found to be a promising and beneficial add-on for a user-centered attractive exergame design. To inform the design of a multiplayer version of the ExerCube, different social play mechanics were explored in the fifth study. This resulted in differently balanced experiences of fun, and in physical as well as cognitive exertion. As the preliminary comparative evaluation of the subjectively experienced effectiveness and attractiveness of an ExerCube session and a personal trainer session could prove the general feasibility of the concept and revealed the first indications of the intensity of the ExerCube’s training concept, the objectively measured effectiveness of a single ExerCube session with a functional high-intensity interval training (fHIIT) with a personal trainer was compared in a final sixth study, and after another design iteration. Again, the subjectively experienced attractiveness of both conditions was assessed. It could be shown that the ExerCube is a feasible training device for training at fHIIT-level. While physical exertion was slightly lower than in the conventional fHIIT condition, the ExerCube condition’s average heart rate values reached the fHIIT threshold and also yielded significantly better results for flow, enjoyment, and motivation. The ExerCube training also resulted in a subjectively experienced higher cognitive load (dual-domain training). To sum up, it can be stated that this dissertation provides valuable and fundamental research contributions to the promising field of exergames as attractive and effective training tools. Furthermore, important contributions to design questions in this field could be developed. Since this field is still relatively unexplored, the work presented creates a sound basis for future R&D work in this area

Kessel Run: towards emotion adaptation in a BCI multiplayer game

Tese de mestrado integrado, Engenharia Biomédica e Biofísica (Sinais e Imagens Médicas) Universidade de Lisboa, Faculdade de Ciências, 2017O objetivo original de uma Interface Cerebro-Máquina (BCI, do inglês Brain-Computer Interface) é o restauro de função a portadores de deficiências motoras, com aplicações que abrangem desde o mover de um cursor de computador ou de uma cadeira de rodas, a dispositivos complexos de soletração que substituem a fala. No entanto, com o recente aparecimento no mercado de aparelhos de BCI portáteis e económicos, as aplicações de BCI têm vindo a migrar lentamente para áreas fora do âmbito da saúde, como é o caso do entretenimento. Em particular, o desenvolvimento de videojogos em que os modos de interação tradicionais (teclado ou botões, por exemplo) são substituídos por controlos BCI é uma aposta frequente em vários grupos de investigação em neurociências. O uso de paradigmas de BCI como controladores de jogos tem a capacidade de não só possibilitar novos meios de interação mais intuitivos (como é o caso de apenas pensar em mover a personagem do jogo, em vez de pressionar o botão que a move), mas também de criar novos mecanismos de jogo que não são possíveis com dispositivos tradicionais. Para a criação destes novos mecanismos a Computação Afetiva é de relativo interesse, já que esta é a área de investigação encarregue de encontrar relações entre o estado emocional de um sujeito, através de BCIs, por exemplo, e utilizá-las para melhorar a interação com um computador (ou um jogo). Apesar de beneficiarem de um ligação direta ao cérebro, poucos são os videojogos BCI que a utilizam para adaptar o conteúdo do jogo ao estado emocional do jogador, em parte porque são poucas as relações conhecidas entre o eletroencefalograma (EEG) e o estado emocional do indivíduo, especialmente em condições pouco controladas e em cenários realistas. De facto, a maioria dos estudos em Computação Afetiva feitos com o objetivo de procurar correlações entre o estado emocional do sujeito e o seu EEG pecam por serem realizados sob condições pouco realistas, e, em particular, nunca durante uma situação de jogo. Por outro lado, apesar da frequente aposta no desenvolvimento de novos videojogos controlados por um paradigma de BCI, poucos têm em consideração as regras de um bom desenho de jogos, resultando muitas vezes num jogo que mesmo sendo funcional, é aborrecido. Com as perspetivas da aplicação de BCI e Computação Afetiva aos videojogos em mente, esta dissertação tem como objetivo o desenvolvimento de um jogo multiplayer controlado por BCI, que ao seguir as regras de bom desenho de jogos, é capaz de desencadear uma sensação de divertimento nos seus jogadores. Para além disso, o jogo também deve ser capaz de evocar um conjunto diversificado de estados emocionais nos seus jogadores, de forma a poder estudar-se as correlações entre o EEG e o estado emocional de cada indivíduo no espectro da frequência. Desta forma, poder-se-á comparar as correlações obtidas num cenário realístico de jogo com o estado-da-arte, frequentemente realizado em situações controladas, e assim contribuir para o avanço da adaptação emocional em videojogos BCI. Para concretizar estes objetivos, o videojogo Kessel Run foi desenvolvido. Kessel Run é um jogo 3D de uma corrida espacial para dois jogadores, em que ambos devem cooperar um com o outro de forma a direcionar uma nave espacial para longe de asteróides e assim conseguir finalizar uma corrida de 2 minutos com o mínimo de danos possível. Neste jogo, as regras básicas de desenho de jogos (Teoria de Flow e o Paradoxo de Controlo) foram aplicadas de forma a criar uma sensação de divertimento e de controlo no jogador. A sensação de controlo por parte do jogador é particularmente importante na criação de um jogo BCI, uma vez que a sua falta poderá levar a perda de imersão no jogo e, consequentemente, à diminuição do divertimento. Assim, de forma a garantir o bom controlo do jogo o paradigma SSVEP (do inglês Steady-State Visually Evoked Potential) foi escolhido como modo de interação BCI. De forma a evocarem-se um conjunto diversificado de estados emocionais nos jogadores, várias estratégias de elicitação foram aplicadas no jogo. Em primeiro lugar, este dispõe de dois níveis de dificuldade (um fácil e um difícil). O primeiro nível desafia as capacidades dos jogadores sem contudo ser demasiado difícil, pelo que se espera que evoque emoções mais positivas. Já o segundo nível aumenta bastante a dificuldade do jogo, tornando-se muito difícil batê-lo. Para além da dificuldade acrescida, o nível difícil do jogo foi programado de forma a que o controlo BCI falhe com frequência sem o conhecimento do jogador. Espera-se por isso que o segundo nível evoque níveis de frustração maiores, e estados emocionais mais negativos e excitados. O jogo Kessel Run foi colocado em prática ao desenvolver-se um protocolo experimental onde 12 participantes jogaram os dois níveis de dificuldade do jogo. A cada participante foi pedido a classificação do jogo em termos de experiência do utilizador, e de cada nível relativamente às emoções sentidas no decorrer do jogo, na forma de questionários. Foram também adquiridos os sinais de EEG de cada participante. De forma geral, o desempenho do paradigma BCI foi menor do o que esperado, conseguindo-se apenas um máximo de 79% classificações correctas. Este resultado deve-se essencialmente a dois factores: o grau deficiente de escuridão da sala laboratorial, responsável pela perda de desempenho na ordem dos 6%, e a deteção individual das frequências escolhidas para estímulo SSVEP (12 e 15 Hz). Neste último, os participantes tiveram maior facilidade em reconhecer o estímulo de 12 Hz, com um desempenho individual médio de 63%, face ao estímulo de 15 Hz com apenas 38%, o que comprometeu a performance geral do reconhecimento SSVEP. No entanto, apesar do desempenho fraco do paradigma, os participantes reportaram uma experiência bastante divertida (média de flow = 2:6 numa escala 0-5) e desafiante (média de challenge = 2:3 numa escala 0-5), com apenas um ligeiro aborrecimento (média de tension=annoyance = 1:1 numa escala 0-5), podendo-se concluir o sucesso do emprego das regras de bom desenho de jogos. As estratégias de elicitação de emoções foram apenas parcialmente bem sucedidas; não foram observadas diferenças significativas entre os níveis de dificuldade do jogo Kessel Run em termos de valência e excitação emocionais. No entanto conseguiu-se uma boa distribuição das avaliações emocionais dos participantes pelos quatro quadrantes das dimensões de valência e excitação, possibilitando o estudo de correlações entre o EEG dos participantes e as suas avaliações para cada nível de jogo em termos de oscilações no espectro da frequência e assimetrias na banda alfa. Encontraram-se correlações significativas na dimensão da valência que parecem contradizer a teoria da assimetria da banda alfa. Em particular, obteve-se uma correlação positiva significativa indicando uma relação de diminuição da activação hemisférica esquerda e consequente aumento da banda alfa. Esta contradição foi também confirmada pela obtenção de uma assimetria esquerda bastante significativa na banda alfa para o córtex frontal. Observou-se ainda uma diminuição da potência central da banda beta e um aumento occipital e temporal direito para a mesma banda relacionado com a dimensão da valência. Para a excitação encontrou-se uma correlação negativa significativa em regiões centrais e frontais na banda alfa, indicando uma activação destas regiões cerebrais aquando de estados mais excitados. Mais ainda, uma correlação significativa indicou uma assimetria direita na banda alfa para um par de eléctrodos fronto-centrais. Espera-se que este estudo possa contribuir para uma futura geração de videojogos com a capacidade de adaptação ao conteúdo emocional do seu jogador.Lately the field of (digital) game research is rapidly growing, with studies dedicated to capture game experience, adopting new technologies or exploring outside traditional input methods. Alongside, research in Brain-Computer Interfaces (BCI) has significantly increased in its applications for healthy users, such as games. BCIs benefit from access to brain activity which can bypass bodily mediation (e.g. controllers) and enable gamers to express themselves more naturally in a given game context. Moreover, BCI can provide significant insight into the user's emotional state. Recent research points to numerous correlates of emotion in brain signals. A complex challenge is to use BCI for access to the player's affective state in a real gaming context, improving and tailoring the user experience. The goal of this dissertation project is to introduce affective research to BCI games by creating a novel multiplayer Steady-State Visually Evoked Potential (SSVEP) BCI game, capable of providing a fun experience to its players and eliciting emotions for a study on EEG correlates of emotion. The multiplayer game Kessel Run was created, resulting in a space exploration game with a exible system that followed good game design rules with emotion elicitation strategies, controlled by the SSVEP paradigm. Twelve participants played Kessel Run using a 32-electrode EEG cap and rated the emotions felt during gameplay in a questionnaire. The SSVEP game performance achieved a maximum of 79% accuracy and an average of 55%. In addition, players reported that playing the game created a fun and immersive experience. A significant correlation with increased alpha power on the left hemisphere and positive valence led to the contradiction of the popular alpha asymmetry theory, which states that processing of positive information causes a decrease in alpha power on the left frontal hemisphere. Furthermore, correlates in the beta frequency range have been found for valence on right temporal and central sites. In the arousal dimension a significant central and frontal alpha power decrease was found, along with significant alpha asymmetry on fronto-central pairs for increased arousal

Effects of Local Latency on Games

Video games are a major type of entertainment for millions of people, and feature a wide variety genres. Many genres of video games require quick reactions, and in these games it is critical for player performance and player experience that the game is responsive. One of the major contributing factors that can make games less responsive is local latency — the total delay between input and a resulting change to the screen. Local latency is produced by a combination of delays from input devices, software processing, and displays. Due to latency, game companies spend considerable time and money play-testing their games to ensure the game is both responsive and that the in-game difficulty is reasonable. Past studies have made it clear that local latency negatively affects both player performance and experience, but there is still little knowledge about local latency’s exact effects on games. In this thesis, we address this problem by providing game designers with more knowledge about local latency’s effects. First, we performed a study to examine latency’s effects on performance and experience for popular pointing input devices used with games. Our results show significant differences between devices based on the task and the amount of latency. We then provide design guidelines based on our findings. Second, we performed a study to understand latency’s effects on ‘atoms’ of interaction in games. The study varied both latency and game speed, and found game speed to affect a task’s sensitivity to latency. Third, we used our findings to build a model to help designers quickly identify latency-sensitive game atoms, thus saving time during play-testing. We built and validated a model that predicts errors rates in a game atom based on latency and game speed. Our work helps game designers by providing new insight into latency’s varied effects and by modelling and predicting those effect

The Application of Mixed Reality Within Civil Nuclear Manufacturing and Operational Environments

This thesis documents the design and application of Mixed Reality (MR) within a nuclear manufacturing cell through the creation of a Digitally Assisted Assembly Cell (DAAC). The DAAC is a proof of concept system, combining full body tracking within a room sized environment and bi-directional feedback mechanism to allow communication between users within the Virtual Environment (VE) and a manufacturing cell. This allows for training, remote assistance, delivery of work instructions, and data capture within a manufacturing cell. The research underpinning the DAAC encompasses four main areas; the nuclear industry, Virtual Reality (VR) and MR technology, MR within manufacturing, and finally the 4 th Industrial Revolution (IR4.0). Using an array of Kinect sensors, the DAAC was designed to capture user movements within a real manufacturing cell, which can be transferred in real time to a VE, creating a digital twin of the real cell. Users can interact with each other via digital assets and laser pointers projected into the cell, accompanied by a built-in Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) system. This allows for the capture of implicit knowledge from operators within the real manufacturing cell, as well as transfer of that knowledge to future operators. Additionally, users can connect to the VE from anywhere in the world. In this way, experts are able to communicate with the users in the real manufacturing cell and assist with their training. The human tracking data fills an identified gap in the IR4.0 network of Cyber Physical System (CPS), and could allow for future optimisations within manufacturing systems, Material Resource Planning (MRP) and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP). This project is a demonstration of how MR could prove valuable within nuclear manufacture. The DAAC is designed to be low cost. It is hoped this will allow for its use by groups who have traditionally been priced out of MR technology. This could help Small to Medium Enterprises (SMEs) close the double digital divide between themselves and larger global corporations. For larger corporations it offers the benefit of being low cost, and, is consequently, easier to roll out across the value chain. Skills developed in one area can also be transferred to others across the internet, as users from one manufacturing cell can watch and communicate with those in another. However, as a proof of concept, the DAAC is at Technology Readiness Level (TRL) five or six and, prior to its wider application, further testing is required to asses and improve the technology. The work was patented in both the UK (S. R EDDISH et al., 2017a), the US (S. R EDDISH et al., 2017b) and China (S. R EDDISH et al., 2017c). The patents are owned by Rolls-Royce and cover the methods of bi-directional feedback from which users can interact from the digital to the real and vice versa. Stephen Reddish Mixed Mode Realities in Nuclear Manufacturing Key words: Mixed Mode Reality, Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, Nuclear, Manufacture, Digital Twin, Cyber Physical Syste

Six degrees of video game narrative: a classification for narrative in video games

158 pagesThis study aims to construct a systematical approach to classification of narrative usage in video games. The most recent dominant approaches of reading a video game text – narratology and ludology - are discussed. By inquiring the place of interactivity and autonomy inside the discourse of video game narrative, a classification is proposed. Consequently six groups of video games are determined, depending on the levels of combination of narration and ludic context. These Six Degrees are defined in detail and example video games are analysized for each. The conclusion composes a six degrees reference system that could be utilized in various fields such as video game design or video game studies