The Effect of High Monitor Refresh Rate on Game Experience

Most computer monitors display images at a rate of 60hz or 60 updates per second. Modern gaming-oriented monitors often run at rates of over 100hz, even up to 240hz. In practice this higher refresh rate is most noticeable in the smoothening of fast movements, which are present in many competitive shooter games such as Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO). High refresh rate as a feature in a monitor will increase its price the same way as larger panel size or better image quality. This study aimed to find out if the possible benefits of high refresh rate is worth it for the game experience of PC gamers in general, as it is becoming more affordable. This is a qualitative study which employs observing and semi-structured interviews for data collection and thematic analysis for analysing the collected data. In the practical part the study, a small number of individuals played CS:GO with two refresh rate settings, 60hz and 144hz in a controlled environment. The participants had different levels of experience in PC games which helped in forming codes and themes in the analysis phase in addition to their reactions and answers in the lab. It was determined that competitive players who possess a certain skill level can benefit from high refresh rate. It can also positively affect the experience of some gamers as a visual effect perceived as smoother movement. For many gamers however, it has negligible or no effect on their experience. High refresh rate is supported by some upcoming gaming consoles and smartphones. This would suggest that high refresh rate will become more mainstream in the future, providing more potential for research in this topic.Suurin osa tietokonenäytöistä toistaa kuvia 60hz taajuudella eli 60 päivitystä sekunnissa. Nykyaikaiset pelikäyttöön suunnatut näytöt voivat usein toistaa kuvia yli 100hz tai jopa 240hz taajuudella. Käytännössä tämä nopeampi virkistystaajuus näkyy sulavampina nopeina liikkeinä, joita on esimerkiksi nopeissa ammuntapeleissä kuten Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO). Nopea virkistystaajuus kasvattaa näytön hintaa siinä missä mikä tahansa muu ominaisuus kuten suurempi näyttöpaneeli tai korkeampi resoluutio. Tämä tutkimus pyrki selvittämään, ovatko nopean virkistystaajuuden mahdolliset hyödyt arvokas ominaisuus yleisesti PC pelaajien pelikokemukselle, koska se on nyt tullut paremmin saavuteltavaksi. Tutkimus on luonteeltaan laadullinen ja se käyttää havainnointia sekä puolistrukturoituja haastatteluja tiedonkeruumenetelminään sekä teema-analyysia analyysimenetelmänään. Käytännönosuudessa pieni ryhmä osallistujia kävi vuorollaan pelaamassa CS:GO -peliä laboratoriotilassa kahdella eri virkistystaajuusasetuksella, 60hz ja 144hz. Osallistujilla oli eroavia määriä kokemusta PC pelaamisesta. Tämän ansiosta he myös reagoivat ja vastasivat haastattelussa eri lailla, mikä auttoi muodostamaan koodeja ja teemoja analyysivaiheessa. Lopputuloksena todettiin, että kilpailuun keskittyvät pelaajat voivat hyötyä nopeasta virkistystaajuudesta. Se voi myös vaikuttaa positiivisesti joidenkin pelaajien pelikokemukseen liikkeitä sulauttavana visuaalisena efektinä. Monille pelaajille sillä ei kuitenkaan ole juurikaan tai ei lainkaan vaikutusta heidän pelikokemukseensa. Nopea virkistystaajuus on tulossa myös uusiin pelikonsoleihin sekä älypuhelimiin. Ominaisuudesta on siten tulossa enemmän valtavirtaa, mikä avaa uusia tutkimusmahdollisuuksia aiheeseen

WPI eSports Feasibility Study

This report summarizes the rapid growth and worldwide impact of eSports, and outlines the organizational and physical requirements for creating a successful collegiate eSports league. It concludes by exploring the potential of an officially-recognized WPI eSports league to attract sponsorship resources and scholarships, and the prospect for WPI to become a go-to destination for prospective students interested in eSports

Recall and recognition of in-game advertising : the role of game control

Digital gaming has become one of the largest entertainment sectors worldwide, increasingly turning the medium into a promising vehicle for advertisers. As a result, the inclusion of advertising messages in digital games or in-game advertising (IGA) is expected to grow steadily over the course of the following years. However, much work is still needed to maximize the effectiveness of IGA. The aim of the study was to contribute to IGA effectiveness research by analyzing the impact of two factors on the processing of IGA in terms of brand awareness. The primary objective was to investigate the effect of a person’s sense of involvement related to the control and movement mechanisms in a game (i.e. kinesthetic involvement). A within-subjects experiment was conducted in which control over a racing game was varied by manipulating game controller type, resulting in two experimental conditions (symbolic versus mimetic controller). Results show that the variation in game controller has a significant effect on the recall and recognition of the brands integrated into the game, and that this effect can be partially brought back to players’ perceived control over the game: when a game is easier to control, the control mechanisms require less conscious attention, freeing attentional resources that can be subsequently spent on other elements of the game such as IGA. A second factor that was taken into account in the study was brand prominence. The influence of both the size and spatial position of in-game advertisements was examined. Findings demonstrate that there are significant changes in effectiveness between different types of placements. Spatial position seems to be the most important placement characteristic, with central brand placements obtaining the highest recall and recognition scores. The effect of ad size is much smaller, with the effectiveness of the large placements not differing significantly from the effectiveness of their smaller counterparts

Gen X and Digital Games: Looking back to look forward

Despite there being increased attention in recent years to older adults who actively play digital games, it seems that there has been comparatively minimal scholarly focus on the next generation of older adult gamers – Generation X gamers. Although there have been few, current audience studies that examine this population within a gaming context, a temporal perspective reveals another story. Older members of this generation were the first age cohort to be exposed to and engage in video gameplay at an early age (i.e., childhood). With the emerging popularity of video games in the 1980s, this did not escape the attention of scholars. This study provides an overview of those early studies that assessed video game use and its potential (for better or worse) among the older members Gen X. The study themes identified include: health, education, and behavior. In addition, the first studies that identified gaming characteristics of this generation in their formative years emerged in the latter half of that decade. By identifying themes in these early studies, scholars have the potential to track an entire generation’s gaming history and characteristics from childhood to present day. Ultimately, this may glean richer insight into those qualities when they become the next older generation of digital game players

Behavioral and psychological involvement of online video gamers: Building blocks or building walls to socialization?

Video gaming has often been associated with negative outcomes such as aggression and social isolation, particularly for those who spend significant amounts of time playing. However, advances in video game technology have enabled online, multi-player experiences which may facilitate social relationships. Recent literature suggests that meanings ascribed to video gaming may be more important in determining social outcomes than gaming behaviors alone. This study examined the relationship of both behavioral and psychological involvement in video gaming to perceived friend-based social support among a sample of multi-player, first-person shooter gamers. Results indicated that behavioral involvement (e.g., time spent playing, dollars spent) was unrelated to perceived social support. Enduring (i.e., psychological) involvement with video games had varied relationships with the measure of social support. Gamers who perceived video gaming to be a forum for social bonding were more likely to perceive higher levels of social support, while gamers who appeared to centralize their lifestyle around gaming were less likely to report positive social support levels

Driving, Dashboards and Dromology: Analysing 1980s Videogames Using Paul Virilio’s Theory of Speed

The increasing speed of delivery technologies correlates with an increase in inertia for the user of the audiovisual. Employing Virilio’s concept of dromology, the first part of this paper introduces Virilio’s key concepts of speed and inertia upon the perception of space and time by the users of a range of technologies. It is argued that the privileging of ‘time-saving’ ravages traditional notions of space, and generates an additional ‘digital’ space which is at once expansive and also convexed towards the user. Having established the effects of speed and inertia, the main part of the paper extends Virilio’s theory of dromology to provide a context for analysis of a variety of seminal videogames from the 1980s, where driving is a key component. These games of dashboards and vehicles, wars and (wind)screens illustrate Virilio’s central concerns that societies that are addicted to speed are also those which are the most tightly surveilled and controlled

Gender in digital games: gameplay as cyborg performance

Computer games have now been around nearly forty years. The pace at which computer games have transformed has been so fast that at times it is exceeding thoughtful evaluation and criticism. Since the beginning of the 2000’s, academic understanding of this phenomenon has been trying to catch up with this pace. Feminist studies has also been observing computer gaming, theorizing it as another male-dominated cultural domain. Most of the feminist inquiries in this area have focused on representations of gender and violence in games. Focus on gender and identity relationships between the game players and game characters, has been relatively small. What mostly missing from the current research, is the gender transgressions and alternative subjectivities that might hold political meanings besides the personal ones. Virtual reality communities and massively multiplayer role-playing online games challenge the ideas of identity and gender. As the computer gaming world grows larger, gender representations are becoming more fluid and ambiguous; the possibilities of subversive readings of gender and alternative subjectivities expand

Calling for Information Systems Research on Esports: An Overview Study

Online gaming has become a pervasive entertainment activity, and its professionalization has resulted in esports (i.e., electronic sports)—a new blend of sport and business. Esports has a promising future given its widespread acceptance and significant business value. Its innovative nature necessitates more research to help understand and shape its future. We hold that scholars, especially information systems (IS) researchers, should pay more attention to this phenomenon since the IS discipline has a key interest in examining esports’ constituents (i.e., people, organizations, and technologies). To increase research attention and help readers understand esports, we compiled this research overview. In it, we first comprehensively define esports. Then, we summarize the esports development. We outline the current state of research in general and systematically review the IS perspective. Based on these efforts, we propose an esports research framework with four promising IS research avenues. We end by discussing “IS contributions” to esports and this overview’s implications. This study serves as a foundation for comprehensively mapping the esports practice and research landscape. We hope our findings can help others, especially IS researchers, more clearly understand esports and guide them towards creating increasingly impactful works