Massively Multiplayer Online Gamers: Motivations and Risks

Massively multiplayer online games (MMOGs) are a popular type of online video game. While these games and their players have been studied previously, there is gap in the literature that examines the relationship between one’s motivation to play MMOGs and loneliness, depression, and problematic use. For this study, 440 players of World of Warcraft (WoW), a popular MMOG, completed a demographics questionnaire and four measures, including Williams, Yee, & Caplan’s (2008) motivation measure, Peter’s & Malesky’s (2008) World of Warcraft-specific Problematic Usage-Engagement Questionnaire, UCLA’s Loneliness scale, and The Depression Anxiety Stress Scales. Results from quantitative analyses suggest that MMO players who are motivated to play for reasons of achievement and immersion are more likely to experience problematic use than those persons who play for social motivations. Loneliness and depression were only positively related with immersion motivated players, and there exists a significant negative relationship between social motivation and depression. These results suggest that gamers who play WoW for immersive reasons are the most at-risk in comparison to their peers. Implications for counseling, limitations, and directions for future research are discussed

Negotiations for meaning in the context of a massively multiplayer online role-playing game

This study investigated negotiations for meaning as conditions for second language (L2) learning in the context of a massively multiplayer online role-playing game, World of Warcraft (WoW) (Blizzard Entertainment, 2004). Varonis and Gass’s (1985) and Smith’s (2003a) models were used to identify negotiation episodes during on-task and off-task talks among the participants while playing WoW. The participants were six non-native (NNS) and one native English speaker (NS). The NNSs were divided into two teams of three: Team 1 (T1) pre-intermediate and Team 2 (T2) upper-intermediate. The NS played the game with both teams. The study lasted for six months and resulted in 59.96 hours of recorded audio and nine hours of screen-recorded gaming sessions. Negotiation patterns were compared across the L2 proficiency levels and three different types of dyads. The results revealed that (a) T1 encountered more communication breakdowns, but T2 engaged in more negotiations, (b) T1 engaged in more complex negotiations, (c) breakdowns and negotiations occurred more during off-task talk, and (d) breakdowns were triggered more by the NS’s utterances in T1 and by NNSs’ utterances in T2. The results also showed the participants’ abundant L2 use to undertake authentically contextualized game-driven tasks, meticulous involvement in bi- and multi-lateral negotiations, and creative strategies to resolve incomprehension

Entertainment Games for Teaching English as a Second Language: Characteristics and Potential

This article explores the use of entertainment games for teaching English as a second language. It is a narrative literature review of theories of motivation and learning. To facilitate the choice of didactic resources to be used in the English classroom by teachers, this study brings to light the characteristics relevant to teaching that can be found in games, associated with different genres. In this sense, 14 researches involving digital games of entertainment were analyzed, using as basis Gardner’s theories of motivation in the teaching, games and the active learner of Gee, zone of proximal development of Vygotsky, tangential learning model of Portnow and Brown, model of the monitor, Krashen’s input hypothesis, Schumann’s acculturation model, and the hypothesis of the interaction proposed by several authors such as Gass and Larsen-Freeman and Long. The results obtained were the definition of the relevant characteristics to teaching and learning in games and the identification of the genres associated to these characteristics. The discussion used the following characteristics found in the analyzed texts: motivation, classroom interaction, social interaction in the game, tangential learning, grades, complementary material, vocabulary, repetitive written content, big written content, need for text interpretation, audio and text

Desarrollo y aplicación de videojuegos para la salud

Se supone que la aplicación de videojuegos como herramientas para promover la salud es una práctica beneficiosa. Los videojuegos no sólo pueden servir como recreación o entretenimiento para pacientes que padecen tratamientos largos y complejos, sino también pueden servir como herramientas para motivar y educar a los pacientes sobre su enfermedad, formas de superarla, maneras de cuidarse, comportamientos saludables, etc. Otro aspecto beneficioso de los videojuegos es la posibilidad de utilizarlo como medio directo de rehabilitación en enfermedades motrices, especialmente los videojuegos con sensores de movimientos.Eje: Innovación en Sistemas de SoftwareRed de Universidades con Carreras en Informática (RedUNCI

More Than Peer Production: Fanfiction Communities as Sites of Distributed Mentoring

From Harry Potter to American Horror Story, fanfiction is extremely popular among young people. Sites such as Fanfiction.net host millions of stories, with thousands more posted each day. Enthusiasts are sharing their writing and reading stories written by others. Exactly how does a generation known more for videogame expertise than long-form writing become so engaged in reading and writing in these communities? Via a nine-month ethnographic investigation of fanfiction communities that included participant observation, interviews, a thematic analysis of 4,500 reader reviews and an in-depth case study of a discussion group, we found that members of fanfiction communities spontaneously mentor each other in open forums, and that this mentoring builds upon previous interactions in a way that is distinct from traditional forms of mentoring and made possible by the affordances of networked publics. This work extends and develops the theory of distributed mentoring. Our findings illustrate how distributed mentoring supports fanfiction authors as they work to develop their writing skills. We believe distributed mentoring holds potential for supporting learning in a variety of formal and informal learning environments

Negotiations for meaning in the context of a massively multiplayer online role-playing game

This study investigated negotiations for meaning as conditions for second language (L2) learning in the context of a massively multiplayer online role-playing game, World of Warcraft (WoW) (Blizzard Entertainment, 2004). Varonis and Gass’s (1985) and Smith’s (2003a) models were used to identify negotiation episodes during on-task and off-task talks among the participants while playing WoW. The participants were six non-native (NNS) and one native English speaker (NS). The NNSs were divided into two teams of three: Team 1 (T1) pre-intermediate and Team 2 (T2) upper-intermediate. The NS played the game with both teams. The study lasted for six months and resulted in 59.96 hours of recorded audio and nine hours of screen-recorded gaming sessions. Negotiation patterns were compared across the L2 proficiency levels and three different types of dyads. The results revealed that (a) T1 encountered more communication breakdowns, but T2 engaged in more negotiations, (b) T1 engaged in more complex negotiations, (c) breakdowns and negotiations occurred more during off-task talk, and (d) breakdowns were triggered more by the NS’s utterances in T1 and by NNSs’ utterances in T2. The results also showed the participants’ abundant L2 use to undertake authentically contextualized game-driven tasks, meticulous involvement in bi- and multi-lateral negotiations, and creative strategies to resolve incomprehension

Doctoral Colloquium

The 2015 iConference Doctoral Colloquium is made possible in part by a generous grant from the National Science Foundation (#1519338). Additional funding was provided by the iSchools.Ope

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

SOURCE 2016 Program

This is the full program of the Symposium of University Research and Creative Expression (SOURCE) 2016