Using gaming paratexts in the literacy classroom

This paper illustrates how digital game paratexts may effectively be used in the high school English to meet a variety of traditional and multimodal literacy outcomes. Paratexts are texts that refer to digital gaming and game cultures, and using them in the classroom enables practitioners to focus on and valorise the considerable literacies and skills that young people develop and deploy in their engagement with digital gaming and game cultures. The effectiveness of valorizing paratexts in this manner is demonstrated through two examples of assessment by students in classes where teachers had designed curriculum and assessment activities using paratexts

On the Liberation of Space in Computer Games

This article describes the evolution of space in computer games from self-contained spaces to more processual concepts. While in the early age of computer games the design of space primarily caused specific interpretations and acts (invasion or defence of space – as a matter of opinion), the latter concepts become more and more indefinite: Former hard-fought dungeons and space stations resolve into landscapes open for relational perspectives. Insofar as the design of space loses its impact on the perceptions and actions of the players, acts of social communication and not warfare reduce uncertainty. The thesis is that this process gives rise to the formation of communities and the unpredictable configuration of space

Designing Puzzles for Collaborative Gaming Experience – CASE: eScape

Digital games are essentially about fun, challenge and entertainment. With the increasing number of games-literate people, society is slowly learning to harness this technology for other than mainstream market exploitation, thus, driving game design into unexplored territories. Nevertheless, when observing the selection of contemporary commercial games, there seems to be little diversity in the type and forms of gameplay. There is an oversupply of competition, destruction, solo-heroism and personal sandboxes. One of the less ventured areas is games that are designed for collaboration. This paper examines the issues of puzzle or challenge design (Rollings & Adams, 2003) in the context of collaborative gaming. Questions like ‘How to create meaningful puzzles requiring collaboration?’, ‘Is there life beyond trial and error?’, and "How far game developers can go with collaboration design?’ are of relevance. The questions are approached from the game design point-of-view, while the application domain is within the thematic setting of learning and group dynamics. Games are intrinsically instruments for learning, which can be, and have been, adopted for collaboration. In many computer games players learn lessons that can be applied to other aspects of their life. Many players thrive on and long for the challenges games provide, and are enriched by the learning that follows (Rouse, 2000). Games do not just entail having participants in virtual surroundings. Instead, they offer meaningful and motivated actions for the players, which, in turn, enhance the potential for collaboration (Baker et al., 2002). The case study illustrated in this paper includes an experimental game design, eScape (2003), which has been constructed as a total conversion modification for Unreal Tournament 2003. In order to harness the potential of multi-disciplinary expertise, the design of eScape was supported by collaboration between the Universities of Oulu (LudoCraft Game Design and Research Unit and Educational Technology Research Unit) and Jyväskylä (Institute for Educational Research). Educational experts provided a set of pedagogical concepts, such as, negotiation, conflict, shared understanding, common goals, and group forming. These acted as objective phenomena to be pursued by game design. Game design and development knowledge was applied into learning context without compromising either the factor of fun or the requirement for purposeful learning. Traditional pitfalls of edutainment were avoided by finding a fruitful combination of a game system and a learning environment. eScape is a 4-player collaborative game, which can be defined as social action adventure especially targeted for novice players. The high concept of the game is an escape story where the group of players has to solve a set of problems, or puzzles, in order to flee from the ancient prison colony. The puzzles are designed in a way that the effort, commitment and actions of every participant are required for successful completion. In addition to visual and non-verbal in-game interaction, the player-to-player communication is supported by voice-over-IP speech system, which allows free dialogue. Rich interaction is enabled in a way which is as intuitive and non-intrusive for the players as possible. The choices, manoeuvres and other interaction features are simple enough to be used by non-gaming community. A special laboratory environment was constructed so as to capture all the required data during the experimental game sessions. The multiplayer nature of eScape required extensive data collection arrangements because every player’s actions had to be recorded. In order not to compromise the research setting, the players were physically isolated from each other by wall sections. These cubicles were arranged in a way that the players were not disturbed from outside the game world. This made it possible to have a multitude of data recording devices and personnel within the set, while the players were experiencing realistic computer-mediated collaboration. The eScape empirical experiment was organised with the participation of six groups of four test players chosen from the non-gaming community. On the first day the players were given a brief training session in the game tutorial. On the second day they played the game, immediately followed by a stimulated recall interview. Data were gathered using several methods: background information questionnaires, video feed from each of the players (over-the-shoulder view), combined views from all the four players (over-the-shoulder views), video feed from a virtual camera (in-game), audio recording of spoken dialogue, demo recording within the game platform (enables free camera movements during playback), stimulated recall interviews, and the players’ personal notes. The analysis of player collaboration in puzzle solving was conducted by studying the perceivable interaction forms (Manninen, 2003) that were evident in dialogue transcripts and in-game video recordings. Based on this analysis the implications for puzzle design were further evaluated against the proposed puzzle design framework. The main challenge was the design of motivationally guided, logical and challenging puzzles that would require true collaboration. In order to avoid ending up with trivial, non-motivational and/or frustrating activities, the theoretical and practical expertise of game design was utilised. However, since there are relatively few occurrences of truly collaborative games in the entertainment sector, the theories behind eScape involved a combination of game design, virtual environments, collaborative work and education. The study revealed encouraging results on the possibilities of designing puzzles for collaboration but some dangers were also identified. The design produced relatively simplistic and secure puzzles, which enabled safe trial-and-error procedures. Higher level of collaboration could be supported by increasing the pressure, risk levels and/or creativity in the design for collaboration. When players acquire a concrete feel for beneficial, or purely enjoyable, collaboration, they will naturally engage such strategies. The main limitation of the eScape, and one possible reason for the lack of higher level collaboration, was the shortage of supported collaborative construction. The explicit construction process provides endless representational variations for the participants to express themselves. Combined with collaborative challenge, the participants can creatively enrich each other\u27s experiences. For example, the findings indicate that the participants found highly innovative ways in overcoming the obstacles – sometimes even exceeding the boundaries set by the designers. In comparison to destructive features evident in contemporary games, the constructive features, while difficult to design, offer a higher range of possibilities. Sample References Baker, K., Greenberg, S. and Gutwin, C. (2002). Empirical development of a heuristic evaluation methodology for shared workspace groupware. Proceedings of the ACM Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work, ACM Press. eScape – Electronically Shared Collaborative and Pedagogical Experiment (2003). LudoCraft Game Design and Research Unit, University of Oulu. [online] [cited 30 November 2004]. Available from: http://ludocraft.oulu.fi/escape/ Manninen, T. (2003). Interaction Forms and Communicative Actions in Multiplayer Games. In Game Studies, The International Journal of Computer Game Research 3(1). Rollings, Andrew & Adams, Ernest (2003) Andrew Rollings and Ernest Adams on Game Design. New Riders, p. 500 Rouse, R. (2000). Game Design: Theory & Practice. Wordware Publishing, Inc., Plano, Texas. Salem K. & Zimmerman E. (2004). Rules of Play – Game Design Fundamentals. Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Multiplayer Game Development Approaches for Student Integration in Universities

Tese de Mestrado. Multimédia. Faculdade de Engenharia. Universidade do Porto. 201

De perfiles y personajes: evolución de la representación del usuario en las redes sociales y los juegos de rol

Role-playing games -along with social networks- have become the most popular leisure activity online. This paper locates the origin of these web platforms in the digital evolution of collaborative narratives and role-playing games. In order to do so, it studies the evolution of the role-playing game through its different digital adaptations and presents the evolution of other narrative forms through the introduction of hypertext. To end up, it analyzes the image projected by the user in these narratives, where a social network profile is considered as a character itself. Los juegos de rol en línea constituyen, junto a las redes sociales, las opciones más populares de ocio en la red. En el presente estudio, se sitúa el origen de estas plataformas en la evolución digital de las narrativas colaborativas y juegos de rol. Para ello, se examina la evolución del Juego de Rol en sus diferentes adaptaciones digitales a la vez que se presenta la evolución de otras formas narrativas a través de la introducción del hipertexto. Finalmente se analiza la imagen proyectada por el usuario en estas narrativas, en las que el perfil de una red social es tratado “como un personaje más”

Profiles and characters : evolution of the representation of the user in social networks and role-playing games

Role-playing games -along with social networks- have become the most popular leisure activity online. This paper locates the origin of these web platforms in the digital evolution of collaborative narratives and role-playing games. In order to do so, it studies the evolution of the role-playing game through its different digital adaptations and presents the evolution of other narrative forms through the introduction of hypertext. To end up, it analyzes the image projected by the user in these narratives, where a social network profile is considered as a character itself

interactive Islamic Prayer (iIP)

The implementation of Virtual Environments has often been used within the educational domain. This study adopts a Virtual Environment (VE) setting to enhance and develop the physical aspects of teaching the Islamic prayer to primary school children, in comparison to traditional forms of teaching through a prayer book and prayer video. An interactive teaching Software, the interactive Islamic Prayer (iIP), was designed and developed for this purpose and uses technology by Microsoft’s Microsoft Kinect 360 for Windows to demonstrate the various movements of the prayer in sequence. Through the administration of a number of questionnaires, a quantitative analysis of the participants’ learning experience were identified, as well as details over which approach the participants preferred. The questionnaires also provided a detailed insight into six areas of study from the learners’ perspective when using the various learning approaches: comprehension, learning experience, interaction, satisfaction, usability and achievement. The results revealed a higher degree of interaction within the lesson on prayer when using the iIP compared to the traditional teaching methods, and although some were unfamiliar with using the Microsoft Kinect 360, on the whole, they found it to be fun and educational. The findings also showed that the software was able to focus on lower level thinking skills, such as recalling information and memory, as a test of the students’ knowledge on the prayer before and after using the software showed a significant improvement in comparison to the other approaches. Recommendations have been given on how to effectively implement this software within these relevant classrooms

Investigating the Impact of Co-located and Distributed Collaboration Using Multi-touch Tables

With the intention to study the role of new interfaces in multi-user applications, multi-touch tabletops are investigated to examine if they effectively aid their users in working together synchronously. Multi-player games are selected as a case of collaborative work. Early studies of distributed multi-touch tabletops did not cover the HCI related aspects associated with multi-player games, especially in distributed configuration. The performance, collaboration, and usability aspects of HCI are studied in this research. A simple multi-player maze game has been designed and implemented over two connected and physically separated multi-touch tabletops. The aim of this work is to investigate the effects of distribution on players performance, collaboration, and usability of multi-player games over multi-touch tabletops, compared to playing in a co-located condition. Groups of participants have been randomly selected and assigned to play the game in pairs under two conditions: co-located where two players are playing the game on the same table, and distributed where they are playing the game but on separate tables. The collected data is statistically analysed to test for differences between the two conditions, as well as the differences of the strength of the correlation between the underlying factors. The results indicate that, in general, the differences are not significant for such type of applications if a simple and efficient communication mechanism is provided for the players in the distributed condition. Players expressed almost the same level of usability engagement and enjoyment for the two conditions. This may have a strong impact on the HCI aspects when designing such type of applications on the future

L' analyse des préférences des téléspectateurs extraterritoriaux dans le football : application au public de deux régions marocaines

The globalization of football as entertainment and the changes in media have generated the development of a new category of public: international viewers. Understanding their behavior proves to be an important research topic for the marketing of federations, leagues and professional clubs. The research is focused on understanding the preferences of international viewers who follow football games in the media. From a theoretical point of view, the conceptual model and the hypotheses have been constructed based on an experimental approach to marketing and the identification process of social psychology. The research model focuses on Moroccan viewers watching two Spanish teams Real Madrid and FC Barcelona on television. It has been tested qualitatively (20 subjects) and quantitatively (903 subjects). Moreover, the influence of other cultural variables has been incorporated. These are the historical connection and geographical proximity to the supported team, and sporting variables: based on playing style, best player and wins to explain the preference for one of the two teams. The results have shown that the preference of Moroccan viewers is above all linked to: [1] the process of identification, [2] the historical connection and geographical proximity to the team, as well as [3] the sporting variables: playing style and wins. These results are important to the development of professional clubs. The sponsors’ understanding of the expectations of the foreign consumer segment enables managers and professional clubs to seek appropriate strategies and solutions to satisfy: the spectators, both ex-patriot and international.La mondialisation du spectacle footballistique et l’évolution des médias ont engendré le développement d’une nouvelle catégorie de public : les téléspectateurs extraterritoriaux. Comprendre leur comportement s’avère un thème de recherche important en marketing du sport pour les fédérations, les ligues et les clubs professionnels. Notre recherche doctorale est centrée sur à la compréhension des préférences de publics extraterritoriaux qui suivent les rencontres de football à distance par le biais des médias. D’un point de vue théorique, nous avons construit un modèle conceptuel et des hypothèses qui associent, d’une part, une approche expérientielle issue du marketing et, d’autre part, le processus d’identification issu de la psychologie sociale. De plus, nous avons intégré l’influence sociologique d’autres variables culturelles : la proximité géographique et lien historique vis-à-vis de l’équipe soutenue, et sportives : style de jeu, meilleur joueur et victoire pour expliquer la préférence pour l’une des deux équipes. Nous avons testé qualitativement (20 sujets) et quantitativement (903 sujets) notre modèle de recherche sur les téléspectateurs extraterritoriaux marocains qui suivent à la télévision deux équipes espagnoles : le Real de Madrid et le FC Barcelone. Les résultats ont montré que leurs préférences sont surtout liées : au processus d’identification, à la proximité géographique et au lien historique à l’équipe soutenue, et au style de jeu et à la victoire de l’équipe qu’ils soutiennent. Ces résultats sont importants car la compréhension des attentes de ce nouveau segment permet aux managers et aux clubs professionnels d’affiner leurs stratégies marketing et leurs produits pour satisfaire en tant que marque de sport: les spectateurs, les supporters à distance transterritoriaux et les téléspectateurs extraterritoriaux