Comparing Clustering Approaches for Modeling Players' Values through Avatar Construction

Abstract Videogame avatars provide an expressive avenue for players to represent themselves virtually. Research has shown that these avatars, while virtual, can reveal aspects of players' identities, along with physical, social, and cultural values of the real-world. In this paper, we present an approach for modeling player values through their avatars using artificial intelligence (AI) clustering techniques. In a study with 191 participants who created avatars using our system, we provide a thorough comparison of the techniques across numerical, textual, and visual data. Our findings showed that these data structures can effectively reveal players' values and preferences, such as conforming to stereotypes of character roles using statistical attributes, modeling nuances in text descriptions of avatars, and identifying "bestexample" (prototypical) avatar appearances that players can be quantitatively shown to conform to. Our findings suggest that AI clustering approaches can be used to model players to yield insight into implicitly held values in a data-driven manner through virtual avatars

Detection of Deception in a Virtual World

This work explores the role of multimodal cues in detection of deception in a virtual world, an online community of World of Warcraft players. Case studies from a five-year ethnography are presented in three categories: small-scale deception in text, deception by avoidance, and large-scale deception in game-external modes. Each case study is analyzed in terms of how the affordances of the medium enabled or hampered deception as well as how the members of the community ultimately detected the deception. The ramifications of deception on the community are discussed, as well as the need for researchers to have a deep community knowledge when attempting to understand the role of deception in a complex society. Finally, recommendations are given for assessment of behavior in virtual worlds and the unique considerations that investigators must give to the rules and procedures of online communities.</jats:p

EMDR Gaming Recovery and Insight Protocol (E-GRIP): An Approach For Treating Video Game Addiction

The prevalence of video game addiction has escalated with the advancement of digital technologies, posing significant psychological and social challenges. This dissertation introduces the eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) Gaming Recovery and Insight Protocol (E-GRIP), a novel therapeutic approach designed to address the complexities of video game addiction. Grounded in the principles of EMDR therapy and incorporating insights into video game culture, E-GRIP aims to treat individuals struggling with problematic gaming behaviors by integrating their gaming experiences and preferences into the therapeutic process. The E-GRIP methodology extends the conventional EMDR framework by including an in-depth exploration of the client’s gaming behavior, character identification, and the utilization of gaming jargon to enhance the relevance and efficacy of the therapy. Through the lens of video game character archetypes and gaming scenarios, the protocol addresses the emotional, cognitive, and somatic components of addiction, facilitating a comprehensive treatment strategy that resonates with the gaming community

The World of Dungeons and Dragons as a Therapeutic Approach to Complex Trauma

This qualitative dissertation delves into the therapeutic potential of Dungeons and Dragons (D&D) as an intervention for individuals coping with trauma and related mental health challenges. Drawing from a diverse sample of participants with varying gender identities, age groups, and D&D experience levels, this study employs a grounded theory approach to unravel the intricate interplay between D&D engagement and mental health outcomes. The study identifies several key implications, including the importance of creating inclusive therapeutic spaces, the lifespan relevance of D&D interventions, the potential for tailored interventions addressing relationship dynamics, and the accessibility of D&D as a therapeutic tool. Delimitations highlight the contextual specificity, limited generalizability, sample characteristics, subjective perceptions, therapeutic emphasis, temporal constraints, and cultural considerations inherent to this research

Enhancing Student Learning: Study of a Motivational Resource for Educators

This study surveyed practicing classroom teacher’s perceptions of a proposed educational resource “Avatar Academy” designed to enhance students’, particularly young boys, motivation and general attitude towards learning. The Avatar Academy resource is an instructional guide for implementing a classroom reward system based on common game mechanics. The resource emphasizes the modification of current pedagogies to exploit the use of game design to engage boys. A survey of recent literature indicated an opportunity to study teachers’ perceptions of the possible applications of game design mechanics to support the enhancement of student motivation and learning in the classroom. As a result the Avatar Academy handbook and blog resource were developed to assist teachers with the integration and administration of a program designed to enhance student motivation, especially boys, using avatars and a point based reward system. The resources were initially distributed to several practicing teachers for their review, and their feedback formed the basis for revisions of the Avatar Academy resource. After implementing changes to the resource based on initial teacher feedback, an updated Avatar Academy was redistributed and teacher opinions and perceptions of the tool’s possible impacts on classroom learning were collected

ATITIUDES TOW ARDS COMPUTER GAMES FOR LEARNING AND Pl.A YER ARCHETYPES: AN EXPLORATION OF MEASURES ON PREINTERVENTION PLAYER CHARACTERISTICS FOR SERIOUS GAME-BASED INTERVENTIONS

Serious game-based interventions offer promising health outcome results with the aid of pre-intervention player tailoring and the development of measurements that evaluate pre-intervention player characteristics and subgroups. Video gaming measures can potentially provide helpful tailoring information that discerns individual video gaming preferences which could influence their overall user experience. It is critical that measures that target adolescent video gaming be psychometrically validated. There is a gap in the literature with psychometrically validated measures evaluating adolescent attitudes towards computer games for learning and gaming archetypes. Therefore the aims of this dissertation were to 1) evaluate the psychometric properties (i.e., reliability and validity) of the Attitudes Towards Computer Games for Learning (ATCGFL) adapted from Askar et al.’s Attitudes towards computer-assisted learning (CAL) scale that assessed attitudes towards computer games for learning among a sample of adolescents, and 2) explore and identify the latent class structure (LCA) of the BrainHex measure among the same sample of adolescents. Secondary data analysis of a data set extricated from the “It’s Your Game-Family” study was conducted. Participants were youth aged 11-14 years in Houston, TX, who answered self-guided questionnaires in their home. Exploratory data analysis of the ATCGFL scale was performed. Reliability testing through analyzing internal consistency and test-retest reliability were also performed with the ATCGFL scale. Then, exploratory data analysis of the BrainHex measure was performed through latent class analysis. Results from the exploratory analysis of the ATCGFL scale suggest the adapted attitudes scale supports a 3-factor solution (Satisfaction, Motivation, and Cognition). The 3-factor solution indicates the scale has a mixed quality level of internal consistency because Factor 1 and Factor 2 we have an acceptable level of internal consistency, but Factor 3 has a questionable level of internal consistency. The test-retest reliability of the ATCGFL scale was low, but significant. Last, the latent class analysis of the BrainHex measure results revealed a 3-class model (low probability of gaming element likability gamers, moderate probability of gaming element likability gamers, and high probability of gaming element likability gamers). Overall, these findings suggest the Attitudes Towards Computer Games for Learning scale and BrainHex measure both possess promising utility as measures in tandem with serious game-based interventions, and that further research to conduct confirmatory analysis with both measures is merited

Avatar skin(s): An autoethnographic journey to my place of education

This autoethnography presents the avatar as a liberating learning platform for those who live on the edges of hegemonic and heteronormative society. I call this platform "avatar as place of education." I illustrate how my avatar was a place for processing self-learning (learning about myself) by recounting and exploring my queer identity development through my experiences as student, educator, and gamer traveling between virtual and physical worlds. I write to inquire and to seek to achieve an understanding of my avatar place and my emotional response to marginalization as a lesbian. To craft this autoethnography, I draw data from physical world memories, journals, photographs, and from in-world experiences in Second Life (SL). I situate this project in educational technology and draw from women's and gender studies, and from studies about place, virtual gaming characters, "avatars," and avatar customization to inform my analysis.I conceptualize avatar as place of education because they: first, exercise agency for their physical world counterparts and vice/versa; second, may become deliberate through changing avatars, third, have educative meaning and value for all individuals but may serve as an especially crucial aspect of education for marginalized youth; fourth, relate reciprocally and teach the user through feedback and transfer. Lastly, users' intentional creations of avatar places have potential value as an avenue to experience virtual world choices about social norms, identity, and community. Avatar places offer self-education, self-creation and self-knowledge possibilities for many people exploring aspects of their identity, especially for those marginalized in society.This study contributes to research regarding player needs, avatar customizations, and game design, and reinforces research that details the heteronormative affordances of North American game design which exclude culturally and sexually marginalized students from personal identity options in avatar interfaces (Consalvo, 2012; Ducheneaut, Wen & Yee, 2009; Nakamura, 2002, 2013; Pulos, 2013; Schmieder, 2009; Taylor, 2003). Virtual world participation helps negotiate heteronormative practices. My work also extends discourse about queer-friendly opportunities and practices in schools. This work is productive in arguing for commercial virtual worlds in formal education to meet the needs of 21st century technology skills

The Child in Games: From the Meek, to the Mighty, to the Monstrous

Drawing across game studies, childhood studies, and children’s literature studies, this thesis catalogues and critiques the representation of children in contemporary video games. It poses two questions: 1) How are children represented in contemporary video games? 2) In what ways do the representations of children in video games affirm or challenge dominant Western beliefs about the figure of the child? To answer these questions, I combine a large-scale content analysis of over 500 games published between 2009 and 2019 with a series of autoethnographic close readings. My content analysis is designed to provide a quantitative snapshot of the representation of children in games. I use statistical analysis to assemble data points as meaningful constellations. I use the axes of race, gender, and age, as well as genre, age-rating, and publication year, to identify patterns in representation. I distil my findings as a set of seven archetypes: The Blithe Child, The Heroic Child, The Human Becoming, The Child Sacrifice, The Side Kid, The Waif, and The Little Monster. This typology is not intended to work against the granular detail of the information recorded in the dataset, but to draw attention to patterns of coherence and divergence that occur between particular examples, as well as to intersections with representational tropes about children identified in other media. I select four of these seven archetypes to structure my autoethnographic close readings. While content analysis is a useful tool for documenting the presence, absence, and dominant function of child-characters in games, close reading allows for a more intersectional approach that can attend to the nuances of representation across identity markers, creating opportunities to examine internal contradictions, ironies, and the polysemy generated through interpretive gaps. I develop my own close reading method building on the autoethnographic approaches of Carr (2019), Vossen (2020), McArthur (2018), and Jennings (2021), which I call critical ekphrasis. Chapter one argues that the Blithe Child triangulates ‘children’, ‘toys’, and ‘paidia’. It suggests that both childhood and play can be conceptualised as a ‘magic circle’, and that the immateriality of the Blithe Child implies childhood can be a mode of being unconnected to anatomical markers or chronological age. Chapter two explores how the Heroic Child challenges the apparent affinity between video games and traditional hero 2 narratives. It argues that the dependence of the childly protagonist undermines dualistic thinking and instead celebrates cooperation, compromise, and connection. Chapter three compares the Child Sacrifice to the woman-in-the-refrigerator trope, arguing that it functions to justify aggressive, hypermasculine, militarised violence. The final chapter compares the Little Monster and the Waif to examine how the uncanny child raises metareferential questions about autonomy in interactive media and agency in intergenerational relationships. My research project concludes by suggesting that virtual children in simulated worlds point to the active construction and delimitation of ‘the child’ in society and can reveal that much of what is assumed to be natural, obvious, and universal about the figure of ‘the child’ is in fact ideological. It hints at the possibility that just as virtual children are used as rhetorical figures to explain and justify the rules, mechanics, and moral systems of a digital game, so too is the figure of ‘the child’ used to routinise and vindicate the rules, workings, and moral systems of Euro-American culture.AHR

Anticipated Discrimination, Choices, and Performance: Experimental Evidence

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Elsevier via the DOI in this record.This paper studies experimentally whether potential perceived discrimination affects decisions in a labor-market setting with different stereotypes. Participants are assigned to a seven-person group and randomly allocated a role as a firm or worker. In each group, there are five workers and two firms. The only information firms have about each worker is a self-selected avatar (male, female or neutral) representing a worker's gender. Each firm then decides which worker to hire. Female workers react to potential discrimination when they know the task is math-related, but not otherwise. Men choose similar avatar patterns regardless of the task. Men do perform at much higher levels in the math-related task, but there is no difference in performance in the emotion-recognition task, where there is a strong female stereotype.American University of SharjahUniversity of Exete

Games for non-gamers: Approaching video games from a non-gamer perspective

A indústria dos videojogos cresceu exponencialmente em anos recentes. Os jogos encontram-se agora mais diversificados do que nunca. Entre a pletora de géneros existentes estão os jogos críticos, conhecidos pelas suas mecânicas de jogo simples e capacidade para criticarem tanto o próprio meio, como problemáticas de índole social. Tendo em conta que os gamers já estão acostumados à forma em como os jogos funcionam, entender como um jogo crítico se joga, apesar de desafiante nos seus próprios termos, torna-se numa tarefa mais concretizável. No entanto, apesar dos gamers terem menos dificuldades em entrar dentro deste tipo de jogo, alguns jogadores poderão ter maior dificuldade em se adaptarem a estes jogos, especialmente aqueles não familiarizados com o meio: non-gamers. Este estudo tem como objetivo identificar como é que os jogos digitais, e mais especificamente os jogos críticos, podem ser adaptados de forma a que se tornem em ferramentas de crítica para non-gamers. Jogos críticos são um tipo de jogo digital específico que pode ser usado para comentar e criticar problemas sociais e culturais. Para tal efeito, estes jogos subvertem aspetos que se encontram comummente nos modelos convencionais dos jogos. Este estudo recorreu a várias metodologias para explorar cada uma das questões de investigação. Como tal, recorremos a revisões de literatura, análises comparativas, questionários seguidos por análises temáticas, e por fim, workshops de co-design posteriormente submetidos a um análise qualitativa de conteúdo. Os resultados mostraram que adaptar jogos críticos como ferramentas para crítica sociocultural para non-gamers pode ser uma questão bastante multifacetada. Enquanto que, de modo geral, os non-gamers desgostam de aspetos frustrantes, repetitivos e stressantes, gostaram contudo da liberdade no ciclo de jogo, designs de jogo divertidos mas desafiantes e temáticas relacionadas com problemas reais. Todavia, concluímos que adaptar jogos aos non-gamers depende fortemente dos seus motivos e preferências pessoais, tal como se pode observar com a demografia dos gamers.The video game industry has grown exponentially in recent years. Games are now more diverse than ever before. Among the plethora of genres available are critical games, known for their simple game mechanics and ability to critique both the medium and societal conundrums. Because gamers are already accustomed to how games work, understanding how to play a critical game, although challenging in its own right, makes it a more attainable task . But despite gamers having fewer difficulties approaching them, some players may not have such an easy time undertaking these games, especially those not familiarised with the medium: non-gamers. This study aims to identify how digital games, and more specifically critical games, can be adapted in a fashion that allows them to be critiquing tools for non-gamers. Critical games are a specific type of digital game that can be used to apply critical commentary on social and cultural issues. To do so, they oftentimes subvert that which is found in more conventional game models. This research resorted to several methods to explore each research question. As such, we resorted to literature reviews, comparative analyses, questionnaires, followed by thematic analyses, and lastly co-design workshops which underwent a qualitative content analysis. Results showed that adapting critical games as tools of sociocultural critique for non-gamers can be a very nuanced problem. While non-gamers generally dislike frustrative, repetitive, and stressful behaviour in games, they usually enjoy freedom in the gameplay loop, moderately challenging yet fun game designs, and thematic similarities to real world issues. However, we concluded that adapting games to non-gamers is highly dependent on their personal motives and preferences, as happens with the gamer demographic