General Video Game Level Generation

The goal of this project is to employ human design patterns to procedurally generate general 2D arcade-style games in the General Video Game AI (GVG-AI) competition framework. This is achieved by generalizing specific game levels made by humans and using pieces of them as building blocks for new levels of any other game describable in the framework. We produced a constructive and search-based generator to use these design patterns and compared them to the search-based generator of a prior study in a playtesting survey to evaluat

The Oral History of Video Games 2015

This IQP was done to add to the ongoing WPI Oral History of Videogames project, which is added to each year with new interviews. We interviewed three individuals: Jon Palace, a former editor at Infocom, Jen Lesser, an artist who worked with both Harmonix and id Software, and R.A. Salvatore, an acclaimed fantasy author who has worked on multiple video games. We edited each interview into cohesive segments and uploaded these to the Alpheus website (http://alpheus.wpi.edu/imgd/oral-history/index.html). We also made the unedited version of each interview available for download

Understanding computer game culture: the cultural shaping of a new medium

In the past few decades, video games have developed from a marginal technological experiment into a mainstream medium. During this period they have gone through several transformations, from arcade machines offering a few minutes of solitary fun for a quarter to monthly subscription-based online MMOs in which thousands of players spend hundreds or even thousands of hours and lead a significant part of their social life as a fantasy character. But what is it that has driven video games? development? Is it technology? Indeed, with every new generation of hardware, game designers were given a broader set of tools for evoking exhilarating experiences. But is not culture at least as important? What would games look like if Tolkien never had written Lord of the Rings, or if Nintendo had not brought Japanese manga drawing styles to the new medium? This book looks at the theoretical challenges and foundations on which to base a cultural shaping approach towards the evolution of video games and proposes a set of concepts for analyzing and describing this process

SERIOUS GAMES TO COPE WITH THE GENETIC TEST REVOLUTION

Il progresso tecnologico e l'abbassamento del costo di sequenziamento del DNA, hanno reso i test genetici sempre pi\uf9 accessibili al pubblico. Questo sviluppo per\uf2 non procede di pari passo con la scarsa conoscenza che la gente comune risulta avere in ambito genetico. Oggi giorno \ue8 possibile sottoporsi ad un test genetico autonomamente senza il consulto medico, ma la diffusa carenza di consapevolezza e informazione in questo ambito pu\uf2 portare ad un fraintendimento dei risultati genetici ottenuti e quindi a possibili conseguenze negative per quanto concerne le decisioni relative alla propria salute. Per cercare di porre rimedio a questa lacuna sono state sviluppate diverse policy. Tra queste, la necessit\ue0 di educare la gente sui concetti di genetica assume un rilievo di particolare importanza. Si vuole infatti cercare di potenziare la consapevolezza della cittadinanza, favorendo prese di decisione in ambito medico pi\uf9 responsabili. Per ottenere questo risultato l'impiego di Serious Games (SG) sembra uno tra gli approcci pi\uf9 promettenti. I SG hanno infatti mostrato ottimi risultati se impiegati in ambiti quali l'educazione, l'addestramento, la promozione della salute e la socializzazione; ecco dunque perch\ue8 sembrano essere un valido strumento per divulgare concetti di genetica tra la gente comune. Lo scopo di questa ricerca \ue8 studiare la possibilit\ue0 di utilizzare i SG come media fortemente interattivo per incoraggiare un apprendimento esperienziale, aumentare la conoscenza e promuovere il processo cognitivo dell'autoefficacia nel contesto dei processi decisionali in ambito genetico. Per ottenere questo risultato esploriamo lo stato dell'arte dei SG legati alla genetica e discutiamo sulla possibilit\ue0 di farli utilizzare dalla gente comune. Successivamente progettiamo, sviluppiamo e testiamo una suite di SG su misura per educare la gente sui concetti di genetica e di test genetico. Lo sviluppo e la validazione di videogiochi arcade custom per illustrare concetti di genetica di base e l'utilizzo del genere ``Adventure Game'' per mettere in relazione il rischio genetico individuale ai fattori dello stile di vita, risulta essere, sulla base delle nostre ricerche, completamete nuovo in questo ambito. Concludiamo infine presentando i risultati della ricerca condotta testando i videogiochi sviluppati per quanto riguarda la loro usabilit\ue0, la capacit\ue0 di trasferire conoscenza e migliorare il processo cognitivo nell'ambito dei processi decisionali in ambito medico e analizzando i dati collezionati durante le sessioni di gioco.Technological progress and the lowering of DNA sequencing costs have made genetic testing increasingly accessible to the general public. However, this progress does not reflect an increased genetics literacy in lay people that at present remains poor. Thus almost everyone has the possibility to undergo genetic testing independently, but the diffuse lack of knowledge may lead to misinterpretation of genetic information and result in negative consequences for personal health decisions. Several policies have been developed to try to address this issue. The most appropriate one is to educate people about genetic concepts and genetic test interpretation, to empower them in order to make responsible health-related decisions. To reach this goal the Serious Games (SG) approach seems very promising as it has been shown to be very powerful in education, training, health promotion, and socialization. This is why SG appear an attractive means to communicate genetic concepts to the general public. The aim of this research is to study the feasibility of using SG as a highly interactive medium to encourage experiential learning, increase literacy and promote self-efficacy in the genetic-related decision-making process. For this purpose, we explore state-of-the-art of Serious Games related to genetics, discussing whether these games are an adequate instrument to increase literacy and self-efficacy in the general public. Based on this analysis we design, develop and test a suite of SG specifically tailored to educate people about genetic concepts and genetic testing. To maximize the efficacy and mass appeal, the level of complexity of genetic information was balanced with the intent of making comprehensible and usable games. We believe that our approach --development and validation, using an evidence-based approach, of customized arcade games to convey basic genetics concepts together with the use of the ``Adventure Game'' genre to relate the individual genetic risk with lifestyle factors-- is completely new in this field. We conclude by discussing results about usability/playability, knowledge transfer and self-efficacy promotion in the field of health-related decision making, analysing data collected during monitored playing sessions

User powered games for research

This paper describes how user-generated content can be harnessed to create compelling games for research purposes. We show that by entrusting the complicated processes of asset creation and management to the players themselves, research based games can still allow for rich, deep and unique experiences - experiences that would be impossible to create manually under the typical time and resource constraints found in research projects. It is contended that “user power” as a game design element is especially powerful for use by researchers who are most likely working on their own or in small groups with limited budgets, and for whom the research objectives may be more important than the design of the game itself. The paper explores the recent history of applications that take advantage of user-generated content and discusses how these principles have been used to develop two user-powered games: Gophers and Familiars. The worlds created by the users of these games are explored and the strengths and weaknesses of using user-generated content to power games are discussed

All Your Works Are Belong to Us: New Frontiers for the Derivative Work Right in Video Games

In copyright law, the author of an original work has the exclusive right to prepare further works derivative of that original. Video game developers’ works are protected by the Copyright Act. As video games take advantage of more advanced technology, however, players are doing more creative, interesting, and original things when they play games. Certain things players do create independent economic value and are the kinds of acts of original authorship our copyright system is designed to encourage. However, since the author of the video game is entitled to the full panoply of rights under the laws of the American copyright regime, they own the exclusive right to prepare works “derivative” of that game. This Article has both descriptive and normative goals. Its descriptive goals are to outline the current legal trends in the video game space and to demonstrate the huge economic stakes at play. Its normative goals are to offer a number of different ways of explaining how derivative works of video games are created and to suggest several modes of understanding how cases where ownership of these works is disputed should be decided. These modes include philosophical thought experiments, critical analysis of what exactly a game is, analysis of what kind of game underlies the second order work in question, and application of the liability/property rule framework from law and economics literature