Player strategies: achieving breakthroughs and progressing in single-player and cooperative games

Challenge is considered to be one of the key components of game-play, where game designers face the tricky task of getting the balance right so that game-play is neither too easy nor too difficult. Through attempting in-game challenges, players experience cycles of breakdown and breakthrough, where breakthroughs involve moments of insight in which learning occurs. However, little attention has been given to how players actually overcome challenges to progress during game-play. Across two studies, we explore the ways in which players attempt to achieve breakthroughs in relation to single-player and co-located multiplayer games. We identified a number of strategies that are used by players, which illustrate how learning occurs during play. For instance, while “Experiment” involves forming an informal hypothesis, “Trial & error” occurs when the player tries to find out what, if anything, will happen when they carry out an action. These strategies are considered in relation to supporting player progress and engaging game-play when designing commercial and educational games

Increasing Human Neural Stem Cell Transplantation Dose Alters Oligodendroglial and Neuronal Differentiation after Spinal Cord Injury.

Multipotent human central nervous system-derived neural stem cells transplanted at doses ranging from 10,000 (low) to 500,000 (very high) cells differentiated predominantly into the oligodendroglial lineage. However, while the number of engrafted cells increased linearly in relationship to increasing dose, the proportion of oligodendrocytic cells declined. Increasing dose resulted in a plateau of engraftment, enhanced neuronal differentiation, and increased distal migration caudal to the transplantation sites. Dose had no effect on terminal sensory recovery or open-field locomotor scores. However, total human cell number and decreased oligodendroglial proportion were correlated with hindlimb girdle coupling errors. Conversely, greater oligodendroglial proportion was correlated with increased Ab step pattern, decreased swing speed, and increased paw intensity, consistent with improved recovery. These data suggest that transplant dose, and/or target niche parameters can regulate donor cell engraftment, differentiation/maturation, and lineage-specific migration profiles

Increasing Human Neural Stem Cell Transplantation Dose Alters Oligodendroglial and Neuronal Differentiation after Spinal Cord Injury.

Multipotent human central nervous system-derived neural stem cells transplanted at doses ranging from 10,000 (low) to 500,000 (very high) cells differentiated predominantly into the oligodendroglial lineage. However, while the number of engrafted cells increased linearly in relationship to increasing dose, the proportion of oligodendrocytic cells declined. Increasing dose resulted in a plateau of engraftment, enhanced neuronal differentiation, and increased distal migration caudal to the transplantation sites. Dose had no effect on terminal sensory recovery or open-field locomotor scores. However, total human cell number and decreased oligodendroglial proportion were correlated with hindlimb girdle coupling errors. Conversely, greater oligodendroglial proportion was correlated with increased Ab step pattern, decreased swing speed, and increased paw intensity, consistent with improved recovery. These data suggest that transplant dose, and/or target niche parameters can regulate donor cell engraftment, differentiation/maturation, and lineage-specific migration profiles