Thinking and Doing: Challenge, Agency, and the Eudaimonic Experience in Video Games

The nascent growth of videogames has led to great leaps in technical understanding in how to create a functional and entertaining play experience. However, the complex, mixed-affect, eudaimonic entertainment experience that is possible when playing a video game—how it is formed, how it is experienced and how to design for it, has been investigated far less than hedonistic emotional experiences focusing on fun, challenge and ‘enjoyment.’ Participants volunteered to be interviewed about their mixed-affect emotional experiences of playing avant-garde videogames. New conceptions of agency emerged (Actual, Interpretive, Fictional, Mechanical) from the analysis of transcripts and were used to produce a framework of four categories of agency. This new framework offers designers and researchers the extra nuance in conversations around agency, and contributes to the discussion of how we can design video games that allow for complex, reflective, eudaimonic emotional experiences

Decision matrix for liquid loading in gas wells for cost/benefit analyses of lifting options

Liquid loading in gas wells is a multiphase flow phenomenon where the liquid content of the well creates back pressure that restricts, and in some cases even stops, the flow of gas from the reservoir. It is estimated that 90% of the producing gas wells in the U.S. are operating in liquid loading regime. Field-proven solutions already exist to reduce the loss of gas production when liquid loading begins to occur. However, whether or not the chosen remedy is technically feasible and cost effective will depend on the field's location, export route capacity and the operator's experience. Although there are literature reviews available that describe the possible solutions to liquid loading problems in gas wells, no tool currently exists which is capable of helping an operator select the best remedial option for a specific field case. The selection of the best remedial technique and the timeframe within which the remedial action is undertaken are critical to a project's profitability. This paper describes a newly developed decision matrix to screen the possible remedial options available to the operator. The matrix not only provides a critical evaluation of technical solutions to the problem of liquid loading in gas wells vis-à-vis the existing technical and economic constraints, but also serves as a quick screening tool for the selection of production optimization strategies. In its current state of development, the tool consists of an assessment algorithm used in conjunction with a decision tree. Being a data mining technique, the decision tree allows rapid subdivision of large initial data sets into successively smaller sets by a series of decision rules, which are based on information available in the public domain. The effectiveness of the matrix is now ready to be tested against real field data sets