Hiroshi UNO 1

and nested potential game

Acknowledgement to reviewers of Games in 2013

The editors of Games would like to express their sincere gratitude to the following reviewers for assessing manuscripts in 2013

What is it like to be a (digital) bat?

Could a person ever transcend what it is like to experience and understand the world as a human being? Could humans ever know what it is like to be another entity? In the last century, similar questions about human subjectivity have often been raised within the context of post-metaphysical thinking. In particular, the ones presented at the beginning of this paragraph were tackled from the perspective of philosophy of mind by Thomas Nagel in his 1974 essay What is it Like to Be a Bat? Nagel’s reflections and answers to those interrogatives were elaborated before the diffusion of computers and could not anticipate the cultural impact of a technology capable of disclosing interactive and persistent experiences of virtual worlds as well as virtual alternatives to the ‘self’. This paper utilizes the observations, the theoretical insights and hypothetical suggestions offered in What is it Like to Be a Bat? and Martin Heidegger’s framework for a philosophical understanding of technology as its theoretical springboards. The scope of my reflection is precisely that of assessing the potential of interactive digital media for transcending human subjectivity. The chosen theoretical perspectives lead to the preliminary conclusion that, even if there is no way of either mapping or reproducing the consciousness of a real bat, interactive digital technology can grant access to experiences and even systems of perception that were inaccessible to humans prior to the advent of computers. In this context, Heidegger’s analysis of Dasein is employed in order to define in which specific ways the experience of virtual worlds enables humans to experience and understand previously unattainable aspects of reality. What is it Like to Be a (Digital) Bat? proposes a modal realist perspective, where digital media content is recognized as having an expanding and fragmenting influence on ontology. At a higher level of abstraction, this paper advocates the use of digital technology as a medium for testing, developing and disseminating philosophical notions which is alternative to the traditional textual one. Presented as virtual experiences, philosophical concepts cannot only be accessed without the mediation of subjective imagination, but take an entirely new projective dimension which I propose to call ‘augmented ontology’.peer-reviewe

Self-transformation through game design

This paper presents the results of a pioneering, experimental study that tracked certain psychological and behavioural changes in a group of game designers during the development of their serious games. The study was conducted with the help of the Behavioural Science Institute of Radboud University (Nijmegen, the Netherlands) and focused on implicit attitudes: psychological assessments that take place without one’s conscious awareness. With the goal of validating the idea of game design as a self-fashioning activity, we observed the implicit attitude towards sugary and fatty foods of a group of master’s students in game design at the University of Malta. As part of their coursework, and mentored by a researcher in behavioural psychology, the students were asked to conceptualize, design, and develop small videogames that aimed at changing the implicit psychological assessment of unhealthy food of their players over a five-month period. Taking overweight European teenagers who are regularly followed by a dietician as their target audience, the principal task of the designers was that of translating behavioural psychology methods to change people’s implicit attitudes concerning sugary and fatty food into game design decisions on the basis of the existing literature in the field. The designers’ own weight, their dietary habits, and their implicit attitude towards food were measured before being briefed about their design task and were eventually measured again, five months later, upon the delivery of their finished, serious game. Although changes in the students’ weight did not show large variations on average, their implicit attitude towards sugary and fatty foods (the psychological evaluation the games they designed aimed to correct) changed in the direction of a healthier dietary approach. These transformations are suggestive of a trend that could confirm our hypothesis: game design might indeed be a transformative experience that changes the designers through cognitive elaboration and self-persuasion in ways that are analogous to the changes that they intended to cause in the players.peer-reviewe

Remarks on the k-error linear complexity of p(n)-periodic sequences

Recently the first author presented exact formulas for the number of 2ⁿn-periodic binary sequences with given 1-error linear complexity, and an exact formula for the expected 1-error linear complexity and upper and lower bounds for the expected k-error linear complexity, k >2, of a random 2ⁿn-periodic binary sequence. A crucial role for the analysis played the Chan-Games algorithm. We use a more sophisticated generalization of the Chan-Games algorithm by Ding et al. to obtain exact formulas for the counting function and the expected value for the 1-error linear complexity for pⁿn-periodic sequences over Fp, p prime. Additionally we discuss the calculation of lower and upper bounds on the k-error linear complexity of pⁿn-periodic sequences over Fp

Felino : the philosophical practice of making an interspecies video game

This paper describes the design process of an interspecies video game that has its foundations in the field of Animal-Computer Interaction (ACI), but is inspired by philosophical notions and approaches including Jos De Mul’s work on biohermeneutics (De Mul 2013), Pierce’s theory of semiotics (Pierce 1931-35), and the work of Helmuth Plessner in the field of philosophical anthropology (Plessner 2006). Our approach serves to better design playful artefacts (video games among them) that take the animal's reactions and preferences into account in the research phase, the conceptualization phase, and the iteration phase of the design process. Our tablet game, called Felino, is merely a digital toy that aims at facilitating the emergence of ‘play’ between humans and domestic cats, and allows humans and animals to play together simultaneously. The design and development of Felino is not only informed by advancements in the field of ACI, but is first and foremost a critical artefact that materializes our philosophical approach, making it an object for critical evaluation.peer-reviewe