Serious Game Evaluation as a Meta-game

Purpose – This paper aims to briefly outline the seamless evaluation approach and its application during an evaluation of ORIENT, a serious game aimed at young adults. Design/methodology/approach – In this paper, the authors detail a unobtrusive, embedded evaluation approach that occurs within the game context, adding value and entertainment to the player experience whilst accumulating useful data for the development team. Findings – The key result from this study was that during the “seamless evaluation” approach, users were unaware that they had been participating in an evaluation, with instruments enhancing rather than detracting from the in-role game experience. Practical implications – This approach, seamless evaluation, was devised in response to player expectations, perspectives and requirements, recognising that in the evaluation of games the whole process of interaction including its evaluation must be enjoyable and fun for the user. Originality/value – Through using seamless evaluation, the authors created an evaluation completely embedded within the “magic circle” of an in-game experience that added value to the user experience whilst also yielding relevant results for the development team

Sex with Robots for Love Free Encounters

This paper considers sex with robots for love free encounters within the context of pornographic experiences. Leisure sex and pornography are briefly outlined, along with the potential of the market. Limited research on both the user experience of pornography and the physical functionality of sex robots is highlighted. The physical embodiment of sex robots is considered, questioning whether we need human-like robots or something else entirely. Technological advances for pornography and their relevance for sex robots are explored examining the potential offered through the integration of Virtual Reality, teledildonics, soft and wearable robots. The potential of categorising sex robots as fantasy hardware is considered seeking to provide a palatable terminology. This paper concludes that researchers need to engage with the Porn Sector in creating innovative sexual experiences with robots, aiming to create a new type of sexual experience, rather than replicating humans as seen in most science fiction

Emotion recognition abilities and empathy of victims of bullying

Objectives: Bullying is a form of systematic abuse by peers with often serious consequences for victims. Few studies have considered the role of emotion recognition abilities and empathic behaviour for different bullying roles. This study investigated physical and relational bullying involvement in relation to basic emotion recognition abilities, and empathic styles in children. Using the framework of the Social Information Processing model, it was expected that victims would have poor emotion recognition abilities, and that bullies would demonstrate low levels of empathy. Methods: Data was collected from UK children (N = 373) aged 9-11 years who completed a bullying instrument, the Bryant Index of Empathy measurement, and the DANVA (Diagnostic Analysis of Nonverbal Accuracy) to assess emotion recognition abilities. Children were classified into physical and relational bullying roles (bully, victim, bully/victim neutral) for analytical purposes. Results: While physical victims, bullies and neutrals differed little in their emotion recognition abilities, relational victims were particularly poor in recognising negative emotions of anger and fear in faces. No differences were found in empathy scores, according to bullying roles. Conclusions: Children who are relationally victimised are poorer in understanding emotional information than bullies and non-involved children. In light of previous research that victims of bullying more frequently experience child abuse, future interventions should consider the importance of emotion and social skills training for these vulnerable children

Applying a Knowledge Evaluation Framework in the Nigerian Public Sector

Effective knowledge management requires available, complete knowledge that can be readily accessed when undertaking organisational processes and functions. In most organisations in developing countries, knowledge is frequently paper-based, however, there is increasing digital provision. The Nigerian public sector aims to use Information Technology to manage digital knowledge and, in doing so, improve organisational performance. To streamline digitalisation, existing knowledge used by staff in fulfilment of their duties could be digitised. Before digitising, we created an approach to assess existing knowledge, a five-stage Knowledge Evaluation Framework. This used task decomposition to identify and assess knowledge use in task fulfilment, with interviews, task walkthroughs and observation used to gather task data. The framework merged established approaches including Hierarchical Task Analysis, Skills-Rules-Knowledge Framework and Swimming Lane Sequence Diagrams to diagrammatically represent knowledge use in tasks. Using these diagrams, knowledge walkthroughs assessed knowledge availability, completeness and correctness in the Nigerian public sector reviewing the documents identified as the knowledge sources. The final stage, outcome assessment, focuses on the typical results of task fulfilment reviewing historical data from completed activities. The Knowledge Evaluation Framework was successfully applied in the Nigerian Public Sector, with tasks decomposed and knowledge tasks, actors and sources identified. Staff believed that knowledge was available and of high quality, however, contrary to these expectations in the knowledge walkthroughs we found that knowledge was often missing, obsolete or incorrect. Further, we found that whilst tasks may be knowledge-based, typically staff in the Nigerian public sector used their own, implicit “Guess Knowledge” rather than accessing organisational knowledge. The outcome assessment highlighted that there were significant problems with inappropriate, often guess knowledge use resulting in project delays and increased costs. Use of the Knowledge Evaluation Framework enabled us to explore existing knowledge provision and in doing so, to identify that there are significant knowledge gaps requiring knowledge creation. In addition, we identified that cultural change is needed, with knowledge valued and used rather than largely ignored. These findings have significant implications for the future design of a knowledge management system and highlight the potential of this method to explore knowledge use in an organisation

Five Degrees of Happiness: Effective Smiley Face Likert Scales for Evaluating with Children

This paper focuses on achieving optimal responses through supporting children’s judgements, using Smiley Face Likert scales as a rating scale for quantitative questions in evaluations. It highlights the need to provide appropriate methods for children to communicate judgements, highlighting that the traditional Smiley Face Likert scale does not provide an appropriate method. The paper outlines a range of studies, identifying that to achieve differentiated data and full use of rating scales by children that faces with positive emotions should be used within Smiley Face Likert scales. The proposed rating method, the Five Degrees of Happiness Smiley Face Likert scale, was used in a large-scale summative evaluation of a Serious Game resulting in variance within and between children, with all points of the scale used

Development of a Short Version of the Cataldo Lung Cancer Stigma Scale

Lung cancer stigma is an important phenomenon experienced by many lung cancer patients that can be a barrier to medical help-seeking behavior. The purpose of this study was to shorten the Cataldo Lung Cancer Stigma Scale (CLCSS). The original 31-item scale had excellent internal consistency reliability but item redundancy. The majority of lung cancer patients are diagnosed at an advanced stage, and patient burden with survey completion may be higher in this population. To reduce patient burden with participation in lung cancer stigma-related research, a psychometrically sound short measure of lung cancer stigma is valuable. Factor analysis was used to evaluate the dimensionality of the CLCSS. Results were used to shorten the measure to 21 items. The shortened scale showed strong evidence of internal consistency reliability (Cronbach's alpha =.93). Results also indicate the scale is three dimensional with reliable subscales: stigma and blame, social isolation, and discrimination