Virtual gardening: Identifying problems and potential directions for ‘ecological awareness’ through soil management and plant recognition gaming

Gardening and farming are relatively common themes for videogames. Farmville (Zynga, 2009), Stardew Valley (ConcernedApe, 2016) and Caesar III (Impressions Games, 1998) are examples of successful games with a strong concern for (prominent theme of?) nature. From farming and life simulators to survival games to management games, a large variety of games about nature are available to players. Nevertheless, it is extremely rare that video games would take an approach that could be (is?) beneficial for environmental education. As noted by Alenda Chang, video games “exert an important influence on how millions of players conceptualize country life, food production, and right relations (Is this phrase in the original quote?) between humans, animals, and the environment. Contemporary farm games represent an array of missed opportunities to model more meaningful game ecologies” (Chang 2012: 251)

Learning curves: analysing pace and challenge in four successful puzzle games

The pace at which challenges are introduced in a game has long been identified as a key determinant of both the enjoyment and difficulty experienced by game players, and their ability to learn from game play. In order to understand how to best pace challenges in games, there is great value in analysing games already demonstrated as highly engaging. Play-through videos of four puzzle games (Portal, Portal 2 Co-operative mode, Braid and Lemmings), were observed and analysed using metrics derived from a behavioural psychology understanding of how people solve problems. Findings suggest that; 1) the main skills learned in each game are introduced separately, 2) through simple puzzles that require only basic performance of that skill, 3) the player has the opportunity to practice and integrate that skill with previously learned skills, and 4) puzzles increase in complexity until the next new skill is introduced. These data provide practical guidance for designers, support contemporary thinking on the design of learning structures in games, and suggest future directions for empirical research

Dirty footprints and degenerate archives: Tabitha Nikolai’s impure walking sims

Tabitha Nikolai’s Shrine Maidens of the Unseelie Court and Ineffable Glossolalia are impure specimens of the walking sim. While these are still first-person games that see players exploring eerily underpopulated environments and archiving textual fragments, they are at once more aesthetically reflexive and more refer-entially dense than many walking sims. Accommodating giant spiders, Weimar sexologists, messageboard trolls and quotations from Roman poetry, Nikolai’s unorthodox spins on the ‘archival adventure’ reflect her interest in queer and trans history and her commitment to interrogating discourses of purity, progress and redemption. Reviewing critical discussions of the walking sim alongside queer, trans and decolonial perspectives on archives, identity and subjectification, the article argues that while walking sims have often been praised for telling emotion-ally engaging stories, in Nikolai’s hands the form assumes different function: that of reckoning with history and exploring subjectivity

Testing the feasibility and acceptability of using the Nintendo Wii in the home to increase activity levels, vitality and well-being in people with multiple sclerosis (Mii-vitaliSe): protocol for a pilot randomised controlled study.

The benefits of physical activity for people with multiple sclerosis (pwMS) have been recognised. However, exercise regimens can be difficult to maintain over the longer term and pwMS may face unique barriers to physical activity engagement. Pilot research suggests the Nintendo Wii can be used safely at home by pwMS with minimal mobility/balance issues and may confer benefits. We have developed a home-based physiotherapist supported Wii intervention ('Mii-vitaliSe') for pwMS that uses commercial software. This is a pilot study to explore the feasibility of conducting a full scale clinical and cost-effectiveness trial of Mii-vitaliSe

Defining Haptic Experience: Foundations for Understanding, Communicating, and Evaluating HX

Haptic technology is maturing, with expectations and evidence that it will contribute to user experience (UX). However, we have very little understanding about how haptic technology can influence people’s experience. Researchers and designers need a way to understand, communicate, and evaluate haptic technology’s effect on UX. From a literature review and two studies – one with haptics novices, the other with expert hapticians – we developed a theoretical model of the factors that constitute a good haptic experience (HX). We define HX and propose its constituent factors: design parameters of Timeliness, Density, Intensity, and Timbre; the cross-cutting concern of Personalization; usability requirements of Utility, Causality, Consistency, and Saliency; and experiential factors of Harmony, Expressivity, Autotelics, Immersion, and Realism as guiding constructs important for haptic experience. This model will help guide design and research of haptic systems, inform language around haptics, and provide the basis for evaluative instruments, such as checklists, heuristics, or questionnaires.We acknowledge the support of the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), [funding reference number 2019-06589