Six degrees of video game narrative: a classification for narrative in video games

158 pagesThis study aims to construct a systematical approach to classification of narrative usage in video games. The most recent dominant approaches of reading a video game text – narratology and ludology - are discussed. By inquiring the place of interactivity and autonomy inside the discourse of video game narrative, a classification is proposed. Consequently six groups of video games are determined, depending on the levels of combination of narration and ludic context. These Six Degrees are defined in detail and example video games are analysized for each. The conclusion composes a six degrees reference system that could be utilized in various fields such as video game design or video game studies

Re-shaped by mobile technologies' disruption: the videogame industry in Turkey

In this study, we investigate the business disruption effects of mobile technologies for the videogame industry in Turkey. Previous research shows that before mobile gaming became prevalent globally, the Turkish videogame industry was extremely small and lacked any success stories for either console or PC platforms. The rise in mobile and the so-called “casual” gaming gave the local industry a competitive advantage on a global scale. To capture the nuances of this disruptive transition, we performed structured interviews with gaming industry experts and analyzed prominent discussion forums for primary and secondary data collections, respectively. We especially focused on answering the following questions: (1) how prepared were Turkish videogame development companies in handling the mobile disruptive change; (2) what kind of transformations they experienced in their business plans and practices as a result; (3) how the disruption affected the way they viewed their customer base; and finally (4) what future disruptions they expect in their industry

Is Death Only the Beginning? How People Mourn Artificial Characters in Social Media

We analyze the audience response to the death of narrative-driven fictitious characters with predetermined fates, whether part of a virtual or cinematic story, and specifically from video games and TV series. Our aim is to contribute to the studies of identification and empathy with fictitious characters in media, as well as to close the research gap around these studies by specifically focusing on the death of the characters. We collected 3000 online comments on the deaths of 16 characters from video games and TV series. We coded each comment according to the five stages of grief by Kübler-Ross and Kessler and performed quantitative (using LIWC2015 psycholinguistic analysis software) and qualitative analysis (using thematic analysis). Overall, we found a strong resemblance between the processes of grief for real and fictitious characters and uncovered differences of language when discussing the death of a character based on (a) their gender; (b) their role in the story; (c) their interactivity mode; and (d) the form of media. Finally, qualitative analysis revealed unique and novel themes for on-screen deaths, such as (a) the effects of aural cues; (b) nostalgia and beauty; (c) resurrection and transmedia; (d) spoilers; (e) comparisons and real-life connotations; (f) the effects on the franchise; and (g) the effects of the gender of the viewer on these discussions. We discuss our findings in detail, along with implications for future character development.©2023 Sage Publications.fi=vertaisarvioitu|en=peerReviewed

How does varying the number of personas affect user perceptions and behavior? Challenging the ‘small personas’ hypothesis!

Studies in human-computer interaction recommend creating fewer than ten personas, based on stakeholders’ limitations to cognitively process and use personas. However, no existing studies offer empirical support for having fewer rather than more personas. Investigating this matter, thirty-seven participants interacted with five and fifteen personas using an interactive persona system, choosing one persona to design for. Our study results from eye-tracking and survey data suggest that when using interactive persona systems, the number of personas can be increased from the conventionally suggested ‘less than ten’, without significant negative effects on user perceptions or task performance, and with the positive effects of increasing engagement with the personas, having a more diverse representation of the end-user population, as well as users accessing personas from more varied demographic groups for a design task. Using the interactive persona system, users adjusted their information processing style by spending less time on each persona when presented with fifteen personas, while still absorbing a similar amount of information than with five personas, implying that more efficient information processing strategies are applied with more personas. The results highlight the importance of designing interactive persona systems to support users’ browsing of more personas.© 2022 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).fi=vertaisarvioitu|en=peerReviewed

From 2,772 segments to five personas: Summarizing a diverse online audience by generating culturally adapted personas

Understanding users in the era of social media is challenging, requiring organizations to adopt novel computation-aided approaches. To exemplify such an approach, we retrieved information on millions of interactions with YouTube video content from a major Middle Eastern media outlet, to automatically generate personas that capture how different audience segments interact with thousands of individual content pieces. Then, we used qualitative data to provide additional insights into the automatically generated persona profiles. Our findings provide insights into social media usage in the Middle East and demonstrate the application of a novel methodology that generates culturally adapted personas of social media audiences, summarizing complex social analytics data into human portrayals that are easy to understand by end users in real organizations.</p

A Semiotic Reading of Digital Avatars and Their Role of Uncertainty Reduction in Digital Communication

This study tries to explain the role of digital avatars for communication in two distinct ways. In the first part it debates what kinds of meanings avatars have for their users. To answer this question based on semiotic theories of Saussure and Lacan, a new approach will be proposed. Saussure’s theory of signs and Lacan’s theory of chain of signifiers as an entry for self, will be merged to form a new viewpoint. In the second part, the role of avatars in the digital communication for the receivers will be approached by Berger’s uncertainty reduction theory

Forging connections: the social dynamics of “Death Stranding” as a paradigm shift in gaming

This paper explores the video game Death Stranding as a shift in digital interactive media, emphasizing altruism, collaboration, and social connection in its gameplay. The close reading of the game focuses on features that diverge from traditional norms, pivoting towards a more empathetic, community-driven model and identifies five domains of analysis: narrative infrastructure; game mechanics; player-to-player interactions; player-to-NPC interactions; and player interactions as a social agent. The findings are discussed with the possibility of defining a new genre, named by the game’s creator as a “strand game” (Kojima, 2019a, 2019b). The analysis reveals Death Stranding’s ability to create a deeply immersive sense of unity among players, demonstrating the game’s potential as a model for future video games that prioritize positive social interactions and mutual support

Proceedings of the 2020 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

Quantitative persona creation (QPC) has tremendous potential, as HCI researchers and practitioners can leverage user data from online analytics and digital media platforms to better understand their users and customers. However, there is a lack of a systematic overview of the QPC methods and progress made, with no standard methodology or known best practices. To address this gap, we review 49 QPC research articles from 2005 to 2019. Results indicate three stages of QPC research: Emergence, Diversification, and Sophistication. Sharing resources, such as datasets, code, and algorithms, is crucial to achieving the next stage (Maturity). For practitioners, we provide guiding questions for assessing QPC readiness in organizations.C1 - Honolulu, Hawaii, USAC3 - Proceedings of the ACM Conference of Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI'20

From 2,772 segments to five personas: Summarizing a diverse online audience by generating culturally adapted personas

Understanding users in the era of social media is challenging, requiring organizations to adopt novel computation-aided approaches. To exemplify such an approach, we retrieved information on millions of interactions with YouTube video content from a major Middle Eastern media outlet, to automatically generate personas that capture how different audience segments interact with thousands of individual content pieces. Then, we used qualitative data to provide additional insights into the automatically generated persona profiles. Our findings provide insights into social media usage in the Middle East and demonstrate the application of a novel methodology that generates culturally adapted personas of social media audiences, summarizing complex social analytics data into human portrayals that are easy to understand by end users in real organizations