Games (Computer Science)

Mobile Gaming: An Engineer Puts an Arcade Cabinet on Wheels (Popular Science)

by Garnet Hertz

Popular Science (February 2012). Story by Gregory Mone. Photographs by Jeff Newton. Edited by Doug Cantor.

In the late 1980s, millions of arcade-addicted kids sat in the faux racing seats of Sega's OutRun videogame, grabbed... more In the late 1980s, millions of arcade-addicted kids sat in the faux racing seats of Sega's OutRun videogame, grabbed the rubber-covered wheel of the imitation Ferrari Testarossa, pressed down on the pedals, and imagined they were roaring down the street. Twenty-five years later, one of those kids, Garnet Hertz, has realized that fantasy, modding an 1,100-pound arcade machine to ride on pavement.

ConnectWorks

by César Duarte

Co-authored with Pedro Almeida and Ricardo Canastro. Published as DEMO in VideoJogos 2011 - 4ª Conferência anual em Ciência e Arte dos Videojogos.

A prototype of a 2.5D (Isometric view) game, developed
in C# and using the XNA game framework.
ConnectWorks... more A prototype of a 2.5D (Isometric view) game, developed
in C# and using the XNA game framework.
ConnectWorks is a serious game intended to educate
people in the subject of computer networks. It follows
the story of Bill, a newly formed Network Engineer
eager to apply all the knowledge he has. He will do that
by installing the client's networks with the requirements
they specify without exceeding the client's budget.

Beyond Play: A New Approach to Games

by Thomas Malaby

Games have intruded into popular, academic, and policy-maker awareness to an unprecedented level, and this creates new... more Games have intruded into popular, academic, and policy-maker awareness to an unprecedented level, and this creates new opportunities for advancing our understanding of the relationship of games to society. The author offers a new approach to games that stresses them as characterized by process. Games, the author argues, are domains of contrived contingency,capable of generating emergent practices and interpretations, and are intimately connected with everyday life to a degree heretofore poorly understood. This approach is both consistent with a range of existing social theory and avoids many of the limitations that have characterized much games scholarship to date,in particular its tendency toward unsustainable formalism and exceptionalism. Rather than seeing gaming as a subset of play, and therefore as an activity that is inherently separable,safe,and pleasurable,the author offers a pragmatic rethinking of games as social artifacts in their own right that are always in the process of becoming. This view both better accords with the experience of games by participants cross-culturally and bears the weight of the new questions being asked about games and about society.

Mechanic/Aesthetic Videogame Genres: Adventure and Adventure

by Veli-Matti Karhulahti

NOTES BEFORE READING.
Not all games are genre games. A term that refers to a group of games does not necessarily make a genre – a "facebook game," for instance, is only a term that can be used to imply that the particular game is played on Facebook. This approach is not a comprehensive theory of videogame genres. It examines videogames from a limited aesthetic point of view to employ the concept of genre into a tool for understanding the aesthetic evolution of videogame art. Eventually, the goal of this paper comes close to how Grant Tavinor (Art of Videogames, 2009) describes his nominalist definition of video games: to "allow us to understand something very important about games, that is their continuity with other cultural forms." There is more than one approach to videogame genres. This is one of them.

Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without... more Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee.
MindTrek’11, September 28-30, 2011, Tampere, Finland. Copyright 2011 ACM 978-1-4503-0816-8/11/09....$10.00.

Zastosowanie koncepcji kapitału społecznego w badaniach ludologicznych. Przykład branży gier komputerowych (Application of the social capital concept in ludology research. An example of the games industry)

by Andrzej Klimczuk

A. Klimczuk, Zastosowanie koncepcji kapitału społecznego w badaniach ludologicznych. Przykład branży gier komputerowych (Application of the social capital concept in ludology research. An example of the games industry), PTBG and UAM, Poznań, „Homo Ludens” 2010, nr 1(2), p. 51-59.

More and more people around the world are using computer (video) games. The development of the gaming industry means... more More and more people around the world are using computer (video) games. The development of the gaming industry means increasing of its complexity in all aspects. Not only is the content represented in games continuously differentiating, but we also see the increasing diversity among their creators, users, researchers and the public. This article aims to draw attention to the possibility of using the concept of social capital in ludologists’ research as well as in improving the quality of games and of the cooperation between social environments related with games. Social capital is understood here as a potential of interactions embedded in interpersonal ties and social norms, which can bring advantages for individuals, groups and societies. The author takes a closer look on: the main features of this multi-dimensional category; significant differences between human, social and cultural capital; as well as the positive and negative influences of social capital.
**
Z gier komputerowych (wideo) korzysta coraz więcej ludzi na całym świecie. Rozwój branży gier oznacza wzrastającą jej złożoność we wszystkich płaszczyznach. Nie tylko stale różnicują się treści przedstawiane w grach, ale też rośnie zróżnicowanie ich twórców, użytkowników, badaczy i opinii publicznej. Celem artykułu jest zwrócenie uwagi na możliwość wykorzystania koncepcji kapitału społecznego w badaniach ludologów oraz w podnoszeniu jakości gier i współpracy między środowiskami związanymi z grami. Kapitał społeczny jest tu rozumiany jako potencjał współdziałania osadzony w powiązaniach międzyludzkich i normach społecznych, który może przynosić korzyści osobom, grupom i społeczeństwom. Przybliżone zostały: główne cechy tej wielowymiarowej kategorii; istotne różnice między kapitałem ludzkim, społecznym i kulturowym; oraz pozytywne i negatywne skutki oddziaływania kapitału społecznego.

Games 2.0 jako próba konstrukcji społeczno-kulturowego perpetuum mobile (Games 2.0 as a test of socio-cultural perpetuum mobile construction)

by Andrzej Klimczuk

A. Klimczuk, Games 2.0 jako próba konstrukcji społeczno-kulturowego perpetuum mobile (Games 2.0 as a test of socio-cultural perpetuum mobile construction), PTBG and UAM, Poznań, „Homo communicativus” 2008, 3(5), p. 177-187.

Increase in popularity of games like "Second Life" has contributed not only to significant changes in the... more Increase in popularity of games like "Second Life" has contributed not only to significant changes in the development of the electronic entertainment industry. Promoting Games 2.0, the new trend of video game production that are assumed to be the virtual worlds that contain user-generated content (eg, graphics, music, animations) makes both measured with a specific technological innovation, as well as a serious change in the organization of socio-cultural heritage. The article presents problems of the existing difficulties of terminology, the implications of the availability of Games 2.0 for social life, the concept of leisure as work in the new economy and creative non-material and the characteristics of "Generation C". Work stresses the need for discussion on trends in the development of video games - defined as a choice between the projects' of "socio-cultural ideology of perpetual motion" and "utopia of universal creativity". These approaches allow to identify the methodological basis for analysis of relations between the operators and users of Games 2.0, taking into account the wider social environment.
**
Wzrost popularności gier typu „Second Life” przyczynił się nie tylko do znacznych przemian w rozwoju branży rozrywki elektronicznej. Upowszechnianie Games 2.0, nowego nurtu produkcji gier wideo które z założenia mają stanowić wirtualne światy zawierające treści tworzone przez użytkowników (np. grafikę, muzykę, animacje) sprawia, że mierzymy się zarówno z określoną innowacją technologiczną, jak też z poważną zmianą organizacji życia społeczno-kulturowego. Artykuł przedstawia problematykę istniejących trudności terminologicznych, konsekwencje dostępności Games 2.0 dla życia społecznego, pojęcie rozrywki jako pracy w nowej gospodarce niematerialnej i twórczej oraz charakterystykę „generacji C”. Praca podkreśla potrzebę dyskusji nad kierunkami rozwoju gier wideo - określanymi jako wybór między projektami „ideologii społeczno-kulturowego perpetuum mobile” i „utopii powszechnej twórczości”. Podejścia te pozwalają na wskazanie podstaw metodologicznych do prowadzenia analiz relacji między operatorami, a użytkownikami Games 2.0 przy uwzględnieniu szerszego otoczenia społecznego.

Neither gaze nor glance, but glaze: relating to console game screens

by Chris Chesher

SCAN Journal, Vol 1, No. 1. January 2004

Drawing on John Ellis's comparison between the screen - viewer relationship in Television and Cinema, this paper... more Drawing on John Ellis's comparison between the screen - viewer relationship in Television and Cinema, this paper develops a reading of how players tend to relate to console games. Where the relationship to the screen of cinema is famously the gaze, Ellis argues television is the glance.
The player of console games is different again: not glance nor gaze, but glaze. The glaze is immersive (eyes glaze over), sticky (holding power); and self-reflective (identification with avatar).

Cognitive Load and Empathy in Serious Games: A Conceptual Framework

by Sharon Tettegah

co-authored with Wen-Hao David Huang (2010).

Wiimote Vs. Controller: Electroencephalographic Measurement of Affective Gameplay Interaction

by Lennart Nacke

Nacke, L.E. 2010. Wiimote vs. Controller: Electroencephalographic Measurement of Affective Gameplay Interaction. In Proceedings of Future Play 2010, Vancouver, BC. 183-190.

Psychophysiological methods provide covert and reliable measurements of affective user experience (UX). The nature of... more Psychophysiological methods provide covert and reliable measurements of affective user experience (UX). The nature of affective UX in interactive entertainment, such as digital games, is currently not well understood. With the dawn of new gaming consoles, scientific methodologies for studying user interaction in an immersive entertainment context are needed. This paper reports a study on the influence of interaction modes (Playstation 2 game controller vs. Wii remote and Nunchuk) on subjective experience assessment and brain activity measured with electroencephalography (EEG). Results indicate that EEG alpha and delta power correlate with negative affect and tension when using regular game controller input. EEG beta and gamma power seem to be related to the feeling of possible action in spatial presence with a PS2 game controller. Delta as well as theta power correlate with self-location using a Wii remote and Nunchuk.

Affective Ludology: Scientific Measurement of User Experience In Interactive Entertainment

by Lennart Nacke

Nacke, Lennart E. (2009) Affective Ludology: Scientific Measurement of User Experience in Interactive Entertainment. Ph.D. Thesis. Blekinge Institute of Technology, Karlskrona, Sweden.

Digital games provide the most engaging interactive experiences. Researching gameplay experience is done mainly in the... more Digital games provide the most engaging interactive experiences. Researching gameplay experience is done mainly in the science and technology (e.g., human-computer interaction, physiological and entertainment computing) and social science (e.g., media psychology, psychophysiology, and communication sciences) research communities. This thesis is located at the intersection of these research areas, bringing together emerging methodological and scientific approaches from these multi-faceted communities for an affective ludology; a novel take on game analysis and design with focus on the player.

The thesis contributes to game research with three important results:

1. the establishment of a objective/subjective correlation methodology founded on psychophysiological methods,
2. the creation of a formal theoretical framework in which to conduct user experience (UX) research related to games, and
3. the combination of results regarding cognitive and emotional factors for describing, defining, and classifying the interactive relationship between players and games.

Two approaches for measuring gameplay experience are used in this thesis. First, objective assessment of physiological user responses together with automated event-logging techniques, so called game metrics, allows collecting essential player- and game-related variables for a comprehensive understanding of their interaction. Second, using psychometric questionnaires allows a reliable assessment of players' subjective emotion and cognition during gameplay. The benefit of psychophysiological methods is that they are non-intrusive, covert, reliable, and objective. To fully understand psychophysiological results, a correlation between subjective gameplay experience ratings and psychophysiological responses is necessary and has been done in this thesis and prior work it builds on.

This thesis explores objective and subjective assessment of gameplay experience in several experiments. The experiments focus on:

1. level design implications from psychophysiological and questionnaire measurements,
2. the impact of form and age on subjective gameplay experience,
3. the impact of game audio and sound on objective and subjective player responses, and
4. the impact of game interaction design on and the relationship between experience and electroencephalographic measures.

In addition, the thesis includes a theoretical framework for UX research in games, which classifies gameplay experience along the dimensions of abstraction and time. One remaining conceptual and empirical challenge for this framework is the huge variety of vaguely defined experiential phenomena, such as immersion, flow, presence, and engagement. However, the results from the experimental studies show that by establishing correlations between psychophysiological responses and questionnaire data, we are approaching a better, scientifically grounded, understanding of gameplay experience.

Many possibilities open from here. More detailed analyses of cognition will help us understand to what extent gameplay experience depends on emotional or cognitive processing. In addition, the inclusion of more complex and detailed gameplay metrics data together with psychophysiological metrics will enable a comprehensive analysis of player behavior, attention, and motivation. Finally, the integration of new measurement technologies in interactive entertainment applications will not only allow a detailed assessment of gameplay, but also improve physical and mental interaction with future games.

Gameplay Design Patterns for Game Dialogues

by Jenny Brusk

Co-authored with Staffan Björk

Dialogues are natural models for human communication and have also been used to model interaction within computer... more Dialogues are natural models for human communication and have also been used to model interaction within computer games. In this paper, we look at current models of dialogues from within the field of computational linguistics and explore their usefulness of games, and especially for the design of gameplay through interaction with non-playing characters in games. This is done by analyzing several examples of computer-based games and similar playful activities, both to see which models of dialogues are used but also to suggest possible ways of expanding gameplay through using other dialogue models. Uses of existing models for dialogues within games are identified but an additional model, the Game State-based approach to dialogues, is introduced. The possible implications of the changes in gameplay are described through the use of gameplay design patterns, offering a way to encode design knowledge explicitly and link that knowledge to other gameplay design pattern collections.