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From the abstract: "Traditionally, the tasks associated with game AI revolved around non player character (NPC) behavior at dierent levels of control, varying from navigation and pathnding to decision making. Commercial-standard games developed over the last 15 years and current game productions, however, suggest that the traditional challenges of game AI have been well addressed via the use of sophisticated AI approaches, not necessarily following or inspired by advances in academic practices. The marginal penetration of traditional academic game AI methods in industrial productions has been mainly due to the lack of constructive communication between academia and industry in the early days of academic game AI, and the inability of academic game AI to propose methods that would signicantly advance existing development processes or provide scalable solutions to real world problems. Recently, however, there has been a shift of research focus as the current plethora of AI uses in games is breaking the non-player character AI tradition. A number of those alternative AI uses have already shown a signicant potential for the design of better games. This paper presents four key game AI research areas that are currently reshaping the research roadmap in the game AI eld and evidently put the game AI term under a new perspective. These game AI agship research areas include the computational modeling of player experience, the procedural generation of content, the mining of player data on massive-scale and the alternative AI research foci for enhancing NPC capabilities."

"Keywords for Video Game Studies Colloquium Saturday, May 19, 2012 8 AM to 4 PM Communication 202 University of Washington, Seattle" "The Keywords for Video Game Studies colloquium invites game scholars, artists, designers, developers, and enthusiasts to participate in roundtable discussions, presentations of individual and collaborative work, scholarship, and play. This year's colloquium, broadly themed by the keywords "research/design," is the capstone event to a year-long series of workshop sessions on democracy, time, altplay/fandom, gold farming, and hack/mod. The colloquium, now in its second year, hopes to foster the growing engagement with what it means to study or make or play digital games."

Abstract: "In recent years, there has been a dramatic proliferation of research concerned with game based learning and intelligent system s . Although the intelligent agent bas ed system has existed for many years, only recently its surge of mainstream popularity motivated researchers to acknowledge its educational value. With the increasing usage of game based learning, reliability requirements for intelligent system s or multi - a gent system s have become more critical. Quiz game is one of the game types which is easy to develop and not restrict ed by any specific subject and any people . And the m ulti - agent based system is flexible and saving resource . Hence we integrate the quiz gam e into multi - agent system s , we called it m ulti - agent based quiz game and also d evelop a framework to build personalized assessment game . For the instructor, they can understand student's playing situation and experience . For the students, they have p ersona lized assessment game . In this paper, we proposed a framewor k of multi - agent based Quiz - MASter , and describe each service from each agent briefly."

Abstract: "Lifespan is an Interactive Media and Game Development Major Qualifying P roject developed in the Unity game engine over the course of one year by six students. Lifespan is a first - person puzzle game in which the player affects objects in the environment by using a time - manipulation device. Designed with a unique spin on standar d puzzle games, Lifespan seeks to add realism, science, and nature to the environment with new and interesting mechanics."

Abstract: "Persuasive games are an effective approach for motivating health behavior, and recent years have seen an increase in games designed for changing human behaviors or attitudes. However, these games are limited in two major ways: first, they are not based on theories of what motivates healthy behavior change. This makes it difficult to evaluate why a persuasive approach works. Second, most persuasive games treat players as a monolithic group. As an attempt to resolve these weaknesses, we conducted a large-scale survey of 642 gamers' eating habits and their associated determinants of healthy behavior to understand how health behavior relates to gamer type. We developed seven different models of healthy eating behavior for the gamer types identified by BrainHex. We then explored the differences between the models and created two approaches for effective persuasive game design based on our results. The first is a one-size-fits-all approach that will motivate the majority of the population, while not demotivating any players. The second is a personalized approach that will best motivate a particular type of gamer. Finally, to make our approaches actionable in persuasive game design, we map common game mechanics to the determinants of healthy behavior."

Abstract : "This paper explores how supernormal stimuli may have contributed to the remarkable popularity of several types of video games: first-person shooters (FPSs), massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs), and Minecraft. Human culture, technology, and environments have advanced so rapidly in the last 10,000 years that the brains of Homo sapiens have not been able to keep up. Humans survive in the modern world, but still retain a mind stuck in the Pleistocene. Supercharged representations of ancient stimuli, which appealed to prehistoric human ancestors in the environment of evolutionary adaptedness (EEA), appear in many video games and may be hyper-stimulating humans' adaptive instincts. These supernormal stimuli appear to correlate with the remarkably engaging, pleasurable, and satisfying experiences human players derive from playing these games. This paper goes on to propose that greater recognition of the potential of supernormal stimuli, and experimentation with the creation of virtual worlds stand to improve not only digital games, but the way in which humans live, work, and play in the real world."

"Abstract Video game developers have a tough road ahead as they try to out-do their competitors and develop the next blockbuster video game. The problem they face is that the cost of developing a video game is rising. The pressure mounts as economic uncertainty has led many consumers to cut spending on lucrative video game titles that publishers are tossing out up to $100 million (in rare cases) to develop, and the publishers are already beginning to feel the heat. Recent years have seen a number of publishers close up shop and even more publishers cutting jobs to save on spending. Despite the need for producing a product more efficiently and within a time restriction, the video game industry bases most of the production phases in-house instead of adopting a 24-hour business model in co-located sites around the world. Implementation of the 24 hour knowledge factory can help to solve some of the problems developers face in the numerous phases of video game development. However, publishers have yet to take advantage of this efficient business model."

"Millions flock to their computers, consoles, mobile phones, tablets, and social networks each day to play World of Warcraft, Farmville, Scrabble, and countless other games, generating billions in sales each year. The careful and skillful construction of these games is built on decades of research into human motivation and psychology: A well-designed game goes right to the motivational heart of the human psyche. In For the Win, authors Kevin Werbach and Dan Hunter argue persuasively that gamemakers need not be the only ones benefiting from game design. Werbach and Hunter are lawyers and World of Warcraft players who created the world's first course on gamification at the Wharton School. In their book, they reveal how game thinking?addressing problems like a game designer?can motivate employees and customers and create engaging experiences that can transform your business. For the Win reveals how a wide range of companies are successfully using game thinking. It also offers an explanation of when gamifying makes the most sense and a 6-step framework for using games for marketing, productivity enhancement, innovation, employee motivation, customer engagement, and more."

"This action research study investigated whether the combination of the appreciative learning approach as a pedagogical strategy and computer game development as a technological tool enhances student creativity in terms of the products produced. The study consisted of three phases. Phase I used an experimental design with randomized subjects and a control group to investigate the effectiveness of the combination of appreciative learning and computer game development for creativity enhancement. Phases II and III used a one-group pretest-posttest experimental design for the treatment group only. Subjects of the study consisted of 13 and 14-year-old students. Product creativity was evaluated through the Computer Game Assessment Inventory (COMGAIN). Findings in Phase I indicated that the treatment group produced more creative products than the control group. Improvements in the implementation of the appreciative learning approach and computer game development increased product creativity levels in Phases II and III. Thus, this study provides evidence of the transformational possibilities of the appreciative learning approach when combined with computer game development with regards to student creativity."

"Digital technology empowers one to access vast amounts of on-line data. From a learning perspective, however, it is difficult to access meaningful on-site information within a given context. The Hypercontextualized Game (HCG) design model interweaves on-site resources, translated as content, and the digital game. As a local game design process, HCG builds on the resources available on-site (context) and transfers them beyond their origin (hyper). A successful example is the HCG stories in LieksaMyst, an application developed for the Pielinen Museum, in which the player is guided through a series of activities by a virtual host from the historic past. It took three years of extensive work and research for the LieksaMyst HCG stories to mature from brainstorming concepts to a fully-fledged museum service. Curators, educational technology experts and a total of 476 visitors (from 6 to 77 years old) contributed to the design process. The analysis of the context and feedback from the visitors enabled us to choose media, content and activities suitable to the Pielinen Museum. Our findings indicate that quality time, sincere reflection and communication between local experts and potential players, are indispensable when designing a HCG based game. The analysis benefits researchers and practitioners who are interested in the ways in which a game can bridge the gap between people and relevant on-site information"

Abstract: "the boom of Cloud Computing services in the recent years has created new opportunities and removed many of the limitations that are typically tied to software deployed on the Internet. It has been shown that the development of online games can benefit from the integration of Cloud services into their design in order to solve many of the problems that plague their development and maintenance. In this paper, we first discuss the current designs of online gaming architectures and present their limits. The solutions offered by using Cloud services in respect to these video games are then explored and the new problems that arise from this combination are addressed. We also present a case study by deploying an online First Person Shooter multiplayer video game on currently available Cloud infrastructures (using Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud) and detailing our architecture specifically designed for this purpose. We show that, where once entering the market of online games was solely affordable by big companies due to the high infrastructure costs, a single person could now create and deploy an online game."

"For the University of Pennsylvania, the 2011-2012 academic year has been dubbed "The Year of the Game." The University's various departments are all encouraged to weave games into curricula. The folks at Penn Nursing School, however, are taking it to a whole other level." Call for healthcare related games.

From the introduction: "The staggering growth of violent video games in recent years raises important socio - psychological questions concerning the relationship between the civilian population, the military , and the phenomenon of violence . This thesis is based on interviews with active - duty soldiers , veterans, psychologists and gamers alike, conducting original research to gain a better understanding of the lasting ramifications of this popular genre. Many studies have outlined the negative consequences of viole nt video games, but this mor e comprehensive analysis of the medium will show a more balanced picture of the true implications of this growing phenomenon . As I will demonstrate, the growth of video games is a net benefit for society. Video games as a growing new media - and a rapidly expanding part of our culture - are not to be purely defined by the overly - negative rhetoric that has been popularized by syndicated news and the public eye, as there are so much more "nutritious" benefits games have to offer to society."

Abstract: "Adolescent obesity is an increasing challenge, and pervasive social health games hold much promise for promoting sustained healthy behaviors. Researchers and d esigners of these systems have many potential theories and existing best practices at their disposal. Our study, grounded in participatory design, shows which ones matter - both for pervasive social health games and within the cultural context of a community we studied over the course of three years. We worked with 112 US middle school students from a lower - income community in a series of participatory design exercises focused on social rewards for everyday physical activity. In our analysis, we discuss design implications in four key areas : social presence, gender effects, incentives and competition. We show how these themes manifested in students' designs and why they were particularly important to our participa nts. We then use our findings to suggest design strategies for youth - focused pervasive social health games."

Abstract:"A one-semester introductory undergraduate course in computer game development is described. The freshman-level course has been taught for four years. The course was designed and implemented in the context of a new curriculum in computer game development. Goals of the course were to retain undergraduate computer science (CS) majors, attract new students to CS, and expose students to the content creation pipeline used in more advanced courses. A significant aspect of the course is the end-of-semester project to create a machinima - a video created using computer game technology. Besides the initial goals for the course, other benefits were discovered including fostering a sense of community by helping students get to know their peers early in the program. Results, both quantitative and anecdotal, show the course has exceeded expectations in meeting the goals originally established. In addition, the course content has been adapted to the format of a three-day summer workshop to recruit high school students to the university. The course has been integral to the growth of the CS program, enabling the program to nearly triple in size over four years and achieve both statewide prominence and national recognition."

Abstract: "For over 40 years, researchers investigated utilizing video games for education. Some of that research focused on the type of pedagogical content to embed in a game and how to integrate it, while others emphasized how to preserve the inherent intrinsic motivation in games. One of the many factors that could affect motivation and learning in video games is the different intrapersonal elements and attributes of games. In order to test those attributes' effect on motivation and learning we need to be able to define them and clearly establish a method for measuring them. The object of this study is to establish a framework for measuring three of these attributes, Challenge, Control and Goals, based on user perception. This framework is an initial step to establish a clear metric for measuring those attributes in five different game genres: First-Person Shooter, Racing, RPG, Arcade and Sports."

Description in Google Books: "The Video Game Industry provides a platform for the research on the video game industry to draw a coherent and informative picture of this industry. Previously this has been done sparsely through conference papers, research articles, and popular science books. Although the study of this industry is still stigmatized as frivolous and 'only' game oriented, those who grew up with video games are changing things, especially research agendas, the acceptance of studies, and their interpretation. This book describes and defines video games as their own special medium. They are not pinball from which they grew, nor movies which they sometimes resemble. They are a unique form of entertainment based on meaningful interactions between individuals and machine across a growing sector of the population. The Video Game Industry provides a reference foundation for individuals seriously interested in the industry at the academic level. As a result, this book will serve as a reference in curricula associated with video game development for years to come. "

Abstract: "The explorer player type has remained a focal point in discussions of game design and research for several years. Though valuable insights have built an understanding of explorers from online multiplayer and individual characteristic perspectives, there still remains a need to further understand and empirically specify what aspects of games are appealing to explorers. Accordingly, the Gameplay Enjoyment Model (GEM; Quick, Atkinson, & Lin, 2012b) provides a detailed, empirical perspective on the explorer through a set of specific game design features. Using these features, games can be designed to leverage what is known about how explorers experience enjoyment through games. A practical demonstration of how to design Exploration features into a game is offered through an analysis of Pathfinders Way. This article aims to encourage a deeper understanding of explorers and provide practical guidance on how empirical research results can be incorporated into game design practice."

Abstract: "In recent years videogame companies have recognized the role of player engagement as a major factor in user experience and enjoyment. This en-couraged a greater investment in new types of game controllers such as the WiiMote™, Rock Band™ instruments and the Kinect™. However, the native software of these controllers was not originally designed to be used in other game applications. This work addresses this issue by building a middleware framework, which maps body poses or voice commands to actions in any game. This not only warrants a more natural and customized user-experience but it al-so defines an interoperable virtual controller. In this version of the framework, body poses and voice commands are respectively recognized through the Ki-nect's built-in cameras and microphones. The acquired data is then translated into the native interaction scheme in real time using a lightweight method based on spatial restrictions. The system is also prepared to use Nintendo's Wiimote™ as an auxiliary and unobtrusive gamepad for physically or verbally impractical commands. System validation was performed by analyzing the per-formance of certain tasks and examining user reports. Both confirmed this ap-proach as a practical and alluring alternative to the game's native interaction scheme. In sum, this framework provides a game-controlling tool that is totally customizable and very flexible, thus expanding the market of game consumers."

"In this thesis we present the design and evaluation of a learning game based on the concept of 'stealth learning' and the theory of constructivism, which provides an early introduction to basic programming concepts and procedural literacy to children from 10 years upwards, attempting to provide the highest possible degree of immersion. The evaluation involves a number of tests verifying usability, immersion and motivation, and an attempt to test the transferability of the ingame acquired knowledge to reading pseudocode, the results of which, triggered further reflection on the possibility of adding new layers of complexity and embedding evaluation of learning within the game experience."