Group items tagged

Abstract: "This paper demonstrates the use of a crowdsourced human computation game to accumulate annotations from non-experts as a means to provide labels for an affective facial expression database. To do so, a human computation game is played, in which players are encouraged to ask each other related facial expression questions. These questions are based on the Facial Action Coding System. Emphasis is placed on the participant's overall understanding of the task and on the ease-of-use of the game so that labeling accuracy is reinforced. Additional game mechanics can be used in future work to encourage players to keep playing the game. This crowdsourced labeling of an affective facial expressions database is important because the manual labeling of an affective database can be relatively expensive and time consuming. Our game shows that non-experts are comparable in labeling our affective database based on the ground truth."

Abstract: "A recent trend within computational intelligence and games research is to investigate how to affect video game players' in-game experience by designing and/or modifying aspects of game content. Analysing the relationship between game content, player behaviour and self-reported affective states constitutes an important step towards understanding game experience and constructing effective game adaptation mechanisms. This papers reports on further refinement of a method to understand this relationship by analysing data collected from players, building models that predict player experience and analysing what features of game and player data predict player affect best. We analyse data from players playing 780 pairs of short game sessions of the platform game Super Mario Bros, investigate the impact of the session size and what part of the level that has the major affect on player experience. Several types of features are explored, including item frequencies and patterns extracted through frequent sequence mining."

Abstract: "The purpose of this study is to create a brain-computer interface-dependent game that relies on user affect as a method of control. The paper first summarizes the existing research into BCI-based applications. It then describes the steps the researchers have been taking in order to develop a game that makes use of the OCZ Neural-Impulse Actuator to retrieve brain signals from a user in order to manipulate different powers utilizing arousal."

Abstract: "With the increasing potential for gaming hardware and peripherals to support biometrics, their application within the games industry for software and design should be considered. This pa per assesses the ability to use a form of biometric measurement, heart rate, in real - time to improve the challenge and enjoyment of a game by catering it to individuals of varying ability . While the findings of this study are valuable to game developers in terested in providing additional dimensions to gameplay and testing, they may also be useful for those researching medical or the rapeutic applications for games . The results suggest that although the tested game was inherently challenging and enjoyable, t he adaptive affective gameplay was not altering the game enough to induce strong physiological or emotional responses from participants. Biofeedback games lend themselves to medical applications, but adaptive affective games can be used to respond sympathe tically to the player without requiring direct control of physiological responses as a form of input."

Using a brain-computer-interface, researchers attempt to discover what game elements evoke fear in players

"A Comprehensive Study of Sound in Computer Games: How Audio Affects Player ActionJørgensen, Kristine This study examines the functionality of sound in computer games, a topic which has received little attention in game studies and media studies." Especially focuses on player experience of sound

Abstract: "Cloud gaming now makes any computer game playable on a thin client without the previous worries and frustrations about the hardware requirements. It frees players from the need to frequently upgrade their computers as they can now play games that are hosted on remote servers with a broadband Internet connection and a thin client. However, cloud games are intrinsically more susceptible to latency than online games because game graphics are rendered on cloud servers and thin clients do not possess game state information that is required by delay compensation techniques. In this paper, we investigate how the response latency in cloud gaming would affect users' experience and how the impact of latency on players' experience varies among different games. We show that not all games are equally friendly to cloud gaming. That is, the same degree of latency may have very different impacts on a game's quality of experience depending on the game's real-time strictness. We thus develop a model that can predict a game's real-time strictness based on the rate of players' inputs and the game screen dynamics. The model can be used to simultaneously enhance players' gaming and optimize the operation cost of data centers."

Abstract: "Serious Games are increasingly used as a training and educational tool. Fire keeps claiming a high number of victims. Some authors allege failures during the evacuation process as the main cause that contributes for that number. Fire drills are used to train buildings' occupants for emergency situations. However, fire drills' participants often have prior knowledge of their schedule and as result they are not as focused as they should. Moreover, fire drills require the mobilization of some resources, leading to financial costs. Performing a fire drill will always affect the normal functioning of the place where they take place; for this reason, sometimes they are not performed at all. In some special locations, like hospitals, fire drills are unsuitable. Emergency planning is crucial to prevent and minimize damage and victims. Albeit the improvement on safety measures, many occupants and employers in this type of buildings still lack adequate knowledge and training on how to behave in such hazardous situations. EVA is presented as a possible solution, which is based on the concept of Serious Game that can be used as a training tool for healthcare professionals. A preliminary prototype was developed. A sample of 20 subjects was selected to test it giving promising results. Results also showed that users who had training in fire prevention appear to perform better in the course. Moreover, participants who regularly play computer games overcame easily the game challenges. Further research and development are still to be explored, which are discussed in the concluding part of this paper."