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Article explains the influence of the Nintendo series

P. 158 in a long document. Abstract: " 157 Chapter 8Design and Implementation of Mobile Educational Games: Networks for Innovation Rob Harrap 1 , Sylvie Daniel 2 , Michael Power 3 , Joshua Pearce 4 , Nicholas Hedley 5 1 Queen's University, Department of Geological Sciences and Geological Engineeringharrap@geol.queensu.ca 2 Université Laval, Department of Geomaticssylvie.daniel@scg.ulaval.ca 3 Université Laval, Faculty of Educationmichael.power@fse.ulaval.ca 4 Michigan Technological University, Department of Materials Science & Engineering and theDepartment of Electrical & Computer Engineering, USApearce@mtu.edu 5 Simon Fraser University, Department of Geographyhedley@sfu.ca Abstract :" Research networks foster creativity and break down institutional bar-riers, but introduce geographic barriers to communication and collaboration. Indesigning mobile educational games, our distributed team took advantage of di-verse talent pools and differing perspectives to drive forward a core vision of our design targets. Our strategies included intense design workshops, use of online meeting rooms, group paper and software prototyping, and disseminationof prototypes to other teams for refinement and repurposing. Our group showedstrong activity at the university-centered nodes with periods of highly effectivedissemination between these nodes and to outside groups; we used workshopinvitations to gather new ideas and perspectives, to refine the core vision, toforge inter-project links, and to stay current on what was happening in othernetworks. Important aspects of our final deliverables came from loosely-associated network members who engaged via collaborative design exercises inworkshops, emphasizing the need to bring the network together and the im-portance of outside influences as ideas evolve. Our final deliverable, a mobileeducational game and a series of parallel technology demonstrations, reflect themix of influences and the focus on iterated development that our net

Abstract "The increasingly social nature of gaming suggests the importance of understanding the associated experiences, and influence on potential outcomes."

An interactive computer game "to detect and quantify the influence of color on the performance of people executing tasks that require attention and showed to be attractive for people with ADHD. "

"Many games and consoles today allow for a player to substitute a personal music playlist into the video game. We examined the influence that a player's choice of music has on the player's experience in one particular game, Fallout 3: Operation Anchorage. "

Abstract: "Non-player Characters (NPCs) that accompany the player en- able a single player to participate in team-based experiences, improving immersion and allowing for more complex game- play. In this context, an Artificial Intelligence (AI) teammate should make good combat decisions, supporting the player and optimizing combat resolution. Here we investigate the target selection problem, which consists of picking the op- timal enemy as a target in a modern war game. We look at how the companion's different strategies can influence the outcome of combat, and by analyzing a variety of non-trivial First Person Shooter (FPS) scenarios show that a mathemat- ically simple approach significantly improves over common strategies typically found in games, and can achieve results similar to much more expensive look-up tree approaches. This work has applications in practical game design, show- ing that simple, computationally efficient target selection can make an excellent target selection heuristic"

Abstract: "In digital games and virtual worlds, like in other digital media, the structure of the medium, its code, influences the emerging interaction and culture. A deliberate modification of this code to facilitate democratic decision making might thus lead to more meaningful interaction in games. If we see virtual worlds as learning environments this might even help players to understand and question real-world power structures. A way to modify the code of a virtual world is by extending its interface with an add-on that interacts with the application programming interface of the game. In this paper we present the design vision and theoretical framework of a digital tool for ethical decision making that will be implemented in the virtual world World of Warcraft. Its purpose will be to supply players with means to modify the power structure built into the code of this virtual world and to support more ethical and democratic decision making in the game."

Abstract: "In 2010, the authors (Jacobs, a game design professor, Sugarman, a pediatrician, and Rice, a psychotherapist ) started meeting to brainstorm design and play concepts for a therapeutic, physiologically-controlled videogame intended for use by people diagnosed with anxiety and/or autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The goal was to combine cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), narrative therapy (NT) and biofeedback supported psychophysiological selfregulation (PSR) into a game that would engage adolescents and provide hard data on a player's physical and emotional states during a therapy session. The game concept that emerged is "MindGamersTM in School" (MG), a therapeutic game prototype being developed and tested across two 6-month sessions by the authors and two teams of undergraduate game design and development students at the Rochester Institute of Technology. Pursuing the design required half the team to learn principles, terms and methods of strength-based, client-centered psychotherapy and their application to psychophysiological selfregulation and biofeedback theory and practice. The other half of the team needed to engage in understanding the current state of role-playing videogames, avatar creation systems and game design/development processes. This paper will describe the current game prototype and then focus on MG's design and development process by looking at how the initial design period brought the game design to its current state and how it has continued to influence the production process."

Abstract: "ideo games and other applications using off - the - shelf tracking devices often take a simple approach to gesture and pose recognition: a recognized gesture is always mapped to the same action . This approach basically turns a gesture into a binary button pre ss and misses much of the nuance implicit in natural gestures. In this paper we explore , in a game design setting , the use of continuous 3D gesture sequences where in attributes of individual gestures, such as speed, direction, etc., combine to influence th e r esult of the sequence as a whole . We present Pixelbending, a game demo built using the Microsoft Kinect and Unreal Developers Kit (UDK) in which the player performs Tai Chi inspired movements to control water. Designed with the goal of creating a fun an d engaging 3D game experience built on a nuanced gesture set, the demo was well received by many players of different ages and sizes. Through the development process we encountered challenges to working with off - the - shelf devices."

From the introduction: "we conduct two large - scale studies of gamer's health behavior, their associated determinants, and the influence of various 2 [persuasive technology] PT strategies on various gamers ' personalities. The aim is to answer the following research questions : Q1. Is it possible that membe rs of one gamer type will respond differently to various persuasive strategies and theoretical determinants from members of other gamer types ? Q2. Which persuasive strategies and theoretical determinants are suitable for designing persu asion games for various gamer types? Q3. Can persuasive strategies and theoretical determinants be mapped to common game mechanics? Q4. To what extent can we employ the one - size - fits - all approach and what persuasive strategies support one - size - fits - all approach ?

abstract: "This literature review will discuss the efficacy of using video game programming as an attractor and entry point to engage middle- and high-school girls in a computer science curriculum. The review begins by exploring historical trends of female participation in the technology industry and in computer science programs at the high-school and collegiate levels, and the impact these trends have on women's opportunities. For additional background context, the review will then review a number of empirical studies regarding girls' attitudes toward computer science, as well as environmental and social influences that impact their participation in the field. It will then identify the educational and social goals of increased female participation in the computer science curriculum and briefly discuss various potential attractors that have been under investigation. Finally, the review will describe specific research studies that explore both how effective the teaching of computer game design is in attracting female students to a computer science course of study, as well as its efficacy in teaching important computer science concepts."

Abstract: "People experience emotions when playing videogames. It can be argued that these emotions are their main reason for playing. In this paper, we investigate whether colors can be used in videogames to elicit specific emotions. We ran an experiment with a videogame in which four different colors, associated with four specific emotions, were used in four different conditions (in this case, four different rooms in the game). After each condition we measured the players' emotional responses by means of a Self-Assessment Manikin (SAM) questionnaire. Our analysis revealed that the color red evoked a highly-aroused, negative emotional response, while the color yellow evoked a positive emotional response. These results were significantly different from the emotional responses measured for other colors. Furthermore, we found that inexperienced players showed much more explicit reactions to colors than experienced players. We conclude that the use of colors is a suitable method for game designers to elicit specific emotional responses from the players, in particular from novice players."

Abstract: "following paper presents an experimental study. In the study a course for Basic Life Support training has been evaluated and two game design patterns have been applied to the course. The hypotheses evaluated in this paper relate to game design patterns that have been used for learning functions, expected to enhance the learning outcome and user experience. An experimental design has been carried out in order to get insight about effects of individual and combined game patterns in a Basic Life Support course. Based on the according educational objectives, the effects of two different game design patterns relevant for learning (a timer pattern and a score pattern) have been evaluated. This game was prototypically developed targeting the application on the healthcare domain (basic life support). The results show a significant interaction effect of the two patterns on the learning gain, as well as a strong covariate influence of the learners' age."

"As marketers invest more and more money into in-game brand placements, little research has tested the effects of videogame customization and controller type in relation to advertising effects, even though these factors have demonstrated importance in other areas of gaming research. Results from an experiment show that game customization significantly increases recall of an integral brand placement-one that is central to actual game play-but not of peripheral brands, which simply appear within the game. Regardless of brand type, players using a traditional controller exhibit significantly greater recall than those who use a newer, more naturally mapping controller. An interaction effect indicates that the influence of controller type disappears when customization is allowed; this effect is not specific to either type of brand. These results are interpreted through models of processing fluency and the limited capacity model of motivated mediated message processing. The article concludes with marketing implications regarding technological videogame advances."

"The goal of this Interactive Qualifying Project is to examine game art's influence on people and its aesthetic implication. The video game industry was brought to its prosperity by improvement in technology and the introduction of digital medias. It has developed to be a source of communication from one generation to the next. Game art is a prominent representation of digital art, an art form made possible by current technology. This report discusses how much game art has evolved over the years and how similar game art have or have not become."

"This paper describes the creation of the game Endless Web, a 2D platforming game in which the player's actions determine the ongoing creation of the world she is exploring. Endless Web is an example of a PCG-based game: it uses procedural content generation (PCG) as a mechanic, and its PCG system, Launchpad, greatly influenced the aesthetics of the game. All of the player's strategies for the game revolve around the use of procedural content generation. Many design challenges were encountered in the design and creation of Endless Web, for both the game and modifications that had to be made to Launchpad. These challenges arise largely from a loss of fine-grained control over the player's experience; instead of being able to carefully craft each element the player can interact with, the designer must instead craft algorithms to produce a range of content the player might experience. In this paper we provide a definition of PCG-based game design and describe the challenges faced in creating a PCG-based game. We offer our solutions, which impacted both the game and the underlying level generator, and identify issues which may be particularly important as this area matures."

Abstract: "The collaborative nature of many modern multiplayer games raises a lot of questions in cooperative game design. We address one of them in this paper by analyzing cooperative game patterns in remote gameplay in order to define benefits and drawbacks for each one. With the help of a user experiment, we analyzed player experience in a set of existing cooperative patterns for games played remotely without communication. By comparing patterns, supporting closely- and looselycoupled collaboration, we discovered that the first type provided a more enjoyable experience but introduced additional challenges in case of a lack of communication. By analyzing patterns for both closely- and loosely-coupled interaction, we determined the most beneficial pattern within each type. We concluded with the results of a pattern comparison in colocated and remote setups."

from the abstract: "In this dissertation, a study of the serious games' validity for assessing the in-vehicle information systems ergonomics is presented. Results show that by using low-cost serious game it is possible to successfully predict the interactions' impact on driving performance. Moreover, the developed serious game obtained very promising driving performance approximations to a high fidelity driving simulator. This simulator was used, along with the serious game, to study the impact of two elementary tasks in the current in-vehicle information systems: read text and navigate menus manually. Both tasks affected significantly the vehicle's lateral control, and less significantly the longitudinal control. A final experiment was conducted to confirm the existence of the serious game influence over the behaviour of subjects. It was possible to observe that the game applied a positive impact to drivers' behaviour by improving their lateral and longitudinal control over the vehicle."

Abstract: "Search-based procedural content generation methods allow video games to introduce new content continually, thereby engaging the player for a longer time while reducing the burden on developers. However, games so far have not explored the potential economic value of unique evolved artifacts. Building on this insight, this paper presents for the first time a Facebook game called Petalz in which players can share flowers they breed themselves with other players through a global marketplace. In particular, the market in this social game allows players to set the price of their evolved aestheticallypleasing flowers in virtual currency. Furthermore, the transaction in which one player buys seeds from another creates a new social element that links the players in the transaction. The combination of unique user-generated content and social gaming in Petalz facilitates meaningful collaboration between users, positively influences the dynamics of the game, and opens new possibilities in digital entertainment."

"Prototypes have proven to be a good practice in different areas. In the gaming industry, they help identify usability and gameplay issues, among others. The earlier these issues are identified, the less effort is required fixing them. But game assets like graphics are often expensive and are available later on, or even after game functionality has been implemented. Game prototypes are in this case created using lower fidelity visuals. While this technique makes it possible to perform usability tests, it may bias the feedback provided by usability testers. In this paper we investigate how the fidelity of the prototypes used for usability testing influence the feedback provided by testers."