Group items tagged

"blocks that players can move around and touch to one another to solve puzzles or create patterns"

"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: "In this project, the following research question is set forth: is it possible to create fair maps for a video game using multi objective evolution algorithms? A description of the video game used for this project, Civilization V, is provided as well as an overview of other map generation methods, and research being done in the field of procedural content generation. A definition for what is fair is made and expressed through functions, that evaluate maps for the video game Civilization V. These evaluation functions express five distinct perspectives on how fair maps are perceived. The fitness functions are designed to conflict as little as possible with each other. A method is defined as to how this theory is applied in practice to generate maps for Civilization V. The evaluation functions are applied on maps from the game's map generation method, and compared to maps that have been evolved with the method provided by this project."

"Online games increasingly sell virtual goods to generate real income. As a result, it is increasingly important to identify factors and theory of consumption values that affect intent to purchase virtual goods in online games. However, very little research has been devoted to the topic. This study is an empirical investigation of the factors and theory of consumption values that affect intent to purchase virtual goods in online games. The study determines the effects of game type, satisfaction with the game, identification with the character, and theory of consumption values on intent to purchase virtual goods. The study used a survey to collect information from 523 virtual game users. Study results showed that game type is a moderating variable that affects intent to purchase virtual goods. And it demonstrated that role-playing game users are affected by theory of consumption values: functional quality, playfulness, and social relationship support. Moreover, war-strategy game users are affected by satisfaction with the game, identification with the character, and theory of consumption values: price, utility, and playfulness. The study also presents conclusions, proposes applications, and describes opportunities for further research."

From the abstract: "This thesis is dealing with what have been identified as "pervasive games". Investigation and analysis of reasons behind their appearance, popularization is made. Different trends within classical game-development and theory of classical game-design are investigated to establish similarities and differences, challenges and solutions this newly emerged type of games is introducing. Knowledge presented in theoretical sections is used to design, develop, deploy and test a game-environment for mobile platforms that is adjusted for campus area. This designed game-environment consists of two essential components: Front-End, which is represented by Android mobile application and Back-End server logic. Both of components were designed, tested and implemented. Designed game-environment received a name "DTU GoblinsNGold and has been launched. It is made available publicly worldwide through Google Play market. All of these aspects and milestones are described in details inside practical part of this thesis. During game-environment testing valuable data was received that described all aspects of functionality of implemented system together with behavioral patterns of players. These results of deployment together with conclusions are presented in later sections."

Abstract: "Scalability, fast response time, and low cost are of utmost importance in designing a successful massively multiplayer online game. The underlying architecture plays an important role in meeting these conditions. Peer-to-peer architectures, due to their distributed and collaborative nature, have low infrastructure costs and can achieve high scalability. They can also achieve fast response times by creating direct connections between players. However, these architectures face many challenges. Distributing a game among peers makes maintaining control over the game more complex. Peer-to-peer architectures also tend to be vulnerable to churn and cheating. Moreover, different genres of games have different requirements that should be met by the underlying architecture, rendering the task of designing a general purpose architecture harder. Many peer-to-peer gaming solutions have been proposed that utilize a range of techniques while using somewhat different and confusing terminologies. This paper presents a comprehensive overview of current peer-to-peer solutions for massively multiplayer games using a uniform terminology"

From the abstract: "we present Bubble Popper, an exertion game that considers and facilitates body contact. Bubble Popper, which uses very simple technology, also demonstrates that considering and facilitating body contact can be achieved without t he need to sense body contact. Through reflecting on our design and analyzing observations of play , we are able to articulate what impact physical space layout in relation to digital game elements, and physical disparity between input and digital display c an have on body contact. Our results aid game designers in creat ing engaging exertion game s by guiding them when considering body contact, ultimately helping players benef it more from engaging exertion games."

Abstract: "Among numerous classical statistics paradoxes, N - uel (for N ℕ \ {1}, because N - uel where N = 1 is clearly not that interesting!) problem shows that the fittest of all competitors does not necessarily win this competition. Truel, Quadruel, and Nuel is simply an extension of a duel tournament, which involves more than two people ( Pirates of Caribbe an three - way sword fight serves as an appropriate visual representation). In addition, each N - uel player actually may possess different winning maximization strategy , since the Nuel tournament is known to illustrate that a fitter/better competitor in a mul ti - entry survival type competition does not necessarily possess significantly higher chance of survival than others. It is my desire to see this process: I want to visualize the N - uel process as a third - person observer, and if a person was playing this as a video game (which I plan on developing via Java Programming), I also want to visualize the winning strategies each video game participant follows."

Abstract: ""Sequence Breaking" is a type of feature interaction conflict that exists in video games where the player gains access to a portion of a game that should be inaccessible. In such instances, a game's subsuming featur e - its storylin e - is disrupted, as the predefined set of valid event sequences - event s being uninterruptable unit s of functionality that further the game's story - is not honoured, as per the game designer s' intentions. We postulate that sequence breaking often arise s through bypassing g eographic barriers, chea ting, and misunderstanding on the player's behalf. Throughout this dissertation, we pre sent an approach to preventing seque nce breaking at run - time with the help of Use Case Maps. We create a "narrative manager" and traversal algorithm to monitor the playe r's narrative progress and check the legality of attempted event calls. We verify our solution through test cases and show its feasibility through a game , concluding t hat our solution is sufficient and feasible."

"e describe an approach for developing an in- telligent game master (GM) for computer role-playing games. The role of the GM is to set up the game environment, man- age the narrative ow and enforce the game rules whilst keeping the players engaged. Our approach is to use the popular Belief-Desire-Intention (BDI) model of agents to de- veloping a GM."

Abstract :"Immigrants entering the European Community face a range of challenges in adapting to and understanding the culture of their host nation. Failure to address these challenges can lead to isolation and difficulties integrating into the society of the host country, leading to fragmented communities and a range of social issues . As part of a comprehensive suit e of services for immigrants , the European - funded M obile Assistance for Social Inclusion and Empowerment of Immigrants with Persuasive Learning Technologies and Social Network Services (MASELTOV) project seeks to provide both practical tools and le arning services via mobile devices, providing a readily usable resource for immigrants . In this workshop paper, the game - based learning aspect of the MASELTOV project is introduced, with the rationale behind its design presented. In doing so, the b enefits and implications of mobile platforms and emergent dat a capture techniques for game - based learning are discussed, as are methods for putting engaging gameplay at the forefront of the experience whilst relying on rich data capture and analysis to pro vide an effective learning solution. Through comparison to several other projects, a number of recommendations are put forward for games deployed in contexts similar to that of MASELTOV: a focus on establishing a significant audience with which to conduct ethical research into efficacy, the need for robust pedagogical frameworks suited to the learning context, and the evolution of methods for data capture and analysis of player activity."

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."

Abstract: "The Global Game Jam provides a unique opportunity to study time-constrained game development at a massive scale. We administered a free-response survey to 2013 Global Game Jam participants about their game development process. Categorized responses show: (a) participants use diverse in- spirations; (b) set goals for their personal benet, the im- pact on game players, and structure of the game system; (c) rarely employ traditional prototyping; and (d) evolve their games by scoping down many ideas, grounding a vague idea through implementation, and iteratively expanding a sim- ple core game. We discuss next steps to gain more in-depth information about design processes"

Abstract: "A number of changes are occurring in the field of computer game development: persistent online games, digital distribution platforms, social and mobile games, and the emer- gence of new business models have pushed game development to put heavier emphasis on the live operation of games. Artificial intelligence has long been an important part of game development practices. The forces of change in the industry present an opportunity for Game AI to have new and profound impact on game development practices. Specifically, Game AI agents should act as "producers" responsible for managing a long-running set of live games, their player communities, and real-world context. We characterize a confluence of four major forces at play in the games industry today, together producing a wealth of data that opens unique research opportunities and challenges for Game AI as producers. We enumerate 12 new research areas spawned by these forces and steps toward how they can be addressed by data-driven Game AI Producers"

Abstract: "Location-based mobile gaming combines gameplay with physical ac tivity. We have developed a game, O- Mopsi, based on the concept of orienteering, which can be played on mobile phones with GPS receiver and Internet connection. In order to complete a game, a play er must visit a set of targets that are photos chosen from a user-generated geotagged database. Game crea tion, management and live tracking can be done using a web interface. The game was presented at an annual international festival whic h is aimed at introducing science and technology to school children and the overa ll feedback received from the players was positive. "

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: "This paper discusses a scenario in which human computation is used to segment timestamped fashion images for mining trends based on visual features of garments (e.g., color and texture) and attributes of portrayed subjects (e.g., gender and age). State-of-the-art algorithms for body part detection and feature extraction can produce low quality results when parts of the body are occluded and when dealing with complex human poses. In such cases, these algorithms could benefit from the assistance of human agents. In order to jointly leverage the potential of crowds and image analysis algorithms, a game with a purpose (GWAP) is proposed, whereby players can help segment images for which specialized algorithms have failed, so as to improve the extraction of color and texture features of garments and their association with the features of the subject wearing them."

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."

A slide presentation illustrating game players as co-creators of game content

Abstract: "ARTigo is a Game with a Purpose platform whose goal is to collect tags for artworks, which can be used for retrieval. The ARTigo gam es form a tagging ecosystem, where the games cooperate in order to gather a wide range of information. Description games create initial tags, in order to enable other games to be played and collect semantically shallow surface tags. Dissemination games sp read existing data to other artworks or languages, and do not create new information. Diversification games feed on data produced by other games and guide the players to entering more specific tags. Finally, integration games create higher - order tags with deep semantic meanings, describing emotions for example. All these different types of tags have different semantic depths, and are present in different quantities. Together, they create a pool of complementary tags accurately describing artworks, which can be processed for data mining."