Abstract: "Computer based video games are receiving great interest as a means to learn and acquire new skills. As a novel approach to teaching navigation skills in the blind, we have developed Audio-based Environment Simulator (AbES); a virtual reality environment set within the context of a video game metaphor. Despite the fact that participants were naïve to the overall purpose of the software, we found that early blind users were able to acquire relevant information regarding the spatial layout of a previously unfamiliar building using audio based cues alone. This was confirmed by a series of behavioral performance tests designed to assess the transfer of acquired spatial information to a large-scale, real-world indoor navigation task. Furthermore, learning the spatial layout through a goal directed gaming strategy allowed for the mental manipulation of spatial information as evidenced by enhanced navigation performance when compared to an explicit route learning strategy. We conclude that the immersive and highly interactive nature of the software greatly engages the blind user to actively explore the virtual environment. This in turn generates an accurate sense of a large-scale three-dimensional space and facilitates the learning and transfer of navigation skills to the physical world."
Abstract: "With the growing availability of personal
communication devices we are witnessing a tremendous increase
in the demand for mobile services based on location and context.
Mobile gaming is, of course, following this same trend.
Unfortunately, differently from other services, location- and
context-based gaming strictly requires near-field communication
to interact with nearby players in order to create teams and
arenas. Since currently adopted technologies suffer from
scalability (Bluetooth) or energy (WiFi) constraints,
Opportunistic Networks (ONs) have already been addressed as a
viable solution to involve a considerable number of players on a
wider area. While massive multiplayer games are commonplace
on wired networks, it is not yet clear how player experience is
affected by the increased delay and probabilistic message
forwarding introduced by a huge population over an ON. In this
paper we address this problem by proposing an opportunistic
collaborative game, which is meaningful for the category of
collaborative puzzle games, and evaluating its playability and
scalability by means of simulations on a real city topology."
From the abstract: "Objective: We report the design of a trial to assess the educational efficacy of InsuOnline, a game for education of primary care physicians (PCPs). The goal of InsuOnline was to improve appropriate initiation and adjustment of insulin for the treatment of DM. InsuOnline was designed to be educationally adequate, self-motivating, and attractive.
Methods: A multidisciplinary team of endocrinologists, experts in medical education, and programmers, was assembled for the design and development of InsuOnline. Currently, we are conducting usability and playability tests, with PCPs and medical students playing the game on a desktop computer. Adjustments will be made based on these results. An unblinded randomized controlled trial with PCPs who work in the city of Londrina, Brazil, will be conducted to assess the educational validity of InsuOnline on the Web. In this trial, 64 PCPs will play InsuOnline, and 64 PCPs will undergo traditional instructional activities (lecture and group discussion). Knowledge on how to initiate and adjust insulin will be assessed by a Web-based multiple choice questionnaire, and attitudes regarding diabetes/insulin will be assessed by Diabetes Attitude Scale 3 at 3 time points-before, immediately after, and 6 months after the intervention. Subjects´ general impressions on the interventions will be assessed by a questionnaire. Software logs will be reviewed.
Results: To our knowledge, this is the first research with the aim of assessing the educational efficacy of a computer game for teaching PCPs about insulin therapy in DM. We describe the development criteria used for creating InsuOnline. Evaluation of the game using a randomized controlled trial design will be done in future studies.
Conclusions: We demonstrated that the design and development of a game for PCPs education on insulin is possible with a multidisciplinary team. InsuOnline can be an attractive option for large-scale continuous medical education to help imp
"As research for a Ph.D. thesis, we
propose to show that a layered Statechart-based AI is
a suitable formalism for Game AI, enabling the use of
model-driven development techniques such as reuse and
high-level analysis including model-checking.
The fundamentally modular nature of this approach
leads naturally to reuse as a fundamental component
of the design process. Supported by a clearly defined
formalism, useful behavioural analyses become possible,
such as testing reactions to various inputs at design
time. We also explore transformations at the modelling
level to enable procedural generation, allowing rapid
deployment of varying AIs. Additionally, such a model
allows for the generation of efficient code that can be directly
inserted into games. Tool support for reuse, generation,
and analysis will be developed, then employed
in creating an industrial scale AI, proving that this formalism
is appropriate for industrial use."
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 benet, 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"
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: "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 is a reflection on a design teaching project that endeavours to establish a culture of critical design thinking in a tertiary game design course. In the first instance, the 'performing design' project arose as a response to contemporary issues and tensions in the Australian games industry and game design education, in essence, the problem of how to scaffold undergraduate students from their entry point as 'players' (the impressed) into becoming designers. The performing design project therefore started as a small-scale intervention to inspire reflection in a wider debate that includes: the potential evolution of the contemporary games industry; the purpose of game design education; and the positioning of game design as a design discipline.
Our position is that designing interactive playful works or games is victim of a tendency to simplify the discipline and view it from either the perspective of science or art. In this paper we look at some of the historical discussions on the distinct identity of games. Then we present an overview of the typical state of play in contemporary game design education which inspires the performing design project as an intervention or teaching technique. This leads us to question understandings of education and training and creativity and innovation. Finally we reflect on insights arising from the performing design project which lead us to support Archer's call for a 'third area' that balances the monolithic practices of the two major academic disciplines."
Abstract: "The purpose of this study aimed to construct an online competitive game-based learning system by using freeware for junior high school students and to assess its effectiveness. From the learning standpoints, game mechanisms including learning points, competition mechanism, training room mechanism, questioning & answering mechanism, tips, and feedback mechanism are taken into consideration while constructing the system. The system contains screens of Log-in, Game lobby, Waiting room, Player's room, Question & Answer, and Scoring. After the system was established, it was implemented in a 10 week teaching experiment. A total of 35 junior high school students participated in this teaching experiment. Both pre-test and post-test were administered and analyzed. A 5-point Likert scale questionnaire, containing domains of system operation, learning effectiveness, competition and incentive, and training room learning was also included to assess user's satisfaction. Descriptive analysis and independent t test were used to analyze the collected data. The findings of the study show that most students are satisfied with the four domains of the freeware constructed online competitive game-based learning system. Meanwhile, the online competitive game-based learning system is effective for junior high school students' learning."
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 pathnding 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 signicantly
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 signicant 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."
The protein folding game Foldit shows that games are an effective way to recruit, engage and organize ordinary citizens to help solve difficult scientific problems. Modern science is filled with challenges of massive scale.
"This paper describes design issues surrounding "Data Games," small-scale, short web-based
games that generate data for analysis in mathematics or statistics classes. The games are
embedded in a data analysis environment. We discuss design for the games themselves as well as
some curriculum and assessment issues."