"We have created a suite of physical computing activity games for Humana's Innovation Center office space - using web-connected sensors embedded in clothing, mobile devices, toys, exercise equipment, home and office accessories and appliances, and even buildings themselves. These challenges encourage people to be more physically active through social web-based games. Each experience is connected to the Humana employees' RFID badges, which allows them to participate in scheduled events, accrue points, and win top scores. A major component of every one of these games is the social platform behind them, which has been proven to be a major motivator in building and maintaining enthusiasm for healthy living. The ideas are developed through collaborative brainstorms, facilitated by Tellart and including Humana Innovation Center personnel. Tellart then refines the ideas, proposing and implementing several of them per round as medium-fidelity prototypes for the office."
"Jane McGonigal's Super Better: A game for your health (video) The renowned game designer sits down with SmartPlanet's Sumi Das to talk about her new online social game, which debuts today and promises to help people build their personal resilience against health ailments."
Abstract: "Combiform is a novel digital gaming console featuring four combinable handheld controllers. It is a new and unique tangible gaming interface that stresses the importance of co-located, co-attentive social interactions among players. In particular, multiple players may freely combine and lock together their handheld game controllers, thereby creating a very flexible collective and transformable tangible interface. Combiform emphasizes social interaction through controller-to-controller contact. The platform and its 10 games introduce novel, tangible and physical co-attentive experiences that are not found in traditional co-located gaming platforms using mimetic interfaces (e.g. Nintendo Wii and Microsoft Kinect). The project is the first game console especially designed for a new emerging digital game genre - Communal Casual Game. The new game genre captures a perspective of integrating classical folk game design approach with digital elements"
"The article will illustrate and explain how we worked with research and our own and secondary literature to create a game that had the potential to create social change. The game Junomi was designed to address the problem of loneliness among Danish teenagers and create opportunities for the families to play and experiment with the ways in which they communicate together.
The game is a location based smart-phone game that takes place in players' everyday environments around the city. Players invite close family members to play for an agreed period of time (for example a week or a couple of months). Throughout the game period, players create questions, each with three possible multiple choice answers, and place them on a map to be found by other players. When other players pass by the question locations on their everyday routes around the city, the questions pop up on the phones."
"Based on a year of research conducted by
The Children's Partnership, this White Paper
lays out the logic for game companies to
play a leadership role on behalf of children,
reviews the rich history of corporate social
responsibility that has produced win-win
results for the public and for businesses,
and highlights early examples of such
leadership by online game companies."
First chapter of Bohyun Kim's recently published Understanding Gamification (remaining chapters require purchase or subscription,) an issue of the journal Library Technology Reports. Topics include game mechanics, gamification in libraries and education, and elements of design.
A father describes how, despite his efforts to the contrary, both his sons are deeply involved in video games, highly accomplished, and travel great distances and time to visit fellow players and participate in gaming events. Whether this is at the expense of social skills, interactions and real life is considered.
This is the blog of Games and Learning Alliance (GaLA), Network of Excellence for Serious Games, a project " to shape the scientific community and build a European Virtual Research Centre aimed at gathering, integrating, harmonizing and coordinating research on SGs and disseminating knowledge, best practices and tools as a reference point at an international level.
The other key focuses of the project are: the support to deployment in the actual educational and training settings; the fostering of innovation and knowledge transfer through research-business dialogue; the development high-quality didactics on SG by promoting and supporting courses at Master and PhD level."
"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."
Abstract: "The purpose of this research was to develop and test smartphone game application for physical
activity promotion in adolescen
ts. The first study included various user
-
centered approaches (e.g.
qualitative data, idea sessions)
to get feedback on what was desired from the adolescents in terms of game
development and design. The second study examined the degree to which mobile heal
th studies reported
on internal and external validity indicators. The last study evaluated the smartphone game applications
through a mixed
-
methods approach.
The results of this research showed that ph
ysical activity while playing
smartphone game
applica
tions can yield moderate physical activity intensity. Moreover, adolescents had moderate
perceptions of the games and recommended specific changes to the games.
Likewise, t
he data suggest that
smartphone physical activity game applications
can be enjoyable
if they are aesthetically appealing, easy
to use,
and
foster social peer interactions
. Overall, t
his
research
demonstrated that smartphone games that
were developed and designed based on adolescents' preferences and persuasive technology design
principles
could increase physical activity in adolescents and provides a
tool for further exploration."
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: "This paper explores the use of modern sensor technologies for physical interaction
on educati
onal games and interactive spaces. More specifically the thesis studies the potential
effect of motion capture and wearable body sensors on educational interactive games, on two
aspects: i) on the involvement of human body and motion in the process of lear
ning, and recall of
knowledge (embodied learning), ii) on assisting the development of basic social emotional
competencies, through the enhanced social affordances of embodied games.
The paper presents
a prototype
of an educational
game developed using a m
otion capture controller and two bio
feedback sensors, proposing a generic architecture for multi
sensor interactive spaces.
Finally
the paper provides a review
of previously
studied modalities for emotion recognition, and
examines their application on gam
e mechanics and AI game agents."