Commercial Video Games Research Articles

The ambiguities of money-making

PurposeIndie developers are part of the creative fringe of the video game industry, fashioning an identity for themselves as a community committed to the development of video games as a cultural expression and art form. In playing this role, money-making is ambiguous inasmuch as economic return is honorable if such interests remain unarticulated and execute minimal influence on the development work process, while the possibility of producing a successful commercial video game is simultaneously one of the primary motivations for new industry entrants. The paper aims to discuss this issue.Design/methodology/approachThe paper reports on the empirical material drawn from a study of indie video game developers in Sweden, a leading country for video game development.FindingsTo reconcile tensions between video game development in terms of being both cultural/and artistic production and business activity, easily compromising the perceived authenticity of the subject in the eyes of audiences (e.g. hardcore gamers), indie developers distinguish between monetary motives ex ante and compensation ex post the release of the game. Indie developers thus emphasize the metonymic function of money as this not only indicates economic value and currency but also denotes a number of business practices that indie developers have otherwise avoided in their career planning as they believe these practices would restrain their creativity and skills.Originality/valueThe study contributes to the scholarship on video game development, the literature on creative industries, and the economic sociology literature examining the social meaning of money and how social norms and values are manifested in professional ideologies and practices.

Search, Abstractions and Learning in Real-Time Strategy Games

Real-Time Strategy Games’ large state and action spaces pose a significant hurdle to traditional AI techniques. We propose decomposing the game into sub-problems and integrating the partial solutions into action scripts that can be used as abstract actions by a search or machine learning algorithm. The resulting high level algorithm produces sound strategic choices, and can then be combined with a low-level search algorithm to refine tactical choices. We show strong results in SparCraft, Starcraft: Brood War and $$\mu $$RTS against state-of-the-art agents. We expect advances in RTS AI can be used in commercial videogames for playtesting and game balancing, while also having possible real-world applications.

‘I don’t think you’re going to have any aborigines in your world’: Minecrafting terra nullius

The myth that justified the takeover of a continent lives on both in classrooms and in popular media. Drawing from classroom observations in an urban primary school in Australia, this article enters the technology in education conversation, more specifically through the use of videogames for learning. Based on classroom exchanges between teachers and students, we interrogate how the school’s use of Minecraft, a best-selling commercial videogame, continues to reproduce myths of settler colonialism in the twenty-first century. Specifically, the curriculum mobilizes structures inherent to both Minecraft and modern Australia’s treatment of its Indigenous populations. That is, both classroom and videogame interactions reproduced the myth of terra nullius: the doctrine which determined that land, prior to colonization, was empty and unowned, and therefore available for settlement by the colonizer. We conclude that within videogames and classrooms, students’ voices manage to interrogate the curriculum, resisting the reproduction of erasive coloniality in school.

Cultural Heritage and Communication through Simulation Videogames—A Validation of Minecraft

The use of world-simulation videogames for cultural heritage (CH) communication presents one of the greatest opportunities for engaging people with the safeguarding of cultural resources. However, not all simulation videogames have the capacity to transmit heritage values efficiently. This article reviews the use of serious and commercial videogames in CH to frame and properly identify characteristics for the selection and assessment of videogames in the context of cultural communication. Based on the analysis of the capacities of videogames to motivate, immerse and represent reality, the videogame Minecraft is identified as one of the optimal solutions to represent and promote engagement with the cultural built environment. As such, the authors assessed the capacity of the videogame Minecraft to be used as an efficient tool to communicate built heritage environments, considering identified criteria on immersion, motivation, and fidelity on simulation.

Building a Planner: A Survey of Planning Systems Used in Commercial Video Games

In the last decade, many commercial video games have used planners instead of classical behavior trees or finite state machines to define agent behaviors. Planners allow looking ahead in time and can prevent some problems of purely reactive systems. Furthermore, some of them allow coordination of multiple agents. However, implementing a planner for highly dynamic environments such as video games is a difficult task. This paper aims to provide an overview of different elements of planners and the problems that developers might have when dealing with them. We identify the major areas of plan creation and execution, trying to guide developers through the process of implementing a planner and discuss possible solutions for problems that may arise in the following areas: environment, planning domain, goals, agents, actions, plan creation, and plan execution processes. Giving insights into multiple commercial games, we show different possibilities of solving such problems and discuss which solutions are better suited under specific circumstances, and why some academic approaches find a limited application in the context of commercial titles.

The Overwatch League: A Pilot Study of Professional Video Gamers

A pilot study of professional video gamers reveals the presence of subclinical cardiovascular disease PURPOSE: Sedentary behavior in contemporary society is typically coupled with extended screen time (i.e. hours spent in front of a television / computer screen). In November 2016, the commercial video game developer, Blizzard Inc.™, announced the creation of the Overwatch League (OWL), an international e-gaming association built on the model of a traditional professional sports league. The purpose of this pilot study was to establish the feasibility of a larger project and to evaluate for the presence of subclinical pathology in members of the OWL team representing Boston. METHODS: The members of the Boston Uprising (n=10, age=20±2) were tested using electrocardiography, cardiac imaging (echocardiography), vascular function testing (applanation based tonometry) and multiple neurocognitive tests (testmybrain.org). Additionally, a questionnaire was administered that obtained information on health history as well as gaming history of the young subjects. RESULTS: All participants were in their first season of professional e-gaming and reported e-game screen time exposure of 54±14 hours/week over the last 12 months with <1 day/month with complete freedom from screen time. Cardiovascular health metrics derived from the study document evidence of subclinical cardiovascular disease. Specifically, 50% of the subjects had either pre-hypertension (n=4, SBP >120 mmHg) or hypertension (n=1, SBP>140 mmHg) Additionally, 40% of the subjects measured in the 80th percentile for age and height in measured vascular stiffness (assessed by pulse wave velocity). CONCLUSION: This study demonstrates the feasibility of onsite data collection in an OWL team and suggests the presence of subclinical cardiovascular disease in these young individuals. Larger scale study is planned, and confirmation of the findings would indicate that this group of young individuals requires attention to cardiac risk factor modification and may benefit from a regular exercise routine being incorporated into their ‘training.’ These findings may have a public health impact given the large number of sedentary Americans with high amounts of screen time.

Gaming With Stigma: Analysis of Messages About Mental Illnesses in Video Games.

BackgroundVideo game playing is a daily activity for many youths that replaces other media forms (eg, television); it serves as an important source of knowledge and can potentially impact their attitudes and behaviors. Researchers are, thus, concerned with the impact of video gaming on youth (eg, for promoting prosocial or antisocial behavior). Studies have also begun to explore players’ experience of gameplay and video game messages about violence, sexism, and racism; however, little is known about the impact of commercial video games in the sharing and shaping of knowledge, and messages about mental illness.ObjectiveThe aim of this review was to identify how mental illness, especially psychosis, is portrayed in commercial video games.MethodsWe performed keyword searches on games made available between January 2016 and June 2017 on Steam (a popular personal computer gaming platform). A total of 789 games were identified and reviewed to assess whether their game content was related to mental illness. At the end of the screening phase, a total of 100 games were retained.ResultsWe used a game elements framework (characters, game environment/atmosphere, goals, etc) to describe and unpack messages about mental health and illness in video games. The majority of the games we reviewed (97%, 97/100) portrayed mental illness in negative, misleading, and problematic ways (associating it with violence, fear, insanity, hopelessness, etc). Furthermore, some games portrayed mental illness as manifestations or consequences of supernatural phenomena or paranormal experiences. Mental illness was associated with mystery, the unpredictable, and as an obscure illness; its treatment was also associated with uncertainties, as game characters with mental illness had to undergo experimental treatment to get better. Unfortunately, little or no hope for recovery was present in the identified video games, where mental illness was often presented as an ongoing struggle and an endless battle with the mind and oneself.ConclusionsThe game elements of the identified commercial video games included mental illness, about which many perpetuated well-known stereotypes and prejudices. We discuss the key findings in relation to current evidence on the impact of media portrayals of mental illness and stigma. Furthermore, we reflect on the ability of serious video games to promote alternative messages about mental illness and clinical practices. Future research is needed to investigate the impact that such messages have on players and to explore the role that video games can play in fostering alternative messages to reduce the stigma associated with mental illness.

Commercial Videogames and their Potential for Higher Education: A Study with 347 Brazilian Undergraduate Business Management Students

Commercial Videogames and their Potential for Higher Education: A Study with 347 Brazilian Undergraduate Business Management Students

Effect of the Wii Sports Resort on the improvement in attention, processing speed and working memory in moderate stroke

BackgroundStroke is the most common neurological disease in the world. After the stroke, some people suffer a cognitive disability. Commercial videogames have been used after stroke for physical rehabilitation; however, their use in cognitive rehabilitation has hardly been studied. The objectives of this study were to analyze attention, processing speed, and working memory in patients with moderate stroke after an intervention with Wii Sports Resort and compared these results with a control group.MethodsA pre-post design study was conducted with 30 moderate stroke patients aged 65 ± 15. The study lasted eight weeks. 15 participated in the intervention group and 15 belong to the control group. They were assessed in attention and processing speed (TMT-A and B) and working memory (Digit Span of WAIS-III). Parametric and effect size tests were used to analyze the improvement of those outcomes and compared both groups.ResultsAt the baseline, there was no difference between TMT-A and B. A difference was found in the scalar score of TMT-B, as well as in Digit Backward Span and Total Digit Task. In TMT-A and B, the intervention group had better scores than the control group. The intervention group in the Digit Forward Span and the Total Digit obtained a moderate effect size and the control group also obtained a moderate effect size in Total Digit. In the Digit scalar scores, the control group achieved better results than the intervention group.ConclusionsThe results on attention, processing speed and working memory improved in both groups. However, according to the effect sizes, the intervention group achieved better results than the control group. In addition, the attention and processing speed improved more than the working memory after the intervention. Although more studies are needed in this area, the results are encouraging for cognitive rehabilitation after stroke.

Feasibility of, Adherence to, and Satisfaction With Video Game Versus Traditional Self-Training of the Upper Extremity in People With Chronic Stroke: A Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial.

We compared the feasibility of, adherence to, and satisfaction with a newly developed upper extremity (UE) self-training protocol using commercial video games with a traditional self-training program for people with chronic stroke. Twenty-four participants with mild to moderate UE weakness were randomized to a video game (n = 13) or traditional (n = 11) self-training program. Participants were requested to train 60 min/day, 6×/wk. During the 5-wk self-training program and 4-wk follow-up, participants documented their self-training time and rated their perceived enjoyment and exertion. Eleven participants completed video game training; 9 completed traditional self-training. During the follow-up period, 8 participants (72.7%) continued the video game training, and 4 (44.4%) continued traditional training. Perceived enjoyment, satisfaction, and benefit for UE improvement were relatively high. Participants demonstrated high adherence to and satisfaction with both self-training programs. More participants continued to play video games after the intervention, indicating its potential to maintain ongoing activity.

A randomized controlled trial comparing a “bottom-up” and “top-down” approach to cognitive training in schizophrenia

The development of effective cognitive training (CT) interventions is critical for improving the daily lives of people with schizophrenia. At this point, it is unclear whether a so-called “bottom-up” or “top-down” CT approach is more beneficial for inducing cognitive gains and generalization in this population. The aims of this randomized controlled trial were to: 1) Compare the effects of these two types of training approaches on performance-based (MATRICS Consensus Cognitive Battery, MCCB) and neurophysiological (mismatch negativity, MMN) measures of cognition, and 2) Evaluate MMN as a potential predictor of treatment response. Ninety-nine patients with persistent schizophrenia (mean age of 51 and illness duration of 30 years) were randomly assigned in a 2:2:1 ratio to a “bottom-up” intervention that selectively targets basic auditory processing and verbal learning (Brain Fitness), a “top-down” intervention that targets a broad range of higher-order cognitive functions (COGPACK), or a control condition consisting of commercial computer games (Sporcle). Participants completed on average 30 h of training over 12 weeks. Despite demonstrated improvement on training tasks, we found no significant treatment effects on measures of neurocognition (MCCB), MMN, or functional capacity from either intervention. Interestingly, there was an association between an enhanced MMN response at 6 weeks and improved reasoning/problem solving at 12 weeks in the COGPACK group. Although this study had several methodological strengths, the results were mainly negative. It suggests that CT trials in schizophrenia should try to better understand mediators and moderators of treatment response to develop more personalized interventions.

Video Games for Well-Being: A Systematic Review on the Application of Computer Games for Cognitive and Emotional Training in the Adult Population.

Background: Although several excellent reviews and meta-analyses have investigated the effect of video game trainings as tools to enhance well-being, most of them specifically focused on the effects of digital games on brain plasticity or cognitive decline in children and seniors. On the contrary, only one meta-analysis results to be focused on the adult population, and it is restricted to examining the effects of training with a particular genre of games (action video games) on cognitive skills of healthy adults.Objectives: This systematic review was aimed to identify research evidences about the impact on cognitive [i.e., processing and reaction times (RTs), memory, task-switching/multitasking, and mental spatial rotation] and emotional skills of video games training in the healthy adult population.Methods: A multi-component analysis of variables related to the study, the video games, and the outcomes of the training was made on the basis of important previous works. Databases used in the search were PsycINFO, Web of Science (Web of Knowledge), PubMed, and Scopus. The search string was: [(“Video Games” OR “Computer Games” OR “Interactive Gaming”)] AND [(“Cognition”) OR (“Cognitive”) OR (“Emotion”) OR (“Emotion Regulation”)] AND [“Training”].Results: Thirty-five studies met the inclusion criteria and were further classified into the different analysis' variables. The majority of the retrieved studies used commercial video games, and action games in particular, which resulted to be the most commonly used, closely followed by puzzle games. Effect sizes for training with video games on cognitive skills in general ranged from 0.06 to 3.43: from 0.141 to 3.43 for processing and RTs, 0.06 to 1.82 for memory, 0.54 to 1.91 for task switching/multitasking, and 0.3 to 3.2 for mental spatial rotation; regarding video games for the training of emotional skills, effect sizes ranged from 0.201 to 3.01.Conclusion: Overall, findings give evidences of benefits of video games training on cognitive and emotional skills in relation to the healthy adult population, especially on young adults. Efficacy has been demonstrated not only for non-commercial video games or commercial brain-training programs, but for commercial video games as well.

Beneficios educativos y videojuegos: revisión de la literatura española

El presente estudio aborda la revisión bibliográfica realizada en España dentro del ámbito educativo sobre los videojuegos y sus beneficios. El periodo de tiempo analizado abarca los años 2013 – 2017, ambos incluidos. Los beneficios encontrados en esta consulta comprenden diversas perspectivas: facilitar la alfabetización digital, nuevas propuestas educativas, su uso en diferentes colectivos, como los adultos o los alumnos con dificultades, mejora en diferentes aptitudes … La mayoría de los artículos inciden en la motivación como una ventaja del uso de los videojuegos, destacando también el estímulo de las inteligencias múltiples y la creatividad. Los videojuegos comerciales más citados en la bibliografía consultada son los pertenecientes a la saga Assasin`s Creed, el juego del rol online multijugador World of Warcraft y el juego creativo Minecraft, un sandbox con infinitas posibilidades.

Simulating complex social behaviours of virtual agents through case-based planning

In commercial video games and simulations, non-player characters are capable of quite complex behaviour. Very often though, each class of non-player characters (that we further call virtual agents) is manually programmed or scripted. This means that instead of possessing some level of intelligence, allowing the agent to decide dynamically on the actions it needs to perform, we supply the agent with a list of possible situations that may arise in the game. For each such situation, we give the agent a pre-programmed script that tells it how to behave. Producing such scripts for every role an agent might play in a game or simulation is a very costly exercise. This may be acceptable in commercial game development, where budgets for modern games are sometimes comparable to budgets of Hollywood movies, but not adequate for research simulations and indie games. In this paper, we discuss how indie games and research simulations can be enriched with the sophisticated social behaviour of virtual agents in a semi-automatic manner through the use of AI planning. By supplying agents with roles and developing a computational model of their needs, we can use AI planning (also known as dynamic planning) to increase the complexity of agent behaviour dramatically and at the same time achieve a high degree of automation and reduce the development costs. AI planning is gaining popularity in games development, but it is often discarded due to performance issues. We will show how to improve the performance of planning process through the use of dynamic institutions and case-based planning. We will illustrate the aforementioned ideas on an example of developing a Virtual Reality simulation of everyday life in Ancient Mesopotamia.

Explicit Mental Health Messaging Promotes Serious Video Game Selection in Youth With Elevated Mental Health Symptoms

Serious games aimed at promoting well-being in youth have promising effects and potential for far-reaching impact. Considering that most mental health disorders remain untreated in youth, therapeutic games may be most valuable when they are aimed at untreated youth with internalizing symptoms. However, when targeting youth outside of a clinical setting, the first impression of therapeutic video games may determine whether and how a game is played. Thus, understanding the influence of messaging used in the promotion of therapeutic games on game choice and experience is critical. The current study examined two alternatives in promoting mental health games: one included explicit mental health messaging (e.g., learn to manage stress) and the other was a stealth promotion that did not mention mental health but highlighted the entertainment value. Young adults with mild to severe internalizing mental health symptoms (i.e., depressive, anxiety, and stress symptoms) were shown two distinct trailer designs, with random assignment determining which design held which message. Participants (n = 129, Mage = 21.33, SDage = 3.20), unaware that both trailers promoted the same commercial video game, were 3.71 times more likely to choose what they believed was the mental health game. Additionally, an unforeseen difference in the attractiveness of the two trailer designs resulted in participants being 5.65 times more likely to select the mental health game promoted in one trailer design over the other. Messaging did not influence game experience (i.e., gameplay duration, autonomy, competence, intrinsic motivation and affect). Exploratory analyses indicated that game experience, but not game choice, was influenced by symptom severity, symptom type and the interaction between symptom severity and messaging. The present study suggests that explicit mental health messages attract youth with mental health symptoms. Ultimately, youth may be empowered to seek out mental health games if they are promoted properly, allowing for far-reaching positive influences on well-being. Toward this aim, future research is needed on the game selection process, addressing underlying motivations, the balance between explicit health and entertainment messaging, and multiple interacting influences on game selection (e.g., promotion and peers).

Deep learning is combined with massive-scale citizen science to improve large-scale image classification

Pattern recognition and classification of images are key challenges throughout the life sciences. We combined two approaches for large-scale classification of fluorescence microscopy images. First, using the publicly available data set from the Cell Atlas of the Human Protein Atlas (HPA), we integrated an image-classification task into a mainstream video game (EVE Online) as a mini-game, named Project Discovery. Participation by 322,006 gamers over 1 year provided nearly 33 million classifications of subcellular localization patterns, including patterns that were not previously annotated by the HPA. Second, we used deep learning to build an automated Localization Cellular Annotation Tool (Loc-CAT). This tool classifies proteins into 29 subcellular localization patterns and can deal efficiently with multi-localization proteins, performing robustly across different cell types. Combining the annotations of gamers and deep learning, we applied transfer learning to create a boosted learner that can characterize subcellular protein distribution with F1 score of 0.72. We found that engaging players of commercial computer games provided data that augmented deep learning and enabled scalable and readily improved image classification.

Neural correlates of video game empathy training in adolescents: a randomized trial

The ability to understand emotional experiences of others, empathy, is a valuable skill for effective social interactions. Various types of training increase empathy in adolescents, but their impact on brain circuits underlying empathy has not been examined. Video games provide a unique medium familiar and engaging to adolescents and can be used to deliver training at scale. We developed an empathy training video game, Crystals of Kaydor (Crystals), and investigated whether playing Crystals increases empathic accuracy (EA) and related brain activation in adolescents (N = 74; 27 female; mean age(sd) = 12.8(0.7) years; age range 11–14 years). Participants completed a resting state functional MRI (rs-fMRI) scan and an EA task during an fMRI scan before and after 2 weeks of daily gameplay with either the empathy training game, Crystals (N = 34), or the commercial video game Bastion (N = 40), an active control condition. There were no group differences in EA improvement following gameplay, however, engagement with training aspects of Crystals was associated with a higher increase in EA-related activation in right temporoparietal junction following gameplay. Moreover, rs-fMRI connectivity in empathy-related brain circuits (posterior cingulate–medial prefrontal cortex; MPFC) was stronger after Crystals gameplay compared to Bastion. The more individuals’ EA increased following Crystals versus Bastion, the stronger their rs-fMRI connectivity in brain circuits relevant for emotion regulation (amygdala-MPFC). These findings suggest that a video game designed to increase empathic accuracy produces behaviorally-relevant, functional neural changes in fewer than 6 h of gameplay in adolescents.

Physics-based modeling of crowd evacuation in the Unity game engine

Crowds of people are often found in enclosed or constricted spaces. Evacuation in such situations is usually conducted calmly, but real or perceived danger may trigger panic. In panicked crowds, the interpersonal distance crowd members normally observe is often overwhelmed by the physical pressure of crowd members pushing against each other. That pressure can both slow evacuation and lead to injury or death. Models have been developed to study crowd evacuation in a range of situations. This paper describes the implementation, testing, and validation of a crowd evacuation model using Unity, a commercial computer game engine. A realistic physics-based model of crowd movement that calculates and considers the physical pressure crowd members exert on each other was implemented in Unity. The implemented model was tested under both nonpanicked and panicked scenarios; those tests exhibited known qualitative characteristics of such scenarios. The model was then quantitatively validated by comparing its results to the outcome of an actual evacuation event, the 2003 fire at The Station nightclub in Rhode Island. The implementation and validation show that Unity can be an effective tool for evacuation modeling.

Using commercial video games in flipped classrooms to support physical concept construction

AbstractBased on the flipped‐classroom model and the potential motivational and instructional benefits of digital games, we describe a flipped game‐based learning (FGBL) strategy focused on preclass and overall learning outcomes. A secondary goal is to determine the effects, if any, of the classroom aspects of the FGBL strategy on learning efficiency. Our experiments involved 2 commercial games featuring physical motion concepts: Ballance (Newton's law of motion) and Angry Birds (mechanical energy conservation). We randomly assigned 87 8th‐grade students to game instruction (digital game before class and lecture‐based instruction in class), FGBL strategy (digital game before class and cooperative learning in the form of group discussion and practice in class), or lecture‐based instruction groups (no gameplay). Results indicate that the digital games exerted a positive effect on preclass learning outcomes and that FGBL‐strategy students achieved better overall learning outcomes than their lecture‐based peers. Our observation of similar overall outcomes between the cooperative learning and lecture‐based groups suggests a need to provide additional teaching materials or technical support when introducing video games to cooperative classroom learning activities.

Zombies and ethical theories: Exploring transformational play as a framework for teaching with videogames

Abstract Videogames are included among the wide array of digital resources available to teachers to foster student engagement and teach domain-specific content. In this study, we analyze how two teachers in two countries used the commercial videogame The Walking Dead™ to teach ethical theories in upper secondary citizenship education. In both cases, students collaborated in playing the videogame, and teachers led whole-class and small-group discussions to relate the game narrative to the curriculum. However, the analysis identified two different instructional designs and dialogic approaches to integrating the videogame with other educational resources. Extending the concept of transformational play, the analysis showed how the respective teaching approaches supported student learning and engagement by facilitating different types of positioning work.