Competitive Gameplay Research Articles

Developing Graduate Attributes Through Competitive Gameplay and Learning Theories

The term competitive gameplay or gaming is predominantly associated with esports. Esports, a synonym, or abbreviation for electronic sports is an industry that has a global outreach with a lucrative market. This is accentuated by the event driven, business model focus and organised competitive events, often involving sponsorship. These additional characteristics associated with esports is what distinguishes it from traditional or casual gaming. Though esports games can be played individually, they are predominantly viewed as a team activity. Beyond the debate as to whether esports can be classified as a sport, it is an area that has attracted a significant amount of academic research. Research areas have often included esports psychology, esports player health and nutrition and esports management. Some research studies have also reviewed how esports have the potential to e.0quip esports players with relevant 21st century skills such as critical and lateral thinking. One area where esports appears to be under researched is in the relationship between competitive gameplay and learning theories. It can be argued that this is an important consideration when delivering esports from an educational perspective. The aim of this paper is to provide a scoping review of the esports literature identifying empirical research associated with competitive gaming and graduate attributes. Esports game genres will be explored from a gameplay perspective demonstrating via learning theory examples how these games can facilitate graduate attributes in players. Exploring the domain of esports game genres, learning theories and meta-skills, the paper presents a conceptual model illustrating the interrelationship between these areas. The paper also has practical value to educators, who may be as yet unfamiliar with esports, informing them of the subject’s educational benefits from a graduate attribute and employability perspective.

How Much Energy Do E’Athletes Use during Gameplay? Quantifying Energy Expenditure and Heart Rate Variability Within E’Athletes

BackgroundResearch into esports suggests that e’athletes experience physiological stressors and demands during competition and training. The physiological demands of esports are poorly understood and need to be investigated further to inform future training guidelines, optimise performance outcomes, and manage e’athlete wellbeing. This research aimed to quantify the metabolic rate of esports gameplay and compare this outcome with heart rate variability within expert e’athletes.ResultsThirteen healthy male participants ranked within the top 10% of their respective esports title participated in the study (age = 20.7 ± 2.69 years; BMI = 24.6 ± 5.89 kg·m− 2). Expired gas analysis indirect calorimetry measured gas exchange during rest and gaming. Compared to resting conditions, competitive esports gameplay significantly increased median energy expenditure (1.28 (IQR 1.16–1.49) kcal·min− 1 vs. 1.45 (IQR 1.20–1.77) kcal·min− 1, p = .02), oxygen consumption (0.27 (IQR 0.24–0.30) L·min− 1 vs. 0.29 (IQR 0.24–0.35) L·min− 1, p = .02) and carbon dioxide production (0.20 (IQR 0.19–0.27) L·min− 1vs. 0.27 (IQR 0.24–0.33) L·min− 1, p = .01). Competitive gameplay also resulted in a significant increase in heart rate (84.5 (IQR 74.1–96.1) bpm vs. 87.1 (IQR 80.3–104) bpm, p = .01) and decrease in R-R interval’s (710 (IQR 624–810) ms vs. 689 (IQR 579–747) ms, p = .02) when compared to rest. However, there were no significant differences in time or frequency measures of heart rate variability.ConclusionsThe data reveal increased physiological responses to metabolic rate, energy expenditure and cardiovascular function to esports game play within expert e’athletes. Further physiological research into the physical demands on e’athletes, the influence of different training programs to esport performance, and the added multivariate determinants to elite level esport performance are warranted.

Sports teams as collective homeostatic systems: Exploiting self-organising tendencies in competition

This paper proposes theoretical insights on how sports teams, conceptualised as homeostatic regulatory systems, can continually self-organise their ongoing interactions to maintain team functioning and organization during competitive performance. In the model, team performance is co-regulated as coordinated behaviours emerge through synergy (re)formation between performers to adapt efficiently and effectively to satisfy emerging dynamical constraints of competitive environments. Understanding collective homeostasis in interpreting the self-organising dynamics of sports teams facilitates the identification and analysis of adaptive behavioural responses of teams, sub-groups, and individual players. As a starting point, a biological model of collective homeostasis is composed of four critical components: a) players, b) set point, c) identifier, and d), adapter. Understanding the interrelated functions of model components is fundamental to designing effective training sessions and programmes for development of self-regulating team performance. In terms of performance analysis, identification and disruption of specific set points will provide insights for studying how to negotiate critical moments of competitive game play.

“Reef Survivor”: A new board game designed to teach college and university undergraduate students about reef ecology, evolution, and extinction

Educational geoscience games have been increasing in popularity because they promote learning through amusement and encourage students to engage with topical material and each other. Here we describe a new board game, “Reef Survivor”, and its use as an instructional tool in undergraduate classes. The educational objective is to teach players about ecology, evolution, and environmental perturbations, while the gameplay objective is to build a resilient reef ecosystem. Through collaborative and competitive gameplay, students learn about evolution mechanics—mutation, migration, and natural selection—as well as ecology and how reefs survive natural disasters. The game blends informed decision making and chance to encourage students to learn and model complex Earth systems and evolutionary processes. Students choose their environment and reef community, whereas chance influences mutations and disasters. The game was incorporated in undergraduate classroom activities in 2021 and 2022 at 20 colleges and universities, mostly public institutions in the United States. Students were enthusiastic about the game, with two thirds saying they would rather play the game than have a normal lab. Notably, students said playing with a peer helped them learn better. Taken together, learning gains from 15 institutions were pos­itive, with significant gains by the final semester of assess­ment. Overall, learning gains were not positive during the first deployment (online) but improved substantially when refined and played in person. A print-and-play version of the game (doi: 10.18738/T8/S3KWT7), onboarding and follow-up assignments, and suggested extension activities are provided; modifications for time, course objective, and edu­cational level are also discussed.

Enhancing quality and equity? Performance assessment validation in examination physical education in Western Australia

ABSTRACT The positioning and format of performance assessment in examination physical education varies between courses across Australia and internationally. This paper centres on developments in performance assessment in the Physical Education Studies (PES) course in Western Australia (WA). In 2021 The School Curriculum and Standards Authority (SCSA) undertook an assessment validation trial of school-based assessment of students participating in modified format competitive game play in the 10 PES sports. This contrasted to existing centralised examination arrangements. The paper reports on findings from observation of the trial in nine of the 10 sport contexts, and semi-structured interviews with teachers, validators and SCSA staff. Analysis drew on conceptualisations of quality assessment to critically examine features of assessment information collection and judgement processes in the trial and the inter-relationships between these two elements of assessment. Discussion highlights issues of quality and equity in performance assessment for future policy and research to consider.

Can Competitive Digital Games Support Real-Time Music Creation?

This article presents practice-based research exploring the interplay of real-time music creation and competitive gameplay. Musically creative video games, apps, and sound art are first surveyed to highlight their characteristic avoidance of competitive game elements. The relationship between play, games, and musical activity is then examined with reference to theoretical perspectives from ludomusicology and game studies, revealing a series of mechanical and aesthetic design tensions emerging between competitive gameplay and music creation. Two original music games are presented to explore this interplay across contrasting design approaches: EvoMusic engenders an abstract competitive dialogue between the player and system for authorial control, while Idea presents a more explicit ludic framework with goals, progression, danger, and victory. The games are evaluated in a comparative user study to capture the player experience of composing within competitive game settings. Participant responses revealed conflicting expectations for ludic and compositional experiences. Idea was the preferred game, yet its strong ludic elements distracted from or disincentivized music creation; EvoMusic offered more focused music creation yet also a weaker gameplay experience for lacking these same competitive elements. This relationship reflects the theoretical design tensions suggested by ludomusical scholarship. Further, a majority of participants characterized EvoMusic as being simultaneously competitive and creatively stimulating. The implication is that competitive games can support music creation for certain players, though it remains challenging to satisfy expectations for both within any one system. Design recommendations are drawn from these insights, and the potential for future research into creative music games is discussed.

Age of Early Specialization, Competitive Volume, Injury, and Sleep Habits in Youth Sport: A Preliminary Study of US Youth Basketball.

Background:Concerns for youth sports in the United States often focus on early sport specialization, overemphasis on competition, injuries, and burnout. Little research has addressed relationships among the preceding and other concerns, including time away from organized sport, sleep, and perceptions of physical and psychological well-being.Hypothesis:There is an association between reported competitive gameplay volume and specialization, injury, and fatigue among elite youth basketball players.Study Design:Cross-sectional study; convenience sample.Level of Evidence:Level 4.Methods:An anonymous questionnaire was administered to a convenience sample of youth basketball players between 13 and 18 years of age from across the United States. Participants were queried about multiple factors, including the extent of their participation in organized basketball and other sports, time away from organized basketball, injury, sleep, and feelings of exhaustion related to basketball participation.Results:A total of 772 participants (145 girls, 627 boys) completed a survey. All participants played for a select or elite club basketball team and/or a high school basketball team. Overall, 49% played more than 50 games within the past year. A total of 73% were specialized in basketball, 58% prior to age 14 years, and 35% prior to age 11 years. In all, 70% reported less than 1 month away from organized basketball within the past year, and 28% reported no time away. A total of 54% reported sleeping less than the recommended 8 hours each night during the school year. Within the prior year, 55% reported feeling physically exhausted and 45% reported feeling mentally exhausted from basketball. Regression analysis did not find any significant relationships between early specialization prior to age 14 years and basketball-related injury or feelings of mental or physical exhaustion.Conclusion:In this select group of youth basketball players, the majority specialized in basketball prior to age 14 years and reported a large number of competitive events with little time away from organized basketball.Clinical Relevance:The results from a sample of highly competitive youth basketball players indicate issues that warrant further attention and research regarding the potential impact of specialization, frequent competitions, lack of time away from organized sport, and perceptions of well-being in young athletes.

“Don’t Give Up!”

Abstract. The determination exhibited by players is a valuable quality in other contexts that require persistence. Research suggests that competitive and difficult video game play may acclimate players to arduous challenges and steel them against later hardships. Participants played competitively (one-on-one) or cooperatively with a non-player character (two-on-two) against non-player character opponents of varying difficulty (e.g., easy, moderate, or hard) in Super Smash Bros. Subsequent persistence was measured by time spent on an anagram task that included unsolvable items. Results suggest that video game competitiveness is necessary to facilitate subsequent persistence. However, the difficulty of opponents did not influence players’ subsequent persistence, even when withstanding the most competence-thwarting game play against hard opponents. The current study suggests that competitive play, in general, sufficiently jumpstarts persistent behaviors in players and that, instead of players cultivating persistence by enduring frustrating game play, they may be invigorated or enticed to attain goals when challenged.

Visual and Ocular Characteristics of eSports Participants.

The popularity of competitive video game play is growing rapidly. Little is known about the ocular characteristics of esports participants. Refractive error and binocular measures in young adult gamers were similar to population norms. However, tear breakup time was lower, and accommodative lag was higher. In a recent report, very young video game players were found to have greater levels of refractive error and heterophoria and reduced stereopsis. The purpose of this study was to assess the visual and ocular characteristics of a group of recreational esports athletes to determine if the findings in young children were similar to findings in a group of young adult video game players. Vision tests were performed on 36 college students during a video game combine event. Testing included high- and low-contrast visual acuity, autorefraction at distance and at 33 cm, stereoacuity, near heterophoria, and tear breakup time. Participants also indicated their level or rank in the game Overwatch. Fifteen participants were myopic, and 21 did not wear vision correction. The mean local stereopsis was 31.9 seconds. The mean of the esophoric value was 3.2 prism diopters, and the mean of the exophoric value was 5.7 prism diopters. The mean lag of accommodation was 0.81 D. The mean tear breakup time was 5.8 seconds. Average hours of play did not differ between those who wore vision correction and those who did not. There were no significant relationships between the hours of play and the ocular findings. The prevalence of refractive error and the mean heterophoria were similar to population norms, and the mean stereoacuity was normal. However, accommodative lag was slightly higher, and the tear breakup time was lower than expected. Differences in these latter values were also noted between high- and low-level Overwatch players.

Predicting Victory in a Hybrid Online Competitive Game: The Case of Destiny

Competitive multi-player game play is a common feature in major commercial titles, and has formed the foundation for esports. In this paper, the question whether it is possible to predict match outcomes in First Person Shooter-type multi-player competitive games with mixed genres is addressed.The case employed is Destiny, which forms a hybrid title combining Massively Multi-player Online Role-Playing game features and First-Person Shooter games. Destiny provides the opportunity to investigate prediction of the match outcome, as well as the influence of performance metrics on the match results in a hybrid multi-player major commercial title. Two groups of models are presented for predicting match results: One group predicts match results for each individual game mode and the other group predicts match results in general, without considering specific game modes. Models achieve a performance between 63% and 99%in terms of average precision, with a higher performance recorded for the models trained on specific multi-player game modes, of which Destiny has several. We also analyzed performance metrics and their influence for each model. The results show that many key shooter performance metrics such as Kill/Death ratio are relevant across game modes, but also that some performance metrics are mainly important for specific competitive game modes. The results indicate that reliable match prediction is possible in FPS-type esports games.

A Deterministic Neural Network Approach to Playing Gin Rummy

This paper describes a deterministic approach to building a fixed-strategy gin rummy player. In the paper, we develop and evaluate both heuristic and neural network models for informing draw, discard, and knock decisions in the game. In this empirical study, we test performance of the models through competitive game play, show which best inform strategy, and demonstrate statistical significance of the improvement over a simple strategy. Through this empirical study, we indicate features that we expect to be helpful in future improvements to Gin Rummy play.

An evaluation of videogame network architecture performance and security

The recent introduction of higher reward in videogame competitions is expected to motivate unethical players to pursue opportunities to gain unfair advantages while playing networked videogames. Networked videogames implement a variety of approaches to attain a balance between reliable data transfer and game performance. Certain aspects of these network approaches may be exploited by players to gain unfair advantage or degrade the gaming experience for others. This paper lays the conceptual groundwork for networked videogames by describing common network architectures that facilitate competitive videogame play. These networking concepts are then evaluated for susceptibility to potential exploits. Finally, three current gaming titles are selected as case studies, using the principles established within this paper, to evaluate the effects of client-side exploits, latency, and state synchronization, on competitive game play.

What is it About our Story: Does Ergodicity help us Understand Equity from a Neurodiverse Perspective?

This article explores the dynamics of equity and ergodicity in a psychological lab context including navigating consent (commitments) and transparency (debriefs). The article explores how evolutionary determinants are translated into competitive gameplay in human social interactions and how cooperative gameplay based on cultural stories counteracts harms associated with competition. Other themes that are explored is a love of learning at the center of cooperative storytelling. An Indigenous form of perspective-taking called etuaptmumk or "two-eyed seeing," developed by First Nations Mi'kmaw Elder Albert Marshall, is used as an example of ergodic intervention as a balance to cognitive biases. How are concepts of dignity and respect, as support for equity in needs, and a recognition of community member competencies and contributions, work to nurture a neurodiverse writing community where individuals can openly navigate consent, transparency, consensus, and inclusion? What are both the theoretical and practical implications of using multimodal expression such as writing on a neurodiverse community?

Illusory attitudes and the playful stoic

What we might usefully call “playing full-stop” and playing games plausibly figure in a well-lived life. Yet there are reasons to worry that the two not only do not naturally go hand in hand, but are in fact deeply opposed. In this essay I investigate the apparent tension between playing full-stop and playing competitive games. I argue that the nature of this tension is easily exaggerated. While there is a psychological tension between simultaneously engaging in earnest competitive game play and playing fullstop, there is no logical contradiction between the two. Somewhat surprisingly, seeing how this tension is best understood teaches us something about the nature of willing an end and the “guise of the good.” With a resolution of the apparent tension between playing full-stop and playing competitive games, I turn to the practical worry that playing competitive games is destructive precisely for the very reasons it is opposed to playing full-stop. Here I develop a positive proposal to mitigate the tension between playing full-stop and playing competitive games. This proposal draws on the idea of “striving play” as recently developed by Thi Nguyen and some ideas from classical Stoicism.

Spontaneous, Yet Studious

Esports commentating, the practice of reporting, explaining, and elaborating live competitive gameplay to spectators, is a centerpiece of esports as a rapidly growing spectator sport and an essential component of today's growing gaming/live streaming ecosystem. In particular, esports commentators face three unique challenges: the preparation for conducting real time commentating on highly dynamic esports games; the complexity of in-the-moment decisions during the game's broadcast; and the balance between personal self-presentation and professional content presentation. Yet this emerging and novel sociotechnical practice and how these challenges affect esports commentators' live performance and self-presentation practices has received relatively little research attention in HCI and CSCW. In this paper, we endeavor to address these limitations by empirically analyzing 19 esports commentators' sociotechnical practices. Our findings highlight the complex interaction dynamics involved in esports commentating as well as the importance of professionalism and social presence in esports commentators' self-presentation. In order to execute seamless and spontaneous commentary, commentators must be studious and engage in much prior research and have a clear sense of self. We contribute to the growing CSCW literature on esports commentating practices by revealing esports commentators' unique decision making process presenting information and their self-image.

Physical Activity And Anxiety In Gamers And Non-gamers

Competitive video game play (gaming) has become increasingly popular in the past decade. However, behaviors of those who actively participate in gaming (“gamers”) is not well understood. Gaming is typically a sedentary activity, therefore it is possible that “gamers” may be more sedentary and less physically active than their “non-gamer” peers. Additionally, it is possible gamers may be prone to outcomes associated with an inactive lifestyle (e.g., elevated body mass index (BMI), anxiety). PURPOSE: To compare physical activity, sedentary behavior, BMI, and anxiety in “gamers” versus “non-gamers.” METHODS: College students (N=337, 20.92±1.81 years old) at a public university in the American Midwest completed a questionnaire that assessed demographics, gaming habits (reported whether or not they identified as a “gamer” and min/week of video game play), physical activity and sedentary behavior (via the International Physical Activity Questionnaire), and anxiety (via Beck’s Anxiety Inventory). A Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA) was conducted comparing these aforementioned variables in “gamers” versus “non-gamers”. RESULTS: As expected, “gamers” (n=90, 908±621 min/week) allocated significantly (p<0.001) more time to gaming than “non-gamers” (n=226, 67±124 min/week). “Gamers” also participated in significantly (p≤0.042) less vigorous (217±282 min/week), light (634±704 min/week) and total physical activity (4938±4111 MET min/week) than “non-gamers” (296±325 min/week vigorous, 980± 012 min/week light, and 6849±5260 MET min/week total). “Gamers” (4296±1854 min/week) allocated significantly (p<0.001) more time to sedentary behavior than “non-gamers” (3316±1581 min/week). Lastly, there were no differences (p≥0.29) between “gamers” and “non-gamers” for BMI, moderate intensity physical activity, or anxiety. CONCLUSION: College-aged individuals who self-identified as “gamers” had a >13 fold greater amount of weekly video game play than “non-gamers.” This robust difference in time allocated to gaming was associated with lower vigorous, light, and total physical activity and greater sedentary behavior in “gamers” versus “non-gamers.” This is concerning as inadequate physical activity and elevated sedentary behavior are independent risk factors for cardio-metabolic disease.

Virtual competitions and the gamer’s dilemma

This paper expands Rami Ali’s dissolution of the gamer’s dilemma (Ethics Inf Technol 17:267–274, 2015). Morgan Luck’s gamer’s dilemma (Ethics Inf Technol 11(1):31–36, 2009) rests on our having diverging intuition when considering virtual murder and virtual child molestation in video games. Virtual murder is seemingly permissible, when virtual child molestation is not and there is no obvious morally relevant difference between the two. Ali argues that virtual murder and virtual child molestation are equally permissible/impermissible when considered under different modes of engagement. To this end, Ali distinguishes between story-telling gameplay and simulation games, discussing both in depth. I build on the dissolution by looking into competitive gameplay in order to consider what the morally relevant difference between virtual murder and virtual child molestation might be when competing in a video game. I argue that when competitors consent to participate in a competition, the rules of the competition supersede everyday moral intuitions. As such, virtual competitions ought to represent such consent from virtual characters. Virtual children cannot be represented as giving consent to be molested because (1) children cannot be represented as giving sexual consent, and (2) consent to be possibly molested cannot be given. This creates a morally relevant difference between murder and molestation. By fully addressing competitive gameplay, I answer Luck’s worry that Ali’s dissolution is incomplete (Ethics Inf Technol 20:157–162, 2018).

Evaluating Digital Games for Competitive Music Composition

Digital games are a fertile ground for exploring novel computer music applications. While the lineage of game-based compositional praxis long precedes the advent of digital computers, it flourishes now in a rich landscape of music-making apps, sound toys and playful installations that provide access to music creation through game-like interaction. Characterising these systems is the pervasive avoidance of a competitive game framework, reflecting an underlying assumption that notions of conflict and challenge are somewhat antithetical to musical creativity. As a result, the interplay between competitive gameplay and musical creativity is seldom explored. This article reports on a comparative user evaluation of two original games that frame interactive music composition as a human–computer competition. The games employ contrasting designs so that their juxtaposition can address the following research question: how are player perceptions of musical creativity shaped in competitive game environments? Significant differences were found in system usability, and also creativity and ownership of musical outcomes. The user study indicates that a high degree of musical control is widely preferred despite an apparent cost to general usability. It further reveals that players have diverse criteria for ‘games’ which can dramatically influence their perceptions of musical creativity, control and ownership. These findings offer new insights for the design of future game-based composition systems, and reflect more broadly on the complex relationship between musical creativity, games and competition.

Above the Action: The Cultural Politics of WatchingDota 2

AbstractThe rise of live-streaming platforms, and the related surge in popularity of esports, remind us that there is a politics of watching play. This article extends intensified scholarly interest in game spectatorship, offering a materialist consideration of the embodied work involved in spectating competitive game play. Most readily associated with the discursive alignments between competitive gaming and/as sport, the active camera mode used by esports competitors and “shoutcasters” facilitates analyzing the highly kinetic action of team-based combat in first-person shooters and multiplayer online battle arenas. Here, we draw from microanalyses of audio-visual recordings taken as individual participants spectated a Dota 2 match. Examining the cognitive and perceptual competencies they draw from, we argue that participants are incorporated into apparatuses of perception associated with militarized optical media. While at a discursive level esports spectators may be watching sports, at a material level they are playing with the logics of drones.

“Taphonomy: Dead and fossilized”: A new board game designed to teach college undergraduate students about the process of fossilization

Incorporating games in teaching can help students retain material and become innovative problem solvers through engagement and enjoyment. Here we describe a new board game, “Taphonomy: Dead and Fossilized,” and its use as an active learning tool (material available at doi: 10.18738/T8/NQV2CU). The educational objective is to teach the player about taphonomy and fossilization, while the gameplay objective is to preserve and recover the best fossil collection. Through competitive gameplay, students learn how chemical, physical, and environmental factors, as well as physiology and discovery biases can influence an organism’s preservation and collection potential. The game is modeled after an Early Jurassic fossil deposit for scientific accuracy and relevance. The game was incorporated in undergraduate classroom activities in 20 colleges and universities across the United States. Survey results show that students and teachers were overwhelmingly positive about the game, stating that it was fun and helped them learn or strengthen their knowledge of fossilization. When analyzed statistically, we find that students’ self-reported learning outcomes and opinions vary most significantly with college year, major, ethnicity, and race. White students and geoscience or STEM majors reported the highest levels of learning and enjoyment, with minorities and non-STEM majors responding less favorably. We suggest this game is most advantageous for use in upper-level paleontology classrooms, although it is still beneficial at lower levels. It is critical to use this game as part of a larger lesson plan and tailor it to fit the needs of an individual classroom. Modifications for time and class size, as well as follow-up discussion questions, are included.