Digital Games Research Articles

Anime watching: is a new kind of addiction? Evaluation of psychopathologies and psychosocial factors associated with problematic anime watching among adolescents

BackgroundIn recent years, with the rapid development of technology, research on behavioral addiction concepts such as digital gaming disorders and problematic internet use has increased. As anime-watching has become widespread worldwide, it is thought that this behavior may be one of the areas of problematic technology use, especially in adolescence. However, studies evaluating problematic anime-watching behaviors within the framework of behavioral addictions are quite limited in the literature. In this study, problematic anime-watching behaviors, comorbid psychiatric disorders, and possible psychosocial factors were evaluated in 86 anime watchers aged between 12 and 18 years. Problematic anime-watching behaviors were evaluated according to the diagnostic criteria of other defined disorders related to addictive behaviors in ICD-11. A semi-structured interview tool was used to assess psychiatric comorbidities, and the IGDS9-SF adapted form for anime-watching, the Self-Efficacy Scale for Children, KIDCOPE, and the Social Anxiety Scale for Adolescents were used to collect other data.ResultsIt was determined that 36.8% of the 86 adolescents in our study had problematic anime-watching behavior. Compared to other adolescents, the problematic anime-watching group had significantly lower self-efficacy scores and significantly higher social anxiety and avoidant coping scores. A significant relationship was found between social anxiety disorder and watching problematic anime.ConclusionsThe present study showed that problematic watching of anime may be a variant of behavioral addiction. In conclusion, the relationship between problematic anime-watching behaviors and mental health warrants further examination.

Exploratory Study of Metaverse in Business in Indonesia Using Scenario Planning Approach (Metaverse Case Study in Digital Business & Technology Division PT Telkom Indonesia)

The Metaverse, as the next step after the internet (Web1) and Social Media (Web2), gained attention after Facebook rebranded to Meta in 2021, signaling a focus on its development. While still in its early stages, with limited business applications beyond marketing, this research explores potential metaverse scenarios in Indonesia through PT Telkom’s Digital Business & Technology Division. Using the TAIDA method and a qualitative approach with primary interviews and secondary data, the study highlights Indonesia’s strong potential for metaverse growth, driven by internet adoption, VR/AR technology, cryptocurrency, and government support. Key uncertainties include low adoption, early-stage development, and unclear regulations. Four business scenarios are analyzed, focusing on promotion inefficiency, digital gaming interest, cybersecurity concerns, and potential platform discontinuation. Business scenarios encompass a booming metaverse, metaverse as a game, metaverse as a virtual world threat, and social media dominance. Scenario 1 analysis reveals PT Telkom’s focus on developing metaverse with risks related to promotional inefficiency. Scenario 2 involves developing metaverse’s digital game with the risk of low public interest. Scenario 3 emphasizes cybersecurity with risks related to societal disinterest. Scenario 4 envisions discontinuing metaverse with risks tied to customer misunderstanding. The primary objectives target awareness, cybersecurity, and customer understanding while ensuring platform reliability and regulatory guidance.

The use of educational digital games in the education of students with Down syndrome

In the case of special education and specifically the education of people with mental disabilities and down syndrome, the presence of attractive tools and methodologies in the learning process is a basic request. Educational goals for students with intellectual disabilities and down syndrome may differ from educational goals and methods in formal education settings. At the same time, for each person with intellectual disability and down syndrome, a personalized training method is required according to their needs and capabilities. Despite the differences, the main goal remains the improvement of adaptability and autonomy, through the cultivation of the maximum potential of the individual. Digital gaming is a key and important means of achieving these goals.

Virtual masculinities: Gamification, escape, and body control in Ernest Cline’s ready player one (2011)

This paper examines the intersection of masculinity and technology in Ernest Cline's Ready Player One, focusing on how virtual spaces like the OASIS serve as arenas for constructing and performing masculinity. Through the lenses of gamification, technological escape, and control over the virtual body, the novel presents a nuanced critique of how men navigate identity in a digital, hyperreal world. The study argues that Ready Player One not only reflects hegemonic masculine ideals but also reveals the vulnerabilities and limitations of such constructions in both real and virtual realms. By analyzing the protagonist Wade Watts's journey, the paper explores how the gamification of identity in the OASIS allows for the performance of idealized masculinity while simultaneously exposing its fragility. It examines how technology serves as an escape from real-world vulnerabilities, offering temporary empowerment but ultimately highlighting the unsustainability of virtual refuges. Furthermore, the paper investigates how control over the virtual body in the OASIS reflects broader cultural pressures on men to conform to societal standards of masculinity. Drawing on scholarly work in digital media, gender studies, and gaming culture, this analysis contributes to a deeper understanding of how digital environments both construct and deconstruct traditional gender norms. Ultimately, the paper argues that while the OASIS provides a space for performing idealized masculinity, it also underscores the limitations of virtual identities, revealing the need for a more grounded understanding of masculinity that transcends the illusory empowerment offered by technology.

Expanding Access to Mental Health: Evaluating the Potential of a Serious Mental Health Game for Adolescents.

Digital technologies are important for expanding access to mental health support in low-resource settings. The current study tests the feasibility of a blended learning mental health intervention that was implemented for adolescents in Lebanon (N = 1,234), most of whom were Syrian refugees. The intervention features a digital game called The Helping Hand, which teaches adolescents how to respond to psychosocial challenges healthily and develop effective coping strategies. The blended learning intervention was tested using a single-arm, non-blinded, mixed-methods approach, through the analysis of pre-post questionnaires and key informant interviews. Results showed that the intervention was well accepted and popular among participating adolescents and the team that implemented it. After completing the intervention, adolescents showed a significant decrease in anxiety and depression symptoms and a significant increase in overall well-being. The feasibility and potential impact observed in this study demonstrate the benefits of continuing to refine and expand digital interventions that improve access to mental health support for vulnerable populations.

Drivers and barriers to academic instructors’ willingness to adopt student-generated online quiz games as an assessment method

In recent years, academia has begun recognizing the necessity of integrating innovative assessment methods into academic courses. Nevertheless, initiatives to introduce alternative assessment practices may encounter resistance, despite the strong pedagogical rationale behind it. This research was conducted following a workshop titled “Make Games, Not Exams,” which aimed to introduce higher education instructors to an alternative method of assessing academic course achievements through student-generated online quiz games. The primary objective was to explore the instructors’ attitudes toward the assessment method introduced in the workshop and their willingness to integrate it into their courses, two months after the program’s conclusion. The study utilized a qualitative approach involving the participation of 10 instructors who took part in the workshop. The results revealed that only half of the instructors were willing to incorporate this method into their teaching. Most instructors agreed with the pedagogical rationale for using digital game generators as assessment tools. Nevertheless, they expressed reluctance to adopt this method primarily due to resistance to change, the time investment required, concerns about the compatibility of games with academic content, and apprehensions regarding evaluating student outcomes. Institutional support and peer influence were also noted as barriers. These findings suggest that integrating such an innovative approach demands a prolonged commitment involving ongoing exposure and consistent support for instructors within the institutional context.

Modeling and analyzing Social Networks of Games

Digital games are dynamic environments where the players interact with the games and, commonly, also with other players. The interactions generate many types of relationships, such as to be friends or to share games with other players, and to buy, play or like the games. These relationships can be seen as a social network; in this context, a Social Network of Games (SNG). During gameplay, the player produces a vast amount of data continuously, including data that represents his/her experiences, preferences, and even behavioral patterns. These data can be used to understand the players’ preferences, which is known in the literature as Player Modeling, and also to improve the attractiveness of new games. However, both tasks require analyzing a vast amount of data that cannot be done manually; it must be performed by algorithms of a research area known as Knowledge Discovery in Databases (KDD). It is possible to employ KDD techniques in the data of an SNG to model the players, as well as to identify intrinsic features of the games. In our work, we explore a real SNG using a novel KDD technique aimed at identifying common features among popular games, which may represent why the games are popular. To this end, it is necessary to analyze games developed by non-influencer makers, because influencers may receive biased attention that is not necessarily motivated by the quality of their games. Therefore, we first focus on detecting the game influencers to filter their games out; empirical experiments show that a novel approach we developed detects influencers with high accuracy in an automatic manner, even when using data from distinct nationalities for training and testing. Then, we perform a detailed analysis of the features of the games, searching for combinations of objects that occur in the popular games developed by non-influencer makers, where each object can be either a game item or a non-player character, so to support game designers in the elaboration process of new games. This case study introduces a new pattern of design for Platform Games. Additionally, we present an extensive analysis of object combinations that commonly occur in popular games. All experiments were performed on real-world players and games from the worldwide well-known platform of video games Super Mario Maker (Nintendo, Kyoto, Japan).

Combatting Postnatal Depression: Exploring the Role of Serious Games in New Parent Support.

This study makes innovative use of digital and serious games technologies as well as early detection innovations that work with perinatal infant mental health (PIMH) clinicians to help new parents and parents during pregnancy, including both birthing and non-birthing parents, combat social stigma towards postnatal depression.

The Impact of Collective Pre-game Organization in the Perceived Experience of Digital Management Simulations in Higher Education

This study investigates the impact of pre-game preparation on the perceptions and outcomes of participants in a digital simulation game. Conducted on 542 students from 28 management schools, the research explores how team organization and strategic planning in the early stages influence game experience and performance in a business simulation context. The findings reveal that effective pre-game preparation significantly enhances both the participants’ perception of the game and their performance outcomes. These results underline the importance of structured team organization and the strategic definition of roles before the game begins. This study also contributes to the literature on simulation games by highlighting the crucial role of pre-game activities, especially in team-based settings. In addition, it offers practical insights for educators on optimizing the use of simulation games by focusing on preparation and organization strategies that mimic real-world business environments. This research not only fills a gap in our understanding of the preparatory phase of game-based learning but also enhances our knowledge of how simulation games can be effectively integrated into management education.

DEVELOPMENT OF AN RPG MAKER MV-BASED INTERACTIVE GAME AS LEARNING MEDIA ON VIRUS MATERIALS FOR GRADE X STUDENTS AT NURUL ISLAM JEMBER SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL

The limited accessibility of digital educational game resources on the topic of viruses in the public domain poses a significant challenge that must be addressed. The primary objective of this research is to determine the validity of the RPG maker MV based game, followed by an assessment of its practicality. The research used Lee & Owens as the development model. The result of this study is the produced RPG maker MV-based game, focused on virus material. The validity of the game has been confirmed through product validation conducted by experts in the discipline, achieving an average percentage of 96.63% (highly valid) from material experts, 93.07% (highly valid) from media experts, and 80.71% (valid) from biology teacher practitioners. The practicality of the RPG maker MV-based game was then demonstrated by small-scale trials, yielding an average performance rate of 93% (an exceedingly captivating product), and large-scale trials, yielding an average performance rate of 94.3% (an exceedingly captivating product).

The use of serious digital games to talk about grief and finitude with children: reports on the design and evaluation process of two games

The discussion of grief and loss is often avoided, particularly when it comes to conversations involving children. The COVID-19 pandemic has tragically resulted in the loss of relatives and friends for thousands of children, bringing this topic to the forefront. Parents and caregivers have found themselves compelled to broach the subjects of death and grief with children, aiming to provide them with an understanding of the global events unfolding around them. Yet, such discussions remain steeped in taboo. Literature underscores the significance of addressing children's emotions during times of loss, offering guidance on how to navigate such experiences to mitigate the risk of long-term trauma in adulthood. This project introduces the development of two serious games tailored to assist health professionals in (1) guiding children through grief therapies and (2) initiating discussions about finitude with this specific audience. Using the SemTh methodology, which guides the design and evaluation of therapeutic digital games, a multidisciplinary team comprising Health professionals (psychologists and occupational therapists), as well as Computing professionals collaborated on the creation of these games. Implemented on the RUFUS platform, developed by these authors' research group, this platform utilizes predefined templates to guide the game instantiation. Notably, the project contributed two new templates to the platform: narrative and inverse narrative, enabling the construction of games through storytelling. The new templates on the RUFUS platform were assessed through empirical and analytical studies to allow usability and effectiveness of them.

Review of Noreen Dunnett (2024). Reimaging Boredom in Classrooms through Digital Game Spaces: Sociomaterial Perspectives

Review of Noreen Dunnett (2024). Reimaging Boredom in Classrooms through Digital Game Spaces: Sociomaterial Perspectives

International players’ perceptions of localization in their gameplay experiences

Abstract Game localization is the complex industrial process of adapting digital games linguistically, culturally and technically, seeking to deliver a gameplay experience as close as possible to that of the original. Guided by Livingston’s (2018) Review Analysis methodology combined with thematic analysis, we tap into user reviews of the Taiwanese game Detention (Red Candle Games 2017) in Simplified Chinese, English and Japanese, to gauge and compare player experiences in relation to localization, and explore the scope of review data for player-focused game localization research. Our qualitative analysis implicates culturalization as an impactful underlying factor in shaping the gameplay experience, for which translation issues remain opaque. As long as certain limitations are acknowledged, real-world data such as Steam user reviews provide an alternative source that is high in ecological validity, offering promising scope for future player-focused game localization research towards enriching the international dimension of Games User Research.

Postdigital Game-Based Learning: Complexity, Continuity, and Contingency

AbstractDiscourses that establish the potential learning benefits of digital games for schooling too often focus on learning as a product of relations between student and gameplay, adopting overly deterministic positions that have long been associated with digital technologies and education. This paper draws on ideas from postdigitalism to problematise such narrow conceptualisations of digital game-based learning (DGBL). The analysis of one Australian school’s experience of incorporating digital games into their senior English curriculum provides a break from broad generations and allows a focus on the web of relations within which digital games exist when deployed in formal school contexts. An analytical framework which draws on three ideas emerging from postdigital studies is utilized to explore relations of power through which digital games interact as they are played and studied in schools. This analysis suggests that unitary logics about learning and digital games are insufficient and highlights the importance of engaging with the complexity, continuity and contingency in DGBL contexts to combat the hyperbole that surrounds digital games and education. Postdigital attention on actual instances of digital game deployment reveals the fragility of all knowledge claims about these technologies, contributing to a more critical discourse regarding their potential to impact school learning.

Investigating the mediating role of digital game addiction in the relationship between adolescents’ school belonging and resilience

ABSTRACT Objective The aim of this study is to investigate the mediating role of digital game addiction in the relationship between school belonging and psychological resilience of adolescents in middle school. Considering school belonging together with digital game addiction may help to better understand the risk and protective factors of psychological resilience and to create a comprehensive model of psychological resilience. Method The sample consisted of 316 secondary school students aged between 11 and 14 (M = 12.84), 47.5% (n = 150) female and 52.5% (n = 166) male. Data were collected using a demographic information form and three self-report scales. In addition to descriptive statis- tics, Pearson Correlation Coefficient and Bootstrap Analysis were used to analyses the data. The mediating role of digital game addiction in the relationship between school belonging and resilience was analysed using the Bootstrap method with 5000 resamples. This approach is regarded as providing more accurate results compared to the Sobel test. Results The results of the study show that there are significant positive relationships between school belonging and psychological resilience and negative relationships with digital game addiction. Also, the results of the study revealed that the mediating role of digital game addiction in the effect of school belonging on adolescents’ psychological resilience was statistically significant. Conclusion It was revealed that digital game addiction, which affects both psychological resilience and school belonging, which is a protective factor, in a very negative way, is a mediating variable whose effect should be reduced or eliminated.

Exploring the relationship between learning emotion and cognitive behaviors in a digital game

AbstractPrevious studies have primarily explored the learning effects of digital games on students from a macro perspective, mainly ignoring the fine‐grained dimensions of learners' emotions and cognition during gameplay. To enrich the study of learners' emotions and cognitions in the context of digital games, this paper conducts an empirical study using the self‐developed board game “Connect Four Chess” as a research vehicle. We semi‐automatically identify learners' emotional and cognitive behaviors within this game‐based educational context and explore the relationship between the two. The study demonstrates that high‐level learners maintained a high level of insightful emotion throughout the game, excelled at constructing strategic formations to control more significant chessboard areas, and preferred to reserve powerful pieces until the end to secure a winning advantage. Conversely, low‐level learners exhibit a predominant level of neutral emotion, especially during unrelated behaviors, and struggle to maintain a strategic overview, focusing instead on smaller, immediate gains, which hamper the application of deeper strategies.

From Embodied Abuse to Mass Disruption : Generative, Inter-Reality Threats in Social, Mixed-Reality Platforms

Extended Reality (XR) platforms can expose users to novel attacks including embodied abuse and/or AI attacks-at-scale. The expanded attack surfaces of XR technologies may expose users of shared online platforms to psychological/social and physiological harms via embodied interactions with potentially millions of other humans or artificial humans, causing what we define as an inter-reality attack. The past twenty years have demonstrated how social and other harms (e.g. bullying, assault and stalking) can and do shift to digital social media and gaming platforms. XR technologies becoming more mainstream has led to investigations of ethical and technical consequences of these expanded input surfaces. However, there is limited literature that investigates social attacks, particularly toward vulnerable communities, and how AI technologies may accelerate generative attacks-at-scale. This paper employs human-centred research methods and a harms-centred Cybersecurity framework to co-design a testbed of socio-technical attack scenarios in XR social gaming platforms. It uses speculative fiction to further extrapolate how these could reach attacks-at-scale by applying generative AI techniques. It develops an Inter-Reality Threat Model to outline how actions in virtual environments can impact on the real-world. As AI capability continues to rapidly develop, this paper articulates the urgent need to consider a future where XR-AI attacks-at-scale could become commonplace.

Unlocking the Power of Play: Exploring Key Influences of Digital Game-Based Learning Adoption Among South African Mathematics Teachers

Integrating digital game-based learning (DGBL) into mathematics teaching has gained significant attention for its potential to improve learning outcomes. However, adopting DGBL in mathematics remains challenging, particularly in resource-constrained contexts such as South Africa. Consequently, this study used the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) to investigate mathematics teachers’ adoption of DGBL in their classrooms. We interviewed twenty-four primary and secondary school mathematics teachers in the Northern Cape province about their use of DGBL. Inductive thematic analysis was employed to analyze the data. The findings revealed that external variables such as language barriers, teachers’ technophobia, parental influence, and students’ limited reading skills negatively influenced teachers’ perceived usefulness of digital games. We also found that the teachers’ attitudes toward DGBL, which were influenced by their positive perception of it, influenced their intention to use digital games for mathematics purposes. The study recommends targeted policy interventions, including the development of multilingual digital tools and comprehensive professional development programs, to enhance the adoption of DGBL among South African mathematics teachers.

Pay-to-play versus hybrid bundling for digital game platforms in digital decarbonization era

Pay-to-play versus hybrid bundling for digital game platforms in digital decarbonization era

Family communication and bi‐dimensional student mental health in adolescents: A serial mediation through digital game addiction and school belongingness

AbstractThe presence of communication within the family can be considered as a protective factor in preventing the development of mental health problems in school by acting as a buffer against mental health problems in adolescents. Thus, this study, which was designed to reveal the potential mechanisms between family communication and bi‐dimensional student mental health (psychological well‐being/distress) in Turkish adolescents, examined the serial mediator role of digital game addiction and school belongingness. The study sample consists of a total of 397 volunteering Turkish adolescents, including 206 girls (51.9%) and 191 boys (48.1%). The participants' ages range from 14 to 17 (M = 14.63 years, SD = 0.60). In this study, a cross‐sectional and explanatory design based on structural equation modeling was used. The main findings of the study are as follows: (1) digital game addiction mediated the relationship between family communication and psychological well‐being/distress, (2) school belongingness mediated the relationship between family communication and psychological well‐being/distress, and (3) the relationship between family communication and psychological well‐being/distress was serially mediated by both digital game addiction and school belongingness.