Game Characters Research Articles

How Star Power Drives Video Game Success

Well-known actors, or stars, clearly are relevant for movies. Today, their influence also extends to interactive video games, for which budgets have reached triple-digit millions of dollars. Yet no existing research addresses the economic impact of star power on video game success across various game traits and reviews. Analyzing video games released on the popular distribution platform Steam between 2008 and 2022, the current study reveals that casting stars as game characters has positive effects on the valence of professional reviews, which in turn affect game success. Stars can therefore increase the quality of a game and reduce uncertainty about it. This impact varies depending on game traits, however. Based on these results, the authors develop an interactive dashboard that managers can use to simulate how they can strategically leverage star power to increase game success.

The Construction of Social Inequality Reality Among Characters in the Drama Pyramid Game

This study examines the construction of social inequality among characters in the drama Pyramid Game using Peter Berger’s social construction theory and Charles S. Peirce’s semiotics. The research aims to analyze how visual and linguistic elements reflect social inequality between the characters. A descriptive qualitative analysis was employed, focusing on scenes depicting social inequality. The findings show that externalization is evident in actions and dialogues that demonstrate the enforcement of social rules and hierarchies. Objectivation is reflected in the shared acceptance of social inequality as a recognized reality, while internalization is observed in how the characters adapt to their roles within the social hierarchy. This study contributes to a deeper understanding of the dynamics of social inequality in the context of the drama.

Research on the Character Traits of Female Protagonists in Games: An Example from the Otome Games

Abstract: With the development of the game industry, the role of gender in game design has increasingly come to the fore, with particular attention being paid to the way female players are represented in games. In the domain of gaming, the otome genre, which is characterized by its distinct narrative and characterization, has garnered a significant female player base. However, for a considerable period of time, the portrayal of female characters in games has frequently been influenced by traditional gender concepts, thus resulting in the emergence of certain stereotypes and inequalities. As such, the examination of the character traits of female protagonists in otome games not only facilitates a more profound comprehension of the influence of game culture on gender perceptions, but provides insights and inspiration for the creation of games with more egalitarian and diverse gender images. In this paper, the characteristics of female protagonists in otome games developed by some Japanese game developers are analyzed, and their impact on gender equality is explored. By comparing the characteristics of the female characters across different types of games, the paper elucidates that, despite their frequent portrayal as independent, strong, and assertive, these characters are still shaped by traditional gender norms to varying degrees. Accordingly, the analysis presents recommendations for advancing more egalitarian and diverse gender images within the gaming industry.

Research on New Star of Anime Game Based on Genshin Impact's Success Factors and Potential Troubles

Abstract: Genshin Impact is one of the most widely influential and profitable Chinese games to date. So far, its achievements include but are not limited to winning the "Sony PlayStation Partner Awards", and winning the "TGA Best Mobile Game" award in 2021 and 2022. The success of Genshin Impact is legendary, and it is also a milestone in Chinese games. Studying the success of it is of great significance to the development of the game industry. This article started with the previous research on Genshin Impact and other anime games, combined with the current background of the game industry, and analyzed the underlying factors behind its tremendous success from three perspectives: the production level of Genshin Impact itself, IP publicity, and operation, and meeting the needs of players. Additionally, it delves into potential challenges that Genshin Impact may face from three aspects: the game's narrative and character design, player feedback and communication, and goals for game industrialization. Lastly, recommendations are presented for each of these fields. This article improves the strategic consideration of Genshin Impact in terms of profitability and improves the viscosity of game players.

Immersion in open-world games based on Grounded theory -- A case study of Genshin Impact

In recent years, with the expansion of the game market and the rapid growth of game users, the game market has great potential. At the same time, open world games are loved by the vast majority of users. [Purpose/Significance] Explore the factors that affect the immersion of players in open world games, drive the improvement of the quality of open world games, help improve the industrial ecology, and achieve richer functional values. [Research design/Methods] Taking the open world adventure role-playing game "Genshin Impact" as a case study, semi-structured interview was used to obtain first-hand interview data, and coded research was conducted using grounded theory. Through several processes such as open coding, spindle coding, selective coding and theoretical saturation testing, the corresponding theoretical model is finally formed. [Conclusion/Finding] The results show that the basic feature of immersion performance is concentration. The two factors, the in-game condition and the out-of-game condition, together constitute the pre-factors that produce immersion. After entering the state of immersion, the main performance is to produce tension and emotional resonance. [Innovation/Value] builds a theoretical model for the generation of immersion in open world games, which lays a theoretical foundation for future theoretical model testing and empirical research.

Horny for Ghost: The Sexualized Remediation of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II on TikTok

After the release of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II in November 2022, a new, and rather unexpected, following of women and queer fans on TikTok emerged. Centering on the character Simon “Ghost” Riley, they latched onto the tall, muscular, and masked soldier with soulful eyes. Through fannish creations on TikTok, the game's characters and world was de- and re-constructed as a playful space for romantic and sexual imaginings that challenge the cis-het military masculinity of the series. Based on a 6-month netnography, the article explores the fan remediation of Call of Duty in negotiation with TikTok's affordances. We analyze how new fans positioned themselves against traditional fans through weaponization of fangirl practices, how game mechanics were used in unusual ways to generate audiovisual material, and how some of the complex fan-industry relationships manifested as a response to this unexpected fandom.

Sketchar: Supporting Character Design and Illustration Prototyping Using Generative AI

Character design in games involves interdisciplinary collaborations, typically between designers who create the narrative content, and illustrators who realize the design vision. However, traditional workflows face challenges in communication due to the differing backgrounds of illustrators and designers, the latter with limited artistic abilities. To overcome these challenges, we created Sketchar, a Generative AI (GenAI) tool that allows designers to prototype game characters and generate images based on conceptual input, providing visual outcomes that can give immediate feedback and enhance communication with illustrators' next step in the design cycle. We conducted a mixed-method study to evaluate the interaction between game designers and Sketchar. We showed that the reference images generated in co-creating with Sketchar fostered refinement of design details and can be incorporated into real-world workflows. Moreover, designers without artistic backgrounds found the Sketchar workflow to be more expressive and worthwhile. This research demonstrates the potential of GenAI in enhancing interdisciplinary collaboration in the game industry, enabling designers to interact beyond their own limited expertise.

Dive Into the Past: Chinese Intangible Cultural Heritage Represented in Chinese Mobile Games

This study delves into the representation of intangible Chinese cultural heritage in Chinese mobile games. Nowadays, even with huge economic potential, Chinese mobile games are still faced with negative comments, especially from parents. To develop their reputation, Chinese mobile games have portrayed considerate Chinese intangible cultural heritage (ICH). The representation of cultural heritage in video games has been a subject of discussion for a long time, while console and computer games and tangible cultural heritage have been at the centre of academic studies. Hence, we strived to investigate how Chinese ICH is depicted in Chinese mobile games. A thematic analysis was conducted on data collected through analytical gameplay of 30 Chinese mobile games selected from Apple’s App Store and the Chinese TapTap platform. Our analysis indicates that Chinese ICH is represented in Chinese mobile games to fulfil the persona of game characters, to create a more engaging and immersive game world experience, to provide more intense combat moments, to offer visually enjoyable virtual goods, and to deliver culturally driven updates during traditional festivals. Among the various forms of Chinese ICH, Chinese traditional craftsmanship is found to be used most frequently because of the huge effort it requires to be mastered, which could be educational to players. Theatrical traditions were found to be depicted in most game elements because they combine visual, audio, and motional elements. Lastly, folk and classical literature is portrayed in Chinese mobile games to provide a narrative resource that culturally resonates with players.

Neural networks utilization in the video game industry

The scope of the video game industry and the use of neural networks in it have been studied. The impact of this technology on the computer games development process has been analyzed, the efficiency of its application in this area noted. The generalized scheme of video games development with identification of the stages most favorable for neural networks application has been considered. The possibilities of artificial intelligence in the video game characters’ visual image development, starting from the idea stage, touching the concept creation and ending with the realization stage, have been studied. The possibility of optimizing this process by implementing neural network technology has been shown. The neural networks application in the processes of writing game scripts and implementing dialog voicing in a game has been analyzed. The difference between the variability of plots and conversations of game characters created with the use of artificial intelligence model has been shown. The future concept of using neural networks as a digital twin of a video game developer has been considered. Estimates of the video game industry development through the generative artificial intelligence implementation have been formulated. As the study result, the positive influence of neural networks application on the computer games development up to the possible full automation of the industry under consideration due to the active use of this technology in the near future has been proved.

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In the contemporary gaming market, characters play a pivotal role in the success of games, particularly in app stores. When players browse for games within a specific genre, their initial attention is often drawn to the game's characters. Positioned alongside the game's title, characters serve as visual symbols and are displayed in conjunction with key information such as ratings and download numbers. The appearance of a game’s character allows users to quickly assess the genre, visual style, and the preferences of the target audience. While technological advancements are crucial for game development, a comprehensive analysis of character design from an artistic and aesthetic perspective is essential for achieving market success. This article employs analytical methods to explore the design and artistic characteristics of game characters, with the goal of gaining deeper insights into the creative processes of game developers. It also seeks to ensure that characters are perceived in alignment with the core concept of the game. Additionally, by examining current trends in the gaming industry, the analysis offers insights into developing effective character design concepts that resonate with players and enhance a game's appeal. Furthermore, a review of trends in the modern gaming industry allows for conclusions about the role of characters and their impact on the success of the game. The visual and functional elements of characters should harmoniously align with the game’s theme and atmosphere, enhancing players' emotional connection and ensuring long-term engagement.

Exploring Players’ Perspectives: A Comprehensive Topic Modeling Case Study on Elden Ring

Game reviews heavily influence public perception. User feedback is crucial for developers, offering valuable insights to enhance game quality. In this research, Metacritic game reviews for Elden Ring were analyzed for topic modeling using Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA), Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers (BERT), and a hybrid model combining both to identify effective methods for extracting underlying themes in player feedback. We analyzed and interpreted these models’ outputs to learn the game reviews. We aimed to identify the differences, similarities, and variations between the three to determine which provided more valuable and instructive information. Our findings indicate that each method successfully identified keywords with some similarities in identified words. The LDA model had the highest silhouette score, indicating the most distinct clustering. The LDA-BERT model had a 1% higher coherence score than LDA, indicating more meaningful topics.

User Experience of Visualizations in Motion: A Case Study and Design Considerations.

We present a systematic review, an empirical study, and a first set of considerations for designing visualizations in motion, derived from a concrete scenario in which these visualizations were used to support a primary task. In practice, when viewers are confronted with embedded visualizations, they often have to focus on a primary task and can only quickly glance at a visualization showing rich, often dynamically updated, information. As such, the visualizations must be designed so as not to distract from the primary task, while at the same time being readable and useful for aiding the primary task. For example, in games, players who are engaged in a battle have to look at their enemies but also read the remaining health of their own game character from the health bar over their character's head. Many trade-offs are possible in the design of embedded visualizations in such dynamic scenarios, which we explore in-depth in this paper with a focus on user experience. We use video games as an example of an application context with a rich existing set of visualizations in motion. We begin our work with a systematic review of in-game visualizations in motion. Next, we conduct an empirical user study to investigate how different embedded visualizations in motion designs impact user experience. We conclude with a set of considerations and trade-offs for designing visualizations in motion more broadly as derived from what we learned about video games. All supplemental materials of this paper are available at osf.io/3v8wm/.

Examining How Sex Appeal Cues and Strength Cues Influence Impressions of Female Video Game Characters

Sexualization is a prominently studied dimension of how media content contributes to problematic outcomes for women (e.g., self-objectification). In video game contexts, scholars have debated whether portrayals of powerful characters may disrupt undesirable outcomes of sexual objectification. In two studies, we experimentally manipulated sex appeal cues and strength cues in female characters. Participants reported their impressions in terms of key person perception outcomes and liking of the characters. We also aimed to understand how interactivity shapes impression formation by comparing viewing (Study 1) to playing (Study 2) contexts. Results indicated that sex appeal cues and strength cues interacted to shape character impressions but did so differently depending on the type of interaction participants had with the character. In both studies, sexual appeal cues produced greater disliking of the characters. Our discussion considers the findings with respect to character design in video games and other media entertainment.

Towards the development of believable agents: Adopting neural architectures and adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system via playback of human traces

Artificial intelligence (AI) research on video games primarily focused on the imitation of human-like behavior during the past few years. Moreover, to increase the perceived worth of amusement and gratification, there is an enormous rise in the demand for intelligent agents that can imitate human players and video game characters. However, the agents developed using the majority of current approaches are perceived as rather more mechanical, which leads to frustration, and more importantly, failure in engagement. On that account, this study proposes an imitation learning framework to generate human-like behavior for more precise and accurate reproduction. To build a computational model, two learning paradigms are explored, artificial neural networks (ANN) and adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference systems (ANFIS). This study utilized several variations of ANN, including feed-forward, recurrent, extreme learning machines, and regressions, to simulate human player behavior. Furthermore, to find the ideal ANFIS, grid partitioning, subtractive clustering, and fuzzy c-means clustering are used for training. The results demonstrate that ANFIS hybrid intelligence systems trained with subtractive clustering are overall best with an average accuracy of 95%, followed by fuzzy c-means with an average accuracy of 87%. Also, the believability of the obtained AI agents is tested using two statistical methods, i.e., the Mann–Whitney U test and the cosine similarity analysis. Both methods validate that the observed behavior has been reproduced with high accuracy.

Enhancing Non-Player Characters in Unity 3D using GPT-3.5

This case study presents a comprehensive integration process of OpenAI's GPT-3.5 large language model into Unity 3D to enhance non-player characters (NPCs) in video games and interactive applications. The study aims to develop an architecture and open source software framework that enables NPCs to engage in dynamic real-time interactions with players and other characters. The background and motivation for the study are provided, highlighting the existing limitations of traditional NPC programming and the potential of advanced natural language models such as GPT-3.5 to overcome these limitations. The methodology section outlines the step-by-step process, covering framework design and preparation, core architecture development, humanoid avatar integration and animation, and important feature extensions. The progression of framework design and implementation is described, emphasizing key architectural concepts, design patterns, and essential classes and interfaces. The results of the case study are discussed, focusing on the valuable insights gained and the implications for future advancements. Lessons learned from the integration process are shared, along with suggestions for potential improvements and directions for future research. This case study provides a practical resource for game developers and researchers interested in leveraging advanced natural language processing capabilities to create more immersive and interactive NPC experiences in Unity 3D environments.

Modeling quick autonomous response for virtual characters in safety education games

Serious games have a wide range of applications. Modeling virtual character behaviors and emotions is a challenging task in developing serious games. To generate real-time responses, behavioral and emotional models must be simple and effective. Existing studies have paid little attention to the semantic understanding of virtual characters to external stimuli and have not effectively linked perceived semantics and motivation. This paper proposes a cognitive structure for the virtual character. The structure contains multiple modules: perception, personality, motivation, behavior, and emotion. Based on psychological theory, a semantic table that connects external stimuli, motivations, behaviors, and emotions is designed for each virtual character. Perceptivity is introduced to measure the degree of perception. According to Maslow’s motivation theory, a quantitative description of motivation is given and a discriminating method is proposed to generate behaviors and emotions. A prototype of a serious game is developed to verify the validity of the proposed method. The experimental results show that the proposed method can simulate the behavior and emotion of virtual characters in real time and will enhance the immersion of serious games.

The effect of post-traumatic chondropathy on the functional state of knee joints in athletes during the basketball game.

The relevance of the study is conditioned upon the widespread occurrence of knee injuries in athletes when playing basketball, in particular, damage to the cartilage system of the knee joint. Such a feature of injury causes the fact that basketball players may develop post-traumatic chondropathy with a subsequent change in the functional state of knee joints, which is inextricably linked with a decrease in the quality of life, the occurrence of pain syndrome, shortening of career duration, an increased risk of surgical interventions, and possible disability in the long-term perspective. This paper is aimed at uncovering modern ideas about the impact of post-traumatic chondropathy on the functional state of knee joints in athletes during basketball games. The method for this paper was the search for relevant studies concerning the formulated problem, the collection of information and drawing conclusions. Given the character of the basketball game, knee injuries, both acute and chronic, are widespread among athletes of this sport, including cartilaginous defects of the knee joint, which often occur in athletes. The materials of the paper are of practical value for sports medicine doctors, physiotherapists, traumatologists since it presents the main mechanisms of knee injuries in athletes when playing basketball and the possible consequences of these injuries in the long term.

What makes a video game localisation tester? Exploring the effect of individual factors on error detection

Video game quality assurance (QA) is vital to ensuring a high-quality gaming experience across different languages and regions. Competent localisation testers are expected to have advanced language skills, exceptional attention to detail, and familiarity with the game they are testing. However, individual testing performance differs, prompting the question of what constitutes a proficient localisation tester. In this study, students (N = 43) from the degree in Translation and Interpreting from the University of Alicante and the Specialist degree in Translation for the Video Game Industry from the University of Vigo were asked to test a localised video game which contained deliberate errors introduced for the purpose of this study. Subsequently, they completed questionnaires regarding localisation-related attitudes, personality traits, and trait anxiety levels. The results of various bivariate correlation and multivariate linear regression analyses indicate that translation expertise, low emotional stability, and a preference for screen reading were significant predictors of higher error detection rates. Furthermore, other variables such as attitudes towards video games, punctiliousness, and reading speed correlated with error detection in video game localisation testing. These findings may contribute to the enhancement of tester selection and training processes, resulting in superior localisations and more satisfying player experiences across diverse languages and cultures.

Emotional Construction and Consumer Retention in Otome Game Brands: A Case Study of Crisis Public Relations in "Light and Night"

In recent years, with the awakening of female consciousness and the flourishing of the gaming industry, otome games targeting female groups have emerged. These games stimulate continuous emotional consumption by guiding players to build virtual intimate relationships with game characters, thus unleashing enormous commercial potential. This paper, based on the Theory of Parasocial Interaction, selects two typical crisis events in the game production and consumption conversion process. By conducting text mining and public opinion analysis, this paper aims to analyze the emotional marketing, public relations strategies, and feasible measures of otome game brands.

Misadventure in Little Lon: augmented reality and the question of historical ’presence’

ABSTRACT True Crime Games is an award winning Melbourne-based game company headed by artist and designers Andy Yong and Emma Ramsay. This paper explores the first of their games–Misadventure in Little Lon – a case study that brings to light local histories that have been lost, elided or marginalized in traditional accounts of Melbourne and its development around the time of Federation. Drawing upon the phenomenology of Vivian Sobchack and the microhistory of Carlo Ginzburg, the article argues that implementing AR in historically driven game contexts allows for an improved grasp of the microhistory of a specific area. It does this by bringing the agency to the ‘ghost in the machine’ –characters in the AR game who enable players to resituate themselves and reorientate themselves to city streets through game play. This method of resituating historical sources so that players discover ‘opaque zones’, new ways of viewing located history that encourages reading ‘against the grain’ , is coincidental with important archaeological work that has been undertaken in the Little Lon district of Melbourne. Misadventure in Little Lon therefore joins a larger effort to reveal, circulate and celebrate the communities, individuals, and stories that traditional histories have ignored.