Game Makers Research Articles

Ripperdocs and game makers: Bioethics in the dystopian future of (post)cyberpunk fiction

Ripperdocs and game makers: Bioethics in the dystopian future of (post)cyberpunk fiction

A Sociological Try of Linear Regression with R to Recognize Customers Traits

In todays digital age, enterprises are faced with the emergence of vast amounts of data. Thus, it is critical for those who have a large number of users to understand the pouring data and to extract information for accurate decision making. This paper suggests an interdisciplinary way to explain the regression results of mass user enterprises database, including a normal distribution curve of behavior, an unexpected correlation between factors and a few models built for specific business stratagems. These regressions are performed on a database of a game publishing company called Talent Game where game makers launch their masterpieces. The sociological and psychological methodology adapts perfectly for companies like Talent Games (TG) that establishing on the value of mass data. Finally, a controversial issue is that distributions and slope levels are found out, but some correlations are slight, which is conceived statistically skewed, and negligible in communication and sociology. Therefore, theories of the masses and statistical diagrams are coordinately shown.

Competition and Digital Game Design: a Self-Determination Theory Perspective

Abstract Although competition is a common feature of digital games, nuances of when and why aspects of competition influence players' motivation and well-being have been surprisingly underexplored, especially through the lens of self-determination theory (SDT). In this critical review, we: (1) describe how a mini-theory of SDT, cognitive evaluation theory (CET), can help predict when and why aspects of competition will alternatively satisfy or frustrate basic psychological needs in digital games with downstream effects on players' motivation and well-being; (2) apply the Motivation, Engagement and Thriving in User Experience (METUX) model to outline ways competition in digital games can influence motivation and well-being at multiple levels; and (3) prioritize future research directions. Finally, we argue that digital games, given their diversity, adaptability and massive reach, represent an especially powerful context for studying competition, motivation and well-being. Research Highlights This critical review integrates self-determination theory (SDT)-guided models and research related to HCI, sports psychology and well-being supportive design to advance understanding of competition in digital games. Introduces a new taxonomy of competition relevant to SDT and digital games, including macro-level categories, general elements and specific features. Presents a competition and digital gaming specific cognitive evaluation theory (CET) model linking different aspects of competition in digital games to basic psychological need satisfaction and frustration, motivation, health and well-being. Applying the METUX model, we map out ways researchers and game makers can think about aspects of competition in digital games at multiple levels or spheres of influence. Prioritizes future directions for research, specifically related to experimentally manipulating digital feedback and digital representations of self and others in digital games.

China's High-Quality Game Market Development and Competition

With the popularity as well as the development of mobile technology, mobile games have become an integral part of life. This article will make suggestions for the development of China's game market through trend judgment and analysis of representative works of various manufacturers. This research paper focuses on the representative works of Tencent, NetEase and Miha Tour, as well as the overall share of China's game market and the development trend of the past few years to make judgments on the future development of China's game market. This research paper concludes that handheld games will still have a lot of room for development in the Chinese market in the future and suggests that game makers can innovate gameplay, create more IPs and create unique social platforms to develop handheld games.

Taking it to the extreme: prevalence and nature of extremist sentiment in games.

More than half of all game players report experiencing some form of hate, harassment or abuse within gaming spaces. While prevalence assessments of these actions in digital gaming spaces are ongoing, little remains known about the more extreme forms of these behaviors. Specifically, experiences of extremism. This paper addresses the gap in research knowledge around the expression of extremist sentiment in games by evaluating their prevalence, location, and nature, and impact. Assessing experiences via an online survey, game players (n = 423) reported an alarmingly high rate of frequency for being the direct target of, as well as a witness to, all forms of extremist content. Most of these experiences were text-based, reported to be happening in-game. Most players endorsed statements relating to a normalization of extreme ideologies within gaming cultures. It is promising that reporting these behaviors was the primary action taken by players for most of the players; however, "ignoring" these actions was also a common strategy. It is possible that player inaction reflects the embeddedness and normalization of these actions in gaming spaces and/or a lack of trust in moderation systems to be responsive. The prevalence of extreme sentiment in gaming cultures should raise concern from game makers, members of the gaming community, parents, and policy makers alike.

Observations and Reflections on the Gaming Landscape in South East Asia

Discussion of the Asian video game market, particularly when focused on digital gamer production, often focuses on China, Japan, and South Korea. However, communities of South East Asia based game makers are emerging. Drawing from firsthand discussion and interviews with more than 400 game developers, 50 post-secondary academic faculty, and 15 academic organizations and universities, the authors offer perspectives, insights, and expected challenges for the region. The findings indicate that a combination of intellectual and creative energy as well as regional political and economic support have helped develop fertile ground for global attention. Most notably, the researchers observed a regional interest in shifting toward exploring innovative, original content and increasing educational capacities to explore creative practice in game design. These findings coincide with other reflections of the region's digital economy's development.

Creatability, achievability, and immersibility: New game design elements that increase online game usage

Online games are popular technology-enabled applications designed to satisfy a wide range of player needs. Self-determination theory (SDT) has been used in past online game studies to explain player satisfaction, but it is rarely used to examine game design as a trigger for player satisfaction, which reveals a research gap. This gap keeps game makers in the dark about the design of games that effectively satisfy players, throwing gamers’ ongoing game usage into doubt. Aiming to fill this gap, we proposed three new game design elements and examined their impacts on player satisfaction, continuance, and usage. We followed 546 participants who responded to our online survey and permitted us to collect their system-captured game usage data, generating two-wave and two-source data. We found that game achievability and game immersibility are game design elements that satisfy players. Competence satisfaction and autonomy satisfaction—but not relatedness satisfaction—are characteristics that secure players’ continuance and actual usage. Two replication studies were conducted to further verify these findings. Our study extends SDT backward to examine the game-contextualized triggers of satisfaction. These theorized triggers showcase game system design, theoretically clarifying the means of using SDT to design games, and providing practical insights to guide game makers in securing player continuance and actual usage.

Tomorrow will be better: Gamers’ expectation and game usage

Online games generate enormous revenues for game makers, but game makers encounter the difficulty in ensuring that in-game tasks are sufficiently challenging to elicit achievement satisfaction from gamers, while not excessively challenging to elevate frustration. To address this problem, we applied expectancy-value theory (EVT) to the online gaming context. Specifically, our study aims to examine how gaming frustration, gamers' need for achievement, and the expectation of gaming advancement jointly shape in-game achievement satisfaction and, by extension, increase actual game usage. To test our model, we collected survey and behavioral data from 848 participants, thus generating a two-wave, and two-source dataset. We found that gamers’ evaluations of success probability (expectation of gaming advancement) prominently determined their expected value (in-game achievement satisfaction), thus enhancing their continued use, use frequency, and actual usage. Whereas traditional EVT assumes a single and stable probability of achievement with regard to an event, we argue that perceptions of the probability of gaming achievements in the immediate future (now) differ from perceptions of such achievements in the more distant future, with the latter being more influential. By contextualizing EVT, we offer guidance to game makers who aim to keep users engaged, suggesting that they should design challenging in-game tasks that also elicit the hope of future gaming achievements, resulting in continued use, use frequency, and sustained gameplay. We conclude by offering insights for the makers of online games.

External articulation and internal stabilization: Using identification stages to enhance online gamer loyalty

Social identification theory (SIT) posits that social identification predicts individuals' commitment and loyalty. However, SIT has not clarified the mechanism underlying the impact of social identification on engagement, particularly in terms of how strongly identified individuals do inside and outside the group. Without such knowledge, practitioners may mistakenly believe that social identification always enhances clients' commitment and loyalty, showing the practical importance of a better understanding of this issue. Hence, the purpose of this study is to propose two novel components (external articulation and internal stabilization) that make up the mechanism underlying the impact of social identification. We modeled this mechanism and used a multiwave design and multianchored scales in collecting three waves of complete and valid responses from 814 online gamers. Structural equation modeling was used to statistically test the model. The results mostly support our model, i.e., both internal stabilization and external articulation are necessary components of this theoretical mechanism. The findings inform game makers that they should ask highly identified players to express both positive and unique features of gaming communities by word-of-mouth. Interestingly, internal stabilization can strengthen the influence of external articulation, particularly regarding the impact of unique image advocation. Game makers should also leverage players' identification to remind them to comply with norms. These means should strengthen players' commitment and therefore their action loyalty. Our study extends SIT by proposing two novel components, external articulation and internal stabilization; future research should explore concepts associated with these two components.

Perception of “This is Not a Game”: Definition and Measurement

Participatory narratives are compelling, at least partly because of their ability to help players suspend disbelief in the fictional world in which they engage. Game makers have used the phrase “This is Not a Game” (TINAG) to capture the willingness of players to buy into such narratives in ways that promote productive roleplaying and authentic engagement. Although TINAG has permeated the academic and popular literature on gaming and immersive narratives for decades, there has not been a scientific grounding for the term that provides researchers support for a more rigorous study of the topic. This article makes two primary contributions. First, it provides a definition of the Perception of TINAG based on a systematic literature review of 50 articles that define or describe critical characteristics of TINAG: The Perception of TINAG is a player’s acceptance that they are embedded in and able to influence a fictional story woven into the real world. Second, the paper develops and validates a survey instrument that researchers can use to measure the Perception of TINAG and its three unique components: (1) the player accepts that they are embedded in a fictional story, (2) the player believes their actions influence the narrative, and (3) the player perceives that the story is woven into the real world. We evaluated the instrument using exploratory factor analysis using expert reviewers and game players. We include a table of the articles describing TINAG and our final scale to facilitate future research.

Enhancing the Quality of the Game with Art: A Case Study of the Game Wildfrost

In the modern era where video games are booming, the art of games has evolved through generations and there are many artistic aspects of games that are worthy of study. Some games have a lot to offer in terms of art, so they can be used as practical examples to help improve the game's art. Wildfrost, released on 12 April 2023, is an example of a game where the various character designs are featured, and the overall art level is remarkable among all card games. The purpose of this article is to research and learn specific aspects of the art in Wildfrost in order to help more games with their art. Such a study is beneficial to the development of game art, allowing more game makers to have a deeper insight into the game art and provide some help to the development of the game. The art in Wildfrost is divided into three directions by article: art style, UI design, and juicy design, and studied separately. By separating and simplifying the art in the game, this approach makes the study more accessible and more specific. After studying them, the article concludes each direction's merits and design features and further elaborates and investigates why they are suitable and designed in the subsequent discussion section.

Sentiment analysis of Chinese game reviews based on SKEP

As China's game industry enters the era of the stock market, improving the quality of game products in all aspects is gradually becoming an important part of the development of China's game industry. There exists a large amount of game review data on the Internet, and sentiment analysis of them can provide important help for game makers to make decisions. However, the huge scale of game reviews and the extensive use of metaphors and sarcasm make it difficult to conduct sentiment analysis. In this paper, we experiment with a publicly available Chinese game review dataset using the ERNIE pre-training model equipped with the SKEP method, which improves the model's masking strategies and pre-training objectives to specialize the model's sentiment analysis ability. In addition, we compared the performance of ERNIE1.0, RoBERTa, MacBERT, BERT-wwm, and Nezha. The precision, recall, and F1 score of SKEP are higher than those of the models for comparison studies, which confirms the effectiveness of SKEP in this area.

The untapped potential of Games for Health in times of crises. A critical reflection.

Given its promising role in public health to address hard to reach population groups, game-based interventions (i.e., Games for Health, G4H) have experienced growing interest in recent years. Therefore, it is surprising that they have played only a minor role during the COVID-19 pandemic. Hence, the aim of this paper is to reflect the opportunities and challenges of G4H especially during the pandemic but also with regard to future health crises. As commercial video games (i.e., those that primarily aim to entertain its users) were often used to deal with the containment measures during the COVID-19 pandemic, we call for greater cooperation with commercial game makers to distribute health-related messages via entertainment games. With regard to G4H we see a need to (i) strengthen the intervention theory underlying game-based applications, (ii) to enhance the appeal of games in order to maintain the interest of users in the long term, and (iii) to improve the evidence base using appropriate study designs. Finally, we argue for (iv) greater user involvement, both in terms of developing game-based approaches and as co-researchers in solving complex health problems.

A literature review of genetic algorithm applied to games

In this paper, the following work is done: The application of genetic algorithms in games is discussed, and based on reading relevant references, the design of the algorithm is explained in detail; the current situation of combining algorithms with games is analyzed; the novelty of combining algorithms with games is explained; and the paper concludes with a summary of the considerations and the scope of application of using genetic algorithms in games. The aim of the study is to reduce the cost of consultation and understanding for game makers and researchers, allowing them to focus on the specific application of genetic algorithms in games to make the AI of the game evolvable and intelligent to the level of the players.

Cooperate to play: How in-game cooperation knowledge impacts online gamer loyalty

Online games are prominent computer applications worldwide. Gamers form teams to cooperate to achieve gaming goals. If gamers do not have in-game cooperation knowledge, they may find it difficult to integrate into gaming groups (e.g., teams and communities), which may further undermine their loyalty toward online games. Nevertheless, little is known about how in-game cooperation knowledge forms online gamer loyalty, indicating a research gap. This gap hinders game makers from effectively allocating resources to strengthen gamer loyalty. Based on social capital theory, we develop a model to fill this gap. We collected 3036 responses from online gamers and used hierarchical regression to analyze the data. We find that cooperation knowledge, team participation experience, and gaming community identification are positively related to online gamer loyalty. Moreover, cooperation knowledge strengthens the relationship between team participation experience and loyalty. Overall, our findings uniquely inform game providers that gamers’ cooperation knowledge not only directly strengthens gamer loyalty but also amplifies the positive impact of team participation experience on loyalty.

Harassment of game makers: Prevalence and impact

Background: Online harassment is a relatively commonplace occurrence in the video gaming industry and player communities. A lack of diversity has unquestionably contributed to the high levels of such incidences. Methods: In this paper, we take an exploratory approach, via a cross-sectional observational study, to evaluate the harassment of game industry professionals on social media. In this new sphere of growing concern, there is evidence of significant harm for game makers and their radius of impact. We will discuss the prevalence rates, nature of harassment, and the ways in which a lack of diversity has contributed to this phenomenon. Results: In total, 282 video game industry professionals completed the survey in its entirety. More than half of all participants reported experiencing harassment on social media (59.6%) and nearly all reported witnessing harassment happening to other members of the videogames industry via social media (92.2%). This harassment can have a significant impact on well-being, including increased anxiety (62.1%), feelings of isolation (37.6%) and increased depression (36.2%). Almost one quarter (23.8%) reported symptoms related to post-traumatic stress disorder. One out of 10 participants reported suicidal thoughts because of online harassment. A significant number of respondents (37.3%) reported that had to take steps to reduce their physical safety due to online harassment. Over half of all respondents saying they were targets of hate because of some aspect of their identity. Conclusions: The results indicate high rates of online harassment, both direct and indirect, among members of the gaming industry at all levels. Responses also pointed to substantial mental health and behavioral impacts of both experiencing and witnessing online harassment. Without large-scale action, this problem will continue to reinforce the lack of diversity inside game studios, pushing out marginalized employees due to a hostile work environment.

Harassment of game makers: Prevalence and impact

Background: Online harassment is a relatively commonplace occurrence in the video gaming industry and player communities. A lack of diversity has unquestionably contributed to the high levels of such incidences. Methods: In this paper, we take an exploratory approach, via a cross-sectional observational study, to evaluate the harassment of game industry professionals on social media. In this new sphere of growing concern, there is evidence of significant harm for game makers and their radius of impact. We will discuss the prevalence rates, nature of harassment, and the ways in which a lack of diversity has contributed to this phenomenon. Results: In total, 282 video game industry professionals completed the survey in its entirety. More than half of all participants reported experiencing harassment on social media (59.6%) and nearly all reported witnessing harassment happening to other members of the videogames industry via social media (92.2%). This harassment can have a significant impact on well-being, including increased anxiety (62.1%), feelings of isolation (37.6%) and increased depression (36.2%). Almost one quarter (23.8%) reported symptoms related to post-traumatic stress disorder. One out of 10 participants reported suicidal thoughts because of online harassment. A significant number of respondents (37.3%) reported that had to take steps to reduce their physical safety due to online harassment. Over half of all respondents saying they were targets of hate because of some aspect of their identity. Conclusions: The results indicate high rates of online harassment, both direct and indirect, among members of the gaming industry at all levels. Responses also pointed to substantial mental health and behavioral impacts of both experiencing and witnessing online harassment. Without large-scale action, this problem will continue to reinforce the lack of diversity inside game studios, pushing out marginalized employees due to a hostile work environment.

Game Design For an Environmental-themed 2D Adventure Mobile Game

Game is a game based on technology media, which is currently one of the entertainments today. The development of games has become a technology that can be felt, through computers to cellphones. One of the game media, namely mobile games, is an attraction for gamers (people who play games) now. Game makers are competing to make games interesting and useful for game lovers. The genres presented are also diverse, such as RPG, Open World, Horror, Puzzle, Sport, and others. At this time the design of the mobile game focuses on the slide type game, where the camera in the game moves right and left, and the illustrations presented are 2D. This game takes the topic of the environment, which through the game tries to invite players to preserve, learn, and understand about the environment, presented with the spices of RPG (Role Playing Game) games as well as a strong story presentation

Game Design For an Environmental-themed 2D Adventure Mobile Game

Game is a game based on technology media, which is currently one of the entertainments today. The development of games has become a technology that can be felt, through computers to cellphones. One of the game media, namely mobile games, is an attraction for gamers (people who play games) now. Game makers are competing to make games interesting and useful for game lovers. The genres presented are also diverse, such as RPG, Open World, Horror, Puzzle, Sport, and others. At this time the design of the mobile game focuses on the slide type game, where the camera in the game moves right and left, and the illustrations presented are 2D. This game takes the topic of the environment, which through the game tries to invite players to preserve, learn, and understand about the environment, presented with the spices of RPG (Role Playing Game) games as well as a strong story presentation

게임 메모리 변조 공격 방지를 위한 블록체인 기반 게임 해킹 탐지 시스템 개발

The game hack program continues to develop as the online games market expands recently. The current method of game makers to respond to the game hack program is not good in responding to the fact that the behavior of the game users cannot be analyzed individually and the game hack continues to change. In this paper, we propose a system corresponding to the hack program of the memory modulation method, which is the most used among the game hack methods. The proposed system detects hacks by blockchainizing and verifying the main data of the game where memory tampering occurs. Because it is based on the blockchain, it is not easy to hack and manipulate data, so the security and integrity of the system can be effectively guaranteed. In addition, unlike the existing centralized system that verifies on the server, it is a distributed system that users directly verify. Therefore, it is possible to prevent the overload of the server.