Gameplay Research Articles

The Arc Unknotting Game

Summary Who doesn’t like games? And when games can involve interesting, visual, mathematical objects like knot diagrams, all the better! In this paper, we propose a new 2-player game on knot diagrams, the Arc Unknotting Game, that uses hot-off-the-press insights about the structure of knots. This game differs from previously studied games on knot diagrams—it’s much more slippery, with available moves appearing and disappearing in perplexing ways throughout the game. Intrigued? Then come play with us!

Examination of gender‐based video game‐playing classes: Influencing determinants and relations to academic achievement

AbstractBackgroundTheir ubiquity is particularly notable as video games become increasingly intertwined with the technological revolution. Despite this prominence, gender disparities in adolescent video gaming remain under‐explored.ObjectivesThis research aims to determine the frequency classes of video game playing based on gender, analyse the variables (age of first digital device/internet use, weekday/weekend internet frequency in and out of school, economic, social, and cultural status) that might influence assignment to these classes, and reveal the differences in PISA scores among these classes.MethodsOur study utilises multiple group latent class analysis and multinomial logistic regression to investigate the video gaming frequencies of 6890 Turkish students (49.1% female, 50.9% male) from the PISA‐2018 exam. A three‐step multiple logistic regression was employed to identify the effect of the variables on assignment probabilities. Also, the multivariate Delta method tested mean differences between classes for PISA scores.Results and ConclusionsThis study classifies Turkish students from PISA 2018 into four video gaming preference frequency classes (frequent, regular, casual, and non‐video game players) based on gender. Our study reveals that frequent male gamers begin using digital devices and the internet earlier than their female counterparts, spending more time gaming outside school. Notably, the frequency of video game play, which varies by gender, was found to have a significant effect on academic achievement.

Effects of video game play, avatar choice, and avatar power on motivation to prepare for earthquakes

This study investigates the potential for motivating earthquake preparedness through video game play. 112 participants played a custom-built video game for between 5 and 30 min in an experiment involving two avatar selection conditions (choice vs. random assignment) and two avatar power conditions (more vs. fewer resources). We assessed self-reported pre- and post-test changes in levels of self-efficacy, sense of control, outcome expectation, and intent to act relating to 20 earthquake preparedness and response actions. We found that increases in social cognitive variable scores were significantly greater for actions central to game challenges than for actions peripherally or not included in the game. Where avatar characteristics were significant, high power and randomly assigned avatars led to greater increases in social cognitive variable scores. After 7 months, self-reported changes in preparedness increased significantly for 8 out of 10 actions.

Perception of Affordances in Female Volleyball Players: Serving Short versus Serving to the Sideline

ABSTRACT Purpose: We investigated youth volleyball players’ perception of affordances for different types of serves. Methods: Participants were separated into Less Experienced (n = 13, maximum of 3 years of competitive volleyball experience) and More Experienced (n = 11, minimum of 4 years of competitive volleyball experience) groups. In the Sideline Condition, participants were asked to report the narrowest gap, relative to either the left or right sideline, into which they could serve the ball. In the Short Condition, participants were asked to report the narrowest gap, relative to the net, into which they could serve the ball. Participants then attempted to serve into their reported gaps. Results: The proportion of successful serves was greater for the More Experienced group than for the Less Experienced group, but a statistically significant interaction revealed that this was true only when performing sideline serves. As expected, reported servable gaps were larger for the Short Serve condition (M = 3.66 m, SD = 0.67 m) than for the Sideline Serve condition (M = 1.93 m, SD = 0.71 m), F(1, 22) = 80.45, p < .001, partial η2 = 0.79. Conclusions: Our study extends previous work to a different sport (volleyball) and to different sport-specific actions (serving the ball). The finding that perceived minimum servable gap sizes were larger for short serves than for sideline serves is consistent with differences in the constraints operating on the two types of serves in the context of game play.

Application of eco-compensation to control transboundary water pollution in water diversion projects: The case of the Heihe River transfer project in China

Controlling transboundary water pollution is particularly crucial for the sustainable development of diversion basins, while eco-compensation is an essential incentive for multistakeholder transboundary water pollution control. Considering the dynamics of the various actors' pollution control behavior in the Heihe River water transfer project and utilizing differential game theory, we construct a baseline strategy, a horizontal eco-compensation strategy, and an incentive coordination strategy under scenarios with and without authority incentives. The corresponding equilibrium solutions are then determined, and comparisons are made between the payoffs of the players in the six different structures, thus defining the optimal scenario for the different programs. In the case of the largest ecological water transfer project of the Heihe River in Northwest China, according to the research findings, (1) when eco-compensation is funded through a single source, incentive coordination scenarios can contribute effectively to water pollution control instituted by the main participants in water diversion projects; when multiple financing sources are available, horizontal ecological compensation scenarios are more compatible with the individual interests of local municipalities to improve the water quality environment. (2) Water-receiving cities voluntarily eco-compensate for water-supplying cities, and this incentive structure for eco-compensation facilitates a significant improvement in the effectiveness of water pollution control and therefore the harmonious promotion of sustainable economic and environmental development in eco-fragile areas. (3) Water transfer projects, for which the two participants are at widely.different levels of development and the environment is inherently fragile, can facilitate, via an eco-compensation mechanism that combines horizontal and vertical scenarios, sustainable development-oriented policies for eco-compensation systems in which the authority participates as a third-party game player. The research supports the establishment of policies for the governance of the transboundary water diversion project basins to address conflicts in water pollution management.

‘I Can Tell You It’s a Bit of a Gamble’: A Qualitative Analysis of How People Who Engage in Gaming and Gambling Understand a Link Between These Two Behaviours

This article explores the attention given to potential motives and determinants of the transition process from video games to gambling. Forty individual interviews were conducted among active video game players (n = 20), and people diagnosed with a gambling disorder who had the experience of playing video games (n = 20). A qualitative thematic analysis was employed to explore the collected empirical data. The range of factors considered responsible for the transition from playing video games to gambling included experiencing similar emotional states, the presence of gambling in video games, advertising of gambling companies in video games, loot boxes. The awareness of factors associated with the development of gambling disorders among video game players has an important role in informing prevention policies in the rapidly changing video gaming and gambling market. Decision-makers should introduce effective regulation of the use of gambling components in video games to protect gamers against the gambling-related harm.

From Aesthetics to Asymmetry: Contradictions of Ecological Play in Cities: Skylines

Anchored in the Anthropocene era's paradigm of human mastery over nature, Cities: Skylines grants its players extensive agency to shape untouched terrains into sprawling cities. We draw upon “ecological thought”—a mode of awareness that highlights the radical interconnectedness of all beings and their environments—to consider the ecological dynamics of city-building by the game's players. Analyzing player-generated paratexts from online game communities reveals that while many players aspire toward ecocentric city designs, they instead inadvertently restage the asymmetric planetary relationship emblematic of our current era. Our analysis uncovers the capital-driven assumptions that characterize human–environment relations in the game. Attempts at ecocentric aesthetics invariably subsumed by cybernetic interactions that privilege the Anthropocene's prevailing power dynamics. These expressions highlight the inherent contradictions of the Anthropocene era as encountered in Cities: Skylines and illustrate the permeability between the contemporary material world and digital play.

Understanding and predicting customers’ intentions to use smartphone-based online games: A deep-learning-based dual-stage modelling analysis

Building upon flow theory, the present research empirically investigates the impact of customers' attitudes on their intention to use smartphone-based online gaming. It also examines the mediating effects of customers’ perceived flow and engagement between attitudes and customer's intention to use smartphone-based online gaming. Furthermore, customers' cognitive involvement was also examined as a moderator in between attitude and perceived flow. The data were analysed using a dual-stage hybrid method embedded with PLS-SEM and ANN. A sample of 688 smartphone-based online game players was surveyed, and the results support the notion that customers' attitudes, considered as a formative construct, significantly influence intention to use smartphone-based online gaming. The study further confirms that perceived flow and customer engagement mediate the relationship between attitudes and intention to use smartphone-based online gaming. The study also identifies the role of cognitive involvement as a significant moderator in between customers' attitudes and perceived flow. Contributions for both theory and practice are presented in the concluding sections.

Young video game players’ self-identified toxic gaming behaviour

In this study we analyze negative behaviour in the context of digital gaming through interviews of players (N=12) aged 16–27 who self-reported as having behaved in a manner they acknowledged as toxic. Through thematic analysis of the interviews, we highlight three central themes: Games as affective spaces; affordances and norms facilitating negative behaviours; and players’ navigation of negative behaviours. Our study demonstrates the situational and affective nature of negative behaviour and offers solutions for reducing it in gaming.

Modern General Game Playing with Reinforcement Learning

In computational science and robotics, game playing and artificial intelligence (AI) are research areas that have long been studied. RL systems represent a major step towards autonomous systems that comprehend the visual world at an incredibly deep level and are poised to revolutionize the field of artificial intelligence (AI). Game Play is the testbench where environmental variables can be evaluated to generate adaptive, intelligent, or responsive behavior or simulate real-world scenarios. In this survey, we will explore general gameplay (GGP) with reinforcement learning and its various applications. This survey will cover central algorithms in deep RL, including the deep Qnetwork (DQN) and general mathematical and pragmatic approaches taken in the field. The objective of the current review is to examine the history, associations, and recent advances in the field of general game playing with reinforcement learning and its subfields. We conclude by describing several current areas of research within this field.

A video-based time-motion analysis of an elite male basketball team during a season: game demands according to player position, game quarter, and actual time played

ABSTRACT To investigate differences in the game demands of top-level professional basketball players based on their position and the quarter of the game. Thirteen elite male players were assessed on their positions (point guard, guard, forward, and centre) over different quarters (Q1-Q4) during 15 home games. A multivariate analysis of variance was performed using role and quarters as predictors to assess distances, speeds, and accelerations. The guard and point guard covered more distance than the centre and forwards (p > 0.001). The average distance covered was higher (p < 0.01) in Q4 than in the other quarters. Both speed and the percentage of time spent in the jogging to max speed range decreased significantly from Q1 to Q4, while time spent standing and walking tended to increase from Q1 to Q4. The point guard spent the highest percentage of total time performing major accelerations followed by the guard, while the forwards and centre spent less time performing accelerations. Overall, 22.8 ± 0.7% of total playing time was spent performing major accelerations, which decreased from Q1 to Q4. These findings suggest that the positions of elite basketball players vary in terms of the activities demands they place on players, underscoring the need for individualised role-based conditioning.

Global visual attention SPAN in different video game genres

Video games, specifically action video games, have been demonstrated to be a useful tool in improving certain visual aspects in the general population. Visual attention span, the ability to simultaneously process multiple distinct visual elements during a single fixation, has been shown to improve among action video game players. The goal of this study was to verify that visual attention span is better not only in action video games, but also in other video game genres such as sports simulators or role-playing games. A total of 41 participants, aged 18 to 40 years old, were asked about the type of video games they were playing, name and genre, and the frequency of play. Visual attention span was assessed in all participants. Participants were divided into 4 groups according to the genre of video game they played. The total percentage of letter identification in the visual attention span was not significantly different between groups. A significant difference was found in the sixth position letter, and the right hemifield performance between groups, especially in sports simulators and action video game participants who showed a better performance. The action video game group showed a significant correlation between visual attention span performance and weekly hours played. Playing regularly different genres other than action video games can contribute to raise visual attention resources.

Video Game Playing and Internet Gaming Disorder: A Profile of Young Adolescents.

In recent times, growing concern has arisen regarding the utilization of technology, video games, and the emergence of internet gaming disorder (IGD), particularly among young adolescents. This worry arises from the ambiguity in distinguishing between "normal" and "problematic" video game behavior, despite efforts to establish clear criteria for defining both. The goal of this study is to outline distinct profiles of adolescent video game players and identify variables associated with their gaming practices that correlate with problematic gaming. The study utilizes a substantial sample of adolescents drawn from a representative cross-section of educational institutions in the city of Madrid, ranging in age from 12 to 16 years. In total, 1516 participants (75%) acknowledged engaging in video game activities. The research delves into characterizing prevailing profiles of video game participants within this cohort and scrutinizes the profile that aligns with issues of IGD. In summary, approximately three-quarters of young adolescents participate in video gaming, with males constituting the majority. Typically, participants immerse themselves in action genre games for over three days per week, with males exhibiting a higher frequency than their female counterparts. Elevated gaming frequency correlates with heightened IGD scores, particularly among females. Young adolescents show a preference for game consoles (males) and mobile phones (females) and often play alone at home. Specific factors such as the device used, online mode, company, and gaming location impact the IGD scores. These profiles aim to assist families and educators in recognizing potential risk behaviors and IGD concerns; however, it is crucial to emphasize the necessity for case-specific screening and evaluation before deliberating on such behaviors.

Why Purchase Premium in Freemium Online Games: The Self Determination Theory Perspective

After the rise of the freemium business model, the video games industry emerged as a popular source of entertainment in Malaysia. In this modern free game model, virtual content trading is considered a great source of revenue generation for game developers and publishers. Millions of players around the world participate in this activity and purchase virtual items. In this study, we focus on exploring the motives of Malaysian youth for purchasing these in-game virtual products. By employing purposive sampling, qualitative data were collected by means of conducting in-depth interviews with game players who purchase virtual products. This study explored seven important factors: the desire for uniqueness, the desire for dominance, the desire for skillfulness, social interaction, the desire for freedom, social affiliation, and enjoyment, which strongly influence Malaysian players’ behavior toward in-game content consumption during video game playing. Gamers and game developers can benefit from the findings of the present study to customize the in-game virtual product design strategies as per the expectations of respondents.&#x0D; Keywords: free-to-play, video games, freemium, virtual purchasing, purchase intention

The Analyses Between Different Player Groups -- Describe Their Preferences on Games and Social Media

Video games have become the mainstream entertainment for almost ages. Many people choose to become players of different games for different reasons, which makes the gaming industry have undergone earth-shaking changes in the past decade. This paper is mainly concerned with and investigates four types of games: MOBA, FPS, RPG, and MMORPG. Focus on users playing games and the reason why they choose the typical games to play. Especially their social behavior on several well-known social media such as Weibo, Bilibili, and Huya. Specifically, this paper focuses on combining the players preferences for social media and their backgrounds, reconstructing the profiles of the different game players and their true intentions for the games. The aim is to discover more about Chinese game player themselves and their surroundings. The research questions are as follows: 1) classification whether the correlation between their average play time and their interests exists. 2) Dig into the aims and reasons players choices between groups vary from person to person. 3) Research on factors influencing players social media choices.

MODEL KOMUNIKASI REMAJA PEMAIN GAME ONLINE FREE FIRE (STUDI KASUS PADA REMAJA DI RT02 KELURAHAN MANULAI 2 KOTA KUPANG)

The process of adolescent communication in the free fire online game is a two-way communication process carried out by adolescents with their friends and also random in the game, the purpose of this research is to understand the communication process carried out by adolescent free fire online game players to form communication models which describes the relationship between the communication components of the communication process carried out by adolescents when playing the free fire online game. The theory used in this study is the theory of Computer Mediated Communication (CMC). This research is a qualitative research with a qualitative descriptive method. The object of this research is teenagers playing free fire online games at RT 02 Manulai 2 Village, Kupang City. There are three data collection techniques used in this study, namely through direct interview observation and documentation of young online free fire game players. The result of this study is to find a communication model formed from the communication process of free fire online game players, namely the linear communication model and the Schramm interactional communication model. In the Liear Communication Model the communication process only takes place in one direction where there is no feedback in the Linear Communication Model while the Schramm interactional model is a two-way communication process where there is both direct feedback and delayed feedback in the communication process carried out by teenage game players online free fire.

Player detection method based on scale attention and scale equalization algorithm.

Object detection methods for team ball games players often struggle due to their reliance on dataset scale statistics, resulting in missed detections for players with smaller bounding boxes and reduced accuracy for larger bounding boxes. This study introduces a two-fold approach to address these challenges. Firstly, a novel multi-scale attention mechanism is proposed, aiming to reduce reliance on scale statistics by utilizing a specially created SIoU (Similar to Intersection over Union) label that explicitly represents multi-scale features. This label guides the training of multi-scale attention network modules at two granularity levels. Secondly, an integrated scale equalization algorithm within SIoU labels enhances the detection ability of multi-scale targets in imbalanced samples. Comparative experiments conducted on basketball, volleyball, and ice hockey datasets validate the proposed method. The relative optimal approach demonstrated improvements in the detection accuracy of players with smaller and larger scale bounding boxes by 11%, 7%, 15%, 8%, 9%, and 4%, respectively.

Комбінаторний аналіз лотерей

Lottery is by far the oldest and the most widely known game of chance, having been practiced since antiquity. In its various forms, the lottery preserves a basic structure and technical procedure that makes it the easiest and most popular game of chance: the random draw from an urn of some objects (balls, tickets, lots, plates, slips, etc.) containing predefined symbols (numbers, images, words, etc.), followed by the distribution of prizes for players who made correct predictions regarding this draw, according to some pre-established rules. Nowadays, the most prevalent form of lottery is that with randomly selected numbers; winning categories are based on the number of numbers correctly predicted on the playing ticket. The most popular forms of these games are the national and state lotteries. But the most important element contributing to the public's fascination with lottery games is the amount of the prizes, especially for the highest winning category. The possibility (physically real, mathematically too improbable) of getting «the big hit» – winning the big prize – provides a motivation with complex psychological roots that often overlooks the practical aspects, such as the investments in lottery tickets and the mathematical aspects of the game, especially the winning probabilities. It has been proven mathematically that in ideal conditions of randomness, no long-term regular winning is possible for players of games of chance; therefore, gambling is not a good way to make a living. Most gamblers accept this premise, but still work on strategies in hopes of multiple wins over the long run.

A comparative analysis for eye movement characteristics between professional and non-professional players in FIFA eSports game

Eye-tracking technology has been widely applied to various kinds of traditional sports research, such as football, basketball and table tennis. eSports is an emerging digital sport, which is currently enjoying rapid development. The previous study primarily focuses on the practical applications of eye movement in eSports, such as game design, visual attention, and performance analysis. However, there is a scientific gap for the specific differences between expert and novice players, the potential of eye-tracking as a biological marker for eSports performance, and the transfer of insights from real sports to eSports through eye-tracking studies. This study aims to uncover disparities in eye movement characteristics between professional players (N = 14, 24.1 ± 2.5 years) and non-professional players (N = 14, 25.2 ± 2.3 years) by employing the expert-novice paradigm. We extracted several key eye movement features, including average fixation counts, average fixation duration, first fixation duration, eye movement trajectory, and visits to areas of interest. The results indicate that professional players exhibit higher fixation counts, shorter first fixation duration, reduced average fixation duration, and employ a more effective visual search strategy. Professional players’ fixation trajectories are characterized by clarity and focus, with a greater number of fixation points concentrated on key areas of interest. In contrast, non-professional players demonstrate relatively random fixation trajectories, lacking distinct focal points. This study not only advances our understanding of eye-tracking in eSports but also provides technical guidance and practical significance for further research in this burgeoning field.

Analysis of Microsofts Motivation to Acquire Activision Blizzard

The news of Microsoft spending huge amount of money doing acquisition of Activision Blizzard shocked many game players. It was questioned by people. Why did Microsoft choose to acquire Blizzard under the condition that Blizzard seemed going downhill with its management and was stuggled with its employee sexual harrasement scandal? Why is Blizzard still worth so much value for Microsoft? What can Blizzard bring to Microsoft and what are the risks? Is the real purpose of such a big action by Microsoft just to expand its gaming business? Is the metaverse mentioned in Microsoft's announcement the real mission? This article is going to use the SWOT analysis to fully analyze Blizzard's own strengths and weaknesses, and to discover what kind of opportunities and threats it can bring to Microsoft in the industry it is in, to explore the things behind the game itself, but the key to open the door of the possibility and the success of a new area.