Modern Video Games Research Articles

Simulation modeling of artillery operations in computer games: approach based on Markov processes

The object of this research is an approach to simulating the combat operation of artillery in computer games based on Markov processes. In modern computer games, an important role is played by the realism and plausibility of combat simulation. One of the most difficult and at the same time most interesting tasks is the modeling of artillery operations, where it is necessary to take into account numerous factors affecting the effectiveness of combat work. The research was aimed at improving the methods and models of controlling the combat work of artillery under the conditions for the firing position change and the presence of external disturbances. The use of stochastic models allows more accurate modeling of the behavior of artillery units, taking into account the random nature of many parameters, such as projectile speed, reload time, and the probability of detection by enemy forces. The proposed approach includes the development of a simulation model that allows determining optimal strategies to achieve maximum effectiveness of combat work. The model is based on Markov processes, which allows taking into account possible system states and probable transitions between them. This allows not only to simulate combat operations, but also to predict the results depending on different scenarios. The results of the study show that the use of Markov processes in the simulation of combat operations can significantly increase the realism and efficiency of artillery operations in computer games. This opens up new opportunities for game developers to create more immersive and authentic gaming experiences. The proposed model can be used as a basis for further research and improvement of combat simulation methods in computer games. It can also be used in military simulators and simulators where realistic combat conditions must be taken into account.

Automatic Identification of Game Stuttering via Gameplay Videos Analysis

Modern video games are extremely complex software systems and, as such, they might suffer from several types of post-release issues. A particularly insidious issue is constituted by drops in the frame rate ( i.e. , stuttering events), which might have a negative impact on the user experience. Stuttering events are frequently documented in the million of hours of gameplay videos shared by players on platforms such as Twitch or YouTube. From the developers’ perspective, these videos represent a free source of documented “testing activities”. However, especially for popular games, the quantity and length of these videos make impractical their manual inspection. We introduce HASTE, an approach for the automatic detection of stuttering events in gameplay videos that can be exploited to generate candidate bug reports. HASTE firstly splits a given video into visually coherent slices, with the goal of filtering-out those that not representing actual gameplay ( e.g ., navigating the game settings). Then, it identifies the subset of pixels in the video frames which actually show the game in action excluding additional elements on screen such as the logo of the YouTube channel, on-screen chats etc. In this way, HASTE can exploit state-of-the-art image similarity metrics to identify candidate stuttering events, namely subsequent frames being almost identical in the pixels depicting the game. We evaluate the different steps behind HASTE on a total of 105 videos showing that it can correctly extract video slices with a 76% precision, and can correctly identify the slices related to gameplay with a recall and precision higher than 77%. Overall, HASTE achieves 71% recall and 89% precision for the identification of stuttering events in gameplay videos.

Experimental Study: The Impact of Traditional Team Games on Gross Motor Locomotor Skills and Social Skills of Elementary School Children

Background: In the 21st century, children often prefer modern video games, which can lead to decreased physical activity and increased screen time. This lack of physical activity can result in poor motor skills and social skills among children. Motor and social skills are crucial for the development and growth of primary school children. Locomotor gross motor skills focus on walking, running, jumping, and skipping, which help children improve movement during physical activities. Social skills help children communicate with peers, understand friends, establish cooperation, and build healthy interpersonal relationships. It is believed that traditional games can help children aged 10‑12 improve their motor and social skills. Purpose: This study aims to analyze the impact of traditional team sports on optimizing locomotor gross motor skills and social skills in children aged 10‑12 years. Design/methodology/approach: This research study utilized a quasi‑experimental research method. The traditional games used in the study were gobak sodor and bakiak team. The study focused on children aged 10‑12 years. The instruments used for assessment were the Test of Gross Motor Development‑2 (TGMD‑II) for evaluating gross motor ability and a social skills questionnaire. The data were analyzed using a t‑test at a 5% significance level. Results and Conclusion: The analysis results of the first few t‑tests showed that the t‑count value (16.102) was greater than the t‑table value (2.093), and the p‑value (0.000) was less than 0.05. This indicates that there is an effect of traditional team games on the gross motor development of children aged 10‑12 years. The results of the second t‑test analysis also indicated that the t‑count value (14.912) was greater than the t‑table value (2.093), suggesting an effect of traditional team games on both gross motor abilities and social skills of children in the same age group. In the third t‑test analysis, the t‑count value was greater than the t‑table value, indicating differences between the experimental group and the control group. This suggests an effect of traditional team games on the development of gross motor skills and social abilities of children aged 10‑12 years.

Randomized algorithm: An advanced algorithm for modern video games

Nowadays, video games are more and more popular, and the variety of games is also growing. Under intense competition, developers need to make their games replayable without being mediocre. Randomized algorithms would be helpful. The randomized algorithm generally refers to employing randomness to create different possible solutions. This review paper focuses on the use of randomized algorithms in modern video games. It analyzes different types of randomized algorithms, such as Gaussian Randomness and Filtered Randomness. It also outlines their general principles, advantages and disadvantages. Moreover, this paper discusses the applications of randomized algorithms in several mainstream popular types of video games, including Rogue-like, Sandbox, and Multiplayer Online Battle Arena (MOBA) games. This study will contribute to the application of stochastic algorithms in modern video games, but there are still many limitations and further research is needed.

Ойын кейіпкерлер баяндаушы құралыретінде: визуалды дизайнның ойындағы оқиға желісінің дамуына әсерін зерттеу

The article considers the relevance of presenting the visual design of game characters through the narrative activity of the game, the development of the storyline and close communication with players. Analysing current trends and technological advances, realistic and emotionally expressive character design shows how you deepen your connection with the player. Explores the growing importance of inclusivity and cultural representation in character design, working to explore the appeal of game narrative and the impact on the marketing sphere. Using examples of popular game cases, the power of brand and narrative role shows their impact on recall and success, proving the importance of visual character design not only as additional factors, but also as a primary driver of engaging and engaging narrative in modern video games.

Museum-Inspired Video Games as a Symbolic Transitional Justice Policy: Overview, Concepts, and Research Directions

Video games are maturing as a medium to tell stories inspired by historical struggles and real-life experiences. In this regard, they could work as a mechanism in Transitional Justice pursuit. In this article, we argue that games can become agents for promoting education, reconciliation, and healing. We hence identify means by which museums and video games create empathy, reported in recent literature, and draw inceptive parallels between museum space design philosophies and design choices in modern video game experiences. Finally, we identify in the literature that there is a lack of a framework bringing together experts in memory and heritage studies with game developers, to derive guidelines for developing empathy-inducing games around sensitive topics. Thus, we propose a methodological approach to the creation of such a framework. This framework would instrument a collaborative effort to apply domain adaptation of the strategies and design philosophies for memory and Transitional Justice museum exhibitions to video game storytelling frameworks and mechanics.

The Toxic Cost of Cheap Usernames: Re-Applying Friedman and Resnick's Framework in Competitive Video Game Networks

Toxicity in video games, acting in a rude, abusive, bullying, or deliberately losing manner, ruins competitive team-based video game experiences for everyone involved. Companies are experimenting with the detection, regulation, and bans of toxic players. Regulation attempts are foiled by the ease with which players can switch accounts by creating new profiles to evade consequences. This article applies the framework of Friedman and Resnick (2001), “The Social Cost of Cheap Pseudonyms”, to address the reputational and repetition cost of online pseudonyms in the niche environment of video game toxicity. Four potential solutions are discussed in the context of modern video game regulation: resource-intensive account set-up, paid dues, real-world identification, and a once-in-a-lifetime identification system that creates a permanent, traceable record of toxicity. The article covers the strengths, weaknesses, feasibility, implementation challenges, and player impact of the potential implementation of these solutions in video game networks.

Legal Regulation of “Skinning” Games

The development of video games has formed a complex and diversified huge system. It is precisely because of the variety of modern video games and abundant layers, "skinning" games and other infringement problems are endless. What kind of electronic games are worth protecting, and which part of them need to be protected, is the problem of today's legislation and justice. Judicial practice is basically through the copyright law or anti-unfair competition law to regulate the infringement of electronic games, but both have different degrees of inadequacy. If the development of "skinning" games is allowed to continue, the excellent but small-scale and medium-sized game developers will be driven out of the game market, and the future of electronic games will not go too far. Therefore, it is essential to strengthen intellectual property protection and improve the level of innovation by setting up a special category of protection through the Copyright Law and leading the development of the video game industry by judicial means.

The Evolution of Storylines in Video Games

This paper discusses the evolution of video games, their unique features in Storytelling, and their effects in the presentation of modern narrative through modern video games, namely: The Last of Us, Dark Souls, Skyrim, The Walking Dead, and 3 sample visual novels through content analysis: a method used to analyze works through its narrative structure. The results show how video games help construct Storytelling with how it is intertwined through interactive narrative and fiction for topics regarding critiquing and analyzing narrative in video games to be considered in future research and applied in education.

ERGODIC VIDEO GAMES AS AGONIST OF MASOCHISM IN GAMERS

Throughout their history, even though their purpose and function have essentially remained unchanged, video games have repeatedly changed their essence, from pioneering technical endeavors, through arcade machines, to thoroughly complex modern video games. At a certain stage of their development, video games were very difficult to complete, with one of the main reasons being that for many years games were primarily played on coin-operated arcade machines, so it was in developers' interest for the games to be challenging. However, there is a crucial difference between difficult video games and video games that we call ergodic video games. The essential difference is that ergodic video games (or video games with ergodic elements) require players to adopt a non-trivial approach, i.e., additional effort, skill, and dedication, and since ergodicity drastically changes the difficulty level of the game, it also requires certain character traits from players, in terms of readiness to respond to frustration with persistence rather than giving up, which often borders on a specific type of masochism. Therefore, ergodic video games are colloquially called masocore games, which is a portmanteau of the words "masochism" and "hardcore". This paper aims to explore the causality between ergodic video games and the existence of masochistic character traits in players who play them, as well as how such games, by combining pain and frustration on one side with pleasure and a sense of accomplishment on the other side, provide a gaming experience that is almost impossible to experience by playing classic, non-ergodic video games.

Emotional Simulation in Game AI and Its Impact on Player Experience

In modern video games, the role of artificial intelligence (AI) cannot be overlooked. Game AI is not only responsible for the internal logic and character behavior within games but also serves as a crucial tool meticulously crafted by game designers to enhance the gaming experience. The objective of AI extends beyond simply achieving the highest efficiency or optimal decision-making; it aims to provide players with an engaging and challenging experience. To this end, emotional simulation has emerged as a popular research direction in the field of game AI. Emotional simulation enables virtual characters in games to have more realistic and rich emotional responses, thereby enhancing the immersion of players. When players interact with these virtual characters and perceive their genuine emotions, such as happiness, anger, sadness, and joy, they become more invested in the game and gain a deeper emotional experience. Hence, emotional simulation represents not only a technical challenge but also a crucial area of research for improving the overall quality of video games. With ongoing technological advancements, future video games will offer even richer and more realistic emotional experiences.

The Role of Saudi Arabia’s Intellectual Property (IP) Law in Governing the Modern Video Game Landscape

Saudi Arabia’s billion-dollar gaming industry is experiencing a rapid transformation marked by exponential growth and substantial investment. The Kingdom is the 19th biggest gaming market worldwide, with an investment of $6.4 billion to support the industry’s development. The exponential growth and substantial investment in the Kingdom’s gaming industry emphasize the significance of understanding the role of its Intellectual Property law, particularly copyright, in administering this dynamic landscape. Understanding this role will help to demonstrate the Kingdom’s dedication to encouraging the growth and development of the video game industry. As part of its 2030 Vision, Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) has entered the gaming sector by establishing Savvy Gaming Group, which invested $1.05 billion to acquire FACEIT and ESL, forming the ESL FACEIT Group. This article examines the intersection of video games and Intellectual Property law, focusing on copyright to explore how the Kingdom’s current copyright framework accommodates the distinctive elements of the video gaming industry and addresses the legal ambiguities that potentially undermine the industry’s copyright protection and overall growth and development. The article analyses the levels of existing copyright protection and legal ambiguities in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Consequently, this article proposes a copyright system tailored to the video gaming industry to address the Kingdom’s specific challenges in this domain. Conclusively, it contends that existing copyright laws do not adequately accommodate Saudi Arabia’s dynamic video gaming industry. It advocates for discussions on a new regime that caters to the industry’s unique aspects and safeguards the interests of publishers and creators in the emerging gaming sector.

Making motion matching stable and fast with Lipschitz-continuous neural networks and Sparse Mixture of Experts

Motion matching has become a widely adopted technique for generating high-quality interactive animation systems in video games. However, its current implementations suffer from significant computational and memory resource overheads, limiting its scalability in the context of modern video game performance profiles.Our method significantly reduces the computational complexity of approaches to motion synthesis, such as “Learned Motion Matching”, while simultaneously improving the compactness of the data that can be stored and the robustness of pose output. As a result, our method enables the efficient execution of motion matching that significantly outperforms other implementations, by 8.5× times in CPU execution cost and at 80% of the memory requirements of “Learned Motion Matching”, on contemporary video game hardware, thereby enhancing its practical applicability and scalability in the gaming industry and unlocking the ability to apply on large numbers of animated in-game characters.In this paper, we expand upon our published paper “Learning Robust and Scalable Motion with Lipschitz Continuity and Sparse Mixture of Experts”, where we successfully proposed a novel method for learning motion matching that combines a Sparse Mixture of Experts model architecture and a Lipschitz-continuous latent space for representation of poses. We present further details on our method, with extensions to our approach to expert utilization within our neural networks.

Reflecting the Cold War in “Atomic Heart”

Introduction. The present study is devoted to the study of the influence of artifacts of the symbolic politics of the USA and the USSR on the positioning of the respective socio-political systems in modern video games. The article includes the content of the “Atomic Heart” video game studies and analysis from the point of view of the theory of social memory and symbolic politics. Methods and materials. A certain number of methods were used to solve the actual tasks in the article. In particular, case-study methods and elements of structural and comparative analysis were used. Analysis. The game “Atomic Heart” was chosen as a research case. The choice of the case is due to the high popularity of this game both within Russia and internationally, as well as the connection of the plot to the topic of the confrontation between the USSR and the United States after World War II and the presence of a wide representation of the symbolism of this conflict inside the game (up to the reproduction of real campaign materials). On the one hand, the ways of representing the USA in Soviet propaganda and their interpretation by video game developers are studied. On the other hand, the positioning of the Soviet Union by game designers and screenwriters by exploiting the images and stereotypes of perception that were formed in Western culture during the Cold War is examined. Results. The author concludes that, when forming the in-game symbols, the developers actively exploited the resource of Soviet aesthetics; however, Cold War narratives in Western mass culture works played a significant role in shaping the project’s emotional, semantic, and value content. The main reason for this decision was most likely economic, as the game was created with the expectation of generating the main profit in foreign markets as a commercial product. However, this decision actually contributed to the resuscitation of the functional qualities of the symbolic legacy of the Cold War and the use of its narratives to correct the perceptions of the target audience about the USSR and its role in the confrontation between the two blocs.

Automated Gameplay Testing and Validation With Curiosity-Conditioned Proximal Trajectories

This paper proposes a novel deep reinforcement learning algorithm to perform automated analysis and detection of gameplay issues in complex 3D navigation environments. The Curiosity-Conditioned Proximal Trajectories (CCPT) method combines curiosity and imitation learning to train agents that methodically explore in the proximity of known trajectories derived from expert demonstrations. We show how our new algorithm can explore complex environments, discovering gameplay issues and design oversights in the process, and recognize and highlight them directly to game designers. We also propose a visual analytics interface to aid interpretation of results from the method. This interface transforms information from complex models into interpretable and interactive visual forms. We further demonstrate the effectiveness of the algorithm in a novel 3D navigation environment which reflects the complexity of modern video games. Our results show a higher level of coverage and bug discovery than baseline methods, demonstrating that our method can be a useful tool for game designers to automatically identify design issues. Moreover, our experiments show that the visual explanations provided by the analytics interface result in a significant increase in user trust and acceptance of automated playtesting and increased confidence in the use of machine learning techniques for video game development.

Exploring the Impact of Ambient and Character Sounds on Player Experience in Video Games

Elaborate sound design, including background music, ambient sounds (sounds describing the game world), and character sounds (sounds generated by the character’s actions), plays a pivotal role in modern video games. However, the influence of these different types of sound on the player’s experience has not been extensively researched. This study examines the influence of these sound types on immersion, avatar identification, fun, and perceived competence. In two experiments, participants played League of Legends under four different sound conditions. The first experiment (N1 = 32) revealed a non-significant trend in the effect of character sounds on avatar identification. Ambient sounds, however, were limited because the task restricted participants’ movement across the game map. Consequently, we adapted the task to allow for a wider variety of ambient sounds in the second experiment (N2 = 32). Here, a significant impact of character sounds on immersion, avatar identification, and fun was observed, as well as an interaction effect of character sounds and ambient sounds on fun. Furthermore, we observed a trend, though not statistically significant, suggesting that ambient sounds may influence the player’s sense of flow. These findings underline the distinct effects of different sound types, and we discuss implications for the design of sound in video games.

Топосы нарратива компьютерных игр и особенности репрезентации гендерных образов

Computer games, which have become widespread in the modern cultural space, reflect many phenomena of the real world, the reality surrounding a person, and even aspects of an individual's self-representation. The most important characteristic, finding its representation in a computer-game narrative, is the gender of the characters. In addition, in modern games there is also reflection on the problem of gender. Many modern games try to capture the complexity of the gender image, the correlation between gender and the game world, the presence of stories of world culture in the gender image, mythology and even experiences of philosophical reflection. In modern computer games we can distinguish games with complex gender images within the framework of a complicated game narrative. These games represent the topoi of the internal game space as examples of a certain gaming space-time which shows the gender image in its complexity/simplicity. The au-thor analyzes gender images within the topoi of the game narrative through psychoanalytic and phenomeno-logical registers, as well as two ways of fixing gender characteristics: discursive and semiotic-narrative.

Development and optimization of simulation models and methods for controlling virtual artillery units in game scenarios

In the realm of modern video game development, special attention is given to the simulation of artillery systems, which play a crucial role in various military-themed games. This research presents a mathematical model for simulating the actions of a virtual artillery system. The model is designed to manage the execution of combat tasks, including targeting destruction with a specified number of shells and incorporating the strategic movement between firing positions to minimize detection and attack by enemy forces in the game. The model presumes that all shots are effective and equates the number of firing positions to the number of shots, with a minimum of one shot per position. The model's dynamics do not allow for returning to previous positions, adding a layer of complexity and realism to the gameplay. Movement simulations between positions are designed along virtual roads of varying quality, enhancing the strategic elements of the game. A method for determining the optimal strategy for the artillery system's actions has been developed, introducing the concept of the current structure of combat task execution. This problem-solving approach falls within the realm of Pareto-oriented tasks or dynamic programming challenges. The computational method of the model is based on a general algorithm, underpinned by specialized additional algorithms. Results from this model demonstrate the feasibility of completing combat tasks effectively, with a maximum of two shots per firing position. The research differentiates between defensive and offensive tactics in gameplay, suggesting that while a strategy involving ten shots per target aligns with defensive gameplay, a strategy with four shots per target aligns with offensive actions. Consequently, the "shot-and-scoot" tactic in an offensive context can be aptly termed as “hid-and-shot”.

Design Implementation and Performance Optimization of Battle Royale Games

Battle Royale games are a type of multiplayer online games where players compete against each other in a virtual world until only one survivor remains. The design goal of these games is to provide a thrilling gaming experience and to improve the fluidity and responsiveness of the game through performance optimization measures. In this context, Call of Duty (COD) and Apex Legends (APEX) have become two representative Battle Royale games in the modern video game market, winning the affection of a vast number of players with their rich gaming experiences and high levels of player interaction. This study conducts an in-depth discussion on the design, implementation, and performance optimization strategies of these two games. Through the detailed analysis of the design concepts and core mechanisms of these games, valuable reference is provided. With the design and optimization of future Royale games, it has contributed to the technological progress in the field of game development.

From Virtual Reality to the Emerging Discipline of Perception Engineering

This article makes the case that a powerful new discipline, which we term perception engineering, is steadily emerging. It follows from a progression of ideas that involve creating illusions, from historical paintings and film to modern video games and virtual reality. Rather than creating physical artifacts such as bridges, airplanes, or computers, perception engineers create illusory perceptual experiences. The scope is defined over any agent that interacts with the physical world, including both biological organisms (humans and animals) and engineered systems (robots and autonomous systems). The key idea is that an agent, called a producer, alters the environment with the intent to alter the perceptual experience of another agent, called a receiver. Most importantly, the article introduces a precise mathematical formulation of this process, based on the von Neumann–Morgenstern notion of information, to help scope and define the discipline. This formulation is then applied to the cases of engineered and biological agents, with discussion of its implications for existing fields such as virtual reality, robotics, and even social media. Finally, open challenges and opportunities for involvement are identified.