Multiplayer Settings Research Articles

THE ROLE OF GAMES IN CONTEMPORARY EDUCATION: CHALLENGES FOR THE TEACHERS AND STUDENTS IN THE ERA OF BLENDED LEARNING – CORRELATION BETWEEN GRADES AND GAMES PERFORMANCE

In recent years, there has been a surge in information and communications technology, propelled by the pandemic’s emphasis on remote learning. Interactive technologies like computers, tablets, and mobile phones hold promise for digitizing work and education, fostering creativity and immersion. Educators are increasingly exploring the integration of interactive and game-based tools into learning, inspired by the widespread popularity of gaming across age groups. Immersive game-based platforms, capable of integrating curricula and functioning in multiplayer settings, are emerging as a new trend in online learning, offering enhanced engagement for both students and teachers and improving test results. However, integrating games still presents challenges for teachers and students. Understanding the correlation between students’ grades and their performance in educational games is a significant challenge. While research suggests that game-based learning can positively impact academic achievement, further exploration is needed to grasp the nuanced relationship between in-game performance and traditional assessment metrics. Formative assessments through game-based solutions have gained popularity, but there is a lack of multiplayer classroom tools offering varied gameplay mechanics and content integration for creative learning. Research into the motivational aspects of multiplayer gaming, the impact of different gameplay dynamics on learning outcomes, and a comparison of multiplayer versus traditional approaches are areas for further exploration. Our study introduces a novel multiplayer game-based platform (Multiplayer Team Training Platform or MTT) addressing the challenges of uniform gameplay, offering a variety of gameplay dynamics and automated tracking of student performance in both single and multiplayer modes. A comparison between traditional assessment and game-based assessment in similar settings was undertaken with different classes, subjects, and age groups, and a comparative study was done to analyze the results of both experiments. The investigations showed that the Control Groups consistently outperformed, suggesting potential benefits of traditional teaching methods, especially under teacher’s supervision. However, it was also observed that repeated testing in the control groups did not necessarily result in enhanced retention of knowledge. Conversely, the game-based environment showed gradual improvement with gameplay repetition and reduced concerns about cheating among students. Strong positive correlations between subject grades and performance were found, indicating that higher-graded students excel in both environments, with lower-grade students showing a trend of better and continuous improvement, particularly in the game-based environment.

Benevolent Transgressive Play in Dungeons & Dragons [D&D

Background Research into transgressive play experiences in games has grown in recent years. In this article, we explore the potential for transgressive play to be constructive in multiplayer settings—something we conceptualize as “benevolent transgression.” Aim This article describes the presence and appeal of benevolent transgressive play experiences in the tabletop role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons [D&D]. Research Methods In 2021, amid the COVID-19 pandemic, we conducted focus group discussions (3 groups, 14 participants, aged 24–55) and an online survey (354 participants, aged 18–63) with current D&D players to better understand what play experiences were meaningful and appealing for them—in consideration of the game’s contemporary resurgence. Key Finding and Discussion Our qualitative analysis focuses on participant responses that described the presence and appeal of transgressive play that knowingly challenges player boundaries or game boundaries, what we term benevolent transgression. We propose two key factors that we believe enable it—1) player agency and 2) collaborative negotiation—and briefly discuss benevolent transgression in consideration of game-based learning [GBL].

The use of game modes to promote engagement and social involvement in multi-user serious games: a within-person randomized trial with stroke survivors

BackgroundSerious games are promising for stroke rehabilitation, with studies showing a positive impact on reducing motor and cognitive deficits. However, most of the evidence is in the context of single-user rehabilitation, and little is known concerning the impact in multi-user settings. This study evaluates the impact that different game modes can have on engagement and social involvement during a two-user game. Specifically, we want to understand the benefits of game modalities based on competition, co-activation, and collaboration and analyze the influence of different motor and cognitive deficits and personality traits.MethodsWe developed a two-player setup—using tangible objects and a large screen interactive table—for upper limb rehabilitation purposes. We implemented a game that, while keeping the same basic mechanics, can be played in the three different modes (Competitive, Co-active, and Collaborative). We ran a within-person randomized study with 21 stroke survivors that were paired and played the game in its three versions. We used the Game Experience Questionnaire—Core Module to assess engagement and the Social Presence Module to assess Social Involvement. For personality, motor, and cognitive function, users answered the International Personality Item Pool (short version), Fugl-Meyer Assessment—Upper Extremity, Modified Ashworth Scale, and Montreal Cognitive Assessment, respectively.ResultsThe Collaborative mode promoted significantly more Behavioral Involvement. The Competitive mode promoted more Flow and Challenge than the Co-active mode with participants with better cognitive performance, with low extraversion, or with higher motor skills. Participants with higher cognitive deficits reported more Competence with the Co-active mode.ConclusionsOur results indicate that, for multi-user motor rehabilitation settings, the collaborative mode is the more appropriate gaming approach to promote social involvement, showing a high potential for increasing adherence and effectiveness of therapy. Additionally, we show that a player's motor and cognitive ability and personality should be considered when designing personalized tasks for multiplayer settings.

Cheat software – ‘doping’ in online games

This article considers the legal issues surrounding the use of cheat software in online games, especially with reference to those games featuring significant online multiplayer functionality, such as massively multiplayer online games. Given the propensity of cheat software to ruin the gaming experience of bona fide players in such multiplayer settings, potentially resulting in significant economic and reputational losses for game publishers, the article evaluates the methods which may be employed by the game publisher to restrict the development, distribution and use of cheat software by the latter's developers, publishers and users. Using provisions of trademark, copyright and competition law, the authors examine the tools available to game publishers to stifle the spread of cheat software and maintain a fair playing field within their online multiplayer games.

Impact of game mode in multi-user serious games for upper limb rehabilitation: a within-person randomized trial on engagement and social involvement

BackgroundSerious games have been increasingly used for motor rehabilitation. However, it is not well known how different game features can be used to impact specific skills properly. Here, we study how the mode (competitive, co-active, collaborative) in which a multi-user game is presented impacts engagement and social involvement.MethodsWe collected data from 20 pairs of community-dwelling older adults (71.5 ± 8.7 years) in a study following a within-persons design. The participants performed a two-player upper limb rehabilitation game with three conditions (Competitive, Co-active, and Collaborative modes). Engagement and social involvement were assessed through the Core Module and Social Presence Module, respectively, from the Game Experience Questionnaire. To infer the impact of personality and cognitive function, users answered the International Personality Item Pool (short version) and the Montreal Cognitive Assessment, respectively.ResultsResults show that the Collaborative game mode promotes more social involvement when compared to Competitive and Co-active modes. This result is mostly explained by those participants with higher cognitive skills, and those that are more extrovert. Extrovert participants feel more empathy and are behaviorally more involved when playing the Collaborative mode. Also, the Collaborative mode is shown to be appropriate to promote interaction with participants that previously had a distant relationship, while the Competitive mode seems to be more beneficial to promote empathy between players with a closer relationship.ConclusionsThe Collaborative game mode elicited significantly higher social involvement in terms of Empathy, Positive Affect, and Behavioral Involvement. Hence, this game mode seems to be the most adequate choice to be used in multiplayer rehabilitation settings, where social interaction is intended.

On the hardness of designing public signals

We use computational complexity as a lens to study the design of information structures in games of incomplete information. We focus on one of the simplest instantiations of the information structure design problem: Bayesian zero-sum games, and a principal who must design a public signal maximizing the equilibrium payoff of one of the players. In this setting, we show that optimal information structure design is computationally intractable, and in some cases hard to approximate, assuming that it is hard to recover a planted clique from an Erdős–Rényi random graph. Our result suggests that there is no “simple” characterization of optimal public-channel information structures in multi-player settings.

On Regret-Optimal Learning in Decentralized Multiplayer Multiarmed Bandits

We consider the problem of learning in single-player and multiplayer multiarmed bandit models. Bandit problems are classes of online learning problems that capture exploration versus exploitation tradeoffs. In a multiarmed bandit model, players can pick among many arms, and each play of an arm generates an i.i.d. reward from an unknown distribution. The objective is to design a policy that maximizes the expected reward over a time horizon for a single-player setting and the sum of expected rewards for the multiplayer setting. In the multiplayer setting, arms may give different rewards to different players. There is no separate channel for coordination among the players. Any attempt at communication is costly and adds to regret. We propose two decentralizable policies, $\tt E^3$ ( $\tt E$ - $\tt cubed$ ) and $\tt E^3$ - $\tt TS$ , that can be used in both single-player and multiplayer settings. These policies are shown to yield expected regret that grows, at most, as $O(\log ^{1+\delta } T)$ (and $O(\log T)$ under some assumption). It is well known that $O(\log T)$ is the lower bound on the rate of growth of regret even in a centralized case. The proposed algorithms improve on prior work where regret grew at $O(\log ^2 T)$ . More fundamentally, these policies address the question of additional cost incurred in decentralized online learning, suggesting that there is, at most, an $\delta$ -factor cost in terms of the order of regret. This solves a problem of relevance in many domains and had been open for a while.

Making neurorehabilitation fun: Multiplayer training via damping forces balancing differences in skill levels.

Multiplayer environments are thought to increase the training intensity in robot-aided rehabilitation therapy after stroke. We developed a haptic-based environment to investigate the dynamics of two-player training performing time-constrained reaching movements using the ARMin rehabilitation robot. We implemented a challenge level adaptation algorithm that controlled a virtual damping coefficient to reach a desired success rate. We tested the algorithm's effectiveness in regulating the success rate during game play in a simulation with computer-controlled players, in a feasibility study with six unimpaired players, and in a single session with one stroke patient. The algorithm demonstrated its capacity to adjust the damping coefficient to reach three levels of success rate (low [50%], moderate [70%], and high [90%]) during singleplayer and multiplayer training. For the patient - tested in single-player mode at the moderate success rate only - the algorithm showed also promising behavior. Results of the feasibility study showed that to increase the player's willingness to play at a more challenging task condition, the effect of the challenge level adaptation - regardless of being played in single player or multiplayer mode - might be more important than the provision of multiplayer setting alone. Furthermore, the multiplayer setting tends to be a motivating and encouraging therapy component. Based on these results we will optimize and expand the multiplayer training platform and further investigate multiplayer settings in stroke therapy.

Decentralized dynamics for finite opinion games

Game theory studies situations in which strategic players can modify the state of a given system, in the absence of a central authority. Solution concepts, such as Nash equilibrium, have been defined in order to predict the outcome of such situations. In multi-player settings, it has been pointed out that to be realistic, a solution concept should be obtainable via processes that are decentralized and reasonably simple. Accordingly we look at the computation of solution concepts by means of decentralized dynamics. These are algorithms in which players move in turns to decrease their own cost and the hope is that the system reaches an “equilibrium” quickly.We study these dynamics for the class of opinion games, recently introduced by Bindel et al. [10]. These are games, important in economics and sociology, that model the formation of an opinion in a social network. We study best-response dynamics and show upper and lower bounds on the convergence to Nash equilibria. We also study a noisy version of best-response dynamics, called logit dynamics, and prove a host of results about its convergence rate as the noise in the system varies. To get these results, we use a variety of techniques developed to bound the mixing time of Markov chains, including coupling, spectral characterizations and bottleneck ratio.

Who but not where: The effect of social play on immersion in digital games

The majority of digital games available today offer a variety of multi-player settings including co-located and mediated play between opponents. Immersion, the sense of being “in the game,” is one of the key components of the gaming experience but existing literature suggests that social play provides more fun but less immersion. There is however little empirical support for this. This paper therefore addresses the question: how does playing digital games in a social situation alter the sense of immersion felt by the individuals playing? This paper presents three experiments that test the relationship between social setting and immersion. The three experiments aim to manipulate the social setting in which players play, be it against a computer, against a person online or against a co-located person. Overall the three experiments show that players are more immersed when playing against another person rather than playing against a computer but there is no significant difference in immersion whether the other person is online or in the same room. This refutes previous claims about social play reducing immersion and indeed that social play enhances the sense of being in the game where interaction is through the game.

Effects of Multiplayer Videogame Contexts on Individuals’ Recall of In-Game Advertisements

Research on the effects of in-game advertising has grown steadily during the twenty-first century. However, most studies have investigated only single-player contexts and have not taken into account the elements of multiplayer settings that are common to many gaming environments. Therefore, the current experimental investigation examined the impact of multiplayer contexts on the effectiveness of in-game advertising. Results indicate that playing with a partner versus playing alone enhanced players’ recall of ads, but the mere presence of a partner was not sufficient in explaining the difference: partner disposition had an impact such that playing with a friendly partner generally elicited the greatest response. Further, attitude toward one's partner mediated the effects of playing mode on ad recall. Practical implications regarding multiplayer game settings are discussed.