Types Of Players Research Articles

Approaches to illuminate content-specific gameplay decisions using open-ended game data

Games can be rich environments for learning and can elicit evidence of students’ conceptual understanding and inquiry processes. Illuminating students’ content-specific gameplay decisions, or methods of completing game tasks related to a certain domain, requires a context that is open-ended enough for students to make choices that demonstrate their thinking. Doing this also requires rich log data and methods of Game Learning Analytics (GLA) that are granular enough to look at the specific choices most relevant to that context and domain. This paper presents research done on student exploration of high school level Mendelian genetics in a multiplayer online game called The Radix Endeavor. The study uses three approaches to identify content-specific gameplay decisions and distinguish players utilizing different methods, looking at actions and tool use, play patterns and player types, and tool input patterns. In the context of the selected game quest, the three approaches were found to yield insights into different ways that students complete tasks in genetics, suggesting the potential for a set of more generalized guiding questions in the GLA field that could be adopted by learning games designers and data scientists to convey information about content-specific gameplay decisions in learning games.

How to Develop Collaboration in Drug Development Process: The Role of Professional Service Firms

The innovation chain of the pharmaceutical industry is more and more complex.  In particular, a new type of players, the start-ups founded by researchers (Academic Start-ups) have proven to be particularly effective in the first steps of exploring new, radically innovative technologies. These small start-ups miss the financial resources and the industrial experience necessary to embark in the later stage of technologies’ development. To overcome these limits, what academic start-ups require the most is a collaborative linkage with large biotech and pharma companies. To such end, Business Development Professionals are offering their services to academic start-ups, to set up a collaborative linkage with potential partners. Our article investigates the process of engagement between Academic Start-ups and Business Development Professionals and in particular, we focus on the factors that influence collaboration between the two actors. In order to investigate the development process of collaboration we conducted an exploratory study trough the submission of a semi-structured questionnaire covering different aspects of the engagement process to a sample of business professionals. The study provide first evidences about the main factors that prevent the development of collaborations and provides some suggestions to overcome the challenges that both parts found in the collaboration process.

GARP transcription factors repress Arabidopsis nitrogen starvation response via ROS-dependent and -independent pathways.

Plants need to cope with strong variations of nitrogen availability in the soil. Although many molecular players are being discovered concerning how plants perceive NO3- provision, it is less clear how plants recognize a lack of nitrogen. Following nitrogen removal, plants activate their nitrogen starvation response (NSR), which is characterized by the activation of very high-affinity nitrate transport systems (NRT2.4 and NRT2.5) and other sentinel genes involved in N remobilization such as GDH3. Using a combination of functional genomics via transcription factor perturbation and molecular physiology studies, we show that the transcription factors belonging to the HHO subfamily are important regulators of NSR through two potential mechanisms. First, HHOs directly repress the high-affinity nitrate transporters, NRT2.4 and NRT2.5. hho mutants display increased high-affinity nitrate transport activity, opening up promising perspectives for biotechnological applications. Second, we show that reactive oxygen species (ROS) are important to control NSR in wild-type plants and that HRS1 and HHO1 overexpressors and mutants are affected in their ROS content, defining a potential feed-forward branch of the signaling pathway. Taken together, our results define the relationships of two types of molecular players controlling the NSR, namely ROS and the HHO transcription factors. This work (i) up opens perspectives on a poorly understood nutrient-related signaling pathway and (ii) defines targets for molecular breeding of plants with enhanced NO3- uptake.

The Moderating Role of Coping Mechanisms and Being an e-Sport Player Between Psychiatric Symptoms and Gaming Disorder: Online Survey.

BackgroundThe emerging popularity of playing video games (gaming) as a hobby and as a professional sport raises awareness about both the benefits and possible downsides of the activity. Although a healthy and passionate hobby for most, a minority of gamers experience addiction-like symptoms and are considered to have gaming disorder (GD). GD has previously been found to be related to aversive conditions, such as depression or anxiety, as well as putatively maladaptive coping strategies.ObjectiveThe aim of this study is twofold: to explore the moderating effect of different coping strategies and type of video game usage (professional [e-sport] or recreational) on the relationship between psychiatric symptoms and GD.MethodsA sample of 3476 gamers (n=3133, 90.13% males; mean age 23.20, SD 6.48 years) was recruited via the website and social networking site of the most popular gaming magazine in Hungary (GameStar).ResultsThe main effect of psychiatric symptoms was moderate to large in all models, whereas the moderation effects were significant (P<.001) for 4 out of 8 coping strategies (ie, self-blame/self-distraction, denial, emotional/social support, and active coping). However, the explained variance of the models only increased negligibly (from 0.3% to 0.5%) owing to the moderation effect. The direction of the moderations was as expected (ie, putatively maladaptive strategies were associated with more GD symptoms when the level of psychiatric symptoms was high, while putatively adaptive strategies were associated with less). Furthermore, no considerable moderation effect of the player type (recreational vs professional players) was found on the association between psychiatric symptoms and GD (β=.04; P=.02; 0.1% change in the explained variance).ConclusionsFuture studies should be designed to better understand coping-related mechanisms in the context of video gaming and GD.

Mechanisms of identification and social differentiation in player–avatar relations

The connection between player and avatar is central to digital gaming, with identification assumed to be core to this connection. Often, scholarship engages single dimensions of identification, yet emerging perspectives reveal that identification is polythetic (PID) – comprising at least six sufficient (but not necessary) mechanisms. The current study investigates the intersections of polythetic identification mechanisms and two different approaches to player–avatar sociality (as a marker of differentiation): general types of player–avatar relationships (PARs) and discrete dimensions of player–avatar interaction (PAX). Secondary analysis of an existing dataset of gamers revealed two main findings: (1) players reported overall diminished identification when they engaged in non-social relations with their avatar, and (2) increased liking and perspective-taking were most likely with human-like social relations, which require differentiation from rather than identification as the avatar. These findings are interpreted to suggest that player–avatar identification and differentiation are conceptually independent relational phenomena that are experientially convergent – some relational orientations and dynamics are associated with distinct combinations of identification mechanisms.

A Conceptual Framework for Integrating Gamification in eLearning Systems Based on Instructional Design Model

The current paper aims to introduce a proposed framework for gamification in the e-learning system at Saudi Arabia universities, by reviewing and analyzing the concept of gamification and its components, and types of players, as well as conditions for designing successful gamification, and the technical capabilities of Saudi Arabia universities, and also by reviewing and analyzing many designing models for gamification and e-learning systems that were introduced by the other researchers. Then incorporate all of these previous considerations into the general stages of instructional design, which is represented in analysis, design, development, implementation, and evaluation. The paper also deals with a review of the difference between gamification, games, and game-based learning, in addition to the benefits for students from employing gamification in the e-learning system.

Physical Demands and Internal Response in Football Sessions According to Tactical Periodization.

The objectives of the present study were (1)to analyze the internal and external load profile of training and competition carried out by semiprofessional football players during a 27-week period and (2)to examine the possible link between this type of periodization and players' fitness status and their readiness to compete. Training and match data were obtained from 26 semiprofessional football players belonging to the reserve squad of a Spanish La Liga club during the 2018/19 season. For the purpose of this study, the distribution of external and internal load during a typical training microcycle, with 6 or 7 days between matches, was analyzed. Five types of sessions were considered: strength, duration, velocity, preofficial match, and official match. The results showed a different internal and external load profile for each type of session, with the load being consistently higher during matches when compared with training sessions (28.9%-94% higher), showing significant differences in all the variables. There was a clear tapering strategy in the last days of the week to arrive with enough freshness to compete, shown by the decrease of the values in the 2 days before the match (15%-83% reduction, depending on the variable). Furthermore, the horizontal alternation of the load allowed the players to maintain their fitness level during the 27-week period. Our findings suggest that this weekly periodization approach could help achieve a double conditional target, allowing a short tapering strategy to face the match with enough freshness and serving as a strategy for maintaining or optimizing players' physical performance during the season.

Beyond ‘is it true?’: the ‘playframe’ in historical fiction

ABSTRACT Historical fiction is frequently judged solely on its historical accuracy, often leading authors of the genre to internalise this expectation and pre-emptively defend themselves with ‘author’s notes’. This narrow emphasis on accuracy leaves unexamined the importance of the fictional element the author has chosen to include. In this paper, I propose approaching historical fiction as a playful exploration set within the frame of the historical record, thus creating a ‘playframe’ which acknowledges the importance of both elements. This paper showcases three author player types: the Ventriloquist, the Mosaic-Maker and the Magician.

Design and development of a novel type of table tennis aerial robot player with tilting propellers

Table tennis has long fascinated roboticists as a particularly difficult task which requires fast movements, accurate control and adaptation to task parameters. In addition, the development of such devices is useful for educating the undergraduate students. Up to now, several groups have developed robotic manipulators playing table tennis and other commercial interactive robots. Moreover, drones are booming right now, and they can cover a larger workspace than manipulators, for a lower device volume and at a lower price. In this context, this paper aims to propose a drone playing table tennis to analyze the benefits and the disadvantages for this task. Most vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) vehicles are not fast enough to reproduce hitting motions. The proposed prototype is an innovative quadrotor combining a tilting propeller and a state-dependent iterative linear quadratic control (iLQR). The performance of the proposed solution is evaluated with real experiments that show the success of the approach, reaching hitting rates of 40%.

Signaling in the ‘Before’ Model of Final Offer Arbitration

We develop a signaling model of final offer arbitration (FOA) in which the informed party makes the final settlement demand to the uninformed party. In FOA, each party submits a proposal to an arbitrator and if no agreement is reached, the arbitrator must select one of the two submitted proposals. We analyze a “before” model of FOA in which all settlement activity occurs prior to the exchange of proposals. We characterize the pure strategy separating, equilibrium associated with this game. Relative to a model of conventional arbitration (CA), the pure strategy separating equilibrium is associated with a higher dispute rate because weak player types have an enhanced incentive to bluff in this setting. This result continues to hold in semi-pooling equilibria. Thus our model is consistent with a higher dispute rate in FOA compared to CA. Results on the incentive to engage in costly voluntary disclosure are mixed across the two models. In contrast with CA, costly discovery can occur in this model of FOA. The analysis of out of equilibrium beliefs and actions is considerably more complex than in the standard litigation model.

A model of signed network formation with heterogeneous players

This paper proposes a model of formation of signed networks that comprise both positive (friendly/cooperative) and negative (antagonistic) social ties between players who differ intrinsically in strength. Friendships/alliances serve to increase one’s power over their intrinsic strength; in the determination of power it matters not how many allies one has, but who these allies are. The model proposed here is suited to any context where players derive power from friendships/alliances with stronger players and payoffs are extracted from less powerful enemies. The structure of ties across various types of players is studied in Nash equilibria along with a characterization of Nash equilibria under various parametric conditions.

A Typology of Esport Players

In recent years, esports have grown from a small number of local gaming activities undertaken by a few recreational participants to a multi-billion dollar industry with professional leagues, franchises, teams and players. While the industry has grown, our collective understanding of some of the most fundamental questions such as who plays esports and why, have received scant attention from academics. In an effort to further understand, profile and categorize players, the purpose of this research is to create a typology of esports players and to cross-validate previous research findings. Using hierarchical and k-clustering techniques, six psychographic factors (socialization, positive affect, competition, fantasy/escape, coping, pass/waste time) and additional demographic and behavioral characteristics are used to create a typology of esports players. Based on a large, diverse and international sample of respondents (n = 1165), five types of players, including (1) Competitive, (2) Casual, (3) Casual-Social, (4) Casual-Fun, and (5) Casual-Competitive esports players, are identified. In-depth examination and discussion of the five types of players are provided. The implications of this research suggest the importance of considering demographic, psychographic and behavioral characteristics when attempting to identify, understand and classify different types of esports players.

All-pay auctions with private signals about opponents’ values

We study all-pay auctions where each player observes her private value as well as a noisy private signal about the opponent’s value, following Fang and Morris’s (J Econ Theory 126(1):1–30, 2006) analysis of winner-pay auctions with multidimensional private signals. A unique symmetric monotonic equilibrium exists if the signal is not informative enough. When the signal is sufficiently informative, there exists a symmetric non-monotonic equilibrium in which all types of players randomize in overlapping supports. The revenue is lower than that in the standard independent private value setting. Fixing the signal’s informativeness, the all-pay auction raises lower revenue than the second-price auction, whereas the revenue ranking between the all-pay and the first-price auction is ambiguous.

Trust and betrayals: Reputational payoffs and behaviors without commitment

I study a repeated game in which a patient player wants to win the trust of some myopic opponents, but can strictly benefit from betraying them. His benefit from betrayal is strictly positive and is his persistent private information. I characterize every type of patient player's highest equilibrium payoff and construct equilibria that attain this payoff. Since the patient player's Stackelberg action is mixed and motivating the lowest‐benefit type to play mixed actions is costly, every type's highest equilibrium payoff is strictly lower than his Stackelberg payoff. In every equilibrium where the patient player approximately attains his highest equilibrium payoff, no type of the patient player plays stationary strategies or completely mixed strategies.

Phase Transitions in Kyle's Model with Market Maker Profit Incentives

We consider a stochastic game between three types of players: an inside trader, noise traders and a market maker. In a similar fashion to Kyle's model, we assume that the insider first chooses the size of her market-order and then the market maker determines the price by observing the total order-flow resulting from the insider and the noise traders transactions. In addition to the classical framework, a revenue term is added to the market maker's performance function, which is proportional to the order flow and to the size of the bid-ask spread. We derive the maximizer for the insider's revenue function and prove sufficient conditions for an equilibrium in the game. Then, we use neural networks methods to verify that this equilibrium holds. We show that the equilibrium state in this model experience interesting phase transitions, as the weight of the revenue term in the market maker's performance function changes. Specifically, the asset price in equilibrium experience three different phases: a linear pricing rule without a spread, a pricing rule that includes a linear mid-price and a bid-ask spread, and a metastable state with a zero mid-price and a large spread.

Evolutionary Random Access Game With Objective and Subjective Players

We consider an evolutionary game on a graph under the condition that players perception of uncertainty and decision making can follow either an objective expected utility theory (EUT) model or a subjective prospect theory (PT) model. Each player chooses one of two strategies with probabilities $x$ and $1-x$ , where the subjective players bias their choices of the probabilities to be $w(x)$ and $w(1-x)$ to reflect the probability weighting effect of PT. We derive the conditions to achieve a locally asymptotically stable Nash equilibrium (NE) and the necessary conditions to achieve an evolutionary stable strategy (ESS). We illustrate these results through a simple random access channel game. We find that players’ behavior is affected by the total number of players as well as the number of each type of players (objective or subjective). We show that increasing the number of interacting players induces an aggressive transmission strategy and the behavior becomes similar for both types of players. Moreover, we let the objective and subjective players adjust their transmission under throughput rewards, delay penalties, and energy costs. The EUT players’ throughput is higher than the PT players’ throughput for a small number of interacting players and equal to if the number of interacting players increases.

Demand monotonicity of a pavement cost function used to determine Aumann-Shapley values in highway cost allocation

Pavement thickness and traffic lanes are two essential requirements affecting the cost of a highway design project. The traffic loadings on a pavement are typically measured in 18-kip equivalent single axle loads (ESALs). In this paper, both ESALs and lanes are treated as two types of players and a pavement cost function is developed to determine the average marginal cost for each type of players. These averages are known as the Aumann-Shapley (A-S) values and are used to allocate the highway cost among all vehicle classes. The proposed pavement cost function is proved to be monotonically increasing as the traffic loadings (ESALs) are increased, a necessary condition for the function to be acceptable for computing Aumann-Shapley values. A severe limitation of the procedure to calculate marginal costs for the traffic-loading players is the extremely large number of permutations since the number of players is enormously high. To overcome this limitation, this article derives a compact form for the discrete A-S values of ESALs and lanes that allows the Aummann-Shapely values to be calculated in a computationally effective manner.

Implementation and Analytics of the Distributed Eco-Driving Simulation iCO2

We describe iCO2, a simulation platform for collecting driving behavior data. It is designed as the first massively multiplayer online game for mobile devices to practice eco-friendly driving. It facilitates the collection of large-scale data on driving behavior to better understand compliance and incentive mechanisms for eco-driving and users' preferences. We present the results of a campaign with iCO2 that used a game promoter to attract 2455 users. The results are described from three angles: (1) types of drivers are identified by clustering driving behavior; (2) types of players are identified by relating players' interaction with game elements and their driving behavior; (3) by looking at longer sessions, we demonstrate that players who show eco-unfriendly behavior at the beginning of the session improve their eco-driving behavior throughout their playtime.

Gamification as the human resources management tool

There is a huge number of different methods created to increase employee motivation, while they are constantly being improved and new ones appear. The manager must not only choose the right one, but also be able to implement it. One of the methods is gamification. The basics of HR management processes using this method are just beginning to form, so it is necessary to develop mechanisms for implementing gamification in the organization. Based on the research, the main provisions aimed at including elements of gamification in the company and recommendations for their implementation are formulated. The purpose of the article is to study gamification in the organization’s personnel management in detail and to formulate practical recommendations for its application. The research used methods of the theoretical level, such as: study and generalization, analysis and synthesis, deduction and induction, as well as the study of literature, the regulatory framework and other sources of information. On the basis of the study, the types of games and players, the main provisions aimed at including elements of gamification in the company, as well as recommendations for their implementation to improve the organization’s activities are formulated.

The quasi-sorting equilibrium and incentive effects in parallel contests with multiple types of players

The quasi-sorting equilibrium and incentive effects in parallel contests with multiple types of players