Popular Video Game Research Articles

Getting Under Your Skin(s): A Legal-Ethical Exploration of Fortnite’s Transformation Into a Content Delivery Platform and Its Manipulative Potential

This paper investigates the ethical and legal implications of increasingly manipulative practices in the gaming industry by looking at one of the currently most popular and profitable video games in the world. Fortnite has morphed from an online game into a quasi-social network and an important cultural reference point in the lifeworld of many (young) people. The game is also emblematic of the freemium business model, with strong incentives to design the game in a manner which maximizes microtransactions. This article suggests that to properly understand Fortnite’s practices – which we predict will become more widely adopted in the video game industry in the near future – we need an additional perspective. Fortnite is not only designed for hyper-engagement; its search for continued growth and sustained relevance is driving its transformation from being a mere video game into a content delivery platform. This means that third parties can offer non game-related services to players within Fortnite’s immersive game experience. In this paper, we draw on an ethical theory of manipulation (which defines manipulation as an ethically problematic influence on a person’s behavior) to explore whether the gaming experience offered by Fortnite harbors manipulative potential. To legally address the manipulative potential of commercial video game practices such as the ones found in Fortnite, we turn to European data protection and consumer protection law. More specifically, we explore how the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation and Unfair Commercial Practices Directive can provide regulators with tools to address Fortnite’s manipulative potential and to make Fortnite (more) forthright.

Bringing Joy to School: Engaging K–16 Learners through Maker Literacies and Playshops

BackgroundFor too many youths, school has become a place for students to withstand and kill time until they can leave and learn about things that matter to them. Instead, schools should be inviting and exciting places to learn but also nurturing spaces where all students feel they belong. Drawing upon expanded definition of literacies that include play and making, this study examines how the maker literacies—media production where multimodal, digital, and artifact-based literacies converge—creates opportunities for youth to critically engage their favorite toys and media in school. While the preponderance of research on media literacy has focused on critical consumption of multimedia, research on play-based literacies has focused largely on early childhood (K–2) spaces. This article examines student engagement in the intersection of critical media production and play-based literacies for older youth, specifically play, toymaking, and filmmaking in classroom makerspaces.PurposeThe goal of the ongoing Literacy Playshop studies is to explore the meaning-making and participation that youth experience through production-oriented maker literacies (e.g., toy(re)making, filmmaking) in P–12 settings. Maker literacies enable students to critically respond to pervasive stereotypes in popular media by producing their own films by “toyhacking” or remaking physical features of toys that also enable revised character identities and alternative storylines. The research within this article aimed to understand how preservice and in-service teachers approach play-based media production as a participatory literacy for students in classroom makerspaces.Research DesignUsing mediated discourse analysis, toy remaking and filmmaking is examined to unpack the tangles of meanings, bodies, and toys in the action texts and imaginary contexts of play. Researchers looked across three sites, including a third-grade classroom, a literacy methods course for preservice elementary teachers, and a methods course for secondary English/Language Arts preservice teachers, all of which implemented a curricular framework for play-based makerspaces. Using ethnographic methods, multimodal video analysis, and mediated discourse analysis, researchers compared critical media literacy strategies in these three sites. Data sources included: video data of students’ toyhacking, hacked toys, student-created films centering toys, researcher fieldnotes, written reflections of preservice teachers, and interviews with the in-service teacher.FindingsFindings suggest student engagement was significantly increased through the collaborative digital film process, which often gave preservice and inservice teachers the chance to expand their conception of literacy. Teaching children and preservice teachers to engage in play-based literacies allowed participants to more actively participate in their own education, assisting them in creating their own media, responding critically, productively, and multimodally to a world filled with popular animated films, television, video games, and digital media texts.ConclusionsOverall, findings align with calls to reconceptualize and update literacy curricula across K–12 and teacher education programs to center student meaning-making, agency, and critical response. More research is needed to understand the intersections of participatory literacies, mass media, critical literacy, and social justice.

Getting under your skin(s): a legal-ethical exploration of Fortnite's transformation into a content delivery platform and its manipulative potential

This article investigates the ethical and legal implications of increasingly manipulative practices in the gaming industry by looking at one of the currently most popular and profitable video games in the world. Fortnite has morphed from an online game into a quasi-social network and an important cultural reference point in the lifeworld of many (young) people. The game is also emblematic of the freemium business model, with strong incentives to design the game in a manner which maximizes microtransactions. This article suggests that to properly understand Fortnite's practices – which we predict will become more widely adopted in the video game industry in the near future – we need an additional perspective. Fortnite is not only designed for hyper-engagement; its search for continued growth and sustained relevance is driving its transformation from being a mere video game into a content delivery platform. This means that third parties can offer non game-related services to players within Fortnite's immersive game experience. In this paper, we draw on an ethical theory of manipulation (which defines manipulation as an ethically problematic influence on a person's behaviour) to explore whether the gaming experience offered by Fortnite harbours manipulative potential. To legally address the manipulative potential of commercial video game practices such as the ones found in Fortnite, we turn to European data protection and consumer protection law. More specifically, we explore how the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation and Unfair Commercial Practices Directive can provide regulators with tools to address Fortnite's manipulative potential and to make Fortnite (more) forthright.

Running scared: Fear and space in Amnesia: The Dark Descent

Popular horror video game titles such as Outlast, Dead Space, and Amnesia: The Dark Descent are well-known for their effectiveness at evoking negative affects of terror and anxiety. The various camera tricks, control schemes, and visual cues these games deploy to confuse players and limit their sense of control and personal mastery. This article examines how Frictional Games’s Amnesia: The Dark Descent pairs confined spatial layouts with an intentionally vague user interface design to disorient players and heighten the likelihood that they will walk into one of the game’s threatening monsters. This article deploys Marxist and Affect theory conceptualizations of proximity and space to analyse how the game’s use of corners frighten players by narrowing their available field of view. The resulting analysis examines the negative feelings and subjective experiences players are likely to feel when they are unable to properly see the virtual diegetic world with absolute clarity.

Damsels and darlings: decoding gender equality in video game communities

ABSTRACT Gender stereotypes are a known issue in video games, where female characters are often hyper-sexualized and relegated to disempowering roles. Numerous quantitative studies paint a grim picture of video game communities as hyper-masculine spaces complicit in reproducing harmful gender ideologies. Missing from the literature are qualitative inquiries of the meaning gamers assign to their engagement with a medium that is known for underrepresenting and objectifying women. This study uses qualitative textual content analysis of an influential, popular Internet video game forum—the largest of its kind—where gamers respond to questions posed by members about gender in video games. My findings show that gamers centralize the role of sexual agency and sexual empowerment to construct multiple, nuanced discourses for understanding gender stereotypes in games. These discourses mirror broader feminist debates about the achievability of sexual empowerment within hyper-sexualized cultural contexts. As video games grow in popularity, their ability to generate meaning among increasingly diverse audiences requires continued investigation. By engaging with gamers as they make sense of gender representation in games, researchers can glean insight into the many ways gamers envision change within the video game industry.

What Do Players Learn from Videogames?

Using social media posts on sites such as Reddit and You Tube, I analyze how players think about the history embedded in Civilization, an immensely popular computer game. I find that most players are males who started playing the game as children or adolescents. Most posters express little interest in history, but those that do often credit Civilization with sparking a lifelong passion for history. These players develop what I call an “immersive critique.” They enjoy playing the game even as they readily articulate its flaws.

Online multiplayer games as virtual laboratories for collecting data on social-ecological decision making.

Article impact statement: Online games can improve the collection of data on human decision-making in situations relevant to conservation and stakeholder trade-offs. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

Construction and validation of a game-based intelligence assessment in minecraft

Video games are a promising tool for the psychometric assessment of cognitive abilities. They can present novel task types and answer formats, they can record process data, and they can be highly motivating for test takers. This paper introduces the first game-based intelligence assessment implemented in Minecraft, an exceptionally popular video game with more than 200 m copies sold. A matrix-based pattern completion task (PC), a mental rotation task (MR) and a spatial construction task (SC) were implemented in the three-dimensional, immersive environment of the game. PC was intended as a measure of inductive reasoning, whereas MR and SC were measures of spatial ability. We tested 129 children aged 10–12 years old on the Minecraft-based tests as well as equivalent pen-and-paper tests. All three scales fit the Rasch model and were moderately reliable. Factorial validity was good with regard to the distinction between PC and SC, but no distinct factor was found for MR. Convergent validity was good as abilities measured with Minecraft and conventional tests were highly correlated at the latent level (r = 0.72). Subtest-level correlations were in the moderate range. Furthermore, we found that behavioral log-data collected from the game environment was highly predictive of performance in the Minecraft test and, to a lesser extent, also predicted scores in conventional tests. We identify a number of behavioral features associated with spatial reasoning ability, demonstrating the utility of analyzing granular behavioral data in addition to traditional response formats. Overall, our findings indicate that Minecraft is a suitable platform for game-based intelligence assessment and encourage future work aiming to explore game-based problem solving tasks that would not be feasible on paper or in conventional computer-based tests.

A Broken Mirror Held to History’s Face On the Narrative Use of Computer Screens, Multi Screen Experiences, and a Transmedia Theoretical Console in the Popular Assassin’s Creed Series

This paper presents media theorist Nanna Verhoeff’s concept of the theoretical console, as a popular and overt form of transmedia narrative. The theoretical console is taken to be a transmedia assemblage that draws attention to itself, as comprising diverse and meaningful media objects, that can be connected in a shared narrative. My main examples of this concept here are those popular video games that spatially juxtapose several types of computer screens and computer uses, with a narrative emphasis. With extensive references to theory on screened media and on transmedia narratives, Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag is my main example case study. Specifically, this game and its series peers encourage historiographic contemplations, by assembling a theoretical console across several media forms. Other popular video games from that series provide variations of this same transmedia constellation, this “theoretical console”. In its transmedia constellation, with a second screen mobile phone app, and other complementary screen media, the fictionalized history of Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag implicates elements from its actual reality, across various forms of engagement. Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag presents a high fidelity historical fiction, to be comprehensively enacted. It mirrors the player’s use of differing computer screens diegetically within playable frame story sections. In addition, the complementary affordances of the mobile phone app, and integrated social media websites, all encourage its player to stay involved in this fictional world, even outside immediate play. With this, the game draws many activities into a single transmedial fiction constellation. Moreover, the game diegetically references online repositories for both its fictionalized history, and actual history. This use of computer screens, to form a transmedia constellation in the form of an overt theoretical console, is shown to complement this popular game’s hypermediative narrative of a fictional shadow war secretly driving actual human history, which then meaningfully posits how to theorize history in our everyday lives.

Effects of individual toxic behavior on team performance in League of Legends

ABSTRACT Toxic behavior in online video games is frequent and problematic. Previous research has linked toxic behavior with worsened performance. No study, however, has investigated a causal relationship between toxic behavior and worsened performance, nor investigated potential moderators such as individual motivation. Using 716 players of League of Legends, a popular team-based video game, the effect of toxic behavior on performance and the influence of motivation was assessed. Players were exposed to either a control condition where a confederate behaved neutrally or an experimental condition where a confederate operationally “flamed” participants. Performance statistics were gathered from the NA.OP.GG database. Motivation was self-reported after matches (N = 139). Toxic behavior significantly worsened the multivariate vector of team and individual performance. Motivation influenced baseline individual performance but did not significantly moderate the effect of toxic behavior on individual performance. These results encourage individuals to refrain from engaging in online toxic behavior and provide motivation for gaming communities to take steps to decrease toxic behavior. Future research should take a closer look at the role of individual differences and underlying cognitive processes involved in toxic behavior.

“Role” of the Dice: An Exploratory Analysis of Gamer Perceptions and Interpretations of Loot Box Advertising

Loot boxes in video games are increasingly becoming focal points in problematic gaming studies; however, few studies have addressed the potential impact on consumers of digital advertising for such loot items. As gaming companies evolve the way in which they promote loot boxes, gamers’ sensemaking of loot box promotions must also evolve. This study explores gamer interpretations of promotional messaging among male gamers pertaining to loot boxes within a popular video game (FIFA 19). Findings have significant implications for gaming and persuasion theories. Specifically, we propose a new direction in interactive advertising research grounded in the gamers’ in-game role perception.

Do game transfer phenomena lead to flow? An investigation of in-game and out-game immersion among MOBA gamers

Multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA), the most popular video game genre, has increased in terms of the number of users online. This increase in popularity depicts the in-game immersion in MOBA games, which determines Flow experience. Despite its popularity, there is a dearth of research on the cause of immersion of MOBA games. This study hypothesized that players acquired automatic thoughts, actions, and sensations about the game even when not playing, identified as Game Transfer Phenomena (GTP), causing Flow. Forty-five (45) college students were recruited to play MOBA games for 20 ​h in one week, referred to as immersive gaming in this study. Flow state scale and GTP scale were administered twice before and after immersive gaming. Pretest and posttest comparisons showed no difference in the Flow and GTP. On the other hand, the cross-lagged analysis shows that GTP causes Flow among MOBA gamers. Players with a high level of GTP experience more intensive levels of Flow. The implications of the development of Flow are discussed in the study.

City and Video Games: Moving Towards Each Other

The article is devoted to the problem of the city new imagery, the steady convergence of real architecture and virtual architecture. Although the connection between these phenomena has been the subject of reflection by specialists from various science branches for the past decades, it has not been sufficiently manifested. Another attempt at manifestation is made in this article, within the fundamental problems of art theory and history. Its novelty consists in activating the classical category “image of the city” in the virtual space centre of video games as the most active link between artistic and empirical images of the city. On the example of real architectural objects in the cities of the last quarter of the 20th — 21st centuries and architectural objects, existing only in the popular video games locations of the last generation, the interaction mechanisms of artistic images and their transition into the empirical images sphere with a gradual blurring of the transition boundaries are studied. The contemporary architecture trend is seen as the purposeful programming of sophisticated associative games through the production of images of the city that make you doubt the reality of the world, the difference between authenticity and imaginary. In turn, cities in video games simulate the same dubiously humane worlds, only in addition they can be managed, tested for viability online. The exacerbation of gaming in architecture is seen as a postmodern provocation to critically, ironic deconstruct reality in the fullness of its contradictions, and the videogame set of cities as an ideal platform to work on the deconstruction experience and, perhaps, to reset personal relationships with the world. It shows how the artistry of video games turns into the everyday background of life, changing the perception of the urban environment and the world as a whole.

How humans behave with emerging technologies during the COVID-19 pandemic?

How humans behave with emerging technologies during the COVID-19 pandemic?

Narrative videogame: types of verbal communication

The present investigation is dedicated to studying different types of communication represented in videogames. The topicality of this research follows from the urgency of all lingual papers in the field of digital studies, on the one hand, and is stressed by the necessity to determine the role of verbal elements in computer games. The work is based on The Talos Principle, one of the most popular videogames of all times (as claimed by a wide number of ratings). The main objective of the paper is to single out the peculiarities of different communication types in the game studied. Thus, it presupposes setting the following tasks: considering the specific features of videogames as a type of human activity, contrasting them with films and literature, analysing the type and the idea of The Talos Principle game, distinguishing its genre and revealing the types of communication presented in it, together with their frequency and their importance for game-playing and its ludonarrative. The script of the game analysed counts over 14 thousand words, the game lasts about 5 hours. Having worked out a new taxonomy of videogames, the author argues that The Talos Principle belongs to narrative games, i.e. those telling a story, and classifies it as a game of mixed type from the point of view of its interactivity. The game story depends on the protagonist’s physical movements and activities, though they only help realise the goal of the game and solve puzzles. As any other game, The Talos Principle offers a gamer a new existence in a world built up by both verbal and non-verbal elements. A conclusion is made as to the equal shares by them and following from the nature of narrative videogames in general. Verbal elements in the game are represented by mono- and dialogical speech excerpts, letters and QR-codes. Non-verbal elements fall into sounds (soundtracks and sound imitation) and images; within the latter dynamic and static elements are singled out. The carried out investigation allows making a conclusion about information significance as a factor influencing the frequency of a certain type of message. Hence, as it is from the archives letters that the gamer gets the most important information for the game progress, this type of ranks first (23%) amongst other types of verbal communication.

Can we teach children geology using one of the world's most popular video games?

Can we teach children geology using one of the world's most popular video games?

“You Are a True Progressive”:Red Dead Redemption 2and the Depiction and Reception of Progressive Era Politics

AbstractSince its release in October 2018,Red Dead Redemption 2has generated considerable controversy.Redemption 2, Rockstar Games’ highly popular video game set in a sprawling open world that resembles America’s southern and western states at the turn of the twentieth century, has attracted criticism from players who have disliked the perceived political messages the game presents. With numerous interactions with people of color, Native Americans, and feminist (suffragette) characters, the game prompts players to engage with the ongoing effects of colonialism, sexism, and racism, as well as the rising problems of an industrial and financial capitalist society. As such, the game’s depiction of Gilded Age and Progressive Era politics has resulted in a large amount of online criticism from a group of traditionally white, male, right-wing players. This article argues thatRedemption 2utilizes the Progressive Era as a vehicle to capture and speak to the current political climate, and that it is the game’s dual relationship with the past and the present that has aroused animosity from part of the game’s audience. Ultimately, it demonstrates how contemporary mainstream progressive politics can be interpreted within and projected upon the politics of the Progressive Era.

Motivating Learning by Playing Animal Crossing New Horizons: A trending game during the COVID-19 pandemic

The immersive and engaging nature of video games has been a promising and effective environment for learning. This study first introduces a motivational learning framework for game-based learning, then takes a recent popular video game, Animal Crossing New Horizons, as an example to further discuss the application of the motivational learning framework. It is expected that more features will be developed in the future in this game to bring more educational benefits for its players.

COMPARISON OF DURATION PLAYING DEFENSE OF THE ANCIENTS-2 VIDEO GAME WITH REACTION TIME

Background: DotA-2 is the most popular MOBA video game, which ranks the second most sold on the steam platform. Reaction time as a physiological parameter to find out how quickly to respond to a stimulus. Some research states that video games can increase reaction time. Objective: To know the correlation of playing video game Defense of the Ancients-2 with the duration of reaction time. Method: The study used cross-sectional design. This study was conducted in the area of the Faculty of Medicine, Diponegoro University. In this study found 42 respondents participated. Score of reaction time is measured using a ruler dropped from the respondent's fingertips. Analysis using Shapiro-Wilk test and Pearson test. Results: There is significant relationship between playing a DotA-2 status and reaction time. The duration of playing DotA-2 video games to the reaction time there were significant differences between the 3 groups. Conclusion: There is a significant relationship between the status of playing video game DotA-2 with reaction time.

Tobacco Imagery in the 20 Best-Selling Video Games of 2018.

Video games are played by the majority of American adolescents. A small body of research has shown that video games expose users to tobacco imagery, potentially influencing subsequent smoking behavior. We examine the presence, type, and quantity of tobacco imagery in recent popular video games. After identifying 20 best-selling US video games of 2018 and selecting each YouTube video of all cut scenes and bridging game play, we coded each video for the presence of five types of tobacco imagery. We also recorded the length of time tobacco content was visible during the video. Seven of the top 20 video games contained tobacco imagery, which comprised between 7 seconds and 38 minutes of game play. All five types of tobacco imagery were accounted for: visible tobacco paraphernalia, tobacco products used to further game play, background characters using tobacco products, and main characters (playable and nonplayble) using tobacco products. Visible tobacco paraphernalia was the most common type of tobacco imagery and included both real and fictionalized tobacco brands that sometimes drew on real cigarette brand imagery. Three games allowed players to control tobacco-using characters. Popular video games continue to expose players to tobacco imagery. Because video games are played repeatedly, the potential exists for adolescents to experience even more tobacco imagery than the baseline exposure established here, further increasing the potential for harm. Existing voluntary and regulatory approaches to policing tobacco content are inadequate; thus, policymakers should consider further interventions to minimize tobacco content in video games. Video games, popular among youth and young adults, are known to contain tobacco imagery. Less is known about the quantity and type of this imagery among recent popular games. We found that 7 of the 20 best-selling video games of 2018 in the United States contained a variety of tobacco imagery and exposed players to as much as 38 minutes of tobacco content. Given the established link between exposure to tobacco marketing in media such as films and subsequent smoking behavior, policies to minimize tobacco imagery in video games that exceed the scant protections offered by the Master Settlement Agreement could help reduce smoking prevalence among youth.