Popular Video Game Research Articles

Efficient Exploration in Side-Scrolling Video Games with Trajectory Replay

Deep Reinforcement learning agent has outperformed human players in many games, such as the Atari 2600 games. In more complicated games, previous related works proposed a curiosity-driven exploration for learning. Nevertheless, it generally requires substantial computational resources to train the agent. We attempt to design a method to assist with our agent to explore the environment. By utilizing prior learned experience more effectively, we develop a new memory replay mechanism, which consists of two modules: Trajectory Replay Module to record the agent moving trajectory information with much less space, and the Trajectory Optimization Module to formulate the state information as a reward. We evaluate our approach with two popular side-scrolling video games: Super Mario Bros and Sonic the Hedgehog. The experiment results show that our method can help the agent explore the environment efficiently, pass through various tough scenarios and successfully reach the goal in most of the testing game levels with merely four workers and of ordinary CPU computational resources for training. The demo videos are at Super Mario Bros and Sonic the Hedgehog.

Assessing the User Experience of Video Games: Relationships Between Three Scales

With so many video games being released, there is strong competition among developers to create the most successful games. Questionnaires are one tool that can be used to measure aspects of a video game like perceived flow, presence, engagement, and controls. The current study investigated the relationship between several user experience scales and their subscales: UEQ-S, GUESS-24, and the ENJOY for six popular video games. Participants were recruited through Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk) and a university online research pool. Scale reliability analysis was conducted to ensure for internal consistency of the scales with Cronbach’s α. The relationships between the scales and subscales were analyzed using Pearson’s product correlations. Overall, the analysis showed a number of significant correlations between the UEQ-S, GUESS-24, and ENJOY. Evidence of uniqueness with each scale was also shown. Recommendations on which scale to use are discussed.

Gaming on Romance

The intricacies of romantic relationships in popular video games.

Articulating Alternatives: Moving Past a Plug-and-Play Prosthetic Media Model

Articulating Alternatives: Moving Past a Plug-and-Play Prosthetic Media Model

Learning-by-Doing and Preference Discovery in Video Game Play

In this paper we investigate how players learn about their preferences for different modes of play and how this influences their engagement in a popular franchise video game. An important aspect of players' session-level data from a specific generation of the game is that they budget their game time between competitive and non-competitive modes of play. Player behavior over time is consistent with learning and initial competition aversion; shares of time spent in competitive modes tend to drop upon adoption of a new game generation and then rise with time played. To study how the firm can increase player engagement, and to understand preferences for competitive and non-competitive play, we formulate and estimate a structural model that nests Bayesian learning within a multiple-discrete continuous framework. This allows us to explain behavior along the extensive (whether to play a mode) and intensive (how long to play that mode) margins for the multiple modes of play. With this model, we find that users can, broadly speaking, be categorized as high types (hardcores) who tend to be competition-seeking and are more naturally engaged; and low types (casuals) who are more likely to be competition-averse and who drop out before learning their true preferences for the modes. We consider actions the firm can undertake to improve consumer engagement--in particular, we perform counterfactual analysis on advertising and console switching (by bundling the game with a new console) policies. We find that low types tend to be more responsive to both policies and primarily respond by increasing usage along the extensive margin. Console switching has a significant positive effect on total play, but causes players to substitute away from competitive levels. This is consistent with the learning framework, where players pay a skill or familiarity cost when switching consoles. Finally, we discuss the value of engagement to the firm, both qualitatively and with respect to future purchasing (adoption of a new version).

America’s Digital Messiah(s) of Detroit: Become Human (2018)

The article explores the relation between implicit biblical patterns existing in American popular culture and video games. In analyzing a blockbuster video game, Detroit: Become Human developed by Quantic Dream studio in 2018, the text establishes three examples of the representation of a new model of messiahs/prophets in the digital context. The entire narrative revolves around undermining binary oppositions, as between religion and technology, mass culture and high culture, and Christ/Antichrist. To account for this fluidity, the major concept employed to discuss particular aspects of the games’ characters is Beebee’s definition of hybrid-messiahs.

Using Minecraft to engage children with science at public events

Engagement with science and scientific skills is an important aspect of children's ability to navigate the world around them, but engagement with science is low in comparison with other subjects. The Lancaster University outreach project Science Hunters takes a novel approach to engaging children with environmental science research through a constructivist pedagogical approach using the popular computer game Minecraft. While Minecraft is extensively used in formal education settings, few data are available on its use in public engagement with scientific research, and the relationship between children's and adults' attitudes to science and computer games are complex. Through motivational surveys conducted as part of the project evaluation, we analysed feedback from participants who attended sessions as part of a programme at public events, to explore the basic demographics of children attending our events, and whether it is the prospect of learning about science, or the opportunity to play Minecraft that leads them to choose our activity. We also present evaluation of general feedback from participants at public events over four years to give a broader view of participants' response to the activities.

Watching is the new reading: Comparing the outcomes of popular books, TV shows, and video games

This study investigated three narrative media — books, video games, and television — and compared popular examples of them, as they represent narrative content in which the user now has the ability to control the pace of the narrative. Outcomes associated with narrative consumption were compared across these media, and the personality trait transportability was also included in the analysis. Results indicated that whereas books and TV represented similar narrative experiences, video games provided less opportunity for transportation into a narrative, appreciation, lasting impression, and suspense. Implications for transportation theory and narrative consumption are discussed.

Improving RTS Game AI by Supervised Policy Learning, Tactical Search, and Deep Reinforcement Learning

Constructing strong AI systems for video games is difficult due to enormous state and action spaces and the lack of good state evaluation functions and high-level action abstractions. In spite of recent research progress in popular video game genres such as Atari 2600 console games and multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) games, to this day strong human players can still defeat the best AI systems in adversarial video games. In this paper, we propose to use a deep Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) to select among a limited set of abstract action choices in Real-Time Strategy (RTS) games, and to utilize the remaining computation time for game tree search to improve low-level tactics. The CNN is trained by supervised learning on game states labeled by Puppet Search, a strategic search algorithm that uses action abstractions. Replacing Puppet Search by a CNN frees up time that can be used for improving units' tactical behavior while executing the strategic plan. Experiments in the μRTS game show that the combined algorithm results in higher win-rates than either of its two independent components and other state-of-the-art μRTS agents. We then present a case-study that investigates how deep Reinforcement Learning (RL) can be used in modern video games, such as Total War: Warhammer, to improve tactical multi-agent AI modules. We use popular RL algorithms such as Deep-Q Networks (DQN) and Asynchronous AdvantageActor Critic (A3C), basic network architectures and minimal hyper-parameter tuning to learn complex cooperative behaviors that defeat the highest difficulty built-in AI in mediumscale scenarios.

USE: An integrative suite for temporally-precise psychophysical experiments in virtual environments for human, nonhuman, and artificially intelligent agents

BackgroundThere is a growing interest in complex, active, and immersive behavioral neuroscience tasks. However, the development and control of such tasks present unique challenges. New MethodThe Unified Suite for Experiments (USE) is an integrated set of hardware and software tools for the design and control of behavioral neuroscience experiments. The software, developed using the Unity video game engine, supports both active tasks in immersive 3D environments and static 2D tasks used in more traditional visual experiments. The custom USE SyncBox hardware, based around an Arduino Mega2560 board, integrates and synchronizes multiple data streams from different pieces of experimental hardware. The suite addresses three key issues with developing cognitive neuroscience experiments in Unity: tight experimental control, accurate sub-ms timing, and accurate gaze target identification. ResultsUSE is a flexible framework to realize experiments, enabling (i) nested control over complex tasks, (ii) flexible use of 3D or 2D scenes and objects, (iii) touchscreen-, button-, joystick- and gaze-based interaction, and (v) complete offline reconstruction of experiments for post-processing and temporal alignment of data streams. Comparison with Existing MethodsMost existing experiment-creation tools are not designed to support the development of video-game-like tasks. Those that do use older or less popular video game engines as their base, and are not as feature-rich or enable as precise control over timing as USE. ConclusionsUSE provides an integrated, open source framework for a wide variety of active behavioral neuroscience experiments using human and nonhuman participants, and artificially-intelligent agents.

Learning Prosody in a Video Game-Based Learning Approach

With the growth in popularity of video games in our society many teachers have worked to incorporate gaming into their classroom. It is generally agreed that by adding something fun to the learning process students become more engaged and, consequently, retain more knowledge. However, although the characteristics of video games facilitate the dynamics of the educational process it is necessary to plan a pedagogical project that includes delimitation of learning goals and profile of the addressees, the conditions of application of the educational project, and the methodologies of evaluation of the learning progress. This is how we can make a real difference between gamification and video game based learning. The paper addresses the design of an educational resource for special education needs (SEN) students that aims to help teach communicative skills related to prosody. The technological choices made to support the pedagogic issues that underlie the educational product, the strategies to convert learning content into playful material, and the methodology to obtain measures of its playability and effectiveness are described. The results of the motivation test certified that the video game is useful in encouraging the users to exercise their voice and the indicators of the degree of achievement of the learning goals serve to identify the most affected prosodic skills.

AI meets Angry Birds

Could this be the year that AI is going to surpass human performance in playing the popular video game Angry Birds? The organizers of the annual AIBIRDS competition discuss the challenges involved.

Nintendo v. MariCar: is street kart rental business free riding on the popular video game characters prohibited in Japan?

You must not make a profit by using a well-known character belonging to someone else without licence. This is a commercial common sense, but a question is on what legal basis such an activity is banned? A character business may involve various intellectual properties, including copyright, trademark, design rights, etc., however, none of these IP rights is directly aimed at protecting characters. Besides, trademarks and design rights shall not take effect unless they are registered at the Patent Office, and characters are not always copyrightable. In several cases, Japanese courts suggest that the Unfair Competition Prevention Act of Japan takes a certain role to protect characters. This case review examines a recent judgment in the case, which deals with the application of this Act for the prevention of free riding on the video game characters.

Harnessing writing in the wild: Practical applications of affinity spaces for English language instruction

In this article the author explores ways in which affinity spaces (Gee, 2004) can be adapted for English language instruction. Affinity spaces attract participants who enthusiastically share their passions, such as popular culture, video games, or literature. Researchers have found that affinity spaces contribute to improvements in reading (Steinkuehler, Compton‐Lilly, & King, 2010) and writing (Black, 2007) literacy of both native English speakers and English language learners. Previous research has explored applications of these spaces in language instruction, including incorporating topics from popular culture in courses and engaging students in online writing (Sauro & Sundmark, 2016). Other adaptations have used the online content of affinity spaces as materials for language analysis in the classroom (Thorne & Reinhardt, 2008). This article breaks down the characteristics of affinity spaces (Gee & Hayes, 2012) and proposes them as a framework aimed to harness the benefits of affinity spaces for English language classroom adaptation. These practical applications include student‐selected course activity topics, sharing student writing online, and taking on leadership roles in an online environment.

Mogu li videoigre osnažiti kognitivne sposobnosti?

Kognitivni treninzi predstavljaju intervenciju osmišljenu za unapređenje različitih aspekata kognitivnog funkcioniranja. Najučinkovitiji oblik treninga predstavljaju tzv. multimodalni treninzi, koji uključuju aktivnost više kognitivnih procesa i dovode do boljeg transfera stečenih vještina u svakodnevni život. Literatura sugerira kako se u različitoj populaciji videoigre, najpoznatiji primjer multimodalnoga treninga, mogu rabiti za unapređenje kognitivnih funkcija. S obzirom je na njihovu veliku popularnost cilj ovoga preglednog rada prikazati kognitivne mehanizme koji videoigre čine optimalnim medijem za kognitivno osnaživanje te učinke igranja različitih vrsta videoigara na kognitivne funkcije. Konkretno, u radu su prikazana različita teorijska objašnjenja učinkovitosti videoigara, mehanizmi učenja i transfera stečenih vještina. Osim toga, rad je usmjeren na tri najčešće korištene vrste videoigara u kognitivnim treninzima: ozbiljne igre, igre mentalnog treninga i komercijalne igre. Pritom se razmatra njihova učinkovitost kod različitih dobnih skupina i neuropsiholoških bolesnika. Zbog velike raznolikosti komercijalnih igara dan je prikaz dosadašnjih nalaza učinkovitosti različitih žanrova komercijalnih igara u kognitivnom osnaživanju. U posljednjem su dijelu rada dane preporuke istraživačima za daljnje provjere učinkovitosti videoigara kao oblika kognitivnog treninga.

Contents Tourism in Japan: Pilgrimages to "Sacred Sites" of Popular Culture by Philip Seaton et al.

Reviewed by: Contents Tourism in Japan: Pilgrimages to "Sacred Sites" of Popular Culture by Philip Seaton et al. Tom Havens Contents Tourism in Japan: Pilgrimages to "Sacred Sites" of Popular Culture. By Philip Seaton, Takayoshi Yamamura, Akiko Sugawa-Shimada, and Kyungjae Jang. Amherst, NY: Cambria Press, 2017. 326 pages. Hardcover, $119.99. Global tourism is thriving so much today that European countries with the most popular destinations worry about "overtourism" from the wave of visitors brought about by middle-class prosperity, low-cost airlines, mega cruise ships, online booking, home sharing, and the impact of social media via smartphones. In 2017 Europe accounted for half of the estimated 1.32 billion international tourist arrivals and the Asia-Pacific region for 323 million. Japan had well over 30 million international visitors in 2018, drawn by the same factors as in Europe and by easy-to-obtain visas and yen depreciation, and the government projects 40 million annual arrivals by 2020, when Tokyo hosts the Olympic games. Each international visitor generates an estimated $1,000 in revenue for the global tourism industry, with perhaps half of the proceeds going to the host country. Domestic tourism is likewise big business in Japan, [End Page 170] with an estimated 641 million leisure travelers in 2016 (half on overnight trips) spending an average of about $300 each. Among tourist destinations, Japan's time-honored community festivals, often centering on a Shinto shrine, struggle nowadays from financial difficulties and declining attendance, in contrast to which travel to favored sites of popular culture has grown into a major industry during the past two decades. The book under review is a clearly written factual analysis of contemporary tourism throughout Japan's forty-seven prefectures with a particular focus on "contents tourism" (kontentsu tsūrizumu). In the book's introduction (and then again in the conclusion), the authors define this Japanese coinage as "travel behavior motivated fully or partially by narratives, characters, locations, and other creative elements of popular cultural forms, including film, television dramas, manga, anime, novels, and computer games" (pp. 3, 263). By this definition, the contents (the story) is what matters, not the format. As with other forms of tourism, leisure and enjoyment are the aims; however, fans seek out a place because of its contents—for instance, a creative film, manga, or anime narrative is set there—not because they wish to appreciate, say, its architecture or religious significance. Thus "the key to determining whether visitation to that site is contents tourism is the motivation of the tourist" (p. 263). Contents tourists refer to their trips as "pilgrimage[s] to sacred sites" (seichi junrei), with obvious parallels to religious pilgrimages in premodern times—especially the Edo period, when travel by commoners was often undertaken for nominal or actual religious purposes (p. 10). Photography, above all the selfie, is central to tourism today, and especially to contents tourists who assume characteristic poses, often while wearing related costumes, at sites associated with multimedia narratives and then share their photos on social media. Localities eager for visitors cooperate with artists, film studios, and others in developing contents for pilgrimage venues. The book abounds with examples of sites that have become meccas for contents tourists. Tokyo's long-established electronics district Akihabara (Akiba to fans) has become a destination for observing otaku (nerd) behavior thanks to the popularity of the 2004 online novel Train Man (Densha otoko), the idol group AKB48, and the area's famous maid cafes (p. 6). The authors discuss historical as well as current examples of contents tourism. Both canonized fiction such as The Tale of Genji and historical events such as samurai battles are "re-narrated in works of popular culture," boosting visits to heritage sites (p. 33). Myths, folklore, and monsters from early centuries are revived in modern media to create contents for tourism. Recent films, television dramas, manga, and anime dealing with historical figures such as Matsuo Bashō, Sakamoto Ryōma, and Saigō Takamori have stimulated tourism to locations with which they are linked: "Ryōma tourism [to Kōchi, the former Tosa domain] is a textbook example of how a heritage and/or contents tourism industry emerges" (p. 91). Remarkably, the...

Positive and Negative Themes in Popular Video Games Based on Entertainment Software Review Board Ratings.

Video games have become a major part of a child’s recreational time. The objective of this study was to determine whether or not the number of positive and negative themes in video games differ based on their Entertainment Software Review Board rating. Thirty of the most popular games in 2016 were reviewed and scored based on a rubric made a priori. Mature, Teen, and Everyone rated games did not show significant difference in the frequency of positive themes (3.7, 3.1, 3.2, respectively; P = .425). Mature and Teen games did not show significant difference in the frequency of negative themes (5.0, 4.0, respectively; P = .414), whereas Everyone games did have a significantly less number of negative themes than the Mature games (1.9, 5.0, respectively; P = <.001). Based on these data, parents should consider being more conscientious in buying games that are rated as T for Teen.

Folklorism of the Contemporary Youth’s Creative Work

Since the second half of the 20th century, there has been an increased interest in traditional forms of culture, which is probably associated with an increase in the national self-awareness of the peoples of the Russian Federation. Based on this, the authors considered the features of the use of the folklore heritage of Russian creative youth. The authors have studied the creative works of 24 young writers aged from 25 to 35. In particular, they have studied the types of folklorism in their creative works, provided the general estimate of the productivity and significance of the youth’s experience of using the folkloric heritage in the modern literary process and generally in culture. The paper is defining the phenomena of the youth culture in the early decades of the 21st century (fiction, CG). The authors have made a conclusion on the diversity of the youth’s creative works’ connection with the folkloric samples: the construction of the social-ethnographic reality, the field of the characters’ identity, a new ‘cosmos’, creation of the individual universes as well as the literary version of folkloric fairytale on their basis. We have also noted the tendency towards the use of the Russian folkloric characters with the purpose of giving them some universal traits of the characters of the popular computer games. The authors found that the fabulous texts are used by young authors in both the genre category and one of the ways to create on their basis new texts, various types of aesthetic experiments and games.

Lessons learned during formative phase development of an asynchronous, active video game intervention: Making sedentary fantasy sports active

ObjectivesActive fantasy sports is a type of active video game (AVG) developed using principles from self-determination theory and the trans-contextual motivation model. The game leverages elements of a popular, previously sedentary game -- traditional fantasy sports -- but incorporates and encourages physical activity (PA) of participants ("fantasy team owners"). Early proof-of-concept stage research demonstrated potential for active fantasy sports to increase PA in adults (Moller et al., 2014). However, more formative research identifying factors that influence enjoyment of active fantasy sports and PA goal achievement could improve efficacy and inform the development of alternative AVGs. DesignThree active fantasy sports leagues were organized and data from the three leagues were combined to examine intervention and social factors that predicted enjoyment and PA goal achievement. MethodParticipants (N = 33, 15.2% female, M-Age = 34.0 years) wore an accelerometer to track PA and completed self-report measures about their experience upon league conclusion (league duration ranged from 16 to 17 weeks). ResultsFindings revealed that average steps significantly increased during the first six weeks of the intervention and then significantly decreased during subsequent weeks. Frequency of checking the league website was associated with greater PA goal achievement. Greater frequency of checking the accelerometer website and the league website were also associated with greater league enjoyment. ConclusionsPromoting greater frequency of using the league and accelerometer websites is important to achieving greater impact on PA and league enjoyment through active fantasy sports. Future studies of active fantasy sports leagues could use randomized controlled trial and multiphase optimization strategy designs to vary game components in order to test which components sustain intrinsic motivation and increase PA. Lessons may be further applied to the development of other AVGs, especially those that build on established and popular sedentary video games.

Building Virtual Age-Friendly Communities in Minecraft

ABSTRACTA key theme of Age-Friendly Honolulu’s initiative is intergenerational exchange. The initiative believes that youth need to be aware of aging issues, demographic change, and think critically about the potential impact on their lives. The goal of the Age-Friendly Honolulu Youth Engagement Initiative is to teach youth about the role of the built environment and community features in promoting active aging and engagement among older adults. This article describes a new program in the field that teaches youth and older adults to assess the built environment and then use design thinking and Minecraft (a popular video game in which players use 3-D blocks to create virtual lands) to develop and envision ideas to improve the livability of their neighborhood.