Gaming Practices Research Articles

Persuasive Gaming: Identifying the different types of persuasion through games

The academic study of persuasion through digital games started from a game-centric approach by trying to understand how persuasiveness can be structured within digital games. However, players' performances and the context in which games are played also have an important role in the process of persuasion. The role of these two factors has been the focus of attention in recent research on persuasive games through studies that try to find a balance between players’ preferences and needs and persuasive goals. The objective of this paper is to broaden the understanding of the potential of persuasive gaming practices by providing a theoretical framework that serves to structure previous theoretical approaches on how digital games can be used to persuade players. This theoretical framework serves to explain the different types of persuasion that can be established through digital games, which contributes to better understand how serious games should be designed to respond to different types of serious goals. The three types of persuasion proposed here are: exocentric persuasion, as a game-centric approach for persuasion; endocentric persuasion, as a player-centric approach for persuasion; and game-mediated persuasion, as a context-centric approach for persuasion.

Gaming Addiction

Gaming Addiction

Effects of Visual Game Experience on Auditory Processing Speed.

Games are one of the fastest growing and most exciting forms of entertainment. Whether casual mobile game playing has a cognitive, physiological, or behavioral effect on players whose game use is not pathological is unknown. Here we explored whether preattentive auditory processing is linked to the behavioral inhibition system (BIS) in frequent and infrequent game players. A total of 74 subjects who were enrolled in our study were divided into two groups, 40 subjects were frequent gamers and 34 subjects were age-, gender-, IQ-, and education-matched infrequent gamers. All participants underwent a passive auditory oddball paradigm and completed the behavioral inhibition/behavioral activation system scales. The mismatch negativity (MMN) latency was shorter for the frequent gamers relative to the infrequent gamers, whereas no difference in MMN amplitude was found between groups. MMN amplitude was negatively associated with the degree of behavioral inhibition in the frequent and infrequent gaming group. We also found that those who frequently play games show an enhanced processing speed, which could be an effect of game practice. Greater behavioral inhibition induces increased vigilance, and this may have enhanced the MMN amplitude in the infrequent gamers. This differential pattern of correlations suggests that differences in the BIS could lead to different approaches to auditory information processing.

The adoption and evolution of environmental practices in the Olympic Games

ABSTRACTThis paper explores the evolution of environmental practices in the Olympic Movement and how they have become institutionalized within the field by using qualitative methodology consisting of content analysis of International Olympic Committee and Organizing Committees for the Olympic Games documents as well as other archival sources. The environmental phases of the Olympic Movement may be broken into the following non-exclusive themes: environment, sustainability, and zero impact. Environmental management in the Olympic Games bows to normative, coercive, and mimetic pressures from multiple groups and has caused isomorphism to occur which institutionalized environmental plans for bids in the Olympic Games. These environmental themes contribute to the event and sport event management literatures by helping future event organizers understand phases of environmental management and where there is room for growth in addressing environmental concerns at the Games.

Ethnomethodology of Videogames: Phenomenal Field in Game Practice

Ethnomethodology of Videogames: Phenomenal Field in Game Practice

Videogame consumption: The apophatic dimension

This article applies psychological-sociological accounts of the ‘apophatic’, a form of negative thinking, to examples of gaming practices to conceptualise a new theory of videogame consumption. It challenges the prevailing notion that the games consumer is always a ‘cataphatic’ thinker – that is, an activistic, rational-pleasure seeker – and looks to the ‘sorrows’ of gaming to find evidence of its more undesirable nature. The term ‘apophatic’ is characterised as an attempt to de-value the rational value purportedly placed on gaming practices. ‘Griefing’ other players is a good example of this apophatic ethic, where players derive value from the subversion of serious play through the disruption and destruction of other players’ game worlds. The struggle with ‘failure’ is another. As such, the article concludes with a reflection on the almost unsayable nature of videogame consumption, and suggests that consumer value may be derived from its more negative, spiritual-like aspects.

Benefits of game-based leisure activities in normal aging and dementia.

Given the increasing prevalence of dementia and the limited efficacy of pharmacological treatments, it is crucial to improve the knowledge of the factors that might delay the onset of dementia for developing non-pharmacological interventions. Recent studies have provided evidence that game-based interventions, especially the practice of video games, could improve the cognitive functioning (e.g. executive functions) in older adults and in demented patients. The positive effects of these games have also been demonstrated on physical health (e.g. improvement of balance and gait). Video gamed-based interventions may also alleviate mood or behavioral disorders, and increase interactions with friends, family, caregivers or other patients. The positive impact of games on these domains (cognitive and physical decline, social isolation) suggests that game-based interventions might contribute to delay the onset of dementia. Thus, playing games might be considered as a protective factor in dementia and even more as a potential non-pharmacological strategy in dementia rather than leisure activity.

Computerized tabletop games as a form of a video game training for old-old

ABSTRACTThis research aimed at investigating the utility of a computerized version of a cognitively stimulating activity as a video game intervention for elderly. The study focused on the effect of a 6-week extensive practice intervention on aspects of cognitive functioning (vigilance, working memory (WM), inhibition, reasoning) of old-old participants (N = 29), randomly assigned to trained or active control group. The difference between groups was in the content of the extended video game practice – cognitively complex card game for trained and computerized version of a simple dice-game of chance for control participants. A pretest, posttest and a 4-month follow-up measurement was conducted. Results revealed improvements in both groups, except for improved reasoning found only in trained participants. These results suggest that: (1) improvements are dependent on the complexity of the program, (2) cognitively stimulating activity are a valid training procedure for old-old, (3) novelty of computer use is an important factor in determining training efficacy.

Capitalizing upon the Attractive and Addictive Properties of Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games to Promote Wellbeing.

Forty years after they were first introduced to the general public, video games have become firmly established into the mainstream of entertainment media. In parallel, early adopters and enthusiasts have become active scientists. As a result, interest in video gaming practices has shifted from an exclusive niche leisure activity to extensive social, commercial, cultural, medical, and psychiatric issues. An increasing number of studies on game-based treatments for various mental health disorders suggest that these approaches have the clear potential to promote cognitive and behavioral changes as well as symptom relief (1–10). Game-based approaches for mental health disorders are still in an early stage of development and validation. Some interesting results have emerged, however. The inclusion of gaming tools within digital therapies has been assessed in several trials that studied participants with various sociodemographical profiles and disorders (11–13), including promising preliminary work in participants suffering from psychotic disorders (8, 12). Controlled studies on the assessment of digital serious games targeting depression (2, 11) and cognitive training in older adults (4) found promising findings, as did controlled studies on non-digital serious games developed to reduce delusional convictions in psychotic patients (1) or to promote smoking cessation (5). Also, two randomized, controlled studies showed that playing casual video games 30 min per day during 1 month (Tetris, Bejeweled) had positive effects on depressive and anxious symptoms (14–16). It was furthermore shown (in spite of controversy) that game and video game practice may have a positive impact through the transfer of cognitive skills acquired in the game to functional competences (17, 18), although see Ref. (19, 20). A meta-analysis (21) on the effect of video game play on information processing showed minor effects on executive functions and small to moderate effects on visual, auditory, spatial imagery, and motor skills. Another meta-analysis on the effect of brain-training games in older adults (22) showed a significant, if very small, improvement in cognitive testing after training, suggesting that some transfer of competence had occurred (albeit in a limited fashion). Data on naturalistic use (in milieu use outside the scope of specific research programs) of internet-based therapies suggest that these programs are appealing for many users, particularly so for people who could benefit significantly from such treatments (23). Naturalistic use, however, appears associated with high levels of attrition. For instance, in a study of an internet treatment program for depression, less than 4% of community users completed at least three modules out of five compared with 53.8% of participants in the controlled trial (24–26). Attrition issues were also observed across digital games-related studies. Less than one-third of the 1622 adolescents allocated to a computerized game for binge drinking prevention returned to the second session and none of them completed all five sessions (27). One of the ways to tackle the problem of attrition would be to develop interventions that succeed in increasing the commitment of the participants, possibly via the use of serious games tools (28). The important retention problems encountered in internet treatments, particularly among spontaneous community users, contrasts with the great success of games played for leisure, and, especially, massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs) (29), which are sometimes associated with addictive use (30, 31). This opinion paper discusses how the attractive properties of video games, particularly those of MMORPGs, given their success and online setting, could be mobilized to promote wellbeing.

Epidemiology of Sport-Related Concussion in an NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision Sample

Background: Concussions are common in football, and knowledge of their incidence rates across settings is needed to develop strategies to decrease occurrence. Purpose: To examine sports-related concussion rates in a National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I Football Bowl Subdivision sample based on the activity setting where injuries occurred, during which type of play, and when relative to the 2010 NCAA concussion management policy. Study Design: Descriptive epidemiology study. Methods: Medical records from January 2006 to January 2015 for an NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision program were analyzed. Concussion rates (per 1000 athlete-exposures [AEs]) were compared among the following settings: spring practice, preseason training camp, regular season high-contact practice, regular season low-contact practice, bowl game practice, and game competition. Play-type analyses examined incidence rates during offensive, defensive, and special teams plays. Changes in concussion rate coinciding with the 2010 NCAA concussion management policy were also studied. Results: Of the 452 unique players on the roster during the 9-year study period, 118 (26.1%) were diagnosed with a concussion. The concussion rate during games was significantly higher than all practices combined (P < .001). However, when game rate (4.46 per 1000 AEs) was compared with preseason training camp alone (3.81 per 1000 AEs), there was no significant difference (P = .433). The concussion rate during special teams plays was significantly higher than that during offensive (P < .001) or defensive plays (P < .001). The concussion rate in the 4 seasons (2010-2014) after the 2010 NCAA concussion management policy was initiated was significantly higher than the 4 seasons (2006-2009) preceding the policy (P = .036). Conclusion: Study results show that (1) based on activity type, games and preseason training camp present the greatest risk of sustaining a concussion; (2) based on play type, special teams plays pose the greatest risk of sustaining a concussion; and (3) the 2010 NCAA concussion management policy coincided with a significant increase in recognition of concussion.

FrankenFolk

It is common practice in movies and games to use different actors for the voice and body/face motion of a virtual character. What effect does the combination of these different modalities have on the perception of the viewer? In this article, we conduct a series of experiments to evaluate the distinctiveness and attractiveness of human motions (face and body) and voices. We also create combination characters called FrankenFolks, where we mix and match the voice, body motion, face motion, and avatar of different actors and ask which modality is most dominant when determining distinctiveness and attractiveness or whether the effects are cumulative.

Alternative Trajectories: Structuring play through videogame physics engines

This essay seeks to traverse new territory in the field of digital game studies by combining the focus on performance and play practices exercised by ludologists with the awareness of technological detail common to software/platform studies. This combined approach provides an insight into the immediate effect of algorithms on play and gaming practices. Combining technological details with a close reading of gameplay practices, this essay suggests the impact of a ‘physics engine’—the body of code responsible for the in-game representation of physics—on the first-person shooter (FPS) videogame Call of Duty: Ghosts (2013). This essay concludes that physics algorithms, in FPS games in particular, shape the actions of players through two major methods: via the specific mediation of physical forces (such as gravity and drag) and the related modelling of object interactions. Focusing on the outcomes of these mediations we can begin to think of play practices as simultaneous productions shared between machine and human, drawing on conceptions of interaction familiar to media theory. For instance, as Timothy Barker states, ‘In any form of computer interaction, the user must operate within the limitations, function, and potentialities of the software … By the same token, the software operates with the user's capacities’ (Barker 2012: 115). Ultimately, it will be shown that while physics algorithms have shaped existing gaming behaviours, they are also entwined with the processes wherein players invent new performative practices.

The master’s digital tools: Cognitive capitalism and non-normative gaming practices

Abstract In Games of Empire. Global Capitalisms and Video Games (2009), Nick Dyer-Witheford and Greig de Peuter mobilize the concept of cognitive capitalism as central to the intimate intermeshing of the medium and the late capitalist business practices. Using this concept, the article extends their discussion to a range of non-normative gaming practices and initiatives that have often been presented as subversive or alternative in relation to the dominant gaming regimes. Using the theory of cognitive capitalism, as outlined by Carlo Vercellone and Yann Moulier Boutang, as well as elements of Nick Dyer-Witheford and Greig de Peuter’s argument, the article links these practices to gauge the degree to which they are complicit in the global capitalist practices and contends that while many non-normative gaming practices cannot be subsumed by the same mechanisms of cognitive capitalism that operate in relation to game designers’ ideas, they ultimately contribute to an increase in value of industry-controlled locked IP and have firmly established positions in the circulation of content.

Online Gaming Practices of Preteens: Independent Entertainment Time and Transmedia Game Play

This article examines online gaming practices of 7‐ to 11‐year‐olds in home settings in the United States. Based on observations and interviews with children and parents, the analysis considers the specificity of preteen experiences within domestic settings. Employing a socio‐cultural approach, the article analyses ways online gaming is strongly shaped by specific social and developmental factors that relate specifically to preteens. Children's online gaming is analysed as a form of independent entertainment time that reflects limitations experienced by preteens in this study as well as developmental characteristics of this age range. Further, the analysis indicates that gaming practices of preteens are embedded in wider transmedia play practices.

The Gamification of Mobile Communication among Young Smartphone Users in Seoul

Drawing on the empirical findings, the present study discusses how mobile media and gaming practices are integrated with young people’s everyday lives in Seoul, Korea. In particular, the present study aims to critically examine mobile gaming as a social practice, by adopting the notion of “gamification”. The study has found that users coped with urban everyday life by appropriating mobile apps and thus engaging with the gamification of mobile communication. Various mobile games have become popular add-ons on smartphones and offered casual involvement in gaming in daily moments such as commuting, waiting, and eating times. Gamified communication practices may imply that smartphone-mediated communication redefines our world as the gameful world while urban space and agency constantly engage with gameplay. However, the seemingly gameful world that may empower certain casual gamers may conceal the hegemonic process in which mobile gamers are subject to existing power relations.

Gaming, Accountability and Trust: DRGs and Activity‐Based Funding in Norway

AbstractThis paper examines a particular performance management instrument in Norway: DRGs used in conjunction with activity‐based funding of hospitals. We ask whether this system creates opportunities for undesirable gaming practices, how accountability arrangements deal with gaming, and how trust and institutional logic may help to explain anomalies and their resolve. From an instrumental and cultural perspective, we examine six Norwegian cases of gaming and two governmental assessments of coding and activity‐based funding. Current solutions do provide gaming opportunities, in a highly complex accountability setting. Accountability arrangements highlight tensions between trust and distrust, rather than resolving the balance between individual goals and collective norms.

The Impact on locomotor skills in children. The promotion of significant Knowledge supported by the use of videogames

Research on attentional processes and their relationship to the maturation of locomotor patterns involved in the use of some types of video games. For this reason, the aim of this study is to identify the influence of the practice of virtual reality games in attentional processes related to the jump motor pattern in children of 5 years. The research was conducted by a quantitative study design using SPSS crosstabulation longitudinal observational period with a pre-test, post-test and a control group. There are few studies on the effect of virtual reality games in the development of locomotor patterns, the study is consistent with research that finds positive effects of this type of games in learning motor activities. In this investigation it was found According to statistical chi-square can conclude that the development of motor skills SI influences meaningful learning of children, Most children engaged in meaningful learning, but they have a necessary guide or a process to follow, according to research must always be supervised by an adult sometimes do not need any supervision, in addition to the significant knowledge not articulated with educational processes guided by the teacher before the motor skills expected

Developing spatial visualization and mental rotation with a digital puzzle game at primary school level

Spatial ability has been recognized as a significant human skill involving the retrieval, retention, and transformation of visual information in a special context. The enhancement of the spatial ability and the effective method of training are rarely considered as an area of study in the education field. This study focuses on the enhancement of spatial visualization and mental rotation, which are two major components of spatial ability, through the practice of puzzle games. This study adopts an experimental approach to test whether the game is effective in facilitating student's development of spatial visualization and mental rotation. 79 primary school students in Taiwan are included to be volunteer participants. Two instruments are adopted to measure the participants' performance of spatial visualization and mental rotation. The research findings show that the designed puzzle games effectively improve the participants' abilities in spatial visualization and mental rotation and that the traditional puzzle games can only enhance participants' mental rotation. This study suggests that the theory-based design of multimedia games can offer a more effective learning environment for developing and improving cognitive skills.

Worlds of Sound

In the first decades of the twenty-first century, ‘indie’ became a widespread descriptor for a gaming culture comprising developers, players, and distributors interested in creating an alternative to what was seen as a glutted, uninspired, and corporatised game market. While the indie movement is often argued to have facilitated a new, ‘DIY’ mentality in the design and practice of games and interactive media, the aesthetics and technical practices behind the culture share strong affinities to computational forms of art and music throughout the late twentieth century. This essay aligns the aesthetics and creative practices of indie game designers with traditions of ‘generative’ art and music from the late twentieth century. In doing so, I outline a broader musical turn that has occurred within gaming culture—one in which sound becomes a primary mechanic in the shaping of ‘procedural’ and generative aesthetics at the heart of various forms of digital art. Ultimately, I provide not only an account of the ways in which sound and musical design have helped to characterise the ludic interests of the indie game movement in the first decades of the twenty-first century, but also a theoretical model adequate to understand the relationship between interactive systems, musical and sonic meaning, and user experience both in games and digital platforms more broadly.

Methods of Using Innovative Game Practice in Extracurricular Physical Education of 5th-Graders

The purpose of the research is to ground the organizational and pedagogical conditions of use of innovative game practice in extracurricular physical education of 5th graders (by the example of SNAG).&#x0D; Research methods. Theoretical analysis and collation of literature sources, sociological analysis, pedagogical experiment, methods of mathematical statistics.&#x0D; Research results. The introduction of a minigolf section in the extracurricular work at Kharkiv gymnasium No. 144 brought about the 64% increase in the number of pupils of the experimantal class attending extracurricular forms of physical education, while the pupils of the reference class increased in numbers only by 7%. Some pupils attended with pleasure both the dancing club and the SNAG section.&#x0D; The results reliably showed that, compared to the beginning of the research, the experimental group manifested improvement (almost 2.5 times) of the state of special physical readiness (increased minigolf target hit rate). The indicators of the overall intermuscular coordination improved too, showing better results than in the reference group (by 15.65%) in hitting the target with a small ball (p &lt; 0,05).