Risky Game Research Articles

Harmful Design in User-Generated Games and its Ethical and Governance Challenges: An Investigation of Design Co-Ideation of Game Creators on Roblox

An increasing number of game platforms, such as Roblox, enable game creators to develop user-generated games (UGGs). Yet, these platforms often come under scrutiny for hosting UGGs that contain harmful content, ranging from sexually explicit material to Nazi-themed roleplay. Limited attention has been paid to how harmful UGGs are ideated by game creators. To address this question, we studied an online Roblox creator community, where Roblox creators collectively engage in design ideation to brainstorm design ideas for UGGs. Through an inductive thematic analysis, we found three primary ways where Roblox creators' design ideation becomes risky, including how Roblox creators generate risky game design ideas, navigate through policy boundaries to develop these ideas, and share strategies of bypassing moderation. Based on our findings, we discuss ethical and governance challenges facing user-generated games. We propose design implications to support game creators in developing ethical game design ideas and safe game designs.

Academic co-authorship is a risky game

Conducting a project with multiple participants is a complex task that involves multiple social, economic, and psychological interactions. Conducting academic research in general and the process of writing an academic manuscript, in particular, is notorious for being challenging to successfully navigate due to the current form of collaboration dynamics common in academia. In this study, we propose a game-theory-based model for a co-authorship writing project in which authors are allowed to raise an ultimatum, blocking the publishment of the manuscript if they do not get more credit for the work. Using the proposed model, we explore the influence of the contribution and utility of publishing the manuscript on the rate one or more authors would gain from raising an ultimatum. Similarly, we show that the project’s duration and the current state have a major impact on this rate, as well as the number of authors. In addition, we examine common student-advisor and colleague-colleague co-authorships scenarios. Our model reveals disturbing results and demonstrates that the current, broadly accepted, academic practices for collaborations are designed in a way that stimulates authors to raise an ultimatum and stopped only by their integrity and not by a systematic design.

The Dark Side of Fun: Understanding Dark Patterns and Literacy Needs in Early Childhood Mobile Gaming

Play has always been recognized as an essential aspect of human development, particularly during early childhood, as it contributes to learning, the formation of meanings, and experiencing the world. In today's digitalized society, early childhood education has increasingly integrated digital media into its practices, both in schools and at the family level. Mobile digital games (MDG) have received significant attention due to their impact on children's interactions, play, and learning. However, as young children engage more with MDGs, concerns about problem gaming have arisen, referring to conflicts and issues that emerge from game playing within everyday sociocultural contexts. Scholars such as Zagal et al. (2013) have identified certain game design patterns as "dark", which can be considered unethical as they manipulate players against their best interests. Given the prevalence of mobile gaming in early childhood, studying these dark patterns becomes even more crucial. This study aims to investigate the presence of dark patterns in MDG for young children (0-5 years old), through qualitative analysis. The five most popular free games for this age range on App Store (February 2023) were analysed, particularly focusing on the presence of temporal, monetary, social, and/or psychological dark patterns. The analysis uncovers the presence of temporal, monetary, and psychological dark patterns, including aesthetic manipulations, paywalls, and periodic rewards resembling gambling elements. The games also employ advertising strategies and engagement tactics that challenge young children's navigation. Parental control mechanisms offer limited safeguards, requiring continuous monitoring and parental involvement in play dynamics. The study highlights the importance of adult media and digital literacy in supporting children's online play effectively, while also emphasising the responsibility of game designers and developers to create healthier and less risky game experiences.

Nikolai Cherginets’ prose: A quantitative stylistic analysis and the problem of authorship

Nikolai Cherginets, a Belarusian author of prose fiction, was recently honored as People’s Writer of Belarus (2022), thus becoming the first holder of this title whose books are written in Russian. The quantitative linguistic analysis reveals that Cherginets’ novels “Riskovannaya igra” (A risky game), “Russkaya krasavitsa” (A Russian beauty), “Poslednii geroi” (The last hero) significantly differ from his other oeuvres and from each other. Linguistic and narrative similarities, improbable to arise by chance, are found between these novels and the creative output of Andrei Voronin, a collective pen name. We argue that the three books, released under the name of Cherginets, were in fact authored chiefly by the creators of Andrei Voronin.

Assessing negotiation skill and its development in an online collaborative simulation game: A social network analysis study

AbstractSimulation games are widely used to teach negotiation skills in political science education. However, existing studies focus on the impact of simulation games on students' knowledge gains and affective changes and largely ignore skill assessment and development in the gaming environment. This study aimed to understand the process of student groups practicing negotiation skills in a collaborative simulation game through social network analysis (SNA). We proposed a conceptual framework to assess negotiation skills by identifying different negotiation skillsets based on participatory roles in collaborative learning, investigated the skill development through the change of the skillsets over time, and examined the relationship between the negotiation skillsets and achievement. The results showed that the majority of student groups practiced more complex negotiation skillsets towards the end of the game, and the complexity of skillsets was positively related to the negotiation outcomes in the simulation game. The study demonstrated the possibilities of using SNA as an analytical tool to measure negotiation skills and explore dynamic skill development in a collaborative simulation game. It has also shown the potential of integrating SNA in a collaborative gaming environment for automated analysis of a large volume of data concerning interactions.Practitioner notesWhat is already known about this topic Simulation games are widely used to teach negotiation skills in political science education to improve the connection between theoretical knowledge and skill practice. Existing studies focus on the impact of simulation games on learners' knowledge gains and affective changes but ignore the skill assessment and development in the gaming environment, especially in the collaborative simulated gaming environment. What this paper adds The study investigated the process of student groups practicing negotiation skills in a collaborative simulation game through Social Network Analysis (SNA). We proposed a novel conceptual framework to measure negotiation skills by identifying different negotiation skillsets through connecting them to learners' participatory roles that emerged during the collaborative gameplay. The study demonstrated learners' dynamic and evolutionary process of practicing negotiation skills in the game. The results showed that there was a positive relationship between the complexity of negotiation skillsets and negotiation outcomes in the game. Implications for practice and/or policy The study demonstrates the possibilities of using SNA as an analytical tool to measure negotiation skills and explore dynamic skill development in a collaborative gaming environment. The results can guide teachers to identify risky game moves and students in need and provide personalized feedback to help improve students' negotiation skills. The findings can help teachers optimize the game design to ensure students' equal and active participation in the game. The study highlights the potential of integrating SNA in collaborative gaming environments for automated analysis of a large volume of data concerning interactions.

A Risky Game or a Safe Bet? The Role of Firm Status in Shaping Corporate Investments

This study examines the relationship between status and uncertainty-increasing and uncertainty-decreasing investments. Focusing specifically on financial uncertainty, we argue that middle-status firms engage in more uncertainty-increasing investments than low- and high-status firms, whereas higher-status firms engage in more uncertainty-decreasing investments than lower-status firms. Regardless of whether the focus is on uncertainty-increasing investments or uncertainty-decreasing investments, the extent to which firms perform above their historical and social aspirations mitigates the relationship between status and uncertainty-increasing and -decreasing investments. We find broad support for our arguments in a longitudinal sample of privately-owned Chinese firms traded on the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges. Specifically, social aspirations in the form of same-industry comparisons mitigates the inverted-U relationship between status and uncertainty-increasing investments, whereas social aspirations in the form of both same-industry and same-status comparisons mitigates the linear relationship between status and uncertainty-decreasing investments.

Of Unnecessary

A lover waits for the partner. The partner betrays. In such a case waiting causes unnecessary loss of time. Yet the lovers wait since time immemorial. Without waiting one cannot meet the lover. Waiting is necessary but not sufficient condition to conquer the head and heart of the fiancée. Waiting is a risky game. Sometimes it reciprocates. Sometimes it reciprocates not. Thus the mood and motif of the lover are gloriously so uncertain. No risk no gain implies high risk high gain. As such risk is not or may not be unnecessary always. Here lies the uniqueness of unnecessary rather than unique unnecessary.

Associations between game use and mental health in early adulthood: A nationwide study in Korea

Background: The number of digital game users is increasing, and so is attention to digital gaming's effects on mental health. We aimed to reveal if risky (game addiction) and usual game use (non-risky) are associated with mental health in early adulthood. Methods: Using data from the nationwide cross-sectional Korean Epidemic Catchment Area study for psychiatric disorders, 415 participants aged 18–30 years were divided into “non-game,” “usual game,” and “risky game” user groups based on the previous month's game use and cut-off value of game overuse screening questionnaire. Multiple linear and logistic regressions revealed the association between game use groups, perceived mental health, and lifetime prevalence of clinical mental disorders including suicidal ideation. Results: Among the 415 participants, 167 were non-game users, 175, usual game users, and 73, risky game users. Risky game users self-reported decreased satisfaction and happiness, and a significantly higher lifetime prevalence of major depressive disorder, alcohol dependence, and suicidal ideation. Usual game users were significantly associated with higher lifetime prevalence of alcohol dependence and suicidal ideation. Self-reported happiness partially mediated between game use and lifetime suicidal ideation in risky, but not usual game users. Limitations: This study is a cross-sectional observational study which was not possible to define the temporal relationship. Conclusions: Both risky and usual game use are associated with mental health problems in early adulthood, indicating the need for careful mental health screening on not only risky game users but also usual game users.

Regulating artificial intelligence in the EU: A risky game

The EU continues its quest to draw the contours of innovative legislation for the digital domain. The European Commission’s draft Regulation on artificial intelligence (AI) is a clear departure from previous ‘soft’ attempts to set the rules through ethical principles and industry pledges. The EU aspires to be the first global player to adopt a comprehensive framework that classifies and regulates the roll-out of AI software and hardware within its internal market. The draft rules try to provide legal certainty for public and private bodies across the EU, while making sure that potential risks to its citizens are minimised. This article sketches out some of the most important provisions of the draft Regulation and tries to critically assess its potential shortcomings related to implementation and enforcement. The final version of the AI proposal should avoid the mistakes of previous attempts to draft transnational rules for the online space and establish a sufficiently flexible legal framework.

Endowment effects in the risky investment game?

The risky investment game of Gneezy and Potters (Q J Econ 112(2):631–645, 1997) has been proposed as a simple tool to measure risk aversion in applied settings, especially attractive in settings where participants may have limited education. However, this game can produce a significant endowment effect (attached to the initial position), so that analysis of the behavior in this game should not be done in the Expected Utility Theory (EUT) framework. The paper illustrates this point, by showing that risk tolerance can be much higher when the initial endowment concerns a risky lottery.

Playing Safe or Taking Risks? Comparing China and Japan's Soft Power Strategies in Thailand

This paper aims to highlight the increasing value of Joseph Nye's concept of soft power in East Asia by observing the actions of China and Japan in Thailand. The two major powers are trying to gather sociocultural and political resources towards improved economic relations and collaborations, while mostly detaching from ideological promotion. This article gathers opinions from “intellectual elites” to assess how the two countries understand soft power in action while outlining their main objectives, strategies, and impact. Although China's reputation is gradually improving, the country seems to be playing a risky game where admiration for its economic prowess and skepticism towards its opaque methods are equally present, resulting in a precarious position. Japan's image is still positive and stable, but its safe‐playing stance seems to reflect the geopolitical status‐quo and could be a missed opportunity to emerge as the third option beyond China and the United States.

Institutionalising electoral uncertainty and authoritarian regime survival.

Authoritarian incumbents routinely use democratic emulation as a strategy to extend their tenure in power. Yet, there is also evidence that multiparty competition makes electoral authoritarianism more vulnerable to failure. Proceeding from the assumption that the outcomes of authoritarian electoral openings are inherently uncertain, it is argued in this article that the institutionalisation of elections determines whether electoral authoritarianism promotes stability or vulnerability. By ‘institutionalisation’, it is meant the ability of authoritarian regimes to reduce uncertainty over outcomes as they regularly hold multiparty elections. Using discrete‐time event‐history models for competing risks, the effects of sequences of multiparty elections on patterns of regime survival and failure in 262 authoritarian regimes from 1946 to 2010 are assessed, conditioned on their degree of competitiveness. The findings suggest that the institutionalisation of electoral uncertainty enhances authoritarian regime survival. However, for competitive electoral authoritarian regimes this entails substantial risk. The first three elections substantially increase the probability of democratisation, with the danger subsequently diminishing. This suggests that convoking multiparty competition is a risky game with potentially high rewards for autocrats who manage to institutionalise elections. Yet, only a small number of authoritarian regimes survive as competitive beyond the first few elections, suggesting that truly competitive authoritarianism is hard to institutionalise. The study thus finds that the question of whether elections are dangerous or stabilising for authoritarianism is dependent on differences between the ability of competitive and hegemonic forms of electoral authoritarianism to reduce electoral uncertainty.

Pakt z diabłem we współczesnych Chinach. Powieść Murong Xuecuna Większość umiera z chciwości

In his famous book The Consumer Society: Myths and Structures, Jean Baudrillard refers to the model of exchange defined by the myth of the pact with the Devil. The things we sell: our reflections in the mirror, our shadows, or the products of our work do not remain safely separate from us, but instead turn against us and take their revenge, sometimes even bringing us to self-destruction. However, the French philosopher claims that, nowadays, the tragedy of the subject haunted by its spectre is no longer relevant as the subject poses a spectrum, and all transcendence is lost in the order of signs. The structure of the myth about the pact with the Devil appears in Murong Xuecun’s novel Most Die of Greed. In post-reform and opening-up China, an average young man meets a mysterious older millionaire and gets involved in a risky game, in which unbridled consumption leads to degeneration and, eventually, gruesome death. As a 70 hou (post-1970, born in the 1970s) writer, Murong Xuecun addresses the transformations in his generation’s attitudes and values caused by rapid changes in both material and ideological spheres of their lives.

Проблема риска и безопасности игровой среды в зарубежной психологии

This paper presents a new approach to investigation of playgrounds’ safety, which has recently become a matter of special debates in modern foreign psychology and pedagogy. Under this approach, a reasonable risk is seen as a necessary condition of mental development and as a subject of psycho-pedagogical analysis. The article discusses some of the most topical issues related to risk and safety issues of a game environment. It shows the difference in concepts of risk and danger. Specificity of a risky game draws special attention of scholars. The article provides some research evidence, concerning child behavior on the playgrounds, risky behavior and the approaches to the development of risk assessment techniques in the game environments.

The effect of construal level on risk‐taking

AbstractIn a series of studies, we examined the influence of people's mind‐set (construal level (CL): abstract versus concrete) on their risk‐taking behavior. We measured differences in CL (study 1, CL as trait) and manipulated CL (studies 1–5, CL as state) with different priming methods, which were unrelated to the dependent variable of risk‐taking behavior (studies 1, 3, 4, and 5: Balloon Analog Risk Task; study 2: Angling Risk Task). In all studies, abstract CL resulted in greater risk‐taking compared with concrete CL, which led to lower risk‐taking. Risky and safe game strategies mediated the CL effect on risk‐taking. A concrete mind‐set increased the safe game strategy, whereas an abstract mind‐set increased the risky game strategy. Furthermore, different potential mediators were explored (i.e., focus on payoffs and probabilities, prevention versus promotion focus, attention to pros versus cons, and mood). A concrete mind‐set increased prevention strategies and a negative mood when compared with an abstract mind‐set. In turn, an abstract mind‐set increased attention to pros (of an action). Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Mast cell-mediated and associated disorders in pregnancy: a risky game with an uncertain outcome?

During pregnancy, the maternal organism is under the influence of tremendous endocrine as well as immunological changes as an adaptation to the implanted and developing fetus. In most cases, the maternal adaptations to pregnancy ensure both, the protection against harmful pathogens and the tolerance toward the growing semi-allogeneic fetus. However, under certain circumstances the unique hormonal milieu during pregnancy is causative of a shift into an unfavorable direction. Of particular importance are cellular disorders previous to pregnancy that involve cell types known for their susceptibility to hormones. One interesting cell type is the mast cell (MC), one of the key figures in allergic disorders. While physiological numbers of MCs were shown to positively influence pregnancy outcome, at least in mouse models, uncontrolled augmentations in quantity, and/or activation can lead to pregnancy complications. Women that have the desire of getting pregnant and been diagnosed with MC mediated disorders such as urticaria and mastocytosis or chronic inflammatory diseases in which MCs are involved, including atopic dermatitis, asthma, or psoriasis, may benefit from specialized medical assistance to ensure a positive pregnancy outcome. In the present review, we address the course of pregnancy in women affected by MC mediated or associated disorders.

David Cameron’s ‘Huge Mistake’. Closing of the United Kingdom Labour Market for Eastern European Immigrants from Polish and British Perspective

Eastern European immigrants coming to the UK since 2004 (in 2/3 from Poland) by their amount of work have concurred to serious growth of the GDP. But simultaneously they have been burden for British welfare system (among others by taking benefits for family members living outside the UK) and taking job even for minimum salary what have caused growth of native British unemployment. In this situation Conservative-Liberal Government leading by David Cameron have decided to limit an access to the UK labour market by language knowledge tests and tightening social benefits policy to job seekers. With informal support of main opposition parties (i.e. the Labour Party and the UKIP) D. Cameron have taken risky game showing he has been able to fight for his nation’s interests even in spite of huge protests of Polish and other Eastern European countries politicians and against the European Parliament resolution of 16 January 2014. But when turning out into a defender of Britons’ rights he also has showed that there have been deep divisions between “old” and “new” Europe still after 10 years of the EU’s biggest enlargement in 2004.

Race and Class in a Culture of Risk

concrete other-implicating Personal Risks Of Topic self-implicating public Kinds Of Talk private matter-of-fact suppressed out loud whispered FIGURE 1 Risk and Race Talk by Topic roughly based on Pollock (2004), shows a general pattern of talk and topic. As long as a topic remains distant and abstract and implicates only those not present, people address race matter-of-factly and out loud. As a topic moves closer to home, refers to local events, and has implications for speakers, race is limited to whisper. Similarly, the details of race talk depend on whom one is speaking as, to whom one is speaking, and who else might be listening and judging. Figure 2 is stimulated by Pollock's (2004) representation of race and rank in talk about race-relevant topics. Educators and students who share race and rank generally use race labels matterof-factly. Race talk up and down the hierarchy (e.g., between principal and teacher or between teacher and student) can be difficult, even if it occurs in private; so too is race talk between teachers of different race groups. Sharing neither race nor rank, participants use race labels to fuel accusations across the dividing categories. Students accuse teachers of racial injustice, principals demand reform from teachers, and superintendents assign blame to whole schools for racial differentials in achievement. When pressed, participants can almost always find ways not to talk about race. Life is never as simple as a 2 X 2 figure or table. Topics shift quickly, and group membership moves around easily among students. By Pollock's stories, people are constantly figuring out who's who in relation to whom, and race talk is moved in and out accordingly. If race talk is an effective strategy for reckoning relative position in a group of speakers, it is because they make it so. Race talk can go badly, even for those trying directly to make it otherwise (Lin, 2007). Depending on who remembers and reports what is said, how, to whom, and under what conditions, race talk can be a little or a big problem, an immediate or a long later problem.7 Teachers at Columbus find themselves stuttering, pausing, hedging, and complaining. It is difficult to speak truth in race terms. Race in a culture of risk is a resource in the calculation of who wins, who loses, who moves up, who moves on, and who moves to the back. Education is a risky game, and the race card, like the LD card, gets played accordingly. Recognizing the cultural play of race categories tied to school performance does not make racial problems easy to fix, but it shifts responsibility to the gatekeepers who make racial struggles institutionally consequential (Ladson-Billings, 2006; This content downloaded from 157.55.39.104 on Mon, 20 Jun 2016 06:37:52 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms McDermott et al: In a Culture of Risk 105 SAME or SIMILAR DIFFERENT

Female suicide and space for resentment, gender and male excess among the Lurs of South-western Iran

The article examines female suicide among the Lurs of south-western Iran where the ethnographic material was gathered during 1979–1982. The Luri men's public reaction to their female relatives’ and kinsmen's self-destruction is looked at as a refusal to authorize female ‘voluntary’ death either as a punishment or a protest. In taking poison and later setting themselves alight the Luri women were not punishing themselves for violating an honored rule such as sexual propriety. The ‘voluntary’ death, therefore, was not designed to restore a male-dominated social order. But at the same time within this order male excess was not recognized as violence to warrant the identification of its subject and object, the perpetrator and the victim. Hence the Luri men's refusal to confer on their female relatives’ self-destruction the status of a sanction – a socially endorsed power. Notwithstanding this refusal, the equivocal position of the victim vis-à-vis the perpetrator in a voluntary death, the paper argues, was seized by Luri women as a last ‘opportunity’ to exercise power by calling for the testimony of witness, the agent whose mediation is essential for the establishment of the interconnected identities of the victim and the perpetrator of violence. Destruction of the body enabled the women to withdraw irrevocably from the increasingly oppressive relationships in which they suffered as a kinswoman and a relative. Concurrent with this withdrawal was the move by Luri women away from their contemporaries turning towards successors as their interlocutors and witnesses. By addressing their interlocutors in posterity the women were able to escape the spatial constraints on their action both in the repressive male dominated public space and in the increasingly privatised domestic domain. The fatal shift towards a temporal framework for action was mediated by Luri women initiating a risky game from which they were certainly to emerge as the loser. The deployment of the game was intended to highlight the inequality between the dead and the living, in contrast to a ritualistic representation of the dead as in funeral rites in which the inequality between the dead and the survivor was superseded in their equal membership of the community. Whereas the play enacted in a funeral rite over which Luri men presided was designed to gloss over the inequality between the dead and the living the deadly game introduced by women was intended to bring to the fore the inequality between the two. In their hopeless and humanly costly attempt to overcome the present limits on their action in order to make themselves heard in posterity as the victim of male excess, the Luri women left behind a muted request for an alternative social order.

“Helmets and Gloves” — Ask About This Risky Game

In an editorial, physicians in Canada describe a game called “Helmets and Gloves” (or locker boxing) in which two opponents (usually adolescent hockey or lacrosse players) don gloves and helmets with cages and strike one another on the head. They also summarize three cases of adolescents who presented with concussive symptoms after engaging in the activity. Matches, which usually occur in secrecy …