Structural Characteristics Of Games Research Articles

From thrill seekers to social creatures: dimensions of curiosity differentially predict video game preferences and behaviours

ABSTRACT Research has shown that curiosity leads to improved performance in formal activities (e.g. school and work). However, there is an underappreciation of the motivating role that curiosity plays in more recreational activities, such as video gaming. Moreover, curiosity has historically been conceptualised in various ways, presenting a challenge when choosing a measure of curiosity. Using an updated curiosity framework (Five-Dimensional Curiosity Scale Revised), this study investigated how six dimensions of curiosity predicted video gaming behaviours, including play time and structural characteristics of video games (i.e. features of games that players enjoy, such as good graphics). The sample comprised 398 self-identified video gamers (50.30% males) from Malaysia and the Philippines, with a mean age of 37.30 (SD = 12.05). Confirmatory multiple regression analyses revealed that, of the six dimensions of curiosity, thrill-seeking predicted overall time spent playing video games, while joyous exploration predicted enjoyment of rewarding and punishing features. Overt social curiosity predicted enjoyment of social features in video games, but covert social curiosity did not. Other associations between dimensions of curiosity and structural characteristics of games were observed in exploratory analyses. Our findings offer insights into aspects of games that individuals enjoy based on the dimensions of curiosity.

Structural Game Characteristics and Problematic Gaming

Abstract: Introduction: The current state of research suggests that personal, environmental, and product-related risk factors contribute to the development and maintenance of gaming disorder. Concerning game related risk factors, evidence points to certain game features contributing to the overall risk of gaming disorder, as for example reward features, social features, and monetization features. However, no standardized instrument is available to capture risk enhancing game characteristics. Methods: Based on theoretical considerations and stepwise conducted qualitative analyses of in-game content, risk-enhancing game features were identified and specified. Furthermore, a pilot study was conducted comprising N = 4,468 students ( M[Age] = 14.54 years, SD = 1.37 years). Game features of the preferred games of the students were analyzed regarding their predictive value of gaming disorder. Results: Data suggests that two features are associated most strongly with gaming disorder: 1) mandatory social interactions ( β = .20), and 2) number of reward categories ( β = .12). Based on these findings and further updates, the RCCG was refined and finalized. Conclusions: With the RCCG, a structured instrument to capture, describe, and evaluate risk enhancing structural characteristics of video games is available. The RCCG enables a general risk assessment of games as well as recommended age-classifications based on certain structural features unsuitable for specific age groups.

The effects of impulsivity and near misses on persistence in play on a slot machine

ABSTRACT Both personality factors (e.g. impulsivity) and structural game characteristics impact decision-making on games of chance. We examined the relationship between impulsivity and decision-making on a slot machine task programmed with different near-miss frequencies. Fifty-eight college students entered a simulated casino environment and played a slot machine pre-loaded with 30 credits. Unbeknownst to participants, the slot machine was programmed so that several larger wins occurred early in the sequence, followed by a pattern of diminishing returns that reduced credits to zero on a predetermined trial. Participants were randomly assigned to two conditions, the first with up to 19% of trials set as near misses and the second with only 2% as near misses. After controlling for gender, race, and lifetime gambling frequency, the near-miss condition was found to moderate the relationship between impulsivity and the number of trials played. When there were fewer near misses, impulsivity did not appear to impact decision-making. However, when near misses were frequent, individuals with higher impulsivity persisted longer, even when other characteristics of gameplay remained constant (e.g. bet size, prizes). These findings suggest that certain features of slot machines may capitalize on impulsive gamblers’ vulnerabilities and should be regulated.

Structural Characteristics of Games and Online Consumer Behaviour: an Analysis in the Italian Gambling Market

The rapid growth of e-commerce over the last years has sparked a stream of research that has analysed the impact of Internet retailing on consumer behavior. This paper intends to offer a contribution, in the field of management studies, to the understanding of the reasons why the level of e-commerce use in a specific service sector, that of gambling, is different for different categories of services offered. In particular, the aims of this work is to analyze how the nature and specific characteristics of the different types of games could influence the customers’ decisions in terms of choice between digital and physical purchase channels. Thus, consequently, impacting the degree of development of online sales for the different types of gambling. This analysis is carried out in the context of one of the main national legal gambling markets in the world, the Italian one, in which Internet gambling is now a mature and consolidated industry. The results of the analysis have shown that for most of the traditional betting categories offered in Italy – Lotteries, Lotto, Totalisator numerical game, Bingo, Virtual bets – the nature and the distinctive characteristics of the game give little emphasis to the potential benefits usually associated with online gambling, and this has determined a reduced development of online sales. Only for Sports-based games (sports betting) the nature and characteristics of the game seem to have exploited a number of significant benefits that Internet gambling offers to players. This helps to understand why betting websites for Sports-based games have become the main channel of purchase in Italy. These results have interesting managerial implications for gambling operators, as discussed in this work.

The relationship between structural characteristics and gambling behaviour: An online gambling player tracking study

Structural characteristics of games have been regarded as important aspects in the possible development of problematic gambling. The most important factors along with individual susceptibility and risk factors of the individual gambler are the structural characteristics such as the speed and frequency of the game (and more specifically event frequency, bet frequency, event duration, and payout interval). To date, the association between structural characteristics and behavior has not been studied in an online gambling environment. The present study investigated the association between structural characteristics and online gambling behavior in an ecologically valid setting using data from actual gamblers. The authors were given access to data from a large European online gambling operator with players from Germany, Austria, UK, Poland, and Slovenia. The sample comprised 763,490 sessions between November 27, 2020 and April 15, 2021 utilizing data from 43,731 players. A machine learning tree-based algorithm with structural characteristics and session metrics explained 26% of the variance of the number of games played in a session. The results also showed that only 7.7% of the variance in the number of bets placed in a session was explained by the game’s structural characteristics alone. The most important structural characteristic with respect to the number of games played in a session was the event frequency of the game followed by the maximum amount won on a single bet in a session.

Contribution of Game Genre and Structural Game Characteristics to the Risk of Problem Gaming and Gaming Disorder: a Systematic Review

With its inclusion in the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems, 11th Revision, gaming disorder (GD) has been officially recognized as a behavioral addiction. Etiological models of GD refer to the interaction of personal, environmental, and game-related risk factors. However, the role of video game characteristics in the development of problem gaming and GD is not well understood. This systematic review summarizes the literature that examines the association between video game genres and structural characteristics and GD symptoms. Recent studies report that playing massively multiplayer online role-playing games, first-person shooters, and real-time strategy games/Multiplayer Online Battle Arena (MOBA) is associated with more time spent gaming and higher endorsement of GD symptoms. Reward and punishment features (reinforcement), social features, and monetization features have been associated with more frequent gaming and higher scores on self-report measures of GD. The literature is limited due to inconsistencies in measurement of game features, as well as other methodological weaknesses, demonstrating the need for higher quality studies, including studies of individuals with verified gaming disorders to understand their use of specific games. Current research suggests that some game types containing certain structural game characteristics are positively related to problem gaming. We propose that future studies are guided by theory-based taxonomies of structural game characteristics and examine game influences using experimental designs. For this purpose, a measurement tool to aid the investigation of diverse elements of video game characteristics would be valuable.

Addressing taxonomic challenges for Internet Use Disorders in light of changing technologies and diagnostic classifications. •.

Drawing a distinction between mobile and non-mobile Internet Use Disorders is an important step to clarify blurred current concepts in the field of behavioral addictions. Similarly, future technological advances related to virtual or augmented reality, artificial intelligence or the Internet of things might lead to further modifications or new taxonomies. Moreover, diagnostic specifiers like offline/online might change with technological advances and trends of use. An important taxonomical approach might be to look for common structural characteristics of games and applications that will be amenable to new technical developments. Diagnostic and taxonomical approaches based on empirical evidence are important goals in the study of behavioral addictions.

Associations Between Gambling Games and Gambling Problems: Whole Games Compared with Temporal, Skill Characteristics, and Other Structural Characteristics

Research and commentary have been addressed to distinctions regarding problem gambling on the basis of differences in the types of gambling in which individuals engage, such as symptom severity, co-occurring conditions, psychological correlates, and demographic differences. Some progress has been made at the level of the whole game. For example, electronic gaming machine users are more often female and more prone to depressive disorders as well as gambling disorder. Players of other games, such as poker and sports betting, are typically male and prone to substance use disorders. A promising recent trend, however, is to create taxonomies to analyze relevant structural game characteristics that predict gambling problems in a theoretically grounded way. Temporal characteristics such as speed and duration of games have received the most attention, but other relevant characteristics include a skill element, online (Internet) format, and various superficial characteristics. These efforts remain at an early stage, and further development is needed.

A Constructivist, Modeling Methodology for the Design of Educational Card Games

This paper presents a specific modeling methodology for the creation of educational card games. This methodology is based on the creation of the following three models: (a) the model of the subject matter; including all aspects of the learning subject in question, (b) the learners’ model; including learners’ non scientific conceptions about the aforementioned learning subject, and (c) the learning model; consisting of an appropriate learning strategy for the learning of the subject in question through card-game play, taking into account basic social and constructivist views of learning in combination with as well as key structural characteristics of games which can contribute to players’ engagement. Based on the aforementioned methodology, the design of various types of cards is proposed.

Videogame ?Addiction? Versus ?Problematic Play?: Which Construct Best Captures the Nature of Excessive Videogame use?

As the number of individuals who play videogames has increased in recent years, the frequency with which patients seek treatment for problematic videogame playing (PVGP) behaviors has also risen. Thus, explorations into the specific characteristics of PVGP are essential now more than ever before. However, the current state of the literature primarily relies on comparisons between PVGP and pathological gambling, utilizing modified measures of the latter to assess the former. More recently, scales have emerged to tap the DSM-5 criteria for Internet Gaming Disorder. However, to date, no studies have attempted to adapt the diagnostic criteria for substance use disorder (SUD), specifically, in an effort to understand PVGP within the context of addiction, and currently no single measure exists that adequately captures the full DSM-5 criteria for SUD or “addiction.” The current study sought to address these questions by adapting SUD criteria to address videogame-related behavior via a measure we call the Videogame Addiction Scale (VGAS). Comparisons of the psychometrics and criterion validity of the VGAS with existing measures of PVGP suggested the VGAS was superior. Lastly, a model of videogame addiction was generated that aligns with the SUD literature. Specifically, impulsivity, maladaptive coping, weekly game playing time (akin to “dose”), and particular structural game characteristics (akin to “route of administration” in addiction) were associated with problematic videogame play when conceptualized as an addiction. Results suggest that the addiction construct, in contrast to “problematic play,” best captures the underlying features of excessive videogame play.

The Relationship Between Structural Game Characteristics and Gambling Behavior: A Population-Level Study.

The aim of this study was to examine the relationship between the structural characteristics and gambling behavior among video lottery terminal (VLT) gamblers. The study was ecological valid, because the data consisted of actual gambling behavior registered in the participants natural gambling environment without intrusion by researchers. Online behavioral tracking data from Multix, an eight game video lottery terminal, were supplied by Norsk-Tipping (the state owned gambling company in Norway). The sample comprised the entire population of Multix gamblers (N = 31,109) who had gambled in January 2010. The individual number of bets made across games was defined as the dependent variable, reward characteristics of a game (i.e., payback percentage, hit frequency, size of winnings and size of jackpot) and bet characteristics of a game (i.e., range of betting options and availability of advanced betting options) served as the independent variables. Control variables were age and gender. Two separate cross-classified multilevel random intercepts models were used to analyze the relationship between bets made, reward characteristics and bet characteristics, where the number of bets was nested within both individuals and within games. The results show that the number of bets is positively associated with payback percentage, hit frequency, being female and age, and negatively associated with size of wins and range of available betting options. In summary, the results show that the reward characteristics and betting options explained 27 % and 15 % of the variance in the number of bets made, respectively. It is concluded that structural game characteristics affect gambling behavior. Implications of responsible gambling are discussed.

Glücksspielsucht

Extensive coherent clinical, psychopathological, neurobiological and genetic similarities with substance-related addictions justify the forthcoming classification of gambling addiction under the new category "Substance Use and Addictive Disorders" in the DSM-5. Thus, gambling addiction can be regarded as the prototype of behavioral addiction. In general it should be kept in mind that isolated gambling forms are associated with varying addictive potential due to specific situational and structural game characteristics. High rates of indebtedness, suicidality, social isolation and gambling-related crime often accompany pathological gambling. As a consequence gambling addiction represents a mental disorder with a significant economic burden. In Germany 12-month prevalence rates for problem gambling in adulthood range from 0.24% to 0.64 % and for pathological gambling from 0.20% to 0.56 %. Because gambling products rank among the so-called demeriting (i.e. potentially harmful) social activities, player and youth protection measures to prevent gambling disorders and associated crime should be best regulated as a state monopoly.