Video Game Reviews Research Articles

Players’ perceptions of sexuality and gender-inclusive video games a pragmatic content analysis of steam reviews

Video games reflect the current culture and society. Games stand as points of transmission that reflect cultural trends and social norms, although not comprehensively. While it seems that more games have tried to be inclusive of diverse gender and sexual identities recently, there is still a lack of studies that discuss how real video game players see LGBTQ+ inclusive games. To understand the game players’ perceptions in this regard, this study qualitatively analyzes online video game review postings from Steam, focusing on user reviews of gender and sexuality inclusive games. Based on four gender and sexuality inclusive video games selected, we collected 400 user-generated video game reviews as our dataset. Our findings identified 22 primary themes, including Mood/Emotions, Social/Cultural Importance and Representation. This paper further discusses some of the critical topics discovered, such as identity, conflicts in game communities and representation.

The Form of Speech Video Game Vlogger’s MiawAug in Perspective the Strategy of Speaking by Levinson

Referring to the success of MiawAug, many novice creators have created YouTube channels with the same theme (video game reviews). One of the most important parts of creating YouTube content about video game reviews is the way of speaking strategies. With good speaking techniques, the communication style spoken by the creator will be more focused and conceptualized. Therefore, this study aims to describe the speech form of MiawAug as a Video Game Youtuber using Levinson's speech strategy perspective. The method used in this study is qualitative with a note-taking technique. The data source for this research is a YouTube video from the creator of MiawAug with video samples taken at random. The data analysis technique begins with making listening, making transcriptions, data reduction and analysis, and drawing conclusions. The results show that speakers prefer a no-nonsense strategy to build intimacy and positively use small talk strategies to increase their intimacy with the video viewers.Keywords: Speaking strategies, Video game’s vlogger, YouTuber MiawAug.

Angles journalistiques originaux au sein des tests vidéoludiques : la pluralité discursive comme résistance des journalistes spécialisés

Au sein des rares travaux académiques à son sujet, la presse vidéoludique est volontiers vue comme un espace de construction d’une culture vidéoludique partagée, ou encore d’un « habitus du gamer ». On lui reconnaît ainsi une posture d’intermédiaire qui inscrit dans la durée une série de référents. Elle possède également un rôle de catalyseur qui, à travers une batterie de critères spécifiques de notation, raconte le jeu vidéo, bon comme mauvais. Tant et si bien que, à force de « passer les plats » de l’industrie, la presse vidéoludique est vue comme dépossédée de tout esprit critique par de nombreux acteurs académiques. Le présent article se propose de déconstruire ces dévaluations arguant que la presse jeu vidéo se limiterait à une posture de guide d’achat. Certains journalistes actuels, las de cheviller leurs contenus à l’actualité, développent une série de tactiques pour enrichir le traitement de leur matière première vidéoludique. À travers l’analyse d’une série d’exemples, nous cherchons à démontrer que ces angles originaux participent à enrichir le langage propre aux discours sur le jeu vidéo.

Winning The Game Against Depression: A Systematic Review of Video Games for the Treatment of Depressive Disorders.

Purpose of reviewTo review the evidence about video game-based therapeutic intervention for people diagnosed with depressive disorders.Recent findingsPsychotherapy has been proved to reduce depressive symptoms and is a key element in the treatment of depressive disorders. However, geographical, economical and stigmatized concerns are barriers to access to psychotherapy. New technologies and videos games can overcome some of these barriers by providing teleconferencing evidence-based therapy as time as they may offer an interactive entertainment.SummaryOverall, video game-based interventions were useful and effective in reducing symptoms of depressive disorders. Seven of the studies were published in the last 5 years, which reflects the increased research interest in video game-based interventions for depression. Overall, when adherence was reported, rates of acceptability and feasibility were high.

The Effect of YouTube Reviews on Video Game Sales

Purpose—This study examines the effects of consumer engagement behaviour towards game reviews posted on YouTube on video game sales. Design/methodology/approach— An empirical research was conducted after analyses of 140 YouTube reviews about top games selected from the video games titles released within 2010-2019. The impacts of social media engagement activities (total views, the ratio of likes/dislikes to total views, review sentiment) of YouTube reviews, consumer and critic reviews on games sales were investigated with ordinary least square (OLS) regression model. Findings—The findings indicated that consumer engagement behaviour of YouTube reviews significantly influenced sales; however, the effect is not larger than critics’ and consumers’ text reviews. Consumer reviews have the highest positive impact on sales. YouTube review sentiment did not influence sales and YouTube reviews posted by an influencer (i.e., user) compared to a firm (i.e., marketing generated) did not have higher sales. Discussion— The results draw attention to the importance of engaging video game reviews on YouTube and consumers’ and critics’ online textual reviews for video games sales. This research contributes three streams of research: Digital word of mouth, consumer engagement behaviour on social media and predicting video game sales. The contribution is to indicate the predictive power of engagement of YouTube game reviews on game sales, to compare reviewer type (user/influencer - versus firm-generated) and to compare the effectiveness of video reviews to textual critic and consumer reviews.

Video Game Reviews: Introduction

Video Game Reviews: Introduction Get access The American Historical Review, Volume 126, Issue 1, March 2021, Page 214, https://doi.org/10.1093/ahr/rhab188 Published: 21 April 2021

Video game consumer profiles

The video game development path is full of drastic changes. The growth and strengthening of technology and the growth of innovation in the technology sector have inevitably led to the growth of this industry, which is nowadays achieving unexpected, enviable results. The basic human need for entertainment and socializing contributes to the popularity of video games. Today, video games are played by people of all ages and genders, and the most common reasons for playing video games are fun, socializing, learning, and reducing stress, but video games also provide interactive entertainment, unlike books, movies or theatre performances. The popularity of video games is witnessed by numerous communities on social networks through which professional gamers share their experiences, tips and video game reviews, and there are statistics that support this popularity and growth. The features offered by the video game industry do not need to be particularly emphasized because the results, statistics and enthusiastic players speak for themselves. This paper deals with the demographics and behaviour of consumers playing video games. The aim is to identify the main features of the user, video game players, and to identify and determine user habits and trends affecting the users. The consumer is a social and cultural being. At the same time, he is an individual for himself, a member of a family, a member of a group or a certain class or class in society, a representative of a particular nation, race, religion, nationality of a particular country, etc. The consumer is a person who has the money (assets) and a will to buy the goods or a service. In this paper, the above consumer definitions will be brought in correlation with the video game market, with an industry that encompasses various forms of modern entertainment. It is shown that technology and new modes of entertainment are present among all, and that we need to adjust the time we live in. Playing some kind of video games has become a normal activity of any normal, modern individual.

Strategic behavior by market intermediaries

AbstractResearch summaryWe explore how information intermediaries preserve relationships with firms they cover and differentiate from competitors while also maintaining legitimacy with their audiences. We find that intermediaries evaluating movies and video games delay disclosing more negative reviews of heavily marketed products so that they do not coincide with the major product marketing push. We also find that media organizations artificially differentiate themselves from their competitors. We demonstrate that critics are more deviant when they can observe another's opinion and that differentiation increases when they tend to evaluate the same types of products. Our interpretation is that information intermediaries do not simply provide objective reviews, but instead appear strategic in balancing pressures from product “suppliers” and competitors as they compete for the attention of their audiences.Managerial summaryWe argue that film and video game reviews by professional media outlets reflect two types of strategic behavior. First, intermediaries evaluating movies and video games delay disclosing more negative reviews of heavily marketed products. Second, critics artificially deviate their review scores from those of close competitors. We conclude that information intermediaries do not simply provide objective reviews, but instead appear strategic in balancing pressures from product “suppliers” and competitors as they compete for the attention of their audiences.

What's in a Review

As video game press ("experts") and casual gamers ("amateurs") have different motivations when writing video game reviews, discrepancies in their reviews may arise. To study such potential discrepancies, we conduct a large-scale investigation of more than 1 million reviews on the Metacritic review platform. In particular, we assess the existence and nature of discrepancies in video game appraisal by experts and amateurs, and how they manifest in ratings, over time, and in review language. Leveraging these insights, we explore the predictive power of early expert vs. amateur reviews in forecasting video game reputation in the short- and long-term. We find that amateurs, in contrast to experts, give more polarized ratings of video games, rate games surprisingly long after game release, and are positively biased towards older games. On a textual level, we observe that experts write rather complex, less readable texts than amateurs, whose reviews are more emotionally charged. While in the short-term amateur reviews are remarkably predictive of game reputation among other amateurs (achieving 91% ROC AUC in a binary classification), both expert and amateur reviews are equally well suited for long-term predictions. Overall, our work is the first large-scale comparative study of video game reviewing behavior, with practical implications for amateurs when deciding which games to play, and for game developers when planning which games to design, develop, or continuously support. More broadly, our work contributes to the discussion of wisdom of the few vs. wisdom of the crowds, as we uncover the limits of experts in capturing the views of amateurs in the particular context of video game reviews.

Designing Android Gaming News & Information Application Using Java-Based Web Scraping Technique

It is important for gamers to know the latest news update about video games that they like. Researcher finds that there are many people who likes and want to know more about video game, but services available to find news about video games are so limited, espcially on Android platform. The solution of this problem is to design an Android-based application where the apllication can contain the lastest video game news from reliable sources. Aside from news, other necessary video game information like video game releases, video game reviews, the history, franchises, system requirement and also famous people in the industry. All these information will be pulled using a technique called Web Scraping, which is used for extracting data from websites. This research is expected to make an Android application which contains all information and news in video game world that can provide a complete and detailed information. In the end of the research based on our questionare, it was estimated to satisfy 80% of news consumption needs for gamers.

Expert Product Reviews and Conflict of Interest

Many firms that produce expert product reviews have a vested interest in increased consumption of the products they review. The classic example is the Michelin Guide, which reviews restaurants, originally conceived to stimulate usage of automobiles and therefore also demand for automobile-related goods and services. The result is a conflict of interest; such firms have financial incentive to give better reviews than products merit. I compare video game reviews from two sources: one a video game magazine owned by a game retailer and the other a game website that does not sell games. The goal of the research is to evaluate to what extent, if any, the retailer-owned outlet inflates its reviews in order to boost sales. Results show no evidence of seasonal or cyclical effects. However, there is some evidence of increased inflation in periods shortly following the release of a game's corresponding piece of hardware. Other literature on this industry finds that reviews have the largest effect on the sales of low-quality games, and I find evidence of review inflation for these games. These results are consistent with theoretical predictions for a firm that optimizes the trade-off between sales revenue and the reputational costs associated with biasing reviews.

Las TIC: Una mirada a los hábitos de los adolescentes que viven con sus abuelos

Resumen Con el trabajo que se presenta, se pretende conocer el uso de las nuevas tecnologías en una muestra de adolescentes escolarizados en la Comunidad Autónoma de Cantabria que conviven con sus abuelos. Hemos puesto de manifiesto, por un lado, que la situación de los abuelos con respecto a la relación y a la crianza de sus nietos ha cambiado en los últimos años. Por otro lado, sabemos muy bien los cambios que presenta el adolescente en la etapa vital en la que está inmerso y como su vida está influenciada por las TICs. El mundo del adolescente se diferencia mucho del que ha vivido el abuelo a lo largo de su vida. El cambio más importante y que más choque intergeneracional produce es el referente al uso de las nuevas tecnologías.Se presentan datos de una muestra está compuesta por 2371 alumnos desde 1º de la ESO a 1º de Bachillerato con una distribución de 1203 varones y 1168 mujeres. Se optó por un muestreo por conglomerados, estratificado con el fin de que pudiera considerarse representativa de la Comunidad Autónoma.Una vez realizado el análisis estadístico a las 65 variables interrelacionadas con la variable principal: “Vive con los abuelos”, se han encontrado diferencias significativas en trece variables. Estas tienen que ver con: Uso videojuegos/videoconsola, Valoración de los videojuegos, Valoración de Tablet/IPAD, Número de ordenadores en casa, Conexión a internet en casa, Diferentes aspectos relacionados con las Redes sociales, Relaciones con personas que utilizan la red, Tiempo de conexión a internet, Horas de sueño por estar conectado, Usos del móvil.En virtud de los datos obtenidos, se puede concluir que, aunque las diferencias expuestas no nos permiten establecer una clara relación, sí podemos afirmar que se observa un mayor uso de las nuevas tecnologías en los adolescentes que viven con sus abuelos. Palabras clave: TIC, adolescencia, abuelos, diferencias intergeneracionales, brecha tecnológica.

From Active Young Explorers to Passive Young Consumers: The Commercialization of Canada's OWL Magazine

This article provides a content analysis of OWL magazine, a popular Canadian children's periodical published initially by a non-profit organization and, after 1997, by a for-profit corporation. Researchers examined issues of OWL from 1982, 1992, and 2002 to assess changes in the magazine in response to commercial ownership. Quantitative and qualitative methodologies were used to show how OWL has shifted from a primarily science and animal-themed magazine to a general interest “consumer” magazine for children with features like video game reviews. This shift from 1982 to 2002 is discussed within larger changes in Canadian children's commercial media and marketing. Canadian and American children's commercial media “boomed” during the 1980s and 1990s, placing additional pressure on OWL to incorporate content that met advertisers' interests and emerging consumerist outlook of Canadian children. We conclude by discussing how this research informs ongoing theoretical debates about the commercialization of childhood.

Moving Beyond the Stigma: Systematic Review of Video Games and Their Potential to Combat Obesity

Increasing epidemic proportions of overweight children in the United States presents formidable challenges for education and healthcare. Given the popularity and pervasiveness of video gaming culture in North American children, the perfect opportunity arises to investigate the potential of video games to promote healthful behaviour. Our objective was to systematically review the literature for possible benefits of active and educational video games targeting diet and physical activity in children. A review of English-language journal articles from 1998 to 2011 using EMBASE and PubMed was conducted. Thirty-four studies concerned with children, video games, physical, and/or nutritional outcomes were included. Results of these studies that showed some benefit (increased physical activity and nutritional knowledge as a result of gaming) demonstrate the possibility of video games to combat childhood obesity—looking beyond the stigma attached to gaming.

Effective Intervention or Child's Play? A Review of Video Games for Diabetes Education

The purpose of this study is (1) to identify diabetes education video games and pilot studies in the literature, (2) to review themes in diabetes video game design and evaluation, and (3) to evaluate the potential role of educational video games in diabetes self-management education. Studies were systematically identified for inclusion from Medline, Web of Science, CINAHL, EMBASE, Psychinfo, IEEE Xplore, and ACM Digital Library. Features of each video game intervention were reviewed and coded based on an existing taxonomy of diabetes interventions framework. Nine studies featuring 11 video games for diabetes care were identified. Video games for diabetes have typically targeted children with type 1 diabetes mellitus and used situation problem-solving methods to teach diet, exercise, self-monitored blood glucose, and medication adherence. Evaluations have shown positive outcomes in knowledge, disease management adherence, and clinical outcomes. Video games for diabetes education show potential as effective educational interventions. Yet we found that improvements are needed in expanding the target audience, tailoring the intervention, and using theoretical frameworks. In the future, the reach and effectiveness of educational video games for diabetes education could be improved by expanding the target audience beyond juvenile type 1 diabetes mellitus, the use of tailoring, and increased use of theoretical frameworks.

Still a Man's Game: Gender Representation in Online Reviews of Video Games

Despite the rising popularity of video games, the majority of the medium's audience continues to be male. One reason may be that character representations in video games are geared toward male players. This content analysis used video game reviews from a heavily trafficked Internet site to investigate the prevalence and portrayal of male and female video game characters. Consistent with the findings of previous studies, female characters were found to be underrepresented and proportionally more often sexualized in comparison to their male counterparts. In addition to these findings, the study's innovative method-the use of online video game reviews as an indirect measure of video game content-shows promise as a tool for future content analyses of video games.