Virtual Game World Research Articles

Crypto/Space: Computational parasitism, virtual land grabs, and the production of Web3 Exit zones

This paper explores how so-called ‘Web3’ blockchain projects are materially and socially constituted. A blockchain is an append-only distributed database. The technology is being hyped as applicable for a whole range of industries, social service provisions, and as a fix for economic disparities in communities left behind by mainstream financial systems. Drawing on case studies from our ongoing research we explain how, despite being virtual, Web3 projects are dependent on clearly defined spaces of production from which they derive their speculative value. We conceptualise this relationship as Crypto/Space, where space and blockchain software are mutually constituted. We consider how Crypto/Spaces are produced in three ways: 1) how project developers are adopting a parasitic relationship with host locations to appropriate energy, infrastructure, and local resources; 2) how projects enable ‘virtual land grabs’ where developers are engaging in land acquisitions, and associated displacement of local people, with no real intention to use the land for the declared purpose; and 3) how blockchain technology and speculative finance imaginaries are inspiring new anarcho-capitalist crypto-utopian ‘Exit zones’, often in the Global South. Far from being a zero-sum virtual game world, we argue that cryptocurrency projects are parasitic, often requiring predation on poor and otherwise marginalised communities to appropriate resources, onboard new users and enable favourable regulation.

A comprehensive analysis of presence, seamlessness, and player responses in metaverse gaming

This study delves into the complex world of gaming metaverses to explore the psychological factors shaping user experience and engagement. Amidst increasing interest in virtual gaming worlds, it examines the roles of presence, seamlessness, and psychological responses in influencing user satisfaction and continuance intention. Utilizing Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM), the research analyzes responses from 273 gaming metaverse users. The results highlight that presence significantly boosts vicarious satisfaction, escapism, and self-expression. While seamlessness enhances vicarious satisfaction, it doesn't markedly affect escapism or self-expression. Vicarious satisfaction contributes to hedonic benefits, albeit not to immersion. Both escapism and self-expression positively influence hedonic benefits and immersion. Hedonic benefits positively impact immersiona, satisfaction, and continuance intention. Immersion directly affects satisfaction and indirectly influences continuance intention through satisfaction. These findings challenge established ideas in gaming psychology and provide actionable insights for metaverse developers, emphasizing the importance of balanced game design for optimal user engagement and satisfaction. The research lays the groundwork for further studies, particularly in qualitative analysis and specific gaming genres.

Компьютерная игромания несовершеннолетних как психологическая проблема

Introduction. Today, information and communication technologies maximize the simplification of life and work of mankind. This also affected the younger generation which received new and exciting means of amusing leisure in the form of computer games of various genres. Excessive passion and total immersion in the virtual game world can result in the formation of addictive behavior. Recently, this problem has become popular and is relevantin the context of preventing the addictive behavior in young people, the growth of such manifestations as school shooting, cyberbullying, suicidal behavior, etc. In this regard, there is a need to conduct research on the problem under consideration in order to further build effective preventive activities. The purpose of the study was to comprehensively examine the main signs, causes and conditions for the formation of minors’ computer game addiction. Methodology, methods and techniques. The study was based on modern scientific, methodological and socio-psychological methods for studying minors’ computer addiction. The methods of rising from the abstract to the concrete, comparative studies and axiological interpretation were applied in the study. The results of the study indicate the relevance of this topic in the light of rapidly developing information technologies. The analysis of the social and psychological features of the formation of computer game addiction in minors was carried out, and the causes of this type of addiction were specified. The scientific novelty of the article lies in the analysis of researchwithin the study of addictive behavior, as a result of which the main reasons for the formation of computer game addiction in minors were identified. Practical significance. The results of the work can fill the existing gap in the study of this topic and become an aid in the further development of comprehensive research in order to prevent the formation of addictive behavior in minors. For example, important and promising areas within this topic are: the study of age and gender characteristics of psychological dependence on computer games; the study of diagnostics of minors’ computer game addiction; selection of effective psychotherapeutic techniques and methods for dealing with game addicts.

Перспективы применения нейронных сетей для процедурной генерации игрового контента в киберспорте

This article provides an overview of research and practices on using neural network technologies in the field of procedural content generation for esports games. The authors explore the history, current approaches to using artificial neural networks in creating game elements, including levels, characters and scenarios, with the aim of enhancing the gaming experience and increasing the uniqueness of the virtual game world. The article covers various aspects of using neural network methods, such as generative models, autoencoders, generative adversarial networks, deep learning, and recurrent neural networks, for creating dynamic and unpredictable content. Examples of the successful implementation of these technologies in popular esports games are discussed, and potential challenges and issues related to applying neural networks in this context are explored. The authors discuss the prospects for the further development of neural network technologies in esports and offer recommendations for their optimal implementation. Overall, the article presents an analysis of the current state and future opportunities for using neural network approaches for procedural content generation in esports scenarios.

Reinventing Design Education with the Power of Innovative Game Design

The emergence of the metaverse as a dynamic space for learning underscores the necessity for metaverse-based games in education, offering immersive and structured experiences that align with constructivist pedagogy principles. This paper aims to develop a game using Sandbox to spark interest in design students, facilitating more effective learning of specific concepts. When it comes to learning colour theory, Gestalt principles, design thinking or heuristic principles; students are often instructed in an uninspiring manner, even though these concepts could be presented in a more engaging and captivating way. To address this issue, this paper suggests implementing gamification by developing an interactive game using the Sandbox platform, a decentralised virtual gaming world built on Blockchain technology. The game revolves around navigating a virtual environment while solving questions and tasks at different stages to progress and ultimately reach the destination. This interactive experience aims to enhance their understanding of these principles, moving beyond mere memorisation. The game was tested among ten users based on convenience, technical feasibility, and connectivity, and it was observed that they preferred this method of learning over traditional ones and could also visualise the concepts better. This game could be enhanced to an AR/VR-based model in the future, making the learning process much more immersive and captivating. Additionally, this gamification approach aligns with the Sustainable Development Goal of Education.

The relationship between social media use, social media types, and job performance amongst faculty in Kenya private universities

There has been an increased interest in social media that is attributed to the rapid growth in the media use. Covid-19 has also significantly heightened the interest, with organisations relying more on social media. In particular, universities have reduced their dependency on face-to-face teaching and are relying more on social media for teaching, research, and service. Despite this, there have been concerns about faculty's ability to integrate social media into their work, and this has impacted job performance. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between social media use, social media types, and job performance, as well as determine the extent to which faculty uses the social media types and the most popular social media type. This study applied a descriptive cross-sectional research design and surveyed 388 faculty based in Kenyan Private universities using an online questionnaire. The study employed social capital theory to explain the relationship between social media use and job performance, and the Borman and Motowidlo model was adopted to classify job performance. Data was analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. The findings showed that content communities was the most popular social media type among faculty, whereas virtual game world and virtual social world were the least popular. In addition, the study revealed a positive relationship between cognitive use, social use, social media types and job performance, while hedonic use had a negative influence on job performance. Academic social networking sites and virtual social worlds were the most important predictors of job performance. Therefore, this study recommends that universities should encourage faculty to become more aware of the social media use dimensions and social media types, and the impact social media has on job performance. In addition, private universities should ensure the availability of internet for faculty to access the important social media types.

Transmedya Ortamında Ex-Libris Sanatı Var Olabilir mi ?

Ex-libris has been constantly evolving, especially in the last decade. New technologies, new and constantly developing forms of communication, and audiovisual design have contributed to the transformation of different modes of expression, enriching the visual, narrative, and linguistic features through which people interact and build connections. These modes of representation include e-books, hypertexts, virtual game worlds, etc. We can multiply it with examples like this. This unique combination of textual, visual, and linguistic elements offers readers new ways to experience and live one or more stories, while at the same time offering designers a vast and extremely difficult field of representation and interpretation. This converts your printed manual into a digital copy with images and audio, the reader-player's choice of hero or villain, etc. It becomes a virtual world where it becomes a person and creates its own story, with narration and dialogues simultaneous with the action. In this way, the variability, interaction, and open-mindedness of these different domains can produce variable patterns of place and time, changing the initial chronotropy of the ex-libris several times. Keywords: Ex-libris, Transmedia, Design

Playing Brains: The Ethical Challenges Posed by Silicon Sentience and Hybrid Intelligence in DishBrain

The convergence of human and artificial intelligence is currently receiving considerable scholarly attention. Much debate about the resulting Hybrid Minds focuses on the integration of artificial intelligence into the human brain through intelligent brain-computer interfaces as they enter clinical use. In this contribution we discuss a complementary development: the integration of a functional in vitro network of human neurons into an in silico computing environment.To do so, we draw on a recent experiment reporting the creation of silico-biological intelligence as a case study (Kagan et al., 2022b). In this experiment, multielectrode arrays were plated with stem cell-derived human neurons, creating a system which the authors call DishBrain. By embedding the system into a virtual game-world, neural clusters were able to receive electrical input signals from the game-world and to respond appropriately with output signals from pre-assigned motor regions. Using this design, the authors demonstrate how the DishBrain self-organises and successfully learns to play the computer game ‘Pong’, exhibiting ‘sentient’ and intelligent behaviour in its virtual environment.The creation of such hybrid, silico-biological intelligence raises numerous ethical challenges. Following the neuroscientific framework embraced by the authors themselves, we discuss the arising ethical challenges in the context of Karl Friston’s Free Energy Principle, focusing on the risk of creating synthetic phenomenology. Following the DishBrain’s creator’s neuroscientific assumptions, we highlight how DishBrain’s design may risk bringing about artificial suffering and argue for a congruently cautious approach to such synthetic biological intelligence.

The impact of social network embeddedness on mobile massively multiplayer online games play

AbstractSocial factors play a critical role in motivating player participation and commitment to online multiplayer games. Many popular mobile massively multiplayer online games (MMOGs) adopt social network embeddedness (SNE) functions to optimise players' social play experience. SNE changes the traditional pattern of MMOG social play by porting acquaintance relationships (e.g., Facebook friends) from social networking sites to the virtual game world. However, little understanding exists on how SNE impacts mobile MMOG players' game participation results such as play performance and play frequency. Drawing on the affordance framework and social capital literature, this research proposes a theoretical model that integrates the factors of SNE technology affordance (identity transparency and information transparency), players' social experience (social interaction, social support, shared vision, and social pressure), plus affordance effects (play performance and play frequency). The model was validated through a longitudinal field study, in which both subjective and objective data were collected from Game for Peace players. Our findings indicate that identity transparency and information transparency positively correlate with social interaction, social support, shared vision, and social pressure, which, taken together, significantly affect play frequency. The results also show that social interaction and shared vision positively impact players' play performance. The study enhances the theoretical understanding of social relationships in players' game participation results from the SNE aspect. Finally, we lend insights on how game operators can improve player game experience and stickiness.

<em>Roblox</em> and Meta Verch

<em>Roblox</em> and Meta Verch

An assumption of UWB enhancement of human motion recognition

Today's VR games on the market use computers to connect a head-mounted monitor and two grips to build a virtual game world for players, providing players with a fresh sensory experience. However, the current VR game only uses the player's hand movement as a way of human-computer communication, the way is relatively single, and the player can not express their desire to play through only two hands, which cannot fully express the player's will. There are currently two types of motion capture used in consumer VR devices: optical capture, which is based on inertial sensor motion capture. These two are faced with the problem of extremely high cost and burden. The ultra-broadband system has the advantages of high positioning accuracy, low latency, cheap price, being light and portable, etc., which is very suitable for this kind of application scenario. This paper considers using two main technologies RTT ranging motion recognition and keyframe to achieve the aim.

Game-o-Meta: Trusted Federated Learning Scheme for P2P Gaming Metaverse beyond 5G Networks.

The aim of the peer-to-peer (P2P) decentralized gaming industry has shifted towards realistic gaming environment (GE) support for game players (GPs). Recent innovations in the metaverse have motivated the gaming industry to look beyond augmented reality and virtual reality engines, which improve the reality of virtual game worlds. In gaming metaverses (GMs), GPs can play, socialize, and trade virtual objects in the GE. On game servers (GSs), the collected GM data are analyzed by artificial intelligence models to personalize the GE according to the GP. However, communication with GSs suffers from high-end latency, bandwidth concerns, and issues regarding the security and privacy of GP data, which pose a severe threat to the emerging GM landscape. Thus, we proposed a scheme, Game-o-Meta, that integrates federated learning in the GE, with GP data being trained on local devices only. We envisioned the GE over a sixth-generation tactile internet service to address the bandwidth and latency issues and assure real-time haptic control. In the GM, the GP's game tasks are collected and trained on the GS, and then a pre-trained model is downloaded by the GP, which is trained using local data. The proposed scheme was compared against traditional schemes based on parameters such as GP task offloading, GP avatar rendering latency, and GS availability. The results indicated the viability of the proposed scheme.

Taxation in Virtual Worlds: Analysis Under United States of America and Turkish Tax Regulations

In today's day and age, there is a new world comprised of novel terms like virtual reality, virtual environment or virtual worlds. Virtual worlds allow participants to buy and sell virtual goods and services using virtual currency. Therefore, virtual world transactions bring large amounts of income. In countries that have adopted the recommendations of OECD and G20 countries, tax regulations have begun to be made on the subject. The study aims to discuss the taxation problems arising due to the incredible number of users spending time in virtual game worlds. In the study, Turkish and US tax regulations were examined. The study shows that virtual worlds are getting closer to the real world, there is a transition towards the meta-universe, people earn income in these environments, and there are differences between countries in the taxation of these incomes.

PerCLTV: A General System for Personalized Customer Lifetime Value Prediction in Online Games

Online games make up the largest segment of the booming global game market in terms of revenue as well as players. Unlike games that sell games at one time for profit, online games make money from in-game purchases by a large number of engaged players. Therefore, Customer Lifetime Value (CLTV) is particularly vital for game companies to improve marketing decisions and increase game revenues. Nowadays, as virtual game worlds are becoming increasingly innovative, complex, and diverse, the CLTV of massive players is highly personalized. That is, different players may have very different patterns of CLTV, especially on churn and payment. However, current solutions are inadequate in terms of personalization and thus limit predictive performance. First, most methods just attempt to address either task of CLTV, i.e., churn or payment, and only consider the personalization from one of them. Second, the correlation between churn and payment has not received enough attention and its personalization has not been fully explored yet. Last, most solutions around this line are conducted based on historical data where the evaluation is not convincing enough without real-world tests. To tackle these problems, we propose a general system to predict personalized customer lifetime value in online games, named perCLTV. To be specific, we revisit the personalized CLTV prediction problem from the two sub-tasks of churn prediction and payment prediction in a sequential gated multi-task learning fashion. On this basis, we develop a generalized framework to model CLTV across games in distinct genres by heterogeneous player behavior data, including individual behavior sequential data and social behavior graph data. Comprehensive experiments on three real-world datasets validate the effectiveness and rationality of perCLTV, which significantly outperforms other baseline methods. Our work has been implemented and deployed in many online games released from NetEase Games. Online A/B testing in production shows that perCLTV achieves a prominent improvement in two precision marketing applications of popup recommendation and churn intervention.

The Influence of Social Media for Millennials in the Digital Age

In the era of technology 4.0 which is growing, almost all fields have used the internet and have become a necessity in everyday life, both among children, millennials, adults, the elderly, the elderly and so on. Including social media which has a very big influence in everyone's life. Someone who initially does not understand technology with the existence of social media becomes aware, and social media can also change a person's attitude and nature. In the community, especially millennials, social media has become a necessity that cannot be separated from everyday life and has become a lifestyle where millennials do not spend a day without opening social media. If it is explored further in depth during its development period, millennials need direction and guidance both at school, at home and in the surrounding environment because millennials are still looking for their identity by hanging out with friends their age. The purpose of this study is to determine the positive and negative impacts of social media, to know the characteristics of social media, to know the types of social media, and to understand what the millennial generation is like. The results of this study increase creativity, means of communication, facilitate communication, a place for achievement, a place for learning media. While the negative impacts of social media such as misuse of technology, decreased focus on learning, high crime rates, cyberbullying. The specific characteristics of Social Media include: Reach, Accessibility, Use, Actuality, Persistence. Classification of Social Media include: Collaborative projects (Wikipedia), Blogs and microblogs (twitter), Content (youtube), Social networking sites (Facebook), Virtual game world (online games), Victure social world (second life). Millennial Generation itself When viewed from the age group, the millennial generation is a generation that is currently aged between 15-34 years..

Never a Dull Moment: Believable Dynamic Character Beat Generation between Game World Events

This work presents a heterogeneous system using ABL, CiF, and a virtual game world to demonstrate how dynamic character beats can be used to preserve believability across game world events. We describe the individual components used in our system and detail how each component contributes to the alignment of physical and mental contexts of NPC agents. Finally, we provide a brief account of the demo experience showcasing our system’s capabilities.

Student Teachers’ Views on Media Education Related to New Literacy Skills

High quality media education promotes media literacy and ensures citizens' smooth participation and engagement in the digital society. Digital media include powerful communication and interaction platforms that require new literacy skills. This study examines what new literacies can be found in the opinion writings of student teachers in relation to media literacy. The research material consists of 37 Finnish student teachers' opinion writings produced during the Media Education 2020 course. The aim of the study is to explore how student teachers identify new literacies as part of media education and how these new literacies are reflected in their opinion writings. As a result of the research, new literacies emerged from the data as a cultural phenomenon of our time. This was reflected in their views on the technological orientation of school and teaching and the importance of media education as a teaching task in schools. An important finding is that the textual subculture of social media is valued as a new form of literacy. The results show that while the narrative value of images, virtual game worlds and easy access to social media via smartphones were identified, the broad understanding of new literacies among student teachers is narrow. Perceptions of media education and new literacies are interlinked and the debate on their relevance as a social phenomenon should continue.

Role of engagement in online gaming: a study of generation Z customers

ABSTRACT Online gaming has become a recent leisure time activity in India, especially among the younger generation. Hence, more and more youngsters, specifically Generation Z are engaged in this virtual gaming world. In response to this scenario, our paper analyzes the role of generation Z customers’ engagement in increasing online game sales. We found that satisfaction from the game, game personalization, and social interaction increases customer engagement, thereby increasing the sale of online games. A research model was developed, and the results were tested using 266 valid questionnaires. The results from the conceptual model testing suggests that the construct of engagement is significant in influencing the purchase decisions of Generation Z customers.

Формирование инвестиционной привлекательности игровой виртуальной команды на основе управления гудвиллом в киберспорте

The development of the Internet, the transition to the fourth technological order contributes to the quantitative and qualitative change in virtual organizations. A special place in the virtual environment is occupied by the gaming segment, the volume of which in 2018 reached over 116 trillion dollars, nearly doubling in the past five years. COVID-19 has undoubtedly played into the hands of the online gaming industry, increasing sales across all segments. This study analyzes the massively multiplayer online role-playing game that created the phenomenon of the virtual world. It is the virtual game worlds that have formed the niche of the virtual gaming commercial teams (VGCT`s), which specialize in the provision of services for the development of content produced by development organizations for user players. However, in order to successfully operate in the face of tough virtual gaming competition, a commercial team needs both an understanding of the business process and attracting sources of funding. The article discusses the strategy of forming the investment attractiveness of VGCT, as one of the key aspects of competitiveness. The paper presents the author`s definition of the investment attractiveness of VGCT, carried out SWOT analysis of the working VGCT “Zeta”, assessed the investment attractiveness on the basis of unidentified assets. The purpose of the study is to develop approaches to determining the investment attractiveness of VGCT in the specific conditions of the economy of the virtual world of multiplayer games. Brief statement of the problem is to substantiate the need of managing goodwill of a virtual organization as the main tool for increasing its competitiveness. The article used general scientific methods and methods of SWOT-analysis. The definition of the economy of the virtual gaming world of multiplayer role-playing online games is given. The essence of the concept of “investment attractiveness” is revealed in relation to a specific object of research – a virtual gaming commercial team, its assessment is carried out in the context of external and internal factors. It was determined that goodwill constitutes the basis of VGCT’s investment attractiveness, and the task of increasing the competitiveness of VGCT is inextricably linked with the management of goodwill as a set of unidentifiable assets.

Виртуальный игровой мир: демократия, авторитаризм и революции

In the era of postmodernism, virtual games are no longer fun for young people. Modern games create universes and their members are also people of the middle generation who have a job, family, and children. If for young people the virtual gaming world is a space of momentary entertainment, then what are mature people guided by? The purpose of the article is to study the features of human interaction in the virtual game world. One of the world's most popular action-strategy games, Dawn of Titans, was chosen as the field for exploration. The game was chosen based on the fact that this genre (strategy) forms strong and long-term relationships among the members, and is less exposed to fragmentation and instability of social ties. The study reveals that for users the virtual game world is a space of leisure; place of escape from the problems of real life; means of acquaintance and communication; way for constructing desired personalities. The virtual game world is characterized by an important social stratification of users. It can also be noted that the peculiarities of the «natural» environment of the virtual space determine the predominant spread of democratic principles of managing game clans. The article suggests that in the future the virtual world in general and the virtual game world in particular, would become a place for the search for political subjectivity.