Digital Library Publication Forum Archives
DiGRA '05 - Proceedings of the 2005 DiGRA International Conference: Changing Views: Worlds in Play
- 142 articles or papers
Digital Games: A Motivational Perspective
Medina Eliana
2005 DiGRA '05 - Proceedings of the 2005 DiGRA International Conference: Changing Views: Worlds in Play
Information technologies have improved dramatically in the last decade, enhancing the potential of digital games to create realistic and engaging environments where players use different cognitive approaches to solve problems, such as, thinking outside of the box, collaborating in groups and searching for information. Unfortunately not all genres of digital games have taken advantage of the new technology and game design knowledge now available. Commercial and educational games have evolved in different ways. For instance, while the commercial game market has experienced continuous growth, the educational game market is almost non-existent. Users’ preference for commercial games indicates that people have different motivations for playing commercial games and for playing educational games. Motivation theories provide a framework to study how users engage with these games, so that designers can apply the best features of both computer applications to create powerful learning tools.
Interactive Story Writing in the Classroom: Using Computer Games
Carbonaro Mike Cutumisu Maria McNaughton Matthew Onuczko Curtis Roy Thomas Schaeffer Jonathan Szafron Duane Gillis Stephanie Kratchmer Sabrina
2005 DiGRA '05 - Proceedings of the 2005 DiGRA International Conference: Changing Views: Worlds in Play
Interactive story writing is a new medium for creative expression. The story “writer” uses a computer game (such as BioWare’s Neverwinter Nights) to create an interactive story where the “reader” is an active participant. The state of the art is that the story (plot, character behaviors, character interactions, conversations, etc.) is specified by writing scripts. Unfortunately, scripting is too low level for non-programmers. ScriptEase is a tool for writing interactive stories in role-playing games that frees the author from doing explicit computer programming. Stories are created by selecting and customizing familiar patterns. From this specification, ScriptEase automatically generates Neverwinter Nights scripting code. To test the usability of ScriptEase, the tool has been used as an aid to help with the short story unit of a Grade 10 Alberta high school English curriculum. This paper describes ScriptEase and reports on our experience in using it in the classroom.
Albert Goes Narrative Contracting
Newman Ken Grigg Robert
2005 DiGRA '05 - Proceedings of the 2005 DiGRA International Conference: Changing Views: Worlds in Play
RPG’s (Role Playing Games) and improvisational theatre have some obvious similarities. Both require the participants to work together in real-time to construct dynamic narrative elements. Seeing communication in terms of ongoing narrative contracts is a well-accepted principle of improvisational theatre (Johnstone 1981). The recipient of an offered narrative element can accept the offer, block it, or make a counter-offer. This paper describes a methodology for studying subjects engaging in a controlled online role-playing ‘encounter’. The encounter is titled ‘Albert in Africa’ and the study draws on the previously described Fun Unification Model (Newman 2004). In this study, subjects’ individual responses were correlated with the number of acceptances, blocks and counter-offers they make during their encounter. Comparisons are then made with observations of the massively multiplayer game World of WarCraft. From this emerges a methodology for analyzing the complex interactions of RPG encounters.
Game Graphics Beyond Realism: Then, Now, and Tomorrow
Masuch Maic Röber Niklas
2005 DiGRA '05 - Proceedings of the 2005 DiGRA International Conference: Changing Views: Worlds in Play
Photorealism is one of the most quoted aspects of nowadays games. However, realistic game graphics is not the only style desirable. This paper surveys the many graphical styles used in past and current games, analyzes graphical aspects of computer games and discuss the use of realism with respect to game graphics. We show several examples and make references to current research, encouraging game developers to experiment with alternative, more artistic rendering styles, such as non-photorealistic rendering.
Build It to Understand It: Ludology Meets Narratology in Game Design Space
Mateas Michael Stern Andrew
2005 DiGRA '05 - Proceedings of the 2005 DiGRA International Conference: Changing Views: Worlds in Play
Building experimental games offers an alternative methodology for researching and understanding games, beyond what can be understood by playing and studying existing games alone. Through a simultaneous process of research and artmaking in the construction of the interactive drama Façade, new theoretical and design insights into several game studies questions were realized, including the hotly debated question of ludology vs. narratology. This paper describes some of the ways that building games can inform researchers about what game scholarship should be focused on and why, and ways that building games can offer new perspectives on existing forms and genres.
Game Mediated Communication: Multiplayer Games as the Medium for Computer Based Communication
Wiklund Mats
2005 DiGRA '05 - Proceedings of the 2005 DiGRA International Conference: Changing Views: Worlds in Play
As multiplayer games evolve in functionality and with respect to the number of participants, in-game communication between players is increasing. As in-game communication increases, games may be considered the natural medium for computer based communication in general. Special issues may arise due to the real-time nature of many games, as intraplayer communication must not interfere with other parts of the gameplay. To obtain information on the extent to which computer based chat is spontaneously associated with multiplayer games, an empirical study was conducted. Children from age 10 to age 15 were interviewed about their computer based communications. To ensure unbiased results, game related issues were never brought up by the interviewer. Results show that multiplayer games were spontaneously pinpointed by 16.83% of the interview subjects being asked about their computer chat habits. Positive remarks dominated, but some negative aspects were also mentioned, such as difficulty chatting and playing simultaneously.
Research as Design-Design as Research
Stapleton Andrew J.
2005 DiGRA '05 - Proceedings of the 2005 DiGRA International Conference: Changing Views: Worlds in Play
This paper details a research methodology that emerged during an inquiry into game design aimed at promoting conceptual learning in physics. The methodology, Research as Design-Design as Research (RADDAR), is outlined and a case study example is provided as means to illustrate its application.
Troubling ‘Games for Girls’: Notes from the Edge of Game Design
Flanagan Mary
2005 DiGRA '05 - Proceedings of the 2005 DiGRA International Conference: Changing Views: Worlds in Play
This paper presents notes from the field focused on a large project to design an activist, multi-user game aimed at middle school girls. A thorny issue in developing games for girls is the categorization of female players and universalizing their preferences. In the paper I provide diverse feedback on current game-based research project, RAPUNSEL, hoping to provide a multiplicity in the category of "girl" so that new game designs may challenge the many stereotypes inherent in computer culture. I then discuss the game design in RAPUNSEL and how a designer may provide for multiple play styles.
Learning Games as a Platform for Simulated Science Practice
Magnussen Rikke
2005 DiGRA '05 - Proceedings of the 2005 DiGRA International Conference: Changing Views: Worlds in Play
In recent years, science education has been the focus of study and development of new game-based learning environments. It has been argued that active and critical learning about rich semiotic systems, learning through learning communities and the complex problem-solving that good games involve, resemble science learning as being an active process of inquiry just as real life science practice. In this paper, I present the first studies from a test of the cross-disciplinary science educational game ‘Homicide’, a forensic investigation game developed at Learning Lab Denmark. The goal with Homicide is to use the game media to simulate an ‘authentic’ learning situation of science experts. In the game the players go through the process of inquiry similar to that of forensic experts. In this paper I present the first observations from a play test of Homicide and discuss the potential in this type of game-based learning spaces.
Gaming Mind, Gaming Body: The Mind/Body Split For a New Era
Young Bryan-Mitchell
2005 DiGRA '05 - Proceedings of the 2005 DiGRA International Conference: Changing Views: Worlds in Play
Drawing on the phenomenologically inspired works of drew Leder and Randy Martin, this paper examines the ways in which playing a First-Person Shooter first creates a secondary body for the player and then, because of the first-person perspective, proceeds to erase that body from the player’s consciousness. The paper explores the notion of and the ways in which First-Person Shooters complicate our conception of embodiment. Offering an ethnographically-influenced semiotic analysis of playing a FPS, the paper begins by declaring that we are typically not aware of our bodies and that playing a FPS gives us another body on which to concentrate causing an erasure of the physical body. It is then asserted that the virtual body is also rendered invisible due to the perspective and speed of the game resulting in a double erasure of the body leaving behind only the mind.