Digital Library Publication Forum Archives

DiGRA '11 - Proceedings of the 2011 DiGRA International Conference: Think Design Play

- 91 articles or papers

 

Unexpected game calculations in educational wargaming: Design flaw or beneficial to learning?

Frank Anders
2011 DiGRA '11 - Proceedings of the 2011 DiGRA International Conference: Think Design Play

This paper describes situations where learning games are not perceived by the player as being realistic. In educational wargaming this is seen when the game calculates battleoutcomes. Defined as unexpected game calculations, these incidents can cause players to adopt a Gamer Mode attitude, in which players reject the idea that the game accurately portrays warfare. In a study involving cadets playing a commercial strategic wargame as part of their course in war science, unexpected game calculations emerged and resulted in different user responses. Although user responses risked damaging the worth of learning from gaming, this paper argues that these incidents could enhance learning, as the cadets became interested and keen on finding rationales to why and how unexpected calculations occur.

 

Grow-A-Game: A Tool for Values Conscious Design and Analysis of Digital Games

Belman Jonathan Nissenbaum Helen Flanagan Mary
2011 DiGRA '11 - Proceedings of the 2011 DiGRA International Conference: Think Design Play

This paper discusses a tool developed by the Values at Play (VAP) project to facilitate values-conscious design and analysis of digital games. Our tool, called the Grow-A-Game cards, has been implemented and assessed in numerous advanced and beginner game design courses. Here, we report five case studies of Grow-A-Game exercises, each demonstrating how the cards can be used to produce innovative and interesting values-focused designs and/or guide meaningful exploration of the relationship between values and games.

 

The Aiming Game: Using a Game with Biofeedback for Training in Emotion Regulation

Cederholm Henrik Hilborn Olle Lindley Craig Sennersten Charlotte Eriksson Jeanette
2011 DiGRA '11 - Proceedings of the 2011 DiGRA International Conference: Think Design Play

This paper discusses the development of the Aiming Game, a serious game intended to be used as a tool for training emotion regulation. The game is part of an intervention package designed to support hypnosis training online of financial investors in becoming aware of their emotional states as well as providing them with a toolbox which can be used for training to counteract cognitive biases which may interfere with their trading activities. The paper discusses how such a game can be implemented as well as how it can be effectively evaluated. The evaluation is mostly focused on the effectiveness of the induction of emotional arousal by the game, which is supported by standardized game design methods and patterns.

 

Designing the Designer

Potanin Robin Davies Oliver
2011 DiGRA '11 - Proceedings of the 2011 DiGRA International Conference: Think Design Play

This paper examines the selection criteria for design roles in the videogame industry and examines the profiles of students undertaking game design studies at NHTV in the expectation of working in the industry. A total of four analyses were conducted: job advertisements for design and production roles; an industry survey; MBTI profiling of a cross-section of IGAD students; and a survey of Design and Production students. In 2010 NHTV University of Applied Sciences initiated the Design and Production (D&P) specialization within its existing International Game Architecture Design (IGAD) bachelor degree. In preparing the specialization the authors analyzed a range of job advertisements for design and production staff in the videogame development industry and profiled its first intake of students according to gender, age, personality (Myers-Brigg (MBTI), Brainhex) and play preferences. Which students were successful in their first year of game studies? How did they compare to programmers and artists? In recent years, design positions in the game industry have increased in direct correlation with the focus on producing sequel titles/levels in established franchises. These titles require more design staff, namely game designers, level designers and narrative designers. The need to critically examine the role and personality of a designer in the game industry is vital to replicating them on a scale that surpasses previous production pipelines where one game designer envisioned the game on a macro level and a handful of level designers implemented gameplay on a micro level. NHTV initiated this first stage of research to gain insight into what the videogame industry needs in terms of design and production skills and personnel and what NHTV, in terms of students and curriculum, is providing. Ultimately the authors hope their research will innovate the game design production pipeline.

 

The game boy’s network. A network analysis of the German digital games industry

Kröger Sonja Domahidi Emese Quandt Thorsten
2011 DiGRA '11 - Proceedings of the 2011 DiGRA International Conference: Think Design Play

This paper aims to map the German digital games industry. Using expert interviews and social network analysis, the current paper focuses on the industry development in Germa-ny, identifying structures of organizational and personal networks in the digital games in-dustry. Following a holistic approach, it is argued that while actors of the standard value chain are key units in the digital games industry, stakeholders who influence the political and social discourse have to be taken into account as well. The results show, that not only console manufactures have an outstanding role in the German digital games industry. Considering in-degree and eigenvector centrality, trade associations (e.g. GAME, BIU) and political organizations (e.g. USK, KJM) are well connected and consequently im-portant actors too.

 

‘Can’t Stop The Signal?’ The Design of the Dutch Firefly LARP

Lamerichs Nicolle
2011 DiGRA '11 - Proceedings of the 2011 DiGRA International Conference: Think Design Play

In this paper, I analyze the design of a Dutch live-action role-playing game (LARP), based on the television series Firefly. I discuss it as part of the recent participatory culture in which fans mediate existing fiction into other products such as games. Game studies have often bypassed types of gaming that are initiated by players themselves by taking professional and digital games as their starting points. By focussing on a local example of a fan game, I hope to provide new insights in game design and play. After disseminating between fan and game practices, and sketching some of the previous research thereof, I shall elaborate upon the design of the game in four ways by focussing on the designer, the context, the participants and its construction of meaningful play. I argue that the fan LARP displays a particular design perspective based on the co-creative ethos of role-playing and fandom itself. Whereas existing research isolates the actors that are relevant in game practices, designer, player and fan modes clearly interrelate here.

 

“To Get Help, Please Press X” The Rise of the Assistance Paradigm in Video Game Design

Therrien Carl
2011 DiGRA '11 - Proceedings of the 2011 DiGRA International Conference: Think Design Play

The first generation of video games are known to be tremendously challenging. On top of the classic “easy to learn, hard to master” arcade games, the development of the domestic market saw the rise of more expansive and varied game worlds, in computer RPGs or adventure games. This added complexity is often synonym with a more steep difficulty curve due to the amount of information to assimilate early on. In this paper, we will try to understand how game designers have organised the challenge and complexity of their games through the development of assistance systems: tutorials, check points, adjustable difficulty, etc. The historical evolution of these systems supposes a major change in the way players are addressed by the medium, from the highly competitive environment of early days to the seemingly more cooperative attitude of contemporary games.

 

MUsE – A Framework for Reception-based Gaming Research

Schultheiss Daniel
2011 DiGRA '11 - Proceedings of the 2011 DiGRA International Conference: Think Design Play

Game studies are approached from very different faculty cultures and research perspectives. As the reception based view usually examines the process of game usage and its environment, there are still several different entries into the field. Many theoretical approaches and empirical studies concentrate on single phases or theoretical constructs of game reception. Sometimes this is done very detailed, sometimes in a more superficial way. This article delivers a more holistic model for reception based gaming research called MUsE, which describes a whole cycle of game usage and also can be used in longitudinal study designs. Additionally, results of a first prototype study are presented at a glance.

 

The professional identity of gameworkers revisited. A qualitative inquiry on the case study of German professionals

Wimmer Jeffrey Sitnikova Tatiana
2011 DiGRA '11 - Proceedings of the 2011 DiGRA International Conference: Think Design Play

The phenomena of computer games and the plethora of game cultures have already been drawing attention of researchers for many years, whereas the people behind computer games – the gameworkers – undeservingly remained in the shadows until quite recently. The lack of information about this workforce and its professional identity makes this research object especially interesting. The analysis relies on a pilot study about the issue of the professional identity of gameworkers, which aimed to dig deeper with the means of qualitative research. During that project nine German gameworkers were interviewed and an attempt to give an in-depth description of their professional identity was made. The study shows that the respondents have a very strong coherence with their profession and perceive themselves as a part of their profession and the team/studio they work with/at. The most salient reason for this is the deep interest the respondents have in computer games (for both making and playing games).

 

Serious Beats: Transdisciplinary research methodologies for designing and evaluating a socially integrative serious music-based online game

Kayali Fares Schwarz Vera Götzenbrucker Gerit Pfeffer Jürgen Franz Barbara Purgathofer Peter
2011 DiGRA '11 - Proceedings of the 2011 DiGRA International Conference: Think Design Play

Recent studies show that the second generation of migrants is not adequately integrated into mainstream society but tends to segregate into secluded segments. ‘Internet Use and Friendship Structures of young migrants in Vienna: a Question of Diversity within Social Networks and Online Social Games’1 is a transdisciplinary2 research project with the objective to create a serious music-based online social game, which firstly is intended to be a positive impact game with the purpose of furthering integration and encouraging the manifestation of meaningful multiethnic relations. Secondly, the game shall make social interaction observable for evaluation. This paper gives an overview of which methodological approaches can be combined in the phases of the game’s design process and shows how the mutual embedding of game design researchers and social scientists works in this context.