Pattern Recognition: Gameplay as negotiating procedural form

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

This paper will examine the relationship of pattern recognition and Gestalt principles to procedural form in gameplay. It will identify key features of pattern based play mechanics and outline important synergies between programming paradigms and procedural form. In the course of the paper I will examine the formal and aesthetic qualities of procedural structures and discuss how they generate the experience of psychological flow. I will also identify the role of these mechanisms and their effects in current game design.

 

Angry Birds, Uncommitted Players

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Bouça Maura
2012 DiGRA Nordic '12: Proceedings of 2012 International DiGRA Nordic Conference

Mobile phones have been game-enabled since 1997. However, it seems that mobile phone games are only taking off now, in the 2010s. With mobile phones and, specially, smartphones, reaching critical mass games, in their mobile form are accessible to more and more people, young and old, men and women. Angry Birds, first released for iOS in December 2009, was the best-selling mobile game in 2011 (Reisinger 2011). In order to understand who is playing Angry Birds, how, and why, the author conducted a series of interviews with a group of Angry Birds players. The results of those interviews are here analyzed according to perspectives arisen from those conversations. Two main axis of analysis resulted from the interviews: gender gap and gaming background.

 

Why gamers donʼt learn more: An ecological approach to games as learning environments

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Linderoth Jonas
2010 DiGRA Nordic '10: Proceedings of the 2010 International DiGRA Nordic Conference: Experiencing Games: Games, Play, and Players

This paper criticizes the argument that video games by their nature are good learning environments. By applying the ecological approach to perception and learning to examples of game play, the paper shows that games can be designed so that players are able to see and utilize affordances without developing skills. Compared to other practices, gaming demands less learning of the practitioner since progress can be built into the system. Contrary to the arguments put forth by James Paul Gee in his book What video games have to teach us about learning and literacy, this paper comes to the conclusion that good games do not necessarily imply good learning.