“Why Do You Play Dungeons & Dragons [D&D]?”: Investigating Motivations for Play in Non-Digital Games

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Sidhu Premeet
2022 DiGRA ’22 – Proceedings of the 2022 DiGRA International Conference: Bringing Worlds Together

 

Playing the System: Comparing the Efficacy and Impact of Digital and Non-Digital Versions of a Collaborative Strategy Game

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Kaufman Geoff Flanagan Mary
2016 DiGRA/FDG '16 - Proceedings of the First International Joint Conference of DiGRA and FDG

The present research compared the experiences and outcomes afforded by digital and non-digital games. In a randomized experiment, a sample of youth, ages 11-17, played a cooperative public health game presented in either a non-digital format (board game) or digital format (mobile app). Relative to baseline scores reported in a no-game control condition (N = 30), players of the non-digital version of the game (N = 28) exhibited significantly higher post-game systems thinking performance and more positive valuations of vaccination, whereas players of a nearly identical digital version (N = 30) did not. This discrepancy was accounted for by key differences in play that emerged: specifically, players of the digital game exhibited a more rapid play pace and shorter turn length, and discussed strategies and consequences less frequently and with less depth. The implications for the use of games to facilitate cognitive growth and learning are discussed. Keywords

 

Roleplaying and Rituals For Cultural Heritage-Orientated Games

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Champion Erik
2015 DiGRA '15 - Proceedings of the 2015 DiGRA International Conference

Roles and rituals are essential for creating, situating and maintaining cultural practices. Computer Role-Playing games (CRPGs) and virtual online worlds that appear to simulate different cultures are well known and highly popular. So it might appear that the roles and rituals of traditional cultures are easily ported to computer games. However, I contend that the meaning behind worlds, rituals and roles are not fully explored in these digital games and virtual worlds and that more work needs to be done to create more moving rituals, role enrichment and worldfulness. I will provide examples from The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion and The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (Bethesda, 2006, 2011) to reveal some of the difficulties in creating digitally simulated social and cultural worlds, but I will also suggest some design ideas that could improve them in terms of cultural presence and social presence.

 

Beyond the digital divide: An ecological approach to gameplay

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

This paper outlines a framework for understanding gameplay from the perspective of ecological psychology. According to this perspective, gameplay can be described in terms of perceiving, acting on and transforming the affordances that are related to a game system or to other players in a game. Challenges in games have an emphasis on perceiving suitable actions and/or performing suitable actions, often with emphasis on one aspect. For example, in many board games, strategy games and puzzle games, the challenge is to perceive appropriate affordances while in many sports, multiplayer shooter games, racing games, etc. the challenge is to use appropriate affordances. From this follows that the ecological approach to gameplay overrides the division of games as being digital and non-digital games.