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Search results for: http://www.digra.org/dl/db/07309.19112.pdf

- 1506 articles or papers

 

The Localization of Digital Games: A Case Study in China

Zhou Quan Kolko Beth
2005 DiGRA '05 - Proceedings of the 2005 DiGRA International Conference: Changing Views: Worlds in Play

This paper examines the challenges that game localization is confronting. By focusing on China, the paper explores the uniquenesses of digital games and proposes a three-dimension model for evaluating and improving game localization. These three dimensions include In-Game Environment, External Environment, and Users. The paper analyzes both successful and failed foreign games in China in connection with the three-dimension approach. It argues that these three dimensions are highly influential and they should be considered throughout the whole game design process.

 

Framing Virtual Law

Edelmann Peter
2005 DiGRA '05 - Proceedings of the 2005 DiGRA International Conference: Changing Views: Worlds in Play

Building on the work of games theorists and virtual world designers, this paper proposes a framework for understanding the real-virtual dichotomy in terms of a series of five frames or layers which interact simultaneously in creating the phenomena associated with virtual worlds. At the outermost edges of the model are the two poles commonly referred to as real and virtual. The interface consists of the input/output and communication mechanisms through which the virtual world participant connects to the virtual world system. This could include, among other things, a screen and keyboard, network architecture and relevant software. The system is a rule-based structure which controls and manages input and output streams in relation to activity in the virtual world. The instantiation consists of the discourse produced or permitted by the system layer. Depending on the world in question, the instantiation could take the form of simple text, or some combination of text with graphics or audio. Finally, the virtual frame is the fully immersed world as it would be experienced by a fictional character who is not aware they live in a fictional world. Applying the model to the legal aspects of virtual worlds allows issues which have been explored by a number of authors to be placed in a more coherent context. The laws of the actual world, and in particular recourse to courts and sanctions of the actual world can be understood in the context of that frame. The interface layer subsumes a number of issues specific to cyberspace law, but more importantly is the level at which the virtual world participant and the owner enter into the contractual agreement or EULA which will define much of the power dynamics in the other frames. At the system level, programming code operates in a regulatory capacity by making certain types of behaviour possible or impossible within the virtual world. The instantiation level is interesting in two capacities. First, the ownership of the images or text which form the discourse is an active area of contention between various stakeholders. Secondly, the instantiation is the frame in which the discourse which gives rise to and maintains the magic circle around the virtual world is uttered. Finally, within the virtual frame, a nomos is developed and maintained by both formal and informal means. In-world justice systems and political structures are common, arising even without intervention by the owners, possibly even challenging their control over the world. Although this paper will only provide a cursory overview of a large number of legal issues related to virtual worlds, it is not the goal to explore any one aspect in depth. In effect, many of the areas touched on have been explored with significant insight by others, and it is to be hoped that work of similar quality will continue in the future. The goal of this excercise is to provide a framework within which existing and future work can be situated, and will hopefully assist others in identifying relevant aspects of their chosen areas of study. While law is the focus of this paper, the model is equally applicable to a number of other aspects of virtual worlds, ranging from geography and economics to identity and literary theory.

 

The Narrative and Ludic Nexus in Computer Games: Diverse Worlds II

Brand Jeffrey E. Knight Scott J.
2005 DiGRA '05 - Proceedings of the 2005 DiGRA International Conference: Changing Views: Worlds in Play

To examine relationships between narratological and ludological elements in computer games, we undertook an empirical study of 80 contemporary titles. We drew inspiration from Jenkins’ 2004 paper on dimensions of narrative architecture and Aarseth, Smedstad and Sunnanå’s (2003) paper on a typology of ludological factors in games. Although these two groups of concepts have not been fully explicated, we defined them in concrete terms, citing example game titles. We intersected six groups of narratological factors with seven groups of ludological factors and present the data in this paper. Of the four dimensions of narrative architecture, evoked was most problematic and of the typology of ludological factors, topography and pace of time were least useful. The nexus between narratological and ludological factors is most obvious in the relationship between embedded and emergent narrative and player structure, determinism and strategic objective. We present implications, many game examples and future research ideas.

 

Possibilities of Non-Commercial Games: The Case of Amateur Role Playing Games Designers in Japan

Ito Kenji
2005 DiGRA '05 - Proceedings of the 2005 DiGRA International Conference: Changing Views: Worlds in Play

This paper examines amateur role-playing games designers in Japan and their games. By combining sociological studies of amateur game designers and content analysis of their games, it examines how non-commercial production of games by amateurs allows production of games of different kinds from commercial ones.

 

The Effects of a Consumer-Oriented Multimedia Game on the Reading Disorders of Children with ADHD

McGraw Tammy Burdette Krista Chadwick Kristine
2005 DiGRA '05 - Proceedings of the 2005 DiGRA International Conference: Changing Views: Worlds in Play

Certain interventions that ameliorate impairments in reading and attention disorders operate on the physiological level and, therefore, lend themselves to technology-based applications. This study investigates the effects of Dance Dance Revolution (DDR)—a consumer-oriented, multimedia game—on the reading disorders of sixth-grade students with ADHD. It was hypothesized that by matching movements to visual and rhythmic auditory cues, DDR may strengthen neural networks involved in reading and attention and thereby improve student outcomes. Sixty-two students, randomly assigned to treatment and control groups, participated in the test-retest study using the Process Assessment of the Learner: Testing Battery for Reading and Writing as a measure of reading impairment. The results suggest that the treatment may have had an effect on participants’ ability to perform on the Receptive Coding subtest. Furthermore, the results suggest a positive relationship between the number of treatment sessions a student completed and gains made on Receptive Coding and Finger Sense Recognition subtests.

 

The use of Video Game Technology for Investigating Perceptual and Cognitive Awareness in Sports

Mulligan Desmond Dobson Mike McCracken Janet
2005 DiGRA '05 - Proceedings of the 2005 DiGRA International Conference: Changing Views: Worlds in Play

This paper describes a framework for investigating and manipulating the attentional components of video game play in order to affect learning transfer across different task environments. Several groups of video game players (VGP) and non video game players – both hockey and non-hockey groups (NVGPH, NVGP) will be tested at baseline on several aspects of visual processing skill. The NVGP and NVGPH groups will then train for one week in an action video game playing environment. They will then be re-tested for attentional efficiency. The hockey group will also be tested before and after training on a pattern and cue recognition sport video test. We intend to show that, not only does video game play alter basic components of visual attentional resources, but that it can also enhance perceptual learning transfer across unrelated task domains.

 

Cinematic Camera as Videogame Cliché

Thomas David Haussmann Gary
2005 DiGRA '05 - Proceedings of the 2005 DiGRA International Conference: Changing Views: Worlds in Play

Because the videogame camera is not an optical camera, it can be programmed to represent a potentially infinite number of perspectives beyond the classic, representational linear perspective. However, an ongoing collusion of the optical camera and the videogame camera leads videogame designs to favor cinematic visual patterns. Classic videogames show a strong tradition of non-optical, non-cinematic perspectives and prove the potential for the videogame medium to expand beyond optically-true perspectives. In fact, this paper argues the development of videogames as an expressive medium depends on an understanding of cinematic perspective as a form of visual cliché’

 

The Pervasive Interface: Tracing the Magic Circle

Nieuwdorp Eva
2005 DiGRA '05 - Proceedings of the 2005 DiGRA International Conference: Changing Views: Worlds in Play

This paper is an addition to the discourse surrounding interface theory and pervasive games. A buzzword by nature, the term ´interface´ needs to be investigated and redefined in order to remain academically valid; at the same time the pervasive game, being part of recent developments in game culture, needs to be given a place in the discourse of digital games. By approaching the interface through formal game theory, I will investigate the place and status of the interface in the pervasive game, as well as the border between everyday reality and the virtual game world, in search of defining the interaction between fantasy and reality in pervasive gaming. Next to the conventional interface of hard- and software, I argue that in pervasive gaming there exists the two-levelled “liminal” interface, which initially transfers the player into a playful state of mind (paratelic interface) before implementing more rigid structures that belong to the game itself (paraludic interface).

 

Playing in the Sandbox: Developing games for children with disabilities

Kearney Paul R.
2005 DiGRA '05 - Proceedings of the 2005 DiGRA International Conference: Changing Views: Worlds in Play

Many researchers believe that special games are needed for people with special needs. However, this study highlights some of the issues surrounding computer games and disabled children by conducting interviews to ask them what games they would like to play. Interestingly, they wanted to play the same games that everyone else did. What they do need is a way of interacting with these games, especially those on Xbox and Playstation consoles, which require two very dexterous hands to control. This paper is the start of an ongoing project to investigate input devices for disabled people, to allow them to interact with other players through playing commercial multiplayer games. The study also considers the issues of using computer games to test the abilities of disabled people in an attempt to integrate them into mainstream society.

 

The Psychophysiology of Video Gaming: Phasic Emotional Responses to Game Events

Rajava Niklas Saari Timo Laarni Jani Kallinen Kari Salminen Mikko
2005 DiGRA '05 - Proceedings of the 2005 DiGRA International Conference: Changing Views: Worlds in Play

The authors examined phasic psychophysiological responses indexing emotional valence and arousal to different game events during the video game Monkey Bowling 2. Event-related changes in skin conductance, cardiac interbeat intervals, and facial EMG activity over corrugator supercilii, zygomaticus major, and orbicularis oculi were recorded. Game events elicited reliable valence- and arousal-related phasic physiological responses. Not only putatively positive game events, but also putatively negative events that involved active participation by the player elicited positive emotional responses in terms of facial EMG activity. In contrast, passive reception of negative feedback elicited low-arousal negative affect. Information on emotion-related phasic physiological responses to game events or event patterns can be used to guide choices in game design in several ways.