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Search results for: http://www.digra.org/dl/db/06276.54243.pdf

- 1506 articles or papers

 

Authentic Learning Experiences Through Play: Games, Simulations and the Construction of Knowledge

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

A chorus of proclamations have arisen in recent years about the potential of games and simulations to facilitate learning. Yet few discussions focus on the fundamental issue surrounding the implementation of games and simulations: to what learning objectives and pedagogical strategies are they most relevant? Through an examination of perspectives on the suitability of games for learning, as well as recent examples of digital game-based training in two vocational settings, this paper examines the design of authentic learning experiences as a way of thinking about the appropriateness and unique potential of games and simulations in a range of educational and training settings.

 

Bringing New HOPE to Networked Games: Using Optimistic Execution to Improve Quality of Service

Hanna Ryan Katchabaw Michael
2005 DiGRA '05 - Proceedings of the 2005 DiGRA International Conference: Changing Views: Worlds in Play

As more games of a wider variety of genres move online to provide multiplayer experiences to their players, there is an increasing need to improve the quality of service delivered to the players of these games. Players tend to have the same performance and consistency expectations of their online multiplayer games as they do of their single player games, without realizing the issues and problems introduced by networking their games together. This results in a tremendous challenge for developers of networked games, because issues such as latency work strongly against meeting the needs of players. In this paper, we discuss the concept of optimistic execution to help game developers mask or hide the effects of latency in their networked games. We introduce the notion of optimistic execution, present our work in this area, dubbed New HOPE, and comment on its ability to assist game developers in this important area.

 

CameraBots: Cinematography for Games with Non-Player Characters as Camera Operators

Kneafsey James McCabe Hugh
2005 DiGRA '05 - Proceedings of the 2005 DiGRA International Conference: Changing Views: Worlds in Play

Cinematography describes principles and techniques pertaining to the effective use of cameras to film live action. The correct application of these principles and techniques produces filmed content that is more engaging, compelling and absorbing for the viewer. 3D computer games employ virtual cameras in order to provide the player with an appropriate view of the game world. These virtual cameras can simulate all of the functionality of their real-world counterparts yet little effort is usually made to incorporate cinematographic techniques and principles into their operation. We introduce CameraBots, autonomous camera operators modelled closely on the non-player characters (NPCs) or bots already present in many games. CameraBots can perform a larger set of operations than their real-world counterparts since they are not subject to the same physical restraints. Thus, cinematographic principles can be applied to camera work with relative ease by reusing bot program code already present. Our system contains a director module and a cinematographer module which together are responsible for coordinating the CameraBots in a manner consistent with cinematography rules and practice. It is designed in a modular manner such that it may be applied to numerous computer games with little modification.

 

The Nip and the Bite

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

An examination of the contributions that can be made by the field of non-mechanistic cybernetics (as elaborated by Gregory Bateson and Anthony Wilden) to a theory of videogames that views them as complex open systems in dynamic relation to players. Bateson, observing animal play, suggests that the playful nip has a complex relation to the earnest bite. This paper contends that the relation of player, avatar and game constitutes a similar system and that Wilden’s development of the theory of play has great potential for the study of videogames.

 

The things we learned on Liberty Island: designing games to help people become competent game players

Oliver Martin Pelletier Caroline
2005 DiGRA '05 - Proceedings of the 2005 DiGRA International Conference: Changing Views: Worlds in Play

The relationship between games and learning has, predominantly, either treated games as potential educational content or only considered the social contexts of learning from games at a general level. A methodology has been developed that permits the detailed analysis of how people learn from particular instances of game play. This is used to study two approaches to playing Deus Ex, one involving the training level and one neglecting this. The study reveals what players learnt, the playing strategies they developed, the way in which these strategies evolved and also how previous experience was transferred to this new context. Conclusions are drawn about the value of training levels and the importance of designing games in a way that recognizes previous gaming experience. The study also has implications for defining game genres, for decisions about the inclusion of design features such as quick saves and for the design of AI scripts.

 

Opening the Production Pipeline: Unruly Creators

Banks John A. L.
2005 DiGRA '05 - Proceedings of the 2005 DiGRA International Conference: Changing Views: Worlds in Play

This paper explores the implications and uptakes of game developers’ increasing reliance on the creative labour of fan content creators. It draws on an ethnographic account of Australian game developer Auran’s increasing reliance on train and rail fans in the process of developing Trainz: a train and railroad simulation. I argue that this is not simply a case of the exploitation of unknowing fans as a source of free labour. This research demonstrates that gamers are not only well aware of these practices; they are also sophisticated practitioners who participate in them. These complex entanglements of the proprietary and the non-proprietary, the commercial and the non-commercial, are not necessarily an appropriation of fandom by corporate bottom-line agendas. However, Auran’s effort to integrate fan content creation into the commercial game development process struggles with the problem of fundamentally reorganising the project to support this kind of collaborative work.

 

Game, Motivation, and Effective Learning: An Integrated Model for Educational Game Design

Paras Brad Bizzocchi Jim
2005 DiGRA '05 - Proceedings of the 2005 DiGRA International Conference: Changing Views: Worlds in Play

As new technologies enable increasingly sophisticated game experiences, the potential for the integration of games and learning becomes ever more significant. Motivation has long been considered as an important step in learning. Researchers suggest Csikszentmihalyi’s Flow Theory as a method for understanding and implementing motivation. This bears significance since games foster play, which produces a state of flow, which increases motivation, which supports the learning process. However, this relationship is not as straightforward as it first seems. Research also shows that reflection is an important part of the learning process and while in the state of flow, players rarely reflect on the learning that is taking place. This paper explains how games can act as effective learning environments by integrating reflection into the process of play, producing an endogenous learning experience that is intrinsically motivating.

 

The Pleasures and Practices of Virtualised Consumption in Digital Spaces

Molesworth Mike Denegri-Knott Janice
2005 DiGRA '05 - Proceedings of the 2005 DiGRA International Conference: Changing Views: Worlds in Play

Videogames now enable players to spend virtual fortunes on exotic virtual goods and even create and sell virtual artefacts. Online consumers may also browse endlessly through virtual marketplaces and create and display virtual goods. These virtual commodities are desired and enjoyed as if they were real, but are not actually bought, or owned in a material sense – often resulting in frustration amongst marketers. In this paper we account for virtualised consumption by highlighting its pleasures. We start by historicising the trend towards imaginary consumption practices, depicting virtual consumption as the latest stage in an ongoing transformation of consumption from a focus on utility through to emotional value, sign value and finally playful experience. Viewed from this perspective, we consider the role of emerging virtual consumption spaces as liminoid, transformational play-spaces and explore examples of consumer practices found in these spaces. Ultimately we argue that virtual spaces encourage the development of new consumption practices and therefore constitute the ability of the market to stimulate consumers’ imaginations in new and exciting ways based on digital play.

 

Online Gaming as a Virtual Forum

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

As videogame scholarship takes hold in the academy, attracting the attention of researchers and critics from a variety of disciplines, a frequently asked and salient question is, “What existing theoretical frameworks are appropriate for this nascent field?” This short essay argues that Horace Newcomb and Paul Hirsch’s article, “Television as a Cultural Forum,” provides a useful starting point for conceptualizing the social meaningfulness of online, multiplayer gaming. Skins, mods, fan sites, and in-game communication channels emerge as a cultural network by which players can speak through, and about, their communal play.

 

Extending Soft Models To Game Design : Flow, Challenges And Conflicts

El Rhalibi Abdennour England David Hanneghan Martin Tang Stephen
2005 DiGRA '05 - Proceedings of the 2005 DiGRA International Conference: Changing Views: Worlds in Play

Challenge and conflict are elements that all game designers strive to engineer into their games. Research shows that challenge is what drives a high proportion of games players yet there are few published tools that can be used to assist the game designer in constructing useful challenges and conflict leading many new game designers to resort to the ‘tried and trusted’ techniques used in previous games and hence limiting the originality of new games. In this paper we apply the Soft Systems Methodology to game design and assess its suitability as a tool for structured idea formulation in games.