Objective Gaming disorder is a serious public health problem; however, there is a limited number of studies on this issue in clinical settings. This study aimed to determine the prevalence of addicted and at-risk gamers among adolescents who applied to a child psychiatry clinic and to identify the differences in clinical characteristics and game preferences between addicted gamers and other gamers

The film comments data contains a huge amount of mining research value, and text mining analysis of the animated film’s comments can objectively reflect the quality of the animated film presentation and the problems generally expressed by the audience. However, these film comments are often mixed. The existing well-known film reviews websites have not excavated typical reviews on the users film comment

The study aims to investigate the factors that contribute to children’s subjective well-being. We used playful-consumption experiences in children’s smartphone usage to determine their subjective well-being. In total, 210 valid responses were obtained from the parents and analyzed using PLS-SEM in SmartPLS 3.2.8. The results of the measurement model revealed that the investigated constructs were reliable

We present BPAlt – a system which allows game developers to create and manage alternatives for Unreal Engine’s Blueprints Visual Scripting System. BPAlt allows the user to create, save, organize and swap Blueprint alternatives for rapid testing and experimentation. BPAlt also supports level alternatives, alternatives of alternatives through alternative scenarios, and allows merging of alternatives

The objective of exposing girls to Computer Science as a career option has led to research directed towards gaming activities for girls. These activities include both game play and game design. Research about gaming activities for increasing girls’ interest in computer science has gained much attention over the past few years and has resulted in a number of contributions. We follow up with an overview

In this paper we introduce a novel strategy for generalizing existing puzzles and games by mathematically expressing the operations of the game; then deriving mathematical generalizations of those expressions; and finally implementing a new variant of the game using those generalized operations. The strategy is illustrated in a case study involving the adapting of a traditional game/puzzle to exploit

Playing mind games and puzzles has 2500 years of known history. Puzzles and games constitute a research domain that is attracting the interest of scientists from numerous disciplines such as artificial and computational intelligence, neural networks etc. All types of puzzles and games contain their own logic and mathematics. Able to know the science behind them and modelling the logic that a person

Digital serious games have shown to be effective in promoting citizen engagement and social interaction. The reasons for their success are, however, unknown. This paper proposes design recommendations to support designers of serious games for meaningful social interaction, based on player preferences, needs and desires, based on literature study and a case study for which a location-based game framework

Game streaming is emerging as an increasingly popular form of social gaming even among non-professionals. As such, players have to adapt to the presence of a digital gaming audience consisting of people who are either synchronously or asynchronously participating in their performance and engaging with them remotely via digital media. While individuals’ experiences with physically collocated (non-digital)

Existing research in player typologies has presented theories to try and explain players’ behavior during gameplay. Many typologies are context or genre specific and therefore are potentially limiting their practicality in other contexts. To date, no existing research categorizes players based on their explicit preferences for game elements and mechanics (GEMs). To this end, an analysis of three surveys

Commercial exergames are popular entertainment games and beneficial for health and motivation. However, more evidence on their effectiveness in learning contexts is needed. The present pre-post longitudinal field study focused on whether and how a commercial dance exergame promotes student learning and on several experience factors when being integrated into formal school teaching across four regular

Anxiety and depression are the most prevalent mental health disorders among young adults, leading to debilitating outcomes. Recently, there has been an increasing interest in the use of video games to prevent and treat mental health problems. Insight into the motivational factors that influence game selection and engagement will inform us on how to tailor the promotion of mental health games. The primary

Social clouds are nowadays very popular among users around the world, and users post videos and images on their wall to share with family and friends. Social cloud automatically compressed the videos during the upload process for fast load in webpages and save storage, which decreases the Quality of Experience (QoE) of the end-user. Previously subjective QoE of social cloud videos was conducted to

This study maps instructional support and learning outcomes of argumentation game-based learning. For this systematic review, 29 publications dating from 2000 through 2019 were studied to highlight the foci of this field of research. Although these studies reported effects of game-based learning on learning outcomes and instructional supports on argumentation skills, none of the publications reported

Video games are part of the technological revolution, and it is possible nowadays to play video games anytime and anywhere as a primary source of youth entertainment. The research question of this study refers to which are the patterns of video game usage by Spanish school adolescents. In particular, it analyzes the time and money spent on video games among Spanish teenage students of 11–19 years old

The verses of Rabindranath Tagore have been sung by various artistes over generations spanning over almost 100 years. There are few songs which were popular in the early years and have been able to retain their popularity over the years while some others have faded away in the course of time. In this study we tried to find cues in the singing style of these songs, sung by different singers spanning

Adaptive interactive storytelling is a resource used to guide the player through the game narrative in a way he/she can understand, in his/her own unique way, the multifaceted nature of the story being told. In interactive storytelling, the player is presented with a set of options to help directing the narrative, and the Drama Manager (DM) is responsible for controlling the narrative trajectories

Game refinement theory has been used as a reliable tool for measuring the attractiveness and entertainment of games, which is derived from a game information progress model and has been applied in various games. This study aims to explore the entertainment of popular multiplayer game-Chinese checkers. The experiments in this study investigated the entertainment of Chinese checkers by creating different

Gaming is a growing hobby in the young generation around the world and games are played from different platforms such as personal computer (PC)/mobile applications, online server and cloud services. Quality of experience (QoE) domain used for the assessment of user experience during the playing of the game. In this paper, we assess the QoE of the game players while playing different popular games such

Attention training games can use brainwaves as auxiliary inputs to increase the attention level of players in an engaging environment. These serious games are generally developed as a single-player game. However, research has shown that multi-player games that involve the interactions between multiple players are more appealing. This paper proposes a multi-player attention training game based on two

Mobile game industry made a breakthrough in the last decade with the increase in stores, applications, users and revenue. As a fresh sector in the business market, it brought many opportunities to entrepreneurs, companies, programmers and human resources who work and are intended to work in this field. Many researches have been conducted for mobile game industry on education, ergonomics, finance, marketing

“Juiciness” is a term that has been widely used to describe the positive feedback (both visual/audial) present in digital games. However, few empirical investigations have looked at how juiciness concretely impacts players. In this paper, we perform a study (N = 3018) in which we compare four identical versions of an action role-playing game with varying amounts of juiciness: (1) None; (2) Medium;

This paper explores an innovative way to find the comfortable settings of a newly designed game under development using a computer program. A Japanese crossword game ‘MyoGo Renju’ has been chosen as a benchmark for this research, whereas some important aspects such as fairness and engagement are evaluated to find the most optimum settings for the player. The game ‘MyoGo Renju’ can be played by Japanese

Artificial Intelligence in the form of machine learning is employed in games to control non-human computer-players, agents or bots. However, most of these games such as Atari took place in 2D environments that were not fully observable to the agents. Currently, it is of extreme significance to employ such machine learning techniques and methods in 3D environments such as Doom. Therefore, In this paper

Omnidirectional treadmills (ODTs) have been traditionally proposed as a promising solution for users’ navigation in large-scale virtual environments. These mechanical devices enable users to perform locomotive motion with 360-deg freedom, while keeping their position fixed in the physical world. However, most locomotion approaches based on omnidirectional treadmills have presented either high acquisition

Objective Being aware that serious games can be an interesting and appealing tool, the objective of this paper is to present the Physioland, a serious game based on image processing techniques, developed to monitor the physical therapy practice of patients with reduced mobility as a consequence of neurological disease. Materials and Methods Several tests were performed in a clinical environment. The

Maintaining certain modes of existence/action in the gaming universe seems to be directly linked to the low identity diversity in the digital game development industry. Within this context, we argue in this paper that a game is a way of representing/acting, in other words, it is a discourse in which people can act and interact in/on the world and, especially, with others. Thus, considering that game

This article discusses the processes involved in the construction of group membership and cohesion in a semiprofessional team of esports in the city of Belém, the capital of the state of Pará, in the Brazilian Amazonian territory. This effort discusses what characterizes the progression and union of a particular team in a local competitive scenario in which ephemeral teams predominate. Based on an

Addressing gaps in existing research, the current laboratory experiment (n = 139) examined the role that social facets play in the video gaming experience that multiplayer first-person shooter games provide. First, three different social settings of playing were compared concerning the amount of enjoyment and well-being they induced and second, a structural model based on self-determination theory

The modernization of industrial manufacturing processes has been driven by sophisticated equipment aimed at very large scale productions. For workers, this often has meant learning new and highly specific skills on-the-job, as they adapt to the new machinery. Additionally, the knowledge of most industrial pipelines is scattered among the many workers involved. Current training methods only partly solve

In almost all forms of storytelling, the background and the current state of mind of the audience members predispose them to experience a given story from a uniquely personal perspective. However, traditional story writers usually construct their narratives based on the average preferences of their audience, which does not guarantee satisfying narrative experiences for its members. When a narrative

The aim of this study is to investigate a proposed structural equation model that influences the factors predicted to affect the online gaming behaviors of a group of undergraduates. In the proposed structural model, factors such as Visual Appeal, Escape from Reality, Flow Experience, Success, Enjoyment, Self-Efficacy, The Intention of Playing Games and Gaming Behaviour were discussed. In testing of

Computer-Assisted Learning (CAL), specifically gamified interventions, is a promising intervention for people suffering from Attention-Deficit/ Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) in terms of improving their life behavior, academic achievement, and self-control. Most of the studies showed improvement in ADHD individuals’ engagement and motivation along with other skills the game targeted. They emphasized

Research in the social sciences devotes a great amount of attention to investigating the impact of video games on the individual and on society. However, results generated by this research often fail to inform game development. The present study investigated the outreach of research conducted by the academic community by interviewing 30 game developers and 14 researchers, highlighting critical aspects

A persistent challenge in video game studies has been articulating the various components of game experience inferred from traditional methods such as surveys and focus groups. To that purpose, online user reviews remain a rich yet underexplored resource for collecting feedback about game experience for the video game industry. After all, such data are often voluminous and unstructured, which complicates

Music is a common element in almost all video games. Most music in games is written by a human composer, and played as a linear piece behind gameplay. Adaptive and/or Generative music systems can be used to extend the musical content or create new musical content using algorithms and AI. While there is research into these systems, there has yet to be an organized examination of their architecture and

Massively Multiplayer Online Game (MMOG) players maintain consistent views of the positions of each other by periodically exchanging messages. Besides the fact that these messages can suffer delays that cause rendering inconsistencies, they also represent an overhead on the network. This overhead can be significant, as the number of MMOG players is very large, but reducing the number of messages is

In the multi-modal natural human-computer interaction (HCI), real-time finger position detection with high accuracy becomes an important basis for interactive modeling of the virtual environment. In this paper, a novel fingertip auto-positioning (FAP) detection method is proposed for tracking finger position with a Microsoft Kinect sensor. Based on the finger skeleton point obtained through the Kinect

An increasing number of recent narrative games have incorporated the metagaming elements of rewinding and remaking choices as their core mechanics. Traditionally, narrative game designers were concerned that rewinding would break immersion and negatively affect players’ narrative experience. Although there has been research on metagaming as a whole, relatively little has been focused on the design

The I-Ulysses: Poetry in Motion project is as a virtual reality experience, guiding the user through the unfolding events of James Joyce’s Ulysses in real-time. Currently there is a lack of research looking at adapting literature into virtual reality, for the purposes of cultural heritage, or for serious learning. I-Ulysses is aimed at addressing this gap, by providing an educational tool, intended

Obesity represents one of the most important health risks for a steadily increasing part of the population. The effort to prevent it or fight it is often hindered by the fact that a considerable percentage of individuals perceive their body image as healthier than it actually is. It is, therefore, essential to enhance awareness on actual body figure and weight state. In the current work we attempt

Developing games can be improved with Procedural Content Generation (PCG), the automatic creation of game contents, such as levels, music, and vegetation. However, few researches have addressed the impacts of PCG on players, especially in terms of games with educational ends. Hence, this understanding is a research area that demands further studies. To expand on this gap, this article presents a study

Virtual crowds are a prominent feature for a range of applications; from simulations for cultural heritage, to interactive elements in video games. A body of existing research seeks to develop and improve algorithms for crowd simulation, typically with a goal of achieving more realistic behaviours. For applications targeting human interaction however, what is judged as realistic crowd behaviour can

Game Analytics comprises a set of techniques to analyze both the game quality and player behavior. To succeed in Game Analytics, it is essential to identify what is happening in a game (an effect) and track its causes. Thus, game provenance graph tools have been proposed to capture cause-and-effect relationships occurring in a gameplay session to assist the game design process. However, since game

Curiosity is considered an important aspect of human life, but understanding the circumstances that cause a person to become curious poses a challenge for research. This paper proposes video games as a stimulus for the experimental study of curiosity. For this purpose, we conducted a survey with the goal of assessing what video game titles and genres could be considered reliable instruments for invoking

Elicited physiological affect in humans collaborating with their robot partners was investigated to determine its influence on decision-making performance in serious games. A turn-taking version of the Tower of Hanoi game was used, where physiological arousal and valence underlying such human-robot proximate collaboration were investigated. A comparable decision performance in the serious game was

Game mechanics encode a computer game’s underlying principles as their internal rules. These game rules consist of information relevant to a specific learning content in the case of a serious game. This paper describes an approach to predict the learning effect of computer games by analyzing the structure of the provided game mechanics. In particular, we utilize the Gamified Knowledge Encoding model

Since the era of Chinook, a computer program had won its first title against Marion Tinsley in the game of draughts. While most computer program in a variety of games has been designed to be a competitive opponent, it had derailed from one of the crucial aspects of games: fosters learning. This paper proposes a paradigm shift, from the foregoing methods of optimal play to sophisticated game design

This paper reports on an experiment that investigates the effect of interacting with a personality-driven embodied conversational agent (ECA) on the perceived social presence and game experience of people in a VR social simulator. Furthermore, the dynamics between the different metrics of game experience and social presence of people are explored to determine which game experience metrics are the strongest

Touchscreens – mobile phones, tablets, phablets, laptops – are now omnipresent. They are increasingly used as a gaming platform: puzzle games, role play games and first-person shooters are just some of the genres to have appeared on this platform. Despite this, there is only limited research on the particular value of touchscreens for gamer experience. This paper discusses a raft of experiments designed

When novice composers create a combination of melodies and accompaniments in the early stages of composition, they require a high easiness and good flexibility. We define music sketches as a “combination of an accompaniment and a melody. ” Novices need assistance in making music sketches, however, automation approach increases easiness but decreases flexibility. In this paper, we have developed a system

In this paper we introduce Facial Expression Analysis (FEA) both as a means of predicting in-game difficulty and as a modeling mechanism, based on which we develop in-game difficulty adjustment algorithms for single player arcade games. Our main contribution is the implementation of an online and unobtrusive game personalisation system. On the basis of FEA, our system is able to adapt the difficulty

Research indicates that commercial exergames do not support acquisition of user Fundamental Movement Skills (FMS) owing to both technical and theoretical limitations. That is, affordable 3D sensors (e.g. Kinect®) demonstrate poor accuracy detection enabling users to ‘cheat’ motor skill outputs during gameplay and, lack fundamental design principles crucial to improve motor skill outcomes over time

Game streaming—viewing live or recorded broadcasts of others’ video game play—has become widely popular in recent years due to the emergence of platforms such as Twitch and YouTube Gaming. We position game streaming as a form of collaborative game play, with implications for how we study games and communication. We first review the social history of gaming before explicating game streaming as a gaming

Recent advances in VR technology allow users to consume immersive content within their own living room. Substitutional Reality (SR) promises to enhance this experience by integrating the physical environment into the simulation. We propose a novel approach, called Smart Substitutional Reality (SSR), that extends the passive haptics of SR with the interactive functionality of a smart home environment

We designed and implemented a gamified eHealth application for youth mental healthcare, to study how game design techniques could be applied within this context. This resulted in the design of a gamified mobile application aimed at supporting therapeutic goal setting: the ReadySetGoals game. The design process itself involved four key stages: (1) Identifying the transfer effect to be aimed-for, (2)

Virtual reality has once again gained recognition and attention with the recent hardware-driven technological advances and there is also a diversity of applications from videos produced using 360° camera systems to animated immersive 3D animations and interactive experiences or games. While the variety of the VR hardware, VR applications and their appeal are staggering, the user experience of modern

While humor exists in some shape or form in many video games, unlike in film and literature, comedy is not considered an established genre of its own in video games. One of the challenges in defining what constitutes comedy in video games, however, is in identifying the elements that contribute to such comedy, particularly with the inclusion of interactively as a fundamental aspect of video games.

An increasing number of virtual reality applications now use full-body avatars to represent the user in virtual environments. To fully control these virtual avatars, movement-tracking technology is required. However, most full-body tracking solutions are expensive and often cumbersome and time consuming to setup and use. Affordable depth cameras, on the other hand, are easy to set up, but most lack