Toward the construction of fun computer games: Differences in the views of developers and players

Even though most games have been developed so that users have fun, there has been little research to address the elements of games that create the perception of being fun. The objectives of this research are to focus on which features people think provide fun, and then analyse these aspects both qualitatively and quantitatively. This study first identified important design factors that may contribute to making a computer game fun, which is then organised as an analytic hierarchy. Based on the hierarchy, we surveyed both game developers and game players about how important they thought some factors are in making a game fun. The comparison between game players and developers indicates that the relative preferences about the game design factors are not the same between the two groups. This study concludes with limitations and implications of study results in the development of fun computer games     

Migration from social casino games to gambling: Motivations and characteristics of gamers who gamble

The increasing convergence of the gambling and gaming industries has raised questions about the extent to which social casino game play may influence gambling. This study aimed to examine the relationship between social casino gaming and gambling through an online survey of 521 adults who played social casino games in the previous 12 months. Most social casino game users (71.2%) reported that these games had no impact on how much they gambled. However, 9.6% reported that their gambling overall had increased and 19.4% reported that they had gambled for money as a direct result of these games. Gambling as a direct result of social casino games was more common among males, younger users, those with higher levels of problem gambling severity and more involved social casino game users in terms of game play frequency and in-game payments. The most commonly reported reason for gambling as a result of playing social casino games was to win real money. As social casino games increased gambling for some users, this suggests that simulated gambling may influence actual gambling expenditure particularly amongst those already vulnerable to or affected by gambling problems.     

教育游戏开发原则与技术

当今电脑游戏发展迅速,青少年对其的迷恋已经成为社会关注的问题。研究电脑游戏的教育价值,将其与教育相结合是目前研究的重点。游戏实现技术多种多样,掌握难度较高,该文主要介绍了一种操作简单、功能强大的游戏设计软件——RPGMaker。     

Strategies for designing effective psychotherapeutic gaming interventions for children and adolescents

A range of face-to-face therapies and interventions for children and adolescents with mental health problems have been developed over the years and include cognitive-behavioral therapy, play therapy and applied behavior analysis. The popularity of computer games has grown exponentially in the last decade and has been widely accepted by children, adolescents and adults alike. Mental health professionals have therefore been exploring the use of these games to complement traditional treatment methods. To date however, there has been little known concrete evidence of the effectiveness of computer games for the treatment of children and adolescents with mental health conditions. Key to the success of such games is that at the outset, they must be well-designed. This paper reviews extant relevant computer gaming literature to propose a set of guidelines and strategies for the design of psychotherapeutic games targeted at children and adolescents. The issues raised concern both the game player as well as the game itself. As part of this review, limitations of existing work and areas of future research are also discussed.     

Software engineering research for computer games: A systematic review

ContextCurrently, computer game development is one of the fastest growing industries in the worldwide economy. In addition to that, computer games are rapidly evolving in the sense that newer game versions arrive in a very short interval. Thus, software engineering techniques are needed for game development in order to achieve greater flexibility and maintainability, less cost and effort, better design, etc. In addition, games present several characteristics that differentiate their development from classical software development.ObjectiveThis study aims to assess the state of the art on research concerning software engineering for computer games and discuss possible important areas for future research.MethodWe employed a standard methodology for systematic literature reviews using four well known digital libraries.ResultsSoftware engineering for computer games is a research domain that has doubled its research activity during the last 5 years. The dominant research topic has proven to be requirements engineering, while topics such as software verification and maintenance have been neglected up to now.ConclusionThe results of the study suggest that software engineering for computer games is a field that embraces many techniques and methods from conventional software engineering and adapts them so as to fit the specific requirements of game development. In addition to that, the study proposes the employment of more elaborate empirical methods, i.e. controlled experiments and case studies, in game software engineering research, which, have not been extensively used up to now.     

On the usability and likeability of virtual reality games for education: The case of VR-ENGAGE

Educational software games aim at increasing the students’ motivation and engagement while they learn. However, if software games are targeted to school classrooms they have to be usable and likeable by all students. Usability of virtual reality games may be a problem because these games tend to have complex user interfaces so that they are more attractive. Moreover, if the games acquire an educational content they may lose the attractiveness and appeal that they have on users who are familiar with commercial games. Consequently, likeability may also be questioned. In this paper, we address the issue of usability and likeability of a virtual reality game that is meant to teach students geography. We describe the evaluation experiments conducted, which involved three categories of students in terms of their level of game-playing expertise: novice, intermediate and expert game players. The evaluation results showed that the game was indeed usable and likeable but there was scope for usability and likeability improvement so that the educational benefits may be maximised for all categories of students. The evaluation studies reported in this paper, revealed important issues about further research on virtual reality educational games.     

Geogames: Designing Location-Based Games from Classic Board Games

The traditional image of interactive entertainment - games that reduce players' physical involvement to moving a joy stick - is obsolete. Games researchers and designers are already integrating complex movement into games. Location-based games involve body movements beyond figural space - that is, beyond the space of computer screens and small 3D objects. They focus on locomotion in vista space, typically a single room or sports field, or in environmental space, such as a neighborhood or city. Several location-based games have been designed for environmental space using localization technologies such as GPS. Some are adaptations of popular computer games, and others are rather straightforward chase games. A third type of game - what we call challenging location-based games - combines the intellectual and strategic appeal of classic board games with the real-time locomotion and physical involvement of location-based games. Furthermore, a straightforward approach to the spatial mapping of classic board games doesn't work. Instead, we developed the Geogames framework, which uses search techniques to identify a single temporal parameter for balancing sportive versus strategic elements     

Powerplay — Power,violence and gender in video games

Unlike the bulk of electronic media the computer game or video game is a distinctly gendered medium. All investigations confirm that we are dealing with a medium which almost exclusively appeals to and is used by, boys and young men. Therefore, the video games and computer games are very suited for investigating the form of entertainment, the pleasure, that appeals to men, i.e. the specific ‘masculine pleasure’. The paper deals with questions such as: What do computer games mean? What does violence in computer games signify? Why do computer games, especially the violent ones, mean something special to a certain group of men? These questions are discussed from the perspective of semiotics, media and control studies. Finally, the paper discusses the connections between women and the male dominated video games, and attempts to explain why, nevertheless, some girls and women do play these games.     

Improving player experience in Computer Games by using players' behavior analysis and linguistic descriptions

Understanding player behavior has an interest to computer games researchers and developers since it allows them to improve the design and implementation of computer games and also to ensure that players have the expected experiences. Currently this knowledge is not usually reported to players as feedback, although sometimes it is already used as an analysis tool. This paper presents a novel technology for automatically generating linguistic reports and immediate feedback from actions performed by players during play sessions. These reports allow developers to provide players with a more complete and personalized feedback about their behaviors, abilities, attitudes, skills or movements. In order to show and explore the possibilities of this new technology, we have incorporated it in the core of a computer game. We have evaluated positively that the incorporation of this kind of feedback into the core of YADY computer game allows us to improve the overall player experience.     

The influence of the level of free-choice learning activities on the use of an educational computer game

Employing a mixed-method explorative approach, this study examined the in situ use of and opinions about an educational computer game for learning English introduced in three schools offering different levels of freedom to choose school activities. The results indicated that the general behaviour of the children with the game was very different for each of the schools while there were no significant differences in subjective opinions or previous computer game experience as measured with a questionnaire. The gaming records and interviews informed that children do enjoy playing the game in comparison with other formal learning activities, but appreciate it less as a leisure-time activity. Furthermore it appears that children used to teacher-initiated activities tend to depend on their teacher’s directions for how and when to play. The study highlights the level of choice as one of the important aspects to consider when introducing a game in the classroom. The study also points out some suggestions for the design of educational games, such as providing communication possibilities between players and integrating fast-paced motor-skill based games with learning content in a meaningful way.     

浅谈用BDI模型开发智能NPC游戏角色

现代计算机游戏是一个非常复杂的软件系统,已经越来越多地运用AI技术来更好的满足玩家的需求.虽然BDI模型越来越受到人们的关注,但是BDI模型并没有广泛地应用在游戏的开发上.针对这方面的矛盾,出现了面向Agent的方法.通过一个游戏演示了它的可能性,该演示表明这种面向Agent的方法可以有效地解决这对矛盾.     

On the performance of OnLive thin client games

Computer games stand to benefit from “cloud” technology by doing heavy-weight, graphics-intensive computations at the server, sending only the visual game frames down to a thin client, with the client sending only the player actions upstream to the server. However, computer games tend to be graphically intense with fast-paced user actions necessitating bitrates and update frequencies that may stress end-host networks. Understanding the traffic characteristics of thin client games is important for building traffic models and traffic classifiers, as well as adequately planning network infrastructures to meet future demand. While there have been numerous studies detailing online game traffic and streaming video traffic, this paper provides the first detailed study of the network characteristic of OnLive, a commercially available thin client game system. Carefully designed experiments measure OnLive game traffic for several game genres, analyzing the bitrates, packet sizes and inter-packet times for both upstream and downstream game traffic, and analyzing frame rates for the games. Results indicate OnLive rapidly sends large packets downstream, similar but still significantly different than live video. Upstream, OnLive less frequently sends much smaller packets, significantly different than upstream traditional game client traffic. OnLive supports only the top frame rates with high-capacity end-host connections, but provides good frame rates with moderate end-host connections. The results should be a useful beginning to building effective traffic models and traffic classifiers and for preparing end-host networks to support this upcoming generation of computer games.     

基于XNA框架的Windows phone小型游戏的开发

电子游戏的开发是一项赋予想象力和创造力的开发活动。Windows Phone作为最新的游戏平台在未来的游戏市场中被看好。本文以一款简单有趣的横版卷轴飞行射击游戏为例,对一个基于XNA框架的、在Windows Phone上的小型游戏的开发过程做了论述。     

Interactive story authoring: A viable form of creative expression for the classroom

The unprecedented growth in numbers of children playing computer games has stimulated discussion and research regarding what, if any, educational value these games have for teaching and learning. The research on this topic has primarily focused on children as players of computer games rather than builders/constructors of computer games. Recently, several game companies, such as BioWare Corp. and Bethesda Softworks, have released game story creation tools to the public, along with their games. However, a major obstacle to using these commercial tools is the level of programming experience required to create interactive game stories. In this paper, we demonstrate that a commercial game story construction tool, BioWare Corp.’s Aurora Toolset, can be augmented by our new tool, ScriptEase, to enable students in two grade ten English classes to successfully construct interactive game stories. We present evidence that describes the relationship between interactive story authoring and traditional story authoring, along with a series of factors that can potentially affect success at these activities: gender, creativity, intellectual ability, previous experiences with programming, time playing computer games, and time spent online. Results indicate that students can successfully construct sophisticated interactive stories with very little training. The results also show no gender differences in the quality of these interactive stories, regardless of programming experience or the amount of time per week playing computer games or participating in general online activities, although a subset of female students did show a slightly higher level of performance on interactive story authoring. In the educational context of this study, we show that ScriptEase provides an easy-to-use tool for interactive story authoring in a constructionist learning environment.     

The effectiveness of adaptive difficulty adjustments on students' motivation and learning in an educational computer game

Computer games that adaptively adjust difficulty are used to continuously challenge players according to their abilities. The adjustment of difficulty occurs automatically in response to a game's ongoing assessment of a player's performance. This approach to difficulty adjustment is likely to be of value in educational computer games as a means of scaffolding learning for students. However, there is limited research evaluating the effectiveness of educational computer games with adaptive difficulty adjustment when compared to non-adaptive difficulty adjustment. To expand on this research a quasi-experimental study was designed to isolate the impact of the difficulty adjustment game element on motivation and learning. A total of 234 secondary school students were allocated to one of three activities involving learning about Spanish cognates: an adaptive difficulty adjustment game, an incremental difficulty adjustment game that was non-adaptive, and a written activity. The three learning activities were designed following the same learning and motivation theories. The two games were identical apart from the difficulty adjustment mechanism. The results for motivation indicated that all students experienced high levels and there was no significant difference between the three learning activities. The pre- and post-tests results for learning indicated that significantly higher learning outcomes were achieved by students who played the adaptive game. Analysis of a game log recording the correctness of students' responses indicated that the adaptive difficulty adjustment game, in contrast to the non-adaptive incremental difficulty adjustment game, provided a scaffolding structure to enhance student learning.     

棋牌类网络游戏服务端的架构设计

网络游戏目前在国内相当热门，棋牌类游戏在网络游戏中占有比较重要的地位。越来越多的开发商加入到了网络游戏的开发中来，但有关网络游戏开发技术介绍的资料却比较少。该文总结了一款通用的棋牌类网络游戏服务端的架构设计，介绍了基本架构、通信协议、多线程模型和第3方接口的相关内容，并对整个架构作了一定分析。     

Monte Carlo tree search in Kriegspiel

Partial information games are excellent examples of decision making under uncertainty. In particular, some games have such an immense state space and high degree of uncertainty that traditional algorithms and methods struggle to play them effectively. Monte Carlo tree search (MCTS) has brought significant improvements to the level of computer programs in games such as Go, and it has been used to play partial information games as well. However, there are certain games with particularly large trees and reduced information in which a naive MCTS approach is insufficient: in particular, this is the case of games with long matches, dynamic information, and complex victory conditions. In this paper we explore the application of MCTS to a wargame-like board game, Kriegspiel. We describe and study three MCTS-based methods, starting from a very simple implementation and moving to more refined versions for playing the game with little specific knowledge. We compare these MCTS-based programs to the strongest known minimax-based Kriegspiel program, obtaining significantly better experimental results with less domain-specific knowledge.     

A Lexical Approach to Study Computer Games and Game Play Experience via Online Reviews

This article proposes a revised lexical approach to understand characteristics of computer games and user experience in game play by analyzing online game reviews. The lexical approach was originally used by psychologists to study personality traits. It was based on a lexical hypothesis stating that personality traits are reflected in the adjectives people have been using to describe personality over a long time. A factor analysis was then conducted to identify the patterns of personality related adjectives (i.e., personality traits). The argument here is that game players have used natural languages to describe computer games and their experiences over time and that the most important characteristics of computer games and game play experience would be reflected in player language. Therefore, the traits of computer games and user experience during game play can be studied by examining the adjectives used by players in online reviews. Based on 696,801 reviews downloaded from three major game websites, the lexical approach was adapted to analyze textual content pertaining to computer games. In two consecutive studies, the most important factors concerning traits of computer games and game play experience were discovered and analyzed. The implications of the revised lexical approach and findings from this project were discussed.     

计算机博弈中序贯不完美信息博弈求解研究进展

计算机博弈是人工智能的果蝇和通用测试基准.近年来,序贯不完美信息博弈求解一直是计算机博弈研究领域的前沿课题.围绕计算机博弈中不完美信息博弈求解问题展开综述分析.首先,梳理计算机博弈领域标志性突破的里程碑事件,简要介绍4类新评估基准,归纳3种研究范式,提出序贯不完美信息博弈求解研究框架;然后,着重对序贯不完美信息博弈的博弈模型和解概念进行调研,从博弈构建、子博弈和元博弈、解概念以及评估3方面进行简要介绍;接着,围绕离线策略求解,系统梳理算法博弈论、优化理论和博弈学习3大类方法,围绕在线策略求解,系统梳理对手近似式学习、对手判别式适变和对手生成式搜索3大类方法;最后,从环境、智能体(对手)和策略求解3个角度分析面临的挑战,从博弈动力学和策略空间理论、多模态对抗博弈和序贯建模、通用策略学习和离线预训练、对手建模(剥削)和反剥削、临机组队和零样本协调5方面展望未来研究前沿课题.对于当前不完美信息博弈求解问题进行全面概述,期望能够为人工智能和博弈论领域相关研究带来启发.     

A mixed methods assessment of students' flow experiences during a mobile augmented reality science game

Current studies have reported that secondary students are highly engaged while playing mobile augmented reality (AR) learning games. Some researchers have posited that players' engagement may indicate a flow experience, but no research results have confirmed this hypothesis with vision‐based AR learning games. This study investigated factors related to students' engagement – as characterized by flow theory – during a collaborative AR, forensic science mystery game using mobile devices. School Scene Investigators: The Case of the Stolen Score Sheets is a vision‐based AR game played inside the school environment with Quick Response codes. A mixed methods approach was employed with 68 urban middle school students. Data sources included pre‐ and post‐surveys, field observations and group interviews. Results showed that neither gender nor interest in science was an important predictor of variability in flow experience. Gaming attitude uniquely predicted 23% of the variance in flow experience. Student flow experience features included a flash of intensity, a sense of discovery and the desire for higher performance. The findings demonstrated a potential for mobile AR science games to increase science interest and help students learn collaboration skills. Implications for future research concerning mobile AR science games are discussed.