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online games
New entry in Digiplay games research bibliography:
The aim of this study was to develop and validate a scale to measure computer and videogame addiction. Inspired by earlier theories and research on game addiction, we created 21 items to measure seven underlying criteria (i.e., salience, tolerance, mood modification, relapse, withdrawal, conflict, and problems). The dimensional structure of the scale was investigated in two independent samples of adolescent gamers (N = 352 and N = 369). In both samples, a second-order factor model described our data best. The 21-item scale, as well as a shortened 7-item version, showed high reliabilities. Furthermore, both versions showed good concurrent validity across samples, as indicated by the consistent correlations with usage, loneliness, life satisfaction, social competence, and aggression.
New entry in Digiplay games research bibliography:
The overuse of Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games (MMORPGs) is becoming a significant problem worldwide, especially among college students. Similar to Internet addiction, the pathological use of MMORPG is a kind of modern addiction that can affect students' lives on both a physical and a psychological level. The purpose of this study is to understand MMORPG addiction from a user experience design approach. We first developed a complete model that includes eleven factors (challenge, fantasy, curiosity, control, reward, cooperation, competition, recognition, belonging, obligation and role-playing) to represent users' experience in MMORPGs. After that, we design a questionnaire to measure student' gaming experience and level of addiction. Students' demography information, including gender and game playing habits, was also collected. Four hundred and eighteen Taiwanese college students aged 18-25 years old took part in this online survey. Regression analysis was then conducted to evaluate the relative explanatory power of each variable, with addiction score as the dependent variable and the eleven user experience factors as the independent variables. The results of regression analysis reveal five critical factors (curiosity, role-playing, belonging, obligation and reward) that can be used to predict MMORPG addiction. In addition, this study also infers possible casual mechanisms for increasing college students' level of addiction. The implications of our findings for both design and educational practitioners were also discussed.
New entry in Digiplay games research bibliography:
Selling virtual goods for real money is an increasingly popular revenue model for massively-multiplayer online games (MMOs), social networking sites (SNSs) and other online hangouts. In this paper, we argue that the marketing of virtual goods currently falls short of what it could be. Game developers have long created compelling game designs, but having to market virtual goods to players is a relatively new situation to them. Professional marketers, on the other hand, tend to overlook the internal design of games and hangouts and focus on marketing the services as a whole. To begin bridging the gap, we propose that the design patterns and game mechanics commonly used in games and online hangouts should be viewed as a set of marketing techniques designed to sell virtual goods. Based on a review of a number of MMOs, we describe some of the most common patterns and game mechanics and show how their effects can be explained in terms of analogous techniques from marketing science. The results provide a new perspective to game design with interesting implications to developers. Moreover, they also suggest a radically new perspective to marketers of ordinary goods and services: viewing marketing as a form of game design.
New entry in Digiplay games research bibliography:
Knowledge-based trust is trust that is grounded in knowledge about another party developed through repeated interaction. Knowledge-based trust is especially important for online business environments where there are repeated transactions between fixed pairs of consumers and merchants. Building on previous studies of trust, this paper examines the proposition that players' knowledge about website characteristics (i.e., security and interface design) and about website outputs (i.e., online game quality and service quality) has an effect on the development of trust in the context of online game websites. The impact of trust on building an effective online game website is also investigated. A conceptual model of knowledge-based trust is tested with questionnaire responses of 253 online game players. Overall, the results indicate that all of these four classes of knowledge engender trust and that trust helps develop effective online game websites. \copyright2007 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC.
New entry in Digiplay games research bibliography:
This article investigates the relationships between norms and the rich visual environment
of the multiplayer game The Sims Online (TSO). Literature suggests that people exhibit
normative behavior in online environments. The complex actions and interactions possible
with the game’s avatars and a minimal game structure make TSO an evocative online
space in which to examine social interaction. Through participation and observation, we
examined conversation and avatar conduct in TSO and found norms for verbal and nonverbal
behavior that governed both text and avatar use. These norms are related to offline
expectations of politeness and etiquette associated with visiting and hosting in people’s
homes, and they correspond with the visual dollhouse-like environment of TSO and its
characters. This game is a special context where social norms are clear and powerful,
affecting not only players’ game play but also their social interaction.
New entry in Digiplay games research bibliography:
A longitudinal design was employed to collect three waves of survey data over a 14 month period from 2790 online gamers. Respondents were asked questions about their gaming activity, motivations, personality, social and emotional environment, and the effect gaming has had on their lives. Prospective analysis was used to establish causal and temporal linkages among the repeatedly measured factors. While the data provide some indication that a player's reasons for playing do influence the development of problematic usage, these effects are overshadowed by the central importance of self-regulation in managing both the timing and amount of play. An individual's level of self-regulatory activity is shown to be very important in allowing them to avoid negative outcomes like problematic use. The role of depression is also discussed. With responsible use, online gaming appears to be a healthy recreational activity that provides millions of people with hours of social entertainment and adaptive diversion. However, failure to manage play behavior can lead to feelings of dependency.
New entry in Digiplay games research bibliography:
MMORPGs have become extremely popular among network gamers. Despite their success, one of MMORPG's greatest challenges is the increasing use of game bots, i.e., auto-playing game clients. The use of game bots is considered unsportsmanlike and is therefore forbidden. To keep games in order, game police, played by actual human players, often patrol game zones and question suspicious players. This practice, however, is labor-intensive and ineffective. To address this problem, we analyze the traffic generated by human players vs. game bots and propose solutions to automatically identify game bots.Taking Ragnarok Online, one of the most popular MMOGs, as our subject, we study the traffic generated by mainstream game bots and human players. We find that their traffic is distinguishable by: 1) the regularity in the release time of client commands, 2) the trend and magnitude of traffic burstiness in multiple time scales, and 3) the sensitivity to network conditions. We propose four strategies and two integrated schemes to identify bots. For our data sets, the conservative scheme completely avoids making false accusations against bona fide players, while the progressive scheme tracks game bots down more aggressively. Finally, we show that the proposed methods are generalizable to other games and robust against counter-measures from bot developers.
New entry in Digiplay games research bibliography:
We believe that Internet and computing technology have reached the stage where online games can offer an experience that is qualitatively different to what has gone before. To test how exposure to modern games could be of benefit to players, we recruited 12 subjects to play the MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game) "Nobunaga no Yabou Online", collecting data over two months. We evaluated subjects before and after playing, using psychological tests and tests of communication skill, typing skill and knowledge of the Internet and of online games. While the psychological tests showed no significant changes in the subjects' state of mind, there were measurable improvements in online communication skill, typing skill and knowledge, with the largest increases experienced by the subjects with least Internet experience.
New entry in Digiplay games research bibliography:
The rapid growth of Internet usage has enabled many new online communities to develop. A particularly interesting phenomenon that has arisen through Internet communities is the virtual world (VW). This paper identifies the challenges that developers of VWs will face in their efforts to find viable business models. This is a single case study of China as an exploratory project to determine the issues surrounding business models for virtual world developers and users. The paper discusses the feedback effects between broadband adoption and online games as well as issues such as culture, history, Waigua, private servers, virtual property trade, developer control, governance, and regulation. In spite of the profitability of major Chinese VW operators, close observation of the Chinese case suggests that even the most successful VW operators are still in the early stages of their business model development.
New entry in Digiplay games research bibliography:
On account for the rising of XDSL construction in Taiwan recent years, hundred of thousands people have become interested in digital content. Digital content is a creative industry, accompanied with emergence of rapid changed technologies and innovative business models, the government all over the world would be devoted to promoting the competitive advantage in digital content industries. From perspective of "digital independence", online game is regarded as the most cultural and innovative among them. While designing the online games architecture researchers provide due importance to technology. However, the present paper place emphasis on human element in architecture related to online games. The Taiwan experience is used to construct the online game architecture.
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