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psychology
New entry in Digiplay games research bibliography:
The paper presents the players' implicit views on psychological aspects of a supposable influence of computer/online/video-games on human beings. And online survey with 74 Likert-type questions were given to adults and older adolescents (16+). The collected replies (N=437) were grouped into an eight-factor model. The key implicit representations include the participants' belief that gaming: (1) leads to positive self-development, (2) affects the players' somatics, i.e. causes tiredness and stresses while gaming and in an after-game period, (3) brings pleasing feelings while gaming, (4) stimulates cognitive processes, and (5) supports players' relaxation and gives pleasure.
New entry in Digiplay games research bibliography:
In recent years, an aging demographic majority in the Western world has come to the attention of the game industry. The recently released “brain-training” games target this population, and research investigating gameplay experience of the elderly using this game form is lacking. This study employs a 2×2 mixed factorial design (age group: young and old×game form: paper and Nintendo DS) to investigate effects of age and game form on usability, self-assessment, and gameplay experience in a supervised field study. Effectiveness was evaluated in task completion time, efficiency as error rate, together with self-assessment measures (arousal, pleasure, dominance) and game experience (challenge, flow, competence, tension, positive and negative affect). Results indicate players, regardless of age, are more effective and efficient using pen-and-paper than using a Nintendo DS console. However, the game is more arousing and induces a heightened sense of flow in digital form for gamers of all ages. Logic problem–solving challenges within digital games may be associated with positive feelings for the elderly but with negative feelings for the young. Thus, digital logic-training games may provide positive gameplay experience for an aging Western civilization.
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:
Every day, millions of users interact in real-time via avatars in online environments, such as massively-multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs). These online environments could potentially be unique research platforms for the social sciences and clinical therapy, but it is crucial to first establish that social behavior and norms in virtual environments are comparable to those in the physical world. In an observational study of Second Life, a virtual community, we collected data from avatars in order to explore whether social norms of gender, interpersonal distance (IPD), and eye gaze transfer into virtual environments even though the modality of movement is entirely different (i.e., via keyboard and mouse as opposed to eyes and legs). Our results showed that established findings of IPD and eye gaze transfer into virtual environments: ( 1) male-male dyads have larger IPDs than female-female dyads, ( 2) male-male dyads maintain less eye contact than female-female dyads, and ( 3) decreases in IPD are compensated with gaze avoidance as predicted by the Equilibrium Theory. We discuss implications for users of online games as well as for social scientists who seek to conduct research in virtual environments.
New entry in Digiplay games research bibliography:
First Person Games induce presence, thus fulfilling Steuer’s definition as virtual realities. As such, it is worth considering the qualities of the realities they form and how these
may help us understand the relationship between the player, the contents of the game and the game system itself. Ludic reality is proposed as a construct to elucidate this relationship: an artificial temporal space in which the constrained rules of the system, the
semantic contents and sequencing constructs it contains, and the behaviour and subjective experience of the player are combined into a more-or-less stable and effective state of being-in-theworld. Ludic reality directly addresses the question of the impact of internal, semantic factors in the experience, such as world, narrative and agency, together with the adoption, by the player, of a schematic, structured means of effectively interacting
with the system to draw out its specific systems of affordances and reward.
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