Computer games may be an effective tool for teaching health-related knowledge and skills. This study evaluates the effect of a novel computer game about the glycemic index (GI) on knowledge, self-efficacy, and behavioral intention for adopting a lower GI diet. A pretest-posttest, nonequivalent control group design was employed. Students aged 18-30 years (n = 65) either completed the GI computer game or reviewed US Department of Agriculture's MyPyramid Web site regarding healthy eating guidelines. Participants completed a GI knowledge test, a self-efficacy instrument, and a questionnaire that assessed intentions to choose lower GI food choices. The computer game group showed greater gains than the control group in knowledge (P < .001) and self-efficacy scores (P < .01). Scores regarding behavioral intention also were significantly higher (P < .001) for the game group. A game-based approach may be effective in facilitating the adoption of lower GI food choices. Read more...

This book chapter is an overview of recent research on interactive games and learning and it describes the learning outcomes that have been identified in studies of interactive games. The outcomes are grouped into nine areas: Motivation to learn, Perception and coordination, Thinking and problem solving, Knowledge, Skills and behaviors, Self-regulation and therapy, Self-concepts, Social relationships, and Attitudes and values. The chapter concludes by pointing to processes of learning and skill development that can occur in well designed interactive games and some of the game design strategies that can enhance game-based learning. Read more...

Whimsy and fun are often the precursors to powerful tools that are used later for more serious applications. A project at inception might not be useful because of lack of infrastructure or incomplete refinements. Resultantly the computer game has filled a role in being the incubator for many innovations that drive the usefulness of the computer. This article describes this role, developing a set of technologies, interaction styles, and social transformation that contributes to the computer field. A brief historical discussion and a consideration to some future possibilities are given. Read more...

The traditional approach to implementing interactions between a player character (PC) and objects in computer games is to write scripts in a procedural scripting language. These scripts are usually so complex that they must be written by a computer programmer rather than by the author of the game story. This interruption in the game story authoring process has two distinct disadvantages: it increases the cost of game production and it introduces a disconnect between the author's intentions and the interactions produced from the programmer's written scripts. We introduce a mechanism to solve these problems. We show that game authors (non-programmers) can generate the necessary scripts for implementing meaningful interactions between the PC and game objects using a three-step process. In the first step, the author uses a generative pattern (concept) to create a high-level description of a commonly occurring game scenario. In the second step, the author uses a standard set of adaptation operations to customize the high-level description to the particular circumstances of the story that is being told. In the third step, the author presses a button that automatically generates scripting code from the adapted pattern. We describe the results of three studies in which a combined total of 56 game story authors used this three-step process to construct Neverwinter Nights game stories, using a tool called ScriptEase. We believe that this generative/adaptive process is the key to future game story scripting. More generally, this article advocates the development of adaptive programming as an alternative to current constructive programming techniques, as well as the application of adaptive programming in many domains. Read more...

Online learning in commercial computer games allows computer-controlled opponents to adapt to the way the game is being played. As such it provides a mechanism to deal with weaknesses in the game AI, and to respond to changes in human player tactics. We argue that online learning of game AI should meet four computational and four functional requirements. The computational requirements are speed, effectiveness, robustness and efficiency. The functional requirements are clarity, variety, consistency and scalability. This paper investigates a novel online learning technique for game AI called 'dynamic scripting', that uses an adaptive rulebase for the generation of game AI on the fly. The performance of dynamic scripting is evaluated in experiments in which adaptive agents are pitted against a collection of manually-designed tactics in a simulated computer roleplaying game. Experimental results indicate that dynamic scripting succeeds in endowing computer-controlled opponents with adaptive performance. To further improve the dynamic-scripting technique, an enhancement is investigated that allows scaling of the difficulty level of the game AI to the human player's skill level. With the enhancement, dynamic scripting meets all computational and functional requirements. The applicability of dynamic scripting in state-of-the-art commercial games is demonstrated by implementing the technique in the game NEVERWINTER NIGHTS. We conclude that dynamic scripting can be successfully applied to the online adaptation of game AI in commercial computer games. Read more...

In a time-to-market environment, designers may not be able to incorporate all the design features in a computer game. For each feature, there are several levels of implementation, which is corresponded to different levels of benefit as well as cost. Therefore, a trade-off decision for determining appropriate levels of implementation is very important, yet has been rarely studied in literature. This paper presents an approach to solve the trade-off decision problem. This approach applies the neural network technique and develops a genetic algorithm to optimize the design of computer games. By this approach, a near-optimal design alternative can be identified in a timely fashion. Read more...

Academics and industry professionals alike have long been interested in developing a nuanced and empirically sound typography of online gamers. Designers and engineers are aware of the value of well-considered "personas" to help guide the software development process. This study takes a new, quantitative approach to analyzing the aggregation of empirical characteristics for more than 1100 gamers. A statistical process called “factor analysis” reduces the dimensionality of this study’s survey data and mathematically suggests four distinct archetypes of online gamers that statistically account for more than two-thirds of play preferences. The significance of these findings is that they offer quantitative support for characterizing different kinds of online gamers in the way that other researchers have qualitatively interpreted their experiences. Read more...