Browsing by Subject "Video games"

Now showing 1 - 3 of 3
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    The brain is for action: embodiment, causality, and conceptual learning with video games to improve reading comprehension and scientific problem solving.
    (2012-11) Dubbels, Brock Randall
    This experiment compares children's comprehension and problem solving with the same information presented in three different media formats: an embodied video game, a first-person video, and a print narrative. The embodied video game emphasizes interaction and causation, where the player moves the narrative forward by causing change through interaction. According to embodiment theorists, the ability to create knowledge is predicated upon the ability to identify and connect changes, and what causes change in events. Comprehension is measured in this study with the Event-Indexing Model, (EIM). Research on the EIM indicates that identification of causation is often highly correlated to identification of other elements of comprehension, including memory of time, space, objects, and intentions across events. This experiment examines whether media format, which emphasizes embodied interaction and identification of causation, improves comprehension and problem solving. In question 1, this experiment examines whether the embodied video game will lead to superior comprehension and problem solving outcomes compared to the same information presented in a video or a printed text. Question 2 compares comprehension and problem solving when the reading text condition follows playing the game and watching the video. The third question examines the role of causation, which is the ability to identify actions that create changes between narrative events in a text. This dissertation analyzes comprehension and problem outcomes across media: as an embodied video game, a video, or a printed text. Additionally, it examines reading performance across presentation order, and the importance of identification in situation model construction.
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    A computational approach to the study of player and group performance in massively multiplayer online games.
    (2011-12) Shim, Kyong Jin
    The market for video games skyrocketed over the past decade. Massively Multiplayer Online Games (MMOGs) have become increasingly popular and have communities comprising over 47 million subscribers by the year 2008. With their increasing popularity, researchers are realizing that video games can be a means to fully observe an entire isolated universe. Each action is logged, and the level of granularity and completeness with which information is collected is unmatched by any real-life experimental setup. They serve as unprecedented tools to theorize and empirically model the social and behavioral dynamics of individuals, groups, and networks within large communities. Virtual world applications usually have a thin-client architecture, practically all user actions are captured in the click-stream logged at the server. This dataset contains a comprehensive record of every user's in-network activities, accomplishments, interactions, economic status, etc. A brief record of the user's side information (i.e. profile data) is also stored. It is common for popular social networking and collaborative systems to have hundreds of thousands of users generating copious amounts of data based on the many different activities they are participating in at any given time. The data also has a temporal component which is often an integral part of the analysis and introduces further relationships that must be accounted for. Thus, while providing an exciting new tool for the social sciences, the virtual worlds also present a set of difficult and novel computational challenges. In the gaming community today, there is a growing interest in understanding player behaviors both inside and outside the gaming space. Game companies are interested in finding out how their games are played, if they are being played as intended, how the different game mechanics are being played out and how the different game playing patterns lead to a high level of satisfaction and entertainment for customers. Retrospective analyses after the game launch on existing game features can reveal information on which features enhance player's gaming experience and to which demographic segments they especially appeal to. Features negatively correlated with gaming experience can be considered for removal while those positively correlated with gaming experience can be further enhanced. For new game features, prospective analyses before the game launch can reveal information on which features might appeal to certain player population segments with a certain level of confidence and user-oriented testing can focus on these features for further validation. This thesis work presents the first comprehensive quantitative analysis of an important aspect of MMOG game play, namely player and group performance. While there are many different game genres (i.e. action, shooter, action-adventure, adventure, role-playing, and simulation) and many dimensions comprising players' game-play experience, in certain game genres such as MMOGs, close connection has been reported between player enjoyment and completing challenges and mastering skills. A systematic study of individual game player characteristics, group composition and characteristics, social interactions amongst the group members, and game environments can reveal a great deal about what are the recipes for success in achieving various objectives in the game. Broadly, this thesis work seeks to develop 1) Player performance metrics and prediction models, 2) Player activity prediction model, 3) Player enjoyment prediction model, and 4) Group performance metrics and prediction models. Lastly, we contribute a single, generic framework for player and group behavior analysis that is applicable to other MMOGs with minimal configuration changes.
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    Perceptions of Women and Gaming: Exploring Implications of Intersectionality through Quantitative Analysis of Blog Comments
    (2016) Petters, Noah
    The goal of this study is to determine how the general gaming public perceives women in the gaming culture differently by certain visual criteria portrayed on the internet in the form of a blog. More specifically, it pursues to find out how the same perspective of women in gaming culture is received by the public, despite differences in only gender and racial representation. Under the context of intersectionality, the proceeding criteria were used to determine the perception of women in the gaming culture and issues that surround them. Comments or public reactions of blog pages were analyzed by conditions of race and gender, which then were expert coded and used to conduct a qualitative analysis of “hostility” and “acknowledgment”. The categorized reactions were then used to produce a quantitative measurement to determine the public perception of women within the gaming culture. Results indicate examination of condition (Black female, Black male, White female, White male) revealed statistically significant differences in the pattern of hostile and non-hostile responses. Furthermore, an examination of conditions also revealed statistically different patterns related to acknowledgment of a problem. Noted patterns of hostility and acknowledgement may help to further determine implications of the intersecting aspects of one’s identity in an expanding culture and industry of games.