{"title":"Teaching Serious Issues through Player Engagement in an Interactive Experiential Learning Scenario","authors":"Henrik Schoenau-Fog","doi":"10.7557/23.6138","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.7557/23.6138","url":null,"abstract":"In order to inform about a serious subject concerned with the tragic consequences of being a victim of war in an interactive narrative game-like experience, it is essential to design a scenario which engage the participants despite the grave content. This paper thus focuses on how player engagement and playfulness can be applied to drive participants through a non-pleasurable experiential learning scenario in order to communicate serious topics. By investigating the concept of engagement in games, a framework of player engagement will be described. The framework has been used in a case-study to aid the design of an application – the “First Person Victim” – which is intended to be used in combination with an in-class discussion in order to address the serious topic. An evaluation of the scenario indicated that theme related feelings like hopelessness, fear, loneliness, and chaos are experienced by engaged participants and that there is a potential for using the scenario as a tool in teaching.","PeriodicalId":247562,"journal":{"name":"Eludamos: Journal for Computer Game Culture","volume":"296 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2012-05-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"129402553","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"What Makes an MMORPG Leader? A Social Cognitive Theory-Based Approach to Understanding the Formation of Leadership Capabilities in Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games","authors":"A. Ee, Hichang Cho","doi":"10.7557/23.6136","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.7557/23.6136","url":null,"abstract":"Using Bandura’s (1986) Social Cognitive Theory (SCT) and McCormick’s (2001) SCT-applied models of leadership, we aimed to understand the complex processes of leadership development in Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games (MMORPG) environments. Using in-depth interview data from 20 Singaporean World of Warcraft players, we examined how environmental factors (e.g. game design, communication, and collaboration structures), personal factors (e.g. self-efficacy), and gaming behaviour affect the development of leadership capabilities. The findings suggest that Bandura’s and McCormick’s frameworks are useful in explaining how these factors contribute to leadership development, with some examples including: 1) game designs that allow for formalised leadership roles can create better opportunities for leadership development, and 2) self-efficacy, an important trait for leadership development, can be cultivated through confidence gained by reinforcing knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs) through repeated application of these KSAs in similar situations. Implications for research and practice are discussed.","PeriodicalId":247562,"journal":{"name":"Eludamos: Journal for Computer Game Culture","volume":"33 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2012-05-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"122360118","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Designscape – A Suggested Game Design Prototyping Process Tool","authors":"Jonathan T. Manker","doi":"10.7557/23.6140","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.7557/23.6140","url":null,"abstract":"In this work the prototyping process of game design is analysed and a model, the designscape, is suggested. The analysis is based on empirical data consisting of interviews with game designers; at leading positions in ten game companies and at two educational programs focusing on game design. The prime perspective presented as basis for the model is rhetoric in relation to the prototyping process. The intended value of the designscape is to provide deepened information and knowledge about the design process. ","PeriodicalId":247562,"journal":{"name":"Eludamos: Journal for Computer Game Culture","volume":"13 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2012-05-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"115616231","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The professional identity of gameworkers revisited. A qualitative inquiry on the case study of German professionals","authors":"J. Wimmer, T. Sitnikova","doi":"10.7557/23.6143","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.7557/23.6143","url":null,"abstract":"The phenomena of computer games and the plethora of game cultures have already been drawing attention of researchers for many years, whereas the people behind computer games – the so called gameworkers – undeservingly remained in the shadows until quite recently. The lack of information about this workforce and its professional identity makes this research object especially interesting. The analysis relies on a pilot study about the issue of the professional identity of gameworkers, which aimed to dig deeper with the means of qualitative research. During that project nine German gameworkers were interviewed and an attempt to give an in-depth description of their professional identity was made. The study shows that the respondents have a very strong coherence with their profession and perceive themselves as a part of their profession and the team/studio they work with/at. The most salient reason for this is the deep interest the respondents have in computer games (for both making and playing games).","PeriodicalId":247562,"journal":{"name":"Eludamos: Journal for Computer Game Culture","volume":"126 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2012-05-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"125777973","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Skin Games: Fragrant Play, Scented Media and the Stench of Digital Games","authors":"Simon Niedenthal","doi":"10.7557/23.6141","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.7557/23.6141","url":null,"abstract":"@font-face { font-family: \"Arial\"; }@font-face { font-family: \"Arial\"; }@font-face { font-family: \"Cambria\"; }@font-face { font-family: \"MS Mincho\"; }p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal { margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Cambria; }.MsoChpDefault { font-size: 10pt; font-family: Cambria; }div.WordSection1 { page: WordSection1; } This study presents an argument in favor of using multiple theory triangulation (Mäyrä 2009) as a means of generating design heuristics and gameplay scenarios for engaging the sense of smell in games. The disciplines that are drawn upon include sensory psychology, sensory anthropology, literature, interaction design and HCI research, and game studies. The physical and historical context of smell in games is sketched by considering the challenges of designing for the sense of smell, examining how different cultures have integrated smell into their lives and entertainment, analyzing the failures of scented filmic media, and surveying games in which smell has played a role: Leather Goddesses of Phobos (Infocom Inc. 1986) and Leisure Suit Larry 7: Love for Sail! (Sierra On-Line Inc. 1996). Rather than naïve immersion, in which smell merely confirms what is seen onscreen, this study seeks to root the future development of scented gameplay in Ermi and Mäyrä’s SCI model of immersion (2007), and draws upon design discourses related to the bodily and spatial uses of scent: perfume and incense. We can learn about how to effectively engage smell in games by examining the ways in which people have organized play around perfume and incense, from games that incorporate perfume themes (ranging from board games to Axe cologne advergames), to the playful behaviors of an online fragrance community (Basenotes.net). The results of this study include general design heuristics for smell in games, as well as specific gameplay concepts for an existing digital game genre (survival horror), and a physical Scratch-and-sniff party game.","PeriodicalId":247562,"journal":{"name":"Eludamos: Journal for Computer Game Culture","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2012-05-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"128672618","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Designing a Game for Playful Communication within Families","authors":"I. Toft, A. Naseem","doi":"10.7557/23.6137","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.7557/23.6137","url":null,"abstract":"This article presents the game Junomi, a game designed to give families and teenagers opportunities to play with the way they communicate and also experience closeness and togetherness. Taking a research based approach and getting a detailed understanding of the situation to design for facilitated an investigation that helped seeing potentials for playful moments and spaces in the situation, as well as how the different elements and aspects of the situation could be made playable. Everyday communication is considered complex, heterogeneous and indefinable and the game does not, which models or simulate the complexity of the situation, but to create a frame that invites, suggests, reminds and encourage for a playful mind in the everyday and thereby gives possibilities for the families to, through play, explore and experiments with ways of communicating and ways of being together. The experience of the game depends largely on how the players choose to engage with the game.","PeriodicalId":247562,"journal":{"name":"Eludamos: Journal for Computer Game Culture","volume":"25 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2012-05-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"131593159","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Winding Road to Discovery: A Review of Gaming Matters: Gaming Matters: Art, Science, Magic, and the Computer Game Medium","authors":"Virginia F. Holmes","doi":"10.7557/23.6144","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.7557/23.6144","url":null,"abstract":" In this review of Ruggill and McAllister's Gaming Matters: Art, Science, Magic, and the Computer Game Medium, I seek to locate their argument within the larger framework of the game studies medium, specifically in that sparsely populated space between macro- and micro-focused game scholarship. This reviewer sees this book as a welcome and needed exploration of the computer game medium and the vast and various artifacts that are part of that medium. Though like so many attempts to define and taxonomize that have come before, Gaming Matters cannot place the computer game medium within a solid construction because of the fluidity and magic inherent to the medium. Despite this, Ruggill and McAllister through their whimsical and multidisciplinary approach offer a comprehensive and intriguing look at the computer game medium that is often forsaken in games research in favor of its larger and smaller constituent parts.","PeriodicalId":247562,"journal":{"name":"Eludamos: Journal for Computer Game Culture","volume":"6 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2012-05-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"122778794","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Guest Editorial Preface. Applied Playfulness – 5th Vienna Games Conference (FROG11)","authors":"K. Mitgutsch, J. Wimmer, Herbert Rosenstingl","doi":"10.7557/23.6133","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.7557/23.6133","url":null,"abstract":"<jats:p> </jats:p>","PeriodicalId":247562,"journal":{"name":"Eludamos: Journal for Computer Game Culture","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2012-05-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"131363546","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Playing for Plot in the Lost and Portal Franchises","authors":"Jason Mittell","doi":"10.7557/23.6134","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.7557/23.6134","url":null,"abstract":"The rising prominence of transmedia storytelling in the digital era has helped to spur the intertwining of narrative and ludic media. In this presentation, I will discuss the way that gameplay and storytelling co-mingle in two very different franchises with both cult and mainstream appeal: the television series Lost and the game series Portal. While each privileges the typical form of their medium, with Lost emphasizing plot and Portal foregrounding play, looking at the cultural practices of each franchise’s “forensic fans” highlights how ludic and narrative pleasures are embedded within both media and their transmedia extensions. Contrasting the appeals encouraged by their transmedia extensions and the innovative practices embraced by fans highlights how both gameplay and storytelling can work together and potentially come into conflict within contemporary media environments.","PeriodicalId":247562,"journal":{"name":"Eludamos: Journal for Computer Game Culture","volume":"16 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2012-05-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"129662079","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Urban Games to Design the Augmented City","authors":"V. D. Luca, M. Bertolo","doi":"10.7557/23.6139","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.7557/23.6139","url":null,"abstract":"Seen through the eyes of games, urban environments can appear as museums, storytelling venues, or intense multi-user experiences that could attract people away from their living rooms into the city. Engaging physical, social, and emotional levels, urban games emerge today as powerful resources, able to lead to a playful reading of the augmented city we live in. Observing recent play practices such as hybrid treasure hunts and geo-location games, several “patterns” can be noticed and recognized as new models for negotiating the density of urban landscapes in a physically and digitally mixed reality. Discovering and wandering across cities are dynamic patterns that invite the research and design community to consider the importance of retrieving the human ludic attitude to explore spaces; these can be recognized in “Rhabdomancy” and “Flânerie”, two interesting methods to design the augmented city. They perpetuate a constantly renewed playful relationship between places and human activities, offering to players - as modern citizens - an opportunity for actively participating in contemporary city-life.","PeriodicalId":247562,"journal":{"name":"Eludamos: Journal for Computer Game Culture","volume":"53 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2012-05-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"126732475","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}