Enhancing the control of force in putting by video game training

Even if golf video games provide no proprioceptive afferences on actual putting movement, they may give sufficient substitutive visual cues to enhance force control in this skill. It was hypothesized that this usefulness requires, however, two conditions: the video game must provide reliable demonstrations of actual putts, and the user must want to use the game to make progress in actual putting. Accordingly, a video game was selected on the basis of its fidelity to the real-world game. It allowed two different methods of adjusting the virtual player's putting force in order to hole a putt: an analogue method that consisted of focusing on the virtual player's movement and a symbolic method that consisted of focusing on the movement of a gauge on a scale representing the virtual player's putting force. The participants had to use one of these methods with either the intention of making progress in actual putting or in a second condition to simply enjoy the game. Results showed a positive transfer of video playing to actual putting skill for the learning group and also, to a lesser degree, for the enjoyment group; but only when they used the symbolic method. Results are discussed in the context of how vision may convey force cues in sports video games.     

From visual simulation to virtual reality to games

During the past decades, the virtual reality community has based its development on a synthesis of earlier work in interactive 3D graphics, user interfaces, and visual simulation. Currently, the VR field is transitioning into work influenced by video games. Because much of the research and development being conducted in the games community parallels the VR community's efforts, it has the potential to affect a greater audience. Given these trends, VR researchers who want their work to remain relevant must realign to focus on game research and development. Leveraging technology from the visual simulation and virtual reality communities, serious games provide a delivery system for organizational video game instruction and training.     

Impact of the motion and visual complexity of the background on players' performance in video game-like displays

The visual interfaces of virtual environments such as video games often show scenes where objects are superimposed on a moving background. Three experiments were designed to better understand the impact of the complexity and/or overall motion of two types of visual backgrounds often used in video games on the detection and use of superimposed, stationary items. The impact of background complexity and motion was assessed during two typical video game tasks: a relatively complex visual search task and a classic, less demanding shooting task. Background motion impaired participants' performance only when they performed the shooting game task, and only when the simplest of the two backgrounds was used. In contrast, and independently of background motion, performance on both tasks was impaired when the complexity of the background increased. Eye movement recordings demonstrated that most of the findings reflected the impact of low-level features of the two backgrounds on gaze control.     

What Do We Really Know About First‐Person‐Shooter Games? An Event‐Related,High‐Resolution Content Analysis

Multiple studies have been addressing effects of playing violent video games. However, most such studies neglect users' individual experiences. In fact, each player's gameplaying choices creates his or her own specific game content. Within this study we analyzed the individually generated content of a typical first-person-shooter game with high temporal resolution and associated them with physiological response measures (heart rate, skin conductance) collected during the game play. Thirteen experienced game players played the multiplayer first-person-shooter game " Tactical Ops: Assault on Terror " for 50 minutes on average. Playing phases and events in between were analyzed on both an intraplayer and interplayer level. Results indicate varying gaming experiences in the users and distinct arousal levels over time and for different game events.     

Will gesture recognition technology point the way?

When playing most video games, speed is of the essence. Manipulating a joystick, mouse, or other input device slows a player's reaction time. Players prefer to control game activities by movements or gestures. Gesture-recognition systems identify human gestures and use them to convey information such as input data or to control devices and applications such as computers, games, PDAs, browsers, cell phones, and MP3 audio players. Researchers continue to improve gesture-recognition technology - for example, by making algorithms faster, more robust, and more accurate.     

基于视频与语音的多通道游戏用户界面系统

设计和实现了一套基于视频和语音的多通道游戏用户界面系统，以增强计算机游戏的交互性和游戏用户的沉浸感．系统新创建并有效地整合了基于视频与语音两种交互通道，其中包含脸部模型重建、头部姿态估计、汉语语音识别三个模块，可快速实现个性化的游戏角色脸部模型，并允许游戏用户使用头部姿态和语音命令实时控制游戏角色和游戏进展．测试和应用结果表明：该系统适用于普通游戏用户和实际游戏环境．     

The Librarian as Video Game Player

Despite media coverage that is usually negative or non-existent, digital (video) game playing is a major form of entertainment for significant numbers of people in developed countries. This paper begins with a brief outline of what these games are, who plays them and why there is interest within the library community. We then move through several examples of the current direct impact of digital games on libraries. This is followed by more abstract examples of how video games could, and do, influence library practise and technology. Attributes of online games are discussed, focusing on one particular game, Second Life. This game is used widely within the library community, with many librarians spending significant time developing avatars, open services and infrastructure. The paper concludes with a summary of the ten attributes of video game players, found across the research literature body, that are of relevance to digital information and library services.     

Influence of head-up displays’ characteristics on user experience in video games

Head-up displays (HUD) are important parts of visual interfaces of virtual environments such as video games. However, few studies have investigated their role in player–video game interactions. Two experiments were designed to investigate the influence of HUDs on player experience according to player expertise and game genre. Experiment 1 used eye-tracking and interviews to understand how and to what extent players use and experience HUDs in two types of commercial games: first-person shooter and real-time strategy games. Results showed that displaying a permanent HUD within the visual interface may improve the understanding of this environment by players. They also revealed that two HUD characteristics, namely composition and spatial organization, have particular influence on player experience. These critical characteristics were manipulated in experiment 2 to study more precisely the influence of HUD design choices on player experience. Results showed that manipulation of design of these HUD characteristics influences player experience in different ways according to player expertise and game genre. For games with HUDs that are perceived as very useful, the higher player expertise is, the more player experience is influenced. Recommendations for video game design based on these results are proposed.     

Video game experience predicts virtual, but not real navigation performance

In recent years, studies have shown that video game experience is related to improvements across a variety of cognitive and visuospatial tasks. This study investigated the relationship between prior video game experience and spatial performance in virtual and real environments. Across two experiments, gaming experience was related to performance in desktop virtual environments; those with more video game experience were more accurate in pointing to nonvisible targets. In contrast, gaming experience was unrelated to three different real environment tasks, suggesting that video games may primarily influence perceptual and cognitive abilities in the visual domain over abilities that also involve kinesthetic or vestibular input. Contrary to expectations, gaming experience was also related to performance in immersive virtual environments, which may be related to the use of a joystick interface during immersive travel. Video game experience was also positively related to performance in a dynamic spatial task and to verbal SAT and math SAT scores. Sex differences in desktop virtual navigation and dynamic spatial ability were eliminated when game experience was included as a covariate.     

Where Am I? How Can I Get There? Impact of Navigability and Narrative Transportation on Spatial Presence

From video games to virtual worlds on the World Wide Web, modern media are becoming increasingly spatial, with users traversing artificial spaces and experiencing a kind of immersion known as “spatial presence.” But how do these media induce spatial presence? Are the affordances for movement provided by these technologies responsible for this illusion? Or do narratives that accompany them persuade us to suspend disbelief and transport ourselves into a virtual space? We explore these theoretical questions by pitting the navigability affordances of a video game against narrative transportation and examining their relative contributions to the formation of spatial presence in a virtual reality context. Results from a large experiment (N = 240) reveal that the narrative actually detracts from spatial presence while traversibility (in the form of greater degrees of steering motion) enhances it even without invoking a mental model of the portrayed environment. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.     

Blowtooth: a provocative pervasive game for smuggling virtual drugs through real airport security

In this paper, we describe a pervasive game, Blowtooth, in which players use their mobile phones to hide virtual drugs on nearby airline passengers in real airport check-in queues. After passing through airport security, the player must find and recover their drugs from the innocent bystanders, without them ever realising they were involved in the game. The game explores the nature of pervasive game playing in environments that are not, generally, regarded as playful or “fun”. This paper describes the game’s design and implementation as well as an evaluation conducted with participants in real airports. It explores the players’ reactions to the game through questionnaire responses and in-game activity. The technologies used in Blowtooth are, intentionally, simple in order for the enjoyment of the game to be reliant more on the physical environment rather than the enabling technologies. We conclude that situating pervasive games in unexpected and challenging environments, such as international airports, may provide interesting and unique gaming experiences for players. In addition, we argue that pervasive games benefit most from using the specific features and nature of interesting real-world environments rather than focusing on the enabling technologies.     

The relationship between character identification and flow state within video games

Flow is a concept used to describe the pleasurable immersion that individuals experience, often in recreational activities such as video games. A key component in many video games is the player's avatar; through which the player experiences the game world and game play. Past theory suggests that flow and the identification of a player with their avatar are vital aspects of video games and it is this that differentiates them from other forms of media. However, research on the relationship between flow and avatar/character identification is in its infancy. This study aimed to further examine these two concepts and their relationship within video games. This study consisted of 306 participants, who completed a series of self-report questionnaires online. As hypothesised, it was found that character identification was strongly and positively related to flow. It was also found that only the video game specific characteristics of similarity to character and customisation were negatively and positively related to flow respectively. Furthermore, similarity but not customisation was related to character identification, and that similarity was strongly and positively related to character identification. Other findings include Openness to Experience being positively related to character identification, and Extraversion being negatively related to character identification.     

The influence of violent video game enjoyment on hostile attributions

Although catharsis theory as applied to violent media has been repeatedly refuted in the literature, scholars have recently proposed methods by which a cognitive form of catharsis might occur for people who utilize games to manage negative affect. Drawing on these ideas, the current study tests how video games are used to manage feelings of frustration and boost one’s sense of competency. It also explores how these emotional processes influence game enjoyment and hostile attribution bias (HAB). We frustrated half of 82 participants prior to randomizing them to play a violent or nonviolent game. Our results showed that frustrated participants were motivated to progress farther in a video game. This in-game performance decreased their feelings of frustration, boosted their sense of competency, and increased their enjoyment of the game. However, for those who played a violent game, this enjoyment predicted hostile attributions: high enjoyment of violence increased HAB, while low enjoyment of violence decreased HAB. These findings have implications for how video games are used to manage negative feelings.     

Why do you play World of Warcraft? An in-depth exploration of self-reported motivations to play online and in-game behaviours in the virtual world of Azeroth

Massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs) are video games in which players create an avatar that evolves and interacts with other avatars in a persistent virtual world. Motivations to play MMORPGs are heterogeneous (e.g. achievement, socialisation, immersion in virtual worlds). This study investigates in detail the relationships between self-reported motives and actual in-game behaviours. We recruited a sample of 690 World of Warcraft players (the most popular MMORPG) who agreed to have their avatar monitored for 8 months. Participants completed an initial online survey about their motives to play. Their actual in-game behaviours were measured through the game’s official database (the Armory website). Results showed specific associations between motives and in-game behaviours. Moreover, longitudinal analyses revealed that teamwork- and competition-oriented motives are the most accurate predictors of fast progression in the game. In addition, although specific associations exist between problematic use and certain motives (e.g. advancement, escapism), longitudinal analyses showed that high involvement in the game is not necessarily associated with a negative impact upon daily living.     

Video game values: Human–computer interaction and games

Current human–computer interaction (HCI) research into video games rarely considers how they are different from other forms of software. This leads to research that, while useful concerning standard issues of interface design, does not address the nature of video games as games specifically. Unlike most software, video games are not made to support external, user-defined tasks, but instead define their own activities for players to engage in. We argue that video games contain systems of values which players perceive and adopt, and which shape the play of the game. A focus on video game values promotes a holistic view of video games as software, media, and as games specifically, which leads to a genuine video game HCI.     

基于图像流的虚拟现实系统交互方法的实现

基于传感器或图像识别的人体运动跟踪代价高昂，该文提出了一种更为简便易行的交互方法，它提取拍摄到的连续图像中参与者位置和运动趋势的信息将其作为参与者与虚拟环境交互的基础。文章对根据这一技术实现的虚拟现实系统作了介绍，并着重论述了实现这种交互方法的关键技术，最后对这一技术的发展前景作了展望。     

Is the use of information and communication technology related to performance in working memory tasks? Evidence from seventh-grade students

The main purpose of this study was to assess whether seventh-grade students use of information and communication technology (ICT) was related to performance on working memory tasks. In addition, the study tested whether the relationship between ICT use and performance on working memory tasks interacted with seventh-grade students’ socioeconomic level and gender. 275 students recruited from 30 Chilean schools were grouped according to their self-reported use of PC, the Internet, Chat and Video games. To assess students’ working memory performance, they were tested with a digit span test and a visuo-spatial measure. Only one of our two dependent variables reflected a relationship between specific profiles of ICT use and working memory. Higher scores on the digits span test were related to those user profiles combining PC use and video game play, that is, those identified as Full users and as PC and Console Gamers. We did not find an interaction effect of gender and ICT use or an interaction effect of socioeconomic level and ICT use. There are three possible explanations for these results: first, a proclivity of students with higher working memory capacity to engage in technology use; second, an impact on working memory of potential differences in multitasking; and, third, an impact on working memory of video game play. However, these results must be interpreted cautiously since scores on the GEFT, our visuo-spatial working memory measure, were not related to any profile of technology use. As serious educational games become more regularly used at school, previous differences in video game experience become growingly important. Future research must study whether the intended benefits of serious educational games are being mediated by individual differences in previous exposure to video games and other information and computer technologies, with independence of the directionality of the relationship between video game play and working memory.     

Physical fitness in virtual worlds

Academic studies and news reports have suggested that the increasing number of obese youth derive at least partially from television viewing and video game use. In particular, the couch potato hypothesis suggests that watching television and playing video games consume time that could be spent engaging in physical activities. This hypothesis assumes that video gamers pursue their hobby by pressing buttons and moving joysticks while occupying comfortable chairs placed in front of large video screens. An accurate stereotype until recently, this form of gaming is being supplanted by a new generation of games and controllers that entice players to become more physically active. Low-cost cameras and advanced video processing algorithms let video games be controlled by bodily movements, while touch-sensitive floor sensors let players dance in virtual spaces. The article looks briefly at some of these new generation games including: Dance Dance Revolution; and GameBike.