Computer agents versus avatars: Responses to interactive game characters controlled by a computer or other player

Computer and videogames often require that users interact with other characters on the screen that represent other real people or characters that are controlled by computer code running within the game. The difference between game play with other avatars (player-controlled characters) or agents (characters controlled by the computer) may influence the engagement a game player experiences. This study investigated the effects of agency (avatar versus agent) and the type of gaming activity (competition versus cooperation) on physiological arousal and subjective evaluation of play. A 2 (avatar, agent)×2 (competition, cooperation) within-subject experiment was conducted (N=32). Players exhibited greater physiological arousal to otherwise identical interactions when other characters were introduced as an avatar rather than an agent. Furthermore, the co-player's source of agency interacted with the type of gaming activity. The results have implications for understanding how different forms of representation in virtual worlds and games will affect psychological responses in the contexts of entertainment, learning and the conduct of serious work.     

Effects of cooperative gaming and avatar customization on subsequent spontaneous helping behavior

Cooperative gaming is quickly becoming the preferred form of entertainment among children and teens. Although game content is typically violent, often producing negative social outcomes, cooperative game play ameliorates its anti-social impact in future formal instances of cooperation. The present study examined the influence of cooperative and competitive game play on subsequent spontaneous helping in a pair of experiments. The mitigating role of playing with a customized or generic avatar was also evaluated. In Experiment 1, participants played doubles tennis in Wii Sports either cooperatively or competitively with a confederate. Results revealed that participants who cooperated picked up significantly more pens spilled by the confederate after gameplay than those that competed, but only when they customized their avatars. In Experiment 2, cooperative game play in Wii Sports Resort canoeing engendered significantly more spontaneous helping regardless of avatar customization. These findings are generally consistent with recent gaming research and suggest that in-game cooperation and competition have more bearing on social outcomes than game content.     

Player see,player do: Testing an exergame motivation model based on the influence of the self avatar

While the benefits of physically immersive video games, or exergames, have witnessed much research attention, less is known about the psychosocial processes that enable exergames to be an effective digital tool. An increasing number of exergames feature in-game graphical representations (avatars) of players and, and research shows that these avatars have the potential to influence self-perceptions. This study proposes an exergame motivation model based on the Social Cognitive Theory (SCT) that explores the impact of avatars on exergame players. The SCT suggests that individuals can learn through an enactive experience, and exergames appear to offer this form of learning through the presence of the player's in-game graphical representation (self avatar). 322 participants played an exergame for six sessions that feature self avatars. Structural equation modeling (SEM) results showed a good fit for the proposed exergame motivation model. Through the presence and behavior of the player's self avatar, the player learns by experiencing for himself/herself the results and consequences of his/her behavior within the exergame as he/she identifies with the character. Enjoyment was also found to partially mediate the relationship between identification with the avatar and exergame intention. The proposed exergame motivation model is likely to contribute to a deeper understanding of avatar and exergame effects and inform future research on health gaming interventions.     

Me,myself and I: The role of interactional context on self-presentation through avatars

This paper investigates whether the nature of an online environment can prime users to create avatars that emphasize particular characteristics. Participants created an avatar for one of three contrasting settings: blogging, dating or gaming. For the most part, avatars in blogging were created to accurately reflect their owners’ physical appearance, lifestyle and preferences. By contrast, participants in the dating and gaming treatments accentuated certain aspects of their avatar to reflect the tone and perceived expectations of the context. For instance, avatars in dating were made to look more attractive while avatars in gaming were made to look more intellectual. Yet, predominantly, these emphasized avatar attributes drew on participants’ self-image, and thus avatars were perceived by their owners as highly similar to themselves. The implications of these results are discussed against current frameworks of online identity and behavior. Most importantly, we use our results to extract design recommendations for improving avatar-driven applications.     

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.     

Retracted: Antecedents and Consequences of Gender Swapping in Online Games

This study examines the reasons underlying gender swapping and its impacts on online gaming behavior. While previous studies considered gender swapping to be an abnormal or rare exception in one's self‐presentation, this study hypothesized that people swap genders as a rational choice based on practical benefits. An online survey was conducted with 318 male players of MMORPGs in Korea. Players swapped gender in games to gain benefits from other players under the condition of anonymity rather than to represent their own gender identity. Men playing female avatars displayed more socially amiable behaviors conventionally characterized as more feminine. Moreover, players were more willing to purchase virtual goods to decorate their gender swapped avatars, mediated by their emotional attachment to their avatar.     

Does it matter with whom you slay? The effects of competition,cooperation and relationship type among video game players

Cooperation and competition have emerged as factors that may affect video game players. Competition consistently has been found to elicit increased aggression whilst cooperation has been found to mitigate aggression and increase cooperative behaviors after game play. Of interest is the effect of the relationship between players (friend vs. stranger) in cooperative and competitive multiplayer contexts. In this study, we considered how game goal structure – competition or cooperation – and relationships between players – friend or stranger – affect aggression and cooperative behaviors. Compared with competition, cooperative play resulted in significantly more cooperative behaviors in a modified Prisoner’s Dilemma task. However, neither competitive nor cooperative goal structures significantly increased state hostility, suggesting that altering players’ gaming goals (e.g. competition or cooperation) may not be enough to elicit strong affective aggression. Additionally, cooperative game play was found to predict increased cooperative behaviors and trust in their partner. Implications of the findings are discussed.     

Predicting guild commitment in World of Warcraft with the investment model of commitment

Many MMORPG offer players the possibility to become a member of a guild, a hierarchical organization of characters with common objectives. Guild membership can be beneficial to game progress, and offer opportunities for social interaction. In the current study we focus on the MMORPG World of Warcraft (WoW), with the main aim to examine whether guild commitment and players’ intention to remain in their guild can be predicted by players’ satisfaction, investments, and perceptions of alternatives to their guild. To this end, 165 WoW players completed an online questionnaire and answered questions related to their guild membership. They also completed the investment model scale which was reworded so all questions pertained to their guild and their fellow guild members. Results show that satisfaction level, quality of alternatives, and investment size significantly predict commitment level (p’s < .001), which in turn predicted likelihood of participants’ staying with their current guild (p < .001) and the number of guilds they had been a member of in the past (p < .001). Moreover, high levels of guild commitment were indicative of better mental health, whereas weekly hours of game play was negatively related to mental health. In the discussion, we conclude that interdependence theory and the investment model of commitment are applicable to online gaming environments, and we argue that commitment to one’s guild is one factor that could prevent the risks associated with online game play (i.e. problematic use).     

Examining Game Transfer Phenomena in the Hybrid Reality Game,Ingress

ABSTRACT

Game Transfer Phenomena (GTP) is a common video gaming experience in which extended gameplay causes game-related automatic thoughts, involuntary behaviors and perceptions. Currently, there is little research examining GTP in location-based, augmented/hybrid reality (HR) gaming. Based on prior GTP research, HR gamers were predicted to experience all types of GTP while also experiencing GTP specific to HR gaming. 867 Ingress players responded to a survey examining the degree to which they experienced the types of GTP. 31 % of the sample was female and the average age was 36. Ingress players exhibited all types of GTP and were most likely to experience automatic thought process related to the game. Female Ingress players were significantly more likely to experience GTP than males and increases in age were associated with decreases in GTP. 18 % of respondents experienced HR-specific phenomena in which players unintentionally use physical actions in the real world to interact with virtual aspects of the game. Future augmented/HR research should examine the cognitive and physical components underlying HR-specific GTP and how gender and age are associated with experiencing this and GTP related to different platforms and media.     

Making Mii: studying the effects of methodological approaches and gaming contexts on avatar customization

In this paper we present an analysis of the character creation interface on the Nintendo WiiU and explore the pragmatics of avatar customisation through a between-subjects, qualitative user study involving 24 participants. Our Mii research – or ‘Miisearch’ – is motivated by our desire to highlight the agency these interfaces have in self-representational practices; specifically, to understand the effects of interface affordances on avatar customisation in games. Furthermore, as self-representational practices are often studied using distance methods and self-reporting (e.g. surveys), we compare data on avatar customisation from two sources: a survey and participant observation via micro-ethnography. Results of our study reveal discrepancies between the survey data and participant observation, challenging popular methodological approaches in both the game studies and HCI communities. Most significantly, our findings illustrate the combined effects of gaming contexts and interface affordances on avatar customisation.     

Avatar creation in virtual worlds: Behaviors and motivations

Avatar creation has become common for people to participate and interact in virtual worlds. Using an online survey (N = 244), we investigated both the behavioral characteristics and major motivations for avatar creation in virtual worlds. Our results suggest that a majority of the participants had multiple avatars; these avatars’ appearance did not merely resemble the human players; and their personality did not necessarily mirror the player’s real personality. Furthermore, participants on average spent over 20 h per week and often interacting with others in the virtual worlds. Our exploratory factor analysis yielded four major motivations: virtual exploration, social navigation, contextual adaptation, and identity representation.     

Dissecting the protocol and network traffic of the OnLive cloud gaming platform

Cloud gaming is a new paradigm that is envisaged to play a pivotal role in the video game industry in forthcoming years. Cloud gaming, or gaming on demand, is a type of online gaming that allows on-demand streaming of game content onto non-specialised devices (e.g. PC, smart TV, etc.). This approach requires no downloads or game installation because the actual game is executed on the game company’s server and is streamed directly to the client. Nonetheless, this revolutionary approach significantly affects the network load generated by online games. As cloud gaming presents new challenges for both network engineers and the research community, both groups need to be fully conversant with these new cloud gaming platforms. The purpose of this paper is to investigate OnLive, one of the most popular cloud gaming platforms. Our key contributions are: (a) a review of the state-of-the-art of cloud gaming; (b) reverse engineering of the OnLive protocol; and (c) a synthetic traffic model for OnLive.     

Defining the virtual self: Personality,behavior, and the psychology of embodiment

Although researchers have discussed the existence of a virtual self, or embodiment of human characteristics within an avatar, little known about how the virtual self influences a player’s behavior within a virtual environment. To better understand this relationship, World of Warcraft game players were asked to complete personality-rating scales for both themselves and their avatars. In addition, in-world behavior was recorded and then analyzed using a behavioral assessment checklist. Results suggested a relationship between personality and behavior within the domain of agreeableness. Based on these findings, the researchers discuss implications for the construct known as the virtual self, as well as the inclusion of psychological systems design into the overall game design process.     

Dynamic Difficulty Adjustment in Computer Games Through Real-Time Anxiety-Based Affective Feedback

A number of studies in recent years have investigated the dynamic difficulty adjustment (DDA) mechanism in computer games to automatically tailor gaming experience to individual player's characteristics. Although most of these existing works focus on game adaptation based on player's performance, affective state experienced by the players could play a key role in gaming experience and may provide a useful indicator for a DDA mechanism. In this article, an affect-based DDA was designed and implemented for computer games. In this DDA mechanism, a player's physiological signals were analyzed to infer his or her probable anxiety level, which was chosen as the target affective state, and the game difficulty level was automatically adjusted in real time as a function of the player's affective state. Peripheral physiological signals were measured through wearable biofeedback sensors and several physiological indices were explored to determine their correlations with anxiety. An experimental study was conducted to evaluate the effects of the affect-based DDA on game play by comparing it with a performance-based DDA. This is the first time, that is known, that the impact of a real-time affect-based DDA has been demonstrated experimentally.     

Public Displays of Play: Studying Online Games in Physical Settings

As research on virtual worlds gains increasing attention in educational, commercial, and military domains, a consideration of how player populations are ‘reassembled’ through social scientific data is a timely matter for communication scholars. This paper describes a large‐scale study of virtual worlds in which participants were recruited at public gaming events, as opposed to through online means, and explores the dynamic relationships between players and contexts of play that this approach makes visible. Challenging conventional approaches to quantitatively driven virtual worlds research, which categorizes players based on their involvement in an online game at a particular point in time, this account demonstrates how players' networked gaming activities are contingent on who they are playing with, where, and when.     

The Trojan Player Typology: A cross-genre,cross-cultural,behaviorally validated scale of video game play motivations

While many video game researchers have built scales to tackle the motivations that people have for playing video games, these scales are often limited by their focus on specific game genres or player cultures as well as their lack of behavioral validation. The present research offers a new scale for player motivations and then examines its validity across two distinct gaming genres and cultures, drawing from server-side data combined with survey data of 18,627 players of the Multiplayer Online Battle Arena League of Legends and 18,819 players of the Chinese Massively Multiplayer Online Game Chevalier’s Romance Online 3. Six types of player motivations were found: socializer, completionist, competitor, escapist, story-driven, and smarty-pants. Consistent with previous research on player motivations, this typology offers new insights into why people play video games and how player motivations can be used to infer players’ in-game behaviors.     

The future of digital platforms: Conditions of platform overthrow

Are the digital platforms that we know here to stay? Both empirical insights and theoretical works suggest digital platform stability. Digital platforms such as Airbnb, Netflix and Taobao have experienced tremendous success, and the theoretical works on modularity and multisided markets depict competitive platform landscapes as controlled by a hegemonic platform leader. However, platform history chronicles multiple cases of leadership shifts in platform ecosystems. In this paper, we coin these situations ‘platform overthrows’ and uncover the relevant strategies for both a challenger to conduct a platform overthrow and for a platform leader to resist it. To do so, we conducted an inductive protocol to reinterpret 27 already published cases of platform overthrow attempts. Our results suggest that, during a platform overthrow attempt, both players articulate functional expansion and technical genericity. Accordingly, we formulate propositions that account for the strategies at play during a platform overthrow attempt. We discuss these results regarding the digital platform literature on competition and conclude that the study of platform overthrow can yield useful insights on the future of digital platforms.     

An empirical study of early access games on the Steam platform

“Early access” is a release strategy for software that allows consumers to purchase an unfinished version of the software. In turn, consumers can influence the software development process by giving developers early feedback. This early access model has become increasingly popular through digital distribution platforms, such as Steam which is the most popular distribution platform for games. The plethora of options offered by Steam to communicate between developers and game players contribute to the popularity of the early access model. The model is considered a success by the game development community as several games using this approach have gained a large user base (i.e., owners) and high sales. On the other hand, the benefits of the early access model have been questioned as well. In this paper, we conduct an empirical study on 1,182 Early Access Games (EAGs) on the Steam platform to understand the characteristics, advantages and limitations of the early access model. We find that 15% of the games on Steam make use of the early access model, with the most popular EAG having as many as 29 million owners. 88% of the EAGs are classified by their developers as so-called “indie” games, indicating that most EAGs are developed by individual developers or small studios. We study the interaction between players and developers of EAGs and the Steam platform. We observe that on the one hand, developers update their games more frequently in the early access stage. On the other hand, the percentage of players that review a game during its early access stage is lower than the percentage of players that review the game after it leaves the early access stage. However, the average rating of the reviews is much higher during the early access stage, suggesting that players are more tolerant of imperfections in the early access stage. The positive review rate does not correlate with the length or the game update frequency of the early access stage. Based on our findings, we suggest game developers to use the early access model as a method for eliciting early feedback and more positive reviews to attract additional new players. In addition, our findings suggest that developers can determine their release schedule without worrying about the length of the early access stage and the game update frequency during the early access stage.     

Cheating detection through game time modeling: A better way to avoid time cheats in P2P MOGs?

Cheating is a key issue in online games. Whatever the rules that govern a game, some players will always be tempted to break or elude these rules so as to gain an unfair advantage over other players. Mitigation schemes are thus needed in online gaming platforms. However, it is widely recognized that typical cheating prevention schemes introduce complications and overheads in the distributed game system, which may seriously jeopardize the online gaming experience. It turns out that, often, detecting the cheaters, instead of preventing the cheats, could represent a viable solution, especially for time cheats. We present a general framework able to model game time advancements in P2P online games. Based on this framework, time cheat detection schemes can be easily devised, which monitor the communication patterns among peers and do not affect the performances of the game system. To provide evidence of our claim, we present in this paper two different time cheats, namely fast rate cheat and look-ahead cheat, and discuss on practicable methods to detect them. Simulation results confirm the viability of the proposed approach.

Interest modeling in games: the case of dead reckoning

In games, the goals and interests of players are key factors in their behavior. However, techniques used by networked games to cope with infrequent updates and message loss, such as dead reckoning, estimate a player’s movements based mainly on previous observations. The estimations are typically made by using dynamics of motion, taking only inertia and some external factors (e.g., gravity, wind) into account while completely ignoring the player’s goals (e.g., chasing other players or collecting objects). This paper proposes AntReckoning: a dead reckoning algorithm, inspired from ant colonies, which models the players’ interests to predict their movements. AntReckoning incorporates a player’s interest in specific locations, objects, and avatars in the equations of motion in the form of attraction forces. In practice, these points of interest generate pheromones, which spread and fade in the game world, and are a source of attraction. To motivate and validate our approach we collected traces from Quake III. We conducted specific experiments that demonstrate the effect of game-related goals, map features, objects, and other players on the mobility of avatars. Our simulations using traces from Quake III and World of Warcraft show that AntReckoning improves the accuracy by up to 44 % over traditional dead reckoning techniques and can decrease the upload bandwidth by up to 32 %.