The impact of perceived risk,intangibility and consumer characteristics on online game playing

Online game is the most popular entertainment application in the virtual world and online gamers demonstrate high attachment to playing online games. Previous studies have linked to the numerous negative outcomes in playing online games. The factors contribute to the negative consequences on using online game have been relatively neglected. The purpose of this study is to explore the impact of perceived risk, intangibility, gender and age (adolescent/adult) difference on online game playing consequences and intentions. Past usage frequency is also made to look into the influence additional purchase intention. A total of 1418 useful questionnaires (including 1018 from public interview and 400 from online questionnaire feedback) were collected for final data analysis. The results demonstrated the important roles that time risk, psychological risk, financial risk, physical intangibility, mental intangibility and generality play on the negative consequences associated with online game playing. The results also indicated that male and adolescent individuals spent much more time on online game and intented to act the entertainment more than females and adults did. Finally, past online game playing frequency was showed to be a positive predictor of future online game playing intention.     

Will the experience of playing a violent role in a video game influence people’s judgments of violent crimes?

The present study investigates the impact of the experience of role playing a violent character in a video game on attitudes towards violent crimes and criminals. People who played the violent game were found to be more acceptable of crimes and criminals compared to people who did not play the violent game. More importantly, interaction effects were found such that people were more acceptable of crimes and criminals outside the game if the criminals were matched with the role they played in the game and the criminal actions were similar to the activities they perpetrated during the game. The results indicate that people’s virtual experience through role-playing games can influence their attitudes and judgments of similar real-life crimes, especially if the crimes are similar to what they conducted while playing games. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.     

数字媒体未来发展趋势——数字媒体与增强现实技术

数字反哺现实:增强现实的概念;列举增强现实技术在科技方面的应用;增强现实的前沿技术成果;增强现实在艺术领域的应用;游戏:游戏领域基于增强现实技术的新发展。媒体融合的增强现实技术:增强现实技术与媒体融合成果的展望;增强现实技术已经发展到媒体融合阶段     

Enacting language games: the development of a sense of ‘we‐ness’ in online forums

A sense of ‘we‐ness’– enacted through collective identity and culture – is both crucial in online, remote contexts, and particularly difficult to develop in such settings. Using Wittgenstein's concept of language games, we examine how participants of two online forums construct collective identity and culture through their discursive practices. We suggest a strong performative interpretation of the notion of language games, i.e. members of a community produce a sense of we‐ness through their participation in the language game while also defining their expected behaviours and actions. We illustrate how the notion of language games offers an approach for researching and analysing the emergence of collective identity and culture in online forums.     

中国民间游戏和电子游戏的社会功能差异

游戏是一种古老的社会文化现象,自从有了人类就有了游戏。随着人类社会的发展、经济和科技水平的不断上升,游戏的概念和内涵也不再是跳皮筋、踢毽子等民间游戏活动。一种承载着更多经济、科技和文化内涵的游戏行为——电子游戏正在渗透到人们的生活中,人们认识到它更多的社会功能和价值,这种社会功能和价值因为游戏的内容、形式以及物质载体的巨大变化而形成了民间游戏和电子游戏的很大差异。     

谈产品创制活动中欲与技的关联

随着科学技术的发展和生活水平的提高,无论在物质还是在思想观念上,人们都在追求产品创制,借助企业,共同显现出自身的欲望。本文着重从设计创制活动中欲望与技术的关联的角度进行探讨,同时尝试解决设计创制活动存在的问题探索一条新路。     

用于辩证分析的多方对话协议

在基于辩论的多agent系统研究中,agent之间的对话博弈一般是双方的,然而现实中的辩论却常常涉及到多方参与者,如何实现多agent系统的多方对话博弈是当前的研究热点之一。用于多方论据博弈的辩证分析模型(DAM-MAG)是一种借鉴中国武术擂台比武思想,将多方对话博弈转化为若干个双方对话博弈的理论模型。DAM-MAG的难点在于多方对话博弈协议的设计和实现。为此,基于该理论模型提出了一种多方对话博弈协议。该协议提供了通过双方对话博弈来解决多方对话博弈问题的方法,为解决多agent系统的多方对话博弈提供了新的途径。     

Decision making in dynamic stochastic Cournot games

In this paper, the Cournot competition is modeled as a stochastic dynamic game. In the proposed model, a stochastic market price function and stochastic dynamic decision functions of the rivals are considered. Since the optimal decision of a player needs the estimation of the unknown parameters of the market and rivals’ decisions, a combined estimation-optimization algorithm for decision making is proposed. The history of the rivals’ output quantities (supplies) and the market clearing price (MCP) are the only available information to the players. The convergence of the algorithm (for both estimation and decision making processes) is discussed. In addition, the stability conditions of the equilibrium points are analyzed using the converse Lyapunov theorem. Through the case studies, which are performed based on the California Independent System Operator (CA-ISO) historical public data, the theoretical results and the applicability of the proposed method are verified. Moreover, a comparative study among the agents using the proposed method, naïve expectation and adaptive expectation in the market is performed to show the effectiveness and applicability of the proposed method.     

Cognitive-bias toward gaming-related words and disinhibition in World of Warcraft gamers

This study investigated cognitive biases toward gaming-related words and differences in cognitive performance among twelve World of Warcraft players (WWP) and thirty non-players (NP). We measured response to valenced common English and WoW jargon words using a computer-based go/no-go task. Sometimes positive valence words were the targets for the ‘go’ response, with negative-valence words as the distracters, sometimes the reverse. Target discrimination (d′) and response disinhibition (C) were calculated using a signal detection analysis. Based on questionnaire responses, there were no differences between groups in depression, anxiety, smoking or drinking, but WWP reported significantly more screen and gaming time (17.31 h/week versus 4.12 among NP). WWP had faster reaction time (RT) and better discrimination of targets from distracters (high d′) but also showed higher disinhibition (low C). WWP also showed cognitive-bias toward game-related words in the form of higher d′ for WoW jargon than common English and more disinhibition to positive-valence WoW jargon. Similar to past studies which have found alcoholics to have cognitive biases toward alcohol-related words, WWP who play frequently showed cognitive biases toward words related to the World of Warcraft game.     

Design guidelines for Classroom Multiplayer Presential Games (CMPG)

In a Classroom Multiplayer Presential Game (CMPG) peers interact collaboratively with the virtual world and amongst themselves in a shared space. The design of this kind of game, however, is a complex process that must consider instruction strategies, methodology, usability and ludic aspects. This article’s aim is to develop and systematize guidelines for the design of CMPGs. To develop these guidelines we used a three-step process: evaluating an initial implementation of a CMPG and finding its problems; defining guidelines that can help overcome these problems; and redesigning the game based on the guidelines before testing it in a real class scenario to assess how helpful the guidelines were in solving the initial problems.