scholarly journals Map Symbols in Video Games: the Example of “Valheim”

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tymoteusz Horbiński ◽  
Krzysztof Zagata
Keyword(s):  
Video Game ◽  
Statistical Tests ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Online Forums ◽  
Survey Tool ◽  
Open World ◽  
Direct Explanation ◽  
Large Audience ◽  
Research Goal ◽  
Game Developers

AbstractThe main focus of this article is to examine the interpretation of twelve cartographic symbols on the map in Valheim. The authors set the research goal: to investigate how players and non-players interpret the symbols. The Valheim video game, which was released in 2021, is a survival game set in an open world. The authors noticed that game developers did not provide a direct explanation of the map symbols used, which could result in a different interpretation and experience of the game. The authors adopted a survey on the LimeSurvey platform as research methodology. This survey tool was used to gather information on experiences and interpretations of map symbols among a diverse group of respondents. Using online forums allowed one to disseminate the survey to a large audience of players from all over the world. Then, using the categorisation method for individual questions, a large database of respondents’ answers was created. Through the analysis, the authors checked the interpretation of symbols and presented the results in the form of graphs. Then, using statistical tests, they analysed the relationship between individual symbols. The study reveals that there are intergroup differences in responses to symbols directly related to the game. With more complicated symbols that did not emphasise an unambiguous answer, both groups of respondents had a problem with indicating the meaning of the symbol. For future research, it is worth continuing research on the interpretation of various map symbols not only in games, but also in all cartographic products.

scholarly journals From Scorching Desert to Tropical Paradise: New Form of Video Game Orientalism in Far Cry 3

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 73
Author(s):  
Angga Prawadika Aji
Keyword(s):  
Video Games ◽  
Video Game ◽  
World System ◽  
Construction Process ◽  
The Third ◽  
Open World ◽  
New Form ◽  
Game Developers

This paper provides an analysis of different form of orientalism found in the third title of the popular Far Cry game series.  The open world system offered by Far Cry 3 brings a new nuance in the discourse of orientalism in video games, especially within the context of military shooter game. It provides both opportunities and challenges for developers to build ‘world’ as real as possible for players to explore. This construction process often reflects the orientalism practices shown by game developers in describing Eastern society and culture. Through a variety of activities such as hunting, exploring, sailing, and killing enemy forces, the player acts as a 'western mediator' who intepret the simulated Eastern world as a strange and mysterious territory.

Asian Americans and Digital Games

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher B. Patterson
Keyword(s):  
Video Games ◽  
Asian Americans ◽  
Asian American ◽  
Video Game ◽  
American Studies ◽  
Digital Games ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Online Forums ◽  
Asian American Studies ◽  
Open World

Asian Americans have frequently been associated with video games. As designers they are considered overrepresented, and specific groups appear to dominate depictions of the game designer, from South Asian and Chinese immigrants working for Microsoft and Silicon Valley to auteur designers from Japan, Taiwan, and Iran, who often find themselves with celebrity status in both America and Asia. As players, Asian Americans have been depicted as e-sports fanatics whose association with video game expertise—particularly in games like Starcraft, League of Legends, and Counter-Strike—is similar to sport-driven associations of racial minorities: African Americans and basketball or Latin Americans and soccer. This immediate association of Asian Americans with gaming cultures breeds a particular form of techno-orientalism, defined by Greta A. Niu, David S. Roh, and Betsy Huang as “the phenomenon of imagining Asia and Asians in hypo- or hypertechnological terms in cultural productions and political discourse.” In sociology, Asian American Studies scholars have considered how these gaming cultures respond to a lack of acceptance in “real sports” and how Asian American youth have fostered alternative communities in PC rooms, arcades, and online forums. For still others, this association also acts as a gateway for non-Asians to enter a “digital Asia,” a space whose aesthetics and forms are firmly intertwined with Japanese gaming industries, thus allowing non-Asian subjects to inhabit “Asianness” as a form of virtual identity tourism. From a game studies point of view, video games as transnational products using game-centered (ludic) forms of expression push scholars to think beyond the limits of Asian American Studies and subjectivity. Unlike films and novels, games do not rely upon representations of minority figures for players to identify with, but instead offer avatars to play with through styles of parody, burlesque, and drag. Games do not communicate through plot and narrative so much as through procedures, rules, and boundaries so that the “open world” of the game expresses political and social attitudes. Games are also not nationalized in the same way as films and literature, making “Asian American” themes nearly indecipherable. Games like Tetris carry no obvious national origins (Russian), while games like Call of Duty and Counter-Strike do not explicitly reveal or rely upon the ethnic identities of their Asian North American designers. Games challenge Asian American Studies as transnational products whose authors do not identify explicitly as Asian American, and as a form of artistic expression that cannot be analyzed with the same reliance on stereotypes, tropes, and narrative. It is difficult to think of “Asian American” in the traditional sense with digital games. Games provide ways of understanding the Asian American experience that challenge traditional meanings of being Asian American, while also offering alternative forms of community through transethnic (not simply Asian) and transnational (not simply American) modes of belonging.

Cybercrime in Online Gaming

2020 ◽  
pp. 881-892
Author(s):  
Boaventura DaCosta ◽  
Soonhwa Seok
Keyword(s):  
Video Games ◽  
Money Laundering ◽  
Video Game ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Video Game Industry ◽  
Data Breaches ◽  
The Past ◽  
Game Industry ◽  
Global Connectivity ◽  
Game Developers

Video games offer rich interactive experiences. Increasingly, however, their popularity coupled with their global connectivity has raised concerns about safety. Although it can be argued that video game developers and publishers have been plagued by cybercrime since the beginning of the industry, video game companies are not the only targets. Cybercriminals also have their sights on gamers. This article examines cybercrime affecting the video game industry and its players. Focused on some of the most deliberate forms of cybercrime found in the literature within the past few years, the article explores data breaches, compromised accounts and stolen data, the theft and sale of in-game items, and money laundering. While the information is anticipated to be of value to educators, practitioners, researchers, game developers, and publishers, it should by no means be considered an all-inclusive reference, but rather a catalyst for discussion, debate, and future research.

Variations on a Theme by a Rogue A.I.: Music, Gameplay, and Storytelling in Portal 2 (Part 1 of 2)

2016 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven Reale
Keyword(s):  
Artificial Intelligence ◽  
Video Game ◽  
Theme And Variations ◽  
Scientific Experimentation ◽  
Game Developers ◽  
Variations On A Theme

This two-video series explores how the scoring to the video game Portal 2, published by Valve Corporation, not only helps tell the game’s story, but also comments on the game developers’ philosophy of puzzle design. The first video explores how the game’s title theme 9999999, including its texture, voice leadings, and chord qualities, musically enacts dual aspects of the character of the game’s central antagonist GlaDOS: once human, her personality was uploaded into a computer mainframe where she has become a sociopathic, homicidal artificial intelligence who takes delight in subjecting humans to hazardous scientific experimentation. The second video demonstrates that 9999999 serves as the theme for a set of double variations in the game’s middle act. Since Valve’s philosophy of player training centers on iterative puzzle-design that systematically increase in complexity, and the musical accompaniments for these puzzles feature coordinated developments in musical complexity, the scoring here lets us parse the puzzle design into a kind of set of gameplay theme-and-variations.

Island Generator pada Game Open world Menggunakan Algoritma Perlin noise

Repositor ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (7) ◽  
pp. 965
Author(s):  
Naufal Azzmi ◽  
Lailatul Husniah ◽  
Ali Sofyan Kholimi
Keyword(s):  
Performance Testing ◽  
Game Development ◽  
Procedural Content Generation ◽  
Open World ◽  
Game World ◽  
Perlin Noise ◽  
And Performance ◽  
Game Developers ◽  
Pcg Method ◽  
Content Generation

AbstrakPerkembangan game pada saat ini berkembang dengan sangat cepat, dalam perkermbangan game topik AI adalah topik yang paling banyak diteliti oleh beberapa peneliti khususnya pada pembuatan suatu konten game menggunakan metode PCG (procedural content generation). Pada pembuatan sebuah game world menggunakan metode PCG sudah banyak developer game yang sukses dengan mengimplementasikan metode ini, metode ini banyak digunkan pada geme dengan genre RPG, Rouglikes, Platformer, SandBox, Simulation dan lain sebagainya, Pada penelitian ini berfokus pada pengembangan sebuah game world generator untuk game berjenis open world yang berupa sebuah kepulauan dengan metode PCG dengan menggunakan algoritma perlin noise sebagai algoritma pembentuk textur utama pulau yang dimana pada penelitian ini memanfaatkan beberapa variable noise seperti octave, presistance dan lacunarity guna untuk menambah kontrol dari hasil textur yang dihasilkan serta algoritma penempatan pulau untuk membuat sebuah game world yang menyerupai sebuah kepulauan. Dari hasil uji generator terkait degan pengujian playability dan performa dapat disimpulkan bahwa generator yang dikembangkan playable serta performa yang dianaliasa menggunakan notasi Big O menunjukkan  (linear). Abstract Game development is currently growing very fast, game development AI is the most discussed topic by most researchers especially in the developing of game content using the PCG (procedural content generation) method. In making a game world using the PCG method, many game developers have succeeded by implementing this method, this method is widely used on RPGs, Rouglikes, Platformers, SandBox, Simulations and ect,. This study focuses on developing a game world generator game for open world type games in the form of an archipelago using the PCG method using the noise perlin algorithm as the island's main texturizing algorithm which in this study utilizes several noise variables such as octave, presistance and use for add control of the texture results as well as the island placement algorithm’s to create a game world that resembles an archipelago form. From the generator test results related to the playability and performance testing, it shows that map are being generated by the generators are playable and performance that are analyzed using Big O notation show O (n) (linear).

Bringing Social Justice into the Statistics Classroom

2020 ◽  
pp. 009862832097987
Author(s):  
Tamera Garlington ◽  
Valerie M. Ryan ◽  
Catherine Nolty ◽  
Hannah Ilagan ◽  
Zachary J. Kunicki
Keyword(s):  
Social Psychology ◽  
Social Justice ◽  
Developmental Psychology ◽  
Statistical Tests ◽  
American Psychological Association ◽  
Psychology Students ◽  
Future Research ◽  
American Psychological ◽  
Pedagogical Tools ◽  
Student's Attitudes

Social justice is an American Psychological Association (APA) ethical principal which is often taught in content courses (e.g. social psychology, developmental psychology, introductory psychology) but rarely covered in psychological statistics courses. This is problematic, as psychology students may assume that bias is not an issue when implementing statistical tests and interpreting their results if social justice topics are not incorporated into statistics classrooms. The current study evaluated student’s attitudes toward a social justice lecture in a statistics classroom ( N = 100 students). Results show students had more favorable attitudes toward social justice and agreed it was important to cover in statistics classrooms. Future research should extend this work by seeking to replicate these findings and evaluating additional pedagogical tools to incorporate social justice into the statistics classroom.

scholarly journals Deservingness for "Family 500 +" Benefit in Poland: Qualitative Study of Internet Debates

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Piotr Michoń
Keyword(s):  
Future Research ◽  
Online Forums ◽  
Time Data ◽  
Social Surveys ◽  
Cash Benefit ◽  
Internet Forums ◽  
Welfare Attitudes ◽  
New Criterion ◽  
First Time ◽  
The Relationship

AbstractThe need for qualitative research of deservingness perception is strongly emphasised in the literature. This article studies the perception of deservingness for a "Family 500 +"—cash benefit in Poland. For the first time, data from online forums was used in the studies of deservingness and welfare attitudes. It allowed to avoid numerous limitations associated with social surveys. The qualitative analysis showed how participants of Internet debates perceive the criteria of deservingness: control, attitude, reciprocity, identity, need, and what are the relations between the criteria. The impurity of all deservingness criteria was indicated and a new criterion “adequacy” was proposed. Moreover due to the fact that the study concerned a concrete, non-abstract family cash benefit addressed the relationship between the perceived deservingness of children and their parents was pointed out. The vast majority of posts on Internet forums referred to deservingness of parents, not children. This is particularly evident in relation to the criteria of control and reciprocity. Presenting the hypothesis of jealousy and scapegoat strategy, the article also shows the direction of future research on deservingness.

scholarly journals The perils of project-based work: Attempting resistance to extreme work practices in video game development

Organization ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 22 (4) ◽  
pp. 570-587 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amanda Peticca-Harris ◽  
Johanna Weststar ◽  
Steve McKenna
Keyword(s):  
Working Conditions ◽  
Video Game ◽  
Work Conditions ◽  
Control Mechanisms ◽  
Work Practices ◽  
Game Development ◽  
Video Game Development ◽  
Dominant Ideologies ◽  
Reader Comments ◽  
Game Developers

This article examines two blogs written by the spouses of game developers about extreme and exploitative working conditions in the video game industry and the associated reader comments. The wives of these video game developers and members of the game community decry these working conditions and challenge dominant ideologies about making games. This article contributes to the work intensification literature by challenging the belief that long hours are necessary and inevitable to make successful games, discussing the negative toll of extreme work on workers and their families, and by highlighting that the project-based structure of game development both creates extreme work conditions and inhibits resistance. It considers how extreme work practices are legitimized through neo-normative control mechanisms made possible through project-based work structures and the perceived imperative of a race or ‘crunch’ to meet project deadlines. The findings show that neo-normative control mechanisms create an insularity within project teams and can make it difficult for workers to resist their own extreme working conditions, and at times to even understand them as extreme.

Towards a general model explaining physical and digital counterfeits

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Francisco-Jose Molina-Castillo ◽  
Elfriede Penz ◽  
Barbara Stöttinger
Keyword(s):  
General Model ◽  
Purchase Intention ◽  
Global Scale ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Digital Piracy ◽  
Digital Products ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Self Identity ◽  
Robust Model ◽  
Research Goal

PurposeDemand for fake physical and digital products is a global phenomenon with substantive detrimental effects on companies and consumers. This raises various questions and issues, such as whether there are generalizable explanations of purchase intentions.Design/methodology/approachThis research is based on consumer samples from three different countries. This paper develops and tests a model based on the theory of planned behavior (TPB) to explain both the demand for counterfeits and digital piracy. Respondents were questioned about physical products (e.g. clothing, accessories) from well-known brands and digital products (e.g. software, music).FindingsSocially oriented motives such as embarrassment potential, ethical concerns and social norms explain the intention to purchase fake physical and digital products, while personally oriented motives (e.g. self-identity) have indirect effects but not a direct impact on purchase intention.Research limitations/implicationsAs our results show, we find evidence for a general model – contributing and supporting our first and primary research goal of providing a theoretically robust model that bridges the gap between two streams of literature.Practical implicationsThe fact that drivers of buying counterfeit physical and digital goods are similar across countries provides justification for companies and international organizations to bundle their efforts and thus leverage them more strongly on a global scale.Originality/valueWe provide a basis for consolidating future research on demand for counterfeits and pirated goods because underlying factors driving demand are similar across the three countries studied herein.

Waltzing on Rooftops and Cobblestones

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 34-55
Author(s):  
Ailbhe Warde-Brown
Keyword(s):  
Video Games ◽  
Video Game ◽  
Real World ◽  
World History ◽  
Interaction Model ◽  
Virtual Space ◽  
Open World ◽  
Integrated Approaches ◽  
The Relationship

The relationship between music, sound, space, and time plays a crucial role in attempts to define the concept of “immersion” in video games. Isabella van Elferen’s ALI (affect-literacy-interaction) model for video game musical immersion offers one of the most integrated approaches to reading connections between sonic cues and the “magic circle” of gameplay. There are challenges, however, in systematically applying this primarily event-focused model to particular aspects of the “open-world” genre. Most notable is the dampening of narrative and ludic restrictions afforded by more intricately layered textual elements, alongside open-ended in-game environments that allow for instances of more nonlinear, exploratory gameplay. This article addresses these challenges through synthesizing the ALI model with more spatially focused elements of Gordon Calleja’s player involvement model, exploring sonic immersion in greater depth via the notion of spatiotemporal involvement. This presents a theoretical framework that broadens analysis beyond a simple focus on the immediate narrative or ludic sequence. Ubisoft’s open-world action-adventure franchise Assassin’s Creed is a particularly useful case study for the application of this concept. This is primarily because of its characteristic focus on blending elements of the historical game and the open-world game through its use of real-world history and geography. Together, the series’s various diegetic and nondiegetic sonic elements invite variable degrees of participation in “historical experiences of virtual space.” The outcome of this research intends to put such intermingled expressions of space, place, and time at the forefront of a ludomusicological approach to immersion in the open-world genre.

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