Gaming the Medievalist World in Harry Potter

2020 ◽  
pp. 749-766
Author(s):  
Karen M. Cook
Keyword(s):  
Video Games ◽  
Harry Potter ◽  
Sound Objects ◽  
Or Fires ◽  
Interactive Play

This paper explores medieval tropes in the video games in the Harry Potter franchise. As the games engage the player in extensive exploration, sound objects signaling the medieval are triggered by interactive play: footsteps echoing in cavernous stone hallways, the opening and shutting of heavy wooden doors, the turning of thick parchment pages, the sounds of potions bubbling or fires in gaping fireplaces, the rush of wind while flying on a broomstick. These act as immediately immersive elements, situating the player more firmly within the already medieval context created by the visual scenery, the musical soundtrack, and the plot itself.

scholarly journals Interview: Acclaimed Game Designer Ryan Kaufman Discusses Telltale Games, Star Wars, Harry Potter, and How Video Games Can Transform Us

Arts ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 46
Author(s):  
Christian Thomas
Keyword(s):  
Video Games ◽  
Video Game ◽  
Harry Potter ◽  
Profound Impact ◽  
Star Wars ◽  
Tv Shows ◽  
Game Designer

Ryan Kaufman—whose rich body of work often centers on video games adapted from movies or TV shows—has had a profound impact on video game designers, writers, and players alike [...]

scholarly journals Why Imaginary Worlds?

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-52
Author(s):  
Edgar Dubourg ◽  
Nicolas Baumard
Keyword(s):  
Video Games ◽  
Behavioral Ecology ◽  
Developmental Psychology ◽  
Graphic Novels ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Harry Potter ◽  
Fictional World ◽  
Star Wars ◽  
Cultural Preference ◽  
Striking Success

Abstract Imaginary worlds are extremely successful. The most popular fictions produced in the last decades contain such a fictional world. They can be found in all fictional media, from novels (e.g., Lord of The Ring, Harry Potter) to films (e.g., Star Wars, Avatar), video games (e.g., The Legend of Zelda, Final Fantasy), graphic novels (e.g., One piece, Naruto) and TV series (e.g., Star Trek, Game of Thrones), and they date as far back as ancient literature (e.g., the Cyclops Islands in The Odyssey, 850 BCE). Why such a success? Why so much attention devoted to nonexistent worlds? In this article, we propose that imaginary worlds co-opt our preferences for exploration, which have evolved in humans and non-human animals alike, to propel individuals toward new environments and new sources of reward. Humans would find imaginary worlds very attractive for the very same reasons, and under the same circumstances, as they are lured by unfamiliar environments in real life. After reviewing research on exploratory preferences in behavioral ecology, environmental aesthetics, neuroscience, and evolutionary and developmental psychology, we focus on the sources of their variability across time and space, which we argue can account for the variability of the cultural preference for imaginary worlds. This hypothesis can therefore explain the way imaginary worlds evolved culturally, their shape and content, their recent striking success, and their distribution across time and populations.

scholarly journals COVID-19 as ‘Game Changer’ for the Physical Activity and Mental Well-Being of Augmented Reality Game Players During the Pandemic: Mixed Methods Survey Study (Preprint)

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Louise A Ellis ◽  
Matthew D Lee ◽  
Kiran Ijaz ◽  
James Smith ◽  
Jeffrey Braithwaite ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Physical Activity ◽  
Video Games ◽  
Video Game ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Harry Potter ◽  
Physical And Mental Health ◽  
Pokémon Go ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Mental Well Being

BACKGROUND Location-based augmented reality (AR) games, such as Pokémon GO and Harry Potter: Wizards Unite, have been shown to have a beneficial impact on the physical activity, social connectedness, and mental health of their players. In March 2020, global social distancing measures related to the COVID-19 pandemic prompted the AR games developer Niantic Inc to implement several changes to ensure continued player engagement with Pokémon GO and Harry Potter: Wizards Unite. We sought to examine how the physical and mental well-being of players of these games were affected during the unprecedented COVID-19 restriction period as well as how their video game engagement was affected. OBJECTIVE The aims of this study were to examine the impact of COVID-19–related social restrictions on the physical and mental well-being of AR game players; to examine the impact of COVID-19–related social restrictions on the use of video games and motivations for their use; and to explore the potential role of AR games (and video games in general) in supporting well-being during COVID-19–related social restrictions. METHODS A mixed methods web-based self-reported survey was conducted in May 2020, during which COVID-19–related social restrictions were enforced in many countries. Participants were recruited on the web via four subreddits dedicated to Pokémon GO or Harry Potter: Wizards Unite. Data collected included quantitative data on demographics, time spent playing video games, physical activity, and mental health; qualitative data included motivations to play and the impact of video games on mental health during COVID-19 lockdown. RESULTS We report results for 2004 participants (1153/1960 male, 58.8%, average age 30.5 years). Self-reported physical activity during COVID-19–related social restrictions significantly decreased from 7.50 hours per week on average (SD 11.12) to 6.50 hours (SD 7.81) (<i>P</i>&lt;.001). More than half of the participants reported poor mental health (925/1766, 52.4%; raw World Health Organization–5 Well-Being Index score &lt;13). Female gender, younger age, and reduced exercise were significant predictors of poor mental health. Participants reported a significant increase in video game play time from 16.38 hours per week on average (SD 19.12) to 20.82 hours (SD 17.49) (<i>P</i>&lt;.001). Approximately three quarters of the participants (n=1102/1427, 77.2%) reported that playing video games had been beneficial to their mental health. The changes made to Pokémon GO and Harry Potter: Wizards Unite were very well received by players, and the players continued to use these games while exercising and to maintain social connection. In addition to seeking an escape during the pandemic and as a form of entertainment, participants reported that they used video games for emotional coping and to lower stress, relax, and alleviate mental health conditions. CONCLUSIONS AR games have the potential to promote physical and mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic. Used by populations under isolation and distress, these games can improve physical and mental health by providing virtual socialization, sustained exercise, temporal routine, and mental structure. Further research is needed to explore the potential of AR games as digital behavioral interventions to maintain human well-being in the wider population.

scholarly journals Exploratory preferences explain the cultural success of imaginary worlds in modern societies

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edgar Dubourg ◽  
Valentin Thouzeau ◽  
Charles de Dampierre ◽  
Nicolas Baumard
Keyword(s):  
Video Games ◽  
Young People ◽  
Personality Trait ◽  
Graphic Novels ◽  
Demographic Data ◽  
Harry Potter ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Modern Culture ◽  
Star Wars ◽  
Cognitive Preferences

Imaginary worlds are one of the hallmarks of modern culture. They are present in many of the most successful fictions, be it in novels (e.g., Harry Potter), films (e.g., Star Wars), video games (e.g., The Legend of Zelda), graphic novels (e.g., One piece) and TV series (e.g., Game of Thrones). This phenomenon is global (e.g., the worldwide success of Lord of the Ring, the emergence of xuanhuan and xanxia genres in China), and massive: people spend an increasing amount of time, energy and resources involved in fictions with imaginary worlds. Why so much attention devoted to nonexistent worlds? In this paper, we propose that imaginary worlds co-opt exploratory preferences, a set of cognitive preferences that have evolved in humans and non-human animals to motivate individuals to explore new sources of reward. Imaginary worlds are fictional superstimuli that tap into the human’s interest for unfamiliar and potentially rewarding environments. This theory predicts that 1) fictions with imaginary worlds should be more appealing for individuals higher in Openness to experience (because this personality trait is associated with exploratory preferences), 2) such fictions should be more attractive for younger people (because young people reap more rewards from exploratory behaviors) and 3) such fictions should be more successful in more economically developed societies (because affluent ecologies lower the costs of exploration). We successively test these predictions with two large cultural datasets, namely IMDb (N=85,855 films) and Wikidata (N=96,711 novels), as well the Movie Personality Dataset, which aggregates averaged personality traits and demographic data from the Facebook myPersonality Database (N=3.5 million), the films they like on Facebook and metadata for films from the Internet Movie Database (IMDb). We provide evidence that the appeal for imaginary worlds relies on our exploratory psychology.

scholarly journals COVID-19 as ‘Game Changer’ for the Physical Activity and Mental Well-Being of Augmented Reality Game Players During the Pandemic: Mixed Methods Survey Study

10.2196/25117 ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (12) ◽  
pp. e25117
Author(s):  
Louise A Ellis ◽  
Matthew D Lee ◽  
Kiran Ijaz ◽  
James Smith ◽  
Jeffrey Braithwaite ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Physical Activity ◽  
Video Games ◽  
Video Game ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Harry Potter ◽  
Physical And Mental Health ◽  
Pokémon Go ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Mental Well Being

Background Location-based augmented reality (AR) games, such as Pokémon GO and Harry Potter: Wizards Unite, have been shown to have a beneficial impact on the physical activity, social connectedness, and mental health of their players. In March 2020, global social distancing measures related to the COVID-19 pandemic prompted the AR games developer Niantic Inc to implement several changes to ensure continued player engagement with Pokémon GO and Harry Potter: Wizards Unite. We sought to examine how the physical and mental well-being of players of these games were affected during the unprecedented COVID-19 restriction period as well as how their video game engagement was affected. Objective The aims of this study were to examine the impact of COVID-19–related social restrictions on the physical and mental well-being of AR game players; to examine the impact of COVID-19–related social restrictions on the use of video games and motivations for their use; and to explore the potential role of AR games (and video games in general) in supporting well-being during COVID-19–related social restrictions. Methods A mixed methods web-based self-reported survey was conducted in May 2020, during which COVID-19–related social restrictions were enforced in many countries. Participants were recruited on the web via four subreddits dedicated to Pokémon GO or Harry Potter: Wizards Unite. Data collected included quantitative data on demographics, time spent playing video games, physical activity, and mental health; qualitative data included motivations to play and the impact of video games on mental health during COVID-19 lockdown. Results We report results for 2004 participants (1153/1960 male, 58.8%, average age 30.5 years). Self-reported physical activity during COVID-19–related social restrictions significantly decreased from 7.50 hours per week on average (SD 11.12) to 6.50 hours (SD 7.81) (P<.001). More than half of the participants reported poor mental health (925/1766, 52.4%; raw World Health Organization–5 Well-Being Index score <13). Female gender, younger age, and reduced exercise were significant predictors of poor mental health. Participants reported a significant increase in video game play time from 16.38 hours per week on average (SD 19.12) to 20.82 hours (SD 17.49) (P<.001). Approximately three quarters of the participants (n=1102/1427, 77.2%) reported that playing video games had been beneficial to their mental health. The changes made to Pokémon GO and Harry Potter: Wizards Unite were very well received by players, and the players continued to use these games while exercising and to maintain social connection. In addition to seeking an escape during the pandemic and as a form of entertainment, participants reported that they used video games for emotional coping and to lower stress, relax, and alleviate mental health conditions. Conclusions AR games have the potential to promote physical and mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic. Used by populations under isolation and distress, these games can improve physical and mental health by providing virtual socialization, sustained exercise, temporal routine, and mental structure. Further research is needed to explore the potential of AR games as digital behavioral interventions to maintain human well-being in the wider population.

Video Games: Rules Required

2009 ◽  
Vol 42 (19) ◽  
pp. 13
Author(s):  
LISA J. MERLO
Keyword(s):  
Video Games

Frustration and Violence in Mobile Video Games

2020 ◽  
Vol 79 (2) ◽  
pp. 63-70
Author(s):  
Petr Květon ◽  
Martin Jelínek
Keyword(s):  
Video Games ◽  
Video Game ◽  
Implicit Association Test ◽  
Self Determination Theory ◽  
Psychological Needs ◽  
Basic Psychological Needs ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
Mobile Video ◽  
Violent Content ◽  
Before And After

Abstract. This study tests two competing hypotheses, one based on the general aggression model (GAM), the other on the self-determination theory (SDT). GAM suggests that the crucial factor in video games leading to increased aggressiveness is their violent content; SDT contends that gaming is associated with aggression because of the frustration of basic psychological needs. We used a 2×2 between-subject experimental design with a sample of 128 undergraduates. We assigned each participant randomly to one experimental condition defined by a particular video game, using four mobile video games differing in the degree of violence and in the level of their frustration-invoking gameplay. Aggressiveness was measured using the implicit association test (IAT), administered before and after the playing of a video game. We found no evidence of an association between implicit aggressiveness and violent content or frustrating gameplay.

Hostile and Hardened? An Experimental Study on (De-)Sensitization to Violence and Suffering Through Playing Video Games

2008 ◽  
Vol 67 (1) ◽  
pp. 41-50 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frithjof Staude-Müller ◽  
Thomas Bliesener ◽  
Stefanie Luthman
Keyword(s):  
Video Games ◽  
Emotional Responses ◽  
Physiological Measurement ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Downward Spiral ◽  
Spiral Model ◽  
Post Hoc ◽  
Game Violence ◽  
First Person Shooter ◽  
Physiological Reactions

This study tests whether playing violent video games leads to desensitization and increased cardiovascular responding. In a laboratory experiment, 42 men spent 20 min playing either a high- or low-violence version of a “first-person shooter” game. Arousal (heart rate, respiration rate) was measured continuously. After playing the game, emotional responses to aversive and aggressive stimuli - pictures from Lang, Bradley, and Cuthbert’s (1999) International Affective Picture System - were assessed with self-ratings and physiological measurement (skin conductance). Results showed no differences in the judgments of emotional responses to the stimuli. However, different effects of game violence emerged in the physiological reactions to the different types of stimulus material. Participants in the high-violence condition showed significantly weaker reactions (desensitization) to aversive stimuli and reacted significantly more strongly (sensitization) to aggressive cues. No support was found for the arousal hypothesis. Post-hoc analyses are used to discuss possible moderating influences of gaming experience and player’s trait aggressiveness in terms of the General Aggression Model ( Anderson & Bushman, 2001 ) and the Downward Spiral Model ( Slater, Henry, Swaim, & Anderson, 2003 ).

Video Games and Emotion Regulation

GeroPsych ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 31 (4) ◽  
pp. 205-213 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kathryn L. Ossenfort ◽  
Derek M. Isaacowitz
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Emotion Regulation ◽  
Video Games ◽  
Age Differences ◽  
Interactive Media ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Younger Adults ◽  
Media Usage ◽  
The Everyday ◽  
Media Preferences

Abstract. Research on age differences in media usage has shown that older adults are more likely than younger adults to select positive emotional content. Research on emotional aging has examined whether older adults also seek out positivity in the everyday situations they choose, resulting so far in mixed results. We investigated the emotional choices of different age groups using video games as a more interactive type of affect-laden stimuli. Participants made multiple selections from a group of positive and negative games. Results showed that older adults selected the more positive games, but also reported feeling worse after playing them. Results supplement the literature on positivity in situation selection as well as on older adults’ interactive media preferences.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document