The Door: Timing Effects of Fourth Wall Breaks on Immersion and Game Experience in an Adventure Game

AbstractAs groups are increasingly taking over individual experts in many tasks, it is ever more important to understand the determinants of group success. In this paper, we study the patterns of group success in Escape The Room, a physical adventure game in which a group is tasked with escaping a maze by collectively solving a series of puzzles. We investigate (1) the characteristics of successful groups, and (2) how accurately humans and machines can spot them from a group photo. The relationship between these two questions is based on the hypothesis that the characteristics of successful groups are encoded by features that can be spotted in their photo. We analyze >43K group photos (one photo per group) taken after groups have completed the game—from which all explicit performance-signaling information has been removed. First, we find that groups that are larger, older and more gender but less age diverse are significantly more likely to escape. Second, we compare humans and off-the-shelf machine learning algorithms at predicting whether a group escaped or not based on the completion photo. We find that individual guesses by humans achieve 58.3% accuracy, better than random, but worse than machines which display 71.6% accuracy. When humans are trained to guess by observing only four labeled photos, their accuracy increases to 64%. However, training humans on more labeled examples (eight or twelve) leads to a slight, but statistically insignificant improvement in accuracy (67.4%). Humans in the best training condition perform on par with two, but worse than three out of the five machine learning algorithms we evaluated. Our work illustrates the potentials and the limitations of machine learning systems in evaluating group performance and identifying success factors based on sparse visual cues.

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The Animation of Gamers and the Gamers as Animators in Sierra On-Line’s Adventure Games

Animation ◽

10.1177/17468477211025665 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 16 (1-2) ◽

pp. 83-95

Author(s):

Raz Greenberg

Keyword(s):

Video Games ◽

Digital Games ◽

Free Play ◽

Digital Gaming ◽

Adventure Game ◽

Adventure Games ◽

Software Publisher ◽

On Line ◽

The Relationship

Produced throughout the 1980s using the company’s Adventure Game Interpreter engine, the digital adventure games created by American software publisher Sierra On-Line played an important and largely overlooked role in the development of animation as an integral part of the digital gaming experience. While the little historical and theoretical discussion of the company’s games of the era focuses on their genre, it ignores these games’ contribution to the relationship between the animated avatars and the gamers that control them – a relationship that, as argued in this article, in essence turns gamers into animators. If we consider Chris Pallant’s (2019) argument in ‘Video games and animation’ that animation is essential to the sense of immersion within a digital game, then the great freedom provided to the gamers in animating their avatars within Sierra On-Line’s adventure games paved the way to the same sense of immersion in digital. And, if we refer to Gonzalo Frasca’s (1999) divide of digital games to narrative-led or free-play (ludus versus paidea) in ‘Ludology meets narratology: Similitude and differences between (video) games and narrative’, then the company’s adventure games served as an important early example of balance between the two elements through the gamers’ ability to animate their avatars. Furthermore, Sierra On-Line’s adventure games have tapped into the traditional tension between the animator and the character it animated, as observed by Scott Bukatman in ‘The poetics of Slumberland: Animated spirits and the animated spirit (2012), when he challenged the traditional divide between animators, the characters they animate and the audience. All these contributions, as this articles aims to demonstrate, continue to influence the role of animation in digital games to this very day.

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A Framework for Simulation and Formal Verification of Redundant Flight Control Systems with Components Subject to Partially Synchronous Timing Effects

10.1109/dasc52595.2021.9594390 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Valentin A. Marvakov ◽

Florian Holzapfel

Keyword(s):

Formal Verification ◽

Control Systems ◽

Flight Control ◽

Timing Effects

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The World of The Walking Dead – Transmediality and Transmedial Intermediality

Acta Universitatis Sapientiae Film and Media Studies ◽

10.1515/ausfm-2015-0027 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 10 (1) ◽

pp. 73-88 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Benjamin Beil ◽

Hanns Christian Schmidt

Keyword(s):

Video Games ◽

Cultural Environment ◽

Transmedia Storytelling ◽

The Walking Dead ◽

Adventure Game ◽

The World ◽

Interactive Nature ◽

Walking Dead

Abstract As transmedia franchises increasingly populate our cultural environment, many questions arise about the effect of the different media involved in the depiction of storyworlds. Through the analysis of different examples, with special emphasis on the particular case of The Walking Dead, and drawing primarily from Henry Jenkins’s concept of “transmedia storytelling” and Jens Schroter’s concept of intermediality, this paper aims to show how different media aesthetics contribute to the process of storytelling and enrich the experience of the consumer. Usually overlooked in other analyses, we argue that these formal and aesthetical characteristics, such as the interactive nature of video games, call for a broader approach that transcends the accustomed search of common narrative aspects. This will be exemplified by a closer comparative look at the adventure game The Walking Dead: The Ganie (Telltale Games, 2012) and The Walking Dead: Survival Instiiict (Terminal Reality, 2013). The transformations that the different media demand contribute not only to the narrative, but also provide different tools for the construction of storyworlds and different ways to engage with it.

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Timing Effects on Johnsongrass (Sorghum halepense) Control with Asulam in Sugarcane (Saccharumsp.)

Weed Technology ◽

10.1017/s0890037x00025033 ◽

1990 ◽

Vol 4 (1) ◽

pp. 81-86 ◽

Cited By ~ 15

Author(s):

Edward P. Richard

Keyword(s):

Moisture Stress ◽

Sorghum Halepense ◽

Application Time ◽

Early Application ◽

Sugarcane Stalk ◽

Timing Effects

Full-season johnsongrass competition reduced sugar yields by 53 and 44% in ‘CP 70–321’ and ‘CP 72–370’ sugarcane, respectively, primarily by reducing sugarcane stalk populations. Stalk population and height and sugar yields of both cultivars were optimized when asulam was applied at 3.7 kg ai/ha during April and early May. Asulam at 3.4 kg/ha, applied a second time 8 weeks later, generally increased johnsongrass control but did not increase sugar yields over one early application. By delaying the application, the potential for sugarcane injury from asulam applied once or twice increased in both cultivars. Injury appeared to be related to the stage of sugarcane growth and temperature and moisture stress at application time with asulam phytotoxicity being more pronounced in CP 72–370. Populations of johnsongrass stems in the year after treatment reflected the degree of johnsongrass control by asulam and the competitiveness of the crop in the previous year.

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Rate and Timing Effects of Growth Regulating Herbicides Applications on Grain Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor) Growth and Yield

Advances in Agriculture ◽

10.1155/2016/9302507 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 2016 ◽

pp. 1-8

Author(s):

Thierry E. Besançon ◽

Ranjit Riar ◽

Ronnie W. Heiniger ◽

Randy Weisz ◽

Wesley J. Everman

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

Grain Yield ◽

Environmental Conditions ◽

Southeastern United States ◽

Grain Sorghum ◽

Research Data ◽

Growth And Yield ◽

Yield Response ◽

Yield Reduction ◽

Timing Effects

Dicamba and 2,4-D are among the most common and inexpensive herbicides used to control broadleaf weeds. However, different studies have pointed the risk of crop injury and grain sorghum yield reduction with postemergence applications of 2,4-D. No research data on grain sorghum response to 2,4-D or dicamba exists in the Southeastern United States. Consequently, a study was conducted to investigate crop growth and yield response to 2,4-D (100, 220, and 330 g acid equivalent ha−1) and dicamba (280 g acid equivalent ha−1) applied on 20 to 65 cm tall sorghum. Greater stunting resulted from 2,4-D applied at 330 g acid equivalent ha−1or below 45 cm tall sorghum whereas lodging prevailed with 2,4-D at 330 g acid equivalent ha−1and dicamba applied beyond 35 cm tall crop. Regardless of local environmental conditions, 2,4-D applied up to 35 cm tall did not negatively impact grain yield. There was a trend for yields to be somewhat lower when 2,4-D was applied on 45 or 55 cm tall sorghum whereas application on 65 cm tall sorghum systematically decreased yields. More caution should be taken with dicamba since yield reduction has been reported as early as applications made on 35 cm tall sorghum for a potentially dicamba sensitive cultivar.

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