‘Listen to the atmosphere!’: On spectator sounds and their potentially disruptive role in a football simulation video game

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 39-55
Author(s):  
Nicolai Jørgensgaard Graakjær
Keyword(s):  
Video Games ◽  
Video Game ◽  
The Spectator

This article aims to specify the role of spectator sounds in football simulation video games as exemplified by FIFA 19: what are the structures and functions of spectator sounds and how are these sounds related to the visuals of the video game and the player’s actions and potential experience of disruption? Although the examination generally adds to the understanding of a prevalent and purportedly significant yet hitherto rather underexplored type of video game sound, the examination also motivates a modification of certain positions within previous research that has routinely highlighted the non-obtrusive role of video game sounds. Specifically, the article shows how the disruptive potential of the spectator sounds is attributional both to what they sound like, why they occur and how and from what perspective the player is called upon to listen to them.

scholarly journals Choices and Consequences: The Role of Players in The Walking Dead: A Telltale Game Series

2017 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 350-358 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matteo Genovesi
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Video Games ◽  
Video Game ◽  
Comic Books ◽  
Active Role ◽  
Interactive Approach ◽  
Transmedia Storytelling ◽  
The Walking Dead ◽  
Walking Dead

Abstract One of the most important features in a transmedia structure, as Max Giovagnoli argues in his book Transmedia: Storytelling e Comunicazione [Transmedia: Storytelling and Communication], is the development of the user’s decision-making power, defined by the author as “choice excitement.” In this, every choice of the user should have a consequence in the fictional universe of a specific franchise. Consequently, a narrative universe that wants to emphasize choice excitement and the active role of people can focus on video games, where the interactive approach is prominent. This essay will discuss a specific video game, based on the famous franchise of The Walking Dead. This brand, which appears in comic books, novels, TV series, Web episodes and video games, is analysable not only as an exemplary case of transmedia storytelling, where every ramification of the franchise published in different media is both autonomous and synergistic with the others, but also by focusing on the choice excitement of users in the first season of the video game The Walking Dead: A Telltale Game Series.

“Now They’re Playing with Power!”: Nintendo’s Classics and Franchise Legacy Management

2019 ◽  
pp. 105-118
Author(s):  
Matthew Thomas Payne
Keyword(s):  
Video Games ◽  
Video Game ◽  
Software And Hardware

Matthew Thomas Payne’s chapter considers the role of franchise management through video games. He uses the case study of Nintendo’s NES and SNES micro-consoles. His essay posits that franchises can refer to both software and hardware, as the built-in games on Nintendo’s mini-consoles function as a form of franchise management and corporate canonizing by privileging certain video game texts over others.

Feeling for an Audience

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 85-102
Author(s):  
Bonnie Ruberg ◽  
Amanda L. L. Cullen
Keyword(s):  
Video Games ◽  
Video Game ◽  
Emotional Labor ◽  
Streaming Video ◽  
Live Streaming ◽  
Instructional Videos ◽  
New Directions ◽  
Shed Light ◽  
Do So

Abstract The practice of live streaming video games is becoming increasingly popular worldwide (Taylor 2018). Live streaming represents more than entertainment; it is expanding the practice of turning play into work. Though it is commonly misconstrued as “just playing video games,” live streaming requires a great deal of behind-the-scenes labor, especially for women, who often face additional challenges as professionals within video game culture (AnyKey 2015). In this article, we shed light on one important aspect of the gendered work of video game live streaming: emotional labor. To do so, we present observations and insights drawn from our analysis of instructional videos created by women live streamers and posted to YouTube. These videos focus on “tips and tricks” for how aspiring streamers can become successful on Twitch. Building from these videos, we articulate the various forms that emotional labor takes for video game live streamers and the gendered implications of this labor. Within these videos, we identify key recurring topics, such as how streamers work to cultivate feelings in viewers, perform feelings, manage their own feelings, and use feelings to build personal brands and communities for their streams. Drawing from existing work on video games and labor, we move this scholarly conversation in important new directions by highlighting the role of emotional labor as a key facet of video game live streaming and insisting on the importance of attending to how the intersection of play and work is tied to identity.

scholarly journals Virtual Reality Games and the Role of Body Involvement in Enhancing Positive Emotions and Decreasing Anxiety: Within-Subjects Pilot Study (Preprint)

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Federica Pallavicini ◽  
Alessandro Pepe
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Reality ◽  
Video Games ◽  
Video Game ◽  
State Anxiety ◽  
Positive Emotions ◽  
Negative Emotions ◽  
Traditional Concept ◽  
High Body ◽  
Within Subjects

BACKGROUND In the last few years, the introduction of immersive technologies, especially virtual reality, into the gaming market has dramatically altered the traditional concept of video games. Given the unique features of virtual reality in terms of interaction and its ability to completely immerse the individual into the game, this technology should increase the propensity for video games to effectively elicit positive emotions and decrease negative emotions and anxiety in the players. However, to date, few studies have investigated the ability of virtual reality games to induce positive emotions, and the possible effect of this new type of video game in diminishing negative emotions and anxiety has not yet been tested. Furthermore, given the critical role of body movement in individuals’ well-being and in emotional responses to video games, it seems critical to investigate how body involvement can be exploited to modulate the psychological benefits of virtual reality games in terms of enhancing players’ positive emotions and decreasing negative emotions and anxiety. OBJECTIVE This within-subjects study aimed to explore the ability of commercial virtual reality games to induce positive emotions and diminish negative emotions and state anxiety of the players, investigating the effects of the level of body involvement requested by the game (ie, high vs low). METHODS A total of 36 young adults played a low body-involvement (ie, <i>Fruit Ninja VR</i>) and a high body-involvement (ie, <i>Audioshield</i>) video game in virtual reality. The Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) and the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, Form-Y1 (STAI-Y1) were used to assess positive and negative emotions and state anxiety. RESULTS Results of the generalized linear model (GLM) for repeated-measures multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) revealed a statistically significant increase in the intensity of happiness (<i>P</i>&lt;.001) and surprise (<i>P</i>=.003) and, in parallel, a significant decrease in fear (<i>P</i>=.01) and sadness (<i>P</i>&lt;.001) reported by the users. Regarding the ability to improve anxiety in the players, the results showed a significant decrease in perceived state anxiety after game play, assessed with both the STAI-Y1 (<i>P</i>=.003) and the VAS-anxiety (<i>P</i>=.002). Finally, the results of the GLM MANOVA showed a greater efficacy of the high body-involvement game (ie, <i>Audioshield</i>) compared to the low body-involvement game (ie, <i>Fruit Ninja VR</i>), both for eliciting positive emotions (happiness, <i>P</i>&lt;.001; and surprise, <i>P</i>=.01) and in reducing negative emotions (fear, <i>P</i>=.05; and sadness, <i>P</i>=.05) and state anxiety, as measured by the STAI-Y1 (<i>P</i>=.05). CONCLUSIONS The two main principal findings of this study are as follows: (1) virtual reality video games appear to be effective tools to elicit positive emotions and to decrease negative emotions and state anxiety in individuals and (2) the level of body involvement of the virtual video game has an important effect in determining the ability of the game to improve positive emotions and decrease negative emotions and state anxiety of the players.

scholarly journals Video Game Values: Play as Human-Computer Interaction

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Pippin Barr
Keyword(s):  
Video Games ◽  
Human Computer Interaction ◽  
Activity Theory ◽  
Video Game ◽  
Game Play ◽  
Video Game Play ◽  
Game Activity ◽  
Multiple Levels ◽  
Computer Interaction

<p>Video games are a form of software and thus an obvious object of study in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI). Interaction with video games differs from the usual understanding of HCI, however, because people play video games rather than use them. In this dissertation we ask: " How can we analyse human-computer interaction in video games when the interaction in question is play?" We propose video game values, defined as sustained beliefs about preferable conduct during play, as a basis for video game HCI. In order to describe and analyse play we use activity theory, focusing on how the interface mediates players' beliefs about preferable conduct. Activity theory allows us to address the multiple levels of context and detail in play as well as the role of conflict. We employ a qualitative case study methodology to gather data about five popular video games: Civilization III, Fable, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, Half-Life 2, and The Sims 2. Our core data comes from observation and interview sessions with twenty-five experienced players of these games. We collected further data based on the games' interfaces, participant observation, and documentation such as manuals and walkthroughs. We make three key contributions to video game HCI: 1) We introduce video game values as a means to analyse play as a form of human-computer interaction and show how the values of PAIDIA and LUDUS influence all aspects of play; 2) we develop a video game activity framework for describing and analysing video game play at multiple levels of detail and context; and 3) we extend the video game activity framework to include contradictions and breakdowns as a means to describe and analyse the role of conflict and challenge in video game play.</p>

scholarly journals Interfejsy intymności. Tendencje intymistyczne we współczesnych grach wideo

2021 ◽  
pp. 215-239
Author(s):  
Piotr Kubiński
Keyword(s):  
Video Games ◽  
Video Game ◽  
Game Design ◽  
Necessary Condition ◽  
Final Conclusion ◽  
Contemporary Culture ◽  
Video Game Design ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Media Form

The article concentrates on a specific tendency that can be observed in some video games created in recent years. This trend is that more and more video games present an intimate perspective and focus on the individual experience of the protagonist. The author of the article approaches the phenomenon in question mainly from the interpretative and genological perspective, since video games are not a media form commonly identified with the expression of intimate, formative or identitycreating experiences. The author starts with an analysis of the reasons why video games and intimistic texts are commonly perceived as very distant genre forms. Then he analyzes those video games that represent the intimistic tendency: Bury me, my Love (The Pixel Hunt, 2017), A Normal Lost Phone (Accidental Queens, 2017) and Wanderlust: Travel Stories (Different Tales, 2019). The analysis leads to the following conclusions: what is common for all the three discussed games is i.a. a particularly important role of the text as the basic semiotic material in which the game is realized. Even though Interfejsy intymności this concentration on the word is not a necessary condition of intimistic poetics – it definitely helps introducing such a dimension into the work. What is more, two of the three discussed games use the strategy of remediating a smartphone. In both cases, the creators designed new interfaces modeled on the real ones and turned navigating on the phone screen into basic game mechanics. This, in turns, means that intimistic tendencies in video games stimulate reaching for new genre forms. This process of remediation is possible mainly because modern intimacy has shifted very clearly towards the digital, and smartphones have become its basic tool. This phenomenon, which the author of the article calls ‘intimacy 2.0’, is a result of the fact that: (a) contemporary culture is deeply anchored in the digital and its interfaces, and (b) the importance of smartphones in everyday communication and media consumption has been growing enormously in recent years. The final conclusion of the paper is as follows: all the discussed games use an intimate perspective to evoke empathy, which was not a typical video game design goal. This is especially interesting, given the fact, that all the analyzed games remain primarily commercial products that are driven by the laws of the market.

Media and Radical Embodiment

Media in Mind ◽  
2019 ◽  
pp. 71-96
Author(s):  
Daniel Reynolds
Keyword(s):  
Video Games ◽  
Video Game ◽  
Philosophy Of Mind ◽  
Mental Representations ◽  
Psychological Theory ◽  
Media Theory ◽  
The Mind ◽  
Radical Embodiment ◽  
Psychological Experiments

This chapter addresses the concept of mental representations in both media theory and philosophy of mind. It argues that, contrary to what representationalist models claim, the mind does not work by way of an internal language or internal images but through active bodily engagement with the environment. The chapter discusses how mental representations have functioned historically in media theory. It shows how video games have been employed in philosophical and psychological argumentation about the nature of the mind. It presents the case of Hugo Münsterberg, a psychologist whose encounter with film impacted his psychological theory. It discusses the role of imagery in video game play. It illustrates how the use of moving image media in psychological experiments can reinforce ideas about internal mental representations.

scholarly journals Exploring the Mediating Effect of Psychological Engagement on the Relationship between Child-to-Parent Violence and Violent Video Games

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (6) ◽  
pp. 2845
Author(s):  
Ana Ruiz-Fernández ◽  
Miriam Junco-Guerrero ◽  
David Cantón-Cortés
Keyword(s):  
Video Games ◽  
Video Game ◽  
Structural Equation ◽  
Structural Equation Models ◽  
Mediating Effect ◽  
Social Risk ◽  
Violent Video Games ◽  
Psychological Engagement ◽  
The Relationship

Research into the effects of violent video games on levels of aggression has raised concerns that they may pose a significant social risk, especially among younger people. The objective of this study was to analyze, through structural equation models, the mediating role of psychological engagement in the relationship between the consumption of violent video games and child-to-parent violence (CPV) against the mother and the father. The sample consisted of 916 students from the third and fourth grades of compulsory secondary education, first and second grades of high school, and first cycle of vocational training (483 males and 433 females), of whom a total of 628 were video game players, aged between 13 and 19. The exposure to video games was assessed through an author-elaborated questionnaire, engagement was evaluated with the game engagement questionnaire, and CPV was assessed through the child-to-parent aggression questionnaire. The structural equation models indicated that exposure to violent video games was related to lower rates of CPV against both parents. Conversely, the flow (a sense of being in control, being one with activity, and experiencing distortions in the perception of time) dimension of engagement positively correlated with the level of CPV against the mother, whereas the flow and absorption (total engagement in the current experience) dimensions correlated with CPV against the father. In conclusion, the results confirm the role of violent video game consumption, reducing CPV rates against both parents, a role that is offset to the extent that these violent games provoke engagement in the user.

scholarly journals Effects of Violent Video Games on Aggressive Behaviors Among Children: The Role of Anger and Trait Aggression in China

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qian Zhang ◽  
JingJin Tian ◽  
LunChao Chen ◽  
Yi Cao
Keyword(s):  
Video Games ◽  
Video Game ◽  
Potential Role ◽  
Chinese Children ◽  
Aggressive Behaviors ◽  
Moderation Analysis ◽  
Violent Video Game ◽  
Trait Aggression ◽  
Game Condition

Abstract The current study examined the violent video game effect on aggressive behaviors and the potential role of anger and trait aggression among Chinese children (n = 248; Mage = 6.09, SD = 0.21). Half of them were randomly assigned to play a violent or a neutral video game for 20 minutes. Results showed that brief exposure of children to a violent video game produced a small but significant increases in aggressive behaviors. More specifically, males exhibited more aggressive behaviors than females in the violent game condition. Moderation analysis suggested that the violent video game effect on aggression was not moderated by trait aggression, but this effect was mediated by increased anger (especially for males). These findings indicated that males who were exposed to a violent video game might be regarded as the key group to reduce aggression by training to vent their anger. Results are interpreted within and support the framework of the General Aggression Model (GAM).

scholarly journals Game Transfer Phenomena and Problematic Interactive Media Use: Dispositional and Media Habit Factors

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Angelica B. Ortiz de Gortari ◽  
Jayne Gackenbach
Keyword(s):  
Video Games ◽  
Video Game ◽  
Online Survey ◽  
Cognitive Biases ◽  
Media Use ◽  
Interactive Media ◽  
Binary Logistic Regression ◽  
Gaming Disorder ◽  
Future Work

The study of the effects of interactive media has mainly focused on dysregulated behaviors, the conceptualization of which is supported by the paradigms of addiction. Research into Game Transfer Phenomena (GTP) examines the interplay between video game features, events while playing, and the manipulation of hardware, which can lead to sensory-perceptual and cognitive intrusions (e.g., hallucinations and recurrent thoughts) and self-agency transient changes (e.g., automatic behaviors) related to video games. GTP can influence the interpretation of stimuli and everyday interactions and, in contrast to gaming disorder, are relatively common and not necessarily negative. However, some players have reported feeling distress due to their GTP. This study focuses on how dispositional and interactive media habit factors are related to GTP and two forms of problematic interactive media [problematic video game playing (PVG) and problematic social media use (PSMU)]. A sample of 343 university students who played video games completed an online survey (58.7% male, 19–25 years old). Not all who had experienced GTP were identified as exhibiting PVG or PSMU, but all of those in the PVG group had experienced GTP. Overall, the profiles of the groups, including GTP (91.4%), PVG (28.5%), and PSMU (24.8%), were in accordance with previous findings. Those in the GTP and the PVG groups were characterized by being male, being highly engaged in the game (either while playing or via game-related activities), and showed preferences for game-related activities. However, while those in the GTP group were significantly more likely to be fantasy-prone, those with PVG were the ones who played most per day. Those in the PSMU group were characterized by being female and/or extroverted, frequently using social/sharing platforms, and seldom playing video games. A hierarchical binary logistic regression revealed that males were more likely to experience GTP. Increases in PVG, fantasy proneness, and neuroticism increased the odds of GTP. Future work can benefit from considering the role of GTP in gaming disorder, since intrusive thoughts, cognitive biases, and poor impulse control are pivotal in the initiation and maintenance of dysfunctional playing behaviors.

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