scholarly journals Assistive Technologies for Brain-Injured Gamers

2014 ◽  
pp. 28-56
Author(s):  
Jason Colman ◽  
Paul Gnanayutham
Keyword(s):  
Brain Injury ◽  
Video Games ◽  
Video Game ◽  
Best Practice ◽  
Ethical Issues ◽  
Therapeutic Potential ◽  
Assistive Technologies ◽  
Game Development ◽  
Brain Injured ◽  
Accessibility Guidelines

This chapter surveys assistive technologies which make video games more accessible for people who have an Acquired Brain Injury (ABI). As medical care improves, an increasing number of people survive ABI. Video games have been shown to provide therapeutic benefits in many medical contexts, and rehabilitation for ABI survivors has been shown to be facilitated by playing some types of video game. Therefore, technologies which improve the accessibility of games have the potential to bring a form of therapy to a larger group of people who may benefit. Hardware technologies which may make games more accessible for brain injury survivors are considered. Complementing these devices is the inclusion of accessibility features into games during the development process. The creation of best practice accessibility guidelines among game development practitioners is a nascent field, considered important by the authors. Play testing is common practice during game development. We consider the ethical issues involved when the play testers are brain injury survivors. Overall, the aim of this chapter is to improve the accessibility of future games, and thus their therapeutic potential, for brain injured and other disabled gamers.

scholarly journals Assistive Technologies for Brain-Injured Gamers

Gamification ◽  
2015 ◽  
pp. 1113-1141
Author(s):  
Jason Colman ◽  
Paul Gnanayutham
Keyword(s):  
Brain Injury ◽  
Video Games ◽  
Video Game ◽  
Best Practice ◽  
Ethical Issues ◽  
Therapeutic Potential ◽  
Assistive Technologies ◽  
Game Development ◽  
Brain Injured ◽  
Accessibility Guidelines

This chapter surveys assistive technologies which make video games more accessible for people who have an Acquired Brain Injury (ABI). As medical care improves, an increasing number of people survive ABI. Video games have been shown to provide therapeutic benefits in many medical contexts, and rehabilitation for ABI survivors has been shown to be facilitated by playing some types of video game. Therefore, technologies which improve the accessibility of games have the potential to bring a form of therapy to a larger group of people who may benefit. Hardware technologies which may make games more accessible for brain injury survivors are considered. Complementing these devices is the inclusion of accessibility features into games during the development process. The creation of best practice accessibility guidelines among game development practitioners is a nascent field, considered important by the authors. Play testing is common practice during game development. We consider the ethical issues involved when the play testers are brain injury survivors. Overall, the aim of this chapter is to improve the accessibility of future games, and thus their therapeutic potential, for brain injured and other disabled gamers.

scholarly journals Using video games for volcanic hazard education and communication

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. Mani ◽  
P. D. Cole ◽  
I. Stewart
Keyword(s):  
Video Games ◽  
Video Game ◽  
Volcanic Hazard ◽  
Pyroclastic Flows ◽  
Concept Design ◽  
Game Development ◽  
Ash Fall ◽  
Post Test ◽  
Hazard Education ◽  
Sound Foundation

Abstract. This paper aims to understand whether video games (or serious games) can be effective in enhancing volcanic hazard education and communication. Using the eastern Caribbean island of St. Vincent, we have developed a video game – St. Vincent’s Volcano – for use in volcano education and outreach sessions, aimed at improving resident’s knowledge of potential future eruptive hazards (ash fall, pyroclastic flows and lahars). Here, we discuss the process of game development including concept design, game development through to final implementation on St. Vincent. Preliminary results for game implementation (obtained through pre and post-test knowledge quizzes) for both student and adult participants suggest that a video game of this style can be effective in improving learner’s knowledge. Both groups of participants demonstrated an increase in score percentage (9.3 % for adults and 8.3 % for students) and when plotted as learning gains (0.11 for adults and 0.09 for students). This preliminary data could provide a sound foundation for the increased integration of emerging technologies within traditional education sessions.

EXPLORATION VS. EXPLOITATION AND HOW VIDEO GAME DEVELOPERS ARE ABLE TO COMBINE THE TWO

2016 ◽  
Vol 20 (06) ◽  
pp. 1650045
Author(s):  
BJÖRN REMNELAND WIKHAMN ◽  
ALEXANDER STYHRE ◽  
JAN LJUNGBERG ◽  
ANNA MARIA SZCZEPANSKA
Keyword(s):  
Video Games ◽  
Qualitative Study ◽  
Video Game ◽  
Creative Work ◽  
Game Development ◽  
Video Game Industry ◽  
Video Game Development ◽  
Game Industry ◽  
Game Developers ◽  
Suitable Case

This paper reports an in-depth qualitative study about innovation work in the Swedish video game industry. More specifically, it focuses on how video game developers are building ambidextrous capabilities to simultaneously addressing explorative and exploitative activities. The Swedish video game industry is a particularly suitable case to analyze ambidexterity, due to it’s extreme market success and continuous ability to adapt to shifts in technologies and demands. Based on the empirical data, three ambidextrous capabilities are pointed out as particularly valuable for video game developers; (1) the ability to separate between a creative work climate and the effectiveness in project organizing; (2) the balancing of inward and outward ideation influences, and (3) the diversity in operational means and knowledge paired with shared goals and motivations, derived from the love of video games and video game development.

Making players care: The ambivalent cultural politics of care and video games

2021 ◽  
Vol 24 (4) ◽  
pp. 655-672
Author(s):  
Bonnie Ruberg ◽  
Rainforest Scully-Blaker
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
Video Games ◽  
Cultural Politics ◽  
Video Game ◽  
Cultural Rhetorics ◽  
Game Development ◽  
The Walking Dead ◽  
Tend And Befriend ◽  
Video Game Development ◽  
The Relationship

The relationship between care and video games is fraught. While the medium has the potential to allow players to meaningfully express and receive care, the cultural rhetorics that connect video games to care are often problematic. Even among game designers and scholars committed to social justice, some view care with hope and others with concern. Here, we identify and unpack these tensions, which we refer to as the ambivalent cultural politics of care, and illustrate them through three case studies. First, we discuss “tend-and-befriend games,” coined by Brie Code, which we read through feminist theorists Sarah Sharma and Sara Ahmed. Second, we address “empathy games” and the worrisome implication that games by marginalized people must make privileged players care. Lastly, we turn to issues of care in video game development. We discuss Telltale Games’ The Walking Dead series (2012–18) and strikingly care-less fan responses to recent employee layoffs.

scholarly journals An Approach to Accessible Serious Games for People with Dyslexia

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (5) ◽  
pp. 2507
Author(s):  
Angel Jaramillo-Alcázar ◽  
Eduardo Venegas ◽  
Santiago Criollo-C ◽  
Sergio Luján-Mora
Keyword(s):  
Video Game ◽  
Serious Games ◽  
Cognitive Disorder ◽  
Serious Game ◽  
Game Development ◽  
Development Method ◽  
Accessibility Guidelines ◽  
The One ◽  
Game Developers

Dyslexia is a cognitive disorder that affects the evolutionary ability to read, write, and speak in people, affecting the correct learning of a large percentage of the population worldwide. In fact, incorrect learning is caused because the educational system does not take into consideration the accessibility parameters that people with dyslexia need to maintain a sustainable educational level equal to others. Moreover, the use of mobile devices, such as smartphones and tablets, has been deployed in education programs, offering many benefits; however, the lack of accessibility of those devices creates new barriers to students with dyslexia that hinder their education. With the aim of reducing these barriers, this paper presents an approach to the development of accessible serious games games for children with dyslexia. As a case study, a serious game based on a previously proposed serious game development method and a new set of accessibility guidelines for people with dyslexia is presented. The main purpose of the serious video game is to improve the treatment of dyslexia, through the collection of data obtained from two puzzles designed to train certain cognitive areas that affect this disability. This article has a double contribution: on the one hand, the guidelines and the method that can help video game developers and therapists to develop accessible serious games for people with dyslexia and, on the other hand, the two specific serious games that can be used by therapists, family members and people with dyslexia themselves.

scholarly journals Towards a “Filipino” Video Game: Teaching Filipino Culture and Identity for Video Game Development

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Christoffer Mitch C. Cerda
Keyword(s):  
Video Games ◽  
Video Game ◽  
The Philippines ◽  
Game Development ◽  
Video Game Development ◽  
Game Industry ◽  
Filipino Culture ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Game Developers

This paper uses the author’s experiences of teaching the Filipino module of a multidisciplinary video game development class as a case study in teaching Filipino culture and identity as an element of video game development. A preliminary definition of “Filipino video game” as having Filipino narratives and subject matter, made by Filipino video game developers, and catering to a Filipino audience, is proposed. The realities and limitations of video game development and the video game market in the Philippines is also discussed to show how the dominance of Western video game industry, in terms of the dominance of outsource work for Filipino video game developers and the dominance of non-Filipino video games played by Filipino players, has hindered the development of original Filipino video games. Using four Filipino video games as primary texts discussed in class, students were exposed to Filipinomade video games, and shown how these games use Filipino history, culture, and politics as source material for their narrative and design. Issues of how video games can be used to selfexoticization, and the use of propaganda is discussed, and also how video games can be used to confront and reimagine Filipinoness. The paper ends with a discussion of a student-made game titled Alibatas, a game that aims to teach baybayin, a neglected native writing system in the Philippines as a demonstration of how students can make a Filipino video game. The paper then shows the importance of student-made games, and the role that the academe plays in the critical understanding of Filipino video games, and in defining Filipino culture and identity.

scholarly journals Researchers should avoid causally attributing suicide to video game play as a single factor

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter James Etchells ◽  
Brittany I Davidson ◽  
Linda Katherine Kaye ◽  
David Alexander Ellis ◽  
Andreas Lieberoth
Keyword(s):  
Case Report ◽  
Video Games ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Video Game ◽  
Best Practice ◽  
Psychiatric Care ◽  
Public Debate ◽  
Single Factor ◽  
The Public ◽  
Video Game Play

PurposeWe highlight a number of concerns regarding a recent publication in Perspectives in Psychiatric Care which involves the apparent presentation of three case studies of video game-related suicide. ConclusionsAlthough presented as a case report, the publication falls short of ethical and best-practice standards in the reporting of suicide, and risks confusing the public debate around video games effects. Practice ImplicationsRecommendations on best practice principles for reporting video game research relating to suicide are presented.

Introduction: Why Game Production Matters?

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Olli Sotamaa ◽  
Jan Švelch
Keyword(s):  
Video Games ◽  
Video Game ◽  
Public Awareness ◽  
Game Studies ◽  
Game Development ◽  
The Public ◽  
Production Studies ◽  
Rigorous Research ◽  
Video Game Development ◽  
Game Industry

In the introduction, the editors of this collection argue for the importance of game production studies at a point when the public awareness about the production context of video games has, arguably, never been higher. With so many accounts of video game development permeating player and developer communities, the task of game production studies is to uncover the economic, cultural, and political structures that influence the final form of games by applying rigorous research methods. While the field of game studies has developed quickly in the past two decades, the study of the video game industry and different modes of video game production have been mostly dismissed by game studies scholars and requires more attention.

The Creative Process of Composing for Video Games: From Pitching to Gold Master and Beyond

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen Baysted ◽  
Tim Summers
Keyword(s):  
Video Games ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Video Game ◽  
Creative Process ◽  
Game Development ◽  
Creative Processes ◽  
Video Game Development

This chapter explores the composer’s experience of writing music for video games. It does so by following the musical creative process through the cycle of video game development. It begins with the pitching process, examines the factors at play in establishing the musical approach to the game, considers the compositional challenges of the video game medium, outlines approaches to recording the music, and finishes by explaining the role of music in the game’s marketing. While characterizing the creative processes of game music in general, the chapter uses two contrasting racing games as case studies. At each stage, the chapter emphasizes the variety of factors and agents involved in the musical decisions. Ultimately, the chapter suggests that the creative process of game music sits in tension between the financial realities of the marketplace, the practicalities of technology, and the creative ambitions of the producers.

scholarly journals Investigating multi-player online video games for brain-injured people

2014 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 124-137 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jason Colman ◽  
Jim Briggs ◽  
Louise Turner ◽  
Alice Good
Keyword(s):  
Brain Injury ◽  
Video Games ◽  
Road Traffic ◽  
Therapeutic Benefit ◽  
Single Subject ◽  
Online Video ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Low Middle Income Countries ◽  
Brain Injured ◽  
Online Video Games

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to report a pilot experiment to test if multi-player online video games could provide a measurable cognitive therapeutic benefit for brain-injured people. Design/methodology/approach – Single-subject research design with n=3 brain-injured participants. Four alternating intervention and non-intervention weeks. Battery of cognitive tests taken at the start of the experiment and at the end of each week. Findings – Widely varying results with large standard deviation overall. Research limitations/implications – The experimental design was heavily reliant on multiple participants logging in at the same time. Server logs showed that this happened relatively rarely. Practical implications – Implications for the next iteration of the experiment are to refine the game design to avoid the need to synchronise the participants. The findings presented may be of practical use to other researchers in this area. Social implications – Acquired brain injury has been described as an epidemic, and is rising, with stroke being a leading cause. Traumatic brain injury (e.g. due to road traffic accident) has increasing prevalence in low-middle income countries. This research aims to provide a form of therapy to people for whom physical access to rehabilitation services is limited. Originality/value – The use of multi-player online video games as rehabilitation is a relatively unexplored area. A positive result in an experiment of this nature would indicate the potential for a new, complimentary form of cognitive therapy for brain-injured people.

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