Meaningful Video Games

2011 ◽  
pp. 312-329 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen Brock Schafer ◽  
Gino Yu
Keyword(s):  
Video Games ◽  
Video Game ◽  
World View ◽  
Full Range ◽  
Somatic Awareness ◽  
Physiological Processes ◽  
Skin Response ◽  
Psychological Transformation ◽  
Objective Basis ◽  
The Mind

The development of more meaningful video games is becoming increasingly possible by recent advances in video game technologies, neurosciences, and biofeedback. In the near future, meaningful video games will be designed to facilitate personal-psychological transformation. Unlike “serious games” that focus on education and “conditioning” the mind, meaningful games will cultivate emotional intelligence, somatic awareness, and archetypal integration in order to “un-condition” the mind and thereby facilitate psychologically meaningful personal transformations. Meaningful game research will access the dynamics of psychological transformation in order to enhance archetypal awareness, intuition, and insight on the part of players. Within the genre of meaningful video games, Drama-Based Games (DBG) add an unprecedented dimension for psychological engagement and decision-making. Because they extend psychological player immersion to the dimension of “physical” interactivity, (DBG) incorporate the full range of psychological functions defined by Carl Jung. Because psychological experiences are correlated with physiological processes, DBG may be used as research instruments for quantifying diverse biometric-psychological interactions that occur during game play. Advances in electronics now enable the real-time and non-intrusive capturing of physiological data such as brain waves (e.g., electroencephalography), heart-rate variability, skin response, and facial expression. This data can provide an objective basis for measuring dimensions of the cognitive unconscious in test subjects as they respond to game experiences. The ultimate goal of research is to provide veridical data relative to the psychological parameters of an increasingly mediated global environment—a Psychecology—and to study the ensuing world-view.

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.

Game-Based Learning

2011 ◽  
pp. 583-605 ◽  
Author(s):  
Krestina L. Amon ◽  
Andrew J. Campbell
Keyword(s):  
Video Games ◽  
Video Game ◽  
Treatment Options ◽  
Growing Up ◽  
Game Based Learning ◽  
Biofeedback Treatment ◽  
Receive Treatment ◽  
The Mind

Whilst biofeedback video games are still new to AD/HD treatment options, this Chapter demonstrates that with children growing up in a technologically advanced world, it is not surprising that the prospect of learning relaxation skills to clear the mind, and calm anxiety or frustration, and receive treatment through a video game would increase a child’s interest and cooperate with biofeedback treatment.

scholarly journals The Nintendo 64: Nintendo's Adult Platform? The Dichotomy Of Nintendo And Children's Video Games

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicholas Ashmore
Keyword(s):  
Video Games ◽  
Video Game ◽  
Digital Technology ◽  
Time Magazine ◽  
The Future ◽  
Game Console ◽  
The Mind

Introduction When the Nintendo 64 was released in 1996, TIME Magazine gave it the distinction of “Machine of the Year,” arguing that Nintendo had revitalized the somewhat stagnant video game console market of the 1990s, which had offered little more than incremental hardware upgrades and mostly unsuccessful add-on devices. In his enthusiastic end-of-year review of the console, TIME’s Michael Krantz contended that “Nintendo's marquee product will be the machine that most fully influences our children's introduction to the mind-boggling potential of digital technology,” and that the platform represented “the first glimpse of [the] future” of video game hardware (73).

scholarly journals The Nintendo 64: Nintendo's Adult Platform? The Dichotomy Of Nintendo And Children's Video Games

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicholas Ashmore
Keyword(s):  
Video Games ◽  
Video Game ◽  
Digital Technology ◽  
Time Magazine ◽  
The Future ◽  
Game Console ◽  
The Mind

Introduction When the Nintendo 64 was released in 1996, TIME Magazine gave it the distinction of “Machine of the Year,” arguing that Nintendo had revitalized the somewhat stagnant video game console market of the 1990s, which had offered little more than incremental hardware upgrades and mostly unsuccessful add-on devices. In his enthusiastic end-of-year review of the console, TIME’s Michael Krantz contended that “Nintendo's marquee product will be the machine that most fully influences our children's introduction to the mind-boggling potential of digital technology,” and that the platform represented “the first glimpse of [the] future” of video game hardware (73).

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.

Only problem gamblers spend less money when loot boxes are removed from a game: A before and after study of Heroes of the Storm

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Zendle
Keyword(s):  
Video Games ◽  
Problem Gambling ◽  
Video Game ◽  
Real World ◽  
Complex Pattern ◽  
Problem Gamblers ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Gambling Severity ◽  
Reliable Correlation ◽  
Before And After Study

Loot boxes are items in video games that may be paid for with real-world money, but which contain randomised contents. There is a reliable correlation between loot box spending and problem gambling severity: The more money gamers spend on loot boxes, the more severe their problem gambling tends to be. However, it is unclear whether this link represents a case in which loot box spending causes problem gambling; a case in which the gambling-like nature of loot boxes cause problem gamblers to spend more money; or whether it simply represents a case in which there is a general dysregulation in in-game spending amongst problem gamblers, nonspecific to loot boxes.The multiplayer video game Heroes of the Storm recently removed loot boxes. In order to better understand links between loot boxes and problem gambling, we conducted an analysis of players of Heroes of the Storm (n=112) both before and after the removal of loot boxes.There were a complex pattern of results. In general, when loot boxes were removed from Heroes of the Storm, problem gamblers appeared to spend significantly less money in-game in contrast to other groups. These results suggest that the presence of loot boxes in a game may lead to problem gamblers spending more money in-game. It therefore seems possible that links between loot box spending and problem gambling are not due to a general dysregulation in in-game spending amongst problem gamblers, but rather are to do with specific features of loot boxes themselves.

Gambling-like video game practices: A cross-sectional study of links with problem gambling and disordered gaming

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Zendle
Keyword(s):  
Video Games ◽  
Problem Gambling ◽  
Video Game ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Significant Degree ◽  
Cross Sectional Study ◽  
Video Gaming ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Streaming Services ◽  
Clinically Significant

A variety of practices have recently emerged which are related to both video games and gambling. Most prominent of these are loot boxes. However, a broad range of other activities have recently emerged which are also related to both gambling and video games: esports betting, real-money video gaming, token wagering, social casino play, and watching videos of both loot box opening and gambling on game streaming services like Twitch.Whilst a nascent body of research has established the robust existence of a relationship between loot box spending and both problem gambling and disordered gaming, little research exists which examines whether similar links may exist for the diverse practices outlined above. Furthermore, no research has thus far attempted to estimate the prevalence of these activities.A large-scale survey of a representative sample of UK adults (n=1081) was therefore conducted in order to investigate these issues. Engagement in all measured forms of gambling-like video game practices were significantly associated with both problem gambling and disordered gaming. An aggregate measure of engagement was associated with both these outcomes to a clinically significant degree (r=0.23 and r=0.43). Engagement in gambling-like video game practices appeared widespread, with a 95% confidence interval estimating that 16.3% – 20.9% of the population engaged in these activities at least once in the last year. Engagement in these practices was highly inter-correlated: Individuals who engaged in one practice were likely to engage in several more.Overall, these results suggest that the potential effects of the blurring of lines between video games and gambling should not primarily be understood to be due to the presence of loot boxes in video games. They suggest the existence of a convergent ecosystem of gambling-like video game practices, whose causal relationships with problem gambling and disordered gaming are currently unclear but must urgently be investigated.

Book Reviews

Projections ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 102-123
Author(s):  
Kata Szita ◽  
Paul Taberham ◽  
Grant Tavinor
Keyword(s):  
Video Games ◽  
Film Industry ◽  
Indiana University ◽  
Animated Film ◽  
The Mind

Bernard Perron and Felix Schröter, eds., Video Games and the Mind: Essays on Cognition, Affect and Emotion (Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2016), 224 pp., $39.95 (softcover), ISBN: 9780786499090.Christopher Holliday, The Computer-Animated Film: Industry, Style and Genre (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2018), 272 pp., $39.95 (paperback), ISBN: 9781474427890.Aubrey Anable, Playing with Feelings: Video Games and Affect (Minneapolis: Minnesota University Press, 2018), 200 pp., $25.00 (paperback), ISBN: 9781517900250. and Christopher Hanson, Game Time: Understanding Temporality in Video Games (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2018), 296 pp., $38.00 (paperback), ISBN: 9780253032867.

Psychology: Volume 5

2019 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
World View ◽  
Science Volume ◽  
Western World ◽  
Mental Life ◽  
Long Time ◽  
The Difference ◽  
New Perspective ◽  
Indian Setting ◽  
The Mind ◽  
The Relationship

This survey of research on psychology in five volumes is a part of a series undertaken by the ICSSR since 1969, which covers various disciplines under social science. Volume Five of this survey, Explorations into Psyche and Psychology: Some Emerging Perspectives, examines the future of psychology in India. For a very long time, intellectual investments in understanding mental life have led to varied formulations about mind and its functions across the word. However, a critical reflection of the state of the disciplinary affairs indicates the dominance of Euro-American theories and methods, which offer an understanding coloured by a Western world view, which fails to do justice with many non-Western cultural settings. The chapters in this volume expand the scope of psychology to encompass indigenous knowledge available in the Indian tradition and invite engaging with emancipatory concerns as well as broadening the disciplinary base. The contributors situate the difference between the Eastern and Western conceptions of the mind in the practice of psychology. They look at this discipline as shaped by and shaping between systems like yoga. They also analyse animal behaviour through the lens of psychology and bring out insights about evolution of individual and social behaviour. This volume offers critique the contemporary psychological practices in India and offers a new perspective called ‘public psychology’ to construe and analyse the relationship between psychologists and their objects of study. Finally, some paradigmatic, pedagogical, and substantive issues are highlighted to restructure the practice of psychology in the Indian setting.

“If anyone’s going to ruin your night, it should be you”: Responsibility and affective materiality in Undertale and Night in the Woods

2021 ◽  
pp. 135485652110144
Author(s):  
Kevin Veale
Keyword(s):  
Video Games ◽  
Video Game ◽  
Affective Experience ◽  
Modes Of Engagement

Affective materiality is a tool for exploring how engaging with textual structures shapes the affective experience of a story. The experience of video games is distinctive because their modes of engagement can lead to players feeling responsible for the decisions they make within the diegetic space of the game and its contextual storyworld. Night in the Woods and Undertale both use the perception of responsibility found in video game modes of engagement as an active storytelling tool, but apply it in different ways. Despite the differences in their contextual application, both games use affective materiality to encourage players to reflect on the consequences of their decisions in multiple arenas: within the context of the game, their engagement with other games and their engagement with the wider world. In doing so, both games apply storytelling techniques that distinguish playing video games from the experience of other media forms and encourage an empathetic engagement with fictional storyworlds.

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