Winning isn’t everything: The impact of optimally challenging Smartphone games on flow, game preference and individuals gaming to escape aversive bored states

Recently there has been concern surrounding the relation between flow and the development of problematic gaming among players who game to escape noxious mood states. There is a scarcity of research examining how this relation might extend to smartphone games. Here we assessed whether gaming to escape is characterized by heightened boredom proneness and depressive symptomology in everyday life in addition to negative consequences related to smartphone gaming. We also assessed whether escape players preferentially experience flow, positive affect and effectively less boredom than non-escape players. We also measured whether escape players had enhanced arousal and urge during actual gameplay. To compare the in-game experiences between escape and non-escape players, we characterized gaming to escape as the upper tercile of all escape scores in our sample (n = 20), and non-escape players as the lower tercile of escape scores (n = 20). As expected we showed that gaming to escape was associated with boredom proneness in everyday life, which was in itself correlated with depressive symptomology. During gameplay, those who game to escape boredom demonstrated heightened flow and positive affect compared to non-escape players. State boredom scores however were comparable between the two groups. Importantly, those who game to escape demonstrated greater arousal and urge-to-play following gameplay than non-escape players – but only for optimally challenging games. Findings converge to suggest that bored escape players may seek flow and its consequent positive affect for relief from states of hypo-arousal and monotony through optimally challenging games.

Consumers' psychological reactance and ownership in in-game advertising

PurposeThe study explores the effect of game flow, game enjoyment and game customization on consumers' attitudes toward the game (ATG). It also examines the relationship between consumers' ATG and attitude toward the in-game advertising (IGA) brand.Design/methodology/approachThe study used SEM and PROCESS MACRO to analyze the results.FindingsThe study asserts the significant role of game flow, game customization and game enjoyment as antecedents of consumers' ATG. Furthermore, psychological ownership and perceived IGA invasiveness were found to be significant moderators between attitude toward game and attitude for the IGA brand.Originality/valueThe study examines how players’ attitude toward the game influences their attitude toward the IGA brand due to the player's ownership perceptions over the game and invasiveness perceptions for IGA. The study used psychological ownership and psychological reactance theory in the gamification context. The study findings present pertinent implications for game developers and brands interested in using IGA tools.

Analysing mobile advergaming effectiveness: the role of flow, game repetition and brand familiarity

Purpose This paper aims to explain the effect of flow, game repetition and brand familiarity on players’ brand attitude and purchase intention in the context of mobile advergaming. Design/methodology/approach Data from 227 participants who played a mobile advergame were analysed. Structural equation modelling with partial least squares was used to test the research model. Findings The results reveal that the independent variables (i.e. game repetition and brand familiarity) significantly influence the dependent variables explored in this study (i.e. brand attitude and purchase intentions of players). Results also show that brand familiarity influences players’ flow experience, which in turn significantly affects players’ purchase intentions. Research limitations/implications The findings of this study are important for advertising practitioners and advergames’ developers as understanding the determinants of mobile advergaming effectiveness is crucial for designing successful advergames that persuade players the most. Originality/value This study contributes to the literature in two ways. First, it provides new insights into the effectiveness of mobile advergames, which is an under-researched area. Second, it offers empirical evidence of the effects of game repetition, flow and brand familiarity on mobile advergaming effectiveness.

TEKNIK WORD FLOW GAME DALAM MENINGKATKAN KEMAMPUAN MENULIS KALIMAT BAHASA JEPANG (Penelitian Eksperimen Murni Terhadap Siswa Kelas XI SMK 45 Lembang Tahun Ajaran 2017/2018)

This study aims to determine the improvement of the writing ability Japanese sentences using word flow game technique and how students response about this game technique in Japanese language learning process. This research used true experimental method with control group pretest-posttest design. The sample of the research consists of 32 students of SMK 45 Lembang period 2017/2018, second grade of Tata Busana class and Nursing class, where 16 of them are for experiment class and 16 for control class. The research instruments are test and questionnaire. From the result of the data analysis, the average score of experiment class before the treatment is 37,74 and changed becoming 84,73 after the treatment. With tscore was 4,15 db = 30 in signification degree of 2,04 (5%) and 2,75 (1%). Since the t-score was bigger than t-table, thus the hypothesis is accepted that with using word flow game technique in learning process, student ability to write Japanese sentence become increasing. Based on the result of questionnaire, the writer concluded that more than half of respondents have a thought that word flow game technique is fun and helping in Japanese sentences learning process.

IMPLEMENTASI PERMAINAN FLOW PADA PEMBANGUNAN SISTEM CAPTCHA

The basic challenge in designing an obfuscating CAPTCHAs is to make them easy enough that users are not dissuaded from attempting a solution, yet still too difficult to solve using available image-based computer vision algorithms. CAPTCHA has been widely used in many web applications and there has been so many research on CAPTCHA. Current technology enables computer to easily solve image-based CAPTCHA with high probability, so we propose another type of CAPTCHA-based authenticaton that can not be solved by utilizing Optical Character Recognition but still easy to use for new users. We implemented the new model of CAPTCHA using FLOW game. We found that the success rate of this new system is 92.025%, completion time is 6.3614s, and 81,67% of users are able to solve it in less than 10s.