What's My Motivation? Video Games and Interpretative Performance

The interpretation of character motivations is a crucial part of the understanding of many narratives, including those found in video games. This interpretation can be complicated in video games by the player performing the role of a player‐character within the game narrative. Such performance finds the player making choices for the character and also interpreting the resulting character actions and their effect on the game's narrative. This can lead to interpretative difficulties for game narratives and their players: if a decision to act is made by the player, is it that the player's own imaginative reasons for acting warrant some narrative interpretations and exclude others? To answer this I argue that we need to investigate (a) the interactive ontology of video game narratives, (b) the notion of game playing as interpretative performance, and (c) the player‐character, an artifact through which performance is focused in narrative games. Doing so shows there to be at least two problems with the notion of the correct interpretation of narrative games. Neither of these problems entirely negates the normativity of game narratives, however, and so players are left with the problem of how they might decide which of the possible playings are warranted. I end by making some practical suggestions for the thoughtful and narratively interested game player.     

A duration model analysis of consumer preferences and determinants of video game consumption

Despite the enormous revenues generated by the video game industry in recent years, relatively little research has been undertaken into consumer preferences and the determinants of video game consumption. This study addresses this deficiency through the analysis of data from a popular online video game that includes historic behavioural information for 1,408 consumers participating in 728,811 unique rounds of gameplay. We analyse these data with the goal of estimating determinants of the aggregate amount of time that a consumer spends playing the game. Through the estimation of duration models, we show that less experienced consumers are less likely to continue playing the game at any given point, possibly due to having achieved mastery and becoming bored. However, we also find that consumers tend to play the game for longer periods when using a wider range of character roles and vehicles, implying that a consumer's interest can be maintained through exposure to greater variety. Our results represent the first such evidence on in‐game consumer preferences, which has important implications for video game consumption through optimisation of gameplay experiences to satisfy these preferences.     

Subverting utilitarian subject-object relations in video games: A philosophical analysis of Thatgamecompany’s Journey

In this article, I analyse the self-other relations that underpin the gameplay design of the majority of popular video games. Specifically, these self-other relations can be described as “utilitarian subject-object relations”, in which the player assumes the perspective of the player-character, or subject of the video game, while all the other elements of the video game, including the digital environment and the non-player characters and creatures, are treated as separate objects that merely exist to be used by the player-character. These subject-object relations are usually driven by the violent accumulation of power, which can, in turn, be channelled by the player-character into further violent actions against the so-called objects within the video game. In contrast to this typical model of gameplay, the gameplay of Thatgamecompany’s Journey does not include a subject that merely acts on and uses the other elements within the video game world for its own ends, but rather entails a relation of “becoming-other” in which the player-character and the other elements are involved in constant processes of reciprocal determination. In order to analyse the “becoming-other” relations that underpin Journey’s gameplay, I employ specific concepts from the philosophy of Deleuze and Guattari, including the concepts of “becoming-other”, “percepts” and “affects”. Ultimately, I argue that Journey not only subverts the utilitarian, often violent, subject-object relations that have become an industry trope in the majority of video games, but also promotes self-other relations that are arguably far more positive and creative for video game design in general.     

The more you play,the more aggressive you become: A long-term experimental study of cumulative violent video game effects on hostile expectations and aggressive behavior

It is well established that violent video games increase aggression. There is a stronger evidence of short-term violent video game effects than of long-term effects. The present experiment tests the cumulative long-term effects of violent video games on hostile expectations and aggressive behavior over three consecutive days. Participants (N = 70) played violent or nonviolent video games 20 min a day for three consecutive days. After gameplay, participants could blast a confederate with loud unpleasant noise through headphones (the aggression measure). As a potential causal mechanism, we measured hostile expectations. Participants read ambiguous story stems about potential interpersonal conflicts, and listed what they thought the main characters would do or say, think, and feel as the story continued. As expected, aggressive behavior and hostile expectations increased over days for violent game players, but not for nonviolent video game players, and the increase in aggressive behavior was partially due to hostile expectations.     

Violent video games and aggressive behavior in young women

The increasing availability of violent video games and their implication in recent school shootings has raised the volume of public debate on the effects of such games on aggressive behavior and related variables. This article reports an experiment designed to test key hypotheses concerning the short term impact of exposure to violent video games on young women, a population that has received relatively little attention in this research literature. Results were that brief exposure to a violent video game increased aggressive behavior. Mediational analyses suggested that the violent video game effect on aggression was not mediated by instrumental aggressive motivation, but was partially mediated by revenge motivation. Other results suggested that the violent video game effect on aggression might be greater when the game player controls a same‐sex violent game character. Aggr. Behav. 29:423–429, 2003. © 2003 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

Friends, fun, frustration and fantasy: Child motivations for video game play

Although a considerable amount of attention has examined potential positive and negative consequences of video game play in children, relatively little research has examined children’s motivations for using games. The current study hopes to address this gap in the literature by examining children’s motivations for video game play in a large sample of youth (n = 1254). Results indicated that video game use was common, and often a social activity. Social play was mainly predicted by motivations related to socialization, fun/challenge and current stress level. Preference for violent games was more common in males and predicted by fun/challenge motivations and beliefs such games could be cathartic for stress. Children with clinically elevated levels of depressive and ADHD symptoms did not play more games, or more violent games, but were more inclined to endorse catharsis motivations for video game use. Results from this study provide understanding of what motivates children to use games, and how the motivations of children with symptoms of psychosocial problems (as identified via subscales of the Pediatric Symptom Checklist) may differ from others.     

A generic and efficient emotion-driven approach toward personalized assessment and adaptation in serious games

Emotions have a major role in the player-game interaction. In serious games playing contexts, real-time assessment of the player’s emotional state is crucially important to enable an emotion-driven adaptation during gameplay. In addition, a personalized assessment and adaptation based on the player's characteristics remains a challenge for serious games designers. This paper presents a generic and efficient emotion-driven approach for personalized assessment and adaptation in serious games, in which two main methods and their algorithms are proposed. The first one is a method for assessing, in real time, the player's emotion taking into account the personality type and the playing style of the player. The second one is an emotion-driven personalized adaptation method based on Markov modeling of dependency between the serious game events and the change in the player's emotional state. Therefore, the proposed approach has been evaluated by playing an affective vs. non-affective version of a serious game that we have developed to illustrate the applicability of the above-mentioned methods. The overall results showed that owing to our approach, a serious game become able to enhance its adaptivity toward playing outcomes and improve its overall playability.     

网络游戏消费的影响因素

网络游戏消费研究日益受到研究者的关注。本文对网络游戏消费的影响因素进行了梳理。网络游戏消费的影响因素主要包括个体特征、网络游戏特征、社交特征、知觉特征和体验特征这五个方面。影响网络游戏消费的个体特征包括年龄、性别和人格;网络游戏特征包括游戏品质、服务质量、定制和创新;社会交往包括社交行为、社会资本和社会规范;知觉特征包括价值知觉、风险知觉、控制知觉,体验特征包括乐趣和心流。未来的研究应该关注不同品类网络游戏消费的影响因素的比较,消极社交互动以及与线上-线下社交迁移对网络游戏消费的影响。     

亲社会性视频游戏对内隐攻击性认知抑制效应的实验

利用亲社会性视频游戏和IAT测验,从内隐社会认知的角度研究亲社会性视频游戏对高中生内隐攻击性认知的影响,并分析影响是否具有性别差异和攻击特质差异。结果表明:(1)亲社会性视频游戏对高中生内隐攻击性认知的抑制效应显著;(2)游戏类型和性别对内隐攻击性认知的交互作用显著,亲社会性视频游戏更容易对女生的内隐攻击性认知产生抑制效应;(3)攻击特质对高中生的内隐攻击性认知的主效应显著,并且游戏类型和攻击特质对高中生内隐攻击性认知的交互作用显著,亲社会性视频游戏更容易对低攻击特质学生产生抑制效应。由此可见,亲社会性视频游戏能够有效抑制高中生的内隐攻击性认知水平。     

视频游戏训练对执行功能的迁移效应

视频游戏训练是一种正处于探索阶段的执行功能训练方案,其对工作记忆和认知灵活性能产生迁移效应,对抑制的迁移结论尚不明确,这一结果不同无法通过考察迁移发生的泛化还是具体化机制得到解决,差异更有可能来自游戏训练本身。虽然真实游戏经验能产生迁移,但训练不一定能模拟经验对执行功能的迁移。这一方面受训练游戏类型的影响,另一方面与训练剂量有关。建议从丰富迁移机制等角度提高迁移效应。     

Identification With Video Game Characters as Automatic Shift of Self-Perceptions

Two experiments tested the prediction that video game players identify with the character or role they are assigned, which leads to automatic shifts in implicit self-perceptions. Video game identification, thus, is considered as a kind of altered self-experience. In Study 1 (N = 61), participants either played a first-person shooter game or a racing game. Subsequently, they performed an Implicit Association Test (IAT) designed to detect cognitive associations between character-related concepts and players' self. Findings indicate a stronger automatic association of military-related concepts to shooter players' self and a stronger association of racing-related concepts to racing game players' self. Study 2 (N = 48) replicated the IAT result from Study 1 and demonstrated the stability of the identification pattern. Implications for identification as an element of the video game experience and future research directions are discussed.     

Need Satisfaction Supportive Game Features as Motivational Determinants: An Experimental Study of a Self-Determination Theory Guided Exergame

Empirical studies have validated that basic needs satisfaction supported by video game play predicts motivation and engagement outcomes. However, few studies specifically manipulated game features for each of the three basic needs specified in the self-determination theory (SDT) to examine how the game features impact players' need satisfaction and game experience. The current study employed an in-house developed exergame and manipulated the game features in a 2 (autonomy-supportive game features: on vs. off) × 2 (competence-supportive game features: on vs. off) experiment to predict need satisfaction, game enjoyment, motivation for future play, effort for gameplay, self-efficacy for exercise using the game, likelihood of game recommendation, and game rating. The manipulated game features led to the corresponding need satisfaction. Manipulated autonomy-supportive and competence-supportive game features had main effects on most motivation and engagement outcomes. Need satisfaction of autonomy and need satisfaction of competence were both found to be mediators for the relationships between the game features and the motivation and engagement outcomes. The findings add evidence to support the underlying mechanism postulated by SDT for media enjoyment and motivation as well as the emerging entertainment research conceptualizing enjoyment as need satisfaction. The findings also have practical implications for intervention effort that intends to capitalize the motivational pull of video games.     

暴力视频游戏中不同攻击动机对玩家攻击性的影响

分别采用词汇按键反应任务和EAST范式测查了攻击性认知的流畅性和内隐攻击性评价,旨在考察游戏中攻击动机对攻击性的影响,结果发现：暴力视频游戏的影响效应不仅与暴力内容有关,还受制于攻击动机和玩家的暴力游戏经验;且长期玩暴力游戏会使被试对暴力产生脱敏,表现为攻击性认知的流畅性低,对攻击的评价更积极。本研究表明,暴力视频游戏对个体攻击性的影响需综合考虑多种因素。     

The development of the Game Engagement Questionnaire: A measure of engagement in video game-playing

Deep engagement in video game-playing has the potential to be to be one important determinant of the impact of playing violent video games, but there are currently no reliable measures of this subjective experience. To fill this gap, the Game Engagement Questionnaire (GEQ) was developed using both classical and Rasch analyses. In Study 1 Rasch analyses provide support for the reliability and functionality of the GEQ scores. Rasch analyses also demonstrate that the GEQ has adequate separation, fit, rating scale functioning, and dimensionality, suggesting that one’s tendency to become engaged in video game-playing is a quantifiable construct. In Study 2, behavioral and questionnaire data supported the reliability and validity of the GEQ for predicting engagement in violent video games. The GEQ provides a psychometrically strong measure of levels of engagement specifically elicited while playing video games, and thus shows promise for future research examining risk and protective factors for negative game impact.     

Playing prosocial video games increases the accessibility of prosocial thoughts

Past research has provided abundant evidence that playing violent video games increases aggressive tendencies. In contrast, evidence on possible positive effects of video game exposure on prosocial tendencies has been relatively sparse. The present research tested and found support for the hypothesis that exposure to prosocial video games increases the accessibility of prosocial thoughts. These results provide support to the predictive validity of the General Learning Model (Buckley & Anderson, 2006) for the effects of exposure to prosocial media on social tendencies. Thus, depending on the content of the video game, playing video games can harm but may also benefit social relations.     

The effects of video game playing on attention, memory, and executive control

Expert video game players often outperform non-players on measures of basic attention and performance. Such differences might result from exposure to video games or they might reflect other group differences between those people who do or do not play video games. Recent research has suggested a causal relationship between playing action video games and improvements in a variety of visual and attentional skills (e.g., [Green, C. S., & Bavelier, D. (2003). Action video game modifies visual selective attention. Nature, 423, 534-537]). The current research sought to replicate and extend these results by examining both expert/non-gamer differences and the effects of video game playing on tasks tapping a wider range of cognitive abilities, including attention, memory, and executive control. Non-gamers played 20+ h of an action video game, a puzzle game, or a real-time strategy game. Expert gamers and non-gamers differed on a number of basic cognitive skills: experts could track objects moving at greater speeds, better detected changes to objects stored in visual short-term memory, switched more quickly from one task to another, and mentally rotated objects more efficiently. Strikingly, extensive video game practice did not substantially enhance performance for non-gamers on most cognitive tasks, although they did improve somewhat in mental rotation performance. Our results suggest that at least some differences between video game experts and non-gamers in basic cognitive performance result either from far more extensive video game experience or from pre-existing group differences in abilities that result in a self-selection effect.     

视频游戏对成功老龄化的影响

老龄化已成为世界性问题, 数字化技术的发展以及视频游戏的迅速普及, 使视频游戏对老年人的影响也逐渐为研究者所关注。游戏中认知功能的训练能有效延缓认知老化; 游戏中体验到的积极情绪以及与其他玩家的互动可以提高心理健康水平; 网络视频游戏还能增加老年人的社会交往, 扩大社交网络, 增强社会功能; 此外, 互动视频游戏还能使老年人进行更多的身体锻炼。未来研究应进一步探讨视频游戏对成功老龄化更全面的影响, 老年玩家在视频游戏中的性别差异, 如何在中国文化背景下理解视频游戏带来的积极影响以及进行应用研究, 针对老年人的实际需要为游戏开发提供建议。     

Facilitating Game Play: How Others Affect Performance at and Enjoyment of Video Games

The current study implements the drive theory of social facilitation to explain the influence of audience presence in video game play. This integration is an important one for research aiming to understand the experience of video game play, as the social aspect of video game play is a relevant dimension of the technology often ignored in research on gaming experiences. The study finds a significant positive association between non-gaming cognitive abilities (such as hand–eye coordination and mental rotation ability) and performance at a first-person shooter. Data also support the social facilitation hypothesis: Game play in the presence of a physical audience significantly predicts increased game performance. Social facilitation effects are only found for low-challenge games where the drive-inducing capacity of task challenge is minimized. Resultant influences on game enjoyment are less clear.     

The Lara Phenomenon: Powerful Female Characters in Video Games

The content of games is an understudied area in social scientific research about video games. The purpose of the present study is to contribute to the understanding of the portrayal of gender and race in games. Previous research on game content has revealed that stereotypical masculine characters dominate video games and that those characters are generally White. Nowadays, quite a few video games have women in leading parts; Tomb Raider’s Lara Croft is the prototypical example. In our study we investigated the so-called ‘Lara phenomenon,’ that is, the appearance of a competent female character in a dominant position. We also studied the portrayal of men and the race of both male and female characters. We did a content analysis on the introductory films of 12 contemporary video games. Our results show that female characters appeared as often in leading parts as male characters did. They were portrayed with a sexualized emphasis on female features. Most game characters belonged to the dominant White race, the heroes exclusively so.     

Does driving experience in video games count? Hazard anticipation and visual exploration of male gamers as function of driving experience

Risk perception and distribution of visual attention while driving are crucial elements for accident prevention and new-driver improvement. This study investigates how racing videogames could shape the visual exploration of virtual and real road in male pre-drivers. The visual performance of players of racing video games with and without driver’s license was tested in virtual vs. real scenarios. Attention to specific elements of different types of road interactions was monitored using an eye-tracking system. Results showed that habitual use of racing video games was not found to foster a positive effect on users’ distribution of visual attention, supporting visual patterns typical of novice drivers. Gamers without driving experience replicated the same patterns in a real road scenario, ignoring road signs and potential areas of interactions with other drivers, while experienced drivers gamers explored video games roads like real roads. The fact that the gamers’ driving performance was not comparable to drivers in the virtual scenario suggests that there are other variables in the gameplay that create a less complex traffic scene, still the visual complexity of different real road interactions is kept in video game interactions, opening new perspectives towards gamers’ visual exploration of the road.