José Pablo Zagal

Collaborative games: lessons learned from board games

Collaborative mechanisms are starting to become prominent in computer games, like massively multiplayer online games (MMOGs); however, by their nature, these games are difficult to investigate. Game play is often complex and the underlying mechanisms are frequently opaque. In contrast, board games are simple. Their game play is fairly constrained and their core mechanisms are transparent enough to analyze. In this article, the authors seek to understand collaborative games. Because of their simplicity, they focus on board games. The authors present an analysis of collaborative games. In particular, they focus on Reiner Knizias LORDOFTHERINGS, considered by many to be the quintessential collaborative board game. Our analysis yields seven observations, four lessons, and three pitfalls, that game designers might consider useful for designing collaborative games. They reflect on the particular opportunities that computers have for the design of collaborative games as well as how some of the issues discussed apply to the case of computer games.

A Model to Support the Design of Multiplayer Games

Extensive research has shown that the act of play is extremely important in the lives of human beings. It is thus not surprising that games have a long and continuing history in the development of almost every culture and society. The advent of computers and technology in general has also been akin to the need for entertainment that every human being seeks. However, a curious dichotomy exists in the nature of electronic games: the vast majority of electronic games are individual in nature whereas the nonelectronic ones are collective by nature. On the other hand, recent technological breakthroughs are finally allowing for the implementation of electronic multiplayer games. Because of the limited experience in electronic, multiplayer game design, it becomes necessary to adapt existing expertise in the area of single-player game design to the realm of multiplayer games. This work presents a model to support the initial steps in the design process of multiplayer games. The model is defined in terms of the characteristics that are both inherent and special to multiplayer games but also related to the relevant elements of a game in general. Additionally, the model is used to assist in the design of two multiplayer games. One of the most difficult tasks people can perform, however much others may despise it, is the invention of good games

Rounds, Levels, and Waves The Early Evolution of Gameplay Segmentation

This article explores the early evolution of the structure and management of gameplay in videogames. The authors introduce the notion of gameplay segmentation to capture the role that design elements such as level, boss, and wave play in videogames and identify three modes of segmentation. Temporal segmentation limits, synchronizes, and/or coordinates player activity over time. Spatial segmentation breaks the games virtual space into sublocations. Challenge segmentation presents the player with a sequence of self-contained challenges. The authors describe each mode, and additional submodes, by analyzing vintage arcade games. The analyses illustrate how these games represent a “primordial soup” in which many current game design conventions were first explored. Their simplicity provides the authors with access to the original “building blocks” of videogames, thus allowing them to develop a rich vocabulary for the discussion.

Time in Video Games: A Survey and Analysis

This article introduces a conceptual tool for analyzing video game temporality, the temporal frame, and a methodology by which new temporal frames can be constructed as needed during analysis. A temporal frame is a set of events, along with the temporality induced by the relationships between those events. The authors discuss four common temporal frames: real-world time (events taking place in the physical world), gameworld time (events within the represented gameworld, including events associated with gameplay actions), coordination time (events that coordinate the actions of players and agents), and fictive time (applying sociocultural labels to events, as well as narrated event sequences). They use frames to analyze the real-time/turn-based distinction, various temporal anomalies, and temporal manipulations as a form of gameplay. These discussions illustrate how temporal frames are useful for gaining a more nuanced understanding of temporal phenomena in games. Additionally, their relationist characterization of temporal frames supports analysis and design.

From Samba Schools to Computer Clubhouses: Cultural Institutions as Learning Environments

earning rarely takes place in isolation. The learner is typically situated in a community of practice.2 In some cases, like traditional schools, promoting learning is the community’s reason for being. In others, like the Vai and Gola tailors of West Africa studied by Lave and Wenger, the community’s purpose may be something else entirely (like making clothes).3 Nevertheless, learning is a lifelc~ng, ongoing practice for tailors

A framework for games literacy and understanding games

Based on research that studied the challenges and difficulties faced by students taking games studies and game design courses, we propose that, while many students enrolled in games education programs are adept at playing games, they are usually neither games literate nor do they have a deep understanding of games. In this article we provide a framework that can be used to evaluate and assess games literacy. Using Gees notion of literacy, we propose that a deep understanding of games involves having the ability to explain, discuss, describe, frame, situate, interpret, and/or position games (1) in the context of human culture (games as a cultural artifacts), (2) in the context of other games, (3) in the context of the technological platform on which they are executed, (4) and by deconstructing them and understanding their components, how they interact, and how they facilitate certain experiences in players. We describe each of these aspects and also discuss two educational lenses that can be used to help contextualize what it means to understand and learn about games as well as support games literacy in students.

Natural Language Processing in Game Studies Research: An Overview

Natural language processing (NLP) is a field of computer science and linguistics devoted to creating computer systems that use human (natural) language as input and/or output. The authors propose that NLP can also be used for game studies research. In this article, the authors provide an overview of NLP and describe some research possibilities that can be explored using NLP tools and techniques. The authors discuss these techniques by performing three different types of NLP analyses of a significant corpus of online videogame reviews: (a) By using techniques such as word and syllable counting, the authors analyze the readability of professionally written game reviews, finding that, across a variety of indicators, game reviews are written for a secondary education reading level; (b) the authors analyze hundreds of thousands of user-submitted game reviews using part-of-speech tagging, parsing, and clustering to examine how gameplay is described. The findings of this study in this area highlight the primary aesthetics elements of gameplay according to the general public of game players; and (c) the authors show how sentiment analysis, or the classification of opinions and feelings based on the words used in a text and the relationship between those words, can be used to explore the circumstances in which certain negatively charged words may be used positively and for what reasons in the domain of videogames. The authors conclude with ideas for future research, including how NLP can be used to complement other avenues of inquiry.

Videogames and the Ethics of Care

Videogames have the potential to create ethical experiences and encourage ethical reflection. Usually, this potential is understood in the context of the dominant moral theories: utilitarianism and Kantianism. However, it has been argued that a complete moral theory must also include the concept of an ethics of care. This paper utilizes the ethics of care as an alternative lens for examining the ethical frameworks and experiences offered by videogames. The authors illustrate how this perspective can provide insights by examining Little Kings Story and Animal Crossing: City Folk. Little Kings Storys fictive context, gameplay, and asymmetrical power relationships encourage the player to care for the citizens of his or her kingdom. In Animal Crossing: City Folk, the player is a member of a community that encourages him or her to care for his or her neighbors as part of a larger interconnected social ecosystem. Both games encourage players feeling an emotional attachment to the games characters, and the value placed in these relationships becomes the motivation for further ethical player behavior. The conclusion outlines future research questions and discusses some challenges and limitations of a care ethics perspective.

Designing Online Environments for Expert/Novice Collaboration Wikis to Support Legitimate Peripheral Participation

/ Designing environments that can bring novices and experts together is not trivial. We explore how we can design environments where these collaborations happen in such a way that everyone benefits. We explore these questions in the context of one such environment. In this study, we used the Game Ontology Project (GOP), a wiki-enabled hierarchy of elements of gameplay used by game studies researchers, in a game design class. Students found that their participation was enjoyable and useful for learning. Also, there is evidence that they developed a deeper understanding of the medium of videogames. However, encouraging sustained participation was challenging because students tended to view the GOP as a static source, rather than a participatory and editable resource. Expert analysis of the students’ contributions to the ontology found them to be useful and significant. We conclude with thoughts on the importance of these kinds of authentic environments in traditional learning.

Maintenance-oriented design and development: a case study

Maintenance efforts are the most time and resource consuming of the entire software development process. The authors propose a different point of view that shifts the traditional perspective and thinks of the implementation stage as maintenance as well. They present a case study of the development of educational video games for children to determine the proposed methods benefits and drawbacks in this domain.