Computer Games and Emotions

Update 2012/08/30:  the full text is available on my blog.

I have a chapter about emotions in computer games in The Philosophy of Computer Games book. Here the abstract of the chapter:

How players experience games emotionally is the central question in this essay. The answer varies and depends on the game. Yet, most of the actions in games are goal-driven. Cognitive emotion theories propose that goal status appraisals and emotions are connected, and this connection is used to formulate how goal-driven engagement works in the games. For example, fear is implied when the player’s goal of keeping the player character alive is under threat. This goal-driven engagement is not enough to explain all the emotions involved in gameplay. Empathy, reacting emotionally to an emotional expression is a potential source of emotions in character-based games. As such, the visual beauty of the environment and character can be pleasurable. Lastly, sounds and music can modulate the emotions of the player. For example, loud and fast music tend to correlate with emotions with high arousal. The emotional experience of playing is an amalgam of these different sources. Importantly, the emotional experience is not straightforwardly caused by the game but it depends on the players’ appraisal of the situation in the game.

In: J.R. Sageng et al. (eds.), The Philosophy of Computer Games, DOI 10.1007/978-94-007-4249-9_4.

The book contains following essays:

  1. Sageng et al:  General introduction
  2. Larsen: Introduction to Part I (Players and Play)
  3. Klevjer: Enter the Avatar
  4. Lankoski: Computer Games and Emotions
  5. Leino: Untangling Gameplay: An Account of Experience, Activity and Materiality within Computer Game Play
  6. Calleja: Erasing the Magic Circle
  7. Fossheim: Introduction to Part II (Play and Ethics)
  8. Sicart: Digital Games as Ethical Technologies
  9. Spence: Virtual Rape, Real Dignity
  10. Reynolds: Ethics and Practice in Virtual Worlds
  11. Briggle: The Ethics of Computer Games: a Character Approach
  12. Sageng: Introduction to part III (Games and Game Worlds)
  13. Tavinor: Videogames and Fictionalism
  14. Meskin and Robson: Fiction and fictional worlds in  Videogames
  15. Sageng: In-Game Action
  16. Asheim: Reality, Pretence and the Ludic Parenthesis
  17. Coppock: Are Computer Games Real?

“Losing Yourself” by Lisa Libby et al.

Note to myself. read the article, as it seems to describe simulation in extreme.”‘Losing Yourself’ In A Fictional Character Can Affect Your Real Life” – Ohio State Research and Innovation Communications

http://researchnews.osu.edu/archive/exptaking.htm

(Journal of Personality and Social Psychology online first are on http://psycnet.apa.org/index.cfm?fa=browsePA.ofp&jcode=psp)

Theory Lenses: Deriving Gameplay Design Patterns from Theories

Petri Lankoski, Staffan Björk

ACM, (2011). This is authors version of the work. It is posted here by permission of ACM for your personal use. Not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in MindTrek’11 (Tampere ) http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/2181037.2181041.

ABSTRACT

Gameplay design patterns are semiformal interconnected descriptions features of gameplay. While most previous patterns have been identified through analyzing existing games, this paper proposed how patterns can be identified using theories as starting points. More specifically, we propose three different approaches to harvesting gameplay design patterns: 1) using theories as analysis foci, 2) distilling patterns from theories, and 3) using theories to understand the consequences of having or not having patterns present in a game design. The three approaches are presented together with examples of their use, and based upon this the concept of Theory Lenses as an analytical tool is introduced as a way of allowing theories independent of their research field to be applied to research on gameplay design.

Categories and Subject Descriptors

K.8.0 [General]: Games

General Terms

Design, Theory.

Keywords

Gameplay design patterns, gameplay design, design patterns, theory lenses, game research

Continue reading “Theory Lenses: Deriving Gameplay Design Patterns from Theories”

Original Prince of Persia Source Code

Jordan Mechner published the original Prince of Persia (1989) source code (in 6502 assembly language) along with a technical document associated with the code. Links to the code and doc are on the page https://github.com/jmechner/Prince-of-Persia-Apple-II.

This is a great move to preserve the history of videogames!

 

Level Design

This is a reading I used in my course Level Design. These were used in one-day workshop where we did go through students design and discussed them based on the themes presented in these pieces.

  1. Stage Lighting Design: http://www.stagelightingprimer.com/slfs-poc.html#poc, http://www.stagelightingprimer.com/slfs-functions.html, http://www.stagelightingprimer.com/slfs-qualities.html
  2. An Architect’s Perspective On Level Design Pre-Production, http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/2848/an_architects_perspective_on_.php
  3. GDC 2001: Interactive Theme Park Rides, http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/3060/gdc_2001_interactive_theme_park_.php
  4. Environmental Storytelling: Creating Immersive 3D Worlds Using Lessons Learned from the Theme Park Industry, http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/131594/environmental_storytelling_.php
  5. Environmental Storytelling, Part II: Bringing Theme Park Environment Design Techniques to the Virtual World, http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/3185/environmental_storytelling_part_.php
  6. Environmental Storytelling Part III: Lessons Learned in the Virtual World, http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/130551/environmental_storytelling_part_.php
  7. The Architecture of Level Design, http://www.gamasutra.com/resource_guide/20010716/chen_01.htm
  8. http://www.worldofleveldesign.com/categories/level_design_tutorials/how-to-plan-level-designs-game-environments-workflow.php
  9. How to Plan Level Designs and Game Environments, http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/134949/learning_from_the_masters_level_.php
  10. Horror/Survival Level Design, http://www.worldofleveldesign.com/categories/level_design_tutorials/horror-fear-level-design/part1-survival-horror-level-design-cliches.php

Role-playing in single-player videogames

I will present my paper Role-playing in single-player videogames at Role-playing in games seminar (April 10-11, 2012).

(The paper might be  in the program with its old title Role-Playing in Single-Player Computer Role-Playing Games).

The paper present a small study set to investigate relation between role-playing and story. Following hypothesis are examined:

  1. Role-playing ones character makes game narrative more coherent and interesting
  2. When the game is too hard, role-playing will decrease.

I used a questionnaire to ask about role-playing and story in Fallout 3, Dragon Age: Origins, Red Dead Redemption, Dragon Age 2, Elder Scroll V: Skyrim,  Grand Theft Auto IV,  Deus Ex: Human Revolution, Mass Effect 2, Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood, and Batman: Arkham Asylum.

I write more about result later. This is a teaser.

Unethical Research?

Malena Ivarsson et al. put 12-15 year old children to play Animaniacs and Manhunt to see if there is different effects on playing these games (http://www.su.se/forskning/ledandeforskning/samhallsvetenskap/stress-arbete-och-halsa/valdsamma-dataspel-paverkar-kroppen-1.79509)

Can you see any issues here?

The Pegi rating of the Manhunt is 18, because it contains extreme violence. Hence, it is not meant to be played by 12-15 year old children. Why it has been judged to use this game and 12-15 year old children necessary?

A  publication by Ivarsson et al. (2008), “Playing a violent television game affects heart rate variability” (in Acta Pædiatrica) assumes that the games are comparable, because they did not find differences between the games with an Actiwatch in motor-patternsof playing.Yet, they failed to account the qualitative differences between games, as Annika Waern point out on her blog. (I assume that it is a part of the research promoted in the above-mentioned su.se page as the measurements, games, and main authors are the same that are mentioned on valdsamma-dataspel-paverkar-kroppen-1.79509)

The study does not do anything to control the qualitative factors. It is possible that the better or just more intensive game have more lasting impact despite the content, isn’t it?

Waern continues:

[T]heir second study is more interesting than their first. Remember that the second study showed that the boys who played little games reacted stronger to Manhunt than those who played a lot of games. Ivarsson interprets this as a desensitization towards violence (in general), but there are at least two other possible explanations. One is that the boys who played a lot of games understood the horror genre better, thereby getting less scared. But the other explanation, and the one I think is the right one, is that they were better at understanding the game as a game.

These are possible alternative explanations to desensitization. In addition, just be able to prepare oneself for the future events help.

Ivarsson is rather explicit on her presupposition:

Malena Ivarsson am personally convinced that violence in computer games in the long run affects the players, and the subtle but gradually can contribute to changing behaviors. (cited in Lundström, translation by google)

I have iterated before why I think that the above premise about a simple causal connection where violent videogames are claimed to cause violent behavior is not plausible.

In the end, based on Ivarsson et al (2008) we can conclude that these two game players had different heart rate patterns and possibility some sleeping issues. So, the authors show evidence to support their premise (in this specific case). But what that means in general and how, for example, this study supports claims on valdsamma-dataspel-paverkar-kroppen-1.79509 or what Waern summarizes on her blog?

There is a big leap from the results to claims presented on valdsamma-dataspel-paverkar-kroppen-1.79509.

Rpy2 and drawing pie diagram

Here is code that I come up with for drawing a pie diagram using rpy2. The function takes two lists. Function takes two lists: data contains frequencies and labels labels. The argument title set the title text of chart. Radius sets the radius of pie (max 1.0). Font size 1 is default, 1.5 is 50% bigger, 0.5 is 50% smaller. If file name is provided the chart will be saved to png file. Radius, font_size, and file name are optional parameters.

import rpy2.robjects as robjects
from rpy2.robjects.packages import importr

def draw_pie(data, labels, title, radius=0.8, font_size=1.0, file_name=None):

    total = 0
    for x in data: total = total + x

    labels_with_percentages = []
    for td, tl in zip(data, labels):
        percentage = 100.0 * float(td)/float(total)
        labels_with_percentages.append("%s %.1f%%" % (tl, percentage))

    l = robjects.StrVector(labels_with_percentages)
    d = robjects.IntVector(data)

    grdevices = importr('grDevices')
    if file_name:
        grdevices.png(file_name)
    font = robjects.r['par'](cex=font_size)
    robjects.r.pie(d,l, main=title, radius=radius)
    if file_name:
        grdevices.dev_off()

To use this we can do:

draw_pie([10,8],["Male", "Female"], "Sex", font_size=1.5, file_name="chart.png")

rpy2 and plotting

I had a problem to plot in R or rpy2 when I started the R on Terminal on Mac OSX (R works fine if started by clicking it on Lauchpad ). R throws an following error if locale is set to C.

Error in axis(side = side, at = at, labels = labels, ...) : 
  could not find any X11 fonts
Check that the Font Path is correct.
In addition: Warning messages:
1: In function (display = "", width, height, pointsize, gamma, bg,  :
  locale not supported by Xlib: some X ops will operate in C locale
2: In function (display = "", width, height, pointsize, gamma, bg,  :
  X cannot set locale modifiers

Running command “export LC_ALL=en_US.UTF-8” on Terminal before starting R or python fix this (or adding it to .profile file).

Calculating correlation with rpy2

I spend some time trying to figure out how to use R via Rpy2. Here are a short python code that I used to calculate correlation using Rpy2

import rpy2.robjects as robjects

def get_rcorr(floatData, n_rows, method=”spearman”):

“””
floatData: list of floats,
number of rows in the data matrix
Hmisc library needs to be loaded before calling this
function ( rcorr() comes from there)..
Library can be loaded with command:  robjects.r(“library(Hmisc)”)
“””
v = robjects.FloatVector(floatData)
dm = robjects.r[‘matrix’](v, nrow = n_rows)
res = robjects.r.rcorr(dm, type=method)
return res

robjects.r(“library(Hmisc)”) # for rcorr()

print (get_rcorr([1.0,2.0,4.0,5.0,1.0,1.0,1.0,0.0], 4)

get_rcorr([1,2,4,5,1,1,1,0], 4) will create then matrix as follows

  1.0  1.0
  2.0  1.0
  4.0  1.0
  5.0  0.0

and calculate correlation (R, p) for that.