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the our findings into 3 categories, where categories that received a '2' are of most importance, a '1' is of high significance and a '0' is relatively unimportant.
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The characteristics that identify a good game are hard to define and reproduce, as demonstrated by the catalogues of both successes and failures from most games companies. We have started to address this by undertaking a grounded theoretical analysis of reviews garnered from games, both good and bad, to distil from these common features that charac...
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We propose and investigate a general class of discrete time and finite state space mean field game (MFG) problems with potential structure. Our model incorporates interactions through a congestion term and a price variable. It also allows hard constraints on the distribution of the agents. We analyze the connection between the MFG problem and two o...
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... Next, there is an abundance of varied task types. Task variety is typically recommended for both better engagement and more robust mental models [3,4,30,31]. In my Spanish course, I experienced short stories with comprehension questions, word matching, sentence completion, grammar drills, naming objects, listening exercises, speaking exercises, and fully written translation exercises. ...
... Although all of these GBL elements have been suggested in prior literature (PBL [72,73], retention mechanics [26], skill trees [27,28], feedback [32], task variety [3,4,30,31], etc.), this close reading contributes an exploration of what has been practically most effective for successful GBL in a complex, real-world use case. Furthermore, what was practically most effective was a foundation of strong instructional design: gradual, well-paced, experiential learning with varied tasks and thorough feedback. ...
Despite the prevalence of game-based learning (GBL), most applications of GBL focus on teaching routine skills that are easily teachable, drill-able, and testable. Much less work has examined complex cognitive skills such as computational thinking, and even fewer are projects that have demonstrated commercial or critical success with complex learning in game contexts. Yet, recent successes in the games industry have provided examples of success in game-based complex learning. This article represents a series of case studies on those successes. We interviewed game designers Zach Gage and Jack Schlesinger, creators of Good Sudoku, and Zach Barth, creator of Zachtronics games, using reflexive thematic analysis to thematize findings. We additionally conducted a close play of Duolingo following Bizzocchi and Tanenbaum’s adaptation of close reading. Several insights result from these case studies, including the practice of game design as instructional design, the use of constructionist environments, the tensions between formal education and informal learning, and the importance of entrepreneurialism. Specific recommendations for GBL designers are provided.
... Zagal et al. [10] demonstrate the relationship between game rating and sentiment words in which players were chosen. Bond et al. [11] identify the features of a good game by analyzing game reviews. Livingston et al. [12] discovered game reviews and ratings can be transferred to commercial success. ...
Reviews from players regarding different characteristics of an esports game are one of the worthiest sources for the developers to enhance their services or adjust operating strategy. However, little research has been conducted on detecting esports players’ favorite topics dealing with topic modeling. Thus, this paper aims to use a data mining approach to analyze community data in the games domain available on Steam. We collected more than 1.2 million English reviews from four esports games up to August 2020 on Steam. Our contributions in this paper are: (i) we manually build a dataset by filtering out high-quality esports reviews, (ii) we then infer and group reviews into 3 groups with 19 topics, and (iii) we add more contributions to finding the emerging opinions of esports players towards the different topics of esports reviews, which might benefit further research on understanding esports reviews.
... While conducting a mixed method thematic content analysis on game reviews is certainly possible (e.g., Balakrishnan & Griffiths, 2019;Suominen, 2011), they are seldomly utilized for research purposes. Despite this, they are instrumental in guiding future game design and customer opinion (Bond & Beale, 2009), offering theories and insight into how the game designers worked on the game or how to play it (Zagal, Ladd & Johnson, 2009) or even identifying cultural differences in game appreciation (Zagal & Tomuro, 2013). Additionally, no game is ever experienced the same way by two unique players (Egenfeldt-Nielsen et al., 2013, p.269), and game reviews help game researchers by sorting these individual opinions into easily accessible categorical information for further analysis. ...
... While a few of the reviews were very basiceither describing the game as good or bad, for examplethe majority consisted of detailed narratives ranging from how to play it and who it would appeal to, to outright describing it as environmental propaganda. This is fairly in line with previous findings on game reviews as study objects (Bond & Beale, 2009;Zagal & Tomuro, 2013), and certainly confirmed that game reviews are often overlooked as sources of scientifically valuable information (Koehler et al., 2017). Although the reviews did offer valuable insight, however, one central ethical issue was encountered. ...
This thesis serves as a contribution towards the general understanding of how, when, and why environmental and sustainability-oriented games affect their players, and how they can be utilized as tools for increasing environmental literacy. It consists of three qualitative empirical research papers, where the overarching purpose has been to gain an understanding of how games can be used in strengthening the environmental literacy of their players. The results overall show that games can be effective tools for environmental education, especially regarding their innate ability to simplify and visualize complex systems and environmental issues that otherwise appear distant or invisible.
... Serious games also offer a significant number of advantages, such as making players feel responsible for their actions, mixing high-quality content, showing great involvement, and transforming errors into learning elements [37,38] and is usually applied in the domain of learning, education, military training, health, and advertising. In the literature, the term gamification refers to digital game-based learning that create user engagement, influence action, encourage learning, and overcoming difficulties [39]. The design elements of gamification consist of narrative, feedback, reward system, conflict, cooperation, rules, interaction, and interactivity among other players which enhances the lives of individuals [36]. ...
... Research is often focused on utilizing methods of natural language processing (NLP) to allow for quantitative insights into various topics. For example, user reviews have been used in marketing research to provide insights into consumer behavior and preferences (Zhu and Xiaoquan 2010), to extract usability information for products (Hedegaard and Simonsen 2013), to measure their effect on player experience (Livingston et al. 2011), to examine users' attitudes (Strååt and Verhagen 2017), or to provide feedback for game developers (Bond and Beale 2009;Lin et al. 2019). ...
Digital games are the fastest growing medium of our time. Their proliferation and prominent role in society have sparked public debates and led to the development of “game studies”, an academic field of research examining games, players, their contexts, and their interactions. However, regional differences in the production and consumption of games are empirically evident and pose challenges to the games industry and academia. A lack of systematic cross-cultural research within game studies significantly limits our ability to ascertain the applicability of empirical and theoretical contributions across regional and cultural divides and impedes our understanding of the transregional aspects of games, players, and play. This lack also results in a substantial gap in our knowledge on whether and how players’ cultural contexts influence player-game interaction and their experience and evaluation of games, making it difficult to explain differing patterns of player preferences and to model the processes of meaning-making during play. To close this gap, this thesis (1) develops a theoretical and methodological framework for the cross-cultural comparison of player experience and (2) uses this framework in an approximation of a most-different case design to compare German and Japanese players’ experiences of 18 selected Japanese games. The framework integrates ontological models of games and player-game interaction with an analytical differentiation of player cultures, and combines two highly synergetic methodological approaches, the analysis of user reviews and recorded play sessions using think-aloud protocol. 21,359 German and Japanese user reviews and 207 hours of think-aloud play sessions with 20 participants were analyzed, following a grounded theory approach. Based on the results, a dictionary for quantitative analysis was constructed and utilized to verify the findings. Results indicate that players’ national cultural background influences their experience of audio-visual and narrative game elements but not of game mechanics. Overall, sub- and transnational player culture appears more influential on the experience of game elements than national culture. This leads to an empirically grounded model of how culture influences player-game interaction and can be used to explain and predict patterns of user preferences and game evaluation across cultural borders. The framework and dictionary developed for this study can serve as a model for a broad range of comparative studies on media cultures and audiences.
... This design principle relates to the customization motivator, as the player is given the power to customize their interaction experience. DP 12: Freedom of choice and control in gameplay [12], [25], [43], [72], [73], [76], [78], [82], [86], [87], [94], [95]-To support the control motivator, it is important to provide the player with the freedom to make choices in the game. This can happen by various means, such as: providing alternative paths to reach a goal [82], [86], [94], providing various things to do and different methods for doing them [72], allowing the player to influence the game system [25] and allowing the player to control the pace of the game [82]. ...
... In addition to the aforementioned motivators, this principle also supports the real world relation and physical movement motivators when the game involves real-world exploration and movement (e.g., location-based games). DP 17: Provide multiple paths/options and dynamic ordering of events [24], [72], [73], [86], [94], [95], [97]-To make the game more diverse and surprising, this design principle suggests that the game should offer multiple paths for the player to succeed [24] and multiple methods of traversing those paths; however, these methods should not exceed the player's capacity (e.g., skill level) [72] and the number of paths or options given to the player to choose from should not be too high [73]. Additionally, the game events along a chosen path should be dynamically ordered according to the player's actions and possibly other information, such as their interests, skill level, and context attributes [94], [95]. ...
... DP 17: Provide multiple paths/options and dynamic ordering of events [24], [72], [73], [86], [94], [95], [97]-To make the game more diverse and surprising, this design principle suggests that the game should offer multiple paths for the player to succeed [24] and multiple methods of traversing those paths; however, these methods should not exceed the player's capacity (e.g., skill level) [72] and the number of paths or options given to the player to choose from should not be too high [73]. Additionally, the game events along a chosen path should be dynamically ordered according to the player's actions and possibly other information, such as their interests, skill level, and context attributes [94], [95]. DP 18: Provide an interactive game map of sufficient detail [86]-Regardless of whether the game is placed in the real world or a virtual world, it should provide tools to help the player navigate. ...
Effective educational interventions require sufficient learner engagement, which can be difficult to achieve if the learner is inadequately motivated. Games have been shown to possess powerful motivators that fuel a person's desire to engage in unattractive activities, such as learning theoretical material. However, to design an educational game that is capable of providing motivated engagement is a challenging task. Previous research has proposed various game motivators and game design principles to alleviate this, but a comprehensive synthesis has yet to appear. In this study, we conducted a systematic literature review that yielded two major contributions: (i) a taxonomy of 56 game motivators in 14 classes; and (ii) a taxonomy of 54 educational game design principles in 13 classes, with linkages to the identified game motivators. As a minor contribution, we have also presented a classification of gamification-related terms and proposed different strategies for applying gamification. The results of this study are available for educational game designers and researchers to use as a practical toolkit for the creation and evaluation of motivating educational games that keep players engaged. Moreover, this study is the first step towards the creation of a unified gamification framework.
... Five main elements were identified to inform the development of Calvillo Gámez's Core Elements of Game Experience theory: Gameplay, Environment, Ownership, Control, and Facilitators. Using a similar approach and goal, Bond and Beale (2009) examined 33 professional reviews from GameSpot UK. They focused on what factors led to making a game "good" or "bad" as reflected in overall player ratings of games. ...
... For the features of the Bedwell et al. (2012) taxonomy that were used frequently-Rules/Goals, Immersion, Conflict/Challenge, and Game Fiction-this study adds support to the salience of these design features as raised in previous studies (Bedwell et al., 2012;Bond & Beale, 2009;Zagal & Tomuro, 2010Zhu & Fang, 2015). Beyond the Bedwell et al. (2012) taxonomy, the present study also identified Comparison (e.g., players' comparison of a game to other reviews, games, and external factors) as a highly-salient feature of many reviews. ...
... Beyond the Bedwell et al. (2012) taxonomy, the present study also identified Comparison (e.g., players' comparison of a game to other reviews, games, and external factors) as a highly-salient feature of many reviews. This concurs with the Bond and Beale (2009) study showing that Franchise consideration (how a game fits in within a series) was important to gamers. This also resonates with the findings of Ryan, Kaltman, Hong, Mateas, and Wardrip-Fruin (2015), who suggested that people naturally compare games, tending to seek out games that are related to the ones they like. ...
Background. Player-generated reviews of video games represent a large, rich, and under-explored source of data for exploring what makes for an effective game.
Aim. We explore whether existing theory, in the form of a comprehensive gaming taxonomy, suitably captures the issues that players raise when they review games.
Method. User-submitted game reviews were coded along the dimensions of the comprehensive gaming taxonomy to test the frequency of usage of each dimension.
Results. We found some support for the use of the taxonomy, as four of nine taxonomy features were frequently present in game reviews. We also found support for other features of reviews not encapsulated by the Bedwell et al. (2012) taxonomy. Specifically, we found that players often reviewed video games: a) holistically; b) by comparing them to other games, game franchises, and other reviews; and c) by judging the value of games in terms of time, money, and effort. These results have implications for using game reviews for future research.
... The final element of player enjoyment, social interaction, does not map to the elements of flow, but is highly featured in the literature on user-experience in games. People play games to interact with other people, regardless of the task, and will even play games they do not like or even when they don't like games at all [Sweetser and Wyeth 2005;de Kort and Ijsselsteijn 2008;Bond and Beale 2009]. A recent survey of 1252 Australian households and 3533 people living in them revealed that 70% of people who play games enjoy doing so with others [Brand 2012]. ...
... As identified in Sweetser and Wyeth [2005], players will engage in and enjoy games socially, even if they would not play or enjoy the same games as a solo experience. There is also substantial support in the literature for the centrality of Social Interaction as an element of player enjoyment [de Kort and Ijsselsteijn 2008;Bond and Beale 2009]. Additionally, Sweetser and Wyeth [2005] identified that not all of the GameFlow criteria need to be achieved for a game to be enjoyable and not all of the criteria are appropriate to all games or players. ...
The GameFlow model strives to be a general model of player enjoyment, applicable to all game genres and platforms. Derived from a general set of heuristics for creating enjoyable player experiences, the GameFlow model has been widely used in evaluating many types of games, as well as non-game applications. Initial applications of the GameFlow model were limited to real-time strategy games. However, in order to be considered a general model of player enjoyment in games, the GameFlow model needs to be applied to a more varied set of play experiences. In this article, we revisit the design of the GameFlow model, review the various applications and derivative models, and discuss on-going analysis of the model. Subsequently, we describe a study that aims to extend the initial validation of the GameFlow model to incorporate additional game types. We report the results of expert reviews conducted using the GameFlow criteria to evaluate first person shooter games on Sony PlayStation 3 and adventure games on Apple iPhone. Our findings provide insight into the manifestation of the GameFlow elements in these types of games and also highlight some of the genre-specific considerations in the application of the GameFlow model. Key issues are raised and discussed in relation to immersion, social interaction, and multiplayer games.
... It was stated that game reviews are the artefacts which establish connection between consumers and game developers. Bond and Beal [7] studied different affects good or bad reviews in games. For the team a wide range of feature selection methods such as unsupervised or semi supervised methods which have been proposed in various fields [9][10] [11][12] [13] , and some steps for text categorization and information filtering [14][15] [16] which has the task of assigning documents to predefined classes. ...
... Game buyers usually use game reviews as a guide to make decision to buy a game [1]. Usually, games that receive positive reviews are more likely to be sold more than games that receive negative reviews [2]. This also implies that games that received better reviews are likely to be better developed than games that received relatively poorer reviews which could be interesting insights for game developers and marketers to assist them in developing a better game. ...
... Game problem is another type of essential element to be categorized for use in game development which included in game reviews because they must be prevented to be in the game. Moreover, problem like pricing which is not directly related to game development is also a factor affecting to development of the game because according to the research [2], an unreasonable price for a game has the most negative effect on user's opinion towards the game, such that the game lack sufficient contents, or the time spent on game is not worth the price. ...
... It is possible that game developers can utilize game reviews to identify the room for improvement. Bond and Beale [2] studied factors that affect good or bad review in games and constructed a cursory set of heuristic of factors and criteria for good and bad games, which was analyzed from game reviews that aimed to be used while developing, reviewing, or buying a game. These research confirms that game reviews can indicated the quality of the game. ...
