About
40
Publications
112,131
Reads
How we measure 'reads'
A 'read' is counted each time someone views a publication summary (such as the title, abstract, and list of authors), clicks on a figure, or views or downloads the full-text. Learn more
4,276
Citations
Introduction
Richard Bartle currently works at the School of Computer Science and Electronic Engineering , University of Essex. Richard does research in Game Design and Artificial Intelligence.
Publications
Publications (40)
This paper investigates the concept of tension-players feeling suspense while trying to achieve an opposed objective in two parts: validating the relationships between its components, and exploring in-game events that elicit changes in tension and perceived power. Participants play through a strategy game scenario with objectives designed to tweak...
This paper describes the process of developing and collecting data for analysis via a Qualtrics survey on “Tend & Befriend Theory” and the Acute Stress Response, i.e. “Fight or Flight Response”. We discuss the constraints and implications of current thinking around “Tend & Befriend”, the descriptive results of our initial study, present a methodolo...
As the use of Games-With-A-Purpose (GWAPs) broadens, their annotation schemes have increased in complexity. The types of annotations required within NLP are an example of labelling that can involve varying complexity of annotations. Assigning more complex tasks to more skilled players through a progression mechanism can achieve higher accuracy in t...
We argue that the mechanics of 'Ville type Free-To-Play (F2P) games in general, and incremental games in particular, is especially suited for Games-With-A-Purpose. We demonstrate this through WordClicker, an incremental game whose mechanics is designed for text labelling. We believe the design and mechanics used are highly transferable to other gam...
In this paper, we propose a social negotiation system in which agents can communicate and interact with each other socially throughout a Sheriff of Nottingham game. We address issues with the number of options available while negotiating, particularly when bluffing is involved. Experiments are proposed that would allow us to validate how closely th...
In this paper we present Wormingo, ¹ a new Game-with-a-Purpose for anaphoric annotation. It introduces the motivation-annotation paradigm which uses linguistic puzzles and other widely known gamification techniques and word game mechanics to motivate players to carry out anaphoric annotation tasks. In a preliminary experiment, the game was tested o...
In this paper we present WordClicker, a clicker game for text annotation. We believe the mechanics of 'Ville type Free-To-Play (F2P) games in general, and clicker games in particular, is particularly suited for GWAPs (Games-With-A-Purpose). WordClicker was developed as one component of a suite of GWAPs meant to cover all aspects of language interpr...
This paper outlines the Hanabi competition, first run at CIG 2018, and returning for COG 2019. Hanabi presents a useful domain for game agents which must function in a cooperative environment. The paper presents the results of the two tracks which formed the 2018 competition and introduces the learning track, a new track for 2019 which allows the a...
Agent modelling involves considering how other agents will behave, in order to influence your own actions. In this paper, we explore the use of agent modelling in the hidden-information, collaborative card game Hanabi. We implement a number of rule-based agents, both from the literature and of our own devising, in addition to an Information Set Mon...
Bartle addresses the gradual declining trend of massively-multiplayer online role-playing games (MMOs). Particularly, their gameplay has gradually been diluted and their core audience has deserted them. The chapter discusses seven core issues including the cost, the variety of styles, the revenue models, the gaming experience, features, the satisfa...
One of the most important articles ever written about virtual worlds is Julian Dibbell’s,A Rape in Cyberspace[]. The title alone is sufficiently provocative that 18 years after its publication, one of the administrators at Essex University (where I teach) made a formal complaint about me when picking up an order of class handouts I’d had printed of...
This follow-up volume to MMOs from the Inside Out is a further collection of bold ideas, information, and instruction from one of the true pioneers of Massively-Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games. Whereas its predecessor looked at how MMOs can change the world, MMOs from the Outside In: How Psychology, Law, Culture and Real Life see Massively-Mu...
This is a discussant comment for the Special Issue on video games and youth culture. It is written from an unusual perspective: that of a video game designer, rather than that of an expert in Psychology. It presents in humorous fashion a straightforward, almost certainly biased position, which nevertheless reflects many views held by the designers,...
Multi‐User Dungeons are the venerable progenitors of modern virtual worlds such as World of Warcraft and Second Life . They are important in the same way that silent movies are important: They established the defining conventions that shaped today's blockbusters, but technological advances have largely left them behind. This entry explains what MUD...
Pocket Reference to Renal Anemia, Second edition, provides a comprehensive overview of anemia in patients with renal disease, including the definition and causes of renal anemia, current management approaches, and the latest clinical practice guidelines. Key learning points are highlighted throughout the book and also listed at the end of the book...
Gamification is a new and burgeoning field, with which Information Retrieval appears to have a particular affinity. In this talk, I consider what it is that Gamification offers Information Retrieval and at what potential cost. I do this by examining the Call for Papers for the workshop, attempting to tease out what Gamification is laying on the tab...
When people sign up to play a game, they have broad expectations as to what will be involved in terms of time commitment, gameplay, skill requirements, genre and atmosphere. If the game does not meet their standards, they don’t play. This is as true of massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMOs) as it is of Monopoly. Otherwise, so long a...
Today’s massively multiplayer online role-playing games are the direct descendants of the textual worlds of the 1980s, not
only in design and implementation terms but also in the way they are evolving thematically.
Thus far, they have faithfully mirrored the path taken by their forebears. If they continue to do so, what can we expect of
the graphi...
The online computer games known as virtual worlds or MMORPGs (Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games) attract millions
of players across the globe, each investing many hours a week in his hobby for months if not years. Few other forms of entertainment
are this compelling, and yet MMORPGs remain little understood. There are theories as to w...
Virtual worlds are a class of computer game in which large numbers of players access a shared environment simultaneously to have fun. What “having fun” means, however, is not obvious. Players talk about immersion, which suggests to some commentators that their fun may derive from the well-known psychological concepts of presence and flow. However,...
Virtual worlds (also known as MMORPGs, MMOGs and assorted other acronyms [1]) raise awkward questions concerning how they are governed, central to which is the status of the developers of such worlds. The currently solidifying view of the legal establishment is that developers themselves are the de facto government of their respective creations, wh...
ABSTRACT Four approaches to playing MUDs are identified and described. These approaches may arise from the inter-relationship of two dimensions of playing style: action versus interaction, and world-oriented versus player-oriented. An account of the dynamics of player populations is given in terms of these dimensions, with particular attention to h...
2007 was the year of online gaming fraud - with malicious programs that specifically target online games and virtual worlds increasing by 145% and the emergence of over 30,000 new programs aimed at stealing online game passwords. Such malware is invariably aimed at the theft of virtual property accumulated in a user’s account and its sale for real...
Much has been written about what virtual worlds are and what they could be, but the theory has not kept pace with the practice. Massive virtual worlds exist /right now/, populated by millions of people, most of whom have a much better appreciation of what being in such a world means than the researchers who are writing about them. This paper is a r...
Obra sobre desarrollo de mundos virtuales para videojuegos, en donde se recuperan los elementos básicos para su diseño: el equipo de trabajo, las preferencias de los videojugadores, el diseño del ambiente geográfico, demográfico y físico, las formas e interacciones de vida en el entorno (personajes, grupos, artes, peleas, etc.) y la historia misma.
Just as the printing press gave rise to the nation-state, emerging technologies are reshaping collective identities and challenging our understanding of what it means to be human. Should citizens have the right to be truly anonymous on-line? Should we be concerned about the fact that so many people are choosing to migrate to virtual worlds? Are inj...