games as social activities - chalmers€¦ · otherwise play again, go to start. game #2 as game #1...
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Games as Social Activities
staffan.bjork@chalmers.se
Administrative Stuff
Exercise today Meet at Studios at usual
Charm days Next Tuesday’s lecture postponed?
Assignment #1 graded Unless you handed in during the two last
days
Today’s lecture
How Can Games Affect Us? Ethics and Games Serious Games
Today’s lecture focuses on the aspects of playing games where it is important that humans are playing it
But first a game… or three…
By Edward Castronova
Game #1N coins in the middle
3 PlayersObject: Get coins
Each round, each player may remove coins from the middleA player cannot take more than N/3 coins
Start
Moves are written on a piece of paperThe papers are shown at the same timeThe coins left in the middle are doubledIf N < 3, the game ends, see who wins
Otherwise play again, go to Start
Game #2
As game #1 but …
A extra player
Player 4 taxes each player 1 coin per round
Player 4 commands the other players before moves are recorded
Players who disobey are “killed” and replaced with new players
Game #3
As Game #1 but…
All players may suggest 1 rule per round in clockwise orderAll players vote on the proposed rules, first rule with a majority
vote goes through (and no more suggestions that round)
Any player may accuse another player of breaking the rule after coins have been distributed
Trial by jury of the other players
Condemned players are killed and replaced
Which game do you prefer?
Why?
What is the most efficient regime for banning players who break (implicit|social) rules?
Response A: “I do not care that players break the rules”
Response B: “I should be free to do whatever I want.”
Response C: “The group must not decide.”
What if these games are models for anarchy, dictatorship and democracy?
Do you want to change your opinions or arguments?
Games can model reality
Players can bring opinions to the game, and depending on the rules approve or disapprove with what happens Is this true?
The experiences within the game can affect the players outside the game if they are aware of the connection Is this true?
Games can model reality, cont.
Game mechanics Common resources
Tragedy of the commons Voting Banning
Castronova uses these games to make points about real-world laws And blurry lines, e.g. property in MMORPGs
Some game-like cases
Stanford Prison Experiment Students volunteers
½ guards ½ prisoners Random selection
Rules No physical violence Paid $15/day
Dehumanization Given a number Physical exercise Stripped naked Sleep deprivation
The Lucifer Effect (2007), Zimbardo. Pwww.lucifereffect.com
Milgram’s Obedience Experiment
Paid to be technician Help in a study of memory and
learning Apply shocks to trial people when
told to by supervisor Range from 15 to 450 volts
150: strong shock 315: extremely intense shock 450: XXX
Trial people actors
The Lucifer Effect (2007), Zimbardo. Pwww.lucifereffect.com
Milgram’s Obedience Experiment, cont. 2/3 of the test people went to 330
volts where no sounds came from the
actors Nearly all continued to 450 volts
Pre-experiment poll few (average 1.2%) were prepared to
inflict the maximum voltage Colleagues believed very few subjects
would progress beyond a very strong shock
How Can Games Affect Us?
or Can Games Affect Us?
Two views from Media Studies
Active media theory The media affects the user
Through its content Typically studied through empirical experiments
Active user theory The user interprets the media
Based upon previous experience Typically studied through studying/interviewing the users
Koster – learning is fun
A Theory of Fun Games are about cognition,
and learning to analyze patterns
Fun is the body’s way of rewarding the brain for learning something
Björk – Gaming as Learning Systems
Games can, regardless of theme, provide learning opportunities to: Learn facts from frameworks of
contextualized meaning Training in formulate plans
Find and test models
Formulate goals
Compare them with hypotheses of phenomena described by the game
Björk – Gaming as Learning Systems, cont. Possible caveat – the Clever Hans
syndrome
Linderoth – creating meaning
Study of children playing games
Focus on how they create meaning while playing games Using the concept of frames (from Goffman)
Five patterns of interaction Frame oriented towards Rules Frame oriented towards Theme Frame oriented towards Aesthetics Frame oriented towards Internal Dynamics (between the other
Frames) Frame oriented towards External Dynamics (primarily how other
activities relate to the Theme frame)
Gee – learning principles
Looks at games as specialized activities
All specialized activities develop own set of meaning –becomes a semiotic domain (similar to the concept of frames)
Gee – learning principles
1. Active Critical Learning Principle Agency
2. Design Principle3. Semiotic Principle4. Semiotic Domains Principle5. Metalevel Thinking about
Semiotic Domains Principle6. “Psychosocial Moratorium”
Principle Crawford’s and other’s
points about safety
7. Committed Learning Principle
8. Identity Principle9. Self-Knowledge Principle10. Amplification of Input
Principle Special Effects
11. Achievement Principle Closures
12. Practice Principle
What Video Games Have to Teach Us About Learning and
Literacy
Gee – learning principles, cont.
13. Ongoing Learning Principle
14. “Regime of Competence” Principle
Flow15. Probing Principle
Reflection in Action16. Multiple Route Principle
Interesting Choices17. Situated Meaning
Principle18. Text Principle
19. Intertextual Principle20. Multimodal Principle21. “Material Intelligence”
Principle Tool use
22. Intuitive Knowledge Principle E.g. “Muscle memory”
23. Subset Principle24. Incremental Principle
Flow
Gee – learning principles, cont.
25. Concentrated Sample Principle
26. Bottom-up Basic Skills Principle
27. Explicit Information On-Demand and Just-In-Time Principle
28. Discovery Principle29. Transfer Principle30. Cultural Models about
the World Principle
31. Cultural Models about Learning Principle
32. Cultural Models about Semiotic Domains Principle
33. Distributed Principle34. Dispersed Principle35. Affinity Group Principle36. Insider Principle
Different types of learning?
Tacit knowledge Craft skills
Explicit knowledge Can be readily transmitted to others Typically tested in educations…
For experiences to become explicit knowledge one must become aware of them After-action reports
Ethics and Games
What possible ethical problems exist with games?
Questionable content
Sexist Racist Homophobic Bigotry Inappropriate for the target
audience
Questionable purpose
Advergaming Product placement
Militainment America’s Army?
Spreading the attitudes shown in the content
Making Money? Wasting Time?
Addiction Types
physical dependence psychological dependence
Typically refers to Substance misuse, but sometimes to
activities Negatively affects social and
professional relations Requires negative effects
“if there is no harm being suffered by, or damage done to, the patient or another party, then clinically it may be considered compulsive, but to the definition of some it is not categorized as ‘addiction’”
Activity done to get endorphins | dopamines Released by the brain when activity
is done
Ways to classify addiction Salience
Importance of experience in life Mood modification
Activity affects mood Tolerance
Increased doses required Withdrawal symptoms
Unpleasant emotions when separated from experience
Conflict User enters conflicts with
surroundings, other activities, and self due to experience
Relapse User quickly reenters habits even
after substantial breaksVideo Game addiction (Wikipedia)“a form of psychological addiction related to a compulsive use of computer and video games, most notably MMORPGs”
Historical perspective on the critic of games Most new media have been seen as
problematic in some way Video games Social networking sites (e.g. My Space) Rap music Role-playing games Videos Heavy Metal Arcade Halls Comic Books Rock’n’Roll Swing Jazz Goethe Literacy (re: Phaedrus by Plato)
Moral Panic Can be described as not understanding the
semiotic domain of the new medium
Ways of looking at Ethics
Utilitarianism What good does an act
do Different forms
Act-utilitarianism Rule-utilitarianism
Deontology Some duties requires one
to always act in a certain way
Contemporary Ethics Rights
Negative Rights Positive Rights Absolute Rights Prima Facie Rights
400 rules Principalism
Several Prima Facie Rights
May lead to different outcomes due to interpretation
Communitarianism Emphasize community
over individual
Ethics in relation to design
Changes in society can put ethical values into focus as they are challenged
Jones’ definition of design “initiate change in man-
made things” Introduction of new designs
affect individuals and society
Examples of Values Privacy
Physical Informational Decisional
Accountability (culpability) Of Actions Of Effects on Others
(freedom of) Bias In Gameplay In Theme
Autonomy Power Structures Choice of When to Play or to
Not Play Addiction
Universal Access
Ethical Challenge #1
What ethical challenges can The Sims cause?
Values Privacy Accountability (freedom of) bias Autonomy Universal Access
What principles lie behind these objections?
Ethical Challenge #2
What ethical challenges can World of Warcraft cause?
Values Privacy Accountability (freedom of) bias Autonomy Universal Access
What principles lie behind these objections?
Ethical Challenge #3
What ethical challenges can Mind's Eye Theatre (Vampire LARP) cause?
Values Privacy Accountability (freedom of) bias Autonomy Universal Access
What principles lie behind these objections?
Possible causes for conflicts regarding games Misunderstanding
Different Semiotic Domains (re: Gee) “This time I’ll kill you!” “He killed me. No, I can’t say that. If he killed me I
could not have said ‘He killed me’ as I would have been dead. [laugher]” (re: Linderoth)
Actually Different Ethnical Principles Is this then a problem of medium or content? Do games have some inherent ethical principles?
Sensationalism Making money or gaining attention to pointing
something out to be a problem
Some views on the effect of video games "VIDEO GAMES AND REAL-LIFE AGGRESSION: A REVIEW OF
THE LITERATURE" -- Washington State Department of Health: Office of Epidemiology"At present, it may be concluded that the research evidence is not
supportive of a major public concern that violent video games lead to real-life violence."
"YOUTH VIOLENCE: A REPORT OF THE SURGEON GENERAL“"[t]aken together, findings suggest that media violence has a
relatively small impact on violence." Specifically with regard to the research on video games, the report stated that, "The overall effect size for both randomized and correlational studies was small for physical aggression and moderate for aggressive thinking....The impact of video games on violent behavior has yet to be determined."
Some views on the effect of video games Many of the games with violent content sold in the United States
– and some with far more violence – are sold in foreign markets. But the incidence of violent crime in these markets is considerably lower than in the United States. This suggests that the cause of violent crime lies elsewhere.
Violent crime, particularly among the young, has decreased dramatically during the 1990s while video games have steadily increased in popularity and use. From Killing Monsters (2002): Certainly video games haven’t had any significant impact on real-
world crime. “The research on video games and crime is compelling to read,” said Helen Smith, forensic psychologist, youth violence specialist, and author of The Scarred Heart. “But it just doesn’t hold up. Kids have been getting less violent since those games came out. That includes gun violence and every other sort of violence that might be inspired by a video game.” (p167)
Some views on the effect of video games
Durkin, K., & Barber, B. (2002). Not so doomed: computer game play and positive adolescent development. Applied Developmental Psychology, 23, 373-392.On several measures – including family closeness, activity involvement, positive school engagement, positive mental health, substance abuse, self-concept, friendship network, and disobedience to parents – game players scored more favorably than did peers who never played computer games. It is concluded that computer games can be a positive feature of a healthy adolescence. (p.376)
Durkin, K. (1999). Computer Games and Australians Today. Australian Government Office of Film and Literature Classification.Despite several attempts to find effects of aggressive content in either experimental studies or field studies, at best only weak and ambiguous evidence has emerged…. …the accumulating evidence –provided largely by researchers keen to demonstrate the games’ undesirable effects – does indicate that it is very hard to find such effects and that they are unlikely to be substantial. (p.36)
Negative views on video games
Mainly referenced by other side (the esa) or Wikipedia
Some views on the effect of video games The present research demonstrated that in both a correlational
investigation using self-reports of real-world aggressive behaviors and an experimental investigation using a standard, objective laboratory measure of aggression, violent video game play was positively related to increases in aggressive behavior. In the laboratory, college students who played a violent video game behaved more aggressively toward an opponent than did students who had played a nonviolent video game. Outside the laboratory, students who reported playing more violent video games over a period of years also engaged in more aggressive behavior in their own lives. Both types of studies–correlational—real delinquent behaviors and experimental—laboratory aggressive behaviors have their strengths and weaknesses. The convergence of findings across such disparate methods lends considerable strength to the main hypothesis that exposure to violent video games can increase aggressive behavior. (Anderson & Dill, 2000)
Some views on the effect of video games Jack Thompson, US Attorney
Violent video games have repeatedly been used by teenagers as “murder simulators” to rehearse violent plans
“In every school shooting, we find that kids who pull the trigger are video gamers”
Points to scientific studies that show teenagers process the game environment differently from adults, leading to increased violence and copycat behavior
Part of the impetus for violent games comes from the military: “for a way to disconnect in the soldier’s mind the physical act of pulling the trigger from the awful reality that a life may end”
Serious Games
Serious Games
Origins Serious Games, Clark C. Abt. (1970) “...a game is an activity among two or more independent
decision-makers seeking to achieve their objectives in some limiting context.”
Claims games can simulate simplified versions of reality play these can let people understand variables,
causes, and effects Current meaning
Games that are created for other purposed than entertainment alone
What can Serious Games be used for?
Training
Brain Age IQ test made into a
game Built upon model for
how to train brain
Common Sense DS Adult Training Learn etiquette Learn vocabulary
regarding economy and IT
Training, cont.
Guess my Robot “Program” sequences Create challenges Test challenges by
sending robot to creator of challenge
Rabbit Numberline Limited set of actions Collect all carrots in
minimum numbers of move
Training, cont.
America’s Army teach values recruitment tool propaganda device
Class-based Team play Always play US army Strict penalties for team
killing
Training, cont.
Foreign Ground Teach cultural conditions Teach environment
conditions Allow dialogue and action
Single side played Fuzzy results Intended for use with after-
action review No reward system
Make a point that Simulations are about what
is happening Games are about players
experience of what is happening
Games for Change
September 12th
Statement about war on terrorism
Gameplay Can destroy terrorism with
weapons Innocent bystanders likely to
be killed Each innocent bystander
killed generates more terrorist
Games for Change, cont.
A Force More Powerful Teach non-violent
methods to overthrow dictatorships, colonizers, etc.
Secure political and human rights for minorities
Can also be seen as a training game
Games for Change, cont.
Food Force UN games about food
distribution Several different types
of missions Scouting Delivering #1 Delivering #2 Resource Management
Games for Change, cont.
Global Conflicts: Palestine Reporter in Palestine
from neutral country
Gameplay Explore environment Talk to members of
both sides Create stories Maintain journalistic
neutrality?
Games for Change, cont. UnderAsh
“To turn Arab children away from American video games featuring US soldiers killing Iraqis and Afghans, a Syrian publishing house has designed a video game on the Palestinian uprising, or intifada.”
“The new game is called Underash, and its hero is a young Palestinian stone-thrower, Ahmed, fighting Israeli soldiers and settlers.”
UnderSiege “UnderSiege is about the modern
history of Palestine and it focuses on the lives of Palestinian family between 1999-2002 during the second Intifada. All levels are based on true stories and we look forward to publish it all over the world on PC/windows platform.”
Can also be seen as a training game?
Games for Change, cont.
Darfur is Dying Play family member in
refugee camp Described not as a
game but as a “"narrative based simulation."
Two modes Fetching water while
avoiding militia Handle crops & build
huts
Games for Healthcare
School Food Trust UK-based organization
Sonic-style gameplay Junk food makes you
slower Healthy food faster
Games for Healthcare, cont.
Rehabilitation of stroke patients Diagnosis Personalized training
Gameplay extremely easy Manual Dexterity Memory Neglect
Games for Healthcare, cont.
Therapy Virtual Reality Exposure
Therapy Controlled environment
to face siutations
Examples High Anxiety Experiences of bus
bombs 9/11
Games for Healthcare, cont.
Emergency 112 (911) Mobile phone game Teaches first aid
techniques
Gameplay keep vital functions in
emergency situations prevent cardiac and
respiratory arrest know how to access to
the medical emergency services system
Advergaming
Sudoku With a theme
Monopoly - star wars saga edition
Advergaming, cont.
Burger King games Sneak King Pocket Bike Racer Big Bumpin‘ Costs $4 each
One review “I really expected them to
be more "Ad-like" in that BK crap would become annoying quickly. Instead they happen to simply have BK crap in them.”
Advergaming, cont.
In game advertising Simply inserting ads
into games in fitting places
Example company Massive, Inc.
Where more examples can be found
Wikipedia under “serious games”
www.watercoolergames.org
What has not been covered Games for political campaigns
E.g. used in American elections and by Centern in the latest Swedish election
Persuasive games Games that try to change players’ opinions or habits
More reading An overview “Datorspel och skadlighet – en
forskningsöversikt” Simon Egenfeldt-Nielsen & Jonas Heide Smith Exists translated from Danish to Swedish
"Att leva i World of Warcraft" av Jonas Linderoth och Ulrika, Mediarådet (2007)
Personal account Dear, William C. The Dungeon Master: The
Disappearance of James Dallas Egbert III, 1984.
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