Blogging the GLS Conference: Friday Morning Edition

I present my paper this afternoon and I spent last night watching the Pistons lose to San Antonio, drinking beer, and working on my powerpoint and video trialer presentation. Here's hoping that it works out well in the end.

Playing Culture Symposium

Jesper Juul & Eric Zimmerman

Zimmerman and Juul : Game design as critical practice; what does it mean to do game design as research?

Moderately multiplayer off-line role playing game (MMORPG)

            Looking at where a game begins and ends.

(as always click on read more to see the full set of notes)

Play as investigation

When the theory hits the road: game design as ways of testing theory; what we know and what we don't know.

Let's play (an offline game) I'm a 1.

Rules summary

Find a new player, reveal 2 cards, and name them out loud, then determine who won:

•  a pair beats a non-pair

•  lower pair beats a higher pair

•  otherwise, the highest total wins

•  if a tie, the round ends-find another player

The winner takes both of the loser's card and the loser chooses one of the two cards that the winner played

If you have THREE OF A KIND in our hand, turn them in for a sticker.

If you have TWO cards in your hand go to the table for three more cards.

You must create a narrative about the symbols when you play your cards.

One group was told that it was about acquiring wealth, the other was told that it was about cleaning u the environment. They all played with the same rules. This was a chance to see who was most motivated.

Game rules and game content

-Rules generate behavior

-When the rules are used play occurs. The limitations of the game add meanings to your actions.

Representing learning content

People are wanting to teach subject matter through video games, but games can also teach more abstract values. Chess teaches logic. D&D teaches algebra.

A game in the hands of a player

A game has a life cycle: learning to play, mastering, discarding; what did the game mean?

Learning from the fiction

            What do these units do?

            3 cards=toxic cleanup?

            Why does Mario have 3 lives?

Two frames of mind over time

            Is the player learning the game setting…or the game rules?

            What is hard in the game must equal what the player should learn

Player focus over time

Games are representational.

How does the research perspective change if you play the game and report or if you just watch the game and then report on it?

'Effects' of Games

Dmitri Williams: The Social Impact of MMOG Play

Game Research

•  Negative displacement or aggression

•  Gaps in   the research

•  Sampling issue with age

•  Social play

•  Methodological

•  Lack of longitudinal research (Anderson & Bushman, 2001; Dill   & Dill)

Internet Research

•  Putnam's “Bowling Along hypothesis

•  The decline of society

•  Demand v. Supply

•  People are going online to find companionship (lack is caused by the bowling along hypothesis

•  Now the Internet is harmful

Putnam and Social Capital

•  Social Capital

•  Social networks and their associated norms of reciprocity

•  Bridging and Bonding (bridging: exposure to new folks and ideas and bonding: strong emotional support)

•  The strength of weak ties (Granovetter, 1973)

Hypotheses

•  Research questions: Does an increase in online gaming lead to changes in

•  Changes in schoolwork?

•  Changes in job work?

•  Socially desirable media?

•  Socially undesirable media

•  Aggression

- Social Capital game use will lead to deceases in online bonding and bridging

	Online	Offline
Bonding
Briding

Setting up Method

            Panel study/experiment design

Content and context of game and game experience

Participan observation: 2 months of playing, note taking, plus interviewing players and game designers

About the Game: Asheron's Call 2

            MMOG

            Player population- the world is too big for the number of people on the server.

Implications for study

            MMORPGs vary in their sociability

AC2 is at the low end of this dimension

Method

            Panel study with limited control group

            Subjects recruited online to match potential player groups

            Split by prior play

            Free copy of game mailed to 378 subjects

            Subjects play average 64 hours

Results

            Marginally significant reduction in extended friendship networks

Increase in civic activism

Decreasing in attending religious service

Results Null Newbie Findings on social Issues          

            Experienced groups did suffer in terms of school work/movie attendance/etc.

            Aggression in the vetern group went up 1.6%

            Verbal aggression down 1.5%

Social networks

            Cocooning effect

Friends 1-3 no change

            4-6, 14 point decline

Summary

            Little support for major concerns

            Online game with low sociability produced mixed effects

Cultivation?

If you consume a lot of that medium then you will start to think that the virtual world works in the actual one.

People who played the game (AC2) were 10% more likely to believe that people would bet robbed with a weapon.

Jack Kuo, Will Huang, & Jeffrey Wilkins

Exploring the Diagnosis and Treatment of Online Gaming Addiction

Theoretical Background

            Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT)

            Motivational Interviewing

Why these theories?

            Evidence based

            Non-judgmental

            On demand

            Customized

            Adaptable

            Contextualized

An obvious list of why games are good.

What's not so great?

            Self-report

            Diagnostic criteria (using criteria for gambling addiction, but it didn't work so well)

Criteria for online gaming dependence

•  preoccupation with gaming

•    need to play for longer periods

•  not able to control or cut back

•  restless or irritable when attempting to cut down

•  play as an escape or to relieve distressing mood

•  play longer than intended

•  lie to conceal the extent of the involvement

•  jeopardized or lost relationship/job/educational or career opportunity

•  continue playing despite knowledge of physical or psychological problem

•  sense of increasing tension or arousal preceded. Satisfaction after.

What are your goals?

•  profession (academic)

•  personal

•  interpersonal

Any problems between your goals and your current playing habits?