Pay to Play: Understanding Gamer's Motivation through Semantic Analysis (original) (raw)
Related papers
Natural Language Processing in Game Studies Research: An Overview
Simulation & Gaming, 2012
Natural language processing (NLP) is a field of computer science and linguistics devoted to creating computer systems that use human (natural) language as input and/or output. We propose that NLP can also be used for game studies research. In this article we provide an overview of NLP and describe a few research possibilities that can be explored using its tools and techniques. We discuss these techniques by performing three different types of NLP analyses of a significant corpus of online videogame reviews. First, using techniques such as word and syllable counting, we analyze the readability of professionally written game reviews finding that, across a variety of indicators, game reviews are written for a secondary education reading level. Next, we analyze hundreds of thousands of user-submitted game reviews using part-of-speech tagging, parsing and clustering to examine how gameplay is described. Our findings in this area highlight the primary aesthetic elements of gameplay according to the general public of game players. Finally, we show how sentiment analysis, or the classification of opinions and feelings based on the words used in a text and the relationship between those words, can be used to explore the circumstances in which certain negatively-charged words may be used positively, and for what reasons in the domain of videogames. We conclude with ideas for future research including how NLP can be used to complement other avenues of inquiry.
Social Media Content Review of MMORPG Games: Reddit Comment Scraping and Sentiment Analysis
Social media is a system that provides access from one-way information sharing to two-way and simultaneous information sharing, introducing Web 2.0 as a service to users. Social media is a set of dialogues and exchanges that people have with each other on the Internet. Reddit is which can call an important audience in these environments. Popular topics and content are available, such as science, sports, gaming, music, food and drink, and photography. After the release of MOBA games, there has been a serious decrease in playing time of the MMORPG genre. The research aims to sentiment analysis of content created on the MMORPG subreddit channel on Reddit. In my study, I focused on sentiment analysis of MMORPG games, which have been very popular for years. Possible reasons for that were tried to be evaluated relative to players' opinions. Sentiment analysis was performed based on posts from the 'MMORPG' subreddit on Reddit. Negative, positive, and neural structures are explained. Frequency analysis of often used words is also included.
Natural Language Processing for Games Studies Research
Journal of Simulation & Gaming (S&G), Special Issue on Games Research Methods, 2011
Natural language processing (NLP) is a field of computer science and linguistics devoted to creating computer systems that use human (natural) language as input and/or output. We propose that NLP can also be used for game studies research. In this article we provide an overview of NLP and describe a few research possibilities that can be explored using its tools and techniques. We discuss these techniques by performing three different types of NLP analyses of a significant corpus of online videogame reviews. First, using ...
Digital game experience is not a one-dimensional concept. Great variety exists in game genres and players, and game experiences will differ accordingly. To date, game experience is studied in a differentiated way, meaning that most studies focus on one specifi c game experience dimension. The objective of our study was twofold. First, we wanted to obtain a comprehensive picture of fi rst-hand experiences of playing digital games. We conducted six focus group interviews including different types of gamers with the aim of eliciting a wide array of lay-conceptualizations of game experience. Second, we aimed to develop a categorization of game experience dimensions. This was established by discussing and integrating theoretical and empirical fi ndings. Our categorization revealed nine dimensions: enjoyment, fl ow, imaginative immersion, sensory immersion, suspense, competence, tension, control and social presence. This categorization has relevance for both game scholars and game developers wanting to get to the heart of digital game experience.
Foundations of Digital Games, 2015
In this paper, we endorse and advance an emerging bottom-up approach to game studies that utilizes techniques from natural language processing. Our contribution is threefold: we present the first complete review of the growing body of work through which this methodology has been innovated; we present a latent semantic analysis model that constitutes the first application of this fundamental bottom-up technique to the domain of digital games; and finally, unlike earlier projects that have only written about their models, we introduce and evaluate a tool that serves as an interface to ours. This tool is GameNet, in which nearly 12,000 games are linked to the games to which they are most related. From an expert evaluation, we demonstrate that, beyond being an interface to our model, GameNet may be used more generally as a research tool for game scholars. Specifically, we find that it is especially useful for the scholar who wishes to explore a relatively unfamiliar area of games, but that it may also be used to discover unforeseen cases related to topics that have already been thoroughly researched.
Empirical Taxonomies of Gameplay Enjoyment
International Journal of Game-Based Learning, 2012
A survey study was conducted to better understand how gameplay enjoyment relates to players’ personality traits and video game preferences. This study demonstrated that the core design elements of games that lead to enjoyment can be empirically identified. Similarly, it showed that considering personality, an individual characteristic, can produce informative insights about how players perceive gaming experiences. Whereas video game research has historically emphasized either games or players in isolation (Juul, 2010), this study is an initial effort towards a holistic approach that considers how design features and player characteristics combine to generate enjoyable video game experiences. Two empirical taxonomies for creating more enjoyable game experiences are presented.
Natural Language Processing in Game Studies Research
Simulation & Gaming, 2012
Natural language processing (NLP) is a field of computer science and linguistics devoted to creating computer systems that use human (natural) language as input and/or output. The authors propose that NLP can also be used for game studies research. In this article, the authors provide an overview of NLP and describe some research possibilities that can be explored using NLP tools and techniques. The authors discuss these techniques by performing three different types of NLP analyses of a significant corpus of online videogame reviews: (a) By using techniques such as word and syllable counting, the authors analyze the readability of professionally written game reviews, finding that, across a variety of indicators, game reviews are written for a secondary education reading level; (b) the authors analyze hundreds of thousands of user-submitted game reviews using part-of-speech tagging, parsing, and clustering to examine how gameplay is described. The findings of this study in this area...
Fun Versus Meaningful Video Game Experiences: A Qualitative Analysis of User Responses
Emerging research on video games has suggested that feelings of both enjoyment and meaningfulness can be elicited from gameplay. Studies have shown enjoyment and meaningfulness evaluations to be associated with discrete elements of video games (ratings of gameplay and narrative, respectively), but have relied on closed-end data analysis. The current study analyzed participants’ open-ended reviews of either their ‘‘most fun’’ or ‘‘most meaningful’’ video game experience (N = 575, randomly assigned to either condition). Results demonstrated that ‘‘fun’’ games were explained in terms of gameplay mechanics, and ‘‘meaningful’’ games were explained in terms of connections with players and in-game characters.
Measuring Video Game Engagement through Gameplay Reviews
Simulation & Gaming
In this article, we develop a method, that we call the gameplay review method, for measuring players’ engagement with digital games through players’ interactions with video recordings of their own gameplay. The gameplay review method arose from a microsociological study of the gameplay of eight young adults who each played approximately 20 hours of World of Warcraft over a 3-month period in 2012. Using data from indepth interviews and audiovisual recordings of one of the eight participants, this article focuses on how the method leveraged participants’ knowledge of their experiences and ties that knowledge to measures of engagement. We outline the method’s four-step process (producing Level I data, analyzing Level I data, producing Level II data, analyzing Level II data) to guide the generation and analysis of rich video data. The method involves focused discussions on selected recorded segments of participants’ gameplay and is a means of connecting game design with both empirical and interpretive data. We show how, as participants progress, they learn about game design features and deepen their understanding of games. We found that participants’ developing perceptions of, and relationships to, design features affect their engagement with digital games. The gameplay review method is significant in its ability to measure engagement by dealing explicitly with empirical and interpretive data.