The aesthetics of gameplay (original) (raw)

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.

Natural Language Processing in Game Studies Research

Simulation & Gaming, 2012

What makes a good game?: using reviews to inform design

2009

Abstract 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 characterize good and bad games. We have identified that a good game is cohesive, varied, has good user interaction and offers some form of social interaction.

Natural Language Processing for Games Studies Research

Journal of Simulation & Gaming (S&G), Special Issue on Games Research Methods, 2011

In Gameplay : the invariant structures and varieties of the video game gameplay experience

2018

This dissertation is a multidisciplinary study on video game gameplay as an autonomous form of vernacular experience. Plays and games are traditional research subjects in folkloristics, but commercial video games have not been studied yet. For this reason, methods and concepts of the folkloristic research tradition have remained unknown in contemporary games studies. This thesis combines folkloristics, game studies and phenomenological enactive cognitive science in its investigations into playergame interaction and the video game gameplay experience at large. In this dissertation, three representative survey samples (N=2,594, N=845, N=1,053) on "Rewarding gameplay experience" are analyzed using statistical analysis methods. The samples were collected in 2014-2017 from Finnish and Danish adult populations. This dissertation also analyzes data from 32 interviews, through which the survey respondents' gameplay preferences, gaming memories, and motivations to play were further investigated. By combining statistical and qualitative data analyses, this work puts forward a mixed-methods research strategy and discusses how the findings relate to prior game research from several disciplines and schools of thought. Based on theoretical discussions, this dissertation argues that the video game gameplay experience as a cultural phenomenon consists of eight invariants in relation to which each individual gameplay experience can be interpreted: The player must demonstrate a lusory attitude (i), and a motivation to play (ii). The gameplay experience consists of explorative and coordinative practices (iii), which engender a change in the player's self-experience (iv). This change renders the gameplay experience inherently emotional (v) and performative (vi) in relation to the gameworld (vii). The gameplay experience has the dramatic structure of a prototypical narrative (viii) although a game as an object cannot be regarded a narrative in itself. As a key result of factor analytical studies and qualitative interview analyses, a novel approach to understanding player-game interaction is put forward. An original gameplay preference research tool and a player typology are introduced. This work argues, that, although video games as commercial products would not be intuitive research subjects for folkloristics, video game gameplay, player-game interaction, and the traditions in experiencing and narrating gameplay do not differ drastically from those of traditional social games. In contrast to this, all forms of gameplay are argued to be manifestations of the same vernacular phenomenon. Indeed, folkloristic research could pay more attention to how culture is experienced, modified, varied and expressed, regardless of whether the research subject is a commercial product or not.

What We Talk About When We Talk About Games: Bottom-Up Game Studies Using Natural Language Processing

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.

Making Sense of Game Aesthetics [Panel Abstracts]

2009

In recent years, game studies scholars have brought an expanded conception of aesthetics to bear in the study of digital games. Far from being limited to speaking about the visual presentation of games and graphic styles (with the negative associations of “eye candy”), game aesthetics has become a perspective that allows us to examine the overarching principles and qualities of the gameplay experience. Our aim is to contribute to a fuller picture of what games can hope to become.

The nature of gameplay: a videogame classification

2007

This paper is part of an experimental approach aimed to raise a videogames classification. Being inspired by the methodology that Propp[3] used for the classification of Russian fairy tales, we have cleared out recurrent diagrams within rules of videogames, named "Game Bricks". The combinations of these different bricks will allow us to represent a classification, in accordance to their rules, of all the videogames. In this article we will study the real nature of these bricks, especially the link they seem to have with two types of game rules: the rules that allow the player to "manipulate" the elements of the game and the rules defining the "goal" of the game. We will then study the relation between these bricks and the gameplay. These questions will help us to propose an hypothesis about the nature of gameplay.

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.

Pay to Play: Understanding Gamer's Motivation through Semantic Analysis

2021

Understanding what motivates a gamer to pay to play a game could enhance the gaming industry. One of the ways to understand game players experiences is through exploration via their text communication. This study explores text communication posted on the Steam digital distribution platform on paid-play games. A total of 7255 gamer text communicated were collected and analysed. Reviews from the past pinpointed that elements such as social influence, entertaining features, graphic design, music, and soundtrack used in the game could influence the game playing experience. To study those, we use mix-method (qualitative and quantitative) methods to analyse the data. We invite three human coders to categorise statements associating with its elements and aspects. Next, with the aid of Wmatrix, a semantic analysis system, we tabulate and elaborate the emotion words associating with the gameplay elements. The result shows that the positive feeling of love and joy highly encourages the gamer's overall game playing experience. Elements such as the storyline, design of the Avatar and the entertaining features are the primary motivation of the gameplay.

The aesthetics of gameplay (original) (raw)

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