The usability of MMORPG

Pertinent study about MMORPG usability: The Usability of Massively Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Games: Designing for New Users by Steve Cornett for CHI 2004

This study examines the usability challenges faced by new players of massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs), one of the fastest-growing segments of the video game industry. Played in completely online worlds, these games allow players to communicate with one another, form groups and communities, and compete in a variety of fantasy environments. Nineteen subjects participated in an exploratory usability study of four games, three MMORPGs and a similar single-player game used for comparison. Results reveal that many people not usually considered as potential players of these games may be interested in them, but a wide variety of usability issues present serious problems for players inexperienced with the genre. Based on an analysis of the usability data and player feedback, specific recommendations are made to improve the experience of these games for new players. These results further demonstrate the applicability and importance of usability testing to video games.

The main result (put in bold in the abstract copied above) is interesting and should be taken into account in the design: usability is a factor in audience development. The article also describes the application of usability principles in the context of the gaming environment, something now more common today that few years back (thanks to Bill Fulton's work at MS, see for instance his very insightful article Beyond psychological theory: Getting data that improve games in Proc. Game Developers' Conference 2002).

From MUD to MMORPG

It seems that the research agenda sketched out by Alan Schwartz in his "Comments On MUD Research" (Journal of Virtual Environments, Volume 1, Number 1) in 1997 still holds for MMORPG

• Psychological theories of group behavior, altruism, aggression, spatial representation, and attention. Attention may seen surprising, but consider that splitting attention between multiple streams of conversation and game-play is extremely common among MUD players. • Sociological theories of organizational structure, social norms, and exchanges. For example, it's common for experienced adventure-style MUD players to retrieve the items from a more novice player's corpse and return them to the novice. The same was likely done for the experienced player when s/he was a novice, and creates a system of exchange between players. • Organizational behavior work on training, management, leadership, satisfaction, turnover, job characteristics, and organizational citizenship. Under what conditions do MUD administrators "burn out"? What is player satisfaction -- and does it relate to the degree to which players have input on the MUD? • Political science. Aspects of many MUDs can be understood in terms of political structures, coalitions, and mechanisms of governance. • Sociolinguistics, cognitive linguistics, and pragmatics. The language MUD players use has already received some attention (see, for example, Carlstrom, 1994; Cherny, 1994, Serpentelli, 1992) • Anthropological theories of culture, ritual, and folklore. If the players of a MUD constitutes a subculture, with shared beliefs, understandings, rituals, etc., anthropology has much to offer. Clodius (1994) discusses the use of MUDs in ethnographic fieldwork. • Computer science work on distributed databases, graphical interfaces, virtual reality models, and client-server computing.

Why do I blog this? I am working on this question for a project about online communities.

Mobile gaming future: "It's a phone, not a console"

It's a phone, not a console! is an interesting paper about mobile games by Marko Turpeinen, Risto Sarvas, Fernando Herrera from the Helsinki Institute for Information Technology. Some excerpts I found relevant:

mobile gaming will be huge because everybody has a mobile phone. However, how can mass-market mobile phones ever compete with handheld game decks such as the Sony PSP and Nintendo Gameboy? (...) Perhaps they should not compete at all. Mobile phone game developers should take advantage of the special characteristics of the device in developing, marketing and distributing new types of games. These characteristics are related to the social nature of the device, e.g. it has an address book that contains your acquaintances and acts as a mediator of messages, it is a portable and shareable picture album, and you can even use it for talking. This combined with the openness of the platforms makes it customizable and moddable in ways not possible with handheld game decks. Also, the network connectiveness of phones combined with extensive coverage of phone networks simply cannot be found in any other portable computer. How can these features be leveraged in creating new forms of mobile entertainment? (...) Drawing from related phenomena including PC game modding, mobile imaging, Geocaching, Habbo Hotel, and Live-Action Role Play (LARP), we offer fresh perspectives and ideas to professional game developers by presenting research findings in mobile gaming and mobile gaming communities.

Why do I blog this? I do admit that I agree with some of the authors' conclusions, as already discussed there. Their point (emphasis in bold) is however balanced by phone technical limitations as I mentionned here, commenting on Greg Costykian's work.

They also have this conclusion:

Rather than just writing papers and giving talks about mobile gaming we base our research on building working prototype systems to test our hypotheses. Therefore, our future research explores the issues discussed in this paper, namely how mobile phones special characteristics could be taken into use in existing game activities and in facilitating the creation of user-designed and implemented game

This is pertinent indeed but I'd be happy to know more about how they "test their hypotheses", I believe there's a lot to learn from what this team do; but this kind of sentence leave unanswered the question of methodologies used to conduct such a project (we don't have the answer here at the lab, it's just that we face the same issues).

Latency in MMORPG and user's performance in Warcraft III

I already mentioned how the topic of network latency might impact users' performance/expectations/pleasure while playing games. Here is an interesting article about how it modifies WarcraftIII's players performance: The effect of latency on user performance in Warcraft III by N Sheldon, E Girard, S Borg, M Claypool, E Agu (Proceedings of ACM NetGames, 2003).

Latency on the Internet is a well-known problem for interactive applications. With the increase in interactive network games comes the increased importance of understanding the effects of latency on user performance. Classes of network games such as First Person Shooters (FPS) and Real Time Strategy (RTS) differ in their user interaction model and hence susceptibility to latency. While previous work has measured the effects of latency on FPS games, there has been no systematic investigation of the effects of latency on RTS games. In this work, we design and conduct user studies that measure the impact of latency on user performance in Warcraft III, a popular RTS game. As a foundation for the research, we separated typical Warcraft III user interactions into the basic components of explore, build and combat, and analyzed each individually. We find modest statistical correlations between user performance and latency for exploration, but very weak correlations for building and combat. Overall, the effect of even very high latency, while noticeable to users, has a negligible effect on the outcome of the game. We attribute this somewhat surprising result to the nature of RTS game-play that clearly favors strategy over the real-time aspects.

Why do I blog this? I am currently working on that issue for a project. It's interesting to see that compared to what has been found in FPS, latency is less detrimental to RTS performance.

INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON ADVANCES IN COMPUTER ENTERTAINMENT TECHNOLOGY 2006:

ACM SIGCHI INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON ADVANCES IN COMPUTER ENTERTAINMENT TECHNOLOGY 2006 is going to happen in June, 14-16 in Hollywood, CA:

The field of computer entertainment technology has aroused great interest recently amongst researchers and developers in both academic and industrial / business fields as it is duly recognized as showing high promise of bringing on exciting new forms of human computer interaction. Now deemed deserving of both serious academic research, as well as major industry and business uptake, techniques used in computer entertainment are also seen to translate into advances in research work ranging from industrial training, collaborative work, novel interfaces, novel multimedia, network computing and ubiquitous computing. 

The purpose of this conference is to bring together academic and industry researchers, artists and designers and computer entertainment developers and practitioners, to address and advance the research and development issues related to computer entertainment. 

Prospective authors are now invited to submit Papers/Posters/Demos electronically via the conference website: 
http://www.ace2006.org by 15th February 2006

Why do I blog this? this conference is a very good event in the sphere of innovative gaming technology

Mobile Gaming Forecast

Gamasutra featured a very relevant piece about the future of mobile gaming. It's actually a compilation of viewpoints made by Quang Hong. Here area few selection impressions I found relevant about the very questions "What interests you most about the prospects for cell phone gaming, and what innovations and trends do you think all game professionals should keep a close eye on in the mobile gaming market?"

I think the last thing to keep an eye on would be the prevalence of 3D applications. I personally don't think 3D really has a place on mobile (except for the “wow!” factor), but will wait to see where the consumers fall on this issue. It just seems to me that many big companies look at mobile as a natural extension of console. That concepts that work in their current medium will transfer directly to this new one. I don't believe this is the case. (Nick Smolney)

The interesting thing about the prospects for cell phone gaming is that we as an industry do not yet exist in the hearts and minds of the consumer. (John Szeder, Mofactor, Inc)

am most interested in the uniqueness of mobile devices and how they can be used to enhance gaming and make it different from fixed gaming. When people think about cell phones, they think about community and moving around. This leads to different types of multiplayer (given shorter play time and less bandwidth) and the possibilities of location-based games. Most people think of location-based games as these hardcore mobile games, but they do not have to be (Anonymous)

Why do I blog this? among all the statements presented in this article, I picked up those 3 points because I find them close to the reality. Mobile gaming will work if 1) it's not taken as a follow-up of game console (then 3D mobile games are a wrong path) 2) it should be taken as a new and unique phenomenon still to be understood in order to create new gaming experience 3) cell phones unique features (voice, geolocation, ptt, bluetooth...) could be seen as a basis to meet this end.

Massively multiplayer online games a testbed for entrepreneurial skills

Via the ACM technews review:

"The Avatars of Research" in Chronicle of Higher Education (09/30/05) Vol. 52, No. 6, P. A35; Foster, Andrea L.

Massively multiplayer online games such as Second Life have aroused the interest of scholars as a testbed for entrepreneurial skills as well as a tool for studying social interaction. Second Life is especially attractive to researchers since almost any kind of activity can be performed in the game, and the relationships and interchange between avatars representing players reflect the real-life behavior of individuals and groups. Business professors are particularly drawn to Second Life because participants create, sell, and purchase possessions and holdings within the virtual world, which are bought with an artificial currency that can be exchanged for actual legal tender. The potential abuse of such a system is an area of research for Elon University senior Jon Maggio, who intends to examine the sociological aspects of virtual worlds for his graduate studies. Architecture students at UC Berkeley and the University of Texas at Austin have used Second Life to evaluate the habitability of building designs, while Trinity University students taught by communication professor Aaron Delwiche used object creation tools in Second Life to develop games that could enable new players to become conversant with the software. The game's creator, Linden Lab, started allowing academic participants to inhabit the Second Life universe without any subscriber fees this month. Linden Lab's Robin Harper says the company is benefiting from the advice students and scholars provide on how the game world can be improved.

Why do I blog this? in the effort of using multiplayer game in education, this reminds me old uses of MUDS/MOOs for learning purposes 10 years ago. The difference here would be that the interface is graphical + a large number of users.

Serious Game Summit Europe

Via, there's going to be a Serious Game Summit Europe in Lyon on December 5th (as I already mentioned here):

Serious Games is a combination of games, learning, training, policy and management. Major companies, government and military institutions, foundations, educators, and non-profit organizations are turning to games and commercial entertainment technologies for new approaches to simulations, training, education, and other practical applications. This recent and growing trend has resulted in a new field where computer and video games are applied to “non entertainment” purposes.

The SGSE will last a full day and will feature a wide range of conferences introducing the concept and applications of Serious Games. Attendees will have the opportunity to meet during lunch and coffee breaks and therefore develop their networks of potential suppliers and customers.

This is a whole new experience in Europe, which will enable developers to meet potential new customers they normally wouldn’t have the opportunity to reach. Attending this event gives you access to a growing financial outlet and an underdeveloped niche in Europe.

It seems that the confernce will be more the one of a business meeting than the academic/geeky con.

MMORPG trends

An informative article in Gamasutra about MMO demographics:

IGN Entertainment (...) has released a survey into the amount of time that devoted MMORPG players spend on their hobby (...) canvassed 5,634 of IGN's readers during the month of July across all of its member websites.

The survey found that the typical MMO player is a male between the ages of 13 and 34, with a mean age of 27. About half of them were heavy users, playing over 18 hours a week, and half more casual players who put in only 10-12 hours. The survey also confirmed that although many MMORPG players are willing to try new games, they tend to play only one at a time, indicating that the MMORPG market may not be expanding.

When choosing that single MMORPG, according to those surveyed, the most important feature was character customization. Problems severe enough to make players consider leaving are not enough new content, unbalanced classes, and too many bugs. Players generally were unwilling to forsake their favorite MMO even after reaching the game's level cap and exhausting its endgame content due to the community ties formed while playing.

Interesting work by Jon Orwant

Jon Orwant's Ph.D. thesis is quite interesting to skimmed through: EGGG: The Extensible Graphical Game Generator:

This dissertation is part of an ongoing project called EGGG, the Extensible Graphical Game Generator. As its name suggests, EGGG is a system that creates computer games, and the thesis behind the dissertation is that there exist sufficient commonalities between games that such a software system can be constructed. In plain English, the thesis is that games are really a lot more alike than most people imagine, and that these similarities can be used to create a generic game engine: you tell it the rules of your game, and the engine renders it into an actual computer game that everyone can play

Why do I blog this?Even though the game rendering looks quite old for today's bleeding edge computer graphics, there are lots of relevant questions raised in this document. I read some party yesterday after a brief discussion about open source game design (craftware) with some folks. Besides, it's always nice to see what people in companies did/do (Orwant is Director of Research, France Telecom R&D Boston).

Moreover, I found in the Geowanking mailing list that he is also working on location-based projects for France Telecom:

1. I work on location-enabled services for France Telecom, at a new [2003] research lab in Boston. 2. My team has been playing with GPS-enabled Nextel/Motorola phones; we're recording our locations and analyzing the streams -- creating visualizations of motion, identifying patterns, and predicting where people are going to go next [saw this jamie/a> or mauro ?]. 3. I have a daughter whose location has been recorded every two seconds since birth, using a phone clad in drool-proof plastic. Since she's only two weeks old, she doesn't yet have the motor coordination to toss it out the window, much less comprehend the grim Orwellian nature of her early childhood.

A live-action Scotland Yard in Bern, Switzerland

A game presented at the workshop about pervasive gaming at Ubicomp: "The hunt for Mr. X: Bringing a board game to the street" by Niklaus Moor (Swisscom Innovations). It's basically an adaptation of the board game 'Scotlan Yard' to the real city level.

„Mr. X“ moves hidden through the streets of London. He has to show his location every 4th turn The detectives know which kind of transportation he uses With this information they have to figure out his position and surround him When the detectives catch him, they win, if Mr. X escapes he wins

4 groups with 4 players hunt Mr. X and Mr. Y in the old city of Bern (Switerzland). Hunting by MMS: Every ten minutes, Mr. X sends a picture of his current location. The detectives have to identify the position by the pictures and find Mr. X. They catch Mr. X by taking a picture of him. All players had cell phones with camera and GPRS connectivity, MMS enabled The pictures have been sent by MMS to a photo weblog page The cell phones where enabled for group chatting (text based)

Why do I blog this? The game seems interesting and engaging. The document does not states whether there were further evaluation/tests/experiments, the user experience analysis appears to be quite limited here. The data collected might be extremely relevant (e.g. pictures). I really like this "The Photo-Blog gave a live overview of the hunt and the positions of players"

Capture the Flag game using cell phones

Sunday evening's paper: Capture the Flag: A Multiplayer Online Game for Phone Users by Adrian David Cheok, Sze Lee Teo, Lei Cao, Le Nam Thang (for the ISWC05 conference):

This paper explores the concept of using smart phones to facilitate pervasive mixed reality, location-based, physical and social gaming. The interaction and communication between the virtual and physical worlds are explored and studied using a mixed reality version of the capture-the-flag game. In this game, players from two different paradigms, virtual and real, compete and collaborate in a social gaming environment using mobile devices and network system. (...) Unlike Human Pacman and ARQuake where players are equipped with head-mounted displays and complicated wearable equipment, players can move freely over wide outdoor area with true mobility and minimal hardware.

The basic goal of our smart phone-based CTF is to capture the opponents’ flag by acquiring it from their base and bringing it to the home base. (...) There are two player roles; smart phone players play as Knights while online players play as Guides through desktop PCs and they are connected via the Internet. The Knights whose positions are tracked via Global Positioning Unit (GPS) have to set her team’s “castle” in the beginning of the game by placing their own physical flag (a Bluetooth embedded device) on the ground. Once done, a virtual castle and a flag appear at the corresponding location in the Guides’ 3D map and in Knights’ smart phone interface. (...) Communication between various players using text messaging is an ongoing process throughout the game.

Why do I blog this? this is a good example of a low-tech approach of pervasive gaming using text messenging + GPS and bluetooth (unlike augmented reality tech). I'd be happy to know more about the tests/usage.

A real-world bank office in a virtual world

(via), this curious news by Clickable Culture:

Wells Fargo has launched their own private "Stagecoach Island" in the virtual world of Second Life. With the help of Swivel Media, a so-called "experential" marketing agency, Wells Fargo's Stagecoach Island aims to teach young adults how to handle their finances, presumably by using Wells Fargo's financial services.

Well Fargo's move into virtual space doesn't necessarily indicate that big business is taking game-like environments seriously--rather it shows that Linden Lab has successfully positioned its Second Life world as a viable marketing platform. With Second Life membership now free, however, it remains to be seen what the incentive of visiting a bank-sponsored virtual island might be. It certainly won't be cybersex.

Why do I blog this? even though this move is aimed at "teaching" young adults financial literacy, it's a very remarkable way to do it (by trying to 'enter' not only a market but a new kind of 'place'!). MMORPG now gets more and more services inside them.

Prosopopeia: Live Action Role Play in Stockholm

News from the Swedish Institute of Computer Science:

The Live Action Role Play event Prosopopeia was held the weekend of June 11th and 12th of June. The game designer Martin Eriksson and his team had created a suggestive story, with its origin in ancient mythology but staged in the age in which we live. The game investigated the between-places and non-places of our society, and pointed out how our actions and relations will have consequences for coming generations, and to ourselves - on The Other Side of death

Prosopopeia is:

a demonstrator in the "Enhanced live action roleplaying" work-package of the European research project iPerG and future events will be closely integrated with project results. In Prosopopeia the player becomes a willing channel for a ghost on a desperate mission to the land of the living. The ghosts and their channels use age-old magic, art, experimental technology and humane action to forge a path to the future while battling the spectres of their own past.

I like the premise of the project because I find it sooooo true:

Games on mobile platforms have so far been limited to relatively simple ports of older console games played to redeem the idle moments of modern life. This first stage of mobile gaming is only one possible gaming format using handheld devices. Experiments in the field of pervasive gaming hint at a deeper and more unique game format made possible by the unique traits of mobile devices. Player mobility, location-tracking, physical presence in reality and constant networked communication open new vistas for game design.

[And hey! btw fabien, it's an argument to say that pervasive gaming is one kind of mobile gaming ;)]

Beside, the gameplay seems quite interesting:

The "EVP machine", the modified reel-to-reel tape recorder, through which the players communicated with The Other Side, was completed. It was managed by the Game Master via a GSM link. The software "Thanatos" that transformed the voices of the Game Master group into “ghost voices”, worked in a complex environment of interactive sound technology including not only the voices but also a sampler with sound effects and music, with which the Game Master could improvise and guide the narrative. 

The "acclimatisation machine" which provided the players with background information through a meditative experience, was completed. It was made of 12 modified MP3 players, which could be synchronously remote controlled without any notice of the players. This was a generic and scalable technology that can be used in many future LARPs for embedding of sound or music on different locations or inside objects. 

All the scenes in Prosopopeia were intercepted. The Game Master could hear the dialogue of the players and was able to direct the game. Everything was recorded and will be used for documentation and evaluation. Many scenes were also surveyed with video cameras, both remote controlled W-LAN cameras, and IR sensitive night cameras. The different types of software for handling and storing of parallel video streams have been evaluated.

Why do I blog this? this project is carried out in the European iPerg project which is amazingly relevant and their website is full of resources. It's very interesting to follow their progress since their paving the way for future development in pervasive gaming.

Innovative Nintendo Revolution Controller

An article about joystick in the WSJ is not so common but sometimes it happens. It's about the new nintendo game controller which seems quite nice:

Imagine a videogame where you drop a virtual fishing line into a lake. Your hand grips the pole, and you can move to where the fish are biting. When you feel a tug, a jerk on the pole brings in the catch.

This is what it's like playing with Nintendo Co.'s new game controller, which senses a player's actual movement and position in space. The device -- a key piece of the company's highly anticipated next-generation game machine -- represents Nintendo's bid to liberate gaming from the conventional keypad (...) Revolution's shiny, plastic controller is about the size and shape of a candy bar, with a few buttons on top and a trigger-like button on the bottom. During a game, the player holds it in one hand like a remote control, then moves through the game by bending the wrist and sweeping the arm. It is wireless, so no cords get in the way of the gesturing. The controller comes with an extension called the Nunchuck that gives players a small, thumb-controlled joystick to hold in the other hand for use in certain games.

In a demonstration of the controller, some games required pushing buttons for moves such as jumping or shooting, while others, like the fishing game, relied solely on hand and arm movements. In one game, players held the controller as if it were a paper airplane, tilting it this way and that to maneuver an on-screen craft.

The device, which works by communicating with small sensors that sit under or on top of the television, gives gaming a kind of kinetic energy the company hopes will appeal to both seasoned gamers and people who have never played videogames. (...) a sign of the determination of the game maker, based in Kyoto, to distinguish itself from competitors that are readying their own next-generation machines for release over the coming year. (...) Nintendo has yet to introduce new games specifically for Revolution. Mr. Miyamoto says possibilities include games in which players hold two controllers, using one as a sword and one as a shield, or games in which players fly by flapping their arms like a bird.

Engadget gives a picture of this joystick:

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Why do I blog this? this seems to be a really good innovation and I do believe that Nintendo made the good choice of trying to create something new. Now, let's wait for gameplay supported by this. But I am pretty confident that the magical game designers from Japan will do something good out of it! Connected pasta I already mentioned a patent from Nintendo for such devices

Paper prototyping and video game design

Tyler Sigman describes a good account about how using paper prototypes in video game design:

This article is meant to be a small collection of learned experiences from the paper prototyping process; it's a mix of tips, advice, and also a modicum of philosophy regarding the benefits of paper prototyping to assist with digital game design. The first part is about why paper prototyping is useful; the middle bit is about how to construct said prototypes; the end is a crash course overview of playtesting concerns.

understand that paper prototyping can save your project TIME and MONEY. (...) The reason paper prototyping can save time and money is because you are able to start examining the gameplay of your game well in advance of large-scale coding and art asset production. You can do a creative and functional “check-up” to see if you are on the right track. I (...) You can also find dreaded “problems.” Any problems in design cascade to the rest of the team. (...) One of the most straightforward reasons to make a prototype is to test out the overall game mechanics. You put the wheels on your game and give it a spin, so to speak. (...) Similar to #2. In addition to “kicking the tires” of your game, you can also start putting the wax on--balancing. (...) a paper prototype can help test for good flow—after all, you are still playing the game even if it is in a different format.

The most interesting part is certainly the 'Make stuff' section:

If you've got a game collection, pop open the boxes and look for tokens, dice, markers, and other pieces that might serve a need. (...) A great source for spare parts is your local thrift store. There are usually many board games to be had for only a buck or two each. (...) A last note about scrounging: don't stop at games. There are a surprising number of household items that can serve as game components. Stores like Pier 1 and the like usually have a good selection of potential game parts, too - decorative items like glass beads, polished rocks... whatever. (...) When it comes down to it, you often can't avoid some actual layout and assembly time because you will need very specific items for your game. The most common - “the big hitters” - are cards, tokens/counters, and gameboards.

Why do I blog this? first because I like prototypes stuff, alpha or beta-version and the mix of games/cards/board is appealing to me. Second because I find that it's a good idea to test game designe ideas.

No room in game-space apart from WoW

A pertinent account of a recent phenomenon in online-game space: the fact that Worlds of Warcraft is 'completely owning the game space right now', leaving no room for competitors as accounted by this article in the IHT/NYT.

Now, the broader phenomenon is that so many contenders, including Matrix Online, simply cannot stand up to the overwhelming popularity of online gaming's new leviathan: "World of Warcraft," made by Blizzard Entertainment, based in Irvine, California. (...) "There are a lot of other online games that are just sucking wind right now because so many people are playing WOW," (...) Now, "World of Warcraft" has shattered earlier assumptions about the potential size of the market. Â "For many years the gaming industry has been struggling to find a way to get Internet gaming into the mainstream," said Jeff Green, editor in chief of Computer Gaming World, one of the top computer game magazines. "These kinds of games have had hundreds of thousands of players, which are not small numbers, but until 'World of Warcraft' came along no one has been able to get the kind of mainstream numbers that everyone has wanted, which is millions of players."

I like the conclusion:

Previously, many massively multiplayer games seemed to pride themselves on their difficulty and arcane control schemes. "This is what Blizzard always does," said Green, of Computer Gaming World. "They have an innate genius at taking these genres that are considered hard-core geek property and repolishing them so they are accessible to the mainstream. To do that without losing their geek cred is an incredible achievement."

Serious Games Modding

An interesting new concept: Serious Games Modding. Coming straight from a Serious Games Summit talk: Healthcare and Forestry - Half-Life 2: Meet Serious Games Modding. Modding is "a slang expression for the act of modifying a piece of hardware or software to perform a function not intended or authorized by the original manufacturer" (source: wikipedia).

As game engines get ever more powerful the rolling of modding (taking existing games and changing their content to suit another purpose) will continue to grow. Past efforts have explored the use of modding and demonstrated its process. This session is designed to move from a broad talk about modding by giving a behind the scenes look at two serious game projects utilizing mods of the Half-Life 2 Source Engine. (...) The GNN Visualization (GNNVis) system is being developed at Oregon State University College of Forestry under a US Forest Service grant. The project has taken the Valve Source game engine, and turned it into a multi-user forest data visualization and collaboration tool for forest researchers.

The Pulse!! Project, funded by Congress via the Office of Naval Research, is using an early mod of Half-Life II to showcase how its larger-scale development effort will work and to explore in-advance of its larger development system the issues needed to successfully move nurse training into a full scale 3D game-like environment.

Why do I blog this? I like this trend: re-using game stuff to support new functionalities, liike forest visualizations.

Biofeedback game: bioplay 5000

bioplay 5000 is a biofeedback game used at ETHZ, Zürich for a course taught by Steffen Walz about Serious Game Design for CAAD (Computer-Aided Architectural Design)Lead: Steffen P. Walz, Philipp Schaerer

"lightFight" is a simple game illustrating the technical possibilities using the biofeedback hardware (lightstone) in combination with the redhell. The redhell acts as the display unit giving the player a feedback on the current gamestate.

In the single player version one player connected to the lightstone competes against the computer personified by redhell. Standing at the far end of the room the player has to try to push the illuminated rows of neonlights towards the other end -applying force by raising his skinconductivity- while the redhell pushes in the opposite direction. During the course of the game the force with which the redhell pushes the light towards the player constantly increases. Once the illuminated row of neonlights has reached
the players end of the room the game is over.

With regard to the biofeedback part, the fingerclip-sensors of the Hardware (the "Lightstone" with its "Lightrings") measure heartdata and the skinconductivity; this "wearable includes the biofeedback hardware and makes it possible to move easily within the game interface".

More about this in , Serious Bioplay: A Computer Integrated Building Service Game applying Psychophysiological Input a poster at Ubicomp 2005 by Walz, Steffen P., Schoch, Odilo, Schaerer, Philipp, Gmelin, Sebastian, Bonwetsch, Tobias, Hillner, Bergit, Schmidt, Rafael Georg, Mermans, Bart, Przerwa, Jan, and Arno Schlueter.

Live Action Role Playing Games and Technology

The following paper seems to be one the first paper in the field of (live actions) role-playing games and technology to support it: How to Host a Pervasive Game Supporting Face-to-Face Interactions in Live-Action Roleplaying by Jay Schneider, Gerd Kortuem (Ubicomp 2001). The paper describes an ubiquitous computing gaming environment that supports live-action roleplaying. The point of this is to enhance liveactiongames and thave "a testing ground for our sociability enhancing mobile ad-hoc network applications".

The game they present is called Pervasive Clue, it's a "live-action roleplaying game based loosely on Hasbro's classic board game Clue augmented with short-range radio frequency (RF) PDA devices".

The goal of Pervasive Clue is to discover who killed the host, Mr. Bauer, where it was done and what was the murder weapon. Solving the murder is done through the discovery of clues, when a player feels they can solve the crime they are allowed to make an accusation. If any of the crime facts (murderer, location or weapon) are incorrect the player is eliminated.

To meet this end, each player has a Clue Finder like this (I am crazy about this device ;) ): Why do I blog this? Apart from the scenario I find interesting (we're thinking about something similar for the next episode of CatchBob!), I appreciate the research avenues at the end of the paper:

Aside from our planned exploration into the environment of pervasive games, we see the following research issues to be open and worthy of further examination:

• What features make pervasive computer games fun for the players? What are the pitfalls to avoid that detract from player enjoyment?
• How can we measure the effectiveness or effect of pervasive technology in games?
• What makes a game a "hit"? How does it vary among demographics?
• What are the characteristics of pervasive games? Can we use these

characteristics to categorize pervasive games?

• What are the core set of applications needed by all pervasive games?