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This game is a third-person action game that includes survival elements. Most survival games have general mechanics like running, using weapons, crafting items etc., but what factor distinguishes this survival game from other games? This game is trying its best to induce a sense of fear and safety to the players in different moments of the game. Correct implementation of this factor can create a real survival experience for the players. Therefore, in this game, the way the player interacts with the world and the world responds to the player's actions differs from the previous games in the same genre. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Childhood cancer is the most common cause of death by illness in children globally. Fortunately, the survival rate of this deadly disease can be as high as 80% in high-income countries with cancer treatment. However, cancer treatments can result in large symptom burdens for children and adolescents. This, and many other factors can result in treatment non-adherence in cancer patients, which will strongly affect their survival rate. Therefore, it is important for interventions to be conducted in order to make the cancer experience more bearable. This survey reviews eleven existing game-based digital health interventions including Re-Mission and Ben's Game, and lists the various aims of these interventions, such as empowerment to fight cancer and symptom management. The game mechanics of these interventions are also identified and the ways these mechanics contribute to the aims of these interventions are analyzed. Finally, limitations of existing interventions are discussed and suggestions for future works are given. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Through a collaboration between Yamakawa Seminar of Tokyo Fuji University and Kao Corporation’s ESG division, a project-based learning aimed at developing a board game that enables children aged 10-12 to learn environmental issues in a fun way and can tackle them in a short time was conducted. This was conducted as a research theme in 2019 so that college students can think more deeply about the current state of environmental issues and the methodology of awareness by participating as game developers, not as game players. As a result, using the materials from the “Kao International Children’s Environmental Painting Contest”, 12 students devised 9 plans including a game to think about solutions to social problems, a game to understand inconvenient data, and a game which guesses endangered species. In the post-study survey, the majority of the participants responded that they were able to raise their interest in environmental issues and that the lectures developed the game had been arousing their interest. From this, it was found that the learning outcomes that were initially targeted were obtained. In the future, we plan to use the games developed through this project to implement an environmental awareness workshop where children can participate as part of Kao’s next-generation environmental awareness education program. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Video games can have a variety of intended and unintended effects on players, making the impacts of games and the role that individual design elements play in causing those impacts a valuable area of research. This study explored the social and cognitive effects on players of two "art games" (Depression Quest and Actual Sunlight) by analyzing player-generated discussion board posts, focusing on (1) what real-life social and cognitive effects the games had on players and (2) what elements of the games made the players consider them "good" or "bad" games. Players reported or demonstrated that the games led to understanding and empathy, self-evaluation, lessons learned, clinical discussion of depression, encouragement to others, a sense of community, and opening dialogue with friends and family. Discussions of game quality centered on realism, game endings and message, and player agency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite an ever-increasing growth of interest in the video game industry, the significance of video gaming evaluation of perspectives still needs sufficient investigation. With the development of virtual space and video games in recent years, players are looking for quality games in terms of content and graphics. This research examines the various dimensions of video game development, obtaining player satisfaction and increasing the profit from attracting players. A descriptive and informative evaluation procedure is investigated in this research to address this issue. According to previous studies, the necessity of an accurate evaluation is demanding in the video game industry. Therefore, this research deals with a multi-directional evaluation procedure where different descriptive criteria are weighted using a novel Gray FUCOM approach. The value of the proposed novel approach is linked with uncertainty or lack of consensus, which deals with given linguistic terms of opinion significance. Perspectives about the video game industry are introduced as video game criteria for Gray-FUCOM-based evaluation of uncertain opinions. Then, it is compared with the existing crisp FUCOM to show the reliability of this evaluation. This research also clarifies the definition of gray numbers and their integration with the FUCOM optimization methodology in a new aspect. The Deviation From sub-criteria (DFC) as a performance measure (objective function) is calculated to be non-zero, as illustrated by the inconsistency of experts' uncertain opinions. Furthermore, the results show that developing video games that benefit from suitable multiplayer and rich quality and storyline regarding maps, personalization, various missions, challenging skills, and supporting regulated modes can attract many players and increase the developers' incomes. Examples of successful video games in multiple dimensions are also presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In computer science, an ontology is a way of showing the properties of a subject area and how they are related by defining a set of concepts and categories that represent the subject. There have been many attempts to create a widely accepted ontology for the universe of games. Most of these attempts are defined based on an analytical perspective: few have found frequent use outside universities, as they are not easily translated to the development of games, which is a design perspective. There are some core aspects of the domain that turn this task into a difficult goal to achieve. In addition, game designers tend to refuse a methodology or a structured way of developing a game; the main concern is that it can impair creativity in a field that could not survive without it. A defined ontology would improve and mature the growing industry of digital games, both by enhancing the understanding of the domain and by supporting a structured methodology for designing games. This paper describes the properties of digital games and shows how they make it difficult to create an ontology for that field of study, especially when it comes to a design perspective. It clarifies the closest approach to a unified ontology that there is for the game domain: the mechanics, dynamics and aesthetics framework (MDA). We propose the redefinition of MDA’s taxonomy, calling it Redefining the MDA (RMDA), providing better use for the approach from a designer’s perspective, embracing the design properties of the domain, and overcoming issues found in the literature of the game domain. The main purpose of this paper is to clarify the MDA framework by redefining its main components, mechanics, dynamics and aesthetics, as a way to make the tool more understandable and useful for game designers. Understanding aesthetics and how developers can invoke them by correctly defining mechanics and creating dynamics is the main focus of the paper. Thus, some examples are provided in order to explain the applicability of the RMDA as a methodology to produce games.

The " like " feature is popularly utilized by online social media users for different reasons including socializing, giving feedback and giving or seeking attention as well as for pure affection. The " like " function is a gamified element of social networking sites used billions of times per day. Despite its widespread use in the social media space, little is known about the different factors that influence Facebook users' " like " continuation intention or the game mechanics of " like. " To address this relevant issue, a cross-sectional survey was administered with 728 adolescent Facebook users (12–18 years old). This study utilized the theory of planned behavior to investigate the role of attitude (hedonic motivation, reciprocal benefit, and social presence), subjective norms (primary influence and secondary influence), and perceived behavioral control (self-efficacy and habit) in influencing the continuation intention of " like " as well as the influence of self-efficacy and habit on the game mechanics of " like. " This investigation addresses the urgent need to understand better the postadoption issues as well as the intentions to use specific features of social media. The results suggest that social presence, primary and secondary influence, self-efficacy, and habit significantly predicted Facebook " like " continuation intention. Furthermore, self-efficacy and habit significantly predicted the game mechanics of " like. " Different theoretical and practical implications of the study are presented and discussed in light of prior information systems literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Companies aspire to fulfil consumers' needs, wants and desires by offering products and services. Due to globalization and digitization, the world became a small village by facilitating the obtainability of products/services across the globe. Furthermore, the online purchasing via social platforms mirrors the traditional purchasing process. Gamification, game techniques and elements have been employed in the different domain for engaging and motivating consumers, students, endusers in numerous countries and cultures. Gamification is considered the appliance of game techniques and game elements in the non-game environment. It's been adjusted in different models founded as a need to explore and explain variables, phenomena and theories. Game mechanics as one of the game elements are applied in different disciplines to achieve better performance, fruitful collaboration, active and enthusiastic participation, creating enjoyable, pleasurable and entertaining environment. Aesthetics are described as the sensory part that game evoke within the player. To identify the differences within consumers who purchase via social media when game mechanics and aesthetics are applied, the chi-square test for independence has been employed. The results estimate that the association between products and services as variables is not statistically significant and the relationship between them is weak or moderated. The findings of this research are useful for private companies and other interested stakeholders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A recent innovation in employee motivation systems is the introduction of 'gamification', which refers to the use of game design mechanics and principles to influence behaviour to enhance staff motivation and engagement. Enterprise gamification systems aggravate the differences in information availability between employers and employees, and employees who may be forced to adopt such systems may be placed under stress, worsening employment relationships in the workplace. Therefore, this research examines the potential legal implications of gamified employee motivation systems. This study undertook a systematic review of enterprise gamification and then used thematic analysis coupled with a review of legislation to examine whether gamification in workplaces meets the legal obligations of employers under their 'duty of good faith' in the New Zealand context. We find that carefully designed enterprise gamification systems should provide sufficient information and clarity for employees and support positive employment relationships. Deployments of enterprise gamification systems should be carefully planned with employee consultation and feedback supporting the introduction of an enterprise gamification system. Future research should look beyond the 'good faith' obligation and examine the relationship between gamification systems and the law on personal grievances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The first meta-analysis focused on narrative video games and changes in attitudes. • Narrative video games seem to affect players' attitudes. • Playing video games leads to changes in both explicit and implicit attitudes. • Our results also reveal several moderating effects, but the evidence is fragmented. • Findings suggest that video games shape how we think about the events they depict. Video games are increasingly portraying many topics that we face in our everyday lives. Yet we have only limited evidence about the way narrative games affect how we think about the topics they depict; in other words, about the link between these games and attitude change. Therefore, we conducted a meta-analysis of video games' effect on attitudinal change. The findings suggest that narrative video games affect players' attitudes towards the topics depicted in games. This effect was present in studies focused on changes in both implicit (g = 0.36, k = 18) and explicit attitudes (g = 0.24, k = 101). Longer intervention duration and game mechanics such as stereotyping and meaningful feedback resulted in larger implicit attitude change. Regarding the robustness of the underlying evidence, half of the included studies were judged to be at high risk of bias. On the other hand, the impact of publication bias in this literature was found to be negligible. Altogether, this meta-analysis provides evidence that video games shape how we think about topics they represent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research presents results from a study developing a smartphone app, Urban CoBuilder, in which citizens can collaboratively create designs for urban environments using augmented reality technology and game mechanics. Eight prototypes were developed to refine selected design criteria, including tracking strategies, design elements, user experience and the interface with game mechanics. The prototypes were developed through an iterative design process with assessments and incremental improvements. The tracking was especially challenging and using multiple bitonal markers combined with the smartphone’s gyroscope sensor to average the user position was identified as the most suitable strategy. Still, portability and stability linked to tracking need to be improved. Design elements, here building blocks with urban functions textures, were realistic enough to be recognizable and easy to understand for the users. Future studies will focus on usability tests with larger user groups.