The Computer Games Journal 3 1 Candlemas 2014 PDF

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The Computer
Games Journal
Volume 3 Edition 1 Candlemas 2014
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The Computer Games Journal Ltd 2014
The Computer Games Journal 3(1) Candlemas 2014
Volume 3 Edition 1 Candlemas 2014: contents
Editorial
Taking The Computer Games Journal to the next level
A message from the founding editors-in-chief 3-4
Papers
Griefers versus the Griefed - what motivates them to play Massively Multiplayer Online
Role-Playing Games?
Leigh Achterbosch, Charlynn Miller, Christopher Turville, Petr Vamplew 5 - 18
Dialogue and social behaviour of agents in games

Edgar Omar Cebelledo Gutierrez, Olga de Troyer 19 - 33
'It's only a game' - ethics, empathy and identification in game morality systems
Michael Heron, Pauline Belford 34 - 52
The value of being powerful or beautiful in games - how game design affects the value of
virtual items
Ping-I (Adam) Ho 53 - 60
Using motion capture to produce learning software to aid teachers of sign language
Adam Kale 61 - 93
Game advertising: a conceptual framework and exploration of advertising prevalence

Martin Williamson Smith, Wei Sun, John Sutherland, Bobby Mackie 94 - 123
Reproduction rights owned by The Computer Games Journal Ltd 1

2014
www.computergamesjournal.com
The Computer Games Journal 3(1) Candlemas 2014
The Computer Games Journal

Editor-in-Chief
Dr John N Sutherland BSc, MSc, EdD, CEng, CISE, CISP, MBCS
Deputy Editors-in-Chief
Dr Tony Maude BSc (Hons), PhD, BD (Hons)
Dr Malcolm Sutherland BSc (Hons), PhD
Editorial Board
Prof. Alonzo Addison, University of California Dr Kenny MacAlpine, University of Abertay Dundee
Aaron Allport, formerly at Blitz Games Studios Dr Hannah Marston, Deutsche Sporthochschule, Koln
Jennifer Ash, User Research, Bungie Alex McGivern, Reality Council
Brian Baglow, Revolver PR Stephen McGlinchey, Eurocom Developments Ltd
Dawn Beasley, Mission Resourcing Ltd Simon Meek, Tern Digital
Pauline Belford, Epitaph Online Andy Miah, Creative Futures Research Council
Euan Black, University of the Highlands and Islands John Nash, formerly at Blitz Games Studios
Matt Black, formerly at Blitz Games Studios Walter Patterson, e3Net
Kim Blake, formerly at Blitz Games Studios Gary Penn, Denki Ltd
Peter Bloomfield; Vertual Ltd Eve Penford-Dennis (freelance game developer)
Prof. Paul Bourke, University of Western Australia Dr Mike Reddy, Newport University
Dr Fiona Cameron, University of Western Sydney David Renton, West College Scotland
Phil Carlisle, Namaste Prof. Skip Rizzo, University of Southern California
Dr Gianna Cassidy, Glasgow Caledonian University Derek Robertson, Learning and Teaching Scotland
Dr Prathap Chandran, Smartlearn Telcomp Scott Roberts, University of the West of Scotland
Pierre Corbeil, retired professor, Quebec Sheila Robinson, Solvebrand
Gordon Dow, PowerLunchClub Ltd Karl Royle, University of Wolverhampton
Barry Elder, Digital Minds Mario Santana, VSMM Society
Laurence Emms, Pixar Lol Scragg, Gamify Consultancy
David Farrell, Glasgow Caledonian University Matt Seeney, Gameology Consultancy
Dr Antonio Ramires Fernandes, Universidade do Minho Stuart Slater, University of Wolverhampton
Ross Forshaw, Linx Online Ltd Martin Williamson Smith, University of the West of Scotland
Bill Gallacher, Reid Kerr College Colin Smyth, Blitz Games Studios
Alan Gauld, BT Prof. Ian Smythe, Newport University
Remi Gillig, Asobo Studio Mazen Sukkar, Headstrong Games
Jullian Gold, Short Fuse Ltd Dr Allan Taylor, University of Abertay Dundee
Natalie Griffith, formerly at Blitz Games Studios David Thomson, founder of Ludometrics
Richard Hackett, formerly at Blitz Games Studios Prof. Jim Terkeurst, University of Winsconsin
Muhammad Nouman Hanif, Radius Interactive Prof. Harold Thwaites, Multimedia University Cyberjaya
Douglas Henry, former developer at Bigpoint Studios Prof. Olga de Troyer, Vrije Universiteit Brussel
Michael Heron, Robert Gordon University Chris Viggers, Blitz Games Studios
Mark Hobbs, Natural Motion Dr Krzysztof Walczak, Poznan University of Economics
Prof. Charalampos Karagiannidis, University of Thessaly Peter Walsh, Vancouver Film School
Romana Khan, Caledonian University Shaun Wilson, RMIT University
Andrzej Klimczuk, Warsaw School of Economics Chris Wright, Games Analytics
Chris van der Kuyl, Brightsolid Anne Wuebbenhorst, Digital Goldfish
Prof. Ian Marshall, Coventry University
Aims of The Computer Games Journal

The focus of The Computer Games Journal is on new and emerging technologies, market trends and
other critical issues facing the computer games industry. The journal draws particular attention to
research by undergraduate and postgraduate students, and commentary by industry professionals.
The intention is to promote and publish information, which is of direct relevance to both computer
games entrepreneurs and to students who are intent on developing a career in the industry.
Reproduction rights owned by The Computer Games Journal Ltd 2

2014
www.computergamesjournal.com
The Computer Games Journal 2(2) Lammas 2013
Editorial: taking The Computer Games Journal to the next level
A message from Dr Malcolm Sutherland (Deputy Editor-in-chief)
On 12 June 2013, Dr Tony Maude and I attended the Publishing: Evolution, Disruption and the Future
seminar at the University of Edinburgh. Shortly before arriving at the venue, I was under the
impression that this journal was ahead of the game. Until then, I thought that by running a free online
journal on a website hosted by Weebly, and by uploading papers onto Scribd.com and Issuu.com, we
were reaching a large audience and providing a good service. I had no desire to try and play ball with
the big boys (e.g. major journal publishers, Google, Reuters and other e-behemoths disseminating
digital information across vast complex networks).
When we published the third edition exactly this time last year (Candlemas 2013), two authors asked
me why we had not registered this journal onto meta-data systems and search engines such as
SCOPUS and Google Scholar. I felt a little annoyed by this question. My co-Editors-in-chief,
members of our editorial board, and authors of some excellent papers, brought this journal back from
the brink. After TuDocs Ltd closed down, John, Tony and I salvaged the journal - not least because
there were some outstanding papers in the very first edition. People believed in the journal. More
authors submitted papers. We also pushed the boundaries of academic publishing by editing and
publishing student dissertations and essays. We had (and still have) a memorable journal title with a
great URL with a decent Google ranking. I knew by then that print is dead, and that online is the
future (or rather, the present) of publishing.
My confidence in this journal - which was soaring in early June 2013 after this journal's papers on
Scribd had been 'read' 6000 times - underwent a stiff reappraisal as I took copious notes and
swiveled in my seat at the Edinburgh conference. Several speakers from open online journal
companies, magazine and newspaper firms told the audience in no uncertain terms that publishing is
an online data mining game. Meta-data tagging and citation tracking are now vital supporting beams
in the 'publish or perish' house of cards. Tom Pollard of Ubiquity Press mentioned that journal
publishing is a 'volume game', whereby the major publishing firms own and disseminate hundreds of
journal titles. As ever, academic journals rely on peer-to-peer networks and on niche audiences of
readers who demand articles covering specific subjects. Nevertheless, they also depend on rankings,
which in turn are determined by the number of times the papers in journals are cited, which relates to
how many people access the papers, as well as other factors (e.g. the personal reputation and
integrity of certain authors and their institutions). As Matt McKay of STM noted at the seminar, "It is
more about augmentation, rather than validation, of an author's work." 1, 2
When that seminar closed, my co-Editors-in-chief and I agreed it was time to call the professionals.
During the past few months, John, Tony and I have approached a few investors and established
publishers. We have drafted business plans, mulled over strategic documents, and attended
meetings in hotel lobbies and cafes. We are doing this because the layout, connectivity and
management of this journal must be improved. During the past two years, we have conducted our
operations from our livingrooms on MacBook laptops and wonky internet cables. We have pushed
MS Word, Adobe Acrobat, Bitmap, Webmail and Weebly to the limit. We have posted letters and
flyers, 'pushed out' the journal through Twitter and Facebook, sent lots of emails, and even spoken to
people using ye olde landline telephone. My co-Editors-in-chief and I have been trying our best, but
our methods are too amateur.
Copyright of the authors; reproduction rights owned by The Computer Games Journal Ltd 2014 Page 3
As many people in the games industry will appreciate, the power of a product on the internet resides
not so much on what you see, but in the tags and links hidden deep within the code. Creating another
website is like dropping a granule onto a sand dune. Between 2005 and 2013, the number of
websites (i.e. unique hostnames) increased by a factor of 10, from ~65 million to over 670 million. It
has been known for a decade that the impact factor of a journal is reliant on its 'findability' through the
use of databases, indexing and professional networks.3, 4
We have made some progress. In early February, I managed to get The Computer Games Journal
indexed in Google Scholar, and already you can find two of our papers using this search engine
(indeed, one paper has already been cited!). Back in early February, Tony and I met with two
representatives from a major content distribution company, which supports several European
journals. They jargoned at length about "document delivery solutions", "DOI allocation", "anti-
plagiarism cross-checking", "impact factors", "live reference linking", "abstracting services" and other
watch words, of features that researchers, readers and universities expect to see. Not the kind of
accessories three guys in a shed can whip up in their spare time.
In writing all this, I am not putting down our editorial board members or authors. Thanks to their
prolonged efforts, we have enjoyed the privilege of publishing six high quality editions to date. There
have been some brilliant papers, and I am pleased to report that this edition contains some more
exciting research by authors who have toiled for many months or years to produce the papers
following this editorial.
Because of this, my co-Editors-in-chief and I owe it to our scholarly community to manage this journal
more professionally and to have its papers indexed properly. The journal should be brought to the
attention of hundreds of computing departments and games companies around the world. The
process of receiving, processing and validating submissions requires the appropriate software and
protocols. The papers should be downloadable and viewable on mobile, tablet and laptop devices.
The papers should leave a bright digital trail; they should be fortified with meta-tags and hyperlinks,
and be traceable using the correct forms of analytics tools. All this requires the support of a large
publishing house with the powerful tools and software needed.
I realise that this is more of a company announcement, than a 'Thought for the Day' on a games-
related topic. To put it simply, Phase I of The Computer Games Journal is coming to an end. From
now on, it cannot, and will not, be run by three blokes in their spare time using aging laptops and
basic word processing packages. We are now in consultation with a large publishing house, and it is
likely that this journal will be taken over, and that Phase II of The Computer Games Journal will
commence in the next few months.
1. Neylon, Cameron (The Public Library of Science). Presentation at the seminar, Publishing: Evolution,
Disruption and the Future, The University of Edinburgh, 12 June 2013.
2. Pollard, Tom (Ubiquity Press). Presentation at the seminar, Publishing: Evolution, Disruption and the
Future, The University of Edinburgh, 12 June 2013.
3. Internetlivestats.com. (2014) Total number of websites. Available from:

http://www.internetlivestats.com/total-number-of-websites/ [accessed 3 April 2014]
4. Stranack, Kevin. Getting Found, Staying Found, Increasing Impact - Enhancing Readership and
Preserving Content for OJS Journals. Public Knowledge Project, 2006. Available from:
http://pkp.sfu.ca/files/GettingFoundStayngFound.pdf [accessed 3 April 2014]
Griefers versus the Griefed - what motivates them to play

Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games?
Leigh Achterbosch1, Charlynn Miller2, Christopher Turville3, Peter Vamplew 4
1 - 4: Address: Sch of Science, Information Technology and Engineering, Federation University, Ballarat, Victoria, Australia
1: e-mail: l.achterbosch@federation.edu.au
Abstract
'Griefing' is a term used to describe when a player within a multiplayer online environment intentionally disrupts
another players game experience for his or her own personal enjoyment or gain. Every day a certain
percentage of users of Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games (MMORPG) are experiencing some
form of griefing. There have been studies conducted in the past that attempted to ascertain the factors that
motivate users to play MMORPGs. A limited number of studies specifically examined the motivations of users
who perform griefing (who are also known as 'griefers'). However, those studies did not examine the motivations
of users subjected to griefing. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to examine the factors that motivate the
subjects of griefing to play MMORPGs, as well as the factors motivating the griefers.
The authors conducted an online survey with the intention to discover the motivations for playing MMORPGs
among those whom identified themselves as (i) those that perform griefing, and (ii) those who have been
subjected to griefing. A previously devised motivational model by Nick Yee that incorporated ten factors was
used to determine the respondents motivational trends. In general, players who identified themselves as
griefers were more likely to be motivated by all three 'achievement' sub-factors (advancement, game mechanics
and competition) at the detriment of all other factors. The subjects of griefing were highly motivated by
'advancement' and 'mechanics', but they ranked 'competition' significantly lower (compared to the griefers). In
addition, 'immersion' factors were rated highly by the respondents who were subjected to griefing, with a
significantly higher rating of the 'escapism' factor (compared with rankings by griefers). In comparison to the
griefers, the respondents subjected to griefing with many years experience in the genre of MMORPGs, also
placed a greater emphasis on the 'socializing' and 'relationship' factors. Overall, the griefers in this survey
considered 'achievement' to be a prime motivating factor, whereas the griefed players tended to be motivated by
all ten factors to a similar degree.
Keywords: MMO, MMOG, MMORPG, griefing, griefer, online game, victim, virtual world
Article Information
Received: July 2013

Accepted: February 2014
Available: online April 2014
Copyright of the author(s) 2014 Reproduction rights owned by The Computer Games Journal Ltd 2014
1: Introduction
The video game genre known as the Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (MMORPG)
consists of multiplayer role-playing games that are played online over the Internet in a persistent
virtual world, with hundreds or even thousands of people concurrently connected to the same server.
A persistent world is one that continues to operate (with other people enjoying what the world has to
offer), even when you log off and are not participating in it yourself. Players can log back in at any
time and continue with their avatar at the point where they previously logged off. MMORPGs generally
have quests or objectives with distinguishable goals, such as fighting enemies to gain experience,
and accessory items that help to develop the player's character (avatar).1
Every day in MMORPGs and online virtual worlds, at least some users are experiencing what is
known as griefing. This is when a player within a multiplayer online environment intentionally disrupts
another players game experience for his or her own personal enjoyment or gain. A 'griefer' is the term
given to the player that willingly causes this disruption. It was reported by the developer of the virtual
world Second Life (Linden Labs, 2003) that 6.5% of active users report abuse every month, with close
to 2000 reports every day. This is in the context of Second Lifes user base of around 800,000 users
(that had repeated logins during 2010). The Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game
(MMORPG) genre consisted of a total population of over 21 million players in 2011. MMORPG playrs
were estimated to have spent over US$12 billion in 2012 through subscriptions and in-game
transactions.2-10
Studies performed by Nick Yee and associated researchers have focused on the factors that motivate
people to play MMORPGs. More specifically, limited research has been conducted to explore the
motivations of griefers themselves. Foo and Koivisto (2004) created a taxonomy of griefer types in an
attempt to define the action of griefing, with some motivations discovered for each type of griefer. Foo
(2008) went further by defining this taxonomy as a 'grief-play' motivational model. Schell (2008)
described some mechanics of MMORPGs that griefers can find enjoyment in, while Chen et al (2009)
discovered how anonymity enables the griefer to blend in to the MMORPG community.2, 11-17
Previous studies into MMORPG players' motivations have focused on either the general populace of
MMORPGs, or they focused only on the griefer. This paper uses the motivational model devised and
refined by Yee, with the aim to identify not only the motivations for playing MMORPGs of the griefer,
but also the motivations of the players that are subjected to griefing in varying amounts and also how
their motivations differ in comparison to those of griefers. Throughout this paper, those that perform
griefing will be referred to as 'griefers', and those subjected to griefing will be referred to as 'griefed'.
This study focuses on the motivations for playing MMORPGs, rather than the motivations causing
grief.13
If developers of MMORPGs can begin to understand the motivations of the end-user in playing their
games, perhaps they can design the mechanics of their virtual game worlds to better accommodate
them. In developing Guild Wars 2 (ArenaNet, 2012), the developer ArenaNet wanted to change the
way the game mechanics of MMORPGs worked, in an effort to apply anti-griefing measures. In this,
ArenaNet eradicated common MMORPG game mechanisms that are part of popular MMORPGs such
as World of Warcraft (Blizzard Entertainment, 2004). Some game mechanics can be fun and
engaging, but they may enable griefing - for example, 'mob camping' and 'ganking': 18
Mob Camping involves a player patiently waiting in one area (camping) for certain enemies
(mobs) to appear so they can kill them for the rewards, or for their game quest. In Guild Wars 2,
ArenaNet allowed all players involved in a fight to gain the rewards, not just the player that
initiated the combat. In this way players are no longer fighting for enemies and resources.
However this system can be exploited by attacking every enemy you see engaged with another
player. As long as you meet the game mechanic conditions of about 5% damage applied, you
can gain full reward, whilst letting other players do all the work.2
Ganking involves players typically attacking weakened, defenceless or inexperienced players

for an easy kill, to the other player's detriment. ArenaNet established two separate areas that
never intersect, one for player versus player (PvP) combat and one for player versus
environment (PvE) combat (human players fighting programmed enemies), to divide these two
diverse groups. However, some people like both forms of combat, and it can be an intense and
exciting experience being attacked by another player under challenging conditions.16,19
This paper examines the motivations for playing MMORPGs among varying demographics, and their
association with griefing.
2: Research Design
2.1: The Motivational Model
Yee (2002) attempted to discover the motivational factors influencing why people play MMORPGs,
using questions that were structured from Bartles (1996) early work with a Multi-User Dungeon player
type model, and from his own previous study (in 2001) of the MMORPG EverQuest (Sony Online
Entertainment, 1999). He discovered five significant motivational factors from the data obtained:
'relationship', 'immersion', 'grief', 'achievement' and 'leadership'. In continuing this research, Yee
further refined these five significant factors: 'relationship', 'immersion', 'manipulation', 'achievement'
and 'escapism'.3,11-12,19
Yee later revised the main motivational factors previously discovered to just three: 'achievement',
'social' and 'immersion'. A motivational model was formulated from this data to discover the
motivations of the player to play MMORPGs. This three-factor model was later used to discover the
demographics and motivations of MMORPG players. The three factors broken down into ten more
manageable sub-factors are as follows: 13,14
Achievement
Advancement - the desire to gain power, progress rapidly, and accumulate in-game symbols of
wealth or status.
Mechanics - having an interest in analyzing the underlying rules and system in order to optimize
character performance.
Competition - the desire to challenge and compete with others.
Social
Socializing - having an interest in helping and chatting with other players.

Relationship - the desire to form long-term meaningful relationships with others.
Teamwork - deriving satisfaction from being part of a group effort.
Immersion
Discovery - finding and knowing things that most other players dont know about.
Role-Playing - creating a persona with a background story and interacting with other players to
create an improvised story.
Customization - having an interest in customizing the appearance of their character.
Escapism - using the online environment to avoid thinking about real life problems.
2.2: Survey Design
A survey was developed in order to gather the data needed for this research from a wide audience of
MMORPG players. In order to gather a large overarching viewpoint from a global audience, the
survey was chosen over more intensive methods such as interviews. The intent of the survey was to
discover what motivates those that initiate griefing (the griefers) (compared to those that are
subjected to griefing (the griefed)) to play MMORPGs, using the previously established motivational
model developed by Yee. 13
First, a pilot survey was produced and circulated among students of the computer game degree at the
Ballarat campus of Federation University, Australia. The pilot survey led to some restructuring and
rewording, and was used to ascertain that Yee's model was a good fit in determining the motivations
of griefers and the griefed, with regards to why they play MMORPGs.
The final survey that went live globally gave a description of the term 'griefing' as identified in this
paper. It also described the ten motivational factors so that respondents had a full understanding of
the survey terminology. This is provided in Appendix A.
The survey questioned respondents on the full subset of ten motivational factors (with definitions
provided), as well as gathering the respondents' demographics and their association to griefing. The
motivational factors were scored by respondents from 'highly motivating' to 'zero motivation'.
Association to griefing was broken down in to the amount of each - for example, performing,
witnessing, and/or being subjected to the actions of griefing - in varying degrees from 'never' to
'always'. The full survey results are provided in the Appendix B.
2.3: Survey Response
Many invitations to the survey were circulated via popular MMORPG forums, in which the invitation
remained open for two months. These attracted 1188 respondents, of which 1028 had answered all
questions and had completed the survey. These respondents were self-selected and gave consent to
use their answers upon entering the survey.
2.4: Methodology
For every motivational factor, a backwards elimination regression was conducted to identify the best
model that included any significant independent variables and their interactions. All lower order terms
were included if interaction was present. All of the demographic variables, the players' association to
griefing, and all interactions were examined against each and every one of the motivational factors in
these regression procedures.
After obtaining the best model for each motivational factor, the significant variables and interactions
were further analyzed using an analysis of variance (ANOVA) to further explain the nature of the
effects present. Significant interactions were further analyzed using single effect tests of each
category of one variable against the categories of another variable. Bonferroni corrections were used
to adjust the p-values of the additional tests performed. Variables that were significant without
interaction present were further analyzed using Tukeys post-hoc tests.
3: Results and Discussion
3.1: Demographics
Table 1 outlines the demographics of the respondents. The survey respondents gender from this
study was predominantly male (85.6%, N=1028). This value is within a few percent of results found in
other studies (e.g. Griffiths et al, 2003; Parsons, 2005; Yee and Bailenson, 2007; Williams et al,
2008). The respondents were global, with larger concentrations residing in the United States (42.8%),
the United Kingdom (9.6%), Australia (6.5%) and Canada (6.5%), with a large number aged between
22 and 30 (43.4%). The respondents were quite experienced with the MMORPG genre with the
majority of them having played them for between 5 and 10 years. The number of hours played per
week by the respondents was a little lower than some other studies (e.g. Williams et al, 2008), but this
may be because of the amount of respondents that have been subjected to griefing, with the theory
that this griefing impacts upon the hours they wish to play MMORPGs. 14, 21-23, 25
Table 1: Demographics
Gender
Gender n %
Female 148 14.4
Male 880 85.6
Age
Age range n %
16 to 17 91 8.9
18 to 21 246 23.9
22 to 30 446 43.4
31 and over 245 23.8
MMORPG Experience
Value n %
Less than 2 years 91 8.9
2 to 5 years 233 22.7
5 to 10 years 508 49.4
More than 10 years 196 19.1
Hours of Play per Week
Value n %
10 or less 407 39.6
11 to 20 267 26.0
21 to 30 194 18.9
31 and over 160 15.6
3.2: Comparing Motivational Studies
To establish that the data obtained is in line with other MMORPG studies, the mean value for each
motivational factor was tested against gender (Table 2). The results indicate that males prefer
Achievement over females (especially the desire to compete), whereas females prefer Social and
Immersion factors, particularly role-playing and escaping real life. Similar patterns were reported in a
study by Yee and William (2008) of a general MMORPG populace. 14
Table 2: means and standard deviation of motivation factors by gender
Motivation factor Male Female
Mean Standard deviation Mean Standard deviation

Achievement Advancement 3.84 1.144 3.51 1.237
Mechanics 3.76 1.159 3.36 1.207
Competition 3.42 1.347 2.83 1.440
Social Socializing 3.52 1.180 3.71 1.168
Relationship 2.65 1.296 2.84 1.344
Teamwork 3.61 1.184 3.66 1.175
Immersion Discovery 3.79 1.221 4.04 1.166
Role-playing 2.19 1.300 2.60 1.442
Customization 3.52 1.296 3.86 1.265
Escapism 3.28 1.426 3.70 1.383
3.3: Separating the Griefers from the Griefed
The survey respondents association to griefing was broken down into (i) those who performed
griefing (the griefers), and (ii) those who are subjected to griefing (the griefed). Respondents were
regarded as griefers if they reported performing griefing on 50% of their logged-in time. Griefing
becomes a regular activity for these players, as much as (or more than) the defined goals of the
game. A similar definition was used to define the griefed, as shown in the final rows of Table 3. Under
these definitions, it was observed that there was only a small percentage of a difference between
males and females who performed or were subjected to griefing. It should be noted that some players
that regularly performed griefing were also regularly subjected to griefing, and in Figure 1 this is
represented by the intersection between the two groups. For lack of any pre-defined terminology, this
paper shall refer to the third group as 'intersectors' (n=25).
Table 3: Association to Griefing
How often does it happen while you are logged in Performed griefing Subjected to griefing
to MMORPGs?
n % n %
(Irregularly) Never 305 29.7 30 2.9
Very rarely 402 39.1 283 27.5
On occasion 225 21.9 549 53.4
(Regularly) About half of the time 41 4.0 87 8.5
Most of the time 25 2.4 56 5.4
All of the time 30 2.9 23 2.2
TOTAL 96 9.3 166 16.1
Gender Male Female 12 84 8.1 9.5 20 146 13.5 16.6
Intersector
n = 141
Griefed n = 25 n = 71
n = 166 Griefer
n = 96
Figure 1: Association to Griefing
3.4: Griefers versus the Griefed - motivation
With the integrity of the data established, the primary intent of this paper may be explored. Rather
than determining the motivational factors of the general MMORPG community (as has been achieved
in some previous studies), this study identified the motivational factors in playing MMORPGs of the
previously defined groups: griefers, griefed and intersectors. This comparison was firstly separated by
gender, as outlined in Table 4. 'Competition' was the highest-rated motivational factor among players
of both genders who performed griefing. On average, griefers also rated the other two 'achievement'
category motivation factors ('mechanics' and 'competition') higher than everything else. By contrast,
those subjected to griefing regularly rated one of the 'immersion' categories as the highest motivation
in playing MMORPGs, with 'customization' (the interest of customizing your avatar) usually ranked the
highest. The two 'achievement' factors - 'advancement' and 'mechanics' - while not ranked the highest
by the griefed, were still rated quite highly on average. In light of this, it appeared that both griefers
and the griefed in this survey enjoyed advancing their character's power and virtual wealth as well as
understanding the mechanics of the game, and are motivated by these aspects to continue playing
MMORPGs.
Table 4: Means of motivation factors by gender and association to griefing
Motivation Factor Performed griefing Subjected to griefing
Female Male Both Female Male Both

(n=12) (n=84) (n=96) (n=20) (n=146) (n=166)
Achievement Advancement 3.67 3.70 3.70 3.45 3.84 3.79
Mechanics 3.50 3.71 3.69 3.30 3.86 3.80
Competition 4.42 4.25 4.27 3.05 3.39 3.35
Social Socializing 3.50 3.31 3.33 3.55 3.60 3.59
Relationship 2.92 2.44 2.50 2.90 2.86 2.86
Teamwork 3.58 3.45 3.47 3.90 3.58 3.62
Immersion Discovery 3.50 3.62 3.50 3.75 3.90 3.88
Role-playing 2.92 2.05 2.16 2.60 2.29 2.33
Customization 3.92 3.57 3.61 3.90 3.94 3.93
Escapism 3.42 2.96 3.02 4.00 3.45 3.52
NB: 1 = not a motivating factor, 5 = a highly motivating factor. Values in bold indicate highest value for that demographic.
The motivational factors in playing MMORPGs of different age groups were analyzed against griefers
and the griefed (Table 5). 'Competition' was regularly rated high among all age groups of griefers; it
was ranked the highest by griefers aged 11 and over, and slightly less so by players under 11 years
old. Griefed players (aged under 11, or over 30) valued 'immersion' categories highly, but those aged
between 11 and 20 valued 'achievement' factors highly.
Table 5: means of motivation factors by age (bold white text) and association to griefing
<11 11-20 21-30 <30 <11 11-20 21-30 >30

(n=12) (n=30) (n=39) (n=15) (n=20) (n=49) (n=63) (n=34)
Achievement Advancement 4.08 4.03 3.49 3.27 3.60 4.00 3.79 3.59
Mechanics 3.33 3.97 3.77 3.20 3.80 4.02 3.71 3.62
Competition 3.67 4.50 4.38 4.00 3.35 3.80 3.22 2.94
Social Socializing 3.67 3.47 3.36 2.73 4.00 3.73 3.40 3.50
Relationship 2.58 2.63 2.56 2.00 3.20 2.98 2.73 2.74
Teamwork 3.00 3.63 3.69 2.93 3.65 3.43 3.71 3.71
Immersion Discovery 3.75 3.70 3.67 3.13 4.15 3.71 3.78 4.15
Role-playing 2.00 2.33 2.18 1.87 2.65 2.08 2.24 2.65
Customization 3.42 3.80 3.41 3.93 3.75 3.94 3.79 4.29
Escapism 2.83 2.83 3.00 3.60 3.50 3.57 3.54 3.41
Table 6 compares the motivational factors in playing MMORPGs among players that log in and play
for different lengths of time per week in MMORPGs, versus their association to griefing. 'Competition'
was the highest-rated motivational factor among all griefers who spent different amounts of time each
week playing MMORPGs. The griefed players tended to value 'discovery' and 'customization' as the
most motivational factors, irrespective of the number of hours spent playing MMORPGs.
Table 6: means of motivation factors by hours per week (bold white text) currently playing MMORPGs
and association to griefing
<11 11-20 21-30 <30 <11 11-20 21-30 >30

(n=34) (n=21) (n=21) (n=20) (n=60) (n=40) (n=41) (n=25)
Mechanics 3.24 3.86 4.29 3.65 3.70 3.72 4.07 3.68
Competition 3.97 4.48 4.52 4.30 3.37 3.37 3.22 3.48
Relationship 2.15 2.86 2.62 2.60 2.92 2.63 3.24 2.48
Teamwork 3.26 3.81 3.43 3.50 3.58 3.47 3.90 3.48
Role-playing 2.21 2.38 1.86 2.15 2.35 2.23 2.49 2.16
Customization 3.35 3.71 3.81 3.75 3.80 3.90 4.10 4.04
Escapism 2.82 3.24 3.05 3.10 3.37 3.43 3.56 3.96
Table 7 compares the motivational factors in playing MMORPGs, between griefers and the griefed
with varying experience within the MMORPG genre (in amount of years having played MMORPGs).
Once more it was observed that griefers valued 'achievement' highly, whereas griefed players tended
to value 'immersion' highly.
Table 7: means of motivation factors by MMORPG experience in years (bold white text)
and association to griefing
<2 2-5 5-10 >10 <2 2-5 5-10 >10

(n=6) (n=19) (n=42) (n=29) (n=18) (n=41) (n=75) (n=32)
Mechanics 2.83 3.89 3.69 3.72 3.50 3.83 3.87 3.75
Competition 3.83 3.74 4.52 4.34 3.22 3.37 3.45 3.16
Relationship 2.17 2.47 2.76 2.21 2.39 2.88 2.87 3.09
Teamwork 2.67 3.68 3.52 3.41 3.22 3.63 3.63 3.81
Role-playing 2.83 1.89 2.19 2.14 2.83 2.54 2.08 2.34
Customization 3.67 3.53 3.52 3.79 3.56 4.12 3.83 4.16
Escapism 2.33 3.16 2.79 3.41 2.94 3.73 3.59 3.41
The ten motivational factors were analyzed individually to discover statistically significant differences
between the respondents' demographics and their association to griefing using the methods
described previously in this paper. The analysis confirmed that the number of hours per week that a
respondent spent on playing an MMORPG (Table 6) had no significance to the value they placed on
each motivational factor. This was also true for gender (Table 4), but it must be noted that there were
only 12 regular female griefers from a pool of 148 female respondents (8.1%, n=148), and there were
20 female griefed players (13.5%, n=148). The low number of females may have contributed to the
insignificant differences between gender, as the p value for the motivational factor 'escapism' was
almost showing a statistical significant difference (p=0.081), as was 'role-playing' (p=0.085) between
male and females. Further research with more female griefers will be needed to confirm whether or
not there are significant differences between the genders, in terms of how they value escapism and
role-playing.
In an effort to further analyse the players' rankings of 'competition', an analysis of variance and the
interaction was conducted to explore the effect of age, association to griefing and their interaction.
The interaction was significant between age and association to griefing (p=0.003), suggesting there
are differences in how highly players rank 'competition' scores, and such differences exist between
griefers and the griefed, and among different age groups. The single effect post-hoc analysis showed
that among 16 to 17 year old players, the griefers' ranking of 'competition' was significantly higher
than that by intersectors ( =3.67, s=1.723; and, =1.67, s=1.155, respectively) (p=0.040). Among 18
to 21 year olds, the 'competition' scores were higher for griefers ( =4.50, s=0.861), compared to
rankings by the griefed ( =3.80, s=1.154) (p=0.032). Among 22 to 30 year olds, the griefed ( =3.22,
s=1.507) had lower 'competition' scores compared to scores by griefers ( =4.38, s=1.091) and by
intersectors ( =4.89, s=0.333) (p=0.000).
As shown in Appendix B, there was an indication that the more often the respondent performed
griefing, the higher his or her ranking of 'competition'. Conducting an analysis of variance between
respondents confirmed this pattern (p=0.000). Overall, this indicates that competition as a
motivational factor is valued considerably higher by griefers (and intersectors) than by the griefed
(especially those griefers who performed griefing more regularly) in the 18 to 30 year old age groups.
However, there were no significant differences in the rankings of 'competition' by griefers and other
groups among the older respondents.
A significant interaction between experience (the amount of time in years respondents had spent
playing MMORPGs) and association to griefing was found for 'socializing' (p=0.026) and 'relationship'
(p=0.039), indicating that there are differences between the griefed and other groups that depends on
their amount of genre experience. The griefed ( =3.75, s=1.218) had significantly higher 'socializing'
scores than intersectors ( =2.43, s=0.976) but only if they possessed more than 10 years MMORPG
experience (p=0.024). No significant differences were found for those with less experience. Similarly,
the griefed ( =3.09, s=1.353) had significantly higher 'relationship' scores than intersectors ( =1.71,
s=0.756) but again, only if they possessed more than 10 years MMORPG experience (p=0.028).
Almost of significance (p=0.052) was the pattern suggesting that the griefed ( =3.09, s=1.353) had
higher 'relationship' scores than griefers ( =2.21, s=1.346). While no differences were found for those
with less experience, conceivably more research and a larger sample size may determine whether
this difference is real.
Within the 'immersion' category it was observed (Appendix B) that the more often respondents
expressed that they were subjected to griefing, the higher their rating of 'customization'. This was also
confirmed in an analysis of variance test (p=0.002). There are two possible hypotheses for this
outcome:
1. The more that players enjoy customizing their in-game characters, the more attached they
become, and therefore it is conceivable that they are more susceptible to griefing or more
likely to regard other players actions as griefing.24
2. The way the player customizes an avatar may be a reason for the griefer to select it as a
target of griefing.
Finally, in terms of the 'escapism' motivational factor, a statistically significant difference between
griefers and the griefed (p=0.006) was found. The single effect post-hoc analysis indicated that the
mean score for the griefed ( =3.52, s=1.404) was significantly higher than that for the griefers (
=3.02, s=1.569) (p=.019). It is possible that the griefed respondents desire for escapism from their
real life concerns renders them more vulnerable to griefing and attacks within the game.
4: Conclusion
As expected, the respondents who identified themselves as players who performed griefing, were
more likely to rate the motivational factor 'competition' higher than those who were subjected to
griefing, due to the competitive nature of the former. The more often the respondent performed
griefing, the higher his/her rating of 'competition' as a motivational factor. Similarly, the more often a
player was subjected to griefing, the higher his/her ranking of 'customization'. The griefed players'
mean rating of 'immersion' was higher than that by griefers, especially 'escapism', which was found to
be significantly higher.
A less expected outcome was similar ranking of 'advancement' and 'mechanics' by griefers and
griefed players. Therefore, it is possible that it is not just the griefers who wish to have powerful
characters and who want to know the intricacies of the game mechanics. It may be the case that in
order to 'stand a fighting chance' against the griefing disruptions to their game, griefed players aim to
accumulate power and understand how to use that power just as much as the griefers do. The
difference is that the griefers in this study valued the 'achievement' factors higher than 'social' and
'immersion' categories, showing that their focus is to advance, learn the game mechanics and
compete at the detriment of all other actions, in contrast to players who are subjected to griefing. It
was discovered that griefed players in this study valued 'socializing' and 'relationship' more highly
than the other categories. However, this was only significant for respondents who had played
MMORPGs for more than 10 years.
Overall, the griefers in this study valued the 'achievement' factors more highly than other factors,
whereas the griefed players made a more balanced valuation of the ten factors. The patterns
discussed in this paper shall be explored in future research via interviews with griefers and griefed
MMORPG players. It is hoped that the results will help MMORPG developers better understand their
players, and design more stimulating game mechanics for all involved.
Acknowledgements
Leigh Achterbosch acknowledges the assistance of Grant Meredith in creating a survey suitable for a
world-wide audience, and thanks Savin Chand for assisting with statistical calculations.
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APPENDIX A
APPENDIX B
Dialogue and social behaviour of agents in games
Edgar Omar Cebelledo Gutierrez1, Olga de Troyer2
1, 2: Dept of Computer Science, Vrije Universiteit Brussels (VUB), Pleinlaan 2, 1050 Brussels, Belgium
1: e-mail: Edgar.Omar.Cebolledo.Gutierrez@vub.ac.be 2: e-mail: Olga.DeTroyer@vub.ac.be
Abstract
As games keep evolving and improving in areas such as graphics, audio and physics, game players also expect
the games to have believable agents. Many games have been criticised by players because of repeated
dialogues; or because of the developers lack of knowledge of the game world; or because the player is unable
to avoid obstacles in the game; etc. Furthermore, games may also be unpopular when their agents do not make
mistakes, or exhibit better behaviors than real humans.
This paper describes some state-of-the-art adaptive agents, and it focuses on dialogue and social interactions.
It discusses game agents and their importance in games. It provides some history on what approaches have
been used in games. This paper explains the basis and ideas used for adaptive agents (including emotion and
personality models), and examines the approaches used by developers including Maxis (Sims 3), Valve (Left 4
Dead), The University of California (Prom Week) and StoryBricks.
Keywords: video games, dynamic, dialogue, social behaviour, emotions, personality, model
Article Information
Received: October 2013

Accepted: December 2013
All trademarks acknowledged
Copyright of the author(s) 2014 Reproduction rights owned by The Computer Games Journal Ltd 2014
1: Introduction
Agents have been used in games since the first days of gaming. Examples include the PacmanTM
ghosts that chased the player (each one with a different algorithm); and, the Mario BrosTM goombas
who only walk forward. Even some old text-based games had agents that would communicate or fight
against the player. The agents in Role Playing Games (RPG) were usually the ones with the most
complex behaviors (dialogues, interactions, movement, etc.). Nowadays, a wide range of games use
complex agents.
An agents behavior is fundamental to game immersion, and therefore there are several research
topics involved in creating a realistic agent. Such topics include animation systems, path finding,
expressing emotions and learning. However, the one we are going to focus on in this article is
dialogue and social behavior.
Dynamic dialogue refers to a system where agents communicate with each other, the player, and the
world. The dialogue is affected by the players actions, the state of the world, other agents actions,
and also by its personality and emotion. When discussing social behaviour, we refer to how agents
are not limited to interact only with the players but also amongst themselves.
Dynamic dialogue and social behavior are two important aspects of an agents behaviour. An agent
that repeats the same dialogue over and over again, or that says something which feels inconsistent
with the current game state, or that behaves in an unconventional way, breaks the immersion of the
game and can make the game feel less fun.
The purpose of this article is to review some approaches and mechanisms used in games to create
realistic dynamic dialogues and social interaction. The rest of the article is structured as follows.
1. in Section 2, we discuss briefly how dialogues have been supported by games in the past;
2. Sections 3 and 4 provide theoretical background and models that can be the basis for the
realistic behavior of agents; and,
3. Section 5 reviews a number of games that support realistic dynamic dialogues and/or social
interaction.
2: History
In the 1980s, when text-based adventure games appeared, the rules for agents were simple: the
whole game was a dialogue; and the programmers used conditionals and branches for the different
options. As games started to improve, the previously mentioned approach became obsolete, and
developers started to use dialogue trees. This enabled the player to hold a more complex
conversation with agents, and to ask different questions or talk about several topics (see Figure 1).
The first agents did not consider the game state and they would always have the same dialogues. As
more and more games were developed, special game events were considered, and flags were used
to indicate that a particular event had happened. Using these flags, the agent would pick a dialog tree
based on the flag that was set. The amount of dialog trees required was lineal. However, as story and
situations became more complex, the system with flags and dialog trees also became obsolete.
The number of game events being considered was growing, and the stories were not as lineal as
before, so several flags had to be set at the same time, and the characters had to have different
dialogs for each one of these combinations.
The numbers of dialog trees were changed from lineal to exponential (2N, where N is the number of
game events). The current state-of-the-art techniques involve creating a list of dialogues, and making
the agent decide by itself what dialogues to speak and when to say them.
In order to do this, agents must understand what the player or other agent is trying to communicate,
and must deliver a suitable dialogue.
Agents also must have different behaviors. A game which features an agent behaving unrealistically
breaks the players immersion. Having several agents all behaving the same way is also undesirable.
Just as each person is different, players expect agents to be different too.
1
Figure 1: Dialog trees allowed developers to have more complex dialogues
3: Theoretical basis
People share common behaviors, but they also have individual personalities that make them unique.
A model that tries to create believable agents must allow creating this individuality amongst the
characters, and to be able to behave as a person would. According to Evans (2011): 2
'The first requirement on any computational model of personality is that a personality be

composed of atomic units, which can be reused in a variety of different personalities.'
Having atomic units for personalities is necessary to be able to create new personalities cheaply.
Adding a new personality would only require selecting a subset of atomic units. Without atomic units,
the model would require each personality to be hardcoded manually, which could reduce the variety
of personalities.
Behaviors and dialogues must not be linked to a particular agent instead, each agent should decide
what behavior or dialogue to use. It should be easy to incorporate new behaviors, dialogues or
individual agents to the game. Since a game is usually a multidisciplinary task, it is fundamental for
other specialists like writers or designers to modify the game as easily as possible. Thus they can
focus on doing their job without requiring programmers or having to use programming code. Also,
designers must be empowered; they should have artistic freedom, instead of just creating dialogs for
situations predefined by programmers.
A stimulus is defined as something that arouses or incites to activity. Each person reacts differently
to the same stimulus, and the reaction of the individual is determined by his/her personality, emotion,
history and mood. 3
Personality
There are different personality models, and two of them are described: The OCEAN (Big Five) model;
and, Reiss Motivation Analysis model:
The Big Five factors personality model
Raymond B. Cattell examined the English words to describe personality traits, and created 171
bipolar dimensions from a set of 18000 adjectives, before classifying them in 35 groups of related
terms using clustering techniques. Cattell then reduced these groups down to 12 personality factors
using Factor Analysis. 4
Reanalyzes of Cattell correlation matrices have not confirmed the number of factors he proposed.
Digman and Takemoto-Chock (1981) concluded that the original model was incorrect. Several
researchers examined the 35 clusters. Tupes and Christal, after reanalyzing correlation matrices,
found five relatively strong and recurrent factors. These factors have been replicated in studies by
other researchers. The Big Five factors are shown in Table 1: 4,5
6
Table 1: the Big Five groups all types of personalities into five groups
Factors Low scorers High scorers
Extroversion Loner Joiner

Quiet Talkative
Passive Active
Reserved Affectionate
Agreeableness Suspicious Trusting
Critical Lenient
Ruthless Soft-hearted
Irritable Good-natured
Conscientiousness Negligent Conscientious
Lazy Hard-working
Disorganised Organised
Late Punctual
Neuroticism Calm Worried
Even-tempered Temperamental
Comfortable Self-conscious
Unemotional Emotional
Openness to Down-to-Earth Imaginative
experience Uncreative Creative
Conventional Original
Uncurious Curious
Each of these factors consists of traits. For example, Openness includes the traits creative and
curious, among others. A persons score in each factor is the average of how he/she matches the
sub-traits. A personality test for each factor consists of a series of questions, which are used to
measure if a person fits the sub-traits of that factor.
A high or low score doesnt indicate there is a score that is better than another; the score is just a
measure of personality. People tend to have middle-ranking scores for most personality traits. The
scores that are very low or high mark the traits that dominate our personality. The combination of all
five factors defines the personality of each person. The stereotype geek may possess a high score
for Conscientiousness, and a low score for Extroversion.
Some critics have argued that the Big Five factors do not include some clusters of words. Paunonen
and Jackson (2000) mentioned nine such clusters that although they may not be orthogonal, and
may contain words which in turn are related to some of the Big Five factors can be important for
understanding human behavior. These nine clusters include some elements included in motivational
analysis like manipulative (Power), honesty (Honor) and frugal (Saving). 7
Motivation Analysis
This personality approach was defined by Reiss (2001), who stated that most people are normal. He
agreed that there are some mental illnesses, but that a lot of eccentric behaviors such as being a
workaholic or a loner are not mild versions of mental illness, but instead are normal behaviors. 8
To explain such personality traits, Reiss developed a theory about 16 basic desires that drive the
human psyche. Everybody embraces all sixteen basic desires, but prioritizes them differently; this
prioritizing determines our personality and actions. The 16 basic desires are shown in Figure 2:
9
Figure 2: The value each person has in each basic desire determines his personality and actions.
The claim behind Motivation Analysis is that every person needs to fulfil each basic need. We can
think of it in terms of progress bars: each basic need bar decreases over time; and, the speed at
which it decreases is proportional to the strength of the desire.
The strength of our desires for each one of the basic 16 needs is what determines our actions and
personality. A person will always try to fill all bars, giving priority to the lowest one.
History
A person usually responds differently to the same stimulus. The response is based on how often the
stimulus is repeated. For example, when someone moves to a new town, the experience is exciting
when everything feels new, but after a while, being in a new town feels less exciting and becomes
routine.
Emotions can be intense when they are generated. However, the emotion will lose its intensity over
time, and it may or may not affect a persons mood. It is fundamental for a game agent to be able to
remember. Even if an agent has neither true emotions nor a mood model, it should remain true to its
basic needs and its values. This history can be reflected in the way of new desires, or new rules, or
maybe a traumatic event that will affect the personality of an agent.
Emotion and Mood
As with personality, there are different models for emotions. In the OCC Model there are 22 defined
emotions: joy, distress, hope, fear, satisfaction, disappointment, relief, fears (which are confirmed),
happiness (for someone), resentment, gloating, pity, pride, shame, admiration, reproach, love, hate,
gratification, remorse, gratitude and anger. 10
Ekman (1992) defined six emotions that can be expressed by the facial muscles (and 17 by counting
the ones that cant be expressed). 11
The first six include: anger, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness and surprise. The other 11 include:
amusement, contempt, contentment, embarrassment, excitement, guilt, pride in achievement, relief,
satisfaction, sensory pleasure and shame.
Velasquez (1997) also used six families of emotions as atomic units, while considering other emotions
as composition of these six basic emotions. These include: anger, fear, distress/sadness,
enjoyment/happiness, disgust and surprise. 12
Emotions are similar to personality traits as they motivate our attitudes and actions. The main
difference is that emotions are more volatile. The personality of an adult tends to be the same or very
similar during the whole life of a person, whereas emotions change several times during the day. 13
Mood is considered to be less volatile and less intense than emotions. Mood is placed somewhere
in the middle between Personality and Emotions. Emotions are usually triggered and directed to an
event or situation, while moods usually are not directed to a specific event. An event can make you
feel angry or happy about it, but as the emotion dissipates it can become a mood, that is no longer
directed to that event and is less intense. Velasquezs model differentiates between emotions and
mood in terms of levels of arousal, being emotions the one with a higher level of arousal. 12
4: Social Games
Berne (1975, 2010), after observing social activities, noted that individuals show different behaviors,
voice, vocabulary and other aspects among social interactions. He classified these behaviors into ego
states and wrote, 'An ego state may be described phenomenologically as a coherent system of
feelings.' 14, 15
Each person has a limited repertoire of ego states, and these can be classified in three categories:
Child, Adult and Parent.
The Child ego state includes all behaviors that can be associated with children (spontaneous,
stubborn, spoiled, etc.). The Adult ego state is an objective discussion of reality. The Parent ego
state includes all parental behaviors (giving advice, protecting, etc.).
According to transactional analysis, the unit of social intercourse is a transaction: when a person talks
to another person, this is called a transaction stimulus; and, the reply from the other person is called a
transactional response. A transactional response is also a transaction stimulus for a new transaction,
so these can be chained. Transactions can continue smoothly as long as the transactions are
complementary; this implies that the response is expected or socially healthy. Figure 3 shows two
types of complementary transactions: Adult-Adult; and, Child-Parent transactions. Other
complementary transactions include Child-Child, Adult-Child, Parent- Parent and Adult-Parent
transactions.
Figure 3: A complementary transaction is where the lines dont cross, so the conversation can flow.
A crossed transaction is one where the stimulus and response lines cross. The most commonly
crossed transaction is the one with an Adult-Adult stimulus but a Child-Parent response. An example
would be, I think you have gained weight (Adult-Adult), and a response such as, Youre always
telling me Im fat (Child-Parent).
When a crossed transaction occurs, the current conversation cannot continue until the vectors are
complementary, in the example mentioned before, the conversation can continue if the first person
takes a parental role, so the transaction is switched to Parent-Child, or if the second person takes an
Adult role and the transaction becomes Adult-Adult.
A more complex form of transactions are the ulterior transactions. In these transactions there are
more than two ego states occurring simultaneously. Angular transactions involve three ego states.
Duplex transactions involve four ego states.
The simplest transactions are procedures and rituals: procedures are a series of simple
complementary transactions; and, a ritual is a stereotyped socially accepted set of simple
complementary transactions. A surgical operation or driving a car is a procedure. Exchanging
greetings are an example of rituals. Both of these transactions are predictable - once they start, the
outcome can be predicted (unless something uncommon happens).
Pastimes are a series of simple complementary transactions around a single field of material, e.g.
'lady talk' (conversations about grocery, kitchen, wardrobe, etc.), the primary goal of which is to
structure time.
Games are a series of complementary ulterior transactions progressing to a well-defined outcome.

The main difference from pastimes is that in a game, there is an ulterior nature in the transactions,
and there is a payoff. Pastimes and rituals have no conflicts, whereas games are more dishonest,
since some of their transactions are just a play in the game directed toward a goal.
Berne (2010) described several social games, including the amount of participants, the role they play
(Parent, Adult or Child), the goal of the game, the ulterior motive and the advantages. 14
5: Case Study
There are different projects involving dynamic agents, well review the case of Sims 3, Left 4 Dead
and Prom Week.
Sims 3 (Electronic Arts, 2009)
Sims 3 has a model of individual personality based on traits. Each Sim character can have up to 5
traits, which are drawn from a list of 80 traits. These traits are atomic; the combination of them can
create particular behaviors, but since these traits are not orthogonal, there are traits that have
incompatibilities, and these were authored by hand. In the game, the personality traits affect
autonomous behavior in three main ways:
Each trait has a unique motive associated with it. For example, a Sims character who dislikes
children becomes irritated in the presence of children.
When a Sims character interacts with objects, its traits affect the emotional state.
When a Sims character interacts with other Sims characters, traits affect its emotional state
via if-then rules. For example:
o If my interlocutor makes a joke, then I find it amusing.

o If my interlocutor makes a joke, but I have no sense of humor, find it boring.
o If my interlocutor makes a joke, and I have no sense of humor, but we are good
friends, then I pretend to be amused.
The trait-specific clauses override the more general ones, so each Sims character responds in a
manner based on its personal traits. This system was used in Sims 3, and although the game A.I.
received good reviews, it had some flaws:
Adding a new personality was not easy. Each new Sims personality required creating a unique
motive to it, and hard-coding its interactions with objects and the effects of the objects on its
emotional state. Also, incompatibilities with other traits had to be checked.
A Sims characters actions were associated with the trait-motives that they sought to satisfy.
Many so-called bugs were events where that premise was broken. If a Sims character started
an action, but for some reason it could not satisfy the motive, then the Sim character would
repeat the same actions, falsely believing that it could succeed.
Evans (2011) proposed an improved approach, using traits as conditionals that try to correct all the
flaws on the design of The Sims AI. In this approach, a personality trait is represented by a
declarative conditional, specifying the condition under which the character has an emotional state. For
example, disliking children can be represented as: 2
If there are kids around me, I feel upset.
If I say something false, I feel ashamed.
The left side is always a state of the world, and the right side is always an emotional state.
Another change is to have a looser relation between actions and traits. In Sims 3, each action was
directly tied to a trait; on this system, actions are tied to post conditions, and those are tied to the
emotions. The traits are used to plan what action to perform, based on what would be the emotional
state after performing the action. When an action is performed, the post condition it fulfils is added to
the agents database, and the traits update the emotional state based on them.
This conditional model allows game developers to easily create personality characteristics including
the Big Five factors. For each one of the Big Five factors, the Sims 3 game included a pair of
conditionals: positive values, and negative values. With this approach, most of the issues of Sims 3
were resolved. Adding personalities or actions is easier since they are not strongly tied. Adding an
action or personality trait has no direct effect on emotions. This model is more flexible, and it is
possible to add new personality traits at the time of execution; this can help with the creation of new
traits following traumatic events. For example, after one Sim character fights another Sim character, it
becomes frightened when it sees the same character.
The Sims 3 program can detect incompatibilities on traits. If a post condition triggers two opposite
emotions, then there is an incompatibility, and the programmers no longer need to manually check
them. The advantages of this system are that it is easily expandable, and it is relatively easy to
debug, since the characters only have five traits. However, the system is not very dynamic. For
example, childrens dislikes and preferences are a binary reaction, in that they are either happy or
stressed, and do not express a wide range of responses.
Left 4 Dead (Valve, 2009)
Left 4 Dead is a frantic four-player game about surviving hordes of zombies. It is designed to be
replayed, so the player will be in the same scenario many times. Therefore it is necessary to have a
variety of dialogues so that the game does not become repetitive. Secondly, not all four players may
be alive at certain times, so the dialogue system must handle the case where there is just a subset of
players.
Contrary to Sims 3, this game doesnt focus on creating autonomous characters. Each player directly
controls an avatar (and the bots are controlled by a different AI system). The focus of the dialogue
system is to allow the characters to have dialogues based on the current surroundings and game
state without input from the player.
Having automatic dialogues makes it easier for international players: there is no need for moderated
conversations; the gameplay feels smoother since players need not spend a long time writing
messages; and this helps the feeling of immersion, as every character speaks a with its characteristic
voice, and the bots can communicate as if they were real human players.
One of the main requirements is that writers can have complete freedom on creating dialogues for all
kind of situations. Instead of programmers creating specific triggers and making writers fill a form with
the texts for those triggers, the system allows writers to generate dialogues for all kind of situations;
therefore making it simpler and easy to add new dialogues and situations.
The system uses a database of rules. Each rule consists of a list of criteria about the game state, and
there is a response for each rule. A criterion is a function that returns True if a game state is true. For
example, True could equal total lives greater than three. Figure 4 shows the general
idea of the system. When it is time to say a line, the rule that betters matches is the one which is
executed. A rule matches if all the criteria are true. If several rules match, the one that is chosen is the
one with most criteria (the most specific one).
16
Figure 4: The queries are filled with the values of the roles, and a dialog is chosen based on the result of it.
Programmers may not be the people who are going to create the rules, so it is important to have a
simple way to add new ones. A criterion requires access to all game states, and a way to compare
them (i.e. greater than, equal, lower than).
A fact is a piece of world state, a key:value pair, such as enemiesInLevel: 39. The keys are
stored on strings, and values can be numbers, strings or pointers. The game state is represented as a
pile of facts stored in a dictionary. This system makes it easier for writers to know what variables are
accessible, without having to search inside different classes. The dictionary encapsulates all the
game states and makes them accessible all in the same place. Using sub-name spaces also helps to
make it more readable. An example is shown in Figure 5:
16
Figure 5: The state of the game is stored in a dictionary which helps designers to access the information wanted.
A query is a list of facts used to select a rule. A typical list may be hundreds of items long. Creating a
query requires taking information from the function that calls it, such as: (i) the information specific to
the character involved; (ii) the memory of that character (e.g. how many times it has been shot,
number of zombies it has killed, etc.); and, (iii) the world state.
Dialogue can be expressed using rules. For example, if a player sees a zombie, the response is
zombie. If the player sees a zombie and has a powerful weapon, then the response is a zombie, but
dont worry I can handle this. As was used in the Sims 3 system, a general rule may be overwritten
by specific rules. In the Sims games, we can have a general rule, e.g.:
If a Sim makes a joke Laugh
...and have a trait that precedes it, for example:
If a Sim makes a joke but I dont like that Sim Act bored
In this system, that trait can be translated as two rules:
Sim.Action = joke, response = laugh
Sim.Action = joke and Player.dislikesSim = true,

response = act bored
If both conditions are true, the rule that has two criteria will be preferred over the rule with one
criterion.
In the Left 4 Dead game, rules can also write facts to the characters memory. For example, it can
write a timer to avoid repeating the same rule many times, or it can increase a variables value to
keep track of the number of times the rule has been applied. The response is the execution of an
action once a rule has been selected. This could include playing a sound, or playing a random sound
from a list; it can include code or calling a script. At this point, the system allows characters to speak
when a rule matches. However, in order to have dialogs, it is necessary for two or more players to call
out and reply to one other. This is accomplished by the response that can trigger other rules.
Responses can also dispatch a rule to all characters around the player. The character with the rule
that better matches the players petition is the one that will respond. This allows specific interactions
to occur between characters. When a character finishes saying a line, it can dispatch a rule to another
character or himself so it can continue speaking. A long speech is cut in little pieces, and can have
one line triggering the next one. This can be used so a player can interrupt or argue with another
character.
The reason for this mechanism is so that the rules are matched when they are dispatched. This
allows for a change in dialogue if the situation changes. For example, if the players are speaking in a
safe area and a zombie suddenly appears, then the safe dialogue rule will not match and the dialogue
will be stopped automatically. This system has the advantage of making life easier for writers and
designers to add new dialogues without requiring help from programmers. The rule and response
system allows for a wider kind of logic, so writers can even implement dialogue trees.
Prom Week (UC Santa Cruz, 2012) 17
The Sims 3 game uses a personality model that allows agents to start a conversation or other
activities autonomously based on traits. This system works well for that game, but the creators of
Prom Week aimed to create more interesting social interactions. Prom Week uses Reiss Basic
Desires for its personality model; the whole process is shown in Figure 6:
17
Figure 6: The architecture of the AI of Prom Week
The personality description uses the 16 basic desires; three traits (which are based on the basic
desires); a social game that they usually engage in; and, a goal for the scenario, which is used to give
more support to designers.
The social state consists of the current social state, and a list of previous social states. Social facts
(shown in Figure 6) are the basic units of social states, which can be a basic need fact, as in George
curiosity = 0.2 or social status facts like George = friend of Harry. The current social state includes
an array of the basic needs of each agent, and a list of changes in social status over time. The list of
past social states stores what games were played, who played them and the outcome of them (all of
which are in chronological order). This is represented on the Agent block in Figure 6. The
Personality Description has an array of the basic needs of each agent. The Emotional State has the
current social status. The past social states are stored in the Social Facts database.
The basic needs and the goals are pondered and a goal is chosen (it can be to satisfy a basic need or
the predefined goal). After this, the Intent Forming module chooses a social game that fits the
previously chosen goal; it calculates all roles in all social games, weights them, and chooses one that
is sent to the Social Game Negotiation module.
At the time of the Social Game Negotiation, the agent already has decided a social game and his
role on it, so this module fills the open positions for the game; all agents participate in every role
negotiation process. Each agent forms an intention for each open position. Then the system assigns a
role to agents based on their intentions.
Story Bricks (Namaste Entertainment, 2012) 18
Story Bricks is not a game, but an engine, designed to provide believable characters with memory,
emotions, and emerging behaviors.
Contrary to other approaches (e.g. Prom Week, where each character has a list of personality traits, a
list of behaviors, and a list of rules that connect the personality traits or needs to the behaviours),
Story Bricks tries to eliminate the rules, so it has traits connected to behaviors, and it goes even
further - it tries to use the same structure for both behaviors and traits, simplifying the process.
StoryBricks uses a multi-attribute utility system based on the Big Five personality model, and both
behaviors and traits use the same attributes and scale, so they can be compared with each other
(Figure 7). This multi-attribute utility system can also be used for objects or locations in the game,
simplifying the process of deciding what behavior to use and in what location and object, since they all
use the same system. Even though the process of choosing behaviors is simplified, it still requires a
planner and negotiation to decide which behavior to choose and what characters will be involved.
6: Conclusions
The behavior of an agent in a game has progressed, from simple conditionals and scripted dialogues,
to agents with personality and emotions. We mentioned the theory behind an agents behavior,
including two personality models and the social game theory of Berne, but there are many more
psychological approaches and theories that can be used. 14,15
Every one of the games presented has different goals and requirements for its agents, so they use
different approaches. And believability needs differ from one game to another. In Left 4 Dead, there is
neither the need nor the time to try to have deep interactions among characters.
The aim of the creators of Left 4 Dead was to easily convey the world state among the game players.
Their system can be expanded to include all kind of behaviours, and helps to immerse players (e.g.
by conveying information about gun supplies or the world state). There are other modules which may
be used to be able to make characters move and act as if they were other human players. However,
this paper mainly focused on the speech and behavior models.
18
Figure 7: The structure used by StoryBricks to store the attributes of behaviors, locations, items and personalities.
The goal behind Sims 3 was to have autonomous characters in the Sims World which can engage in
social activities, whilst the players can see their outcomes. Its designers included many routine
activities such as going to bed, shopping, cooking, etc. without focusing on any particular kind of
activities. Although the Sims 3 system does not follow a specific personality model, the OCEAN 5
model is visible.
The goal behind Prom Week was to have rich social interactions where each and every action has
repercussions. Although the agents have personalities and desires, they can only engage in social
interactions. In that sense they are not as autonomous as the Sims 3 characters, but their social
interactions (social games) are richer and focused on teenage behaviors.
The computational cost of some A.I. engines can be prohibitive, especially for games that already use
a lot of resources for other areas. Another cost associated is time; Prom Week employed more than
5000 rules, and the time needed to test and tweak such a system can be prohibitive.
Even though believability is a desired feature in games, there are degrees of believability, and each
game may, or may not, need to have believable behaviors in order to make the game more fluid or
fun. Future game developers may wish to reduce the numbers of dialogs and rules required for
agents (e.g. in StoryBricks). Developers may also be more flexible, and may create code which allows
the behaviors to be overwritten for certain moments (e.g. for cut scenes or for forcing certain
interactions); or may disable certain features to make the game more fluid.
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'It's only a game' - ethics, empathy and identification in game

morality systems
Michael Heron1, Pauline Belford2
1
Robert Gordon University, Garthlee Road, Aberdeen (UK) (post code: AB10 7GJ) e-mail: m.j.heron@rgu.ac.uk
2
Imaginary Realities, Stonehaven, Aberdeenshire (UK) (post code: AB39 2FS) e-mail: pauline@imaginary-realities.com
Abstract
In this paper the authors argue that games have not yet lived up to their potential in acting as compelling
engines for moral or ethical reflection. Despite the prevalence of moral choice systems within games, modern
titles currently lack the nuance and sophistication required to permit insight into anything meaningful regarding
moral and immoral behaviour. The role games play in shaping moral outlooks is contentious and controversial. It
is necessary to address this topic within a firm academic framework which we can use to understand the limits
game developers have with regards to building emotionally resonant and morally complex games. To this end,
the authors have reviewed the literature on the topics of morality and ethics in computer games with the
intention of outlining this framework.
While the narrative structure of games may offer opportunities for empathy and identification with player
characters, the ludic requirements of balance serve to instantiate limits on both player agency and the viable set
of actions. Within the context of games with a significant ethical component, these serve as the ideological limits
within which moral context is bounded. Existing moral systems within games tend to adopt a perspective that is
both binary and utilitarian, and the lack of real consequences for a player's choice imposes a shallowness on
subsequent reflection. We discuss how this problem has been addressed to date within modern video games
and evaluate the success of such endeavours.
For games to truly meet their potential in this regard, it is necessary for them to offer something that is not
present in other forms of literature. The nature of interactivity here offers some promise that players being made
to enact rather than simply observe a choice will spur deeper consideration of the implications. This is
predicated, however, on a sufficient level of player ownership of the actions a character takes. Current research
on this topic is conflicted, and in the conclusion of the paper the authors outline a research agenda aimed at
addressing this issue.
Keywords: Ethics, morality, video games, identification, empathy, learning.
Article Information
Received: September 2013

Accepted: November 2013
Copyright of the authors 2014 Reproduction rights owned by The Computer Games Journal Ltd 2014
1: Introduction
Playing games is common to many species. The young of many animal species play games. These
games exist to teach specific skills, inculcate values and social hierarchies and provide an outlet for
pent-up energy. In order to accomplish these goals, it is necessary for games to engage on an
emotional level. Within the human species, we play games partially as tools for learning, but partially
for their entertainment value part of that value though is in their ability to trigger an emotional
payload, that is to say a reward that is aimed at the emotional centres of the brain. We experience
this payload on several levels, but two of the levels most relevant to this paper are those of the ludic
and the narrative. Emotions triggered by the ludic elements of a game mostly focus on
accomplishment: the thrill of victory, goal attainment and the consequences of failing to achieve game
objectives. Emotions triggered by the narrative elements are those most familiar to other forms of
recreational entertainment such as movies, books, theatre and poetry. That games are capable of
engaging on both of these levels is uncontroversial, but there is a paucity of genuinely engaging
narrative content in games. This means that there are relatively few examples of truly resonant
narrative emotional payload. The nature of emotional engagement is different for every player, and
every player will experience both ludic and narrative elements to a greater or lesser extent. 1-3
However, the general rule holds games in general are better at triggering ludic emotional responses
than they are at triggering deeper narrative engagement, and it is the latter that seems most important
in facilitating epiphanies on the nature of moral decision making in real life. In this paper we conduct
a review of the literature regarding moral decisions in gameplay, and propose a research agenda that
is driven by the need to address current gaps in the academic record. Within this paper we use the
term ethics to refer to codified structures of moral guidance which in some circumstances may be
externally imposed; and morality to refer to an individuals personal sense of right and wrong. Thus,
we acknowledge the possibility that moral behaviour is not necessary ethical and ethical behaviour is
not necessarily moral.
2: Emotion in gameplay
There are many examples of games which do manage to combine ludic elements and narrative
elements into a coherent whole, but those games that stress the latter rarely manage to stress the
former. One example of the dichotomy can be seen in Quantic Dreams (2010) title Heavy Rain. The
gameplay progresses very slowly, with an emphasis on the trivial. Player interaction is largely limited
to going to a certain part of a mundane environment and pressing a particular combination of controls
as they are presented on the screen. There is little sense of ludic payload upon accomplishing such
game tasks. As the game progresses though it evolves into an emotionally compelling story touching
on themes of loss, regret, guilt and redemption. The cost of sacrificing the ludic element is a sense of
distancing between the player and the character. The experience can be more akin to watching a
movie than it is to playing a game. A title which adopts a similar gameplay mechanism is that of
Telltale Games (2012) episodic title, The Walking Dead. Within this game, a point is made of showing
the persistence of decisions that you make and conversational options that you choose. In real terms
the impact of this decision making is limited, but there is a tangible feeling of weight upon making
choices. The consequence of the persistence of conversation is to create a compelling emotional
setup for the final episodes conclusion. Other games manage to marry the two elements more
successfully. One example of a series that accomplishes this is Mass Effect (Bioware, 2008). The
sweeping story from beginning to end is coupled with highly interactive, skill based game mechanics
and a significant amount of player impact on the eventual outcome of the narrative. The sense of
accomplishment on a ludic level is comparable to the emotional payload of the narrative level. 4,5
Emotional involvement is a bedrock of effective gameplay, but it is the narrative emotional payload
that is most important in building a sense of empathy with the agents within a game world. Those
games that offer a significant emotional connection with these agents are those that are best placed
to act as a mirror on real life human relationships. If we have an emotional response to game agents,
we can create an empathic bond between our characters and the agent. However, there is question
mark over whether or not it is possible to create a similar bond between ourselves and what Bayliss
(2007) termed our locus of manipulation. 2, 6-8
There is much that is novel about gameplay as an activity, and as tools for teaching and engaging
games are unparalleled. However, if games are to serve as a truly effective mechanism for teaching
moral decision making, which is a role that games have increasingly taken upon themselves, then we
need to address some important questions. For how long does empathy persist in the real world, and
what weight does it have upon our real world decision making? If a game is to offer a vehicle for this,
then what does it offer beyond what other forms of entertainment have been able to accomplish for
centuries? Whenever ludic control is wrestled from us through a mechanism such as a cut-scene or
expository text, we lose the ability to imprint our own sense of self onto the story, and this in turn can
trigger a sense of cognitive dissonance when a character behaves at odds with how we have mentally
characterised them. The result is that the game becomes largely a complicated container for a series
of short movies. If we are passively experiencing a largely linear story, such as in Heavy Rain, why
should we feel responsible for the actions that the character takes in our name? 1, 9-11
This is an issue that isnt entirely linked to the way in which a game balances ludic and narrative
elements. Its also an issue of identity, empowerment and actualization within a game world. Some
games permit you to create an entirely personalised character, with a name, appearance, background
and skillset entirely chosen by you. Others permit you only to inhabit the mind of an already existing
character you might be able to steer and influence this character, but they will act without your
explicit instruction where necessary. Commander Shepherd in Mass Effect is a good example of this
kind of character. We may have some control over how Shepherd engages with others in
conversation as an example, but the exact words, phrasing and intonation are decided for us. We
may choose to be aggressive or conciliatory, but the exact form this takes is beyond our ability to
influence. This is an important aspect in the design of moral systems within games, because if we
feel no ownership of a character then it follows that we will feel no ownership for the consequences of
their activities.
3: Definition of immersion and engagement
To address these issues, we must first discuss the ways in which a game can provide narrative
emotional resonance. Two important concepts here are those of immersion and engagement although
the terms overlap significantly within the literature and will be used largely interchangeably within this
paper. In many ways immersion and engagement are mediated through two key traits the
believability and quality of NPC interactions, and the verisimilitude of the players interactions with the
underlying game world. 12
Immersion relates to the degree with which we lose the sense of ourselves as being distanced from
the game world. We become less aware of our physical presence and begin to experience reality as if
from the perspective of our locus of manipulation. While many researchers have stressed the
importance of graphical fidelity and first person perspective in building immersion (e.g. Jorgenssen,
2010), others such as Lankowski (2007) offered compelling counter-examples of engaging and
immersive games that have no emphasis on a first person viewport. In a previous paper, we
highlighted the immersive power of the written word text adventures such as those of Infocom would
have been much less compelling or immersive if graphical fidelity were a perquisite. 2,7,8,12,13
Bayliss (2007) defined immersion in three categories: 8
'playing through' - in which the character is a merely prop or tool for the player;
'playing as' - in which the player identifies as the locus of manipulation and focuses on the
characterisation and narrative of a game experience; and,
'playing with' - with focuses on games as ludic artefacts bound up in thematic trappings.
Each of these categories represents a certain level of immersion, and each comes with its own
expectations for the degree to which a player will lose themselves in the game. Other systems of
differentiating levels of engagement exist, e.g. Adams (2004) separation of immersion into elements
that are tactical, relating to skill; strategic, relating to mental challenge; and narrative, relating to story
elements. 14
Brown and Cairns (2004) created the following hierarchy: 15
Engagement - the lowest level in which the mechanics of play, such as the controls, are the key
focus;
Engrossment - at which point emotional involvement is possible; and,
Total Immersion - in which one begins to disassociate with our physical presence.
Lankowski (2007) defined goal-related and empathic engagement the former is ludic; whilst the
latter is narrative: 2
'Goal-related engagement is fundamentally an "I" experience; it is about the players acting

to reach their goals. Empathic engagement on the other hand is essentially about reacting
to the characters actions.'
There is considerable agreement within these and other definitional schemes, but the key lesson is
that there are differing levels of immersion and engagement. By their very nature not all of these will
lend themselves to the kind of moral instruction that games aspire to with their growing emphasis on
moral choice systems. A certain amount of immersion is required for a player to identify with their
locus of manipulation, but that immersion must also be of the right kind to be able to engender
empathy through emotional resonance.
The players engagement with the game world is one element of immersion, but the autonomous
agents within that world, often referred to as Non-Player Characters or NPCs, are a large part in
building an empathic web of relationships. We must care about NPCs in order to care about what
happens to them. Games such as Command and Conquer (Westwood Studios, 1995) invest no effort
into characterisation of units they are interchangeable, easily replaceable and lacking in personality.
When they die, we have no sense of loss other than at a ludic or tactical level. Their importance to
us as a player is in the role they provide. We see a similar lack of concern for favour NPCs in games
such as Left 4 Dead (Valve, 2009). The rare NPC survivor character is most often seen as a source
of med-kits rather than as a fellow victim of the apocalypse. 7, 16
On the other hand, games such as Fallout 3 (Bethesda Softworks, 2008) have NPCs that can be
killed to give access to their shop contents, but these NPCs are not lacking in personality. We may
feel no remorse at killing them, but the possibility exists for us to create an empathic relationship. The
more interactions we have with an NPC and the more involved those interactions are, the more of a
relationship we build. This is not always a thing that will protect an NPC within Fallout 3 for
example, familiarity with the NPC known as Moira has often caused players to kill her out of sheer
irritation. Not all players will care about all NPCs, and perhaps a majority will never care about any.
But there are compelling examples of NPCs that have deeply affected people who played their
games. Clementine in The Walking Dead (Tell Tale Games, 2012); Floyd in Infocoms (1983)
Planetfall; and Bill from Left 4 Dead have all had much forum and blog-based content written about
their eventual fates. Other extreme examples exist, such as one cited by Kavil (2012) in which a male
gamer marries an in-game NPC because he fell in love with her character. 17
The last aspect of a game that must be discussed is that of verisimilitude. This is the degree to which
a game world is consistent, knowable, and with sufficient opportunities to suspend disbelief. It is not
important that a game be realistic, it is simply that it must be realistic enough for us to construct
reliable mental models as to how the game mechanics can be manipulated. A game does not require
photo realism but it does require social realism. Grimshaw et al (2011) argued that it is not
authenticity, but verisimilitude that is required for immersion to be possible. The degree to which a
game world conforms to this determines the ease with which we can retain immersion. Verisimilitude
does not immerse by itself, but it removes the barriers to staying immersed. Anything can jar us out of
a state of immersion an anachronistic phrase, an unbelievable outcome from an action, or an
inconsistent game mechanic. We have more reasons to reinstate our disbelief than we do to suspend
it for the long term. 12, 18
Thus, if a game is to make us feel the consequence of actions, we must become immersed into the
game world. If our characters are simply props, or tools, then we cannot invest them with the
necessary perceived agency to feel their actions have weight. Immersion then is likely to be a pre-
requisite of a game which has meaningful moral instruction built into its game mechanics. We can
appreciate such mechanics on a ludic level, but on a narrative level we must care. If we dont care
about an NPC, then we dont care that our actions may have caused it to come to harm.
4: Self representation versus characterization
While the verisimilitude and believability of game worlds has an important role in facilitating
immersion, the role of the player character is also tremendously important. Broadly speaking, player
characters fall within a spectrum between those that are fully characterised by the game developer,
such as Lara Croft, or Spec Ops: The Lines Martin Walker (2K Games, 2012) and those that are fully
characterised by the player, such as in Fallout 3 or most MMOs. Some games permit a blending, such
as in Mass Effect (Electronic Arts, 2010-2012) where the character of Shepherd is fixed but the player
can alter certain representational and ludic aspects such as appearance, outfit, and skillset. 19
Pohl (2008) differentiated the first class of player characters as being either flat or round. Flat
characters are those lacking in any significant characterisation, existing as a kind of empty shell upon
which the player can imprint their personality. Much like in the television series Dollhouse (Mutant
Enemy Productions), their role in activities is defined by utility if the player needs a powerful warrior
character, the generic flat avatar can fill that role without requiring much in the way of personality. The
player then fills the void with their own characterisation. Pohl (2008) argued that flat characters
present the greatest opportunity for players to identify with their avatars since they are the ones
responsible for giving them depth. Gordon Freeman is perhaps the best example of such a character.
While his look and occupation are fixed, he is intentionally mute so the player can envision a
particular style of interaction with the NPCs within a game. The movie Chaplin (1992) expressed this
idea through the medium of the talkies: 20
The Tramp cant talk the minute he talks, hes dead.
Round characters on the other hand are those that are well characterised in advance, such as Kate
Walker from the game Syberia (The Adventure Company, 2002). Round characters have
personalities, histories, and firmly defined characteristics. The player does not create their
personality, but they do inhabit that characters psyche for as long as the game is being played.
Players must conform to the perspective of the round character. This raises the question can you
truly conform to the perspective of a round character if you do not empathise with the character? This
is perhaps best expressed in the game Spec Ops: The Line, where the main character descends into
madness and anarchy while we as players become increasingly uncomfortable with the role we play
in facilitating his madness. Lankowski (2011) argued that 'characters facilitate empathic engagement
through recognition, alignment and allegiance'. 2, 20, 21
Allegiance defines the degree to which a character inspires the qualities of sympathy or antipathy in
those who may be controlling them. A flat character will not act against its controllers desires. A
round character will often interact with the game world in ways that we may not necessarily agree with
even if we are ostensibly the ones in control. You can play a character even if you dont approve of
their actions, but moral instruction in this regard requires a certain element of collusion you must
accept that you have at least some role in the outcome of the actions within the game. Frasca (2001)
stated, 'The more freedom the player is given, the less personality the character will have.' 22
The inversion of this is that the less freedom the player is given, the more personality the character
will have, and thus the less responsibility the player will feel as a result of character actions.
Characterisation then is a tension between ludic conventions and narrative pragmatism.
The perspective with which we view a game also has a role in setting up our empathic engagement
with the character. Games which are primarily first person perspective offer few layers of abstraction
between the players perspective and that of the avatar, and it has been argued that this creates the
ideal conditions for player immersion. Other perspectives, such as the third person or the more
unusual second person, obscure our connection with the character through the visual presence of the
interface. We are not looking through a characters eyes, we are looking over their shoulder and this
in turn creates psychological distance. 7, 12
Control schemes in turn also make a difference in how we are presented with our interaction
opportunities. The abstract cursor of Command and Conquer presents a relatively clean
disassociation between ourselves and the units we are controlling. We have no presence within the
game; we exist only as a set of detached tactical instructions delivered through a computer interface.
In later versions even when there are narrative cut-scenes they are delivered to camera and never to
a representation of the commander.
Jorgensen (2009) reported that within Diablo 2 (Blizzard Entertainment, 2000), players felt distanced
from their player character because of the presence of the interface as a disembodied hand:
'Respondents compare playing Diablo 2 to puppet theatre.' This is further underlined by the
perspective of the game which is top down and isometric the player never directly inhabits the
viewpoint of the character, they are instructing it from on high. 7
However, these views are not unchallenged others have argued that there is no impact of
perspective or interface in immersion and that the level of characterisation is what defines
engagement. Grimshaw et al (2011) argued that the most effective way to build immersion is through
the vehicle of empathy. It is clear though that immersion plays a part in building an empathic
relationship with the character, and in turn with the NPCs and game agents with which the character
interacts. This would seem like a foundational element of feeling ethical and moral responsibility for
the outcomes that occur within a game. We must collude with the actions in order to be complicit in
their consequences. If games are to teach moral decision making it is necessary for us to feel like our
decisions have actual weight upon us as individuals. That is mediated through our relationship with
our characters. 8, 12
5: Character ownership and identification
All of this serves as a theoretical discussion of the games academic literature on the topic of
emotional engagement and immersion. In this paper we argue that immersion and engagement are
pre-requisites for individuals being truly influenced by computer games on anything more than the
shallowest of levels. The fact that games can trigger chemical reactions in the mind and body is
uncontroversial, but for games to truly influence they must extend their influence beyond the
temporary. For this then, we require three elements to cohere together in an environment in which a
player is fully immersed and feels a genuine empathic relationship with the character and the world in
which the character resides:
Ownership of actions
Firstly, one must be willing to accept an ownership of actions. Games offer a potential layer of
perceived interactivity that could, in theory, offer something beyond what more reactive forms of
entertainment offer. We may identify with the moral decisions of Oskar Schindler in the movie bearing
his surname, but we have no sense of ownership for his actions. He is Schindler, and we are the
viewers. However, the interactivity of a video game alters this dynamic considerably. A player
character within the interactive elements of a video game does nothing unless we instruct it. We are
the reason why things in a game happen. However, the interactivity in a game is limited by that which
is presented by the developer. With this in mind, can we expect players to feel ownership of actions
when their options are so limited by technical and ludic requirements?
Smahel et al (2008) conducted a survey and found that 68.7% of players agreed with the statement
that they sometimes feel proud of their avatars, and 14.5% believe both me and my avatar are the
same. This is in relation to MMORPGs where considerable investment of time is expected to make
any kind of progress, and these figures may not be transferable to single player games. It is in the
realm of the single player game, however, that the ludic convention of the moral choice system is
most common. Within MMORPGs, the social context offers its own framework for assessing,
rewarding and judging ethical behaviour in players. However, these statistics do imply that, certainly
within the group discussed by Smahel et al (2008), there is evidence to suggest that players feel a
certain kind of ownership over the rewards that their characters accumulate. 23
Reward and punishment
The second pre-requisite for influence to persist must surely be the sense that rewards, and
correspondingly punishments, have been earned. Without the expectation that what happens to a
character is a direct consequence of player actions, then the traditional reinforcement mechanisms of
human psychology lack their usual force of impact. If our rewards are arbitrary, or worse, guaranteed
then there is no peril or uncertainty that we can learn from. Everyone gets a biscuit or sometimes
you get a biscuit regardless of what you do. In such cases, why should anyone try to strive for a
biscuit, or read anything into the fact that they have been given one?
Impact of decisions
Finally, the impact of decisions is important. Games are very good at creating an illusion of choice
within Fahrenheit (Quantic Dream, 2005) choices feel meaningful and the time-pressures within which
a player can work create a sense of urgency in how the decisions are to be made. However, upon a
second playing through of most branching games, it is revealed to be a magic trick you were going
to end up in the same place regardless of what decisions you made, the only difference is in how
certain decisions flavour that outcome. This is of course down to the pragmatics of game
development. As is evidenced in the stats available for Valves Steam service, most players never
complete a game, and many never make it more than half the way through. There are hugely
diminishing returns on investing significant amounts of game development time on genuinely narrative
re-playability. Some educational games (such as Quandary by Learning Games Network (2012))
offer an engine for exploring issues of ethics and morality. However, these are aimed at offering tools
for exploring moral consequences rather than having to make a largely uninformed, intuitive decision
and live with the consequences. It is often very clear what the correct decision is although it may be
necessary to select from a pool of equally plausible possible courses of action. 6, 20
However, in order for our decisions to influence us in the real world, they must feel meaningful. An
example of this is the game One Chance (created by Dean Moynihan in 2011) in which players are
permitted one single attempt at the story. Further attempts, unless one cheats, are not permitted
you either win the first time, or you lose forever. Such finality in game outcome is perhaps only
feasible in freeware indie games where a commercial market is not necessary. We need to feel that
the decision we made was one that had to be made, and one that we had to make. Within the current
conventions of video games, this is hard to justify from a development standpoint content is costly to
develop. For a decision to have weight, it must open up some options and close off, ideally
permanently, others. There are very few games that can offer this, and as such it is difficult to see
how decision making within a game can carry real emotional weight beyond it. In a later section of this
paper, we will discuss the game Spec Ops: The Line (2K Games, 2012), which offers a framework by
which real moral decision making can extend outside of the ludic conventions of the genre. However,
the implications of these kinds of moral decisions require a certain level of nuance in interpretation on
the part of player. In many ways, they expect more of the ethical antennae of players than can
reasonably be expected. Many will miss the nuance, either as a result of an unsophisticated view of
morality and decisions within games, or as a consequence of the magic circle within which much
game-playing occurs.
6: Moral Systems
Many games have take the route of building some measure of moral representation within their
mechanics. Perhaps the first mainstream game to offer a formal role for morality was Origin System's
Ultima 4 (Origin Systems, 1985). There are more obscure games such as Alter Ego (Activision, 1986)
that incorporated moral decision making more deeply into the narrative, but Ultima 4 is significant for
the importance morality was afforded as a core gameplay feature. Ultima 4 was in many ways entirely
bound up in its morality system, and the game could not be completed without the player buying into
this.
Morality systems within games however seem to have taken several steps backwards in terms of the
sophistication and depth of the morality presented. Significant modern examples of games
incorporating moral systems include the Knights of the Old Republic (LucasArts) 2003 series, Fallout
3 and Fallout: New Vegas (2010), and the various incarnations of the Mass Effect (EA, 2007-2012)
franchise. The vast majority of these games attempt to represent the complex nuance of moral
decision making within a binary system of 'right' or 'wrong. Within Knights of the Old Republic, your
choice is between the light side and the dark side of the force. Within Fallout, it's a straightforward
Karmic 'good' versus 'evil' axis. Within Mass Effect, it becomes 'renegade' versus 'paragon', although
the system is a little more sophisticated in that you can accumulate points in both 'alignments'
simultaneously. While in Mass Effect there is no implicit or explicit value judgement being made with
the naming of the axes, it still represents the same basic system choices are between, for the most
part, three courses of action one 'good', one 'evil', and one 'neutral. More experimental games such
as Papers Please (by Lucas Pope, 2013) offer a more sophisticated representation of moral choices
as an accumulation of small, rapidly made decisions within a reward structure. 7
While a full discussion of the subtleties of various moral frameworks is beyond the scope of this
paper, it is worth taking a little time to discuss some of the more significant schools of thought so as to
frame the rest of the discussion. Aristotle stressed 'practical ethics', where ethical knowledge must be
tempered with life experience it is not enough to know virtue, one must also be virtuous. Sicart
(2009) noted the possible role of video games in permitting ethical scenarios to be encountered in a
'safe' environment. Schulzke (2009) wrote, 'Aristotle avoided giving definitive rules for moral conduct
as there are in utilitarian and Kantian ethics and instead argued that moral behavior is learned
through practice.' 10, 11
Kantian morality on the other hand 'focuses on the will behind the action, and ignores circumstances'.
For such a framework to make sense within the context of game design, it would be necessary for the
game to be able to reach behind the limited set of player input and extract the intention behind that
input. Until such things are possible, and let us hope such a day never comes, Kantian morality is a
difficult thing to situate within video games directly. 24
Other significant schools of moral thought exist, such as duty-based morality, right-based morality and
contract based morality. However, these systems of moral philosophy are rarely well represented in
the choices players make within games although they may be aspects of the larger narrative arcs
within which players function. 25-27
Being unable to assess intentionality within a game restricts the developer to a more simple moral
framework that of utilitarianism (as outlined by Bentham (2009)) where an action is assessed by its
outcome rather than by its intention. While these systems offer a tractable and understandable
mechanic, they lack much in the way of discriminatory power to select between genuine moral
quandaries. Stealing, murder and lying are coded as 'negative' actions. Charity, healing and allowing
those that flee to live are considered 'positive' actions. 28
Within gameplay, this creates significant incongruity where actions which are at best indiscriminate
and at worst intentionally immoral are rewarded with positive morality. The act of murder within such
games is often rewarded positively if the target is one which the game has deemed to be 'bad'. Within
Fallout: New Vegas for example are a group of persistently aggressive tribal warriors known as the
'fiends'. Regardless of your motivation as a player, killing a fiend earns you positive karma. This may
be consistent with the simplest kinds of interpretation normally ascribed to utilitarian morality, but
cannot possibly hope to capture the nuance of a more sophisticated, Kantian view of ethics. Binary
moral systems within games are hugely reductive and lack any possibility of truly representing the
difficult moral decisions that offer the most compelling instructional opportunities.
However, if binary morality lacks the ability to articulate nuance, and intentionality is impossible to
assess, what can we do? Perhaps some of the answer lies in an extension of systems such as those
of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (AD&D) (Tactical Studies Rules, Inc., 1997), where morality, or
alignment, is represented in multiple axes. The AD&D system stresses two axes - good/evil and
lawful/chaos, which gives a total of nine broad dispositions. This permits significantly more
expressiveness than the three possibilities (good, neutral, evil) permitted by binary systems. However,
while the AD&D system offers more representational fidelity its earlier incarnations had it as a choice
you made at character creation it became a restriction within which you functioned rather than a
reactive lens through which to evaluate your actions. For Epitaph Online (Heron, 2013), the alignment
system makes use of four axes, drawing partially from the work of Haidt and Graham (2007), which
permits a very large amount of discrimination. Such systems allow for much finer-grained
representation of moral activities without applying particular judgement to where one is positioned
within the various axes. They are easily developed, easily controlled and can be queried in as many
axes as is necessary to give a multi-faceted algorithmic representation of a player's actions within the
game. 13, 29
The simplicity of the choices presented within games and the paucity of nuance with regards to
interpreting player actions are only one element of why games currently offer little genuine opportunity
for compelling engagement with issues of morality. For a moral choice to have real meaning, it must
come with some kind of significant cost anyone can be moral when there is no associated cost.
Ludic conventions, however, view morality systems within games largely as a mechanism for ensuring
re-playability and key to this is that morality paths cannot be significantly unbalanced with regards to
player progression.
One can easily imagine a moral choice whereby the cost of doing the right thing is to end the game
prematurely, but it is hard to simultaneously envisage that being considered 'good game design'. True
morality often comes at personal cost either in terms of opportunity costs (such as refusing to take
advantage of a competitor's weakness), monetary cost (such as charitable donations), or costs in time
(such as volunteering). At best, moral systems in most games will provide a minor punishment for
certain kinds of behaviour, or smooth peaks and troughs between the two. Being evil might maximise
benefit in one choice while being good maximises the benefit in another. In this way, both moral paths
receive the same rewards by the end of the game.
However, to follow this path of game design is to ignore the reality that morality can be, and often is,
asymmetrical. A true moral system would offer a player few, if any, rewards for following socially
accepted mores and, in many cases, the largest rewards for violating them. Indeed, such a system
would often offer no rewards, even including simple acknowledgement, for 'doing the right thing'. Such
a framework is not 'balanced' from a game design perspective certain paths through the game
would offer hugely disproportionate rewards. However, if we want games to live up to their
possibilities as engines for teaching important lessons, we must address the fact that the goals of
good game design are not necessarily compatible with reflecting the reality of ethical decision making.
There are some exceptions to the general rule here, the most significant recent example being Spec
Ops: The Line. While taking on the form of a relatively generic tactical shooter, the game builds
lessons of moral instruction throughout as the brutality of the story progresses. Your characters start
off being clean-cut, relatively heroic American soldiers looking to rescue survivors from a ruined
Dubai. By the end of the game they have been massacring fellow soldiers, enemy insurgents and
civilians largely indiscriminately. Within the context of the game itself, the progression is subtle and
unless you are watching your own actions carefully you may not realise how things have escalated
beyond the point of sanity.
Much has been written of the clever moral lessons woven through Spec Ops (a full length critical
reading of the game was written by Keogh in 2013). One of the key elements that makes it so
revolutionary is the way that it explicitly frames the player's options to include 'you have the choice to
stop this horrible scenario by simply not playing'. Within Spec Ops, a conscious decision is made in
the game design to present the player with this option. It is an option with a real cost (you don't get to
play the game anymore) and no formal acknowledgement of the performing of a moral action. The
choice to stop playing is in fact the only real moral choice you have in the game. While some have
dismissed this as a cop out , it is hard to deny that there is a genuine element of significant moral
instruction in this approach. To do the right thing, you must sacrifice. 21
Within the ludic structure of a game, the designer and the developers are the ultimate arbitrators of
what is and is not possible. It is not just the narrative structure of a game that lends itself to moral
instruction, it is the game mechanics themselves. By subtly framing what may and may not be done,
those responsible for constructing a game are also responsible for creating the ideological parameters
between which moral lessons can be contextualised. 11, 30, 31
Within Fallout: New Vegas, it is possible to kill every NPC in the game, including significant quest
givers. However, it is not possible to kill or harm the children that you may encounter. This enforces a
morality upon the player regardless of the choices that he or she might make. It leads to the ultimately
cruel scenario whereby one might kill every responsible adult in a settlement surrounded by violent
tribes and dangerous creatures and leave the children to fend for themselves.
That such a scenario is possible is only as a result of consciously designed game mechanics. We are
not permitted the moral choice of killing children or not that decision is taken out of our hands. This
in turn removes much of the nuance that might otherwise be associated with moral decision making
within the game. There is no weight to leaving the children alive in Fallout: New Vegas in the same
way there would be if, within a game an active choice was made to do no harm. In no way are we
suggesting that the developers should have permitted infanticide as a game option. We are simply
pointing out that an ideological boundary was constructed which limits the agency of the player to
engage in decision making.
It is inevitable that any game will have to place significant limits on the freedom one might have to
engage within the game world. However necessary or justifiable as they may be, they remain limits
and these limits frustrate our ability to engage in genuine self-reflection of our actions. As Sicart
(2005) wrote:
'The way an ergodic artifact is coded, its "material ergodicity", implies ethical values that
are imprinted in the code strings, and that permeate the architecture of the ergodic artifact
as experience. To understand the ethical nature of ergodic artifacts we have to analyze
not only the architectural level, but also the code level. In the dialogue between the
ergodic experience of a user and the invisible code that delimitates and generates that
experience, ethical values are transmitted and upheld.' 30
Within the game Spec Ops, one of the most controversial elements relates to the dropping of white
phosphorus rounds on the soldiers blocking progress. The scene is expertly constructed in the way in
which it first disassociates the player from the action, creating an ideal space for the otherization of
the enemy. As the section terminates, the video screen into which you had been looking gradually
reflects more and more of the main character back at the player the effect is, as you realise the
implications of what you have done, to 'take a good long look at yourself in the mirror'. The symbolism
and execution is masterful. However, here the limits of player agency are significant. You can either
drop the WP rounds and leave the soldiers, and as it later transpires civilians, writhing in agony and
flames; or you can delay and be picked off by snipers. Those are the two options presented in the
game. You either drop the rounds, or you die.
This element has been cited by many gamers as the point where they formally renounced any
responsibility for the actions they were making their character perform. Most balk at the idea of using
chemical weapons to progress through the game narrative, but here they are given no choice if they
wish to progress. To engage in the moral action is to stop playing, but such a choice is never
highlighted, at this point, in the game itself. As a ludic convention, that this is a 'choice' at all is not yet
fully accepted. This underpins the difficulty of using games as we currently think of them as a way of
teaching important moral lessons while the consequences of taking moral actions within the game
have no real cost to us, the imprint they leave is no more significant than that associated with other
forms of literature.
7: Games and the Magic Circle
Whether games have the capacity at all to provide for opportunities to make meaningful moral
decisions is also complicated by the traditional framework through which players interpret in-game
activities. Empathy is often argued to be a foundational element in guiding moral behaviour as has
been discussed above. There is however little empirical research, if any, regarding to what extent
individuals are willing to take personal responsibility over the moral actions that that they take within
computer games.
Indeed, the orthodox view seems to be the opposite that ludic spaces function according to what
Huizinga (1971) termed as a 'magic circle'. These are separate areas within which the normal rules of
social interaction are suspended and a new, usually temporary, social contract is formed. The
example of a boxing ring is a traditional example of this the nature of the new social contract formed
between consenting participants overrides, within this specific context, the normal societal
approbation regarding aggressive action. The circle encompasses not only the participants, but also
those who choose to observe the activities within the circle. Games often provide rewards for actions
that would be considered unconscionable by any reasonable external rule set and some have argued
(for example, Consalvo (2005)) that to attempt to apply real moral standards to video games is to rob
them of their distinctiveness as walled off spaces. With the lack of real evidence, it is currently not
possible to address the issue as to whether or not players think it is they who are responsible for
performing actions within the games, or simply guiding their avatar as a largely disassociated prop
within the game world. 32, 33
What makes Spec Ops: The Line so notable in this regard is its explicit rejection of this hypothesis. In
functioning, as it does, as a formal commentary on the morality of violence in video games it
embraces the counter hypothesis that the actions a player takes within the game are still undertaken
voluntarily. While you act within the game within the explicit limits of a magic circle, it is still your moral
choice to move within its radius.
However, outside of comparatively rare exceptions such as these, it appears the magic circle is the
accepted framework within which we must evaluate player decisions within a game. What happens
within the magic circle stays within the magic circle, and individuals are therefore not personally
responsible for what happens within the narrative or ludic structures that are presented to them. It
then seems unlikely that there is any possibility that the moral nuance of the choices computer games
offer will provide significant opportunities for self-reflection. Even if there is identification with a
character, and even narrative empathy with his or her trials and struggles, it still remains the case that
fundamentally the character is just a tool the player uses to interact within set ludic constraints.
However, it must be stressed at this point that while the magic circle offers a certain kind of
intellectual affordance, the empirical evidence as to its veracity is not yet available for analysis.
Where this hypothesis breaks down most obviously is in the area of multiplayer games. Within single
player games, the only sentient individual directly impacted by the narrative is the one who is
responsible for all of the genuine agency. The real consequences for moral decisions are based
entirely on how the player chooses to reflect upon actions they take. Those who take no interest in the
narrative, justification, or reason for what they do, require only the game mechanics to validate their
interactions (figure below):
Figure: an illustration of a player who only uses game mechanics to validate decisions
Within multiplayer games, decisions taken within the game have an actual weight to them they will
impact on other players. For many, the magic circle still reigns as a framework for setting the
acceptable parameters of interaction, with societal pressures serving to moderate, as far as is
possible, behaviour which is deemed to be unsporting. However, it is often difficult for players to
disassociate that which happens to their avatars from what happens to them as a person. 9, 31, 33-35
Craft (2009) discussed one specific example of an incident within the game EVE Online (CCP
Games, 2003), in which the magic circle (Guiding Hand) was violated through players working both in
and out of game to defraud fellow players of their virtual assets. Craft noted:
'When Guiding Hand operatives violated the trust of their victims, the victims expressed
betrayal not just as characters by other characters in a representational environment, but
as users by other users in an actual communicative environment. The Guiding Hand, by
contrast, argued that they had merely been acting in character, and warned their victims
against reading too much into representational friendships.' 31
A magic circle within multiplayer games is a shared construction, and the asymmetrical nature of trust
in relationships means that the understanding one party may have of what is acceptable may not be
shared by another. Thus, while some individuals may choose to see their relationships with other
players within the game as entirely a mutually constructed fiction, others may see friendships,
relationships and alliances as having real world value. It is not uncommon for in-game relationships to
blossom into out-of-game friendships, and for virtual sex to culminate in real romance. Within such
contexts, our actions have consequences for real people regardless of the circle constructed. While
one player may view racist, sexist and homophobic insults as mere 'trash talk', another may take
genuine offence or be dissuaded from participating in the social environments entirely. Dismissing
such issues as 'it's just a game' reflects the disconnect between the individuals concerned as to what
is permitted within the circle.
There may be little empirical evidence regarding the extent to which the magic circle moderates and
mediates players understanding of their ethical responsibilities. There is however abundant evidence
to suggest that the playing of games can have real world impact beyond the game experience itself.
The evidence regarding the role of games in building capacity with regards to certain kinds of physical
and mental activities is well established. Key to understanding the ability of games to impact on
ethical decision making is whether the playing of games can bring about changes in perceptions
beyond the game world. 36, 37
There is evidence to suggest that the way in which some individuals choose to portray themselves
within games is at least partly reflective of their own self-image, and that engagement can bring about
a sense of deep involvement and attachment. There are examples of players projecting their own
inner world onto the game that they play. There is also evidence to show the degree to which players
can be affected in the real world after playing a game on measures such as happiness, confidence
and general satisfaction. It is easy to conceive of various 'pay it forward' scenarios in which
manipulating any of these traits might result in real world change, but studies of actual positive impact
are harder to come by. 38-41
Much of the work available focuses on negative areas such as:
degrading school performance; 42, 43

addiction; 44, 45 and,
aggression. 46, 47
However, as Gentile et al (2009) noted: 48
'Like many others before us [...] we have noted that the processes underlying media
violence effects on aggression are based on broader learning theories, and have offered
the General Learning Model, in which any stimulus (including video games) is posited to
have short-term and long-term effects through several learning mechanisms.'
Gentile et al (2009) offered a compelling correlation study which showed robust evidence that pro-
social effects within games are observable. Saleem et al (2012) supported these findings with
children, identifying that pro-social games increase helpful and decrease hurtful behaviour. Further to
this, there is evidence to suggest some correlation between active video games and the promotion of
physical activity in children (e.g. Biddiss and Irwing, 2010), and more evidence to suggest video
games can increase compliance with medical treatment in adolescents and effectiveness of
psychotherapy (e.g. Ceranoglu, 2010). 48-51
The nascent field of Captology has some relevance to this topic if technology generally can be seen
to bring about lasting behavioural change, video games as a subset of technology would perhaps be
an especially effective mechanism. The principle of gamification similarly offers opportunities by
which gameplay principles can bring about behavioural change. While evidence on the efficacy of
these techniques is limited and highly contextual, it does exist in some form for realms as diverse as
technical documentation, peer-to-peer trading and exercise. Most of the work in these two fields is
currently conceptual and unproven in any generalisable fashion. 52-56
8: Further Work
This discussion of ethics and morality in video games reveals a significant set of gaps in the existing
literature. While this paper is intended to serve as a discussion of these issues there remains a
considerable amount of work to do with regards to filling these gaps. What we find as a
consequence of this literature review are compelling but currently incompatible hypotheses:
Games have short-term and long-term effects on players behaviour
First of all, as to the value of games in teaching moral behaviour, we can see that there is evidence to
suggest that games can have short and long term impact on behaviour after the player has put down
the controller. Furthermore, this behaviour can be observed across a relatively wide range of
categories. This argues strongly that moral and ethical instruction can be one of the areas in which
video games impact upon their players.
Games may not damage a players moral outlook any more than other passive forms of media
Secondly, with regard to the value of morality and ethics within game systems we find two significant
obstacles. The first is that the nature of morality systems present in most mainstream games is
shallow, bound up in ludic conventions and driven by the market forces of replayability. The second
regards the prevailing view of games as taking place within a morally discontinuous magic circle. This
strongly implies that even if the ethical decisions made available to players were more interesting and
instructive, there is little reason to suppose that they would be any more compelling than that of more
passive media such as books and movies. The interactivity of games is what makes them special as a
category of entertainment, and if there is no sense of ownership over decisions taken by players then
moral instruction will be confined to being narratively embedded in the text.
As yet there is no empirical evidence that serves to demonstrate the validity of these moral
hypotheses either way, but further work to extend from this paper is aimed at addressing this. To
understand the possibilities, we must answer three key questions:
Does it make a difference to character attachment if a player takes on the role of a fixed
character as opposed to an avatar they construct?
Does the degree to which character attachment holds true determine the extent to which a
player will take ownership over the actions they make their character perform?
Does the existence of the presupposed magic circle mean that ethical decisions taken within a
game have no weight unless they have real world impact?
To address these questions, the authors are developing a self-contained text game that has the
explicit intention of examining each of these questions. As discussed in a previous paper, certain
kinds of game are best expressed through the nuance of text. It is the belief of the authors that a
game of this nature intended to unpick subtle and complex issues of ethics and morality falls into this
category. Further work on this topic will focus on the applicability of the Epiphany game engine to
ethically charged game scenarios, and on the degree to which character attachment, avataric
identification and real world consequences impact on decisions taken within the magic circle of the
game world. 13
9: Conclusion
While there is much discussion on this topic in the academic literature, there are few answers. The
issue, however, remains important. The extent to which games inculcate moral values remains an
element of fascination within the media, and the violent content of many games is a matter for
concern amongst politicians and pressure groups. As we have discussed, there are considerable
question marks as to whether games can realistically have any genuine impact on the moral
perspectives of those who play them. The presence of the magic circle and the rarity and fragility of
genuine immersion may be the most compelling arguments against accusations of moral
degeneration. This remains, at the time of writing, a theoretical answer to the issue.
We have outlined a research agenda designed to address this issue of ownership of and
responsibility for character actions. In this paper we present a theoretical overview of some of the
relevant literature, but the lack of agreement on these complex issues does not cohere into a
compelling view. The lack of focus on the issue of player ownership of actions is a critical gap in
academic knowledge on the topic. The first course of action in our research agenda will be to
determine the extent to which characterisation impacts on the moral perceptions of those that play
computer games. This is an important question, and it remains one with a large question mark.
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The value of being powerful or beautiful in games - how game

design affects the value of virtual items
Ping-I (Adam) Ho
Address: The University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia e-mail: piho5116@gmail.com
Abstract
Virtual economies, in which players use real money to buy and sell virtual items such as weapons and clothes in
games, have now become one of the most important business models in the game industry. The success of
virtual economies raises controversies and discussions about how virtual items come to have commercial value
as intangibles in games. Some follow the traditional labour focused perspectives to argue that the value of
virtual items is created by players efforts in obtaining them. Others suggest that this value is given by players
personal preferences.
This paper suggests that both the labour focused and personal preference focused perspectives, on their own,
tend to overlook how players are still limited and affected by the gaming environment that involves various game
mechanics. I argue that we need to reconsider how the game mechanics created by game design play a critical
role in generating and affecting the value of virtual items. I therefore examine two significant game mechanics:
functionality and aesthetics, and explore how they generate and affect the value of virtual items inside or outside
Huizingas magic circle. I argue that these mechanics not only build the rules for players to follow, but also
contribute to different types of value of virtual items in the context of gameplay. This paper suggests that an
interdisciplinary approach that bridges economics and game design will be necessary with the growing
development of virtual economies in the future.
Keywords: virtual economics, game mechanics, mechanism, value, MMORPGs, virtual assets, items, goods, property
Article Information
Received: June 2013

Accepted: September 2013
Copyright of the author 2014 Reproduction rights owned by The Computer Games Journal Ltd 2014
1: Introduction
'Part of the issue with virtual-world economies is that they touch on so many aspects of
design.' 1
Virtual economies, in which players buy and sell virtual items such as virtual weapons and clothes in
games with real money, have now become one of the most important business models in the video
games industry. Nowadays, virtual items have become not only useful objects or tools in games, but
also assets or goods to be owned or traded by players and game companies. For instance, in a
famous multiplayer online game, Diablo 3 (Blizzard Entertainment, 2012), players are able to buy or
sell virtual items with real money via the real-money auction house within the game, while the game
company takes a transaction fee ($1.00 USD per virtual item) from every transaction between players.
In another successful multiplayer mobile game, Clash of Clans (Supercell, 2012), the game company
sells virtual gems to players for real money. Players use these to reinforce, protect, or decorate their
village in the game. 2, 3
Cases like Diablo 3 and Clash of Clans not only set up successful business models, but also raise
controversies and discussions around virtual items, particularly about the ways by which these
intangibles come to have commercial value in a gaming environment. In the current discourse, there
are two main perspectives that focus on how the value of virtual items is generated in games: the
labour focused and the personal preference focused perspectives. On the one hand, the labour
focused perspective follows the tradition of Marxism, suggesting that the value of virtual items is
intrinsic and created by players efforts and time cost. For example, in her study Martin (2008)
suggested that the virtual goods in Second Life (Linden Lab, 2003) are still the product of labour, for it
takes time and effort to develop and code even the simplest of virtual goods. In another study, Yoon
(2008) also suggested that the investment of time is one of the chief reasons that explain[s] the
phenomenon whereby in-game MMORPG items acquire real-world economic values. In this context,
the reason why a virtual item is valuable is mainly because it somehow represents the hard work of a
player who might spend hundreds of hours in developing or obtaining the item. 4, 5
On the other hand, the personal preference focused perspective follows the pattern of modern
economics, suggesting that the value of virtual items is extrinsic, and given by players personal
preferences. For instance, in his research, Castronova (2005) suggested that the value of a virtual
item is determined and given by players individual preferences expressed in a market instead of its
objective features. In this sense, a virtual item is valuable because players believe it has such value in
a market out of their personal preferences.4-6
Both the labour focused and personal preference focused perspectives provide very useful insights
for the understanding of the value of virtual items by focusing either on players efforts or personal
preferences. To some degree, these perspectives also seem to overemphasise that the value of
virtual items is something created and affected by players. However, this paper suggests that both the
labour focused and the personal preference perspectives, on their own, tend to overlook how players
are still restricted and affected by the gaming environment that results from various game mechanics
created by game design.
In some cases, players could be quite powerless in terms of the value of virtual items. In 2012,
hundreds of players of the famous Taiwanese multiplayer online game, King of Kings (Giant
Interactive / Gamigo, 2009), appealed to the Consumer Protection Committee. These players argued
that one of the previous updates of this game seriously affects the properties of certain virtual items
they own, making these items less valuable than they were. Some of these players spent a lot of time
and hundreds of thousands of NTDs (New Taiwan dollars) on these virtual items that could not be
refunded by the game company.7,8
In the case of King of Kings as shown above, the so-called update (or patch) is a common adjusting
process in most massively multiplayer online games (MMOGs). One of the important purposes of
such an update is to adjust an imbalance in the game. Sometimes, an update could involve reducing
the original attributes of certain virtual items (e.g. those virtual weapons that are overpowering)
through game design in order to achieve a better balance in a game. Therefore, in a case like King of
Kings, the adjustments resulting from an update could seriously affect the value of certain virtual
items by changing their attributes.
The case of King of Kings demonstrates the overriding influence of game design. Through the
adjustments in an update, game designers can change different aspects of virtual items such as their
attributes, and therefore potentially affect their value to players. In this sense, the value of these
affected virtual items is not only related to how much effort players put into acquiring them (the labour
focused perspective) or how much players like or enjoy having them (the personal preference focused
perspective). More importantly, the value of these virtual items is also likely to be affected by the
elements of game design.
In this paper, I argue that we need to admit and reconsider how game mechanics created by game
design play a critical role in creating and affecting the value of virtual items. In the following, I will
therefore examine two significant game design mechanics: functionality and aesthetics, and explore
their relationships with the value of virtual items.
2: Functionality
Powerful characters are more valuable than less powerful ones, sharp swords are more
valuable than blunt ones, and fast steeds more desirable than slow ones. 9
Functionality refers to the utility of virtual items which players can use to strengthen the ability or
performance of their avatars during their gameplay. In game design, functionality plays an important
role in various types of games. In a role-playing game, the functionality of a certain virtual item can
benefit game characters in many aspects such as their attributes (e.g. strength, agility, wisdom,
stamina, etc) or skills (e.g. magic spells, attack power, healing ability, etc). For example, in Diablo 3,
a legendary weapon, The Paddle, can cause extra damage, increase dexterity and strengthen one of
three random skills of a character. In a car racing game, the functionality of a certain virtual item can
improve the performance of a car. For example, in Real Racing 3, a player can upgrade various
automobile parts to enhance the performance of their cars in different aspects (e.g. speed,
acceleration, etc).10, 11
The functionality of a virtual item is presented in numbers and figures (e.g. +50 strength or +5%
speed). These numbers and figures are converted into players' gaming experience when a functional
virtual item is used by an avatar in a game. A functional virtual item can make the players who own it
more powerful (e.g. strengthening the abilities of their avatars) when they face difficult challenges in
their gameplay. Therefore, to players, a functional virtual item is like a shortcut to success in games.
This was observed in a 2007 study, in which P.I. Ho noted that the virtual items with useful functions
can make the whole gameplay process much smoother and easier. As Yoon (2008) also noted,
without powerful virtual items, players might not able to approach hard-to-reach dungeons and fight
against ferocious monsters in games. 5,12
The functionality of virtual items not only affects players gaming experience, but also has an influence
on the actual gaming time taken to achieve certain goals in games. A functional virtual item can bring
efficiency to players that could therefore save them a large amount of time (e.g. more efficient
monsters killing, quicker levelling up, faster quest solving, etc). This responds to what Lehdonvirta
(2009) found in his study that functional virtual items can help players achieve goals in games faster. 9
It is also important to note that the functionality of a virtual item is not only useful when players fight
against non-player characters (NPCs) in games, but also useful when they fight against each other. In
a player versus player (PVP) combat environment, players heavily depend on the functions of virtual
items to win in a battle. In other words, a functional virtual item can make a players avatar more
competitive, and therefore gives him or her a better chance to win in a combat. This perspective
echoes Yoon's (2008) observation that '...[functional virtual] items owned by a character affect far
more [] the outcome of a PVP combat than the level or skills'. 5
The advantages mentioned above (e.g. stronger abilities, more efficiency, more competitive
advantages, etc) of a functional virtual item are important to players, and therefore desirable to them.
This responds to what Yee (2006) noted in his research that players have a desire to gain power,
progress rapidly [] challenge and compete with others. The desirable advantages of functional
virtual items also provide an explanation for why they are valuable to players. More specifically, these
functional virtual items have a certain value that can help players satisfy their desires for being
powerful, competitive, and successful in games. According to Ho (2007), this value of virtual items is
the functional value. As Sheth et al (1991) noted, the functional value of an object is the perceived
utility acquired from an alternatives capacity for functional, utilitarian, or physical performance.
Applying this concept in a gaming environment, a virtual item with functional value can benefit an
avatars utility, capacity and performance, and therefore facilitates the success of the player who
controls the avatar in a game. In order to obtain such advantages from functional virtual items to be
successful in games, in some cases, players are even willing to purchase them with real money. In
Lehdonvirta's (2009) research, he noted that performance advantages and new functionalities no
doubt have a strong influence on users purchase decisions. 9,12-14
It is however, important to note that game designers have the control of the functionality of a virtual
item that makes it functionally valuable to players. Since the functions of a virtual item are codes and
data presented in numbers and figures, they are created and can be adjusted by game designers
through computer programs. If a virtual item has functional value, to some degree, this value is
created by game designers when they design and determine the attributes of this item (e.g. +50
strength or +5% speed) in the first place. Additionally, this value could also be affected by game
designers through later adjustments. In an update such as that in King of Kings shown above, game
designers could rapidly reduce a virtual weapon's attributes (e.g. from +50 strength to +5 strength)
and therefore decrease its functional value to players.
In summary, on the one hand, the functionality of virtual items gives players advantages and helps
them to make a significant progress and efficiently achieve goals throughout their gameplay. These
advantages also make functional virtual items valuable since they create a motivation for players to
pursue or even purchase them in games. On the one hand, the functionality of virtual items is still
under the control of game design. Game designers are able to determine and adjust the functions of a
certain virtual item and therefore create and affect its functional value.
However, it would be arbitrary to argue that functional value is the only type of value that exists for
virtual items. It would also be arbitrary to suggest that being powerful is the only motive for players to
pursue in games. For some players, dressing their avatars with attractive and beautiful virtual items
could be another important aspect for them to play in games. Therefore, in the following section, I will
introduce another crucial design element for virtual items: aesthetics.
3: Aesthetics
It costs a virtual world practically nothing to allow characters to have different color
clothes, hair, weapons, and so on, but it allows people to individualize themselves and
make personal statements. 1
Aesthetics in games refers to the aesthetic design that makes a virtual item attractive to players. This
kind of game design includes not only the aesthetic appearance of virtual items but also the effects
(e.g. animations and sounds) of using those items. Aesthetics is important ingaming environments
that allow players to customise their avatars or properties with virtual items. Many aesthetic items
work as ornaments and decorations in such environments. For example, in Second Life, a player can
buy different styles of clothes and accessories in the second life marketplace such as glasses, belts,
or jewellery to customise their avatars. In The Sims Social (Electronic Arts, 2011), a player is able to
buy many items such as sofas, paintings, or bushes to customise his or her house in the game world.
In this game, some of these items have visual effects and sounds and such as animations on the TV
screen or music from a radio. 9, 15, 16
This kind of customisation (e.g. decorating avatars with aesthetic virtual items) has become an
important motivation for players to play in games. This can be observed in Yee's (2006) empirical
investigation that customization having an interest in customizing the appearance of their character
can motivate players to play online games. In the process of customisation, aesthetic virtual items
play a crucial part. Aesthetic virtual items such as clothes and accessories provide a variety of
choices for players to customise and decorate their avatars according to their preferences and
personal styles. This corresponds with Martin's (2008) observation that aesthetic virtual items have
become a means of customizing the virtual body. She also suggested that these items in games can
fulfill needs and desires for [] a pleasing appearance within the virtual world'. 4,13
Those aesthetic virtual items with pleasing appearances not only support customisation for players,
but also potentially give players pleasant feelings during gameplay. By equipping or dressing avatars
with these aesthetic virtual items such as shining armour, beautiful clothes or glittering jewels, certain
emotions of players could be evoked. As Ho (2007) noted in his study, players experience feelings
such as excitement and happiness when their avatars are equipped with attractive or beautiful virtual
items. This observation is supported by Lehdonvirta's (2009) empirical research. In this research,
some participants report that aesthetic virtual items can provide pleasureand a feeling of coolness for
them. One player reported, "IRL [in real life] I dont like to wear shorts and a hoodie at the same time,
but in Habbo [an online game owned by Sulake Corp.] it somehow pleases my eye." Another player
also commented on the enchantment effect (a way to make virtual weapons glow in different colours)
in World of Warcraft (Blizzard Entertainment, 2004), saying, "Its not useful, but its cool." 9,12
These kinds of hedonistic feelings shown by players make aesthetic virtual items become desirable
and therefore valuable. In other words, the reason why an aesthetic virtual item is valuable is because
it can somehow bring hedonistic feelings to players. This corresponds to Ho's (2007) suggestion that
to players, the virtual items with aesthetic attributes have emotional value. According to Sheth et al
(1991), an object with emotional value means that it has the ability to arouse [people's] feelings or
affective states. Applying this concept in a gaming environment, players hedonistic feelings can be
aroused by dressing, equipping, customising, or decorating their avatars with those aesthetic virtual
items with emotional value. In order to obtain such hedonistic feelings in games, in some cases,
players will even be willing to pay for these aesthetic virtual items with real money. This can be seen
in Lehdonvirta's (2009) study that virtual items with aesthetic attributes can actually drive players real
money purchase decisions. 9, 12, 14
It is important to note that aesthetic attributes of the virtual items with emotional value can still be
influenced by game design. The appearance, colour, animations, and sounds of a virtual item that can
potentially arouse players hedonistic feelings have been decided by game designers (or individual
designers in an environment such as Second Life) when it was created or designed in the first place.
Therefore, the emotional value derived from those aesthetic attributes of a virtual item could be
generated by a game designer. Furthermore, the aesthetic attributes of a certain virtual item can be
adjusted through game updates or patches. In an update or 'patchaesthetic' attributes, such as the
appearance of a certain virtual item, can be changed by art or graphic designers. Therefore, game
design has the potential to affect an aesthetic virtual item and make it emotionally more or less
valuable to players.
To sum up, on the one hand, the aesthetics makes virtual items attractive to players, and supports a
way for players to customise their avatars in games. This customisation provided by aesthetics not
only motivates players to play games, but also potentially arouses players hedonistic feelings during
gameplay. An aesthetic virtual item that can bring the feeling of pleasure to players also makes it
emotionally valuable to them. On the one hand, the aesthetics of virtual items is still affected by game
design. When game designers create and adjust the aesthetic attributes of an aesthetic virtual item in
a gaming environment, they also generate and affect the emotional value of these intangibles.
4: Conclusion
In this paper, I examine two fundamental game mechanisms, functionality and aesthetics, and explore
their relationships with the value of virtual items. These two mechanisms not only define the functions
and aesthetic elements of virtual items, but also potentially generate and affect the value of these
intangibles in a game.
On one hand, the functionality of virtual items gives advantages to players and therefore benefits their
progress and gaming experience. The advantages provided by functionality have become an
important motivation for players to pursue or even purchase functional virtual items in games. The
functional virtual items that provide advantages to players therefore become functionally valuable to
them. On the other hand, aesthetics make virtual items attractive to players. Through aesthetic design
of virtual items, players are able to decorate and customise their avatars. The customisations and
decorations with aesthetic virtual items arouse players hedonic feelings within a game world. This
makes aesthetic virtual items desirable, and therefore emotionally valuable to players.
It is important to note that both functionality and aesthetics mechanics of virtual items are created and
controlled by game design. On one hand, the functional attributes of a certain virtual item (e.g. +50
strength or +5% speeds) are created and can be adjusted (e.g. increase or decrease) by game
designers and programmers. On the other hand, the aesthetic design of a specific virtual item (e.g.
the appearance, colour, animations, and sounds) is also decided and can be changed by game
designers, artists and graphic designers.
Through the examination of these two game mechanisms, functionality and aesthetics, I therefore
argue that the value of virtual items can be generated and affected by game design. Through the
processes of creation and adjustment, game design potentially generates and affects the value of
virtual items to players, whether functional or emotional. In this sense, game design not only defines
the rules and regulations in a game world for players to follow, but also has a huge influence in terms
of the commercial value of virtual items. The value of virtual items in a gaming environment is
therefore not only generated and affected by players efforts (the labour focused perspective) or their
individual preferences (the personal preference focused perspective), but also by the game
mechanics driven by game design.
The purpose of this study is to improve the understanding of how the value of virtual items is
generated and affected in gaming environments. By examining two important game mechanisms -
functionality and aesthetics - and their relationships with the value of virtual items, this study suggests
that an interdisciplinary approach that crosses game design and economics is necessary in the field
of virtual economies. This paper demonstrates that the phenomenon of virtual economies not only
involves economic activities, but also activities created and affected by game design in a gaming
environment.
Therefore, both economic and gaming activities should be taken into consideration in the field of
virtual economies. The field of virtual economics should thus include other significant disciplines such
as game design, computer science, art, graphic design, etc. Further research in virtual economics
could draw on theories from other disciplines in order to provide a deeper insight and therefore enrich
the knowledge in this field.
References
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2 Blizzard entertainment. (2012). Auction House. Available online at:

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/game/guide/items/auction-house [accessed 08 March 2013]
3 Clash of Clans Wiki. (2013). Gems. Available online at: http://clashofclans.wikia.com/wiki/Gems

[accessed 08 July 2013]
4 Martin, J. (2008). Consuming Code: Use-Value, Exchange-Value, and the Role of Virtual Goods in
Second Life. Journal of Virtual Worlds Research, 1(2), 121. Retrieved from
http://journals.tdl.org/jvwr/index.php/jvwr/article/view/300/262
5 Yoon, U. G. (2008). Real Money Trading in MMORPG Items From a Legal and Policy Perspective.
Journal of Korean Judicature, 1, 418477. Retrieved from
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1113327
6 Castronova, E. (2005). Synthetic worlds: The business and culture of online games. Chicago: University
of Chicago press.
7 Rong, L. (2012). Players of King Of Kings Made a Complaint. The Liberty Times. Available online at:
http://www.libertytimes.com.tw/2012/new/feb/25/today-taipei7.htm [accessed 10 March 2013] (In
Chinese)
8 DUAN, C.-Z. (2012). Game developers arbitrarily modify games. Hundreds of players are helpless.
Cardu. Available online at: http://www.cardu.com.tw/news/detail.php?nt_pk=6&ns_pk=15440 [accessed
10 March 2013] (In Chinese)
9 Lehdonvirta, V. (2009). Virtual item sales as a revenue model: identifying attributes that drive purchase
decisions. Electronic Commerce Research, 9(1), 97113. Retrieved from
http://www.springerlink.com/index/055100248749Q2V5.pdf
10 Blizzard entertainment. (2012). The Paddle. Available online at: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/item/the-paddle

11 Electronic Arts. (2013). Real Racing 3. Available online at: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/real-racing-

3/id556164008?mt=8 [accessed 18 March 2013]
12 Ho, P.-I. (2007). Virtual item trade in massive multiplayer online role playing game (MMORPG): A case
study of Diablo . Master thesis, Chiayi: National Chung Cheng University. (In Chinese)
13 Yee, N. (2006). Motivations for play in online games. Cyberpsychology and Behavior, 9(6), 772775.
Retrieved from http://online.liebertpub.com/doi/abs/10.1089/cpb.2006.9.772
14 Sheth, J. N., Newman, B. I., & Gross, B. L. (1991). Why we buy what we buy: a theory of consumption
values. Journal of Business research, 22(2), 159170. Retrieved from
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0148296391900508
15 Linden Research, Inc. (2013). Second Life Marketplace. Available online at:
https://marketplace.secondlife.com [accessed 20 March 2013]
16 Electronic Arts. (2013). The Sims Social. Available online at: https://www.facebook.com/TheSimsSocial
Using motion capture to produce learning software to aid

teachers of sign language
Adam Kale
Graduate of the School of Computing, University of the West of Scotland, Paisley, Renfrewshire, Scotland (UK) (post code: PA1 2BE)
*e-mail: adam.kale@hotmail.co.uk
Abstract
There is a scarcity of games in the market place that can teach British sign language. Furthermore, there have
been minimal efforts to develop such games. This paper addresses the creation of a prototype using the latest
TM
motion capture camera, the Microsoft Kinect , to aid British sign language teachers in educating young pupils
learning sign language for the first time. By using this technology, the prototype can be used to teach the basics
of British sign language (using a combination of JavaScript and HTML5) to deliver a rich learning experience
within a web browser. Interviews and play tests were conducted with 10 sign language experts. None of them
were familiar with using games technology to teach sign language, although many of them used the internet,
DVD and other audiovisual technology to teach deaf students. They provided positive feedback on the
prototype, and believed that such technology could be used alongside traditional sign language teaching
methods.
Keywords: video games, motion capture, sign language, teaching, prototype, participants
Article Information
Received: July 2013

Accepted: November 2013
Copyright of the author 2014 Reproduction rights owned by The Computer Games Journal Ltd 2014
1. Introduction and previous research
There is a high demand for interactive learning and sophisticated implementations of classroom
curriculum. One of the greatest challenges for deaf children concerning technological advancements
has been the use of computers in education and everyday life. Sight capability and sound detection
are often essential when using computers.
A decade ago, there was increasing debate on how computers can be used to aid educators of deaf
and hard of hearing students. During the previous decade, games were becoming increasingly
popular as the new medium for education, although Squire (2005) mentioned that educators were
reluctant to use this phenomenon to help them to better deliver an effective education. 1, 2
Because learning sign language requires more physical participation than other methods of learning,
the use of a motion capture based game allows users to practice these gestures while playing. The
Microsoft Kinect TM has been a promising entity within the deaf community, not only because it has
the potential to make learning fun and provide interactivity to users, but also because it requires the
use of gestures to participate. 3
The problem with making a game to teach sign language using motion capture and detection is that a
compact solution is yet to be achieved. Microsofts Kinect device may be a good starting point.
However, without the use of advanced algorithms and large equipment with complicated set up
procedures, a motion detection game that can acknowledge hand signals to teach sign language is
not yet achievable.
Luckner et al (2005) researched the requirements for deaf education, and they showed that of the 331
experts and parents who took part in their survey expressed the absence of additional interest and
superior pedagogy provided for disabled pupils. The aim of the study was to test these requirements,
in order to improve aspects of the deaf educational system, so that deaf children may be able to
attend classes without the worry that their learning needs will not be catered for.
By using resources already available, it is possible to develop a simple user interface with basic
motion detection to create a rich learning environment. The Zig Fu library makes using the Kinect with
Html5 and JavaScript much more achievable, although it is still in the experimental phase. (The library
has been used in conjunction with Unity 3D and Adobe Flash.)
The integration of the Kinect, Zig Fu library, and the power of HTML5 and JavaScript, increases the
possibility of creating a browser based game to teach sign language. However, the Kinect is an
expensive piece of equipment, and may not be factored into many school budgets In addition, this
method has not been used to develop games to teach sign language.
1.1: Research purpose and focus
Previous research using the Kinect device for education has proved to be successful. However, there
has been limited investigation into using the Kinect to acknowledge selections within a browser and to
pass messages from the Kinect back to the browser.
This project commenced with the testing of the Zig Fu library in conjunction with other libraries to see
if additional possibilities are available. Meetings were then conducted with educators of sign language
in order to identify the requirements of such a game. The end product was developed, then displayed,
and then tested by the interviewees. Their views and experiences were then evaluated in order to
establish if the game was a valid medium to aid in teaching sign language.
2. Literature review
2.1: Sign Language
Sign languages are used as a communication tool by the deaf and hard of hearing. (Fischer (2002)
described sign language as 'alternate, but specific, ways to move the body in order to articulate
letters, words and sentences'. By creating various outlines using their hands, mouth, upper body and
posture, deaf people are able to communicate. 5
Krakow and Hanson (1985) conducted an experiment on the difference between deaf individuals who
were taught sign language at an institution, and those who learned out of necessity from not having
parents capable of hearing. These two groups were referred to as native and non-native signers.
Their study into the dissimilarity of the two groups yielded negative results. 6
Marshall and Safar (2005) stated that sign language can be misconstrued and thought of as limited
singular body gestures. Their investigation shows that deaf people are not always able to write down
what they want to say on the basis that they are uneducated in written languages. The creation of a
computer-based grammar correction system was also attempted in their investigation: although the
results from using this system were not what the researchers had anticipated, the conclusions drawn
from their study still produced valuable information for the academic field. 7
Sign language has been included in software tools in an effort to better the lives of people who are
deaf and hard-of-hearing. One exemplary interpretation programme translates the British
Broadcasting Companys (BBC) news channel using an animated character for interpretation into sign
language (although there are some flaws). Stein et al (2007) suggested that because sign languages
were not made by an independent source, they developed naturally and globally, and they mirror
spoken languages in their individuality and variety. He also mentioned the use of head movement as
an attribute of sign languages when describing a system that translates both American Sign
Language (ASL) and Irish Sign Language (ISL). 8, 9
By identifying Japanese Sign Language (JSL) and producing an animation as a result of translation,
Sagawa and Takeuchi (2002) showed that traditional pedagogy is unable to provide adequate
instruction of sign language, as it lacks the ability to confirm errors without the presence of an
instructor. By using this recognition system, students are able to self-verify their progress and correct
those errors. 10
A similar translation system was created to interpret Saudi Sign Language (SSL) from Arabic text by
introducing finger spelling. Commonly used to sign words that lack the appropriate gesture within the
language, finger spelling can be used to sign a persons name or the name of a company, etc. Al-
Faraj et al (2012) created all the functions to enable deaf people to practice their faith, encompassing
all signs necessary to teach a deaf person how to pray. 11
2.2: Deaf education
Advancements in the delivery of education for deaf pupils have taken place in classrooms in several
countries. Zhili et al (2010) investigated how pupils from Chinese schools for the disabled received
the curriculum. Over half of the six classes tested favoured the sign language method. However,
pupils in other classes reported some issues with this method of delivery. 12
In the USA, Michaud et al (2000) created a prototype that helped deaf children to improve their
spelling. The system (named ICICLE, or Interactive Computer Identification and Correction of
Language Errors) processes a line or paragraph of text, identifies grammatical errors, and provides
the user with a summary of the necessary corrections required. 13
In Ireland, Smith et al (2010) reported that most deaf children have a low skill level in reading upon
their departure from the educational system. 14
Brashear et al (2006) reviewed the game CopycatTM (which reads American Sign Language) and
implemented it into a game for deaf children using a histogram technique. The game featured signed
sentences from deaf children in an attempt to relate to the user and target audience. The game
required the user to wear gloves, which were connected to accelerometers in order to acquire data
such as movement and velocity from gestures by using X, Y and Z positioning. Additional apparatus
included a mouse that the user can use to click on sign language characters on the screen. It was
noted by the authors was that there was no similar programme to help teach children sign language
from home. Although the Copycat TM game was considered to be accurate and engaging, the
equipment set-up, price and size were not considered suitable for home use, and the program did not
provide an enriched learning experience. 15
2.3: Motion capture
Motion capture is the process of using a large number of cameras in a studio setting to capture all
angles of a human subject who is fitted with small diffuse tracers. The information collected from
these tracers provides very accurate information which can be used for a number of purposes
including the animation of a character. However, even motion capture methods are difficult when
trying to capture hand gestures. Designers have tried to solve this problem by individualising the
gestures made with hands; or by applying different apparatus to them. Until recently, neither of these
solutions have proved to be ideal (Heloir et al, 2010). 16
Liverman (2004) wrote that producing motion capture, demands a great assembly of equipment and
so much man power (needed to perform all tasks around the production) that it would not be
affordable for smaller groups with a lower budget. Lu and Huenerfauth (2010) used motion capture
techniques to produce a dictionary of American Sign Language gestures. By using specialist
experimental equipment, they avoided the need for a large studio at a high expense. Karppa et al
(2012) also used experimental methods to capture sign language, this time in Finnish Sign Language,
but noted the difficulty of setting up a motion capture layout and the frustration of not being able to
apply it to video. Geroch (2004) demonstrated that the cost of motion capture can be reduced for use
within an academic setting. One idea was to allow all departments, who require it, access to motion
capture equipment that may be being used for alternative purposes by the institution. Once motion
capture data has been created, additional content in the Maya modelling package allows for the
interpretation of such information. 17 - 20
2.4: Colour Histograms
Another method of tracking gestures is by using colour histograms. Verges-Llahi et al (2001) reported
that although histograms have a low responsiveness threshold, if binary methods are used for picture
detection, differentiation can be achieved between the persons motion and his/her backdrop. 21
Colour histograms can be used to find a hand gesture by picking up on the skin tone of the user or
those displayed in a pre-recorded video, in order to analyse the movements and provide data in
accordance with those gestures (Karppa et al, 2011) Swain and Ballard (1991) stated that the number
of different histograms can be substantial and that colour histograms can be extremely useful when
detecting multiple colours within objects in order to track them. 22, 23
2.5: Animation and Avatars
The late 1980s witnessed the emergence of the first animated character created using digital motion
capture technology. Unlike more recent methods such as diffuse tracers, older methods of motion
capture to animate involved mechanical skeletal suits that an actor or stuntman would wear
(Menache, 2000). Stone et al (2004) stated that some animation is created from previously gathered
data concerning the motion of an actor), by combining speech or gesture segments, and feeding them
into an engine used to create accurately animated characters for interpretative purposes. Awad et al
(2009) also described the method of feeding motion capture information into an engine to receive an
animated character. 24 - 26
Another approach for enhancing the accuracy of the character is to use pre-recorded gestures as a
tool for reference. Cox et al (2002) proposed a means of improving communication between deaf and
non-deaf people by using animated on-screen characters to interpret British Sign Language. The
system developed takes the speech data from a hearing clerk at a post office, and produces an
animated character that transfers the speech into sign language to enable a deaf customer to
understand the message. The studys results however, revealed that improvements were needed for
the system to prove useful, for example; the gestures produced by the character required deeper
accuracy and additionally for the text that was being interpreted to be visible to the deaf customer. 27
Morrissey (2008) produced a similar programme to convert British into Irish Sign Language to display
data for deaf travellers. This was accomplished using various ways of processing information and
producing an animated character which would interpret information through an info point at an airport.
This provided an independent and private way for deaf or hard of hearing travellers to get the
information they require. 28
When creating an avatar to interpret text into sign language, Marshall and Safar (2002) found that the
apparatus used for motion capture, animation and interpretation purposes will fall in price (financially)
as technology is developed further. However, Lu and Huenerfauth (2009) reported that interpretation
methods that do not require the user to wear apparatus are superior to methods that do. The methods
that do require certain equipment to be worn whilst the user is interacting with the system may provide
more accuracy. However, not all apparatus can be fitted onto every user. The height, weight and
mass of users can be extremely diverse. The equipment is also subject to wear and tear after
changing hands frequently, and this leads to malfunctions and other problems. 29, 30
When using automated systems, deaf people often prefer animated characters as they instil a sense
of privacy. This was confirmed by Efthimiou et al (2009) during a project to create a programme that
receives gestures and adds them to a database for use by researchers. The programme recognises
face and hand shapes using hidden Markov models. Shanableh and Assaleh (2011) investigated the
methods implemented to interpret sign language: one of the mentioned techniques is the use of
hidden Markov models to allow for accurate locations of users when tracking. 31, 32
2.6: Hand shape and tracking
Deaf societies require research of technological advancement in the field of sign language education
and interpretation. In order to achieve this, certain tasks must be performed, namely the ability to pick
up hand shapes correctly.
Sign language involves more than just hand gestures. It also requires body and facial gestures,
movements which were not acknowledged by many previous studies (Martinez and Cabalfin, 2008).
Yasugahira et al (2009) stated that detecting hand shapes is one technique; and detecting the velocity
and erratic manner that some people express gestures, is an entirely different (and more difficult)
technique. Their proposed solution was that the programme would alter its perception of these
gestures to accommodate an individual user style. 33, 34
The hand has various different ways of moving and can be difficult to track. El Koura and Singh
(2003) acquired the help of professionals within the medical field in order to properly create an
accurate hand animation to be used in a programme that would help children in music class. Even
after they had collected all the necessary information, the model was still lacking the correct motion
and positioning of a human hand. Athitsos et al (2010) noted that sign language can look very
different when performed by various people. In this case, when acquiring recorded signs from people,
it is easy to see differences between them and the viewpoint from where they are recorded. This
problem is resolved by recording each signed word or sentence from several different angles and
positions. The issues of acquiring hand shapes and other gestures have been resolved by the use of
specialist equipment for the user or actor to wear. This makes the data retrieving process much
easier. The purpose of additional research within this area is to fulfil the requirement of societys
reliance on technology. 35 - 37
A method to enable the tracking of human lips to create lip reading software was implemented by
Barnard et al in 2002. Algorithmic methods are used to track the shapes of various users lips (even
those with facial hair). Their research was successful and the programme read all participants lip
movements correctly. Further work on the model revealed problems of lip reading participants with
irregular teeth placement and head movements which disrupted the sync of the lip reading model. 38
Both of these problems were overcome by using additional tracking methods. Neidle et al (2001)
provided a library of pre-recorded signs to aid in sign language advancement. By using images of
hand shapes, the location and shape of the users hands can be evaluated. Zafrulla et al (2010)
created a validation system for the Copycat TM game used to help deaf children learn sign language.
The system was only 40% short of being perfect and helped to increase the effectiveness of the
game. The Copycat TM game was reviewed a year later by Zafrulla et al (2011) to implement the use
of the Microsoft depth camera. The Kinect can be easily assembled, and its configuration does not
require expert knowledge or assistance. By contrast, the original Copycat comprised special
equipment that required monitoring. The original equipment could locate the user (whatever position
he/she was in), but the Kinect was only able to sense users in the standing position. Zafrulla et al
(2011) concluded that certain movements were not obtainable; such movements were most
prominent in childrens gestures, which were difficult to identify using the Kinect system. 39 - 41
Although the Kinect precision is not comparable with that of other methods of motion capture, how
does its easy setup, mobility and low cost compare? Ren et al (2005) used silhouettes to capture the
data of users movement in a game that teaches players how to swing dance. The game also offered
feedback based on the performance given by the player. This method was precise, although it
required several cameras and complex code in order to retrieve the information. 42
Another dance training game was designed by Chan et al (2011) using similar techniques. However,
in this game the player has to dress in an entire motion capture suit with reflective tags. The players
therefore had to wear more cumbersome equipment, and this contributed to an increase in the cost of
the project. Yin and Pai (2003) developed an avatar system for games that allow players to actually
walk around and control the character using numerous poses. This project also requires a large
amount of equipment which includes a platform to detect foot force. Adamo-Vilani et al (2007)
proposed on improving a project named SMILE, a rich gaming environment that helps deaf children,
by teaching mathematical signs. The first proposition was to add the use of gloves to allow the system
to collect movement data easier. The second proposition was to provide gloves again, but with
hardware attached, in order to trace their movements. 42 - 44
2.7: Displaying the Microsoft Kinect in a browser
A series of specialists from various fields collaborated on a project to create a system that allows
beginners to develop animations very easily for the purpose of classroom curriculum, and to deliver it
through an accessible medium such as an internet browser. A pre-developed library of movements
and poses helps users to create lessons that can even be used to teach sign language. The
programme has already been successful in helping experts create curricula for training police cadets
and helping deaf people to obtain employment. All of these features are delivered within a browser
window. Kennaway et al (2007) used plugins for web browsers to decipher information taken from a
persons movement without the use of motion capture technology. The process is actually completed
using a scripted animation technique where the animation movements are based on the script
entered. 45, 46
Problems that befell the above eSign projects included: (i) the limitations of some browsers and their
ability to use plugin objects; (ii) platform or compatibility issues; and, (iii) users found the program to
be missing vital motions. Another criticism was that the animations were not realistic enough to be
convincing.
The HTML5 video has is not yet accessible to all browsers. Its resolving element can be used to
display video in the browser and can be adapted for use in displaying sign language to a deaf user.
Alternative ways of HTML5 video calibration do exist, although there is no agreement on how best to
use them. 47
By using Microsofts Kinect, Nocent et al (2012) provided a solution for rich interactive three-
dimensional browsing. Graphics cards now make it easier to place advanced graphical material within
browsers. However, the security restrictions on the use of JavaScript forced the researchers to use
alternative programming languages. By using web sockets and C++, it was possible to acquire a
users movement through the Kinect. The data collected was used to connect with three-dimensional
properties within a browser to provide the end user with a more interactive browsing experience. 48
2.8: Literature review summary
The creation of three-dimensional avatars and motion capture games is a developing research field.
Sign language has very subtle gestures that cannot be captured satisfactorily by current affordable
technology Although the technology can be used to track the movement of a hand, this has been a
great achievement in this field, made possible only via extensive research. Sign language isnt just
performed using the hands. It uses all parts of the body and although tracking a hand using
technology is achievable, the complete recording and interpretation of all gestures is a distant goal.
With increasing numbers of deaf people choosing not to use cochlear implants, sign language could
still be prevalent when the right type of technology is created.
3. Research Methodology
3.1: Hypothesis
The null and alterative hypotheses were as follows:
Null hypothesis: the Kinect does not aid sign language teachers in the classroom
Alternative hypothesis: the Kinect will aid sign language teachers in the classroom.
3.2: Research questions
The following research questions were proposed:
Q1: can the delivery of a motion capture game using the Kinect help educators in teaching sign
language?
Q2: would a web-based game be considered as a valid teaching tool?
Q3: have previous web based motion capture games been successful in the education
sector?
Q4: what methodology would be best suited to explore the validity of motion capture in
teaching sign language?
3.3: Research methods
Interpretivist
This methodology is focused on social activity and how subjects actually make the decisions they
make. By observing in great detail, interpretivists wish to know the underlying details that create the
urge for subjects to do the things they do. According to Evans (2006), 'Interpretivists do not comment
on observable behaviour without attempting to understand the meanings which lie behind it.' 49, 50
Positivist
Positivists prefer to be in control of the information being received and believe in breaking everything
apart to analyse without leaving anything to happen naturally. Quantitative research methods are
often associated with a positivists research method. A positivist aims to be 'separate' from that which
he/she is researching, in order to remain impartial to the data in order to achieve accurate results: The
philosophical assumptions guiding positivists research include an objective view of reality. 51, 52
Experimental
An experiment is a test that is performed on a participant in order to gain data from a reaction or
interaction. Patzer (1996) stated that experimental methodology is based on hypothetical questions
and by noting cause and effect in a test environment. 53
Quasi Experimental
McBurney and White (2009) showed that quasi experiments are just as important as regular ones.
True experiments have control over the variables within it, whereas quasi experiments do not. This
does not lessen the effectiveness of the experiment because this form of experiment may yield the
best possible outcome for this project. 54, 55
Case Study
Johansson (2003) described case studies as a method based on a single issue that can be analysed
and tested with other research methods. The purpose of a case study method is for the researcher to
be able to comprehend issues that have intricate details and examine them in order to build a precise
picture. According to Gillham (2000), 'Case study research does not equate qualitative (descriptive,
interpretive) methods and data only. They are predominant, but quantitative data and its analysis can
add to the overall picture.' 56 - 58
Archival
Archival research, also known as secondary research, is vital in any project as it covers a large
variety of sources including academic papers, books and any other type of information recorded by
others. One of the advantages to using this methodology is that the process of collecting research
information from various sources is avoided. One disadvantage is that the information collected
always carries the possibility of not being credible. 59, 60
3.4: Qualitative and quantitative methods
A qualitative study focuses on the quality of the data rather than the quantity. This method allows the
researcher to acquire data through a contributors feelings toward a certain situation or test.
Interviews or exams are conducted in a relaxed environment where the interviewee feels comfortable.
As the project progresses, a qualitative researchers question can be altered to reflect the data
collected. Sharan (2009) wrote, 'Qualitative researchers are interested in understanding how people
interpret their experiences.' 61, 62
According to Martin and Bridgeton (2012), 'Quantitative research involves the interplay among
variables after they have been operationalized, allowing the researcher to measure study outcomes.'
Quantitative research is based on continuous action and analysing in order to judge which outcome is
more probable. By collecting information that can be tested appropriately without any timeline
involved, quantitative research methods are of a mathematical nature. 63, 64
The argument between researchers (and the difference between the two methodologies) depends on
the way a researcher perceives their research. Marschan-Peikkari and Welch (2004) believed that,
'Qualitative research is not an easy option. It can often be expensive, time consuming, risky and even
dangerous to the health of the researcher.' 65, 66
Both qualitative and quantitative methods have parallel goals in terms of the focus of the research.
The real difference lies in the processing of information. Qualitative methods seek a personal view of
how the results came to be, whereas quantitative methods look for information that holds purely
statistical value. 67
3.5: Research method summary
Experimental methodology has the advantage of giving researchers so much control that they are
able to disaggregate information and analyse it piece by piece without causing anything else to be
affected. The disadvantage to this approach is that controlled test areas can psychologically change
what test subjects would normally do in a relaxed environment. Quasi experimental methods can
address common sense or likelihood issues, but there are factors that should be more controlled
when using this method. Case Studies allow for a very thorough examination of the evidence, and
unearthing of information which may be overlooked by other methods. Case studies also have a flaw:
they focus on an individual entity and do not factor in the outside world and its effects. Archival
research can dig up historical occurrences. However, the information can be unreliable if it was
collected using obsolete documentation methods. 68
3.6: Chosen research methods
Even though a quantitative methodology is commonly used in the computer science field, the above
research questions were addressed using a qualitative methodology, due to the ambitious aim and
simplistic nature of this project. This project was designed to be as simple yet valuable as possible, in
order for it to gain worth in the deaf and educational community.
A secondary research approach was used to gather the required information. The tests were
performed at the participants location, not only to promote the mobility of the equipment but also, to
produce a relaxed environment for the participants so that they engaged with the game more
naturally. In creating these tests, this methodology was used to find out if the delivery of a motion
capture game could help teachers of sign language.
In order to answer the last question (Q4) of the best suited methodology for validity of motion capture
in teaching sign language, the qualitative case study approach was used, due to its flexibility when
working with additional methodologies if necessary.
4. Development Methodologies
This section lays out various methodological processes that can be used for implementing research
projects:
4.1: The Waterfall Method
The waterfall development process describes a step-by-step approach to a project. After one stage of
a project is complete, the process moves on to the next stage; this cannot be reversed (just as a
waterfall does not flow backwards) (Figure 1). 69
In a software project setting that uses the waterfall development method, the development team will
request a plan from the client. Once all specifications have been gathered, the team then design of
the product before commencing with writing the code. This may seem logical. However, at the
requirements stage, the user is not aware of the issues that may arise upon implementation of certain
features they have requested. These issues affect the specification and the design and coding stages,
and they can render the end product useless. 70
Charvat (2003) stated that the waterfall methodology allows the development team to create specific
times during the project to reflect before moving to the next sequence in the development. This
particular model can also be used in conjunction with an iterative methodology. Due to a projects set
goals with no leeway, the development process can be very difficult to complete on time to meet
deadlines. A lot of the production time is spent writing accompanying documents as this is how the
waterfall model functions. 71
The waterfall method has more disadvantages than advantages because the whole process allows
input from the customer only at the initial requirements stage. More time is spent on the requirements
of the project in order to get it correct first time. The next time users have access to the project is
when it is completed to the original specification. By this point, if the user wishes to make any
amendments to the product, it is too late for the developers to implement them in a small amount of
time.
69
Figure 1: the Waterfall model
The waterfall model is not change-friendly and due to last minute-testing the end product is extremely
volatile. Even though this model is still very much in use within companies, Peterson et al (2009)
considered the bad qualities found within the waterfall methodology difficult to ignore. Even after an
extensive review of case studies and journal articles that surround the issues encountered by
production teams with this method, it is evident that the waterfall model is not suitable for some
projects and the impact of cost for the changes to the project are too high. 72
4.2: The Spiral Method
This model tends to be more suitable for many software projects. With the waterfall method as its
inspiration, the spiral method allows change because of the increased involvement of the client in the
project. For every cycle of the spiral model the production process is refined. One of the advantages
to a spiral model is that the process helps developers to single out areas that could pose potential
difficulties later down the production line (Figure 2). 73
Using the spiral method makes the specification phase much easier and not so document-driven. This
allows users to amplify their ideas and not worry about being too specific. Inmon et al (2008) showed
how the spiral method allows a team to make project selections using prototyping methods to create
tasks simultaneously and in any order they see fit. O' Docherty (2005) mentioned that each journey
around the development cycle is an improvisation of the initial ideas, and helps an exploration of new
ones. The cycle helps to identify issues and find ways of deciphering them. 74, 75
The advantage of having clients participate in the overall process is that mistakes can be identified
and corrected earlier in the project. The entire purpose of the spiral model is to produce a more
accurate project to the end user without pushing the development team too hard and allowing the
user maximum accessibility to the project at all stages of development.
73
Figure 2: the Spiral Model
4.3: Iterative Development
An example of iterative development, when making games, is when a team produces a draft copy of a
game in the first instance to be used as an example of the final product. By creating this example and
involving users in the development process, it becomes easier to shape the game through each
additional example that is created. These examples of the game are tested by the user using methods
such as quality assurance tests. Feedback is supplied by the user after testing and contains the
necessary modifications to be made, if any. This process is repeated until the project is complete.
Having this iterative construct in the development gives the developers a hands-on experience in the
decision-making process, which allows the project to run more smoothly. There is immediate
feedback on how the project is progressing, which results in complete user satisfaction. Jurgelionis et
al (2007) implemented an iterative method when creating games so that the user was more closely
involved in the development process. Games development can have a much more complicated
project setup than traditional projects, but these models still apply. Being able to incrementally
improve the test prototypes to provide a finished game is a vital part of this methodology. Bittner and
Spence (2007) described the iterative model as being a way of involving all parties associated with
the project. For its success, all affiliates must participate in unison. By resolving issues with the
project as a unit, it means these issues are fixed much more rapidly than other projects using different
models because of a cohesive effort by the project members. 76 - 78
The iterative method, also known as the incremental method, allows developers to freely pursue the
more difficult aspects of the project in the method most suited to them. Iteration is repetition, and each
cycle is a collection of tasks set by the initial agenda, including the incremental design, appraisal, and
testing of the product.
The fundamental functions of the iterative model is to continuously adjust and release parts of a
product until they are combined to make a finished programme. This gives ample opportunity to the
users and development team to make any necessary changes. Rainardi (2007) stated that the
necessary functions of iterative methodology consist of: the specification; the strategy; construction of
the product; having it tested by expert user; and, then making it live for others to sample and give
feedback. 79
4.4: The Prototyping model
The prototyping methodology is used in conjunction with other methods and consists of a precise
pattern. This sequence starts by acknowledging the clients needs and what functions the client would
like the product to perform. The next action is to design a prototype based on those needs and
develop the prototype before its first assessment. If the assessment deems the prototype to be unfit to
meet the client requirements, the design phase is looked at again before producing another version of
the prototype.
The fundamental purpose of prototyping is to make the clients vision into a tangible example product,
so that the client is able to sculpt iterations of prototypes until the better version prevails. The clients
vision may be explained in a more fundamental way at first but this is to get a first prototype made so
that the idea can be expanded as more examples are created. 80
A clients initial specification in prototyping methodology can be loosely put together. The reason for
this is that the client is still not fully aware of what they want in the product, except that there are
specific features that could change, depending on the outcome of the first prototype. From the first
prototype the product begins to develop and can become more complex as the process continues.
When the final prototype emerges and the client finds it acceptable, the product in its current condition
is still a prototype and it is up to the client to further complete the project in order to roll the finished
and fully functional product out to users. 81
4.5: Rapid Application Development (RAD)
Sabharwal (2009) explained that rapid application development also heavily involves the user in the
development process. By using a specific set of programmes during the coding phase, the entire
process can take much less time than that required using other methods. RAD uses techniques like
strategy devising to provide collective ideas during the requirements stage. After the client
specification is complete (as with the prototyping method), the user is in constant contact with the
development team during the prototype creation process. 82
Normally a larger team is unnecessary when using the RAD methodology. This is due to the powerful
programmes used for coding that speeds up the production process, cutting costs. Another method
used within RAD is reuse. However, a lack of reusable parts could spell disaster for the development
process. Plant and Murell (2007) also demonstrated that because of high powered development tools,
a maximum of six team members is more than adequate to produce parts of a product that would lead
to a finished prototype that meets its specification. 83
4.6: Test-Driven Development (TDD)
During programming, test driven development requires a development team to create a separate
piece of code that performs a series of checks on the product code. The purpose of these checks is to
ascertain whether or not the product is behaving in the required way. Hammell et al (2004) wrote that
throughout TDD, test cases are created for the purpose of making the product code complete the test
successfully and in the most efficient way possible. By refactoring the code, a programmer can
continuously refine the programme until it meets the specification standard. An iterative method is
used to certify this. 84, 85
4.7: The Agile method
The Agile method has been valid for over a decade. Its purpose is to combine a selection of smaller
methodologies and place them under one label. Agile methods are meant for smaller projects and are
not designed to withstand the lengthy cycles involved in larger projects.
Agile can be very adjustment-friendly, by creating small parts of a project in quick succession, the
problems of making an adjustment mid-way through the project become void. For small development
teams that do not have strict rules on how these small parts of a product are worked on and by whom,
agile works very well. Cockburn and Highsmith (2001) believed that Agile development is better suited
to more volatile projects that will require more adjustments than most other projects. 86, 87
If a development team consists of individuals who refuse to work collaboratively or do not possess the
tools needed for making a project, the Agile methodology cannot work. The rapid production of tasks
does not leave any room for people to 'test the waters', so to speak. Due to all members of the team,
including the client, working in a synchronized manner, the task of rapidly completing parts of a
project in quick succession is easily achieved.
The advantage to using the Agile method is that it is a change from the more involved processes that
consist of substantial ground work required before writing a single line of code. Instead of receiving a
rough specification from a client, Agile allows the requirements stage to be much more detailed, and
for a strict timescale to be put in place due to the rapid production rate encountered with agile
development. Paulk (2002) stated that there have been various comments made regarding Agile
development in the academic field. Such remarks detail the lack of organisation associated with the
development process. Nevertheless, the commentators did not deprecate the explicit nature in which
Agile is able to instruct users of the method on the exact rules of the methodology, an area on which
other methodologies fail to elaborate. 88, 89
Extreme Programming
One of the methodologies listed under the Agile label is Extreme Programming. The aim of this
method is to create a products code faster and more efficiently than traditional methods. However,
extreme programming can be a delicate method in which to develop. If the development team differs
in any way over time (for example, a member leaves the team and is replaced quickly), this can
disrupt the entire project. Extreme programming requires heavy collaboration in order to produce high
quality code in the time frame available. Becker (2010) claimed that by using extreme programming,
a development team can benefit from their product having fewer discrepancies within the code. This is
achieved by simply collaborating and keeping the goals as basic as possible. 90, 91
Scrum
Schuh (2005) described another Agile methodology named Scrum, which is partial to the overall
running of the project as it does not consist of very much programming. By using Scrum in
conjunction with Extreme Programming, a development team would benefit from the project
management, with tasks being split between designated individuals, resulting in high quality code. 92
4.8: Summary
The Waterfall method can be inflexible. Any development process needs to accommodate changes,
but the Waterfall methodology does not allow changes, and this could be detrimental to the project.
Although the waterfall method requires little preparation and has a development team working on one
task at a time, the method leaves no room for mistakes.
The Spiral model is better suited for a project with regular changes. This methodology is much better
suited to bigger projects and its iterative nature allows constant analysis of progression. This method
is not ideal for smaller productions due to the requirements for its functionality.
Agile is a great model for a smaller project. It has the 'get something done now' approach and by
using this method, a user can see progress immediately. It is a mistaken belief that the Agile
methodology requires ignoring the planning and documentation and focusing only on the
development. Agile allows for constant change but it does not necessitate regular changes throughout
the project.
So what is the best development methodology? That depends on the project, its expectations and the
resources surrounding the development team. Usually a fusion of more than one development
methodology is adopted to maximize the results. By mixing methods to suit the project at hand, a
development team can utilise the productivity of the waterfall method while embracing the change of
the agile methodology.
4.9: Chosen development method
Even though this project did not require a lot of programming, it required adequate project
management to ensure good documentation. The Agile methodology named Scrum was therefore
chosen (however, on its own, it was not enough). The prototyping method was used alongside Scrum
to enable the production of a prototype for testing, before making the recommended changes. This
allowed for immediate feedback and a controlled design and production of the prototype.
After researching the Kinect and investigating the possibilities and faults when developing with it, it
was deduced that a simple point and click advancing story was more logical than attempting to build
hardware which could achieve greater feats.
By creating a simplistic game, complication for the player is removed and the project management
becomes easier, allowing for more depth into the story of the game to be created.
'There are two essential steps common to all computer programme developments,
regardless of size or complexity. There is...an analysis step, followed by a coding step' 93
5. Software Testing Methodology
If testing is not performed, there is no possible way to find out if the programme performs to its
specification. By testing, the product can be sent to production in confidence. 94
5.1: Regression testing
The reason for using regression testing in software development is to check that by changing aspects
to a product, the development team hasnt inadvertently affected other parts of the product.
Regression testing involves a programmer performing checks on earlier builds of a product to find out
if new implementations will have any kind of harmful effect on the features that have already been put
in place. Orso et al (2004) explained that during the development of a project, a programmer will
make changes that, once saved, create a new version of the project. However, before it can be
passed to other members of the team via repository, it must be regression-tested to ensure the new
amendments have not created errors with existing functions of the programme. 95, 96
5.2: Acceptance Testing
A type of testing that is done by the users of the product is called Acceptance Testing, sometimes
referred to as Functional Testing. The purpose of this is to simulate the opinion of the consumers.
These tests are done just before a product is sent out to its intended market. Miller and Collins (2001)
mentioned that a tester will request particular characteristics of the product by performing certain
actions within the current state of functionality. 97
5.3: Object Oriented Testing
Revavid and Farid (2010) discussed object oriented testing within a game. Games are always tested
rigorously to make sure that every aspect of gameplay is on point and that there are no noticeable
flaws. This type of testing is a mix of different tests including system, integration and unit testing. By
using these methods, the developer is able to analyse the games functionality and also its behaviour
from a programming point of view. 98
5.4: Test case design
Test case design can consist of various methodologies. Myers et al (2011) discussed the use of 'white
box' testing, sometimes referred to as 'logic-driven' or 'clear box' testing. White box tests allow a
programmer to be fully aware of a programs core functionality. While testing it, the programmer
knows what to expect from the product under certain circumstances. The purpose of this testing
methodology is to retrieve information from the programs reason functionality. 99
The information gathered can be very useful, although it can also reveal mistakes that have been
seeded within developments since the requirements phase of the project. Performing a test for every
avenue of possibility, although comprehensive, is not logical due to some programmes being vast and
the number of possibilities being exponentially larger. This test also does not account for parts of the
specification that have accidentally been left out.
Black box testing is the opposite of white box testing. The tester in this method is generally someone
representing the user and is completely oblivious to the inner workings of the programme. A user will
pay particular attention to the programmes interface and explore the avenues of functionality through
using the programme as a consumer would. The advantage to this method of testing is lack of
favouritism from the programmer or designer, to produce test results that will show the accuracy of
the programme to its specification.
5.5: Summary
Software testing has been around as long as there has been software to be tested. There are
constant adaptations to testing methods. Regression testing can be very helpful to a project that
demands regular changes. If combined with acceptance testing, the regression testing methods would
be very beneficial to any development team putting a product onto the market. The feedback of a
potential user is invaluable, as this may provide a premonition to how well the product will perform on
the market.
Test case design is a very effective method of testing and because all aspects are strictly recorded,
the entire test is quantifiable and therefore the pass and failure rate can also be logged. The
disadvantage for test case design lies within its maintainability and time consumption. Consequently,
this method is arguably unfit for smaller projects with a time restriction.
5.6: Chosen testing method
Acceptance testing was chosen for this project due to (i) insubstantial programming, and (ii) the
prototype being produced and amended based on the users opinion. Since much of this project was
experimental, there was insufficient time for rigorous testing methods and the best option was to gain
feedback through acceptance testing.
White box testing was achieved by creating alerts inside JavaScript functions to test for errors within
the code.
Black box testing was conducted, whereby the purpose of the game was explained to the
interviewees who were then asked to play it. By playing the game without the knowledge of its inner
workings, the interviewees provided black box testing when divulging their thoughts on the games
performance.
6. Evaluation methodologies
There are formal and informal ways to evaluate something. Evaluation is used in everyday situations
and can be applied to almost any scenario. It is used in the decision making process as to whether or
not something functions properly for its intended use. 100
6.1: Formative Evaluation
Formative evaluation is the process of recognition when determining the possibilities of making
something function better. George and Cowan (1999) noted that when testing, formative evaluation
can be used to increase the probability of better results for when the test is repeated. By formatively
evaluating the initial results, the feedback can help a participant obtain better secondary results. 101
Formative evaluation is also used to scrutinise procedures in order to check for faults prior to their
implementation. According to Tessmer (1993), formative evaluation produced exceptional results
during the 1980s and became revered in certain academic circles. 102
6.2: Summative Evaluation
A summative evaluation is performed at the end of the production process. By taking all the data that
was accumulated throughout a process, a summative evaluation is used to assess the quality of a
product. Summative evaluation is used to identify problems within a product and the stages when
these problems arose. By providing this type of data, users are able to validate the quality of the
product. If an evaluation is able to answer the very daunting question of Does the product mirror the
specification?, then those who are performing the evaluation find other small variations in the product
to be of little significance. 103, 104
6.3: Interviews
The interview is a popular research method and a valuable tool. Careful consideration must be given
to the structure of questions that are to be used. The type of questions, their content, implication and
length can be very important aspects of a successful interview. 105
Different types of interview may be used: 106
- Unstructured interview: the researcher does not stick to the pre- planned set of questions, and
asks them in any order or fashion;
- Semi structured interview: this allows some room for initiative in how the questions are asked,
but has a more official feel to it;
- Narrative interview: this is the method of acquiring a whole story from the participant with
minimised interruption of questions; and,
- Focus group interview: this is the process of speaking with a small group of people all together.
Kothari (2009) described the interview method as an interaction that involves a verbal request for data
and the documenting of the reaction to that request. In a structured interview, the interviewer has a list
of questions that may need prior approval from the interviewee. While interviewing, the process can
be much smoother because the questions have been viewed beforehand and suitable answers have
been prepared by the interviewee. Interviews can be used to speak face-to-face or even over the
telephone to individuals who otherwise would not make the effort to provide information. 107
An unstructured interview can be a preliminary tool used to implement a higher standard of request to
the interviewee. The interview method can grasp the way a person might respond to a particular type
of question. It is also a way of retrieving data that might be lost in translation if recorded any other
way. 108
6.4: Focus groups
A focus group can be defined as a collection of people that will converse about the same subject. A
researcher can sit in the group without taking part and listen to the conversations to monitor the
opinions expressed throughout the session. This method of data gathering has been used since the
early 1900s to add value to a researchers data. 109
Focus groups are a method of placing individuals, who are linked to the subject of discussion and
placing them in a room together to receive a collective opinion of the subject. Krueger and Casey
(2008) described the process of focus groups as being hosted in an area that promotes the relaxation
of the participants. This atmosphere helps the individuals to share their feelings on the subject with
the other people in the room. 110
6.5: Surveys and questionnaires
Surveys are a common research method and they can be an influential instrument, if used correctly.
However, most of the data collected by surveys is not valid due to participants not knowing or caring
about the answers. Some surveys can reveal valid results, depending on the questions they contain,
and on the audience to whom they are sent. Surveys are used for various reasons, although their
main purpose is to gain data on public attitudes toward a certain product or situation. Survey
methodologies can be used in marketing, politics and other research. The results from surveys can
carry good statistical value, but may also contain a lot of mistakes which come in the form of
misspelling, dishonesty and non-participation. 111, 112
Nelson et al (2010) identified the similarities between a questionnaire and an interview. By using
structured questions that a participant has time to answer before submission, the questionnaires
resemblance to the interview is undeniable. A researcher may use a questionnaire if they are not
interested in the reactions of a participant in response to the questions provided. An interview is not a
viable option for some studies, either due to location purposes, or its unsuitability to the research
being conducted. 113
6.6: Chosen evaluation method for this project
It was decided that by using interviews to research the consideration of web based games as
teaching tools, it may be possible to gain the required information by arranging the questions and
interview using a semi-structured approach. Questionnaires, although similar to interviews, were
prepared in order to rate certain functionalities of the game once it had been viewed. (Questionnaires
produce some statistical data that may not be obtainable by interviewing.) Both summative and
formative evaluations were chosen to test how the project has performed in the play tests and to
evaluate the overall performance after amendments have been made.
7. Results
7.1: The participants
In order for the data retrieved to be of any value it was important to acquire at least 10 experts. They
included a mixture of educators and sign language interpreters.
7.2: Interview
The participants were asked various questions in regard to technology and its effect on educating
people who are deaf. The majority of responses were similar. The following questions were asked:
Question 1: What technology do you use to teach sign language, if any?
Most participants did not use technology, and believed that human interaction is the best approach.
Some participants did mention using YouTube, Facebook, DVD videos and mobile 'apps' for
reference. Other than these media, there was no reference to any type of motion capture or
interactive game.
Question 2: Do deaf students find learning in class difficult due to this technology?
No learning difficulties due to the use of technology in class were reported by the participants, mainly
because of the lack of technology being used within classes. 8 out of 10 participants believed that
such technology should be used in conjunction with traditional sign language teaching.
Question 3: How do students cope with the current level of technology used in everyday life?
There was a general consensus that students coped well with the use of technology in everyday life,
although the technology could be improved in order to make everyday activities easier for deaf
people.
Question 4: What would make teaching sign language easier?
All the participants believed that more games and technology with visual illustrations would assist with
teaching sign language. According to one participant, The use of visual aids and a programme to
bridge the gap between lessons to keep curriculum fresh in the students minds would help however,
the younger a student is when they start sign language, the better.
Question 5: Do you think there are frequent efforts being made to improve learning sign language?
The participants seemed to be unaware of the previous developments in technology for assisting deaf
people (as mentioned above in Section 2). Their general opinion was that although they receive the
occasional leaflet or government document that can be requested in sign language, creating or
acquiring such material is too expensive.
Question 6: Do students struggle to grasp the basics?
All the participants believed that most deaf students were competent in acquiring an understanding of
sign language. According to one participant, Every student is different and although some do have
difficulties, they are all in different areas of the sign language learning materials.
Question 7: How high is the level of deaf students reading and writing capabilities?
All the participants were of the opinion that their students capabilities were not high. They mentioned
that deaf people rely more on face-to-face communication, than on reading and writing or using sign
language.
Question 8: Have you heard of any Sign Language games?
All participants were unacquainted with any sign language games. (Questions 9 and 10 of the
questionnaire focussed on users' opinions and experiences with sign language games, but these
questions had to be ignored.)
Question 11: Have you heard of motion capture being used to teach sign language before?
None of the participants had heard of motion capture techniques being used to teach sign language
and only one of them had actually heard of motion capture.
Question 12: Would you be willing to work with indie games developers to help create viable
software?
All of the participants agreed. However, all participants stated they would only work with developers
on certain terms and conditions. Those were remuneration-related, partly because many of the
participants worked for charity and they considered their time as being very valuable.
Question 13: If you could let everyone know one thing about understanding sign language, what
would it be?
Two of the participants provided the following answers:
Sign language is not based on English it is a language in its own right.
Think about what it means to be deaf. Residual hearing can be used, but context is the
key to understanding. Start Thinking Deaf.
Question 14: How much would you be willing to pay for the technology to play sign language games?
3 participants said they would pay between 20 and 30; 5 participants said they would pay between
40 and 50; and 2 participants said they would pay between 80 and 90 for such technology.
7.3: Overview
The participants expressed that Sign language is a largely complicated language, but a language
nonetheless. Although they believed that deaf or hard-of-hearing people are not disadvantaged by the
intensive use of technology within society, they insisted that there should be more awareness of the
need to improve ease of access to these technologies. They mentioned that one of the main problems
with creating software to teach sign language is that there are different sign languages, and that
within those languages, there can be regional, religious and even gender variations. They believed
that it is possible to use motion capture to teach sign language but stressed that these methods must
be used in conjunction with traditional ones, because human interaction is still the best way to learn.
7.4: Questionnaire (see Appendix 1)
The questionnaire handed to participants contained 10 simple questions. As shown below in tables 1,
2 and 3, the answers to the questions are displayed and an average value is given.
When asked how fun the game was, 50% of participants voted very fun, while the other 50% still
voted a little fun. 30% of the participants were impressed with the graphical layout of the game;
another 30% of participants believed that improvements were needed, mainly because the .gif
images appeared to be too small (Table 1):
Table 1: The ratings for game aesthetics
Questions Ranking No. of participants who ticked

ranking
In general, how fun was the Very fun 5

game? A little fun 5
How attractive were the graphics Couldnt keep my eyes off it 3

and layout of the game? Nice to look at 2
Adequate 2
Needs improvement 3
Poor 0
Many of the participants found the game control to be very difficult. The majority of them had never
heard of the Kinect and so had no formal instruction on how the camera worked. 40% of the
participants said that they learned a lot from playing the game (Table 2). As shown in Table 3, the
scores for the project to reach the public and raise awareness were unanimously positive. 90% of the
participants were happy to use a similar programme to aid in teaching their pupils (Table 4).
All participants said they were happy to see a game that teaches sign language being displayed with
the latest technology. The majority of them said they would accept this technology and welcome it into
their classrooms, providing it was developed further in collaboration with a deaf person.
Table 2: the ratings for game controls and educational properties

ranking
How easy was the game to Very easy 1

control? Normal 3
Difficult to control 6
Did you learn anything from the A lot 4

game? A little 6
Nothing 0
Table 3: the ratings for marketing properties of the game

ranking
Do you think this game would Yes 10

help to raise awareness? No 0
Do you think there is a market for Yes 10

this type of technology and way No 0
of learning?
Table 4: the ratings for the games educational properties

ranking
If you were to teach a class sign Yes 9

language, would you ask them to No 1
play something like this?
7.5: Graphical interchange formats
Signed letters of the alphabet and key phrases were created using Graphical Interchange Format
(.gif) images. The implementation of these images was not as simple as had been initially
expected. The Html canvas element does not support .gif images and only plays the first image in
the loop. As a solution, .gif images were placed on top of the canvas inside div tags. When they
are to be invisible, an opaque image replaces them. Each .gif contained several still images of
every stage of an individual sign. Once these images were converted into the .gif (using a
programme named GimpTM), they portrayed a seemingly moving image of a signed letter or sentence.
7.6: Technical issues
The initial idea for the project was to use the Kinect to identify hand shapes as silhouettes and to ask
the user to match his/her hand shape with that which was shown on the screen in order to progress
through the game.
The Kinect possesses a limited capability to capture hand gestures. There have been successful
projects using adapted algorithms to calculate finger location in respect to the users hand. As
progressive as these methods may be, none of them are used with the Zig Fu library which allows for
easy integration into a web browser. The UML diagram is shown in Appendix 3 and the pseudocode
is shown in Appendix 4.
The alternative idea has been adapted to work with the Zig Fu library. By placing .gif images on
screen and listening for the users action while the hand cursor is in the vicinity of the image, a choice
is selected out of two, which progresses the story by changing the content of the canvas element.
Screenshots of the game are provided in Appendix 2.
For installation, the Kinect included the Software Development Kit. Drivers were installed on the Zig
Fu library. Even if the software has been installed, the Kinect hardware is a demanding resource. If
installed onto a laptop, the Kinect may utilise 99% of the computing processor unit resources.
The system requirements were:
32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor

Dual-core 2.66-GHz or faster processor
Dedicated USB 2.0 bus
2GB RAM
These requirements present a problem for people using older laptops or older operating systems.
7.7: Equipment
The apparatus should be as mobile and unobtrusive as possible. This can be achieved by using the
Kinect with a basic laptop (with the option of a VGA cable for television display), providing the laptop
is of a proficient speed. The game can be presented within a browser and because it is based entirely
on HTML5 and JavaScript it can be hosted as a website. If an internet connection is unavailable,
there is a backup version that does not require internet access.
7.8: Representation
To allow the user to see where their hand location is on screen, a graphical representation of a hand
will be used in the same manner as the arrow cursor of a mouse. This aids the player in seeing where
they need to move their hand next.
7.9: Further research
This paper reports on the earlier stages of this project. One of the key aims of this project is to ensure
that the game remains fun and captivating to the player. To achieve this, the game will be displayed
and tested at conferences such as the Digital Futures event in Paisley (June 2013). To ensure good
project development, runs smoothly a Gantt chart is being devised and will be hosted online; this will
categorise all project tasks by level of importance. The chart is Cloud-based, which improves the
ability to alter tasks or create notifications via email.
8: Discussion in response to research questions
Question 1: Can the delivery of a motion capture game using the Kinect help educators in teaching
sign language?
When interviewing educators of sign language it was apparent that they believed a motion capture
game could help to teach sign language. They stressed that a game delivered using this method
would need to be used in conjunction with regular classes and perhaps given to students as a
homework task or a lab exercise. They believed that sign language is best taught face-to-face and
although there are ways of learning some aspects using the KinectTM, just as people speak differently
with regional dialect and rhythm, so too do deaf people when using sign language.
Question 2: Would a web-based game be considered as a valid teaching tool?
Judging by the reactions of the participants to the game that ran via a web browser, it is likely that this
method would be considered, even welcomed, by educators working with deaf pupils.
Question 3: Have previous web based motion capture games been successful in the education
sector?
Current web applications already exist, but they were not well known among the participants. Deaf
people may not be aware of the efforts by researchers and developers to make games and
applications that can act as a translation tool, or a learning tool, or even just a fun game which can be
accessible for them. Motion capture games alone have not been readily available. In part this is due
to the cost of hardware and the cost to the developer. A financial budgeting method for developing
indie sign language games would be well received.
Question 4: What methodology would be best suited to explore the validity of motion capture in
teaching sign language?
The best research methodology might be a qualitative approach. Due to the delicate nature of
introducing new technology to a community, it is important to gather the opinions of experts within
sign language education to ensure that such a product would be well-received.
Although there were some problems when using the Kinect system, it was evident that the
participants were impressed with the idea of delivering a scenario or story book game through a web
browser to aid learning. At the time of writing, the contribution of the Kinect was minimal; the game
would be noticeably different if all a user had to do was click from scene to scene. One advantage of
using the Kinect equipment is its low price. However, judging by the responses to the questionnaires,
most people would only pay between 10 and 30 (whereas the equipment costs over 100).
9: Conclusions and future work
The results from this study support the alternative hypothesis (refer back to sub-section 3.1), in that
Microsoft Kinect has proved to be useful in this project. It may be possible to increase the accuracy of
the program, although it might not be accurate enough for its intended use in this project. Sign
language requires the use of the entire upper torso and includes small gestures, which given the
current stage of technological advancement - wouldnt be received properly.
Because sign language is an in-depth and intricate language, the idea of capturing it in its entirety for
translation or teaching purposes, remains an idea. There has been widespread research into
capturing American Sign Language, but limited research being performed to improve the translation of
British sign language.
With this project there has been progress in the development of an interactive lexicon that is web-
based, and which could be accessed from home. With further development, it may be possible to
build an interactive web based game for learning.
Recommendations for further work include the following:
- Since the Microsoft Kinect proved to be a useful technology, further development within the
software development kit will generate useful results, in terms of getting a motion capture game
(that teaches British sign language) onto the market.
- There is a need to conduct further surveys and interviews, in order to learn more about the
needs of the deaf community. Further research into the history of sign language could also
prove useful.
- Although the Kinect is capable of detecting more than just a hand, advanced algorithms are
needed in order to accomplish this. It may be advisable to wait for the Kinect 2.0TM or the Leap
MotionTM to be released and apply that technology to the fundamental idea.
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank Professor Thomas Connolly for monitoring my progress, and I thank Dr Thomas
Hainey, whose advice and expertise were invaluable. I would also like to thank those at Deaf
Connections for taking part in the play test and interviews, along with the independent interpreters
who very kindly took time out of their busy schedules to meet with me.
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Game advertising: a conceptual framework and exploration of

advertising prevalence
Martin Williamson Smith1, Wei Sun2, John Sutherland3, Bobby Mackie4
1, 2, 4: Business School, University of the West of Scotland, Paisley, Renfrewshire, UK (post code: PA1 2BE)
1: e-mail: Martin.W.Smith@uws.ac.uk
3: Editor in Chief of The Computer Games Journal
Abstract
Although academic business-based research into the area of Video and Computer Games (games) has
increased in recent years, it will be shown that these have had a propensity to concentrate upon either
Advergames or In-Game Advertising. However, this does not present the full picture of the association of games
with advertising, and as such, a conceptual framework is offered, which is more inclusive of other aspects of
marketing concepts used. Furthermore, our results into game advertising prevalence within the top 200 games
within each year from 2005 through 2009 show that nearly 38% of these had advertising and marketing
associations and that over 30% were through Around-Game Advertising associations.
Keywords: video and computer games; game advertising; In-Game Advertising; Around-Game Advertising; advertising
prevalence; marketing
Article Information
Received: December 2013

Accepted: March 2014
All trademarks acknowledged
Copyright of the authors 2014 Reproduction rights owned by The Computer Games Journal Ltd 2014
1: Introduction
Games can no longer be considered to be the realm of computer geeks and teenage boys in their
bedroom, with UK-based research showing that the average earnings of an adult playing games
regularly was around 22,000, which was comparable to the UK average wage at the time of around
24,000 p.a. Furthermore, in 2011 it was estimated that 32.9 million people between the ages of 8
and 65 played games in the UK, of which 27.6 million were considered to be adult gamers and 49%
being female. These figures are comparable with the United States (US) where the Entertainment
Software Association found that 58% of the adult population played games regularly, with 51% of
households owning at least one games console. The average age of a gamer was indicated as being
30 years old, with 68% of all US gamers being over the age of 18, with 45% of these being female.1-8
This rise in a more diverse demographic of gamer has helped to push the revenue of the global
games industry from a reputed US$400 million in 1977 to US$57.2 billion in 2012. This is estimated to
rise further still to around US$78 billion by 2017, if revenue from mobile games is included. This is
despite the market in the United States diminishing by 9% in 2012 from US$16.3 billion to US$14.8
billion. It is, therefore, unsurprising that marketers have targeted game playing consumers through
associations in and around games. Advertising-related revenue growth has risen by over 900% from
US$79 million in 2003 to over US$800 million in 2009 within the US alone. As a result of this growth in
the industry and associated advertising, games now appear to be the fastest growing and most
exciting category of mass media for the coming decade (Marchand and Hennig-Thurau 2013, p. 141).
This association between games and marketing has captured the attention of the business
academics, with more research appearing on a regular basis, primarily focused on matters connected
to Advergames or In-Game Advertising (Table 1): 9 - 13
Table 1: examples of video game advertising research (see References for further details)
Advergames In-Game Advertising
Hernandez et al. (2004) Nelson (2002)

Moore (2004) Chaney et al (2004)
Mallinckrodt and Mizerski (2007) Grigorovici and Constantin (2004)
Moore and Rideout (2007) Nelson et al (2004)
Guru (2008) Lars-Peter Schneider (2005)
Wise et al. (2008) Bambauer (2006)
Pempek and Calvert (2009) Molesworth (2006)
Dahl (2009) Nelson et al (2006)
Cauberghe and De Pelsmacker (2010) Yang et al (2006)
Gross (2010) Lee and Faber (2007)
Thomson (2010) Mau et al (2008)
Hofmeister-Tth and Nagy (2011) Mackay et al (2009)
An and Stern (2011) Lewis and Porter (2010)
Dias and Agante (2011) Turner et al (2011)
Okazaki and Yage (2012) Besharat et al (2013)
Redondo (2012) Choi et al (2013)
Kinard and Hartman (2013) Gangadharbatla et al (2013)
Peters and Leshner (2013) Poels et al (2013)
Steffen et al (2013) Terlutter and Capella (2013)
Waiguny et al (2013) Yoon and Vargas (2013)
However, there appears to be little insight provided into how prevalent advertising associations are
with games. Of the 40 papers outlined above, only Nelson (2002, p. 80) was found to have briefly
mentioned this with the indication that Half of the top 25 videogames feature a licensed player or
branded product. Therefore, the aim of this this paper is to examine the prevalence of advertising
associations with games. Advertising associations are defined here as being any marketing concept,
which is found within or associated with games, which help to promote a third-party brand, product, or
service. Before this however, a conceptual framework will be provided, which offers new definitions of
terms, which in turn have specific scope and meaning for marketers and researchers alike. 14
2: Re-evaluation of advertising associations with video games
As previously suggested, it would appear that the majority of business academic research into
advertising associations with games has primarily focused on Advergames or In-Game Advertising.
However, it will be shown that this does not fully reflect what is happening within the industry, with
other facets (termed as Around-Game Advertising) being somewhat ignored. Therefore, we propose
that a conceptual framework is required, which fully reflects what is happening in the industry, to help
provide an overview for those wishing to pursue research within the context of games and advertising.
Furthermore, we suggest that the requirement for a conceptual framework also stems from apparent
confusion and misinterpretations in some past studies. Table 2 highlights numerous occasions when
the terms Advergames and In-Game Advertising have been discussed as though they are the same
concept, when in fact they should be considered to be separate marketing facets in their own right.
15 - 21
Table 2: examples of video game advertising research misinterpretations
Citation Possible misinterpretation
Nelson (2005) Referred to 'Advergaming' but discussed findings based on In-Game

Advertising billboard placements.
Kim (2006) Asserted that In-Game Advertising can be called 'advergaming',

describing this as providing the gamer with a more realistic experience
allowing companies to to indirectly promote products.
Lehu (2007) Indicated that the terms 'advergaming', 'in-game advertising' or

'advertainment' are used to describe product placement in a game,
insinuating that these terms have the same/similar meanings and are only
associated with product placement.
Panda (2008) Indicated that an Advergame is a type or mode of In-Game Advertising.
Jung et al (2011) Only discussed In-Game Advertising features, but presented results
obtained from a puzzle game, which is unmistakeably an Advergame-
promoting detergent.
Bleumers et al. (2012) Indicated that an Advergame is a type or mode of In-Game Advertising.
Nairn and Hang (2012) Described In-Game Advertising as being a facet of Advergames.
Although both use games, they require different skills, achieve different objectives and give a
different experience to end users (Lovell 2011, non-paginated). In addition, many who have
investigated these marketing communication channels clearly differentiate between them, not only
due to their design but also that playing the games requires different levels of cognition and player
immersion. This causes confusion where researchers have used one term, only to describe research
and provide results based on the other. Although some researchers have provided conceptual
frameworks in the past, these have had a tendency to focus on value creation in the industry, such as
Marchand and Henning-Thurau (2013), who highlight relationships between the consumer, game
platforms and content. 13, 22 - 29
2.1: Proposed conceptual framework of game advertising
The conceptual framework proposed in this paper, utilises empirical data to provide a clear and
comprehensive structure of the scope and scale of advertising associations of video games within
three distinct advertising facets (Figure 1). This framework has been developed from information
outlined by the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), which was founded in 1996 and consists of more
than 500 media and technology companies responsible for 86% of US based online advertising. They
form part of a global, collaborative network consisting of 39 similar but independent organisations
covering North and South America, Europe, Asia and Australia. 30, 31
In 2007, the IAB responded to the rise of gaming within the US, by establishing a Games Committee
with the remit to highlight the value and scale of gaming as an advertising medium, which is driven
by engaging content and cross platform solutions (IAB, 2013c). Through this committee, they
published a report in October 2007 that introduced the concept of advertising associations under the
collective term, Game Advertising. When this report was subsequently updated in 2010 their Games
Ad Unit Compendium (Appendix A) consisted of three main facets of Advergames, In-Game
Advertising and Around-Game Advertising: 32 - 34
Figure 1: game advertising conceptual framework
Therefore, we propose that when looking to discuss advertising associations with games from a
general perspective, that those within the academic community and beyond should look to adopt the
term Game Advertising as a generic phrase to avoid any future misunderstandings with terminology.
Although the IAB failed to provide a definition, we define Game Advertising as:
The association of marketing communications messages with video & computer games to
target consumers through Advergames, Around-Game Advertising or In-Game Advertising
activities.
This definition signifies that three broad but distinct categories of Game Advertising exist, which utilise
various forms of marketing and advertising. Consequently, each of these categories will be looked at
in more detail, with new definitions provided.
2.2: Advergames
The term advergames is simply an amalgam of advertising and games, which originated in January
2000 when Anthony Giallourakis purchased the domain names advergames.com and
adverplay.com. In October 2001, the term was picked up by Jargon Watch within Wired MagazineTM
who defined it as, A downloadable or Web-based game created solely to enable product placements.
This term and definition was quickly adopted by the games industry, media and the gaming public
alike. Moreover, several academic authors have subsequently perceived advergames as being only
accessible on the Internet or through online downloads. However, we suggest that this understanding
is no longer appropriate as it fails to take into account alternative utilisations and disseminations of
Advergames. 35 - 47
Firstly, careful consideration has to be given as to why an Advergame have been designed and what
the organisation is trying to achieve. In general terms, they can be considered to be Experiential,
where they are developed to sustain positive consumer attitudes through associations with particular
lifestyle or social choices. These games are considered to be more reinforcing mechanisms, used to
support customer retention and build customer loyalty. Alternatively, an Advergame can also be
considered to be a Direct Response medium where they can generate leads for the brand being
promoted through gathering consumer details at the time of play or as revenue generators from the
sale of the game as a standalone purchase or in conjunction with another product. Both of these are
considered here to be more of a persuasion mechanism, where the goal is to end with a consumer
purchase of the game or the product/service being promoted. 48
Secondly, our framework suggests that an Advergame is not just played on or downloaded from the
Internet but can also be distributed via game cartridge or disk. This is especially true when it is
considered that some of the earliest Advergames actually pre-date the term itself, harking back to
1983 and the Atari VCS 2600 console. This console witnessed various commercial releases on game
cartridges such as Kraft Foods Kool-Aid Man; Johnston & Johnstons Tooth Protectors and Purinas
Chase the Chuck Wagon, as well as the promotional Coca Colas Pepsi Invaders, which was
designed to be given away at their sales convention. Furthermore, possibly the most successful
commercial Advergames to date, came via game disks when Burger King released a series of three
games for the Xbox entitled Pocket Bike Racer, Sneak King and Big Bumpin in 2006, developed by
Blitz Games Studios. These were sold for $3.99 each as part of a value meal and with sales of
approximately 3.5 million units, generated revenues of over $12 million for the organisation. 48 - 50
As such, we offer a more encompassing definition, which encapsulates our conceptual understanding
of an Advergame as:
A digital game specifically designed for the primary purpose of advertising and promotion
of an organisations product, service or brand played via the Internet or on a compatible
medium via a games disc or digital download.
2.3: In-Game Advertising
Defining in-game advertising appeared to be a simple process as it does exactly what it says on
the tin (Dalzell and Victor 2008, p.653), in that it concerns advertising products/services within the
games environment. However, we suggest that it is slightly more complicated as various formats
exist, dependent upon how these are placed, delivered and viewed within the gaming environment.
There are various levels of game interactivity, whereby these can be either (i) Cosmetic Placements,
usually added for authenticity and to enhance realism, or (ii) Integrated Placements, allowing player
interaction that could be linked to game progression. Moreover, different interpretations of what
constitutes In-Game Advertising have been developed, from the main perspectives of it being either
(a) the inclusion of advertising material, or (b) the placement of products and brands. Nevertheless,
what is common to each interpretation is that the product, service or brand should be real, and should
reflect in the gaming environment what happens in the real world. 51 - 58
To complicate matters further, In-Game Advertising can be associated with either static or dynamic
components. Static In-Game Advertising consists of elements that are coded directly into the game
during its development, and which cannot be altered or removed without a new version of the game
being released. They were the initial methods by which marketing messages appeared within games -
whereas Dynamic In-Game Advertising allows for advertising content to be changed, or for additional
branded items to be added. Although that may happen via downloads or from disks, the most
convenient way is via an internet connection, which adjusts pre-existing areas within the game in real-
time. This allows for direct consumer targeting campaigns, with alternative messages being displayed
at different times and for time-limited campaigns, similar to television advertising. An example of this
was during the 2008 US presidential election when Barack Obamas campaign placed political
messages within various games through billboards and arena hoardings trying to encourage people to
vote. In addition, dynamic advertising allows advertisers to react to changing trends very quickly as
well as promoting new products such as the release of a new film or television programme within pre-
existing games, which have built up an online following. 54, 59 - 63
Within our framework, In-Game Advertising has two final components of how messages will be
delivered as either Marketing Displays or Product Placement. Marketing Displays include advertising
hoardings, posters, store signage, sports apparel sponsors, (etc.) but not the actual products
themselves. Marketing Displays is defined here as being:
Static or dynamic displays, which can be either associative or interactive simulations of

real world media.
Alternatively, we define Product Placement as:
The integration of branded non-fictional products embedded within the gaming

environment as either a passive implicit background element or as a contextually active,
explicit and interactive element, which can be static or dynamic in nature.
As such, within our framework, we define In-Game Advertising as:
The integration of non-fictional products and brands within the playing environment of
video & computer games through simulated real life marketing communications
mechanisms.
2.4: Around-Game Advertising
The final category to be proposed within our conceptual framework is that of Around-Game
Advertising (AGA). This has been identified as having four main delivery elements of either: Banners,
Cross Promotion (including Cross-Media Promotion); Interstitials; or, Sponsorship. The key to this
category is that it promotes marketing messages in a manner, which should not intrude into the
gaming environment.
Traditionally, AGA takes the form of videos or banner displays, which appear around the game
environment, or as complimentary adverts before/after a game is played, or between game levels.
Banners are usually hyperlinked to advertising websites promoting the product/service associated
with the game. Video display elements are classified as being interstitials, which were originally
associated with supplementary web pages whilst navigating from one web page to another (Bae
2003). From a gaming perspective, they can be present before or after a game, or when the game is
loading. Moreover, they can be used within games themselves such as in WipEout HDTM through the
2009 expansion pack WipEout HD FuryTM, which not only contained new tracks, vehicles, etc., but
also video advertisements shown during load screens. Sponsorship is also a traditional method where
an advertiser sponsors part of the game environment that possibly allows free game access; or
sponsors a game level; or sponsors a game through Game Skinning (whereby the advertiser
sponsors the game environment within which the game is placed, or has been given a sponsored
area within the game portal). As such, these three elements are also used in conjunction with
Advergames, especially when these appear in a games portal such as MiniclipTM (Appendix B). 18, 65 - 71
However, we suggest that Around-Game Advertising can be expanded to encompass facets of

advertising and promotion, which allow game developers to establish licensing agreements as an
additional revenue source. Licensing is defined by LIMA (2013, non-paginated) as: 72
the process of leasing a trademarked or copyrighted entity (known as a property) for

use in conjunction with a product, service or promotion. The property could be a name,
likeness, logo, graphic, saying, signature, character or a combination of several of these
elements.
Within Around-Game Advertising, these agreements relate to the external licensing of a game entity
away from the gaming environment, and do not encompass agreements, whereby organisations
explicitly include their products within the game. These are termed as being Cross Promotion, which
Chalmers et al. (2013, p. 4) indicates is a form of marketing promotion whereby customers of one
product or service are targeted with the promotion of a related product [or service]..., and with
Sheldon (2007, non-paginated) stating that it ...is a specific marketing tactic wherein two or more
businesses team up together to reach a broader shared population. These definitions highlight the
differences between this aspect of promotion to that of merchandising, as cross promotion specifically
looks to tap into a larger shared customer base, which should be beneficial to each party involved,
and so it is not just an extra revenue source. 73, 74
Within gaming, cross promotion has allowed many relationships to be formed providing game
developers access to other revenue streams, as well as being a way to promote their games to
potential new audiences through relationships with various industries. For example, a relationship with
the fashion industry has allowed for character costumes to be specifically designed by companies
such as Diesel, exposing gamers to the Diesel brand whilst the games were promoted in stores,
thereby exposing Diesel customers to the games. Similarly, cross promotion can result from initial In-
Game Advertising, whereby a product was included for realism, and inspires the company to develop
an associated product. An example of this can be seen with the motor industry where the Chrysler
Group developed a limited edition Jeep Wrangler in 2011 and 2012 associated with the Call of DutyTM
games. 75 - 78
One of the most popular relationships has been with the food and beverage industry, such as cross
promotion agreements with fast-moving consumer goods, which are products that consumers
purchase and use frequently; typically they are retail goods that are depleted or replaced after a short
period of time (Steinman and Wolfrom 2012, p. 31). Associations with these types of goods have
proved popular within the industry, such as World of WarcraftTM and Coca Cola; Halo 2TM and Halo
3TM with Pepsi Co's Mountain Dew brand; and, various promotions linking the Final FantasyTM games
with the Japanese drinks manufacturer Suntory. In addition, there are online redeemable codes on
product packaging, which offer consumers the chance to win exclusive prizes and gain access to in-
game bonuses such as extra experience points (XP) or exclusive character costumes or
equipment.79 - 85
Furthermore, the games industry has also had a long and established relationship with the fast food
industry, which has been enhanced through games being associated with kids meals promotional
toys with companies such as Wendys, McDonalds, Subway, Burger King and Taco Bell, as well as
games associated with McDonalds, Burger King and Dominos Pizza. Finally, through Cross-Media
Promotion, the relationship between the games and movie industries has a strong and long
relationship, which has seen film studios purchasing game developers (e.g. Warner Brothers with
Atari in 1976), or establishing their own games divisions (e.g. Warner Bros Interactive Entertainment).
This relationship has not only resulted in games being developed from films, but also films being
developed from games. The latter has resulted in over 33 movies with an average budget of $48
million (US) developed from games by May 2013, with a further 12 apparently planned. 13, 87 - 91
Based on the inclusion of this new category, we define Around-Game Advertising as:
Advertising and promotion linked to video and computer games through non-intrusive
around game displays or licensing of game branding with associated third-party products.
3: Advertising prevalence in video games
As previously indicated, there have been many studies undertaken within the area of Game
Advertising but few examine just how prevalent this concept is within the industry. However,
Advergames are not examined here as there is no way to rank their popularity for the years examined
or to compare these with their video and computer game counterparts. As such, the main section of
this paper outlines:
1. the research method and results obtained from gathering and analysing secondary data
through a comprehensive analysis of the top 200 video games from 2005 to 2009;
2. their associations with In-Game Advertising; and,
3. wherever possible, their associations with Around-Game Advertising
3.1: Method
The initial stage was to identify a source of suitable information and after searching various websites
which supplied game charts, VGChartz (www.vgchartz.com/yearly) was chosen as it provided free
information on games including (i) the name of the game; (ii) the console it could be played on; (iii) the
name of the developer/publisher; (iv) the number of weeks it was in the charts; (v) the annual sales
figures and (vi) the sales in total, (Appendix C). In addition, the methodology of how this site
formulates their charts appeared to be reliable as it involves a mixture of methods and multiple
sources including: (i) surveying both gamers and retailers; (ii) the utilisation of statistical trend
patterns; (iii) examining resell prices in connection with consumer demand and stock levels and (iv)
interacting with publishers to examine the number of units being shipped within different selling
channels. Once the source had been identified, the actual gathering, synthesising and analysis of the
raw data was then undertaken (Figure 2). 92
Figure 2: game advertising prevalence process
3.2 Results
General games industry-related
From a general industry perspective, Table 3 highlights the number of game titles for each company
and console throughout the period. Initially, Sony consoles dominated the charts in 2005 and 2006
with the PS2 being the leading console each year. However, in 2007 Nintendo came to the fore due
to the success of their DS console being the leading system that year. Nintendo again dominated in
2008, largely due to an increase in the number of WiiTM games as well as the DS replicating its
previous success to be the leading console, followed closely by both the WiiTM and Xbox 360TM. The
rise of the Xbox 360TM in 2008 would prove to be a sign of things to come in 2009, as although
Nintendo was the leading company, the Xbox 360TM was the top console. Overall, although Nintendo
dominated the charts for 2007, 2008 and 2009, a closer analysis of the full five-year period highlights
Sony as the leading company and their PS2TM as the leading console.
Although 200 games were listed for each year, it was apparent that duplicate game titles were present
due to multiple versions of the same game available for different consoles. As the analysis
progressed beyond the first year, duplicate titles also appeared from the previous chart in subsequent
years, due to the popularity of some games still generating enough sales to appear in that year's
chart. As such, it was found that of the 1000 games originally cited, only 566 unique titles were
present over the full five-year period (Figure 3).
Table 3: Top 200 Games (2005-2009) by company, console and year
Company Console 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 Total
No. % No. % No. % No. % No. % No. %

Nintendo GBA 11 5.50 5 2.50 - - - - - - 16 1.60
GC 17 8.50 10 5.00 1 0.50 - - - - 28 2.80
DS 27 13.50 40 20.00 61 30.50 52 26.00 45 22.50 225 22.50
Wii - - 3 1.50 33 16.50 47 23.50 50 25.00 133 13.30
Total 55 27.50 58 29.00 95 47.50 99 49.50 95 47.50 402 40.20
Sony PSP 32 16.00 16 8.00 16 8.00 9 4.50 4 2.00 77 7.70
PS2 106 53.00 91 45.50 33 16.50 15 7.50 8 4.00 253 25.30
PS3 - - 1 0.50 18 9.00 30 15.00 39 19.50 88 8.80
Total 138 69.00 108 54.00 67 33.50 54 27.00 51 25.50 418 41.80
Microsoft Xbox 2 1.00 7 3.50 1 0.50 - - - - 10 1.00
X360 5 2.50 27 13.50 37 18.50 47 23.50 54 27.00 170 17.00
Total 7 3.50 34 17.00 38 19.00 47 23.50 54 27.00 180 18.00
GBA = Game Boy Advance; GC = GameCube; DS = Nintendo Di Esu; PSP = Playstation Portable; PS2 = Playstation 2;
PS3 = Playstation 3; X360 = Xbox 360; PP = Product Placement; MD = Marketing Displays; AGA = Around-Game Advertising
Even in the first year it was found that 20 games (10% for the year) were duplicate titles, with the
remaining 180 unique titles accounting for 31.8% of titles over the period. By 2006, this had risen to
95 duplicate games (47.5% for the year), with the 105 unique titles accounting for 18.55%, with the
same figures repeated for 2007. In 2008, duplicate titles rose to 113 or 56.5% of titles for that year,
with the remaining 87 unique titles representing 15.37% of those found overall. This recovered slightly
in 2009 with a reduction to 111 duplicate titles, but this still represented 55.5% of titles being duplicate
for that year, with the 89 unique titles representing 15.72% of all the games.
As regards companies that publish software, it was found that over the five-year period, a total of 41
distinct publishers (based on this terminology used by VGChartz) had games appearing within the
charts (Appendix D). From this it was found that the most prolific was Nintendo with 17.67% of
games (100 games), with its closest rivals being Electronic Arts with 14.31% (81 games).
Finally, fourteen different gaming genres were identified as being the main genres present in the
investigation (Table 4). Over the full period, the most dominant was Action/Adventure, followed by
Sports, Role Play Games (RPG) and Shooter. Annually, from 2005 through 2008, the
Action/Adventure genre led the way, followed by Sports games. However, in 2009, these places were
reversed, with Sports games being the leading genre, pushing Action/Adventure into second place. In
terms of lowest prevalence, Puzzle and Strategy games consistently appeared in the bottom two, with
another four genres, Platformer, Educational, Miscellaneous and Party occasionally joining them.
Game advertising-related
When looking at the prevalence of Game Advertising in terms of In-Game Advertising and Around-
Game Advertising, it was found that of the 566 unique titles, 215 (37.99%) were associated with these
two facets. Annually, the results showed that in 2005, 66 out of the 180 unique titles had associations
with Game Advertising, representing 36.67% of games; in 2006, this was 39.05% (41 out of 105
games); in 2007 it was 29.52% (31 out of 105 games); in 2008 it was 47.13% (41 out of 87 games)
and in 2009, this was 40.45% (36 out of 89 games). Over the period, this averaged out at 38.56% of
games having links to Game Advertising and highlighted a fluctuation of 17.61% between the lowest
point in 2007 and the highest in 2008.
Figure 3: unique game titles by year
Table 4: unique game titles by genre and year
Game genre 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 Total
No. % No. % No. % No. % No. % No. %

Action/adventure 54 30.00 28 26.67 31 29.52 19 21.84 17 19.10 149 26.33
Sports 29 16.11 20 19.05 15 14.29 13 14.94 22 24.72 99 17.49
RPG (role-playing game) 21 11.67 13 12.38 11 10.48 8 9.20 11 12.36 64 11.31
Shooter 19 10.56 11 10.48 9 8.57 12 13.79 10 11.24 61 10.78
Racing 19 10.56 4 3.81 5 4.76 7 8.05 5 5.62 40 7.07
Music 3 1.67 4 3.81 5 4.76 10 11.49 7 7.87 29 5.12
Fighting 10 5.56 9 8.57 2 1.90 4 4.60 3 3.37 28 4.95
Simulation 3 1.67 3.81 6 5.71 7 8.05 4 4.49 24 4.24
Platformer 3 1.67 5 4.76 4 3.81 1 1.15 2 2.25 15 2.65
Educational 4 2.22 4 3.81 5 4.76 2 2.30 - - 15 2.65
Miscellaneous 6 3.33 1 0.95 3 2.86 1 1.15 3 3.37 14 2.47
Party 3 1.67 - - 5 4.76 2 2.30 2 2.25 12 2.12
Puzzle 2 1.11 1 0.95 2 1.90 1 1.15 2 2.25 8 1.41
Strategy 4 2.22 1 0.95 2 1.90 - - 1 1.12 8 1.41
Total 180 105 105 87 89 566
Figure 4 highlights that due to games being associated with more than one format, there were in fact
278 occurrences linked to the 215 games found to have Game Advertising associations (see
Appendix E for full game list). Annually, Marketing Displays were found to be the most popular in four
out of the five years, although in 2009, Around-Game Advertising pushed ahead. On average, 63.47%
of occurrences were In-Game Advertising related, with 36.53% being Around-Game Advertising.
Within In-Game Advertising, Marketing Displays accounted for 39% of the total occurrences with
Product Placement accounting for 24.47%.
Figure 4: Game advertising occurrences by year and marketing concept
Unsurprisingly, single occurrences of Game Advertising accounted for 56.12% or 156 of the 278 total
occurrences (Figure 5). Within this, Around-Game Advertising was most prevalent with 58.97%;
Marketing Displays was next with 34.62%; and, Product Placement was the least with 6.41%. On an
annual basis, Marketing Displays proved to be the most popular, with 40% in 2005; 41.51% in 2006;
39.02% in 2007, and 39.29% in 2008. However, in 2009, it was found that Around-Game Advertising
was most prominent with 39.58%. In terms of multiple Game Advertising formats, Product Placement
& Marketing Displays accounted for 39.57%; Product Placement, Marketing Displays & Around-Game
Advertising for 4.32%; Product Placement & Around-Game Advertising for 2.88% and Marketing
Displays & Around-Game Advertising for 0.72% of 278 occurrences.
When examining which publishers have been associated with Game Advertising (Appendix F),
Electronic Arts was found to be the most prevalent with 82 occurrences (29.5%). 60 of their 81
games, (74.07%) contained some form of Game Advertising and as such, it is unsurprising that they
dominated two of the three advertising formats with 42.65% of Product Placement and 41.28% of
Marketing Displays associations. However, in terms of Around-Game Advertising, Activision pushed
Electronic Arts into joint second place as they accounted for 18.81% with 19 titles being associated
with this format. Moreover, twelve publishers (Koei; Banpresto; 2K Games; 2K Play; 505 Games;
Bethesda Softworks; Sony Online Entertainment; Tomy Corporation; IE Institute; Oxygen Interactive
Software (UK); Rocket Company and Touchstone) were found to have no advertising associations
with their games.
Figure 5: Game advertising occurrences by marketing concept
Furthermore, ten out of the fourteen gaming genres were found to have advertising associations with
only Platformer, Educational, Puzzle and Strategy having none (Table 5). On a format by format
basis, Sports games dominated both Product Placement and Marketing Displays with 51.47% and
56.88% respectively. Overall this allowed Sports to be the most prevalent with 34.89% of
occurrences within 65 unique titles, which represents 65.66% of all sports games. However, in terms
of Around-Game Advertising, Action/Adventure was the most prevalent with 43.56% and as a result
was a major factor in this genre being second with 24.10% overall and accounted for 39.86% of all
Action/Adventure games.
Table 5: Game advertising occurrences, genre and format
Game genre Titles with Titles with Titles with Total Unique
PP MD AGA instances titles
No. % No. % No. % No. % No. %

Sports 35 51.47 62 56.88 - - 97 34.89 65 65.66
Action/adventure 9 13.24 14 12.84 44 43.56 67 24.10 59 39.86
Racing 21 30.88 20 18.35 6 5.94 47 16.91 26 65.00
Music - - - - 24 23.76 24 8.63 24 82.76
Shooter 2 2.94 11 10.09 6 5.94 19 6.83 17 27.87
Fighting - - 2 1.83 8 7.92 10 3.60 10 35.71
RPG - - - - 8 7.92 8 2.88 8 12.50
Miscellaneous - - - - 3 2.97 3 1.08 3 21.43
Simulation 1 1.47 - - 1 0.99 2 0.72 2 8.70
Party - - - - 1 0.99 1 0.36 1 7.14
Platformer - - - - - - - - - -
Educational - - - - - - - - - -
Puzzle - - - - - - - - - -
Strategy - - - - - - - - - -
Total 68 109 101 278 215
PP = Product Placement; MD = Marketing Displays; AGA = Around-Game Advertising
Table 6: Game advertising occurrences by company and console
Company Console Titles with PP Titles with Titles with Total

MD AGA instances
No. % No. % No. % No. %
Nintendo GBA - - - - 3 2.17 3 0.78
GC 2 1.98 2 1.35 5 3.62 9 2.33
DS 3 2.97 1 0.68 19 13.77 23 5.94
Wii 9 8.91 10 6.76 17 12.32 36 9.30
Total 14 13.86 13 8.78 44 31.88 71 18.35
Sony PSP 11 10.89 15 10.14 7 5.07 33 8.53
PS2 30 29.70 50 33.78 42 30.43 122 31.52
PS3 7 6.93 11 7.43 13 9.42 31 8.01
Total 48 47.52 76 51.35 62 44.93 186 48.06
Microsoft Xbox 2 1.98 5 3.38 3 2.17 10 2.58
X360 37 36.63 54 36.49 29 21.01 120 31.01
Total 39 38.61 59 39.86 32 23.19 130 33.59
TOTAL 101 26.10 148 38.24 138 35.66 387
GBA = Game Boy Advance; GC = GameCube; DS = Nintendo Di Esu; PSP = Playstation Portable; PS2 = Playstation 2;
PS3 = Playstation 3; X360 = Xbox 360; PP = Product Placement; MD = Marketing Displays; AGA = Around-Game Advertising
Finally, due to multiple titles being released on multiple formats and consoles, there were a total of
387 occurrences of Game Advertising associated with the nine consoles and three gaming companies
present in the charts for the period in question (Table 6). Although the Xbox 360TM dominated both
Product Placement and Marketing Displays with 36.63% and 36.49% respectively for individual
consoles, it was Sony, which dominated these categories from a company perspective with 47.52%
and 51.35%. Moreover, in terms of Around-Game Advertising, not only was Sony the lead company
with 44.93% - their PS2TM console dominated with 30.43%. The PS2TM also had the most associations
overall with 31.52%, all of which allowed Sony to have the most overall instances, with 48.06% or 186
out of the 387 total occurrences of Game Advertising associations.
3.3: Discussion
General games industry-related
It would appear from the results obtained, that the industry relies heavily on titles being successful for
a number of years. Over the period, 43.4% of titles turned out to be duplicates based on their
appearance on numerous company platforms or in subsequent years. This is especially true with
Nintendo, which was the only console manufacturer to have games appearing in the charts for all five
years with the six titles of Animal Crossing: Wild WorldTM, Brain Age: Train Your Brain in Minutes a
DayTM, Brain Age 2: More Training in Minutes a DayTM, Mario Kart DSTM, NintendogsTM and Super
Mario 64 DSTM. Furthermore, all of these titles relate to the Nintendo DS console, highlighting how
popular these games were on a single system. Sony had two games for their consoles appearing in
four chart years, with (1) the PS2 title Grand Theft Auto: San AndreasTM, and (2) the PSP title Grand
Theft Auto: Liberty City StoriesTM. The best Microsoft could achieve was three games, which
appeared in three chart years with (1) the Xbox game Halo 2TM; (2) the Xbox 360 title Gears of WarTM,
and (3) Halo 3TM (again for the Xbox 360).
In terms of publishers, Nintendo was the only publisher with titles appearing every year, which were
the same six titles outlined previously. They also had six games published in four years of the charts,
namely Wii PlayTM, Wii SportsTM, Pokmon Diamond / Pearl VersionTM, New Super Mario Bros. TM,
Clubhouse GamesTM and Big Brain AcademyTM. They were accompanied by Rockstar Games, which
had two games in four years, which were the two Grand Theft AutoTM games highlighted above. As a
result of this, five genres had games over the full period, with Educational having two and the other
four genres (Action/Adventure, Miscellaneous, Platformer and Racing) having one game each.
Game advertising-related
The results presented here show that nearly 38% of the top selling games over the five year period
had associations with Game Advertising mechanisms. The traditional research category of In-Game
Advertising unsurprisingly accounts for nearly two thirds of these. However, although Product
Placement in games appears to have held steady at around 25%, Marketing Displays have fallen over
the period by 5.5%. At the same time, Around-Game Advertising, (mainly due to Cross Promotion and
Cross-Media Promotions), has increased. In-Game Advertising through Marketing Displays and
Product Placement are naturally the traditional methods by which organisations have sought to
communicate with gaming consumers. Unsurprisingly, this has been achieved through sports or
racing games, which account for 78% of titles using these methods. However, these genres lend
themselves to this form of advertising association due to their very nature. Advertisements can be
placed on arena and track hoardings as well as brand logos and names easily appearing on
equipment and clothing through sponsorship. As such, these reflect in the gaming world, what the
gaming consumer would expect to see in the real world.
As such, the difficulty lies with how games, which do not lend themselves naturally to advertising
associations, can take advantage of the potential revenue streams similar to those offered through In-
Game Advertising. The answer would appear to be Around-Game Advertising, and in particular
through Cross Promotion. Of the 101 games that featured this form of Game Advertising, only six
came from the racing or sports genres. 46.56% of games that utilised Around-Game Advertising were
actually within the Action/Adventure genre, although many of these were from licensing agreements
with the film industry (54.54%). Where Cross Promotion appears to come into its own is with games
that are set in environments, which are either fantasy, science fiction or historically-based. Examples
include Final FantasyTM, Dragon AgeTM, HaloTM, Gears of WarTM and Assassin's CreedTM. With all of
these games, just placing posters or products into the gaming environment would not work and would
be deemed to be intrusive by the gamer. Intrusiveness has proven to be a crucial aspect in gamers
willingness to accept advertising associations with games. 93 - 95
4: Summary and conclusions
Due to the evolution of the games industry over the last 40 years, the concept of advertising
associations has evolved and is now a legitimate industry in its own right, generating hundreds of
millions of dollars worldwide. This paper has highlighted that as a result of this evolution, a re-
evaluation of the concept was required to reflect what has been happening and how
misinterpretations in some literature may cause confusion with how terminology should be used.
Consequently, a conceptual framework was provided, which presented an overview of advertising
associations within the confines of Game Advertising, offering new definitions of its associated
terminology (Table 7). Advergames can no longer just be thought of as being online games as there
has been a long tradition of these being made available through the medium of console cartridges
and software. Moreover, Around-Game Advertising has been placed within this conceptual framework
as one of the three main areas of Game Advertising. As such, it should no longer be thought of as
simply being advertisements that appear around the gaming environment. It has been shown here
that licensing agreements through Cross Promotion and Cross-Media Promotion are crucial revenue
streams, which the games industry has utilised to help establish relationships with other industries.
These differ from merchandising agreements as at their heart, is a desire to access potential new
audiences and consumers from both sides of the relationship formed.
Table 7: Re-evaluation of game advertising terminology and definitions
Terminology Definition
Game advertising The association of marketing communications messages with video and
computer games to target consumers through Advergames, Around-Game
Advertising and In-Game Advertising activities.
Advergame A digital game specifically designed for the primary purpose of advertising and
promotion of an organisation's product, service or brand played via the internet
or on a compatible medium via a games disk or digital download.
Around-Game Advertising and promotion linked to video and computer games through non-
Advertising intrusive around-game displays, or licensing of game branding with associated
third party products.
In-Game Advertising The integration of non-fictional products and brands within the playing
environment of video and computer games through simulated real life
marketing communications mechanisms.
In-Game Advertising - Static or dynamic displays, which can be either associative or interactive
Marketing Displays simulations of real world media such as advertising hoardings, posters, store
signage, sports apparel sponsors, etc. but not the actual products themselves.
In-Game Advertising - The integration of branded non-fictional products embedded within the gaming
Product Placement environment as either: a passive implicit background element; or, as a
contextually active, explicit and interactive element, which can be static or
dynamic in nature.
More importantly however, the main concerns of this paper have been to present an exploratory
overview of the prevalence of adverting associations in relation to the Game Advertising facets of In-
Game Advertising and Around-Game Advertising. Although In-Game Advertising dominated the
industry during the period being examined, Around-Game Advertising has constantly accounted for
over 30% of advertising associations and it is hoped that the information provided here, will help to
promote future research into this area.
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APPENDICES
Appendix A: Interactive Advertising Bureau - Game Ad Placement Types
Source: Madden and Richards (2010, p. 6)
Appendix B: Examples of Around-Game Advertising with Advergames
Appendix C: VGChartz Global Sales Example
Appendix D: Unique Game Titles by Publisher & Year
Appendix E: Unique Game Titles by Publisher & Year
Appendix F: Game Advertising by Publisher & Format

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The Computer Games Journal Ltd

journal website: www.computergamesjournal.com

Volume 3 Edition 1 Candlemas 2014

Reproduction rights owned by

Volume 3 Edition 1 Candlemas 2014: contents

Dialogue and social behaviour of agents in games

Game advertising: a conceptual framework and exploration of advertising prevalence

Reproduction rights owned by The Computer Games Journal Ltd 1

The Computer Games Journal

Aims of The Computer Games Journal

Reproduction rights owned by The Computer Games Journal Ltd 2

Editorial: taking The Computer Games Journal to the next level

A message from Dr Malcolm Sutherland (Deputy Editor-in-chief)

3. Internetlivestats.com. (2014) Total number of websites. Available from:

Griefers versus the Griefed - what motivates them to play

Leigh Achterbosch1, Charlynn Miller2, Christopher Turville3, Peter Vamplew 4

Received: July 2013

Ganking involves players typically attacking weakened, defenceless or inexperienced players

2.1: The Motivational Model

Socializing - having an interest in helping and chatting with other players.

2.2: Survey Design

2.3: Survey Response

3: Results and Discussion

Hours of Play per Week

3.2: Comparing Motivational Studies

Motivation factor Male Female

Mean Standard deviation Mean Standard deviation

3.3: Separating the Griefers from the Griefed

Table 3: Association to Griefing

Figure 1: Association to Griefing

3.4: Griefers versus the Griefed - motivation

Table 4: Means of motivation factors by gender and association to griefing

Motivation Factor Performed griefing Subjected to griefing

Female Male Both Female Male Both

Motivation Factor Performed griefing Subjected to griefing

<11 11-20 21-30 <30 <11 11-20 21-30 >30

Motivation Factor Performed griefing Subjected to griefing

<11 11-20 21-30 <30 <11 11-20 21-30 >30

Motivation Factor Performed griefing Subjected to griefing

<2 2-5 5-10 >10 <2 2-5 5-10 >10

3. Bartle, R.A. (2007) 'What to call a Griefer?' Terranova. Available from:

7. Linden, N. (2011) The Second Life Economy in Q4 2010. Available from:

9. Hartman, M. (2011) MMO Subscriber Populations. Available from: http://www.brighthub.com/video-

ArenaNet (2012). Guild Wars 2. NCsoft.

Dialogue and social behaviour of agents in games

Edgar Omar Cebelledo Gutierrez1, Olga de Troyer2

Received: October 2013

All trademarks acknowledged

'The first requirement on any computational model of personality is that a personality be

The Big Five factors personality model

Factors Low scorers High scorers

Extroversion Loner Joiner

Emotion and Mood

Games are a series of complementary ulterior transactions progressing to a well-defined outcome.

Sims 3 (Electronic Arts, 2009)

o If my interlocutor makes a joke, then I find it amusing.

If there are kids around me, I feel upset.

If I say something false, I feel ashamed.

Left 4 Dead (Valve, 2009)

If a Sim makes a joke Laugh

...and have a trait that precedes it, for example:

In this system, that trait can be translated as two rules: