Category Archives: Game Research

Game Usability aus der Forschersicht

CfP: CHI 2013 Games User Research (GUR) Workshop

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SUBMISSION DEADLINE: January 11th, 2013

ORGANIZERS
- Pejman Mirza-Babaei, University of Sussex
- Veronica Zammito, Electronic Arts
- Joerg Niesenhaus, University of Duisburg-Essen
- Mirweis Sangin, Sony Computer Entertainment Europe
- Lennart E. Nacke, University of Ontario Institute of Technology

AIMS AND SCOPE
CHI 2013 “Games User Research: Practice, Methods, and Applications” workshop provides a venue for collaborative knowledge construction, sharing and dialogue across the games industry and the interdisciplinary academic fields. The goal of this one-day workshop is to advance the state of the art in the game industry by knowledge-sharing with frontline research from academia and between companies. It ultimately aims at providing the basis for cross-pollination across the involved research fields and industry sectors. The theme of this year’s workshop is: “Beyond Usability: GUR practices to evaluate video games user experience”. We welcome all contributions from academic researchers and industry practitioners on innovative methodologies and applied techniques to assess fun, appeal and engagement in games.

The workshop invites contributions on the following topics:

- Methods (e.g., how to design calibrated questionnaires)
- Solutions (e.g., guidelines to capture qualitative feedback)
- Industry practice (i.e., lessons from the trenches)

SUBMISSION
Participants are invited to submit a short biography (100-150 words) of the author(s) attending the workshop and either:

A 4-page position paper (in the CHI extended abstracts format) describing work falling within the topics of the workshop. Submissions may describe ongoing work, recent results, or opinions and approaches related to the workshop topic. We also solicit papers with industry, academic in a form of case study to highlight real-world issues that need to be tackled by new research and recent advancements that improve games user research processes, as well as novel and successful methods for evaluation design, player experience, and understanding users.

A presentation abstract and slides (we ONLY recommend this for industry participants).
Participants are invited to submit their submission (one PDF file) via EasyChair (GURCHI2013) by 11 January, 2013. Submissions will be reviewed and the organising committee will select up to 20 participants according to relevance, quality of results, research diversity, and likelihood for stimulating and contributing to the discussion.

PARTICIPATION
If accepted, workshop participants will be provided with a registration code which will allow them to register for this workshop, at least one author must register for the workshop and for one or more days of the conference. Participants will soon be able to check conference rates on the CHI 2013 website. Papers will also be compiled on the workshop website.

IMPORTANT DATES
- January 11, 2013: Submissions deadline
- February 8, 2013: Acceptance notification
- April 27, 2013: Workshop (TBC)

CONTACT
If you have any questions, please contact gurchi2013@easychair.org or any of the organisers.
http://hcigames.businessandit.uoit.ca/chigur/

Play-Personas in Battlefield Bad Company 2

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At our research group at the GTCC.NRW a team of students conducted a study within a research project in order to identify play-personas in the first-person shooter game Battlefield Bad Company 2 (BFBC2). Based on the play-persona classification by Nick Yee the students created a questionnaire and asked the participants for their player ID in order to align the metrical data of the Battlefield Bad Company 2 stats website with the questionnaire results. We identified the achiever and socializer play-personas within BFBC2 and created a website plug-in, which players can use to visualize the stats behind their play-personas.

The website presenting the results of the study is now online, together with the persona visualizing tool, which gives you the opportunity to predict your play-persona in BFBC2. In addition, the website features further resources and links:

BFBC2 Play-Persona study and data visualization

Call for Papers: Entertainment Interfaces 2012 at Mensch & Computer, Konstanz, Germany

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For the third time the Entertainment Interfaces track will take place together with the German HCI conference Mensch & Computer and the German Usability Professionals (UPA) track.

The track “Entertainment Interfaces” offers researchers, developers and designers a platform to present innovative ideas in the area of interactive entertainment with a focus on interaction in games and other entertainment products and to discuss design challenges and the evaluation of entertainment interfaces. The aims of the track are to strengthen the awareness of the relevance of user-friendly and innovative interfaces for entertainment applications in the research community and in the public, to encourage the research activities and the education in this field, and to foster the knowledge transfer between researchers and developers. We like to emphasize the interdisciplinary background of the “Entertainment Interfaces” track and welcome contributions from the areas of computer science, psychology, design and engineering sciences as well as contributions from developers and designers working in the field of interactive entertainment.

Important Dates

  • 18. March 2012
: Submission deadline for full papers, demonstrations and posters
  • May 2012: Notification of acceptance
  • 15th May 2012: Start of conference registration
  • 17th June 2012: Deadline for workshop papers
  • July 2012: Notification of acceptance for workshop papers
  • 27th July 2012: End of early-bird registration
  • 2nd September 2012: End of online registration
  • 9.–12. September 2012: Conference in Konstanz

For more information please visit the conference track website.

Call for Submissions: International Conference on Entertainment Computing 2012 at Bremen

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CfP: 11th IFIP INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON ENTERTAINMENT COMPUTING, 26-29 September 2012, Bremen, Germany

The IFIP International Conference on Entertainment Computing explores the application of computational technology to entertainment. The conference brings together practitioners and researchers interested in the art and design of entertainment computing applications. ICEC welcomes submissions on the design, engineering, application and theory of entertainment technology. We solicit paper, poster and demonstration submissions, as well as proposals for tutorials and workshops. In addition to regular scientific contributions we encourage contributions specifically for and by the industry that will be presented in a dedicated session. Papers will be published via Springer and archived in the SpringerLink digital library.

IMPORTANT DATES

March 10th, 2012 Workshop proposal submission
April 1st, 2012 Full/short paper submission
May 20th, 2012 Notification for full/short papers
May 30th, 2012 Poster/demo/installation/doctoral consortium submission
June 15th, 2012 Notification for posters/demos/installations/doctoral consortium
June 22nd, 2012 Camera ready submission (all submission types)
Sep. 26th-29th, 2012 Conference at University of Bremen, Germany

Further information about the submission types and topics can be found on the conference website.

Game Innovation Show @ 7th Dec, Mülheim/Ruhr

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On the 7th of December the Game Technology Competence Center (GTCC.NRW) and the Game Development Initiative Ruhr (GDI.Ruhr) invite you to the Game Innovation Show, which takes place at the Games Factory incubator at Mülheim an der Ruhr.
The exhibition will feature game projects, innovative technology and research results from scientists and students of the Unviersity of Duisburg-Essen presented with live tech demos and/or posters. Instead of listening to talks or presentations, the visitors are encouraged to move freely through the exhibition and get in touch with the scientists and students and to learn more about their projects in a face-to-face conversation.
The show will feature demos and posters within the areas of serious and health games, 3D gaming, innovative user interfaces, user participation tools, authoring systems for the interactive digital storytelling as well as studies about user experience and effects on gamers.
The Game Innovation Show aims at game developers looking for innovative ideas and new research findings or who are interested in collaborations with the University of Duisburg-Essen; as well as students and researchers within the area of games research.
The show takes place at the 7th of December from 11:00-15:00 at the Games Factory Ruhr, Kreuzstrasse 1-3, Mülheim a.d. Ruhr. Please register by e-mail: joerg.niesenhaus[at]games-ruhr.com

Looking for German Battlefield: Bad Company 2 Players

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We are currently looking for German-speaking Battlefield: Bad Company 2 players, who are willing to take part in a short online questionnaire. The study is focusing on the play style of first-person shooter gamers and is NOT yet another questionnaire about aggression etc.

If you play BFBC2 on the PC, PS3 or XBox360 please feel free to take part in the study. Here is the link to get started:

Battlefield: Bad Company 2 Study (German only)

CfP: Workshop on ‘Creating Digital Games for Elderly Players’

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1st International Workshop in conjunction with Entertainment Interfaces Track, Mensch & Computer 2011

Chemnitz, Germany, 11th-14th September 2011

WEBSITES:
Conference website: http://english.uebermedien.org/

SUBMISSION DEADLINE:
20th June 2011

WORKSHOP DESCRIPTION
Digital games represent a popular leisure activity among large parts of the population, and an increasing amount of casual and social games aims to include new target audiences such as adult gamers. Research results imply that an increasing amount of adult players regularly engages with digital games (Grüninger et al., 2008). Moreover, case studies suggest various positive effects of playing digital games on elderly persons, e.g. regarding the overall emotional well-being (Jung et al., 2009) and a reduction of the depression risk (Rosenberg et al., 2010) among institutionalized elderly. Furthermore, first attempts towards the integration of digital games as leisure activity at nursing homes show a generally high acceptance of entertainment technologies among senior citizens and imply that digital games have a potential of fostering social interaction as well as physical activity among elderly (Ulbrecht et al., 2010).
However, initial results also suggest that commercially available games are not fully accessible to senior players and that the creation of games specially designed for elderly is necessary (e.g. Hanneton & Varenne, 2009). First efforts regarding the creation of senior-friendly game concepts date back to the 1980s and 90s (Weisman, 1983; Whitcomb, 1990). Recently, this issue has been addressed by academia through the examination design of requirements and game design opportunities for elderly (Gamberini et al., 2006; Ijsselsteijn et al., 2007) and the creation of design guidelines for particular game genres such as health games (Flores et al., 2008) and exertion games (Gerling et al., 2010). In addition, recent national and European activities such as Ambient-Assisted Living (AAL) have strengthened the links between research and application in academia and industry.

WORKSHOP GOALS & TOPICS
To encourage existing efforts towards the introduction of digital games to elderly citizens and the creation of senior-friendly games and interaction concepts, this workshop aims to bring together practitioners and researchers to discuss existing issues regarding the use of digital games among elderly persons and to initiate further cooperation between industry and academia. The workshop organizers are currently involved in a number of related projects, such as the Games Development Initiative Ruhr(GDI-Ruhr) and the European AAL-JP FoSIBLE (Fostering Social Interaction for a Better Life of the Elderly).Topics of this workshop include the following areas of research and industry efforts:

  • Entertainment interfaces for elderly persons including experimental hardware such as tangible interfaces, gesture-based input, touch interfaces as well as regular input devices, e.g. mouse, keyboard or remote controls. Furthermore, we welcome reports on the integration of commercially available gaming hardware such as Microsoft Kinect, Playstation Move or the Nintendo Wii Remote.
  • Accessibility and usability issues when designing for the elderly with a focus on (game) interfaces and the creation of usable entertainment technology.
  • Social aspects of digital games for elderly audiences: Networks and communities, approaches towards remote and local multiplayer games for senior citizens, integrating entertainment technology to foster social interaction.
  • The exploration of intergenerational game concepts allowing for joint interaction among seniors and children with a focus on the design of interaction paradigms suitable for all audiences.
  • Game design opportunities including serious games, games for health and general well-being, e.g. cognitive or physical training and rehabilitation for elderly people. Of interest are game design concepts as well as demonstrations of game prototypes.

IMPORTANT DATES
20th June 2011:  Submission deadline
7th July 2011:  Acceptance notification
22nd July 2011:  Camera-ready version
11th – 14th September 2011 Half-Day Workshop (TBC) in Chemnitz, Germany

SUBMISSIONS
We encourage the submission of position papers including case studies and system demonstrations, user studies and evaluations, reports on industry efforts or field reports of practitioners working with elderly. (Detailed instructions and templates can be found on the workshop website, please contact the authors for further information)
Accepted papers will be published in the joint workshop Proceedings of Mensch & Computer 2011. Papers should be submitted in both editable and print format (e.g. DOC & PDF) to the workshop organizers by e-mail: games-workshop-2011@fosible.eu.

ORGANIZING COMMITTEE
Matthias Klauser(1), Kathrin Gerling(2,3), Jörg Niesenhaus(1) and Steffen Budweg(1)

1 Interactive Systems and Interaction Design, University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany
2 Entertainment Computing Group, University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany
3 Interaction Lab, University of Saskatchewan (Canada)

Entertainment Interfaces 2011 CfP

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After a successful start of the Entertainment Interfaces track alongside the German HCI conference “Mensch & Computer” in Duisburg in 2010, we are happy to announce that the track will take place again in 2011 at the “Mensch & Computer” conference in Chemnitz, Germany.

The track Entertainment Interfaces offers researchers, developers and designers a platform to present innovative ideas in the area of interactive entertainment with a focus on interaction in games and other entertainment products and to discuss design challenges and the evaluation of entertainment interfaces. The aims of the track are to strengthen the awareness of the relevance of user-friendly and innovative interfaces for entertainment applications in the research community and in the public, to encourage the research activities and the education in this field, and to foster the knowledge transfer between researchers and developers. We like to emphasize the interdisciplinary background of the “Entertainment Interfaces” track and welcome contributions from the areas of computer science, psychology, design and engineering sciences as well as contributions from developers and designers working in the field of interactive entertainment.

For more information please check out the new website of the Entertainment Interfaces track.

Entertainment Interfaces Track in Duisburg, 12th & 14th September

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Next week the Interaktive Kulturen conference will take place in Duisburg and feature the Entertainment Interfaces track. Together with Maic Masuch and Matthias Rauterberg I am organizing this track and want to provide some information about the contents.

On Sunday, the 12th of September the track kicks off with the workshops on “Using Game Design and Affective Evaluation to improve User Experience and User Research” and “Game Design und Game Development in der Hochschullehre”. For the followers of this blog the first workshop is of special interest because it will provide an overview of available methods and techniques of evaluating game design and foster a productive discussion on creating guidelines for studying users with affective evaluation methodologies. For more information about the workshops check out the workshop page of the Entertainment Interfaces track.

Tuesday will feature the Entertainment Interfaces keynote “Trajectories through Entertainment Experiences” by Steve Benford (University of Nottingham, UK) and the two sessions “Player Experience” and “Entertainment Interaction”. Much more sessions will be provided by the other three tracks of the conference (Mensch&Computer, DeLFI and UPA), so check out the full program. Hope to see you in Duisburg next week!