Computer Games Technology

This paper outlines the development of a sensory feedback device providing a tangible interface for controlling digital environments, in this example a flight simulator, where the intention for the device is that it is relatively low cost, versatile and intuitive. Gesture based input allows for a more immersive experience, so rather than making the user feel like they are controlling an aircraft the intuitive interface allows the user to become the aircraft that is controlled by the movements of the user's hand. The movements are designed to allow a sense of immersion that would be difficult to achieve with an alternative interface. A vibrotactile based haptic feedback is incorporated in the device to further enhance the connection between the user and the game environment by providing immediate confirmation of game events. When used for navigating an aircraft simulator, this device invites playful action and thrill. It bridges new territory on portable, low cost solutions for h...

Eye tracking is a fascinating technology that is starting to be used for evaluation of and for interacting in virtual environments. Especially digital games can benefit from an integrated (i.e., evaluation and interaction) approach, harnessing eye tracking technology for analysis and interaction. Such benefits include faster development of innovative games which can be automatically evaluated in an iterative fashion. For this purpose, we present a framework that enables rapid game development and gameplay analysis within an experimental research environment. The framework presented here is extensible for different kinds of logging (e.g., psychophysiological and in-game behavioral data) and facilitates studies using eye-tracking technology in digital entertainment environments. An experimental study using gaze-only interaction in a digital game is also presented and highlights the framework's capacity to create and evaluate novel entertainment interfaces.

Dear Reader,

Let's get the introductions out of the way.I am not a recruiter. I am a software engineer. And as such, I know what it's like to be asked to whip up brilliant algorithms on the spot and then write flawless code on a whiteboard. I know because I've been asked to do the same thing-in interviews at Google, Microsoft, Apple, and Amazon, among other companies.

I also know because I've been on the other side of the table, asking candidates to do this. I've combed through stacks of resumes to find the engineers who I thought might be able to actually pass these interviews.
I've evaluated them as they solved-or tried to solve-challenging questions. And I've debated in Google's Hiring Committee whether a candidate did well enough to merit an offer. I understand the full
hiring circle because I've been through it all, repeatedly. And you, reader, are probably preparing for an interview, perhaps tomorrow, next week, or next year. I am here to help you solidify your understanding of computer science fundamentals and then learn how to apply those fundamentals to crack the coding interview.

The 6th edition of Cracking the Coding Interview updates the 5th edition with 70% more content: additional questions, revised solutions, new chapter introductions, more algorithm strategies, hints for all problems,
and other content. Be sure to check out our website, CrackingTheCodinglnterview.com, to connect with other candidates and discover new resources. I'm excited for you and for the skills you are going to develop. Thorough preparation will give you a wide range of technical and communication skills. It will be well worth it, no matter where the effort takes you!

I encourage you to read these introductory chapters carefully. They contain important insight that just might make the difference between a "hire" and a "no hire:' And remember-interviews are hard! In my years of interviewing at Google, I saw some interviewers ask "easy" questions while others ask harder questions. But you know what? Getting the easy questions doesn't make it any easier to get the offer. Receiving an offer is not about solving questions flawlessly (very few candidates do!). Rather, it is about answering questions better than other candidates. So don't stress out when you get a tricky question-everyone else probably thought it was hard too. It's okay to not be flawless. Study hard, practice- and good luck!

Gayle L. McDowell
Founder/CEO, CareerCup.com
Author of Cracking the PM Interview and Cracking the Tech Career

In this paper, we describe an experiment outline on investigating design and user experience related aspects of several virtual reality locomotion and virtual object interaction mechanics. These mechanics will be based on consumer hardware like a common game controllers, an infrared hand and finger tracking device, VR hand controllers and an omni-directional treadmill. Corresponding related work will contextualize and motivate this research. The projected experimental study will be based on user test sessions with a specifically developed 1 st person VR puzzle horror game, called Gooze. A hybrid approach of self-assessment, in-game parameter tracking and session observations will be proposed for the investigation. Statistical analysis methods will be suggested to evaluate results. Furthermore, this paper will give an overview of the game and elaborate on design, gameplay and user experience related insights of already conducted informal pre-studies with it.

Computer games became more popular among the children with the wide use of internet, and its popularity brought about some criticisms along with it. Among these criticisms are the issues and problems regarding sociality. In this research, the effects of computer games on the secondary school students' social life and their academic behaviors were examined. The survey forms, which were developed by the researcher, were conducted on the 444 secondary school students who participated in the research. The result of the research shows that the respondents most prefer the action, sports, and brain training games and least prefer role-playing, educational and platform games. Besides, the results suggest that the computer games do not have a significant impact on the students' social life and academic behaviors and have a medium-level effect on the social loneliness and parents' criticism. It was also found that requesting permission for playing computer games in the 'Inform...

One of the key issues that need to be addressed in wireless sensor network field is how to create a most efficient energy system. Ad-hoc Networks are becoming an effective tool for many mission critical applications such as troop coordination, situational awareness Etc. Ad-hoc Networks having limited computation and communication resources. To unguaranteed connectivity to trust authorities make known solutions for trusted authorities make knows solutions for single hop wireless networks. In this Project I am presenting A  Distinct Authentication Key for New TAM Protocol For large scale dense ad-hoc networks. TAM exploits network clusters to reduce overhead and ensure scalability. Multicast traffic with in a cluster employs a “One way hash function” chain in order to authenticate the message source. Cross cluster multicast traffic includes Message Authentication Codes (MAC’s) that are based on a set of keys. Result in terms of bandwidth overhead and delivery delay

While players are enjoying casual mobile games like Candy Crush Saga, we also must negotiate elements that have been brought to the forefront by the intersection of networked play environments and casual game technologies. While casual games are fun to play and often seemingly banal—provoking questions of why anyone would study Candy Crush academically—they in fact can reveal a whole host of issues worthy of our attention, such as privacy and surveillance; the readability and accessibility of terms of service; and intellectual property issues.

Diese schriftliche Arbeit habe ich als meine Vertiefungsarbeit in meinem ersten Nebenfach Informatik unter der Betreuung von Prof. Hilty im Fachbereich Informatics and Sustainability Research geschrieben und sie widmet sich dem Thema Nachhaltigkeit und Information und Kommunikationstechnologien (IuK-Technologie).

Desde su introducción, los juegos en linea no han ido bien con todo el mundo. Se refiere en particular a los grupos de edad adulta. Los padres suelen quejarse sobre cómo sus hijos se sienta pegada al ordenador y pantallas de televisión jugando juegos de video cuando deberían haberlo hecho correr y juega al aire libre o mejor leer un libro de cuentos.

Absztrakt A cím első olvasatra talán kevésbé köthető a pénzügyi tudatossághoz. Ha azonban áttekintjük a tanulmány fejezeteit, látni fogjuk, hogy a számítógépes játékok újfajta értékesítése komoly hatással van nem csak a digitális tartalmakat fogyasztó végfelhasználók pénztárcájára, pénzügyi tudatosságára, hanem a fejlesztők és kiadók gazdálkodására is. A játékosok Nyugat-Európában és a tengerentúlon nem sajnálják a pénzt a legújabb játékokra, Kelet-Európában azonban a felhasználók igyekeznek az olcsóbb megoldásokat választani. Amíg a bolti játékoknak nem volt megfizethető alternatívája, addig a megoldást a fájlcsere jelentette. A digitális disztribúcióval azonban új alternatíva kínálkozik, amellyel mindkét fél nyerhet. E tanulmány azt igyekszik bemutatni, hogy hogyan fejlődött a szórakoztató digitális tartalmak piaca és miként alakul át a szemünk láttára az értékesítés folyamata, illetve ez minként hat a fogyasztói szokásokra.

The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is considering the adoption of e-sports (i.e., organised competitive video gaming), which could be considered a radical innovation as it deviates in many areas from traditional sports (e.g., online game play format, lack of high physical exertion, complicated intellectual property rights for each game, etc.). However, collaboration with firms familiar with the innovation (e.g., National Association of Collegiate eSports-NACE) might mitigate risks surrounding the radical innovation. Thus, the purpose of this paper was to investigate whether a potential association between the NCAA and NACE would be advantageous to both organisations. Through a deductive qualitative content analysis underpinned by Rogers's (2003) innovation characteristics (e.g., complexity, compatibility and relative advantage), several themes emerged: physical exertion, e-sports structure, amateurism, eligibility, compensation, profitability, and diversity and ...

Mit diesem Titel liegt eine veröffentlichte Magisterarbeit vor, deren redaktioneller Beschreibungstext auf dem Buchrücken einen „Blick über den Tellerrand hinaus“ verspricht. Dieses Versprechen soll sich durch drei Leitaspekte einlösen, die den Einfluss von virtuellen Welten auf das menschliche Verhalten fokussieren, zweitens das Suchtpotenzial und die Isolation von der Außenwelt thematisieren und drittens die neuen sozialen Komponenten beleuchten, die durch die ‚Begehung’ virtueller Welten ermöglicht werden.

There is a call in industry and research for objective evaluation of player experience in games. With recent technological advancements, it is possible to automatically log numerical information on in-game player behavior and put this into temporal, spatial, and psychophysiological context. The latter is done using biometric evaluation techniques, like electromyography (EMG), electroencephalography (EEG), and eye tracking. Therefore, it is necessary to discuss experimental results in academia and best practices in industry. This panel brings together experts from both worlds sharing their knowledge using conventional and experimental, qualitative and quantitative methods of player experience in games.

Online communities have been proactive in producing collaborative creative content such as music, games and other social interactions. Online collaboration has enabled contributors to peer produce and share masses of creative content. Examples range from information sharing such as Wikipedia to open source software and other specific art projects. Software vendors have recently introduced low cost 2D and 3D content authoring tools allowing user communities to generate and share creative content. Emerging networking programming interfaces available inside modern game engines allow contributors to implement multiplayer or multiuser interaction relatively easily. This paper presents a 3D art creation framework to be used over networked infrastructure in a multiuser environment. Contributors will be able to create 3D sculptures at runtime, share with other users in a common networked working environment and critique each other’s work. Experimental work also involved evaluating procedura...

Background. The proper implementation of cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) is crucial in saving patients. Purpose. This study was aimed at evaluating the difference in educating nursing students on CPR when using the traditional simulation training with a mannequin versus a more novel serious game training on the smartphone platform. Methods. This randomized control trial was conducted in 2018-2019. Through purposive sampling, 56 nursing students were selected and randomly assigned to three groups: a simulation-based CPR training, CPR training using a serious game on the smartphone platform, and a control group that received no CPR training. Each student was evaluated pre- and posttraining on CPR knowledge and skill. Results. Both the simulation and serious game training groups increased CPR abilities two weeks after training. The control group did not show improvement in skill or knowledge of CPR. The simulation and serious game intervention groups demonstrated better scores on t...

Social network is a group of individuals with diverse social interactions amongst them. The network large scale and distributed due to Quantitative analysis of networks is need of and in turn the society. Clustering helps us to group people with similar characteristics dense social networks. We have considered similarity measures for statistical When a social network is represented as a graph with members as nodes and their relation as edges, graph mining would be suitable for statistical analysis. We have chosen academic social network nodesto simplify network analysis. similaritybetween unstructured data elements extracted from social network.

Although various methods of procedurally generating cities have been proposed in recent years, the problem remains that a user desiring a city from a particular time period or country would have to make time-consuming modifications to an already existing engine to achieve acceptable results. This paper proposes a set of programmable elements that can be adjusted to accommodate for buildings from a broad range of architectural styles, which can then be incorporated into a larger engine.

Serious games are growing rapidly as a gaming industry as well as a field of academic research. There are many surveys in the field of digital serious games; however, most surveys are specific to a particular area such as education or health. So far, there has been little work done to survey digital serious games in general, which is the main goal of this paper. Hence, we discuss relevant work on serious games in different application areas including education, well-being, advertisement, cultural heritage, interpersonal communication, and health care. We also propose a taxonomy for digital serious games, and we suggest a classification of reviewed serious games applications from the literature against the defined taxonomy. Finally, the paper provides guidelines, drawn from the literature, for the design and development of successful serious games, as well as discussing research perspectives in this domain.

We would like to invite you to join this exciting new project as a chapter contributor. Since this is a textbook, a great deal of this chapter entails a survey on the topic under the paradigm of cyber-physical systems, what can be done onboard and remotely, the distributed nature of the system and some exercises on futurology (anticipating trends can shed some light on upcoming designs). IET will bring great visibility to your work. You are welcome to suggest another topic/chapter title if you feel it would be more suitable. Each chapter should be around 20-25 pages each and can be submitted as a Word or Latex File. The IET will send you additional information (formatting, permission form, etc.) with the contributor's agreement once you have agreed to contribute to the book. Visit http:// www.theiet.org/resources/author-hub/books/index.cfm to get all information you need as a contributor to an IET research-level book. Each book is expected to have a total number of 500 printed pages (based on approximately 550 words per page with a 20% allowance for figures and tables). We have included a tentative schedule and list of topics below. If this is something you would consider, please send me the title of your chapter, a short description/abstract of the chapter content, and your full contact details. We will expect original content and new results for this book. You can, of course, reuse published material but the percentage of material reuse for the chapter should be less than 40%. The IET will run a piracy software on the full manuscript to control that you are including original material and will reject chapters who contain a large amount of already-published material so please do take this into consideration.

Altered states of consciousness (ASC) can be represented in video games through appropriate use of sound and computer graphics. Our research seeks to establish systematic methods for simulating ASC using computer sound and graphics, to improve the realism of ASC representations in video game engines. Quake Delirium is a prototype ‘ASC Simulation’ that we have created by modifying the video game Quake. Through automation of various graphical parameters that represent the conscious state of the game character, hallucinatory ASC are represented. While the initial version of Quake Delirium utilised a pre-determined automation path to produce these changes, we propose that immersion may be improved by providing the user with a ‘passive’ method of control, using a brain-computer interface (BCI). In this initial trial, we explore the use of a consumer-grade electroencephalograph (EEG) headset for this purpose. Keywords—Altered States of Consciousness; Video Games; Brain-Computer Interface ...

How to design useful digital game-based learning is a topic worthy of discussion. Past research focused on specific game genres design, but it is difficult to use when the target game genre differs from the default genres used in the research. This study presents macrodesign concepts that elucidates 11 crucial game-design factors, including game goals, game mechanism, game fantasy, game value, interaction, freedom, narrative, sensation, challenges, sociality, and mystery. We clearly define each factor and analyze the relationships among the 11 factors to construct a game-based learning design model. Two application examples are analyzed to verify the usability of the model and the performance of these factors. It can assist educational game designers in developing interesting games.

Por meio da compreensão do ativismo de fãs como uma forma de resistência cotidiana cultural, econômica e criativa, o objetivo deste capítulo busca problematizar as relações entre participação, resistência e consumo de fãs do jogo on-line League of Legends (LoL). Enquanto suporte empírico, apresenta-se um mapeamento sobre algumas práticas do ativismo de fãs-jogadores no antigo fórum oficial de LoL no Brasil, a partir de uma triangulação metodológica com destaque para o uso de inspirações etnográficas. Após as reflexões teóricas e as análises, propõe-se uma tipologia das práticas de resistência cotidiana na comunidade de LoL baseada em quatro modos. Os resultados desta abordagem indicam que a diversidade do universo das produções digitais e práticas de parte dos fãs de LoL ressignificam as compreensões sobre resistência e participação, questionando a dualidade existente entre a cidadania e o consumo da cultura pop, agindo como catalizadores que reinterpretam e excedem os limites do fandom.

This paper traces the development of techniques of recording carvings on megalithic tombs and on open-air rock-art in Ireland from 1699 to the present day. Analysis shows that after the initial pioneering phase, recording methodologies tended to develop in accelerated bursts, interspersed with lulls in activity. In all, four phases of activity can be identified; in each there were a critical number of researchers who interacted with each other, driving forward advances in various forms of recording methods. Part 2 of the paper describes the application of new methods of digital recording, notably Structure from Motion photogrammetry. It shows how the resulting data have been used to create new ways of experiencing Irish prehistoric art in virtual environments, either as entire monuments in the landscape or within a “virtual museum”, using the open-source Blender 3D animation and game engine software.

Starting from people limitations to understand Japanese, education and social life of those people in Japan can be hindered. Therefore, a game is needed that allows one to understand Japanese using Gamification Assisted Language Learning (GALL) method, involving the introduction of Japanese language implementation using expert point cloud ($EP) recognizer. This method is used to stimulate the sensory and motor nervous system and motivate students (players) to study harder. This can be evidenced by increase in players ability from 20% to 100%.

There is no technical reason and no quality inherent to the medium of computer games that would require corrosion, dust, and ruins. Pixels do not corrode and 3D geometry is not affected by physical decay. Yet if we look at contemporary computer games we find an abundance of ruined buildings, of mould and of all forms of decay of organic matter and inorganic materials. It would be too easy to explain this fact by an attempt to increase realism, because some of these games clearly feature more decay than reality could ever produce. There must be a longing of designers and players to immerse themselves within an environment of disintegrating, decaying objects. The author investigates the longing for decay along four threads that are informed by computer games history, art history, psychoanalytic reasoning and the concept of transmedia megatext.

One of the greatest challenges in the design of realistic Artificial Intelligence (AI) in computer games is agent movement. Pathfinding strategies are usually employed as the core of any AI movement system. This paper examines pathfinding algorithms used presently in games and details their shortcomings. These shortcomings are particularly apparent when pathfinding must be carried out in real-time in dynamic

The proliferation of online simulation games across the globe in many different languages offers Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL) researchers an opportunity to examine how language learning occurs in such virtual environments. While there has recently been an increase in the number of exploratory studies involving learning experiences of predominantly English as a Second or Foreign Language (ESL/EFL) participants in these environments, the context of a Japanese as a Foreign Language (JFL) classrooms has rarely been examined. To address this, this study investigates a Second Language Acquisition-theory driven instantiation of CALL within the context of a JFL classroom.  Through a mixed-method case study approach, participants’ natural acquisition of Japanese in a 3D virtual environment was examined. Data detailing participants’ communicative capacities in several modalities were collected, as were their attitudes toward participation in a massively multiplayer online (MMO)-based virtual world of Tokyo.

In the present study, eight sources of data from eleven university-level JFL students (n=11) were collected and analyzed to evaluate the learning outcomes from an integrative CALL framework (Warschauer, 2004; Yamazaki, 2014).  Based on both interpretative and statistical analyses of data, the major finding of the present study was that the participants, when immersed in the 3D virtual world of Tokyo, acquired contextualized communicative competence. More specifically, quantitative analyses revealed statistically significant improvement in the participants’ acquisition of incidentally encountered vocabulary, in particular, kanji pronunciation and vocabulary interpretation. Qualitative analyses revealed participants’ acquisition of various communicative competencies specific to the context, including persuasive talk, concept of audience, collaborative communication, and colloquial expressions. Data from a post-hoc reflection survey provided strong evidence that most students found the course to be effective, as it made them use Japanese more than in a regular class, and thereby developed more necessary communicative skills to function in Japan.

This article presents the category of emersion in videogames. The author of this article understands emersion as an experience of such elements of a game that weaken the impression of non-mediated participation in events presented in the game (some researchers call this impression "immersion"). Emersive elements of the game reveal the mediated character of the action the player takes part in. Emersion may have varied status: it may be incidental (e.g. when it is a result of an unforeseen glitch), repeatable (e.g. as a result of a mechanism typical for a specific genre) or designed.
The last case seems to be the most interesting one, because designed emerisve elements may provide meaningful or artistic results. Designed emersive factors bring new possibilities of creation, which are not achievable through the non-digital and non-interactive forms of expression.

The Reference Model for an Open Archival Information System has been extraordinarily influential within the digital preservation community. The Preserving Virtual Worlds project explored the application of the OAIS Reference Model for the preservation of computer games, videogames and electronic literature within a research library setting. This paper identifies practical problems in determining the appropriate range of representation and context information needed to preserve computer games and discusses possible solutions to those problems.

This book is about the three identities of the videogame, the gamer, and Game Studies. I write that there are no definitive truths but rather discourses and constructions; ideas, actions, beliefs, and practices related to videogames are discourses that merge and shape our perception of videogames as an area of study of its own right. These discursive responses meet and clash creating what we call truths, which are temporary and negotiable.

This perspective is inspired by Foucauldian ideas and present few questions about videogame-related identities in and outside of academe. Does Game Studies have a conceptual core? What makes game studies difficult to be disciplined in academe? What do we learn from the scholarly and popular discourses on videogames that would help understand the identity questions related to games?

I go on to describe what makes the videogame identity according to game studies: aesthetics, fictions, meaning-making, performance, transformation, etc. and what makes it difficult for game studies being an open market of ideas and an academic "un-discipline". This leads me to the gamer's identity: an aficionado first, and a connoisseur of fictional worlds.

In the analysis of the game “Duolingo,” I will explore how the game uses the Practice Principle, Multimodal Principle, “Psychosocial Moratorium” Principle, and Self-Knowledge Principle from Gee (2007). Overall, the game provides a space for learners to be exposed to diverse characters, a smiling sikh man, a woman with a bindi, characters of all many skin color gradients.

Duolingo provides games for learners to engage in lots of language practice with many modalities of engaging with the material. These exercises open up a safe and welcoming space for learners to make mistakes and get messy with the material without real-world consequences. With all of these perks, it’s no surprise that the game has been so well received: as of February 2015 Duolingo had over 70 million users signed up and counting (Ranger, 2015).

In seinem zukunftsweisenden Text The Cyborg’s Dilemma: Embodiment in Virtual Environments (1997) entwickelte Frank Biocca das Konzept des progressive embodiment. Mit diesem Theoriekonzept entwirft Biococa ein interaktionistisches Modell des mediatisierten Raumes, in welchem sich physischer Körper und technologische Apparatur über ein komplex gestaltetes Interface miteinander verbinden lassen. Diese Verbindung bleibt allerdings nicht ein rein technisches Kalkül, sondern mündet direkt im kognitionsphilosophischen ›Cyborg’s Dilemma‹ und der damit verbundenen Problemstellung, wie sich das subjektivierte Ich während der rezeptiven Verkörperung innerhalb digitaler Bildsimulationen autonom von der artifiziellen Präsenz des Technischen abgrenzen kann. Dies führt zu der bereits europhänomenologisch anmutenden Frage: »Where am ›I‹ present?«.
Mit Blick auf aktuelle Medientechnologien – vor allem in Bezug
auf immersive Interfaces und Displays – lässt sich plausibel vom
progressive embodiment oder von Medien der Verkörperung in zweifacher Hinsicht sprechen: Zum einen unterstützen die von Biococa genannten Interfaces die virtuelle Verkörperung der Rezipienten in den simulierten Bildraum hinein; und zum anderen entwickeln sich die Medien immer stärker zu ›Körpern der Bilder‹, indem sie eine multimodale und damit sinnlich-extensive Repräsentation erlauben.