Pacing diagrams are used in game design practice to represent player experience as a temporal structure. However, the term currently refers to heterogeneous and informal artifacts, limiting both interdisciplinary communication and computational use. We propose a minimal formal reference description of pacing diagrams for linear player experience sequences. The contribution defines the core structural elements of the diagram and frames pacing diagrams as both communicative design artifacts and structured representations. This formalization provides a shared point of reference for design practice while enabling consistent interpretation by tools and computational systems. As a first step, it establishes a foundation for more comparable, interoperable, and analyzable representations of player experience in game design.

Design pillars are widely used in game development as high-level principles that define the intended player experience and guide design decisions. Despite their prevalence in industry practice, their role remains underexplored in academic literature. This paper provides a structured description of design pillars and investigates their use through an exploratory questionnaire study with game developers. The results show that design pillars are well understood and commonly used to support early design decisions and team alignment. However, their application is often inconsistent, declines over the course of development, and is challenged by vagueness, difficulty in operationalization, and insufficient documentation. These findings reveal a gap between the conceptual role of design pillars and their practical use. We discuss implications for game design practice and outline directions for future work toward more structured, player-experience-oriented design processes.

This paper investigates the performance of Large Language Models (LLMs) as autonomous agents in the Hearthstone digital collectible card game. Although traditional numerical agents have demonstrated strong results in competitive game environments, the reasoning capabilities of LLM-based agents remain largely unexplored in this context. To address this gap, we developed an LLM-driven Hearthstone agent using the Sabberstone framework to evaluate several models, including GPT-4o, GPT-4o-mini, o3-mini, and GPT-5-mini, across multiple decks and prompting strategies. Our experiments compare their win rates against established numerical agents and analyze the impact of different prompting techniques, such as Chain-of-Thought (CoT), Reverse Chain-of-Thought (RCoT), ReAct, and Directed Acyclic Graph (DAG) prompting.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) characters in games, particularly non-player characters (NPC), offer exciting new possibilities for enhancing immersion. While these characters can respond to players' questions, another challenge remains: Are they capable of engaging in complex reasoning while also retaining and effectively utilizing information from past interactions? Using the memory stream of conversational agents, our aim is to explore the reasoning capabilities of various LLM, from large server-based models like ChatGPT-3.5 to small and local models like Llama 2 7b and Mistral 7B. Our objective is to evaluate AI performance in gamified environments, starting with simple reasoning tasks suited to a game context within social settings, and progressively advancing to a role-playing game that simulates a job-hiring process. The results suggest that both larger server-based models and smaller models exhibit reasoning capabilities in socially gamified scenarios. However, especially for small local models, more research is needed to enhance the quality of their performance.

Toxicity is still a big problem in the games industry. The development is rather simple, but still painful. What could we do? Toxicity and hate speech remain constant challenges in various online communities, including live-streaming platforms such as Twitch. In this paper, we explore a lightweight, Pythonbased chat bot that integrates Twitch's IRC interface with the Google Perspective API to assess the toxicity of live chat messages in real time. The tool is designed for streamers seeking a minimaleffort moderation assistant and includes a graphical interface for monitoring per-channel toxicity metrics. To evaluate the system's effectiveness, we conducted an offline analysis using a toxic comment dataset. Our results show that the API can broadly distinguish toxic from non-toxic messages, achieving a mean toxicity score of 0.73 for labeled toxic content and 0.11 for benign content. However, limitations such as domain mismatch, API rate restrictions, and lack of contextual understanding constrain real-world applicability of the integration. We discuss practical implications, ethical concerns, and paths for future work, including domain-specific dataset collection, threshold optimization, and user-centered evaluation. The findings highlight both the opportunities and limitations of integrating third-party AI services into real-time moderation workflows on platforms like Twitch.

Effective social communication relies on understanding emotions, interpreting social cues, and maintaining meaningful conversations. To support the development of these skills, we propose a serious game featuring Conversational Artificial Intelligence agents that enable users to engage in questdriven conversations across various scenarios. Users can design custom scenarios and set specific conversation goals as quests to complete one-on-one conversations with a virtual agent who can express basic emotions. To provide structured guidance, the system offers predefined scenarios such as a date simulation, job interview, and Who Am I? game. In addition, it features Theory of Mind training to help people improve their ability to detect sarcasm, irony, and navigate everyday interactions more effectively. We design and evaluate our system to ensure a highly effective and engaging experience. Built on GPT-4o, our approach was evaluated using the Bot Usability Scale, with 20 users successfully recruited online. The results show that the agent's functionality was well received, showcasing high usability and effective communication. However, there is room for improvement in contextual relevance. Although LLM maintained coherent conversations, we faced challenges with long-term context retention. Furthermore, although the avatar's emotional expressions were generally accurate, further refinement is needed to better align them with the context.

This paper examines the impact of AI-generated versus human-written dialogue in a murder-mystery game on player experience. We manipulated both the game dialogue type (AI-generated vs. human-written dialogue) and the game type description (AI-labelled vs human-written-labelled) to assess effects on overall player experience (PX), immersion, and perceived autonomy. Results show that player expectations, modulated by the game type description, had a greater impact on overall PX than the actual game type. Players who thought that they played a game with a human-written narrative reported more positive overall PX, higher immersion and perceived autonomy regardless of which version they actually played. However, interacting with the AI-generated dialogue version led to higher perceived autonomy, suggesting that AI-driven dialogue can enhance perceived freedom without necessarily improving the overall PX. These findings show that player expectations, in response to game descriptions, play a central role in the experiences of players. This work contributes to understanding the influence of narratives and the extent to which AI features increase player engagement.

This paper investigates how the car's systems can be integrated into entertainment experiences. Our experiment uses the vehicle's Vertical Dynamics (VD) actuators and interior light of a BMW i7. We aim to improve the immersion of players by integrating the automotive active suspension system into several game experiences. It is used to provide additional haptic feedback to players. In addition, we also use multi-color interior lighting to provide visual cues. We conducted a user study consisting of custom questions and the Player Experience Inventory (PXI) questionnaire. Users liked the experience and felt the haptic feedback correlated with their actions in-game. 16% of users experienced motion sickness when using the system. However, most of them to a mild extent. From the PXI, we could tell that the experience performed on par with the benchmark in regards to immersion. But the games need to be reworked by incorporating progressive feedback. We were able to show that a vehicle's VD actuators can be used to provide noticeable and in-synch haptic feedback. The average latency of around 120 ms of our setup proved to be a bottleneck, which needs to be addressed in future work.

Rehabilitation for patients with muscle dystrophy is based on performing a lifelong program of regular exercise in coordination with the therapist. However, traditional physiotherapy can be repetitive and boring, which can lead to frustration. In recent years, Serious Games for Exercise Rehabilitation (SGER) have shown promise in making these repetitive tasks more engaging. This paper targets how Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) can be used to create fun and motivating SGER. The development process was supported by a rehabilitation team in a neuromuscular research-clinical center responsible for muscle dystrophy treatment. Therefore, medical knowledge comes from clinicians, including a doctor, with the goal of designing immersive environments that encourage therapeutic movements by playing. Based on VR and AR, 15 mini-games were designed to replace traditional rehabilitation exercises, focusing on improving upper limb movement and adaptability to different types of muscle dystrophy. These games were tested with 15 patients in the presence of a doctor to acquire feedback. The results show that the patients were satisfied with the games specifically chosen for their type of disease. With future improvements, those games can be improved and integrated into the therapy plan. This work provides a foundation for the use of game-based systems in realworld rehabilitation.

Figure 1: Clusters of countries with similar cultural attitudes based on two different sets of metrics and algorithms.1a (left) uses mean values and hierarchical clustering.1b (right) uses cosine similarity and k-means clustering.

In this study, we explore the reasoning capabilities of Large Language Models (LLMs) within the context of the social communication game Werewolf, aiming to evaluate their performance in managing complex system states commonly found in computer games.Our agent architecture gathers data, refines them into detailed information, and plans actions based on this knowledge.To demonstrate the feasibility of using LLM based agents in computer games, we developed a simulation and evaluation tool using the Unity game engine.This software enables users to experiment with various LLMs and agent architectures and to measure model performance within the application.For evaluation, we tested three models: GPT-3.5 Turbo, Mistral-7B-OpenOrca, and Nous-Hermes-Llama2-13B.The results show that even smaller models can perform reasonably well in Werewolf.However, their error rate is significantly higher, highlighting the need for additional software modules or fine-tuning to improve their accuracy.

Remote teaching often feels unnatural and restricted compared to on-site lectures, as traditional teaching aids are reduced to a 2D interface. The increasing adoption of VR expands online teaching platforms by offering new possibilities for educational content and enables teachers to teach more intuitively. In this paper, we introduce the tool VRTeaching, a platform designed for presenters to enable immersive lectures using VR glasses and integrated tools such as an interactive whiteboard that can display slides, built-in chat integration to enable communication, and interactivity features such as polls or audience questions. The presented study includes an expert evaluation assessing the usability and the potential of the teaching and learning platform, and an investigation of the mental demand and psychophysiological responses of teachers and students giving presentations depending on the teaching environment. The results indicate a significantly higher mental demand for the VR environment than the online environment, with no significant effects on the psychophysiological measures. Despite the increased subjective perception of mental demand, participants recognized the VR tool as having great potential.

This paper presents a time- and space-efficient adaptation of the Space Foundation System, a novel game engine system that abstracts space into semantic locations to bridge the gap between the implementation domain and the problem domain of spatial features in digital games. The presented algorithm discretizes the game space by employing a frontier-based flood fill on a voxel grid to partition the space into locations defined by anchors bounded by delimiters. Integrated into a game engine via extended Transform components, the system enables location queries and supports advanced spatial game features in real time. An evaluation across diverse game environments demonstrates that the algorithm meets practical development requirements regarding computation time and memory usage. The results suggest that the system offers a viable, design-oriented extension to traditional scene graphs.

Artificial intelligence NPCs are known to make games more immersive. However, users’ sense of Social Presence with modern, realistic AI NPCs is underexplored. In this paper, we address the research question of how Social Presence is perceived when interacting with AI NPC tutors compared to human tutors in virtual reality assembly tasks. Therefore, we conducted a mixed methods study (N=18) comparing human tutors to AI NPC tutors on a PC assembly task in multiple VR settings with Head-Mounted Displays and a CAVE system. The results indicate that the AI NPC elicits moderate to high levels of Co-Presence and moderate levels of Social Presence, and most participants reported that the AI NPC is beneficial in completing the PC assembly task. Nevertheless, the human tutor was rated significantly higher in terms of Social Presence. We infer suggestions for increasing the Social Presence with AI NPCs, such as increasing the quality of animations and vocal features, important for game research as well as Intelligent Tutoring Systems.

We investigate the idea of a toolkit for visually exploring and modifying game content, addressing questions, such as how to identify relevant in-game data, how to make use of the data to create in-game visual representations, and what benefits these representations have. To that aim, we build a toolkit on top of the. NET platform employed by Unity in order to explore and add custom content without access to the game's source code. Our visual modifications use live objects in the game as data sources. The results appear as an integral part of the game world, which is generated with the original Unity rendering engine. This capability enables visual exploration for debugging, playtesting, modding, streaming, and data-driven analysis of games, as we demonstrate with several examples.

The exchange of digital goods has become a significant aspect of the global economy, with digital products offering inexpensive reproduction and distribution. In-game objects, a type of digital currency, have emerged as tradable commodities within gaming ecosystems. Despite extensive research on various aspects of digital goods, little attention has been given to the impact of in-game trading mechanisms on user experience. This paper presents a study aimed at evaluating the influence of trading systems on user experience in a racing game context. We developed a simple racing game featuring an in-game market for buying and selling car variants and conducted an A/B study comparing user experiences between groups utilizing the trading system and those unlocking cars through race completion. Our findings suggest that while the trading system did not significantly alter the overall user experience, further exploration of diverse trading approaches may offer insights into their impact on user engagement.

In recent years, Virtual Reality (VR) has found its way into different fields besides pure entertainment. One of the topics that can benefit from the immersive experience of VR is education. Furthermore, using game-based approaches in education can increase user motivation and engagement. Accordingly, in this paper, we designed and developed an immersive escape room game in VR to teach building energy simulation topics. In the game, players must solve puzzles like, for instance, assembling walls using different materials. We use a player guidance system that combines educational content, puzzles, and different types of hints to educate the players about parameters that influence energy efficiency, structural resistance, and costs. To improve user onboarding, we implemented a tutorial level to teach players general interactions and locomotion. To assess the user experience, we evaluate both the tutorial and the game with an expert study with gaming and VR experts $(n=11)$. The participants were asked to play both the tutorial level and the escape room level and complete two sets of post-questionnaires, one after the tutorial and one after the puzzle level. The one after the tutorial level consisted of NASA-TLX and SUS questionnaires, while after the escape room level we asked users to complete the NASA-TLX, UESSF, and PXI questionnaires. The results indicate that the onboarding level successfully provided good usability while maintaining a low task load. On the other hand, the escape room level can provide an engaging, visually appealing, and usable learning environment by arousing players’ curiosity through the gameplay. This environment can be extended in future development stages with different educational contents from various fields.

In recent decades, computer science (CS) has undergone remarkable growth and diversification. Creating attractive, social, or hands-on games has already been identified as a possible approach to get teenagers and young adults interested in CS. However, overcoming the global gap between the interest and participation of men and women in CS is still a worldwide problem. To address this challenge, we present a multiplayer game that is used in a workshop setting to motivate girls to program through a 3D game environment. The paper aims to expand the educational landscape within computer science education by offering a motivating and engaging platform for young women to explore programming quests in a collaborative environment. The study involved 235 girls and 50 coaches for the workshop evaluation and a subset of 20 participants for an in-game analysis. In this paper, we explore the engagement in programming and assess the cognitive workload while playing and solving programming quests within the game, as well as the learning experience and the outcome. The results show that the positive outcomes of the workshop underscore the effectiveness of a game-based collaborative learning approach to get girls interested in computer science activities. The variety of solutions found for the different tasks demonstrates the creativity and problem-solving skills of the participants and underlines the effectiveness of the workshop in promoting critical thinking and computational skills.

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) can profoundly affect reciprocal social communication, resulting in substantial and challenging impairments. One aspect is that for people with ASD conversations in everyday life are challenging due to difficulties in understanding social cues, interpreting emotions, and maintaining social verbal exchanges. To address these challenges and enhance social skills, we propose the development of a learning game centered around social interaction and conversation, featuring Artificial Intelligence agents. Our initial step involves seven expert interviews to gain insight into the requirements for empathetic and conversational agents in the field of improving social skills for people with ASD in a gamified environment. We have identified two distinct use cases: (1) Conversation partners to discuss real-life issues and (2) Training partners to experience various scenarios to improve social skills. In the latter case, users will receive quests for interacting with the agent. Additionally, the agent can assign quests to the user, prompting specific conversations in real life and providing rewards for successful completion of quests.

The climate, biodiversity, and inequality polycrisis is one of the most pressing issues humanity has to tackle. Demand-side changes in the food sector can help to address it. Video games have been identified as a potential tool to communicate environmental issues and support such societal change. This study analyzes three current games featuring sustainability messages in the food sector, Gibbon: Beyond the Trees, Beecarbonize, and Bear & Breakfast, to assess how they communicate these issues and what can be learned from them for future game development.

Computer Science (CS) has experienced significant growth and diversification in recent decades. However, there is a lack of diversity in CS learning approaches. Traditional teaching methods and hands-on learning dominate this field, with limited use of playful and interactive learning methods such as educational games. This gap is particularly evident in game development as a subfield of CS. To address this problem, we present a game-based learning approach to teach foundational concepts for game development. The paper aims to expand the educational landscape within CSE, offering a unique and engaging platform for learners to explore the intricacies of game creation by integrating gamified learning strategies. In this paper, we investigate the user’s learning experience and motivation, and the differences between traditional learning and game-based learning methods for teaching game development concepts. The study involves 57 participants in an AB test to assess learners’ motivation, user experience, and learning outcomes. The results indicate a significantly increased learning outcome for the game-based learning approach, as well as higher motivation in learning game development concepts.

Digital learning experiences that promote interactive learning and engagement are becoming increasingly relevant. Educational games can be used to create an engaging learning atmosphere that allows knowledge acquisition through hands-on activities. Combining it with virtual reality (VR) allows users to interact with virtual environments, leading to a highly immersive learning experience. In this study, we explore how game achievements impact motivation and learning in a customizable VR learning environment. Using an A/B test involving 50 students, we utilized an interactive wave simulation to assess motivation, engagement, and the overall learning experience. Data collection involved standardized questionnaires, along with tracking interaction time and interactions within the virtual environment. The findings revealed that users who earned game achievements to unlock customization features felt significantly more accomplished when they mastered challenges and obtained all achievements. However, it was observed that adding achievements could also create pressure on students, leading to feelings of embarrassment when facing task failures. While achievements have the potential to enhance engagement and motivation, their excessive use may lead to distractions, anxiety, and reduced overall engagement. It shows that is crucial to find a good balance in employing game achievements within educational environments to ensure they contribute positively to the learning experience without causing undue stress or deterring learners.

In this demonstration paper, we present our interactive virtual reality (VR) experience, which has been designed to facilitate interaction with energy-related information. This experience consists of two main modes: the world in miniature for large-scale and first-person for real-world scale visualizations. Additionally, we presented our approach to potential target groups in interviews. The results of these interviews can help developers for future implementation considering the requirements of each group.

In this paper, we present a systematic review of the applications of (1) Extended Reality (XR), (2) Augmented Reality (AR), and (3) Virtual Reality (VR) technologies to enhance emotion recognition and emotion expression in people with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). ASD can affect various abilities, and poses challenges to the recognition of emotions in others, which is often referred to as “social blindness”. Treating this condition typically requires intensive one-on-one or small-group therapy sessions, which can be costly and limited in terms of availability. With the growing number of diagnoses of ASD, concerns have risen regarding a potential “lost generation” that may face difficulties in fulfilling its potential. Through this comprehensive review, we aim to provide an overview of innovative approaches that use XR technologies to improve the learning experience of individuals with ASD.

Online reviews provide valuable information for consumers, particularly when purchasing goods like video games that rely on information about experiences. This study focuses on using the Steam gaming platform to examine the influence of peer reviews on gameplay behavior. Data was collected from selected users between November 2021 and August 2022. The analysis revealed a significantly higher rate of game play after the creation of a friend’s review. However, the presence of periods with an unusually high frequency of reviews introduced noise, making it challenging to draw clear conclusions. In this paper, we explore the results of this analysis and potential implications.

Twitch is a leading global live-streaming platform primarily focused on gaming content. However, it is evolving significantly beyond gaming, making it increasingly relevant as a social media and communication platform. Through its chat feature, thousands of streamers interact with their followers in real time. Thereby, the viewers interact with each other or the streamer through a chat. Also here, addressing toxicity and negative posts in the chat, a common challenge on social media platforms, is crucial. Twitch’s fast-growing user base creates a potential breeding ground for toxic and hateful behavior. In this first study, we examine Twitch chats to better understand potential toxic behavior. By selecting a diverse group of streamers based on followers, streaming content, and gender, we offer insights into this under-represented research topic and propose ideas for preventing toxicity in live chats.

In recent years, the gaming industry has experienced rapid growth, further bolstered by the pandemic. Today, games are being utilized beyond entertainment, finding applications in education, health, training, and various industries. Understanding trends and analyzing games and their user base is therefore crucial for game developers, stakeholders, business analysts, and researchers alike. With over 60,000 games, Steam stands out as a major game distribution platform that collects valuable data about games and their users. To simplify the analysis of current trends in the gaming world, we have developed SteamVis: an analysis and visualization tool that efficiently crawls, displays, and analyzes game-related information from Steam. In this paper, we present the tool’s details, conducted case studies, and a qualitative evaluation by domain experts. SteamVis facilitates the study of games and game-related information by providing powerful analytical and visualization tools, enabling the discovery of important trends and insights.

Today's learning environments often involve multiple streams of information and entertainment during the learning process. Providing content via virtual reality (VR) can be used to create an isolated and engaging learning environment, in which immersion and interactivity are key factors for learning. Reducing the cognitive load in interactive VR environments by highlighting relevant material can attract the learner's attention. In this paper, we investigate the effect of isolation-based design on the learning experience in a VR-chemistry-lab environment. The lab environment includes a visualization of an interactive chemistry simulation to teach the concept of catalysis using a black box representation. Users can observe and influence the chemical reactions on different surfaces. We present an AB study with 39 participants to evaluate the users' emotions, motivation, learning experience, and outcome. The results indicate a positive effect on the learning outcomes and engage users in learning.

People approach video games for a multitude of reasons, such as connecting with others, escaping reality, or challenging their abilities. As a consequence, video games have reached an increasingly broader audience and their consumption was even more pronounced during the COVID-19 pandemic. Recent studies have shown how playing video games together improved the well-being of people during period of movement restriction and how video games were an important tool for connecting with physically distant people. However, little is known about how the relationships of people with video games have changed across the years. In order to answer this question, we collected data from the Steam platform and analyzed players’ opinions about multiplayer video games as stated in the respective reviews. The reviews analysis showed that players had played more and in addition their reviews had not been influenced by the difficulties of this significant moment. Their contribution, however, had been less relevant for the community when compared to the situation in the years before the pandemic. Finally, an increase in players choosing to play more casual and amusing games became evident.

Virtual Reality (VR) is increasingly being used as an education medium also enabled by advances in the consumer market, making the devices less expensive and the setup easier. The hardware is more accessible, and players can use Steam as the leading distribution platform for VR applications. Hence, more and more VR applications are being published, also for educational purposes. However, the VR educational games panorama is yet to be described due to the recent rise of this area, as well as users’ perceptions (both learners and educators) and issues specific to each learning domain. Towards this, we provide a first analysis of the Steam educational VR applications. We report an analysis of user reviews describing the positive and negative characteristics of VR experiences. Finally, we give an overview of popular educational VR experiences and what we can learn from reviewers about the design requirements for specific learning fields.

The hype around the series ”The Queen’s Gambit” led to a boom in playing chess. The game enhances strategic thinking, stimulates intellectual creativity, and improves problem-solving. These skills are increasingly in demand and also essential in the field of computer science (CS). Traditional teaching approaches are often insufficient to teach CS concepts. Interactive and digital experiences can be used to create an exciting, engaging, and realistic learning environment. In this paper, we explore the potential of a chess-based learning approach to increase motivation in CS. The application includes an interactive chess-puzzle simulation to teach the concept of state machines using a chessboard as an input field. We present a study with 35 students for evaluating the students’ motivation, emotions, and workload with a focus on the learning experience. The results indicate a positive impact on the learning process and engage students in learning computer science.

There are several non-pharmaceutical treatment approaches, from simple to more complex, for the care of dementia patients, such as the use of immersive technology with virtual reality (VR). However, there are some difficulties in using wired and controller-based VR devices for dementia patients. This work-in-progress paper describes our steps to implement a wireless VR experience with a hand-tracking interaction system. Before testing the environment with patients, we first evaluate the usability of the VR experience by conducting a user study with ten participants. The results indicate above-average usability and low task load. Future developments in this area may improve the application of VR in memory training.

As the boundary between real and virtual life is becoming increasingly blurred, researchers and practitioners are looking for ways to integrate the two intending to improve human lives in a plethora of domains. A cutting-edge concept is the design of Digital Twins (DT), having a broad range of implications and applications, spanning from education, training, as well as safety and productivity in the workplace. An emergent approach for implementing DTs is the usage of mixed reality (MR) and augmented reality (AR), which are well aligned with merging real and virtual objects to enhance the human’s ability to interact with and manage DTs. Yet, this is still a novel area of research and, as such, a grounded understanding of the current state, challenges, and open questions is still lacking. Towards this, we conducted a PRISMA-based literature review of scientific articles and book chapters dealing with the use of MR and AR for digital twins. After a thorough screening phase and eligibility check, 25 papers were analyzed, sorted and compared by different categories like research topic (e.g., visualization, guidance), domain (e.g., manufacturing, education), paper type (e.g., design study, evaluation), evaluation type (user study, case study or none), used hardware (e.g., Microsoft HoloLens, mobile devices) as well as the different outcomes (result type and topic, problems, outlook). The major finding of this research survey is the predominant focus of the reviewed papers on the technology itself and the neglect of factors regarding the users. We, therefore, encourage researchers in this area to keep the importance of ease and joy of use in mind and include users in multiple stages of their work.

In most games, social connections are an essential part of the gaming experience. Players connect in communities inside or around games and form friendships, which can be translated into other games or even in the real world. Recent research has investigated social phenomena within the player social network of several multiplayer games, yet we still know very little about how these networks are shaped and formed. Specifically, we are unaware of how the game type and its mechanics are related to its community structure and how those structures vary in different games. This paper presents an initial analysis of Steam users and how friendships on Steam are formed around 200 games. We examine the friendship graphs of these 200 games by dividing them into clusters to compare their network properties and their specific characteristics (e.g., genre, game elements, and mechanics). We found how the Steam user-defined tags better characterized the clusters than the game genre, suggesting that how players perceive and use the game also reflects how they connect in the community. Moreover, team-based games are associated with more cohesive and clustered networks than games with a stronger single-player focus, supporting the idea that playing together in teams more likely produces social capital (i.e., Steam friendships).

Humans are social beings. It is therefore not surprising that the social distancing and movement restrictions associated with the Covid-19 pandemic had severe consequences for the well-being of large sections of the population, leading to increased loneliness and related mental diseases. Many people found emotional shelter in online multiplayer games, which have already proven to be great social incubators. While the positive effect games had on individuals has become evident, we are still unaware of how and if games fostered the fundamental need for connectedness that people sought. In other words: how have the social bonds and interaction patterns of players changed with the advent of the pandemic? For this purpose, we analyzed one year of data from an online multiplayer game (League of Legends) to observe the impact of Covid-19 on player assiduity and sociality in three different geographical regions (i.e., Europe, North America, and South Korea). Our results show a strong relationship between the development of Covid-19 restrictions and player activity, together with more robust and recurrent social bonds, especially for players committed to the game. Additionally, players with reinforced social bonds—i.e., people played with similar teammates—were more likely to stay in the game even once the restrictions were lifted.

As Immersive Learning research gains traction, questions arise about how educational Virtual and Augmented Realities can be transferred from laboratory settings and pilot projects into everyday teaching. This paper analyzes existing pedagogical frameworks to identify influencing factors and challenges relevant to teaching and learning with immersive learning environments. We distinguish Immersive Learning as individual learning processes supported by immersive technology and Immersive Teaching as the process of teaching with immersive technology. We subsume learner-specific influences (micro-level), teacher- and classroom-specific influences (meso-level) and institutional and governmental factors (macro-level) for Immersive Teaching and Learning. We conclude that, while investigating isolated variables is important for basic research, efforts integrating Virtual and Augmented Reality in everyday classrooms raise new challenges and questions for future research on the complex relationship between various factors.

Virtual Reality (VR) environments are computer-generated mediums that try to provide the user a sense of presence. The use of VR term in science has a long history, but an increasing number of commercial cost-effective VR devices are creating new possibilities and applications for it. Regardless of entertainment, as the most widespread market for VR, the application of VR in medicine is attracting great attention in the scientific field. VR can be used as a tool for public healthcare, as a teaching environment for medical students or to improve the skills of experts, together with a well-accepted method for physical rehabilitation and mental therapies. The focus of this review paper is on the use of VR for psychiatric and anxiety disorders. Several empirical studies show the effectiveness of VR in improving the conditions of patients in a manner comparable to traditional methods and with long-lasting effects in their daily lives. However, a small number of case studies or the lack of a detailed comparison between VR and conventional methods is the shortcoming of current studies. In this paper, we review different VR applications focusing on the identification of the technologies used, the evaluation methods applied, and the results of the studies.

Twitch is a live streaming platform that was originally designed for gamers to share their gaming experiences. The viewer culture on Twitch supports a lively exchange between streamers and viewers and also among viewers themselves. While the potential of Twitch for game tutorials and instructions has been explored, its potential for university lectures still appears to be undiscovered. In this paper, we discuss the potential of Twitch for teaching. We ran two different courses on Twitch, one for CS beginners, the other a game development course for students in a master's program. Evaluations with students show Twitch benefits, including increased engagement and interaction in chat and the ability to watch videos directly afterward. On the other hand, we also discovered several challenges, such as in-chat spam by bots. In this paper, we would like to discuss initial experiences from different perspectives and discuss best practices. Our aim in doing so, is to help other teachers decide whether Twitch might be a suitable online learning platform for their course.

Researchers study the user experience in Virtual Reality (VR) typically by collecting either sensory data or using questionnaires. While traditional questionnaire formats present it through web-based survey tools (out-VR), recent studies investigate the effects of presenting questionnaires directly in the virtual environment (in-VR). The in-VR questionnaire can be defined as an implemented user-interface object that allows interaction with questionnaires in VR that do not break the immersion. Integrating questionnaires directly into the virtual environment, however, also challenges design decisions.

In social and online media, influencers have traditionally been understood as highly visible individuals. Recent outcomes suggest that people are likely to mimic influencers’ behavior, which can be exploited, for instance, in marketing strategies. Also in the Games User Research field, the interest in studying player social networks has emerged due to the heavy reliance on online influencers in marketing campaigns for games, as well as in keeping players engaged. Despite the inherent value of those individuals, it is still difficult to identify influencers, as the definition of influencers is a debated topic. Thus, how can we identify influencers, and are they indeed the individuals impacting others’ behavior? In this work, we focus on influence in retention to verify whether central players impacted others’ permanence in the game. We identified the central players in the social network built from the competitive player-vs-player (PvP) multiplayer (Crucible) matches in the online shooter Destiny. Then, we computed influence scores for each player evaluating the increase in similarity over time between two connected individuals. In this paper, we were able to show the first indications that the traditional metrics for influencers do not necessarily apply for games. On the contrary, we found that the group of central players was distinct from the group of influential players, defined as the individuals with the highest influence scores. Then, we provide an analysis of the two groups.

Interactive and digital learning experiences are becoming increasingly important and used to improve various learning scenarios. In physics education, the use of digital simulations or virtual laboratories to support the learners' understanding is already part of most classrooms. Virtual reality experiences can be used to create even more exciting, engaging, and realistic learning setups to conduct experiments and work with simulations. A range of studies has shown a positive effect of virtual reality experiences for learning. In this paper, we explore the potential of physics education in virtual reality in school-based classroom scenarios. We present a study with 147 high school students from four different schools, to evaluate the potential of room-scale VR learning setups in classroom learning with a focus on engagement and learning experience and focus on dandifying potential use cases for learning experiences in schools from the students' perspective. In this study, we found that students described the experiences as highly engaging and a valuable tool to increase motivation in classrooms. They would rather use VR for learning in the classroom than at home. They prefer a PC-based VR setup over a mobile phone setup. Four main identified use cases for using VR in classrooms from the students' perspective are evaluated and discussed.

Presence in VR is a perceptual sense that leads to an automatic reaction of the brain-body system. An expected interaction in VR can lead to a higher sense of presence. In this work in progress paper we present a conceptual framework for innovative user interface (UI) design in VR with a focus on realistic interactions with the environment. We investigate several successful VR games by focusing on their user interactions and the UI system. The first part of this framework is implemented in a tutorial room where we designed some common UI elements such as the menu, inventory system, and quest manager.

Virtual reality (VR) technologies have become more affordable and accessible in recent years. This is opening up new methods and opportunities in the field of digital learning. VR can offer new forms of interactive learning and working, especially for subjects from the STEM (Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) area. In this context we investigate the potential and application of VR for computer science education with a systematic review in this paper. We present a formal literature review on the use of VR technologies in computer science education. We focus on the identification of factors such as learning objectives, technologies used, interaction characteristics, and challenges and advantages of using fully immersive VR for computer science education.

In game jams, the jammer constellations and teams are essential elements for successful and engaging game jams and game jam outcomes. In this paper, we discuss and analyze group forming behavior in jam environments but also look at jammers who want to prefer to jam by themselves. In jam environments, especially the group forming task at the beginning of every game jam is essential for the success of the event and the outcomes. However, it is also one of the most challenging tasks. For this paper, we analyzed the data of the Global Game Jams between 2015-2018 with a focus on the formed groups as well as the linked Github profiles. Based on first results, we build an early prototype for recommending groups for the Global Game Jam automatically.

Social features, matchmaking, and grouping functions are key elements of online multiplayer experiences. Understanding how social connections form in and around games and their relationship to in-game activity offers insights for building and maintaining player bases and for improving engagement and retention. This paper presents an analysis of the groups formed by users of the the 100.io-a social matchmaking website for different commercial titles, including Destiny on which we focus in this paper. Groups formed on the 100.io can be described across a range of social network related metrics. Also, the social network formed within a group is evaluated in combination with user-provided demographic and preference data. Archetypal analysis is used to classify groups into archetypes and a correlation analysis is presented covering the effect of group characteristics on in-game activity. Finally, weekly activity profiles are described. Our results indicate that group size as well as the number of moderators within a group and their connectedness to other team members influences a group's activity. We also identified four prototypical types of groups with different characteristics concerning composition, social cohesion, and activity.

Understanding physical phenomena is still a challenging task. Three-dimensional interactive simulations are a valuable tool to support understanding. We implemented different physical simulations designed so that students can interact and learn with them. However, student engagement is crucial to support the learning process. Virtual reality applications offer a promising way to engage and immerse students in three-dimensional environments and to keep them focused on the learning task. In this paper, we explore interactive virtual reality experiences implemented with HTC Vive as an alternative form of learning tool supporting engagement and to support the ability to concentrate better on the learning tasks. We ran a two-fold user study in which 19 students evaluated the experience looking at engagement, motivation, usability, and learning. First results indicate that such experiences are well suited as a supplement to traditional in-class learning and that they support realistic laboratory setups and simulations in an engaging, interesting, and immersive way and help students to focus more on the learning task compared to traditional applications.

In traditional computer science courses, students do not often get the chance to experience an entire project cycle, starting from the idea development stage and ending with the final release of a product together with collaborators from different disciplines. Developing a game gives learners the possibility to experience an entire development cycle, to learn how to work in a team, and to learn new skillsets required to create games. Students can profit even more from an interdisciplinary and international setup. In this paper, we describe a first pilot of an interdisciplinary and international student game project, during which students from different backgrounds, and with different nationalities and different learning expectations can work together to develop games. We report on a first pilot with 24 students studying different subjects, such as computer science, law, or biology, in two different countries. First results show that such programs are highly engaging for students, can boost their employability, have a high learning outcome, and raise their interest in international collaborations.

Attracting and engaging computer science students to enhance their mathematical and algorithmic thinking skills are challenging tasks. In winter 2013 we introduced a new teaching format for a course, which combines theory in computer science with hands-on algorithmic challenges, mathematical thinking activities, and collaborative problem-solving. Therefore, we introduced the pedagogical model Motivational Active Learning (MAL), which is grounded in MIT's successful format for teaching physics, Technology-Enabled Active Learning (TEAL), and combines it with motivational strategies usually used by game designers. Results from the initial setup in class reveals that students indeed assessed the course structure as more interactive and motivating compared to other similar courses. In this paper we discuss the course design, issues, and the impact, and analyze the first results in detail.

Motivational Active Learning (MAL) is an innovative pedagogical approach based on MIT's teaching format TEAL (Technology-Enabled Active Learning) combined with advanced motivational strategies based on gamification design aspects. The main idea of MAL is to enhance learning outcomes using motivational and social learning experiences. The lecture format is designed for courses, which combine theory in computer science with hands-on programming challenges and collaborative in-course problem solving. The main features of MAL include collaborative learning, constant activities to stimulate interactions between instructor and students, immediate feedback for self-assessment, and motivational feedback such as badges or leaderboard information. The course is structured in the form of mini lectures with constant interactive challenges and interactions such as small arithmetic problems, programming challenges, or research and discussion assignments, which are available using a learning management system as supportive in-course technology to provide the interactive course content and according immediate feedback. First outcomes show positive impact on student motivation and attention during the lessons. Also, more students are willing to complete bonus tasks volunaryly do gain extra points.

Organizing a Programming 101 course for a thousand computer science freshmen poses a challenge. One major problem is the high dropout-rate due to insufficient social interactions and the missing feeling of presence. Collaborative home assignments can help to overcome such issues. However, due to scheduling conflicts not all students are able to meet in person to work together. Many tools support collaborative online programming, but have several disadvantages in comparison to face-to-face meetings. This work presents a virtual world environment, where student groups can meet online, but experience the advantages of face-to-face interactions. They can commonly use different tools for collaborative problem solving at one shared virtual location. They experience the feeling of presence, which increases the individual contribution, even from distant sites. Furthermore, the environment provides facilitated possibilities for tutor meetings, where students can discuss and present their solutions. In this work a first prototype of the environment is described. In addition advantages as well as potential issues or difficulties are discussed.