The desire to explore new places

During my ongoing literature review I often discover interesting facts about things I’ve never thought about. Sometimes I can connect these facts with my own observations: The result is mostly a completely new idea why things are as they are. Maybe these ideas are new to you, too. Therefore I’ll share my new science based knowledge with you!

This week: This time, I think about my ambition to explore new places and the resulting preference for open world computer games.

Spending time in the nature and exploring new places belong to my favorite hobbies. Constantly, I am driven by my own curiosity, the ambition to reach places unknown to me and the desire to experience challenging environmental conditions. For instance, every time I can venture into a new forest or ascent to the top of a new mountain, I am really excited and enjoy every second of those small adventures. In the end, it is all about of experiencing and discovering new things, finding ways to reach distant places and, ultimately, learning more about myself.

This personality trait probably is also the reason why open world games are my favorite computer game genre as they provide the players with huge and vivid worlds they can explore without any restrictions. For instance, I can easily spend many days in Minecraft by just walking around in order to discover unique and beautiful places in the procedurally generated worlds. Naturally, those games are not only about the exploration of the virtual worlds as they often evolve around a certain narration (e.g. Skyrim) thus giving the players clear tasks they have to complete in order to proceed with the story. However, in contrast to linear games, the players can choose how and when they want to continue with the main story and hence I often get sidetracked as continue to explore the virtual worlds instead of proceeding with the story line.

Skyrim

Unfortunately (or better luckily?), exploring the virtual worlds is still far away from the exploration of the real world. Of course, the audiovisual representations can be very realistic and immersive, but all my other senses are not involved when I discover a new virtual environment. Experiencing the environment with all my senses is, however, very important to me. For instance, I like the feeling of a refreshing breeze after I reached the top of a mountain or the warmth of the sun when I find a clearing in a dark and chilly forest. Only the feedback from all my senses allows me to really experience and grasp the environment around me.

The excitement of discovering new places.

In the end, I will always prefer to explore places in the real world, but in times when this is not possible, exploring virtual worlds can satisfy my desire of discovering new places and enjoying fantastic views over beautiful landscapes.

The value of my computer game experiences

During my ongoing literature review I often discover interesting facts about things I’ve never thought about. Sometimes I can connect these facts with my own observations: The result is mostly a completely new idea why things are as they are. Maybe these ideas are new to you, too. Therefore I’ll share my new science based knowledge with you!

This week: This time, I think about the difficulties of correctly valuing a player’s computer game experiences.

Since I started playing computer games, I have achieved a lot of impressive things. For instance, I drove virtual race cars on digitalized racing circuits, docked spacecraft to the International Space Station, defeated complex raid bosses in World of Warcraft and saved the world many times. Unfortunately, I am not really sure what exactly I have achieved and if there is a real world application for the knowledge I have gained over the past years (that is also one of the reasons why I go for a PhD in this field!).

Completing complex maneuvers in a simulation games shows that I do have the right mindset and knowledge for the simulated activity. However, as the simulation just happens on my computer screen, I can not directly practice the real world activity as the controls of the vehicles are mapped on my available input devices, such as my keyboard, mouse, racing wheel, and joystick, and not implemented in a realistic way by providing me with a panel full of knobs and switches. Hence, although the simulations are highly immersive, they can not count as a substitute for the real world counterpart of the simulated activity. In addition, all the forces that would normally affect my body, are not or only partly present while playing a computer simulation.

However, despite those limitations, simulation games present and demand the knowledge encoded in the game in a direct way and, as a result of this, I can train and even expand my knowledge of the game’s topic. Furthermore, as knowledge transfer is likely when the computer game shares similarities with the real world activity, which is the case with simulation games, I can directly transfer this game based knowledge to the real world. Unfortunately, there is no way that allows me to keep track of my simulator based experiences in order to have a proof for the knowledge I have acquired so far.

Things are even more complex in case of games that tell an exciting story and/or just challenge some of my abilities, such as reaction time, hand-eye-coordination, and social skills. In contrast to a book or a movie, I am actively doing something in order to proceed with the game. Hence, I am directly involved in the progress of the gameplay which should mean that all the experiences I made in the games I played thus far are real, at least for me. The problem is, however, that computer games lack a comparability to similar real world activities. Therefore, although a player’s computer game experiences might be real, they are hard to understand for others as long as they have not played the game themselves.

In the end, as long as there is no good way of comparing computer game experiences with similar real world activities, it is very hard for outstanders to correctly value a player’s experiences. Nevertheless, the knowledge and experience gained from playing computer games can greatly improve a player’s abilities or expand a player’s knowledge. Also, as a player is directly involved in the gameplay, the experiences are real for the player. The only downside is that only other players can really understand what the player has experienced.

Therefore, it is time to find a method that allows us to compare and value the knowledge and experience we have gained by playing computer games!

When memorizing a game’s content becomes a requirement

During my ongoing literature review I often discover interesting facts about things I’ve never thought about. Sometimes I can connect these facts with my own observations: The result is mostly a completely new idea why things are as they are. Maybe these ideas are new to you, too. Therefore I’ll share my new science based knowledge with you!

This week: This time, I think about DiRT Rally and the imbalance that starts to evolve when the game is played over a longer period and players start to memorize the game’s content.

Normally, I enjoy pointing out the positive effects of playing computer games. Amongst other things, computer games challenge and hence train our abilities or help us to learn new knowledge. In addition, computer games are highly immersive and engaging environments that keep us motivated even if we are about to tackle a very difficult or repetitive task. The increased motivation to continue playing a game also results in an increased repetition of the game’s knowledge thus leading to a better learning outcome.

DiRT Rally

However, in case of DiRT Rally, the automatic training effects work a bit against the concept of the game. DiRT Rally is an authentic rally simulation and challenges the players with a realistic off-road driving experience. In contrast to circuit racing, rally drivers do not practice a rally stage until they have completely memorized it. Instead, they basically see every turn only once during a rally event.

Unfortunately, DiRT Rally features only a limited amount of rally stages and, as a result of this, players start to automatically memorize the stages while playing the game. Although this is another great example for the positive effects of playing computer games, it slowly takes away the excitement of the game. Personally, I am far away from memorizing all the stages available in DiRT Rally, but I already start to remember certain sections of some of the stages and once I approach them, I exactly know what is ahead of me. This knowledge ultimately helps me to drive more aggressive and faster than I would normally do.

There is, however, also a downside of this automatic learning effect which can become a problem once the game is played with other players. Normally, the amount of time a game is played is not the critical factor when it comes to multiplayer racing events. It is more about a player’s skill and ability to keep a car under control when driven at its limits. However, in the case of DiRT Rally, having remembered a stage gives a huge advantage over those players who are at the same skill level but who have not memorized a stage as they have to drive much more careful.

In the end, DiRT Rally successfully demonstrates how computer games help us to learn new knowledge due to a constant repetition. Unfortunately, from the point of view of a player, it is really sad that memorizing the content of a game seems to become necessary in order to stay competitive, especially when the game is all about seeing every corner only once. It would be very interesting if DiRT Rally would receive a random track generator that greatly reduces the effects of memorizing a stage.

The feeling of complexity

During my ongoing literature review I often discover interesting facts about things I’ve never thought about. Sometimes I can connect these facts with my own observations: The result is mostly a completely new idea why things are as they are. Maybe these ideas are new to you, too. Therefore I’ll share my new science based knowledge with you!

This week: This time, I think about some of the changes that were implemented in World of Warcraft with the release of the Legion content patch.

On Wednesday 20th, 2016 the World of Warcraft (WoW) Legion Pre-Expansion Patch went live on European realms and implemented all the major game changes that are part of the next WoW Expansion which will be released on August 30th. At first, after I started the game for the first time since I upgraded to WoW Version 7.0.3, I was really skeptical as the glyphs system as well as some of my most used warrior skills, I play a protection warrior, got removed. Suddenly, the game seemed more simplistic than ever before!

World of Warcraft

However, after thoroughly analyzing the changes, I came to the conclusion that the alterations were not as drastic as I thought. As the glyphs system got implemented with the release of the Wrath of the Lichking expansion, it seemed to be a very interesting game mechanic that challenged the decision making of the players as only a few glyphs could have been active at a time. Hence, players were required to chose only those glyphs that matched their personal playstyle or provided them with the best bonus. Unfortunately, the system never had many valid alternatives for a certain playstyle and, as a result of this, I had to change my selected glyphs only when Blizzard introduced significant changes to the glyphs. Therefore, despite having the potential to implement a certain complexity, the glyphs system never played a significant role during my gameplay.

In contrast to the glyphs system, Heroic Strike, one of the warrior skills that got removed, played a significant role during my gameplay. Using this skill was useful to significantly increase the damage I could cause while tanking less dangerous bosses. Interestingly, Blizzard also implemented a new skill which, once activated, increases the damage of a different ability but does no longer cause direct damage. In the end, using the new skill has the exact same effect as it increases the damage I can cause, hence I have not lost anything except for a good feeling during the gameplay when more numbers indicating my damage were shown.

In sum, the Legion content patch has just streamlined the gameplay by removing features that were not used very often. Strangely, although the game has not lost much complexity, it still feels as if the game has got more simplistic. It seems that even rarely used game mechanics can highly increase the feeling of playing a more complex game. Also, I wonder what would have happened if Blizzard, instead of removing the glyphs system completely, had improved the glyphs by providing more valid alternatives. In the end, although my normal gameplay has not changed by a great deal, I wish the developers would have just added more features to the game to make it more challenging.

RIP Heroic Strike.

Savegames are important

During my ongoing literature review I often discover interesting facts about things I’ve never thought about. Sometimes I can connect these facts with my own observations: The result is mostly a completely new idea why things are as they are. Maybe these ideas are new to you, too. Therefore I’ll share my new science based knowledge with you!

This week: This time, I think about the problems that occur when a computer game has only an automatic savagame function and does not allow the players to save their progress at any stage of their gameplay.

Over the recent years, an automatic savegame function (ASF) has become more and more common. Each time a player reaches a certain checkpoint, completes an event or just quits the game, the player’s progress is automatically saved in order to ensure that the players can continue where they left off or do not have to repeat certain stages of the game if they die in a challenging boss fight. In addition, an ASF adds some finality to the gameplay as each decision and each event can not be undone thus making the virtual world more authentic.

The most simple and direct way is to solely implement an ASF without providing any quicksave or normal save functions. In this case, every decision, event and even mistake is final and can not be reverted. This, on the one hand, adds some excitement to the gameplay as players are then challenged to think about their next steps and have to act very carefully. On the other hand, it also affects the players‘ interest in trying out new things as, in case of a bad outcome, they can not return to the point before they started the experiment. Moreover, players are constantly challenged to be fully focussed on the gameplay as they can not revert a mistake they make due to a lack of concentration which ultimately can result in a high degree of frustration.

A different way of implementing an ASF is by adding an additional quicksave function that allows the players to easily save the game at any time and, in case of a mistake or bad outcome, to return to the point as the quicksave was made. This way, players can try out risky things and learn from their mistakes without permanently affecting the state of their game. In addition, a quicksave function provides the players with a basic version of a safety net as, in case of an unhappy coincidence, they have a fallback level and do net get permanently punished for an event they can not account for.

The last way of implementing an ASF can be done by combining it with a quicksave as well as a normal save function. The ASF then acts as a fallback level in case a player forgets to save the own progress at the end of a game session or experiences a crash of the game itself. In addition, players are then able to create savegames of different stages of the game which ultimately provide them with the greatest flexibility to try out different approaches. Moreover, the normal save function allows the players to just play the game without being fully focussed on it as, in case of a mistake, they can just revert to a point before the mistake happened.

Therefore, the implementation as well as the form of an ASF can be also seen as an important game design decision as it greatly affect a gamer’s playstyle. Just implementing an ASF is only useful when decision making is an important part of the gameplay or the game belongs to the genre of survival games. In those two cases, being unable to revert to an ealier stage of the game increases the excitement and challenges the players to be extra careful with their next steps. All other games should at least provide a quicksave function in order to give the players some control over the way how and when they want to save their progression. Also, it ensures that players can just play the game without thinking too much about the consequences or try out different approaches without being required to start a new game in a worst case scenario.

Personally, I prefer the traditional way of having a normal save function that allows me to have multiple savegames of my current playthrough so that, in case of an unhappy coincidence or bad day, I can revert to a previous stage without losing all my progress due to a bad mistake.

In the end, a savegame is not only a feature to allow players to continue with their current playthrough, but also a way to save a certain stage of the game in order to return to this point when needed. Additionally, a savegame can rescue players who experience an error of the game that puts them into a position from which they can not recover. Unfortunately, several games just come with a plain ASF these days and do not give the players control over their savegames. Hopefully, game designers will start to rethink the way how they want to use the savegames as having no savegames takes away a lot of the playfulness of computer games.

The challenge of creating let’s play videos

During my ongoing literature review I often discover interesting facts about things I’ve never thought about. Sometimes I can connect these facts with my own observations: The result is mostly a completely new idea why things are as they are. Maybe these ideas are new to you, too. Therefore I’ll share my new science based knowledge with you!

This week: This time, I think about the complexity of creating Let’s Play videos. For the purpose of creating a Let’s Play video, the content creator has to perform two simultaneous tasks of which each can fully occupy the player thus challenging a player’s multitasking ability.

Normally, creating Let’s Play videos (LPs) involves the recording of the player’s gameplay as well as gameplay commentary explaining the own thoughts and actions thus adding an additional story arc to the narrative of the game. However, performing a gameplay commentary requires some practice as playing a computer game often requires a player’s full attention which then has to be shared with the task of commentating. This, in return, can distract the player from the actual gameplay and increase the chances of making a mistake in the game. Naturally, the player can also focus on the gameplay instead, but this mostly causes a negative effect on the quality of the commentary.

In addition, the genre of the game as well as the commentary’s content have a significant impact on the complexity of creating an LP. On the one hand, just describing the own actions and thoughts is simpler than discussing or explaining topics that have no connection to the actual gameplay.

For instance, I use Minecraft for the creation of two different types of LP content. The first type is basically a regular LP in which I just play the game and commentate my actions or share my thoughts and goals. This standard type of LP is pretty straightforward as I just have to explain what I see or what I do, thus reducing the effects of sharing my brain power. However, I also utilize Minecraft for the purpose of creating some kind of video blog in which I discuss important things of my life or try to answer some questions from my viewers. This type of LP is very challenging as the commentary content and the gameplay content do not align all the time. Instead of just playing the game and commentating my actions, I have to use a portion of my brain power to explain complex topics in a clear and understandable way. As explaining complex topics is a very challenging task for our brains, I can no longer fully focus on the actual gameplay. When I like to execute a more demanding game mechanic or I get surprised by one of the many Minecraft monsters, I have to interrupt my explanation in order to free up some brain power.

On the other hand, the game’s genre plays another critical role as some games require a player’s full attention in order to be played successfully. For instance, playing realistic racing games, such as DiRT Rally and Assetto Corsa, demands the players‘ full focus to avoid making mistakes, hence playing such a challenging game leaves not much room for performing a good commentary. In contrast to those fast-paced games that constantly require the player’s attention, more slow-paced games provide good opportunities for performing the commentary. For example, turn-based strategy games like XCOM2 give the players an infinite amount of time to think about their next steps and hence content creators can easily explain their thoughts and plans as they can freely switch between both tasks without the risk of causing a negative effect on the other task’s outcomes.

In conclusion, creating LPs is a very challenging form of playing a computer game as the players have to share their attention between two simultaneous tasks of which each can, depending on the content of the commentary or the genre of the game, demand a player’s full focus. By performing both tasks simultaneously, the players have to constantly change the priority of the two tasks in order to successfully play the game and perform a good commentary. Ultimately, this can even lead to a multitasking ability training.

Mental Rotation and Spatial Navigation Training

During my ongoing literature review I often discover interesting facts about things I’ve never thought about. Sometimes I can connect these facts with my own observations: The result is mostly a completely new idea why things are as they are. Maybe these ideas are new to you, too. Therefore I’ll share my new science based knowledge with you!

This week: This time, I take a look at Take On Mars and analyze the game’s spatial navigation and mental rotation ability training effects.

Take On Mars – Docking with the ISS

It was already shown that 3D computer games can train mental rotation [1] and spatial navigation [2] abilities. During the gameplay of those games, players can explore the virtual worlds and hence practice to orientate themselves in 3D spaces. Also, computer games often involve the rotation of objects in order to solve puzzles or to construct new things in the game world. For instance, the construction of a new spacecraft in Kerbal Space Program allows for the rotation of individual parts in order to give the new vessel a unique shape. In the end, players subconsciously train those abilities as they constantly repeat certain actions demanding them thus training them due to repetition.

Another great example for an effective mental rotation and spatial navigation training using computer games are the Take On Mars scenarios that involve the docking of a spacecraft to another spacecraft or to the Internation Space Station. The player’s goal is to successfully dock a spacecraft that is performing station keeping next to the other spacecraft by changing the spacecraft’s position and alignment. As those scenarios take place in a simulated space environment, the player is able to rotate the spacecraft around all the three axes and to freely translate it to a desired position. In the end, the player has to align the own spacecraft’s docking port with the target spacecraft’s docking port. For this purpose, the player controls the spacecraft from a cockpit view that provides the player with an additional docking screen indicating the current spacecraft’s alignment relative to the target docking port.

In order to successfully complete the scenarios, the player has to translate the spacecraft towards the target docking port, subequently change the spacecraft’s alignment so that the docking ports are facing towards each other and finally close the gap between them in order to successfully dock both spacecraft. During this procedure, the game exhausts the player’s spatial navigation and mental rotation skills as the spacecraft can be rotated and translated in any direction. Hence, the player is challenged to analyze and visualize the current spacecraft’s status and to decide which operation might help in order to complete the task. Subequently, when the player executes a maneuver, the game immediately provides the player with feedback about the maneuver’s effect, thus helping the player to train their spatial abilities.

In conclusion, Take On Mars creates an effective training environment for spatial abilities as the game’s goals and game mechanics demand a player’s mental rotation and spatial navigation, thus training those skills due to repetition.

[1]Cherney, I. D. (2008). Mom, let me play more computer games: They improve my mental rotation skills. Sex Roles, 59(11-12):776–786.
[2]Joorabchi, M. E. and El-Nasr, M. S. (2011). Measuring the impact of knowledge gained from playing fps and rpg games on gameplay performance. Entertainment Computing – ICEC 2011, pages 300–306.

Experiencing an Epic-Win

During my ongoing literature review I often discover interesting facts about things I’ve never thought about. Sometimes I can connect these facts with my own observations: The result is mostly a completely new idea why things are as they are. Maybe these ideas are new to you, too. Therefore I’ll share my new science based knowledge with you!

This week: This time, I think about the epic-win I felt as I managed to complete a very challenging and dramatic operation in XCOM 2.

XCOM 2, a turn bases strategy game, puts the players into the role of the commander of the XCOM which is a special force fighting against an alien invasion. The gameplay itself is segmented into two main phases. On the one hand, the players have to manage the own base, conduct research and prepare their soldiers for operations against the alien invaders. On the other hand, the players also tactically command up to six soldiers during an operation with the goal to eliminate all hostiles or to complete a certain task, such as extracting a VIP or destroying an alien facility. The latter phase takes place in a turn based format. All units can use two actions per turn and once all actions are used the player’s turn is over and the computer starts to control the enemy units. In general, the goal is to take out enemies by tactically moving the own soldiers so that they get into superior positions, thus allowing them to eliminate the alien’s forces. Also, the player has access to special abilities, needs to make sure all soldiers have reloaded their weapons or get healed once they got injured by an enemy.

XCOM 2

As I progressed through the campaign of XCOM 2, I suddenly reached a certain point in the story at which the player’s base, which is a huge spacecraft, gets attacked by an UFO and has to crash-land. The spacecraft itself gets not severely damaged, but it can not start its engines again as the aliens have activated a special disruptor beacon which override the ship’s system. Thus, the player suddenly faces the challenge of defending the own base and destroying the disruptor in order to escape the approaching alien forces.

This special operation begins like any other operation by sending the player’s soldiers to the target area which is, in this case, just outside of the player’s base. Once the soldiers are deployed, the player immediately gets attacked by some enemies and has to establish a secure position. However, the player can not only defend the own position against the constant stream of incoming reinforcements as the second main goal is to destroy the disruptor beacon. Moreover, the constant stream of new enemies increase the chances that the player gets overrung an some poin as the player’s soldiers only have a limited amount of ammunition and special attacks. In addition, certain abilities of the player’s soldiers do have a cooldown and need to recharge after being used. Therefore, the player has to start proceeding towards the disruptor while dealing with new aliens joining the battle.

As I played this mission, I constantly felt the pressure to move forward as aggressiv as possible in order to destroy the alien’s disrupter beacon as soon as possible. Thus, I decided to move only a two of my soldiers forward to destroy the beacon while keeping the others a bit behind in order to deal with incoming reinforcements. As I finally destroyed the beacon, a truel fight for survival began as the alien’s started to bring more and more reinforcements to the battle field which landed between my two soldiers who destroyed the disruptor and the extraction zone. Hence, I could not just fall back as this would have exposed my soldiers to the reinforcements. This left me with only one way to get my soldiers out alive: I had to support them with my other soldiers who were still in a defense position and slowly move them back to the extraction zone.

As I finally managed to get all my soldiers to the extraction zone without anyone being wounded, I was completely overwhelmed. In contrast to a regular mission, I was constantly in a fight and I never had the chance to recover between incoming reinforcements. Usually, I would make sure that all the soldiers have reloaded their weapons and are in a good position to engage the next group. During this mission, however, this was not possible. In addition, a player normally encounters about 10 enemies during a mission on average. After this mission, I dealt with more than 30 enemy units. Hence, as I finally managed to get all my soldiers back to the extraction point alive, I experienced the overwhelming feeling of an epic-win.

An epic-win is a special overwhelming feeling that occurs when a player manages to perfectly solve a challenge that seemed impossible, the player recovers from a bad situation or achieves a goal with a team of other players in an unexpected way. In my case, I managed to perfectly overcome a challenge that seemed impossible throughout the whole mission. Especially towards the end of this operation, as several of my soldiers were out of ammunition already, I reached a point at which a small mistake would have led to a potential loss of one of my soldiers. Therefore, completing this mission in a perfect way was a fantastic feeling and I felt as if I could exhaust any other challenge XCOM 2 will throw at me.