Unpredictable length

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 length of instance runs during World of Warcraft. It is often hard to predict how much time will be needed to complete a certain instance.

Playing computer games is often a good way to make a short break between tasks[1]. Compared to other activities, playing a video game does not require a lot of preparations. The player just needs to start the game in order to enjoy the content and to free up his own mind before he starts to tackle the next tasks.

Personally, I am really enjoying a short game session in order to relax a bit before I start or continue a task. It really helps me to stay focussed on tasks which are not completed within a few hours. However, I have to set up a time limit for these game breaks, because the content of computer games is a continuous stream of new challenges. As soon as I finished the first challenge, I will get offered a new one in order to continue playing the game. In this case, it is easy to get lost in the game and the short recreation break will become longer than planned.

Typically, this is not so much an issue. In most cases, a mission or a task rarely lasts longer than 30 minutes and even if it does, then a save function will allow me to stop my game break and to continue the game later at the exact same point.

This approach worked for me with most of the games I enjoy. Lately, I was even able to use World of Warcraft (WoW) for such a „game break“. The expansion pack „Warlords of Draenor“ has added new and fresh content to the game and so I was able to complete a few quests during my break. However, playing WoW during such a break is still quite complicated because you have to deal with other players. Sometimes a lot of players are active at the exact same spot and trying to solve the exact same quest. In such a case, it is often hard to find enough enemies or other items which are required to complete the task. Luckily, at this point, I am still able to just log out, because my avatar will remain at the exact same spot and I can continue solving my quest later on.

Unfortunately, this does not apply to small 5-men instances. Apart from the fact that you do not want to leave your friends alone, it is not possible to save the progression during such a non-raiding instance. You are required to finish it in one go or you have to start over once again. In this case, you need to have enough time if you want to participate in such an instance run. Moreover, the length for such an instance run is hard to predict. Someone can make a mistake and the whole group gets defeated by an enemy. Someone gets a phone call and is not available for a few minutes. These issues are not so much a great deal, if the game session is planned to last for longer than an hour. However, if you just want to make a short break then the unpredictable length can become a problem.

I even noticed that this unpredictable length is sometimes keeping me away from joining an instance group during a longer game session. I really like to explore this part of the game, but being stuck in one instance for more than an hour is not really practical, if I want to do other things. On the other hand, if I do have enough time, then being in such a dynamic instance group is really entertaining.

10 years of World of Warcraft

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 10th anniversary of World of Warcraft. The game unites million of players since its release ten years ago.

It’s hard to believe, but the Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game „World of Warcraft“ (WoW) is currently celebrating its 10th anniversairy. During the last decade, the game has received five major expansion packs to keep the players interested in the game. The latest expansion pack „Warlords of Draenor“ (WoD) was just released on November 13th.

Blackwing Lair 40-men raid

Apart from being played for 10 years, WoW is a very successful game which attracts millions of players who are keeping the virtual world alive. Currently, the game has a subscriber count of 10 million and 3.3 million copies of the just released WoD were sold so far[1].

This success is especially so interesting, because the core mechanics of the game have not changed since the release ten years ago. Although new tasks and new environments were added to the game, the players are mostly interacting the same way with the world as they did ten years ago[2][3]. However, the players have developed a very strong emotional attachement to their own avatars over time. The own avatar became the virtual representation of the player in this virtual world[4]. Moreover, the players were required to form groups in order to achieve certain goals in the environment and over time, friendships evolved among the members of a group[5][6].
As a conclusion, the players of WoW started to live a second life in Azeroth and/or were attracted by the simple reward mechanisms of WoW which are constantly providing an immediate feedback about the own progression.

Firelands 10-men raid

The success story of WoW is unique and it is the first game which reached this huge dimension. WoW has influenced the development of many other games and has revolutionized the online multiplayer games. It even has become a social platform.

As a computer game researcher, I am excited to see how the playerbase will evolve during the next years. Some of the frequent players have grown up with this game and it became a part of their life. It is a very interesting to observe how living virtual worlds like WoW are connecting the players from all over the world and how the game is influencing our own life. The next years can give us some more insights into the dynamics of virtual worlds and how we could use them in order to connect and educate people in an engaging way.

Philae

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 successful landing of Philae on Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko on November 12th, 2014.

Wednesday afternoon was a very exciting time for spaceflight, science and mankind. All the tension evolved around the small robotic lander „Philae“ which was descending towards the surface of the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Around 09:03 GMT the Lander Control Center (LCC) received the data that the lander was released from the mothership „Rosetta“. After the separation, the lander started its descent towards the icy and rocky surface of the comet in order to land there after a seven hours flight.

A few hours after the separation, the first pictures of the two spacecrafts arrived at the LCC.[1] Rosetta took several pictures of the descending lander with its landing gear and instrument booms extended. At this point the lander was still in the middle of its slow descend towards the surface of comet 67P. The tension reached its climax around 16:00 GMT or about seven hours after the spacecraft separation. All the scientists and misson controllers were waiting for the confirmation of a successful landing.

Finally, at 16:03 GMT the signal with the great news about the successful landing arrived at the LCC. Philae managed to land on the surface of the comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko. However, the data were a bit different than expected and indicated a rotation of the lander. The lander was equipped with some harpoons and some anchors in order to attach the spacecraft to the surface of the comet due to the weak gravity. Unfortunately, the harpoons were not fired and it turned out that the lander bounced up into space once again after the first landing. The lander reached an altitude of about 1km during its second flight and bounced up a second time after a second landing. Finally, after the third landing on comet 67P the lander remained on the surface. Mission accomplished![2]

The lander Philae is only able to communicate with the LCC when the mothership is flying over the landing site and is acting as a relay. The signal then needs about 30 minutes to reach the antennas on Earth. After several hours, the Rosetta spacecraft finally returned into the line of sight of Philae and the first observations, data and pictures were transmitted to Earth.

The first pictures from the surface of a comet were a huge success and an amazing result after the ten years flight of the Rosetta spacecraft out to the comet. Although it was just mind-blowing seeing these pictures, the pictures revealed a problem for the Philae mission as well. The third and final landing of the robotic lander ended in a spot that is surrounded by cliffs and rocks which are casting a large shadow on the solar panels of the lander. Moreover, the comet has currently a distance of about 3 AU to the Sun (the Earth has a distance of about 1 AU to the Sun). This distance reduces the light of the Sun by a significant degree and the solar panels are not as effective as they would be on Earth. The lander is equipped with two batteries which are able to supply the lander with electricity for about 60 hours.

The lander continued with its research and transmitted more data to the Earth every time a communication with Rosetta was possible. After 60 hours on the surface of the commet, the batteries were almost depleted and the lander was transmitting the last set of data back home. Afterwards, the lander switched to hibernation and began to sleep on the surface of Comet-67P. However, this does not necessarily mean the end of the Philae mission. The comet is currently flying towards the Sun and over time, the electricity generated by the solar panels will increase and maybe it is possible for Philae to wake up once again.[3]

The whole landing on the comet was a very ambitious mission and it were very exciting last days following the results and the activities of this mission. Congratulations to everyone who was involved in this spectacular mission!

Immersion with a real world connection

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 how the immersive effects of computer games are influenced by the experiences we have made in the real world.

Last week-end, I started playing a new computer game called „The Long Dark“[1] and during the gameplay, I was able to make an interesting observation about the immersive effects of this game. The gameplay itself is all about a person who has to survive in the Northern Canadian Wilderness during the winter. The main objective of the player is to find shelter from strong snow storms and to find enough food in order to stay alive.

Although the whole survival part felt quite realistic, most of the immersion was caused by the game world and all the colors used in the environment. During my short game session, I was mostly walking through snowy forests. Moreover, I was able to experience a beautiful sunset which had the characteristic color of a sunset during wintertime. The color of the environment was changing from a warm orange to a cold blueish color shortly after sunset.

The Long Dark

Personally, I like the winter and I like to go hiking through snowy landscapes, so I almost felt as if I would be „at home“ as I started playing this game. This immersive feeling was completely different from the „normal“ immersive feelings of a computer game. I was not hooked up, because I was totally focussing on the action of the gameplay. Instead, it was more like being in my favorite environment.

The Long Dark

It was interesting to become immersed by a game because of a direct connection to one of my most favorite environments. It was also very interesting to observe how a direct connection to the real world was intensifying the immersive effects of a game world.

Don’t break the immersion

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 advantage of implementing a knowledge database directly in a game. The database could help players to develop a deeper understanding of the facts presented in the game without breaking the immersion of it.

There are several great examples for presenting knowledge directly in a computer game. „Civilization V“ provides the player with a huge database about the history of humanity. The players can look up important facts about certain buildings or units, if they are interested in them. The Mars rover simulation „Take On Mars“ offers an encyclopedia about the exploration of Mars and gives the players the opportunity to develop a better understanding of it. The space agency management game „Buzz Aldrin’s Space Program Manager“ offers additional insights about the celestial bodies of our solar system and all the different spacecrafts used in the early days of spaceflight.

But why are these databases so important? Although the main purpose of these three above-mentioned games is still the entertainment, all of them are also educating the players. The main topic of these games has a direct connection to the real world and the players are automatically learning new facts about this topic just by playing the game. However, not all the important facts about a certain historic building or spacecraft can be presented in the game world, because it would overwhelm the players with too much information. On the other hand, all these information are important in order to develop a deeper understanding of the content presented in the game.

While the players are progressing through the game, they are getting introduced to a new topic. Over time, they might get interested in this particular topic and start to look for some more information about it. This development is described with the so-called tangential learning. Tangential learning describes the process during which a player gets motivated to look for additional information about a certain topic by playing a game or enjoying any other media product. As soon as the players reach this point, they have to leave the game in order to look up some additional information and to gain more specific knowledge. Unfortunately, this would break the immersion of the game.

By implementing a knowledge database directly into the game, the players can look up the desired additional knowledge directly in the game without breaking the immersion. Furthermore, the players can immediately satisfy their needs for additional insights into the topic without the need of searching for good information on the internet. In return, this could result in a better learning outcome, because the players are still within a motivating environment and they can immediately visualize the just learned knowledge by continuing the game.

Play a game and catch typos!

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 problem of catching the own typos and methods to help our brains catching them.

Yesterday, I proved a concept that could help us catching our own typos by accident. One of my current jobs is being a translator of a computer game. The task is fairly simple: just translate the English texts to German. However, a lot of creativity and writing is involved in this task and this increases the chance of inserting typos into the text, too.

But why is catching the own typos so difficult? The main reason comes from the fact, that writing complex texts is a very demanding task for our brains. Our brains try to express the meaning of certain facts with words, but because this is a demanding task, our brains start to generalize in order to save brain power. In this case, our brains start to arrange words to create a particular part of the whole content. Once the first part is created, it gets generalized and stored as a complete version in our memory so that we can use more brain power to assemble the next part of the content. In the end, we do have only the generalized content packages in our minds. In order to save brain power, the brain is no longer focussing on every single word we are typing on our keyboards. Instead, the brain focusses just on the meaning of each paragraph.[1]

Finally, the writing process of the article is over and we begin to proof-read it. At this point, the brain has already generalized all the parts of the article to save brain power. These generalized parts are now compared with the article we just have written. The generalization now keeps us away from spending brain power on analyzing every single word, because we expect something to be there. The version is already stored in our brain and is now competing against the version shown in our writing software.[1]

But why is it so easy for other readers to catch the typos? Other readers are reading the text for the very first time. They are new to the content and so the brain had not enough time to generalize the content of the whole article. The brain needs to analyze the words of the article in order to grasp the meaning of it.[1]

But what can we do in order to catch more of our own typos? The best way would be to „reset“ our brains so that the just written article seems to be new to the brain. This in return would allow the brain to move away from the already stored version and to analyze the article as if it would read the article for the very first time. A suggested method to present our brains something new is changing the layout of the article. By changing the color or by changing the font, the article suddenly looks different and this could help our brains to pay more attention on every single word.[1]

Yesterday, I found a good evidence for this idea. After I finished translating the game in my text-editor, I received a running German version of the game and started to play it. Although the text is exactly the same text I just finished writing, it was completely new to me, because the environment of the text has changed. Suddenly, I was able to catch some typos I have overlooked while I was proof-reading my work.

Science, it works!

A brief moment of time

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 glorious moment of time between the end of the data gathering phase and the data evaluation phase.

I am currently in a very exciting phase of my research. After a lot of plannings, preparations and discussions, one of my research projects has finally started. Moreover, I even got the first results out of this project and soon I will be able to take a first look at them in order to analyze and compare these datasets. If I am lucky, then these results will prove my hypotheses or at least provide me with some more insights into my research topic. Unfortunately, other projects are keeping me away from evaluating these results and so I am still excited about this mysterious package of surveys which is lying around on my desk. In this case, I like to share my excitement about this special moment with you.

Personally, I think this is one of the best moments in the whole process of doing research. After many hours of preparation, the experiment finally begins and the first results are created. Once the first datasets are accumulated, it is like having a gift-wrapped surprise. At first, these datasets are just some collections of numbers without a specific meaning. The data could be anything like the gift-wrapped surprise. However, after evaluating and comparing these numbers (or removing the wrapping paper), their secret is suddenly revealed and they can become an evidence for a correlation. Unfortunately, the result of the evaluation can also be the opposite and no correlation was found at all.

Luckily, the brief moment of time between the end of the creative planning phase and the statiscal evaluation is a moment full of dreams, hopes and mysteries. The data gathered during the experiments could mean anything and as long as the data are not analyzed, they will keep their mystery. As soon as the datasets are processed, all the dreams will come true or will be crushed. After the secrets of the datasets are revealed, the usual work process will take over once again. The evaluation is followed by the process of explaining the results and hopefully making them accessible to the whole world.

As already mentioned I am currently in this mysterious phase where everything is possible. It is just exciting to glance at the bundle of surveys lying on my desk and to think about the possible results. Soon, I will remove the wrapping paper, start to analyse these numbers and face the reality of the results. But right now, everything is possible.

Getting into a constant verification loop

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 how computer games could help us to stop forgetting essential things during a preparation phase.

Remembering all the things that need to be prepared in order to perform a certain task can often be a challenge. In most cases, it is not too dramatic if a certain thing is missing. Going on a hiking tour and forgetting some biscuits is mostly not a problem. Preparing a presentation and forgetting to prepare some helpful slides for the follow-up discussion could result in a more complicated approach in order to make the own point clear. However, sometimes it could be even more complicated, if a charger is missing during a week-long vacation.

In most cases, the issue comes from the fact that we are not trained to analyze an upcoming task and to figure out all the eventualities. Moreover, our daily life is relatively relaxed. Even if we forget a thing, it can easily be retrieved. However, sometimes it could be a situation that happens only once and a missing thing could be really problematic. But how to train for such an occasion, if the regular life does not challenge us enough so that we automatically get used to think about every part of the upcoming task?

I found a possible answer in playing computer games. Computer games can put the players into the role of a mission planner requiring them to think about every detail of a mission before starting it. Depending on the complexity of the game, the players need to think about every part of the scheduled mission in order to successful complete it. After the planning phase is finished, the players are commited and have to proceed on even if they have missed to prepare for a certain event.

One of the best mission planning games I have played so far is Kerbal Space Program[1] (KSP). The planning phase is basically the phase during which the players are constructing their space crafts. They have to think about every step of the upcoming mission: launch, flight, a possible landing, return flight and all the desired experiments. Due to the fact that some destinations in KSP are relatively far away and require a lot of play time in order to arrive there, it could be sometimes problematic, if a certain stage is missing and the space craft can not land on the celestial body after a lot of maneuvers were completed in order to get there.

Such a disappointing outcome can teach the players that they need to think about every step before launching a mission. Moreover, even if the players have done this, the game encourages the players to validate their constructions before it is too late. Over time the players get used to a verification loop and they automatically check their planned mission for any flaws. This verification loop can be then transferred on other tasks of the daily life. The players get used to think about every step in advanced and to double check their plan before they will switch to the execution phase.

Game or gamified social platform?

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 transition of a computer game from a game to a social platform. World of Warcraft is a real computer game, but sometimes it can be also seen as a social platform.

No doubt, World of Warcraft (WoW) is a computer game and all the different ways to play this game do have specific game mechanics to distinguish one part from another part. A WoW player needs a different set of skills for each game phase. Exploring the game world without the help of others is a completely different approach to the game than grouping up with others to descent deep into a raid-dungeon to defeat evil creatures. A player who is very active in the area of „Player-vs-Player“ (PvP) needs a completely different set of skills than a player who is more interested in the area of „Player-vs-Environment“ (PvE). Last but not least, there are also different forms like „role playing“. In this specific way of interacting with the game, the players have to act as if they would be the avatar. In all the other ways of playing the game, the avatar can also be seen as a tool to interact with the world. However, the role-playing players are jumping right into their avatar and are no longer the person behind the keyboard.

All these different WoW game phases do have the characteristics of a game: a certain set of rules and a defined area where the action is taking place. Moreover, engaging in one of the game phases allows the players to instantly get into the immersive effects of playing.[1]

The raid-instance content of WoW is mostly requiring the players so form a constant group in order to be successful. In this case, the gameplay receives a social component. Although the group of players still do have the shared goal of playing a game, they are forming social bonds among each other and are becoming friends over time. Depending on the mindset of the players, this social part can become the main reason to continue playing the game: it is more about being together with the friends than actually playing the game. This also leads to the fact, that, in the case of one player quits the game, others will stop playing it, too. However, this will only happen, if the interest in being together with the social group has become more important than the interest of playing the actual game.

At this point, it is interesting to ask, if these players are really playing a game or if the virtual world has become a gamified social platform. However, it could be even a combination of both. On the one hand, the social raid environment still offers the phases of pure gameplay: the group is fighting against an evil enemy. During this phase of the game, the players are only focussing on the action of the game. On the other hand, as soon as this intense phase is over, the game becomes a social platform again.

But what is causing this transition from a pure group based game to a combination of a social platform and a game? At which point are the players developing the social bonds? Which game mechanics are causing the formation of social bonds?

References
[1]Huizinga, Johan (2009): Homo ludens : Vom Ursprung der Kultur im Spiel, Hamburg.

Gamification of knowledge

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 a different approach of defining the term gamification.

Recently, I had a conversation about gamification and how to use it in a good way. Unfortunately, the term gamification suffers a bit under one of the main definitions of it: gamification is the use of game elements to enhance the engagement of users in a non-gaming environment[1].
Moreover, the implementation of gamification is often limited to a few game mechanics, which are used most of the time to enhance the engagement of users in a non-gaming environment. Users are able to gain experience points to level up their avatars, they might get rewarded with special badges after they have completed a certain task and they might be able to compare their performance by using a leaderboard feature.
If most of the platforms are using only these simple reward mechanisms, it is very likely that they will become boring and cease to increase the user’s engagement in using a certain platform. Furthermore, they can even become to a certain degree an obstacle and start to annoy the users, because they just like to use a simple and plain tool without all the gamification effect layers.
Additionally, gamification is often used in a business environment where users are required to use certain platforms and tools. This is causing a problem, because if someone is forced to play a game, the game would immediately stop being a game and just become a normal task[2]. In other words, the desired effect of adding a certain playfulness to a platform would just become a colorful feature without any positive effect. This feature could still enhance the motivation of the users, but it is not adding a certain playfulness to the system.

Luckily, gamification can be also approached in a different way. Playing is often also a way of learning or practicing new things. Trying to throw a stone as far as possible into a lake is just a playful competition, but at the same time, the players are practicing their agility. Playing a computer game is teaching the the players how to interact with the game using the keyboard. Moreover, the players are learning facts about the virtual world just by advancing through the game.

At this point, it is very important to understand that the learning outcome is just a side effect of the game. In this case, a good learning game should still have the normal purpose of a game: entertainment. However, the desired learning goal should still be a major part of the game.

The learning outcome of having more knowledge about the life in the 17th century could be achieved by letting the story take place in this age. While the players are exploring the environment, they are able to observe the daily life of the people in this age. The players could be even able to talk to virtual characters to learn more about their life. Moreover, those conversations could be used to introduce the player to major events.

The learning outcome of having more knowledge about chemistry could be achieved by making all the puzzles in the game solvable by performing chemical reactions. In order to do this, it is important, that the players are able to find the specific knowledge about chemistry inside the game. In case of an adventure game, the players could find some scrolls about a certain chemical reaction they need to perform in order to proceed through the game. By reading these scrolls and later on mixing the reagents, the players are automatically learning the results of this experiment.

From my point of view, this is a more promising way of gamification. It is the way of finding a method to create a game, which main purpose is to entertain the players. Howerver, while they are enjoying the game, they do get the opportunity to gain more knowledge about a certain topic. Gamification is then all about finding the right game mechanics to offer the knowledge to the players while they are persuing a completely different goal: experiencing the story presented in the game.

References:

[2]Caillois, Roger (2001): Man, Play and Games, Champaign Illinois.