Let’s explore the Mars

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 closer look at the scientific simulation game Take on Mars. Players can discover the red planet almost the same way as NASA does and thus develop a deeper understanding of space science.

I’ve already presented Take on Mars several weeks ago[1]. Now, I gathered some first hand experience by playing it. In contrast to NASA’s Mars program, the player fortunately hasn’t to deal with financial problems and a shutdown[2]. Additionally, the player hasn’t to deal with short launch windows to be able to reach the red planet in an efficient way[3].

The role of the player begins with the landing on Mars and the exploration of it using landers and rovers. The rovers are landed on Mars as in the real world: small rovers survive the landing with huge airbags[4] and bigger rovers even need the help of a sky crane[5]. Finally, the player is in control of the rover’s function on the surface of the planet. The player can conduct scientific experience by solving different research mssions.

A rover similiar to Curiosity.

In the current version of the game (it’s still in the early access phase), most of the experiments are taking photographs of the martian landscape or analyzing rocks, sand or the atmosphere. For this purpose, the user can take advantage of scientific tools also used in the real Mars program like the Alpha particle X-ray spectrometer (APXS)[6]. The small rovers at the beginning of the game do have only a few tools that don’t need any manipulation. The APXS device only needs to be placed close to the desired target to allow the player to conduct an analysis of it.
More complex rovers are equiped with a robotic arm and a robotic „hand“[7]. The user now has also controls for each component of the rover. The player needs to drive close to the desired target and switch to the robotic arm controls. After some precise manipulation of the arm and the hand, the scientific tool is placed at the target and the player can start the analytic process. After a certain amount of time, the player gets the results of the analysis.

Analyzing.

I don’t have any experience in controlling a real Mars rover, but playing the game feels quite real. It’s a complicated process of using a robotic arm and hand to finally analyse a small rock. Playing the game brings the science of Mars exploration closer to the players. The difficulty of the game ramps up very slowly and introduces new players in a fun way to the complex work of exploring a distant world. Additionally, the tools and rovers look and work quite similiar as the real world ones and are thus creating a realistic envirionment. However, the player has the luxury of playing a game: there’s no communication delay and the experiments are taking less time than in real world.

Players who get hooked up by the game develop a deeper understanding of the difficult work of NASA’s scientists and might also start looking up additional information about the Mars program. Maybe some of them will start a career in the field of space exploration. The game helps to bring science closer to the public and helps to explain how complex the work is.

Youtube channels as a marketing opportunity

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 present the upcoming trend of pitching indie games to famous youtubers. By getting the attention of one famous youtuber who starts playing the game, the indie game developer can get the attention of several thousand other players the same time.

I’ve already discussed a bit the indie game development[1], youtubers who create lets play videos (LPs)[2] and the way how ecobusiness works[3]. Today, I like to combine these topics and discuss a marketing opportunity for indie game developers: taking advantage of successful youtubers to introduce the own game to a wide audience.

Indie game developers do have the problem that they need to do everything on their own. This also includes drawing attention of possible players who will buy their product. They can’t rely on the marketing campaigns of their publishers. Additionally, they even don’t have the money for huge marketing campaigns to introduce their games.

Successful youtubers on the other hand easily do have the attention of more than 100.000 followers[4]. In most cases, these followers like the same kind of games as the youtubers themselves. If a let’s play series covers interesting and fun gameplay, viewers might get interested and start playing the game, too.

Considering this, getting the attention of youtubers can lead to a successful introduction of the game to a broad audience. However, this is a time consuming activity, but it’s an ideal way of presenting the own game to the target audience. Additionally, youtubers are interested in making LP’s of new games and trying to advice interested indie game designers how they can approach youtubers[5].
Naturally sending e-mails to every possible youtuber won’t work at all. Indie game developers should do some research about the youtubers and be sure that the player might be interested in playing the own game[6]. If a developer pitches an adventure game to a player who mostly prefers to play simulations, the player would probably never play the game. Furthermore, the followers of this youtuber do have almost the same preferences as the youtuber and thus won’t be interested in a game that doesn’t match their interests.

If an indie game developer approaches a matching youtuber and the player starts playing and liking the game, both sides can greatly benefit from this. Youtubers need interesting content to keep their audience active. By getting new content by playing a freshly developed indie game, the youtuber can entertain his audience and get even more followers.
The indie game developer on the other hand suddenly reaches thousands of people who might get interested in the game and finally buy it. It’s consuming some time to find the appropriate youtube channel, but it can pay off by having somebody who presents the game to a wide audience for free.

Youtubers make revenue by being in the youtube partner program. The more views a user gets, the more revenue he can make. By getting access to interesting and new content, the youtuber can draw the attention of his viewers and thus make more money.
The indie game developer makes revenue by selling his game, but players can’t buy a game they’re not aware of. By getting in contact with a youtuber, the youtuber gets new content and the indie game gets the attention of the viewers. This symbiosis is successful for both sides: it’s a win-win situation.

Gamification archaeology

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’m really excited since I found out, that I was taking advantage of gamification before the term has even existed. It’s fascinating becoming aware of being an „innovator“ in a technology life cycle.

I moved some files to my NAS as I discovered some old files from my work for a computer game community site over a decade ago. One of the key features of this website were the forums. Players were able to discuss everything related to the game and a huge community was evolving around the forum. Additionally, it had some reward features to keep users active over a long period of time.

The system was realized in a relative simple way: the forum had the features of displaying the posting count and the avatar of the users enabled. Users weren’t allowed to upload an own avatar picture. Instead, the avatar was linked to the amount of postings the user had made. Frequent, good or helpful posters on the forums should be rewarded with more rare avatars that also help to build up a higher reputation and indicate the contributions of this user to others.

Naturally, the hunt for special avatars also caused one main issues: the users tried to exploit the process of accumulating a high count of postings by „spamming“. To reduce the spam, moderaters sometimes had to delete the postings made by the user in question or even reduce the posting count by a noticeable amount.

Apart from the spam issue, the reward system worked perfectly and motivated a lot of users to be active on the forums over a long period of time. The system used some core features of recent gamification concepts.
The posting counter was immediately giving feedback to the contributions of the user: everytime a new posting was made, the counter increased by one. Users could instantly follow their progress by looking at their short profile information. Additionally, the avatars rewarded for frequent posting created some long term goals for the users, keeping them active over a long period of time.

Nowadays, gamification systems are rewarding users with badges, experience points and achievements. These reward mechanisms are almost the same as over a decade ago in the forums. The whole concept has remained the same. Users get instant feedback to their actions and are rewarded with special awards for long term goals.

The term „gamification“ can be traced back to 2004, but it wasn’t popular used until 2010[1]. However, even without being aware of the term, the main concept was already used in 2000 and before. It’s fascinating to become aware of the fact that I was taking advantage of gamification before the term even existed. It’s even more exciting that I was using it from the very beginning and nowadays trying to research the benefits of it.

And then I needed a rescue mission

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’ll discuss the attractiveness of open world games. Players of such games experience a personal and unique story. Every moment is different and players can behave as they like without any constraints.

I’ve already discussed a lot the topic of real emotions evoked by virtual environments[1][2]. Most emotional experiences are coming from the story the players are experiencing during their journey through the game. Typically, the story is predetermined and every player will experience the same story arch. Some games, like the Mass Effect[3] series, do have a non lineary story, allowing the players to experience different endings based on their decisions during their playthrough. This allows the players to experience different things in the same game so that every playthrough seems to be unique. However, even the different endings are predetermined to a certain degree. At some point, the story will be the same, if players have done the same decisions.

In contrast to these story based games, sandbox games like Kerbal Space Program (KSP)[4] or open world survival games like DayZ[5] don’t have any predetermined story. The players are left alone with a gigantic world they can explore and use to create their own unique story. Experiencing an unique story can be very intense for the player, because it’s a spontaneous development no one has expected.

Without a clearly defined goal, but with almost endless possibilities of interacting with the world, players start to explore the environment on their own and automatically write their own story in this process. Obviously, key situations like running out of gas in the middle of ghost town full of deadly zombies in DayZ or stranding on the Mün in KSP happens to almost every player. However, the reasons for these situations are in most cases different and the actions the players take to solve the situations are different, too.

This openess allows every player to experience an unique situation every time they play the game. Players are even more proud of their achievements or results. The broad variety of different approaches and different outcomes distinguishes every achievement from each other. Players can tell their stories to other players who will listen with a great interest[6]. Players are aware of the boundaries of the virtual environment and have made their own experiences. These experiences allow each player to understand the stories and to appreciate the achievements of others. Additionally, players don’t know in advance how the story will end, becauso nothing is predetermined. (Well, based on my own observations, some rocket designs in KSP are predetermined to crash …) Hearing from the experiences of other can also evoke new ideas that need to be tried out in that particular game–a new story begins.

Landed on the roof of the vehicle assembly building

To wrap things up, surprise is another great emotion caused by computer games, that keeps gamers playing. Open world games have always the potential of surprising their players with different outcomes. The different results finally lead to different stories the players are experiencing. Hearing the story of others can evoke own ideas of new personal in-game goals.
In the end, open world games without a story might be more colorful than games with a predetermined story. The success of these open world games might be caused by this special feature of allowing players to experience their own stories.

Early access

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’ll present the concept of selling an early access to alpha version of video games that are currently under development. This concept allows indie game developers to finance their development process and gather useful feedback for their future developments.

Independent video games (indie games) are becoming more and more a well known and successful part in the whole area of video games. Indie games are created by only a few developers that aren’t supported by computer game publishers. Indie games are distributed over the internet and often focus on innovation.

Although indie game developers are very flexible, they do have a major issue: they lack of the financial support from publishers. Releasing the game when it’s finished doesn’t work all the time. To compensate the lack of a publisher, indie game developers came up with an interesting idea. They’re selling access to alpha versions of their games[1].

Computer game players who are interested in the concept of the game or who believe in the developers can buy an access to the game and experience it right away. For that pupose, indie game developers do have different options they can choose from to sell the early access versions of their product.
On the one hand, they can ramp up the price over time. The very first version of the game can be very cheap. After a bunch of new developments, the developers begin to increase the price. This reflects a bit the completeness of the game. The first playable version might have only a few features whereas a later version might be almost a fully functional game.
On the other hand, developers can sell different early access packets[2]. The cheapest packet only grants access to the game. The next package also includes some special benefits. Users now can choose between the packages and decide how much they’re likely to pay for that particular game.

The early access concept is a great deal for both, delevopers and gamers. Developers can already make revenue during the delevopement of their game. Additionally, they get a lot of feedback from their players. This, in return, allows the developers to increase the quality and functionality of their game.
The players on the other side get access to the game and can play it right away without a long waiting period until the game is finally released. Additionally, they’ll recieve all upcoming updates (and the release version of the game) for free. They’ve bought the game already during the development of it and are thus supporting the developers.

From the point of view of a gamer, this concept also increases the playtime of the game. Every new version of the game can be different and behave almost like a completely new game. Additionally, they aren’t overwhelmed by the complexity of the game. A release version of a game can offer a lot of different options to play it and players need to decide what they like to do at first. Playing a game over the time of its developement allows players to experience new functions as they’re implemented.

Does the playstyle influence the personality?

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’ll discuss a potential connection between the personality of the player and his playstyle. Additionally, I think about how the playstyle might influence the personality of the player.

On the one hand, computer game players can choose their fate: they can use the difficulty level that suits them best. Additionally, they can try to succeed in special challenges that are requiring even more precise gameplay. Sometimes these challenges are even separated into easymodes and hardmodes.

Players who are going for the highest challenges are constantly training their endurance in hard work and resistance against failures. After finally reaching their goals, they feel more rewarded because they’re aware of the hard work behind their achievement. Over time they can start having the same engagement in the real world. They’re conditioned to work hard and are aware of the intrinsic reward when they finally reach their goals. They will continue their work until they’ve exhausted the challenge.

However, the difficulty of the game content can’t be a measure of hard work. Difficulty levels do also help lesser skilled players to successfully play the game. In this case, an easymode might be still a great achievement for a computer game player who isn’t as skilled as other players. This lesser skilled player still can put a lot of effort into the game to finally reach the own goals. Considering this, it’s more important how much effort does a player put into his goals to finally achieve them.

On the other hand, the connection between playstyle and personality can also be seen from an opposite direction. Players who are ambitious in the real world will also be ambitious in a game world. Their personality drives them to successfully complete the highest challenges and to complete most of the game under the hardest circumstances.

In contrast to these ambitious players, players with a „normal“ personality might not be as interested in achieving the highest goals and thus they aren’t putting as much effort into their goals. They might be satisfied if they reach a certain level without putting too much effort into it. They won’t try over and over again to succeed at a special challenge. Instead they choose a lower difficulty level and continue the game.

Some „normal“ players however might get interested in trying something new after their first playthrough. They start a new game on the next difficulty level. At first, they might be frustrated but shortly after they’ve a first success, they’ll start to gain more confidence. They realize that putting some effort into their goals will pay off. Finally the playstyle starts to influence the personality of the player…

In conclusion both approaches might be correct. The personality mostly gives a general direction how game players will approach their game. However, computer games do have good mechanics to reward their players. If they try hard enough, they will be rewarded. This environment is a good training area to gain more confidence that the own hard work will pay off.

You’re stuck in space now

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, it’s a little add-on to my last weeks article about Kerbal Space Program (KSP)[1]. Today I like to focus a little bit more on the realistic approach of the game and how the game brings its players closer to real world rocket science.

The first interesting fact I found out this week is that members of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab are playing KSP[2]. Workers in the field of science or engineering do have a lot of crazy ideas, they never would try in real life. However, KSP gives them an almost realistic framework to give these ideas a try. Thus it can be quite addicting trying out a new thought experiment or replay real world space missions.

Furthermore, I like to highlight the usability of real world calculations of orbital maneuvers in KSP. One of the ways of reaching other planets is using a Hohmann transfer orbit[3]. The calculations for this maneuver are working the same way in KSP as in real life[4]. Based on these formulas, a calculator[5] was created by Olexandr Savchuk of KSP to easily determine the values needed for an interplanetary flight.

Additionally, KSP can be used to explain how rocket design and staging does affect the performance of the space craft. As an example, I like to highlight the „advanced rocket design tutorial“ from Scott Manley[6]. During the video, Scott Manley is demonstrates different examples of rocket design and also links it to actual real world rockets.

Finally, KSP can be used to approach complex ideas like what would it take to reach the speed of light with a space craft (in KSP). This video is again made by Scott Manley[6], who explains what will be needed to accelerate to the speed of light.

You’re going to space today

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’ll present the space travel simulation game „Kerbal Space Program“. The game is combining gamefulness with real world science and is thus increasing the interest in real world science.

Kerbal Space Program[1] (KSP) allows the player to create own space crafts and fly them afterwards through space. During gameplay players can manage their own space program, build orbital stations, land on other planets or moons and explore the vastness of space. At a first glance, this might sound quite trival, but after a short time of playing the game, it becomes clear that the game is more complex than it sounds.

View on Kerbin

KSP is based on real physics and thus creates a realistic simulation of space travel. After assembling the first space craft, the player can launch it from the space port and – hopefully – reach a stable orbit. However this isn’t easy to new players who possible do not much about space travel[2]. Just flying straight up (and not falling apart due to an constructional fault) won’t put the craft into orbit: it’ll only reach a maximum height and afterwards descend back to Kerbin (that’s the „Earth“ of the game). If the craft reaches a stable orbit around Kerbin, the gamer can start practicing basic orbital maneuvers: changing the inclination or increasing/decreasing the apoapsis/periapsis.

Finally the user has learnt the basics of controlling a space craft. But what about making a rendezvous with another craft? What about docking? Fortunately there’re many tutorials [3] how to perform a certain task. The next step could be the landing on an other celestial body–in most cases it’s on one of the two moons of Kerbin. In order to land on a moon, the space craft needs to reach it. Naturally this requires even more knowledge about space travel.

Successful landing on Minmus

Players who do have a deep knowledge about space travel can actually calculate their maneuvers. The whole game is based on math and physics[4]. Formulars of rocket science can be applied to calculate the delta-v of the assembled space craft[5].

The game does not give a clear goal. The latest version of it is a sandbox game allowing the players to set their own goals while exploring the solar system. However to successfully reach the own goals, the game is requiring a lot of knowledge about space travel. During my own gameplay I’ve learnt a lot about space flights and orbital maneuvers.

Map with focus on the Mün

The game follows the concept of two previously presented games[5] by setting the game in a scientific context and creating a realistic environment. Just by playing this game, gamers learn a lot about space travel and if they’re interested in doing things efficiently, they’ll start to look up calculations and procedures used in real world space travel.

In conclusion KSP is a great game that can also be categorized as edutainment software. Exploring space is a very interesting topic and has a lot of potential to connect gamefulness with real world science. In the end, this might lead to an increased overall interest in space travel and other sciences connected with it.

„Extended“ 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’ll present my own observations of the blurring between virtuality and reality evoked by an intense gameplay in combination with the use of realistic sounds.

This article is mostly based on my own observations and was supported by some let’s plays[1] I’ve seen[2]. During gameplay of certain computer games I experienced a certain degree of increased or extended immersion: the real world sometimes influenced my gameplay and intruded in it.

Typically because total immersion is very hard to achieve or even impossible[3], immersion starts to collapse if there’s an external distraction. Even if the immersion doesn’t collapse, the real world events are still recognized. Immersed gamers identify these external events as real world events and do have a clear distinction between game world and real world. Additionally players can be immersed into their game but as soon as they get a little bit distracted or lose their focus from the screen, the immersion can disappear.

However, certain games have in some point a very close and realistic connection to the real world. These „realistic“ games can to a certain degree swallow an external event. This leaves the player confused if something just has happened in the game or in the real world. The absorbtion of external events however has an important constraint: the event has to be off screen. This constraint makes clear that the absorbtion is based on realistic sounds. As soon as the event is visual, the effect doesn’t apprear.

A game has its setting in an urban environment and is thus simulating traffic. The recognition between game event and real world event can blur, if the sounds of the cars are made very realistic. Players can hear a car driving near by and conclude that there’s a car somewhere around them. However players can hear the sound of a real world car passing by and in case of a deep immersion start thinking that there’s a car in the game. As soon as the player has a visual on the event, the blurring between the two worlds will immediately collapse.

One very good example is the ARMA 2[4] mod „Day Z„[5]. ARMA 2 is a very realistic military simulation and thus has a lot of realistic connections to the real world. The zombie-survival modification „Day Z“ benefits a lot from this realism. It’s a very intense gameplay of staying alive in a post-apocalyptic world. One reason for that is the very good simulation of different sounds. Players are dependent on the sounds to identify potential dangers. Was someone shooting in this town? Is a vehicle approaching my position? Has a zombie seen me?

Normally, sounds of shots or zombies aren’t a part of our daily life. Passing vehicles however are pretty normal. One of the biggest dangers in Day Z are helicopters that are luckily audible from far away. Now things can start to blur. A player who’s deeply immersed by the intense gameplay is moving carefully through the wilderness. Suddenly the sound of a helicopter starts comming closer. The player starts to scan the sky to get a visual on the helicopter. After a short time of confusion, the player realizes that it was a real world helicopter just passing by.

If the gameplay is very intense, players can get deeply immersed into the game. In combination with realistic sounds, off screen events can start to blur the gap between reality and virtuality. However the „extended“ immersion will immediately collapse if the player has a clear visual on the event.

References

[3] Schweinitz, Jörg (2006): Totale Immersion und die Utopie von der virtuellen Realität, in: Neitzel, Britta; Nohr, Rolf F. (Eds.), Das Spiel mit dem Medium – Partizipation – Immersion – Interaktion, Marburg.

Science in games

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’ll present an interesting method of experiencing science: playing it! I’ll present two simulations that allow users to experience and discover science from a very interesting point of view.

Science as a main topic in computer games isn’t very common. Often it’s science that evokes some terrible problems[1]. Typically, after something scientific went terrible wrong, the player is in charge to fix everything to save the world. But science doesn’t always cause problems. Sometimes science helps the player to research new items that are useful to survive the game. In this scenario, science has a minor role and functions as some kind of ressource[2]. Finally, there’re also games that use science as a key element to win the game: Civilization 5 can be won through a „science victory“[3]. However, players of Civilization don’t actively perform the research. They just choose the next research project that than is completed within a certain amount of turns.

But there’re also some games that do have science as their main topic. Universe Sandbox[4] is simulating gravitational forces of the universe. The player can add new planets to our solar system or change the properties of the sun. The game afterwards is simulating the gravity among the celestial bodies. By playing the game users can experience how the gravity of planets is effecting the path of asteriods, how a Earth centered solar system would work out or what happens if the sun suddenly has a weight of only 1kg. Additionally, it’s possible to change the simulation rate, making things faster and easier observable.

Just a test.

Some days ago, I’ve discovered the Take On Mars[5] project. This simulation game puts the player into the position of a rover operator. According to the short description of the game, players can experience science missions on Mars and discover the planet’s secrets using the tools of the rovers or landers. I wasn’t able to experience the game myself but it sounds very interesting to navigate a roboter on the Mars.

Naturally, both simulations aren’t completely accurate, but users are allowed to experience scientific facts themselves. Information about the facts presented in these two games are typically covered in the TV. Showing and explaining a simulation how an asteriod behaves is very informative. On the other hand, it’s only passive: interested people can’t manipulate the simulation to see what will happen.

Saturn

A gamified simulation of science however allows players to actively manipulate things. They can do observations on their own and start learning how things might work. Users are more involved in the whole learning process and might have an increased learning progress compared to a passive documentation. Furthermore, if users get interested in the particular science, they might want to know more about it. Finally, this could lead to an increased interest in science and the recent results.