Finding of the week #198

The End of 2016

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 year 2016.

Today is the last day of 2016 and I am once again a bit surprised that another year comes to an end. Although the year had many great as well as concerning events, it does not feel as if an entire year has passed since I wrote the last end-of-the-year blog entry.

Personally, 2016 had some very exciting and amazing moments in stock for me. The probably most important events were my two journeys to the North. The first journey brought me to winterly Iceland which surprised me with beautiful frozen waterfalls and hot steaming geothermal active areas in the middle of the snow covered landscape. The second big journey of 2016 was a trip to the Norwegian North Cape and brought me to 8 spectacular locations all across Norway. Amongst other things, I saw huge glaciers, the Arctic Circle, the famous Northern Lights Cathedral as well as the North Cape.

Unfortunately, 2016 was also the year of the patience. For instance, I am already waiting for nine months for some feedback on one of my research papers that will act as a foundation for three additional papers that will present the results of three different studies. As long as I do not get feedback, all my other papers have to remain drafts which is quite frustrating. The only good thing is that I managed to publish a small poster paper at least.

In addition, 2016 has surprised the world with many sad and concerning things. The year broke many global temperature records and demonstrated the dangerous effects of the on going global warming. Only if we act now, we might be able to limit the effects of global warming and protect our Earth. Unfortunately, leaders who deny global warming and the fact that man made emissions are the main reason for it got elected. Those leaders are also the biggest uncertainty about the next year.

In the end, 2016 was a year full of preparational work that will hopefully result in many good outcomes during the year 2017. I just need to keep on pursuing my goals and continue to work despite all the brick walls that emerged in my way. Maybe a bit of luck is needed, too, but I do not like to rely on luck … In this case, 2017 has the potential to become a great year and I am looking forward to it!

Let us make 2017 to a great and fantastic year we will never forget and always look back to it with joy!

Happy New Year!

Finding of the week #197

The Yearly Christmas Update Spam

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 yearly spam of new game updates that get released just a few days before Christmas.

The last days before the Christmas holidays are always very busy and result more than often in a lot of stress. A last minute Christmas gift needs to be bought, a travel across the country needs to be organized or other Christmas related events need to be enjoyed.

The computer game industry also seems to get very busy around this time of the year as many new games or updates get released just a few days before Christmas. Especially the Christmas updates seem to have become some kind of mandatory goal for many game developers. Of course, this perfectly makes sense, as releasing an update indicates that the game still gets improved and, more importantly, it encourages players to return to the game thus raising the global awareness for it which can result in an increased amount of new buyers. Along those lines, many YouTubers also want to enjoy and show their experiences in a new update which in return raises the awareness for a certain title even more.

However, from a player’s point of view, this sudden spam of new updates and releases feels a bit overwhelming as only one game can be played at a time. In addition, Christmas is the time of the year where I have the least amount of time to play computer games as many other things are more important. Furthermore, once the Christmas updates are released, it often takes a lot of time until new game contents are designed which results in a period of time that lacks new additions to games I already play.

In the end, there is no solution to this problem as players want to have a constant stream of new updates whereas game developers like to maximize their revenues which is mostly possible around Christmas. However, it would be interesting to see if countercyclical releases would result in better sells due to a reduced amount of competitors. The only good thing is that so much content gets released around Christmas that it lasts for several months.

Merry Christmas! (Especially the real one and not just the virtual events!)

Finding of the week #196

The Continuation of the Speedo Diplomacy

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 Lewis Pugh’s return to Antarctice in order to continue raising awareness for the importance of protecting the pristine Antarctic ecosystems.

About two years after the Five Swims in Antarctica, Lewis Pugh has returned to Antarctica in order to continue his „Speedo Diplomacy“ with the Antarctica 2020 campaign. His goal is to raise awareness for the need of establishing more Marine Protected Areas (MPA) around Antarctica that will help to protect those pristine ecosystems by performing long distance swims in the Antarctic seas wearing nothing else than a speedo.

Lewis Pugh’s previous „Five Swims in Antarctica“ campaign as well as his enormous efforts of travelling to Moscow numerous times in order to convince Russian officials to endorse the Ross Sea protected area finally resulted in the Ross Sea being declared an MPA on 28 October 2016 by the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR).

On 13 December 2016, Lewis Pugh launched the Antartica 2020 campaign by undertaking a kilometer-long swim between icebergs in the Bellinghausen Sea. It took the endurance swimmer and UN Patron of the Oceans 17 minutes and 30 seconds to complete this challenging swim in the 0°C cold water.

I know the risks I face when I swim down here, but I consider them to be less than the risks the world will face if we lose.

Furthermore, Lewis‘ message is emphazised by the spectacular and breathtaking photos that are taken during his swims. For instance, on 16 December 2016, he swam next to an iceberg shaped like a heart. This amazing picture was taken from a drone by Kelvin Trautman which was only possible after a lot of paperwork ensuring that no wildlife will be disturbed in order to get the permission to use drones in Antarctica at all.

Thank you!

Finding of the week #195

Virtual world, real emotions

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 provide another example for the real emotions computer game players experience while playing a game.

The emotions we experience when we play a computer game alone or together with friends are, aside from being in the state of flow, the most motivating as well as rewarding elements that keep us playing the game. Furthermore, those emotions are the reason why experiences we make in a virtual world are a real thing that can even affect our real world.

Although I already discussed this topic quite a lot, I like to provide another example of experiencing positive emotions and social connections by playing a computer game.

Last Sunday, the fourth season of the Conelanders Assetto Corsa Racing League has ended and resulted in a few emotional moments for some of the players participating in this league. In contrast to the previous seasons, the fourth season offered the opportunity to the players to form teams in order help each other and to experience another competitive aspect of playing a racing simulation.

Depending on the motivation of a team, the members met for practice sessions, discussed race strategies and supported each other to overcome a bad result. As a result of this, team members not only shared important moments but also developed friendships among each other throughout the 6-race long season. Naturally, after having worked together as a team over such a significant amount of time, participating in the last race was an emotional moment for some of the participants and can even have resulted in the shared goal of continuing to play together.

Of course, this is just a small example of the broad variety of different ways how computer games can connect players from all over the world and allow them to share emotions as well as special moments. The exciting thing about this phenomenon is that the emotions and friendships caused by events taking place in a virtual world are real for the players. In the end, the virtual world becomes an extension of the real world and stops being just game that is played for entertaining purposes.

Finding of the week #194

When a game stops being challenging

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 elements that make a game challenging.

World of Warcraft (WoW) probably is one of my favorite games all time. It is the game I played the most by far and that entertained me for more than a decade by now. The main reason for this incredible lifespan is the fact that the game periodically received updates that provided new regions to explore and new evils to defeat. Now, 12 years after WoW got released, I still enjoy joining my friends in Azeroth in order to fight our ways through a dangerous instance.

Despite all the joy I continue to derive from playing WoW, I have to admit that the game has ceased to be challenging. The main problem is that the game mechanics barely have changed since the game’s release and, as a result of this, I have fully internalized all my virtual capabilities. Of course, I still have to be focussed and pay attention to critical events during a boss fight, but that is just a matter of concentration and does not challenge me to improve my skills in order to become better at the game. In addition, most of new boss mechanics that have been added to the game are very simple and easy to exhaust thus providing not a real challenge.

Normally, a game is challenging when a player operates at the limits of the own ability in order to exhaust one of the game’s challenges. In addition, while playing a challenging game, players can train their skills in order to improve their performance. In other words, a game is challenging when it follows the main principles of flow and allows players to train their knowledge.

Unfortunately, this is no longer the case when it comes to WoW for several years by now. Although I still enjoy playing the game and experiencing new story arcs, I noticed how I significantly reduced the amount of time I play WoW. Currently, I only play the game when I do have a fixed appointment with my friends in order to tackle a certain dungeon.

In general, I noticed that, although some content is left to explore, many games cease to be challenging as soon as I fully learned all the knowledge that is encoded in a particular game. As a conclusion, amongst other things, good games need to provide a lot of room for improvement in order to remain challenging for a long time.