interactive entertainment

I found an insightful article on the theme I'm doing my PhD on, entertainment and interactivity, written among others by a prominent writer on the issue, Peter Vorderer. He ponders together with Hartmann and Klimmt why computer and video games, and the interactive feature of them, keep fascinating so many people around the world for so long and so often. And to that cost, I'd like to add.

Well, the research trio concludes that competition is the keyword, with two subareas: social competition (competing against an opponent controlled by the computer or another player) and competitive situations of the game such as quests, tasks. The explanation for why we choose to play computer and video games for hours on end is the human desire to maintain or enhance the own self-esteem and a positive mood and to challenge and surpass other opponents. These factors are in my view also highly applicable to interactive quiz shows where the viewer may answer the same questions as the teams/person in the studio. The opponents in this case is him/herself, the person(s) competing in the studio and everyone else in the nation sending in their answers.

As for the competitive situations of a game, they are the most important determinant of the enjoyment arising from playing computer games, according to the trio. Simply exploring the options to act in a game may be entertaining as well but doesn't quite cut it. Defeating, say a high level humanoid trogg in WoW, leads to a positive affect on the player. This high arousal state leads to an euphoric experience of enjoyment by which the motivation to continue playing rises. And on the contrary, if you don't manage to defeat the beast, negative emotions are likely to arise, as is an even stronger motivation to continue playing and solve the quest. Although in this case, "the entertainment experience is diminished" Vorderer et al state.

I agree that the competitive situations are the generator of my playing a game, but I'd like to add 2 more factors. When I look back at the games I've abadonded, simply quit playing, I realise that the reason is a lack of understanding. If I don't understand the mission of my character and it's actions and the entire idea of the game, I'm not likely to play it or enjoy it. Therefore, an understanding of the scenario is on my own list as well. Further, goal achieving is an important ingredience in my personal experience of entertainment in games. For instance, in WoW, I'm currently running around the two continents buying things from vendors and upgrading my skills. This implies no combats, no suspense and thrill, just running around, picking a flower or to, adding to my collection of items, but still, I really like it as I'm preparing for bigger, more dangerous and hopefully more suspenseful combats further on. Thus, getting ready for bigger bangs, in a way working towards achieving a goal, thrills me too.

Evidently, interactivity attract others as well. In their study, Vorderer et al verbally described a given game situation to 349 German gamers. The options were numerous weapons and tools versus little weapons and tools to act with and high/low necessity to act. Turns out that the players expected the first game situation to be more enjoyable, i.e. where there were more possibilities to act. Also, the audience rated the version with few and no possibilities to act as boring.

As for the social competition, not all players strive to compete with other players. Some are very cooperative in their playing. This article written by Phil Agre explains quite well the social interactivity and community practice in WoW. Oh, and if you’re not into reading academic papers, at least check out figure 2 “Top ten happenings that tell you you’ve played wow too much”. I’m guilty of the third one… :)

migraine placebo

Tihi! I got an office chair as an early birthday present tonight, a much needed piece of furniture in my home. The one I've had has worn well for many years but not so anymore. I'm telling myself it'll relieve the migraine although diet, lack of stress and sleep are much better ways than ergonomics to reduce the attacks. But I'm counting on the placebo effect.

Small goals need celebrating too

Hurray! I submitted two paper abstracts today, and as I'm a firm believer of treats even when small goals are achieved, I just made myself a fine strong cup of coffee latte style. I'm saving the Veuve Cliquot to the moment when I've actually finished them both...

Intelligent bunny

Yesterday, I was occupied with the thought of getting another pet, a dog preferably. But after seeing this, I reckon why not get another bunny, naturally not so much for myself but as company for my two rabbits. [via thinking with my fingers]

Blog ad clicks

Hans Kullin, the writer behind the blog Media Culpa, recently conducted a survey on 700 Swedish bloggers and blog readers, for the second year in a row now. The questionnaire was online and he encouraged bloggers to fill it out by blogging about it himself and asking other bloggers to link to it as well. He concludes that the typical blogger in his study is a 26-30 year old female holding an academic degree, who loves to write and blogs every day. The typical blogger is anonymous and reads about 6-10 blogs a day, spending in average 6-10 hours a week reading other blogs. What thrills the average blogger in Kullin’s study is reading ordinary folks’ opinions and life stories.

What interests me in his findings is that the average blogger has never clicked on an ad on a blog. The majority of the ones claiming they have decided to take a closer look on the ads is men. In total though, a third of the participants in the survey claim to have done so. I thought the figure would be much smaller; I’m a bit surprised at this! Men are also more prone than women to host ads on their blog.

Another juicy nut is that women blog anonymously (68,2 %) whereas men don’t (29,6 %). All in all, 55 % of American bloggers blog without revealing their real name and identity, according to the Pew Institute report released in July this year. There’s no data on gender and anonymity there though.

WoW addiction

Dr. Maressa Orzack is interviewed on computer game addiction on twitchguru.com. She estimates that about 40 % of all WoW-players are addicted to the game and she hopes that we would name the addiction for what it really is, a mental disorder. When I find some time, I'll google her research, I'm interested in her definition of heavy use of MMORPG's. I wonder what category I'd fit into, probably a heavy user (of WoW, the photo is my 22 lvl mage fishing). Meanwhile, I really enjoyed reading the posts and comments on the article where many WoW-players ponder when a hobby is merely a hobby and when is it an addiction? Can you compare lying on the couch watching TV a whole evening to playing a computer game all night? And who's responsability is it that some players devote most of their awake hours to gaming, perhaps making the studies or/and work suffer? [via WoW Insider]

Here's btw a link to the Smith & Jones Center in Amsterdam that offers treatment for alcoholists as well as heavy gamers. I read a story about the guy who started this centre in Le Figaro I think it was last July.

User experience

I'm currently planning a usability research project and I found a great graph on user experience, which really fascinates me. I really like that the creator included the "word of mouth" variable, which does have power to influence things. [via användbart.se]

First call for papers to euroitv 07

I'm back at the office after 5 splendid weeks of sunny days off. I've been sorting e-mail all day and scribbling down loads of deadlines to struggle with this autumn. In this initial stage, I absolutely love it! It's exciting to fill up my outlook with deadlines for papers, meetings and projects. Ask me again in October and you might get another answer...

Anyhows, the first call for papers for EuroITV 07 is out (deadline for full papers is December 15th). The special theme for the conference is ITV, a shared experience. More info here.

14th century plants

Interesting. Enthusiastic people have been digging in front of the cathedral in my former home town of Åbo/Turku for two summers now, in order to track the early phases of the town. Since this intrigues me, I wish I'd be there to follow the excavations but since I'm not, I'm happy that there are regular posts on the findings (the weekly presentation of the findings is not in English unfortunately) and the proceedings.

There’s been some debate on how old the town really is, and the mission is to shed some light on the age of the town. It has been considered that the earliest settlement of the town had developed during medieval time. During the excavations last summer however, no evidence of proper building lots which could have been dated from the end of the 13th century was discovered in the area. The earliest evidence of settlement dates from the beginning of the 14th century, as the traces of ploughing marks discovered indicate. Thus, at least part of the area was under cultivation before the 14th century.

Now, the researchers have found interesting parts of plants and seeds. One litre of humus from the area contains about 4000 rudiments of plants. They now know of 350 different species of plants that was cultivated in around the time of 14th century Turku, among which hazel, plantain and seeds of fig, which is considered to be the oldest finding in the Nordic countries. Furthermore, rudiments of caraway, dill, walnut and parsley have been found which gives the researchers an idea of the scope of the contemporary trade.

By the way, check out the fashion report in the picture hereby (downloaded from here). It’s a piece of a spur of metal, an important part of the rider’s equipment, but also a sign of fashion awareness and status. Judging from where it was found, the researchers believe it stems back to the 15th century.