Handbook of Computer Game Studies

Handbook of Computer Game Studies
Author: Joost Raessens
Publisher: MIT Press
Total Pages: 471
Release: 2011-08-19
Genre: Computers
ISBN: 0262516586

A broad treatment of computer and video games from a wide range of perspectives, including cognitive science and artificial intelligence, psychology, history, film and theater, cultural studies, and philosophy. New media students, teachers, and professionals have long needed a comprehensive scholarly treatment of digital games that deals with the history, design, reception, and aesthetics of games along with their social and cultural context. The Handbook of Computer Game Studies fills this need with a definitive look at the subject from a broad range of perspectives. Contributors come from cognitive science and artificial intelligence, developmental, social, and clinical psychology, history, film, theater, and literary studies, cultural studies, and philosophy as well as game design and development. The text includes both scholarly articles and journalism from such well-known voices as Douglas Rushkoff, Sherry Turkle, Henry Jenkins, Katie Salen, Eric Zimmerman, and others. Part I considers the "prehistory" of computer games (including slot machines and pinball machines), the development of computer games themselves, and the future of mobile gaming. The chapters in part II describe game development from the designer's point of view, including the design of play elements, an analysis of screenwriting, and game-based learning. Part III reviews empirical research on the psychological effects of computer games, and includes a discussion of the use of computer games in clinical and educational settings. Part IV considers the aesthetics of games in comparison to film and literature, and part V discusses the effect of computer games on cultural identity, including gender and ethnicity. Finally, part VI looks at the relation of computer games to social behavior, considering, among other matters, the inadequacy of laboratory experiments linking games and aggression and the different modes of participation in computer game culture.

How Computer Games Help Children Learn

How Computer Games Help Children Learn
Author: D. Shaffer
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 249
Release: 2007-02-25
Genre: Education
ISBN: 0230601995

How can we make sure that our children are learning to be creative thinkers in a world of global competition - and what does that mean for the future of education in the digital age? David Williamson Shaffer offers a fresh and powerful perspective on computer games and learning. How Computer Games Help Children Learn shows how video and computer games can help teach children to build successful futures - but only if we think in new ways about education itself. Shaffer shows how computer and video games can help students learn to think like engineers, urban planners, journalists, lawyers, and other innovative professionals, giving them the tools they need to survive in a changing world. Based on more than a decade of research in technology, game science, and education, How Computer Games Help Children Learn revolutionizes the ongoing debate about the pros and cons of digital learning.

Computer Games for Learning

Computer Games for Learning
Author: Richard E. Mayer
Publisher: MIT Press
Total Pages: 303
Release: 2014-07-11
Genre: Education
ISBN: 0262027577

A comprehensive and up-to-date investigation of what research shows about the educational value of computer games for learning. Many strong claims are made for the educational value of computer games, but there is a need for systematic examination of the research evidence that might support such claims. This book fills that need by providing, a comprehensive and up-to-date investigation of what research shows about learning with computer games. Computer Games for Learning describes three genres of game research: the value-added approach, which compares the learning outcomes of students who learn with a base version of a game to those of students who learn with the base version plus an additional feature; the cognitive consequences approach, which compares learning outcomes of students who play an off-the-shelf computer game for extended periods to those of students who do not; and the media comparative approach, which compares the learning outcomes of students who learn material by playing a game to those of students who learn the same material using conventional media. After introductory chapters that describe the rationale and goals of learning game research as well as the relevance of cognitive science to learning with games, the book offers examples of research in all three genres conducted by the author and his colleagues at the University of California, Santa Barbara; meta-analyses of published research; and suggestions for future research in the field. The book is essential reading for researchers and students of educational games, instructional designers, learning-game developers, and anyone who wants to know what the research has to say about the educational effectiveness of computer games.

Computers and Games

Computers and Games
Author: Aske Plaat
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 245
Release: 2016-12-09
Genre: Computers
ISBN: 3319509357

This book constitutes the thoroughly refereed post-conference proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Computers and Games, CG 2016, held in Leiden, The Netherlands,in conjunction with the 19th Computer Olympiad and the 22nd World Computer-Chess Championship. The 20 papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected of 30 submitted papers. The 20 papers cover a wide range of computer games and many different research topics in four main classes which determined the order of publication: Monte Carlo Tree Search (MCTS) and its enhancements (seven papers), concrete games (seven papers), theoretical aspects and complexity (five papers) and cognition model (one paper). The paper Using Partial Tablebases in Breakthrough by Andrew Isaac and Richard Lorentz received the Best Paper Award.

Computer Games and New Media Cultures

Computer Games and New Media Cultures
Author: Johannes Fromme
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 694
Release: 2012-06-14
Genre: Education
ISBN: 9400727771

Digital gaming is today a significant economic phenomenon as well as being an intrinsic part of a convergent media culture in postmodern societies. Its ubiquity, as well as the sheer volume of hours young people spend gaming, should make it ripe for urgent academic enquiry, yet the subject was a research backwater until the turn of the millennium. Even today, as tens of millions of young people spend their waking hours manipulating avatars and gaming characters on computer screens, the subject is still treated with scepticism in some academic circles. This handbook aims to reflect the relevance and value of studying digital games, now the subject of a growing number of studies, surveys, conferences and publications. As an overview of the current state of research into digital gaming, the 42 papers included in this handbook focus on the social and cultural relevance of gaming. In doing so, they provide an alternative perspective to one-dimensional studies of gaming, whose agendas do not include cultural factors. The contributions, which range from theoretical approaches to empirical studies, cover various topics including analyses of games themselves, the player-game interaction, and the social context of gaming. In addition, the educational aspects of games and gaming are treated in a discrete section. With material on non-commercial gaming trends such as ‘modding’, and a multinational group of authors from eleven nations, the handbook is a vital publication demonstrating that new media cultures are far more complex and diverse than commonly assumed in a debate dominated by concerns over violent content.

Computer Game Worlds

Computer Game Worlds
Author: Claus Pias
Publisher: Diaphanes
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2017
Genre: Computer games
ISBN: 9783035800135

Computer games have become ubiquitous in today's society. Many scholars have speculated on the reasons for their massive success. Yet we haven't considered the most basic questions: Why do computer games exist? What specific circumstances led to the creation of this entirely new type of game? What sorts of knowledge facilitated the requisite technological and institutional transformations? With Computer Game Worlds, Claus Pias sets out to answer these questions. Tracing computer games from their earliest forms to the unstoppable commercial and cultural phenomena they have become today, Pias then provides a careful epistemological reconstruction of the process of playing games, both at computers and by computers themselves. The book makes a valuable theoretical contribution to the ongoing discussion about computer games.

Gaming the Iron Curtain

Gaming the Iron Curtain
Author: Jaroslav Svelch
Publisher: MIT Press
Total Pages: 401
Release: 2023-09-19
Genre: Games & Activities
ISBN: 026254928X

How amateur programmers in 1980s Czechoslovakia discovered games as a medium, using them not only for entertainment but also as a means of self-expression. Aside from the exceptional history of Tetris, very little is known about gaming culture behind the Iron Curtain. But despite the scarcity of home computers and the absence of hardware and software markets, Czechoslovakia hosted a remarkably active DIY microcomputer scene in the 1980s, producing more than two hundred games that were by turns creative, inventive, and politically subversive. In Gaming the Iron Curtain, Jaroslav Švelch offers the first social history of gaming and game design in 1980s Czechoslovakia, and the first book-length treatment of computer gaming in any country of the Soviet bloc. Švelch describes how amateur programmers in 1980s Czechoslovakia discovered games as a medium, using them not only for entertainment but also as a means of self-expression. Sheltered in state-supported computer clubs, local programmers fashioned games into a medium of expression that, unlike television or the press, was neither regulated nor censored. In the final years of Communist rule, Czechoslovak programmers were among the first in the world to make activist games about current political events, anticipating trends observed decades later in independent or experimental titles. Drawing from extensive interviews as well as political, economic, and social history, Gaming the Iron Curtain tells a compelling tale of gaming the system, introducing us to individuals who used their ingenuity to be active, be creative, and be heard.

Invent Your Own Computer Games with Python, 4th Edition

Invent Your Own Computer Games with Python, 4th Edition
Author: Al Sweigart
Publisher: No Starch Press
Total Pages: 377
Release: 2016-12-16
Genre: Computers
ISBN: 1593277954

Invent Your Own Computer Games with Python will teach you how to make computer games using the popular Python programming language—even if you’ve never programmed before! Begin by building classic games like Hangman, Guess the Number, and Tic-Tac-Toe, and then work your way up to more advanced games, like a text-based treasure hunting game and an animated collision-dodging game with sound effects. Along the way, you’ll learn key programming and math concepts that will help you take your game programming to the next level. Learn how to: –Combine loops, variables, and flow control statements into real working programs –Choose the right data structures for the job, such as lists, dictionaries, and tuples –Add graphics and animation to your games with the pygame module –Handle keyboard and mouse input –Program simple artificial intelligence so you can play against the computer –Use cryptography to convert text messages into secret code –Debug your programs and find common errors As you work through each game, you’ll build a solid foundation in Python and an understanding of computer science fundamentals. What new game will you create with the power of Python? The projects in this book are compatible with Python 3.

Computers and Games for Mental Health and Well-Being

Computers and Games for Mental Health and Well-Being
Author: Yasser Khazaal
Publisher: Frontiers Media SA
Total Pages: 311
Release: 2018-07-12
Genre: Video games in education
ISBN: 2889454967

Recent years have seen important developments in the computer and game industry, including the emergence of the concept of serious games. It is hypothesized that tools such as games, virtual reality, or applications for smartphones may foster learning, enhance motivation, promote behavioral change, support psychotherapy, favor empowerment, and improve some cognitive functions. Computers and games may create supports for training or help people with cognitive, emotional, or behavioral change. Games take various formats, from board games to informatics to games with interactive rules of play. Similarly, computer tools may vary widely in format, from self-help or assisted computerized training to virtual reality or applications for smartphones. Some tools that may be helpful for mental health were specifically designed for that goal, whereas others were not. Gamification of computer-related products and games with a numeric format tend to reduce the gap between games and computers tools and increase the conceptual synergy in such fields. Games and computer design share an opportunity for creativity and innovation to help create, specifically design, and assess preventive or therapeutic tools. Computers and games share a design conception that allows innovative approaches to overcome barriers of the real world by creating their own rules. Yet, despite the potential interest in such tools to improve treatment of mental disorders and to help prevent them, the field remains understudied and information is under-disseminated in clinical practice. Some studies have shown, however, that there is potential interest and acceptability of tools that support various vehicles, rationales, objectives, and formats. These tools include traditional games (e.g., chess games), popular electronic games, board games, computer-based interventions specifically designed for psychotherapy or cognitive training, virtual reality, apps for smartphones, and so forth. Computers and games may offer a true opportunity to develop, assess, and disseminate new prevention and treatment tools for mental health and well-being. Currently, there is a strong need for state-of-the-art information to answer questions such as the following: Why develop such tools for mental health and well-being? What are the potential additions to traditional treatments? What are the best strategies or formats to improve the possible impact of these tools? Are such tools useful as a first treatment step? What is the potential of a hybrid model of care that combines traditional approaches with games and/or computers as tools? What games and applications have already been designed and studied? What is the evidence from previous studies? How can such tools be successfully designed for mental health and well-being? What is rewarding or attractive for patients in using such treatments? What are the worldwide developments in the field? Are some protocols under development? What are the barriers and challenges related to such developments? How can these tools be assessed, and how can the way that they work, and for whom, be measured? Are the potential benefits of such products specific, or can these additions be attributed to nonspecific factors? What are the users’ views on such tools? What are the possible links between such tools and social networks? Is there a gap between evidence-based results and market development? Are there any quality challenges? What future developments and studies are needed in the field?