Seeking a sense of control or escapism? The role of video games in coping with unemployment

Unemployment can have devastating effects on people's psychological and social wellbeing. The effects of unemployment can be exacerbated during the COVID-19 pandemic due to the lack of control over one's life and the loss of social connectedness. Through a survey of 480 unemployed workers, this study examined how emotion-focused coping using video game can affect the workers' wellbeing and reemployment. The findings showed that escapism was associated with decreased wellbeing, which reduced job-search efficacy and behaviors. However, when video game playing was viewed as a source of self-determination, it can support the unemployed workers' intrinsic needs of autonomy and relatedness, which improved their wellbeing, their job-search efficacy, and job-search behaviors. Further comparison of effects between gender, age, race, and income found that unemployed workers who made lower to medium income were more likely to seek escapism through games compared to female unemployed workers. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)

Racing with the industry: an interview on motorsports, esports, livestreaming and the COVID-19 pandemic

The following interview discusses two paradigmatic media sports cases during live sports lockdown in 2020. Producing online tournament responses to the COVID-19 cancellations of live events, the IndyCar First Responders 175 race and the W Series esports league both turned to esports livestreaming. Under this transition, themes of safety, gender equity, risk, and rules emerged as key topics surrounding the current and future state of esports within media sports ecosystems. As discussed by Garth Midgley (founder of GOATi Entertainment and lead developer of 22-Racing Series), Abe Stein (senior strategist with the Sports Innovation Lab), Gina Miller and Jo Diamond (Communications executives, W Series), and Emma Witkowski (senior lecturer and esports academic), these cases exemplify ascending issues in sports quick transition to online esports and networked livestreaming solutions, shoring up media sports under lockdown.

Can Underprivileged Children Learn Effectively at Home? A Six-Month Study of Game-based Traditional Chinese Learning During the Pandemic Lockdown

The COVID-19 pandemic has suspended physical classes, and influenced students from underprivileged groups more seriously due to their poor living conditions and digital disadvantages. To understand the impact of the constrained learning, we conducted a study on game-based learning to examine the effectiveness of computer-aided and autonomous learning of traditional Chinese by underprivileged students. From December 2020 to May 2021, we collected 3,245 quiz results from 26 underprivileged students over six months. The quizzes systematically covered the fundamentals of learning traditional Chinese in six aspects, i.e., literacy, orthography, phonology, morphology, speaking, and writing. We analyzed the results to understand the learning efficacy of students. Remarkably, students can significantly improve their skills in literacy and phonology through unsupervised game-based learning. Furthermore, by parsing the writing tasks, we observe substantial improvements among 7 out of 13 common types of writing mistakes. Our study provides a critical lens to understand the design opportunities of game-based learning without direct supervision. IEEE

The risks and rewards of collegiate esports: A multi-case study of gamers in the United States and Italy

As participation in electronic sports (esports) continues to expand globally, colleges and universities are considering how such competitive video gaming might impact recruitment, retention, and the overall student engagement experience. This mixed-methods study focuses on the perceptions of college students in both the United States and Italy regarding the esports phenomenon. A compilation of the research findings from two case studies compared and contrasted themes associated with the benefits and risks to college students participating in esports. The findings highlighted the notion that even during challenging times such as the COVID-19 pandemic, the college students in this study were still driven to invest their time in esports play. However, the risks such as those of addiction, health impairment, and social isolation may outweigh the perceived benefits to game play. Included are critical considerations and policy recommendations for campus esports programs as well as future directions in research. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)

Staying connected while physically apart: Digital communication when face-to-face interactions are limited

Theoretical and empirical work on digital media use and social connectedness has often considered face-to-face communication to be an available option. But how do various digital media uses relate to social connectedness when face-to-face communication is not, or much less, possible? Drawing on survey data from 2925 US adults during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, we find that different digital communication methods display different relationships with social connectedness under stay-at-home circumstances with limited in-person interactions outside the home. Overall, digital communication relates to lower social connectedness. In line with notions from social presence theory, especially digital media lower in social presence (e.g. email, social media, and online games, and to some extent text messaging) relate negatively to social connectedness, while this is not the case for higher social presence media (e.g. voice and video calls). Our study has implications for theorizing about digital media use and social connectedness in times when face-to-face communication is less available. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)

Application of Artificial Intelligence in Computer Gaming and Game Content

The paper focuses on the tools for applying artificial intelligence in the implementation of game content. The development of productive forces led to digitalization, further leading to the emergence of various goods and services via the Internet. New goods and services include computer games, music services, online cinemas, mobile applications, social services, etc. The COVID-19 pandemic and the self-isolation regime have expanded human needs for the benefits of digitalization in terms of the consumption of various Internet content, including gaming. The expansion of remote interaction under the pandemic comes into contact with objective economic realities—the introduction of elements of artificial intelligence and the spread of automation processes in the economy. Thus, science is updating the issue of studying the economic laws of the development of the game content market in the context of the introduction of artificial intelligence. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.

Motivations to play and mental health in video game players

Over decades research has been conducted to measure connections between playing video games and mental health. Fewer studies have examined individual differences in motivations to play video games as an explaining factor in negative mental health symptoms experienced by adult gamers. This study utilized the Gaming Motivation Scale (GAMS) to capture the relationship between different types of motivation to play and negative mental health outcomes (anxiety, depression, and social phobia). Participants were 77 adults (age 18-40 81% male) who play 20 or more hours of video games a week. To mitigate the potential, influence the COVID-19 pandemic had on gaming habits, participants were asked to identify gaming habits prior to COVID-19 (between March 2019-Febuary 2020) and after (since March 2020). The study's hypotheses were that higher endorsements of "amotivation scores" on the GAMS will correlate with higher depression scores;that those who endorse higher "introjected regulation" will show higher levels of depression, anxiety, and social phobia scores;and that those who endorse higher "integrated regulation" will have lower levels of anxiety, social phobia, and depression scores. It was found that the GAMS was not a significant predictor of mental health problems, and no relationships were found between number of hours spent playing, motivation type, and mental health outcomes. Although the hypotheses were not supported, the results give rise to a possible interpretation: That adults who spent a large amount of time playing video games do not necessarily experience mental health problems. The overall levels of clinical depression, anxiety, or social phobia were in fact fairly low. Motivation to play video games and time spent playing do not necessarily correlate with mental health itself. Even though the number of hours spent playing video games increased during the COVID-19 pandemic, time spent playing did not correlate with negative mental health symptoms. With a history of stigma towards video games, the study's findings may reiterate the importance of comprehensive assessment to create stronger distinctions between clients who present with clinically significant uses and those who engage with gaming in the context of a passion or a hobby. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)

Experiences of video game play and subreddit communities on self-reported well-being and resilience during COVID-19: A phenomenological study of animal crossing: new horizons

COVID-19, the global pandemic first reported in 2019, has led to many potential negative mental well-being issues, including depression, anxiety, and boredom. Research suggests that informal, targeted psychological interventions, such as those that allow for a sense of control and virtual socialization, may be helpful in boosting mental well-being and general resilience. Of the many interventions that exist, two informal ones are examined in this study: 1) video game play, and 2) online game-related forum discussions. For video game play, one game-Animal Crossing: New Horizons, or ANCH-was examined primarily due to its massive popularity during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. For online, game-related forum discussions, Reddit was chosen due to its global popularity and plethora of available game-related forums, also called subreddits. In this hermeneutic phenomenological study, data were collected from six participants (n=6) who both played the game and participated in game-related subreddits during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. These participants, with ages ranging 18 to 35, completed two background questionnaires and two online, Zoom interviews. Results from these participants indicated that ACNH and its subreddit communities helped these players maintain their mental well-being and build resilience by providing increased opportunities for: 1) socialization, 2) escapism, 3) goal setting, 4) player autonomy, and 5) real-world connections. These results likely have implications for: 1) mental health professionals, 2) video game players and designers, and 3) researchers interested in using video games for supporting mental well-being and resilience. Suggestions for future research are also provided. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)

The Game of Words Human Creative Writing Against Computer Assisted Writing

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is fully embedded in different domains of our daily lives. However, the pandemic of 2020 seems to have accelerated and changed human behavior concerning our relationship with time as well as with language and communicative processes. Traditionally, we have learned that creative written tasks need great amounts of time, inspiration, and rewriting. Conversely, speed has become an important cultural value and computer assisted creative writing enables to accelerate the writing process. This paper is part of a preliminary research on the teaching and learning of creative writing in the post-covid times. It concerns the subject of Semiotics within the context of undergraduate Business Communication students, and it aims at studying the possibilities of speed writing and creative writing AI tools. We will discuss the qualitative results of an experiment in which our students performed a creative process of producing language elements for a media campaign (hashtag, a slogan, and a teaser text) to promote a cultural institutional event targeting a broad audience. Two groups of students were given the same time to produce the language contents above-mentioned, but they had to follow different writing methodologies according to the script. The results obtained reveal interesting perceptions concerning style, connotation, grammaticality, rewriting and editing effort. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.

Stimulation of the Executive Functions Mediated by Digital Games: Current Challenges in the School Context

Executive Functions are a group of cognitive abilities that guide the behavior of individuals towards achieving goals, regulation and control of thoughts, emotions, and inhibition of behavioral tendencies. The healthy development of the executive components are predictors of several aspects in the life of individuals, such as success in professional life, academic performance, and socio-affective relationships. Studies indicate that impairments in the Executive Functions are directly related to several known clinical conditions, e.g., depression and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Investigations show that it is possible to foster the components of Executive Functions, so that individuals can obtain cognitive gains, promoting benefits in several aspects of one's life, especially when it occurs during childhood and adolescenthood. Digital games are a cultural artifact present in the lives of children and adolescents and have been increasingly used in educational settings. Therefore, investigations based on robust evidence are needed about cognitive stimulation using digital games in the school context. This chapter presents five challenges in the field, and how to evaluate them: (I) Development of Digital Games for Cognitive Stimulation and Assessment;(II) Methodologies using Digital Games;(III) Applications within the School Environment and Brazilian Scope;(IV) Difficulty Curves in Digital Games;(V) Cognitive Stimulation in the School Context after Social Isolation by COVID-19. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

COVID-19: Fear, quackery, false representations and the law.

Fear, anxiety and even paranoia can proliferate during a pandemic. Such conditions, even when subclinical, tend to be a product of personal and predispositional factors, as well as shared cultural influences, including religious, literary, film, and gaming, all of which can lead to emotional and less than rational responses. They can render people vulnerable to engage in implausible conspiracy theories about the causes of illness and governmental responses to it. They can also lead people to give credence to simplistic and unscientific misrepresentations about medications and devices which are claimed to prevent, treat or cure disease. In turn such vulnerability creates predatory opportunities for the unscrupulous. This article notes the eruption of quackery during the 1889-1892 Russian Flu and the 1918-1920 Spanish Flu and the emergence during 2020 of spurious claims during the COVID-19 pandemic. It identifies consumer protection strategies and interventions formulated during the 2020 pandemic. Using examples from the United States, Japan, Australia and the United Kingdom, it argues that during a pandemic there is a need for three responses by government to the risks posed by conspiracy theories and false representations: calm, scientifically-based messaging from public health authorities; cease and desist warnings directed toward those making extravagant or inappropriate claims; and the taking of assertive and well publicised legal action against individuals and entities that make false representations in order to protect consumers rendered vulnerable by their emotional responses to the phenomenology of the pandemic.

Build Your World - Meaningful Choices in a Hybrid Stage Play

This paper examines the design of meaningful choices for theater audiences embedded in a hybrid play using digital tools and systems. A case study is presented that is established on a hybrid stage performance called ALIENATION based on the so-far unpublished eponymous novel by Corinna Antelmann, which premiered in early 2022 at the Landestheater Linz. The audience could take part in the performance via a real-time rendering engine. Apart from describing the case study in detail, we outline further applications and opportunities to facilitate audience participation and engagement. In general, ALIENATION's design and production positively impacted the audience's attention, especially regarding younger demographics.

The impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Purchasing Priorities of Generation X and Y Consumers

This paper presents the second part of the research conducted at Riga Technical University aimed to explore the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Generation X (Gen X) and Generation Y (Gen Y) consumer behavior and purchasing priorities. While the changes in consumer behavior have already been analyzed and published earlier [1], the changes in purchasing priorities which might have caused changes in consumer behavior, are going to be studied in this work. The choice of these two generations is not made randomly;on the contrary, it was an intentional selection among other consumers, as they make a very active and prominent part of buyers all over the world. The research methods used are comparative descriptive analysis, Chi-square test and qualitative content analysis of data collected in an electronic survey of respondents from Asia, Europe, and America. The findings show that statistically significant differences between the changes in purchasing priorities of both generations are found for: meat and dairy products, fruit & vegetables, non-alcoholic and alcoholic drinks, clothes & shoes, body care & cosmetics, entertainment (pay TV services, computer games, etc.) and transport. Altogether, purchasing priorities of Gen X consumers were impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic less than Gen Y consumers. Copyright 2022. © by the International Institute of Informatics and Systemics. All rights reserved.

Promoting art appreciation performances and behaviors in effective and joyful contexts: A two-tier test-based digital gaming approach

To enhance students' learning motivation and learning interest, scholars have attempted to incorporate game-based learning (GBL) into courses to improve conventional teaching which is mostly carried out using textbooks, presentations, or videos. However, one-tier tests were mainly adopted in previous GBL, meaning that it was difficult to identify whether students answered questions correctly by understanding knowledge or merely guessed the correct answer. Such tests also make it difficult to provide adequate feedback and guidance during the learning process. In order to solve this problem, a two-tier test-based digital gaming approach (TT-DGA) developed using RPG Maker was proposed in this study. It not only provided students with a more interesting way to learn art and view world-famous artworks in the game, but also introduced a two-tier test in the learning process to help students gradually construct professional art appreciation knowledge. To explore the effects of this approach, a total of 62 university students who took an elective art course were recruited in the current study. A quasi-experimental design was employed and the course was conducted physically during the Covid-19 pandemic. One class was the experimental group which adopted the TT-DGA for learning, while the other class was the control group which adopted the conventional gaming approach (C-DGA). The results showed that the TT-DGA could significantly enhance students' learning achievement of art appreciation, learning motivation, learning attitudes, and flow experience. Based on the behavioral analysis, students in the experimental group were more active than those in the control group in terms of reading art history materials, watching videos, engaging in tests, and playing the game again. Finally, the interview results uncovered that the two-tier test could help students conduct self-inspection, confirm the accuracy of their understandings of knowledge, and correct misconceptions, and that DGBL made the art course more interesting. • A two-tier test-based digital gaming approach for art education is proposed. • An educational computer game was developed based on the proposed approach. • The approach improved students' learning achievement of art appreciation. • The approach improved students' learning motivation. • The approach improved students' self-inspection and accuracy art concepts. [ FROM AUTHOR]

Epistemic and Mediational Suitability of Tasks Designed in a Mobile Learning Context

The aim of this research is to propose indicators of epistemic and mediational suitability to assess tasks designed in a mobile learning context, using theoretical and methodological elements of the onto-semiotic approach (OSA) and the SAMR model (substitution, augmentation, modification, and redefinition). With these indicators, 110 tasks designed by two Mexican teachers are evaluated, for the teaching of the natural number in primary education. Some results indicate that the situation-problems addressed the meanings of numerical sequence, operational, ordinal, and measure, and that 56% of the tasks were located at the substitution level. Some implications derived from the research are that the mathematical content can be complemented by including other representations of the natural number and that the design of tasks that are positioned at the modification and redefinition levels should be encouraged. The foregoing serves as a basis for the design and assessment of mobile content for the natural number concept.

A Study on Digital Game Addictions of Adolescents in the COVID-19 Pandemic

The concept of digital game addiction has become an important issue that needs to be studied, depending on the increase in the time spent on the internet today, where technology and internet usage times are increasing rapidly. In this context, this study aimed to understand the antecedents of high school students' online game addiction risks. The survey method was used in the study. Within the scope of the research, 559 high school students randomly selected from this population formed the sample of the study. The "Game Addiction Scale for Adolescents," adapted into Turkish by Ilgaz (2015), was used as a data collection tool in the study. The results showed that digital game addictions of high school students were formed at the highest level in the dimensions of mood modifications, tolerance, and salience, respectively. The lowest averages were in the withdrawal and conflict dimensions. These findings show that high school students experience many emotional states in the game at a high level. Besides, while digital game addiction of male students was higher, it was determined that games played via computer caused more digital addiction. While digital game addictions of high school students do not change according to their grade level and academic achievement, their digital game addictions change according to family income level, playing time, and parental education level.

The Playful Potential of Digital Commensality: Learning from Spontaneous Playful Remote Dining Practices

With one-person households being increasingly common and Covid-19 lockdown policies forcing people to stay home, remote dining has become common practice for many, who take it as an opportunity to connect with others in times of loneliness. Sharing meals online, also known as digital commensality, is a rich form of interaction, where people leverage technology to achieve a sense of connectedness and belonging while eating. In this paper, we look at digital commensality and we explore its inherent playful potential with the aim to inspire the design of engaging technologies that can support, enhance and augment this form of interaction. For this, we used a situated play design approach to document and analyze the behavior of 36 people (including pairs of friends and strangers) sharing meals online. Our analysis surfaced a set of play potentials of remote dining - i.e., playful things people already do and enjoy spontaneously while sharing meals online. We present those play potentials as inspirational material: they can motivate and enrich the design of future digital commensality technologies by responding to people's desire for playful and social interaction with, through, and around food. © 2022 ACM.

Virtual Tabletops (VTT) for Role-Playing Games (RPG) and Do-It-Yourself (DYI) Interactive Surfaces as Examples of Vernacular Design

Pop culture-driven nostalgia for the times of the second half of the 20th century-with their music, aesthetics and entertainment, in combination with the increased need for casual interpersonal contacts observed during the COVID-19 pandemic led to a kind of renaissance of classic tabletop board and Role-Playing Games. At the same time, the pandemic necessity of isolation has led to the emergence of new solutions in the field of social but remote entertainment-specially through software called Virtual Tabletops (VTT). In classic RPGs such as "Dungeons and Dragons"players often use boards, mockups, models, dioramas and miniatures for tactical orientation in situations where it is essential from the mechanics point of view (e.g. during combat sequences). Virtual game tables allowed for this types of props to be digitized including automation of some mechanical activities related to the game (statistics of objects, markers for area effects, fields of view, fogs of war etc.). This turned out to be so attractive that some players began to mix the classic pen and paper RPG's gameplay (requiring the physical presence of players at the table and face to face communication), with virtual tools which then allow for projection onto table's surface, walls or to the TVs, tablets and smartphones. This niche but extremely interesting example of vernacular practices in computer based media seem worth further investigation. © 2022 ACM.

Experiences of video game play and subreddit communities on self-reported well-being and resilience during COVID-19: A phenomenological study of animal crossing: new horizons

COVID-19, the global pandemic first reported in 2019, has led to many potential negative mental well-being issues, including depression, anxiety, and boredom. Research suggests that informal, targeted psychological interventions, such as those that allow for a sense of control and virtual socialization, may be helpful in boosting mental well-being and general resilience. Of the many interventions that exist, two informal ones are examined in this study: 1) video game play, and 2) online game-related forum discussions. For video game play, one game-Animal Crossing: New Horizons, or ANCH-was examined primarily due to its massive popularity during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. For online, game-related forum discussions, Reddit was chosen due to its global popularity and plethora of available game-related forums, also called subreddits. In this hermeneutic phenomenological study, data were collected from six participants (n=6) who both played the game and participated in game-related subreddits during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. These participants, with ages ranging 18 to 35, completed two background questionnaires and two online, Zoom interviews. Results from these participants indicated that ACNH and its subreddit communities helped these players maintain their mental well-being and build resilience by providing increased opportunities for: 1) socialization, 2) escapism, 3) goal setting, 4) player autonomy, and 5) real-world connections. These results likely have implications for: 1) mental health professionals, 2) video game players and designers, and 3) researchers interested in using video games for supporting mental well-being and resilience. Suggestions for future research are also provided. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)

Readiness of Ukrainian Mathematics Teachers to Use Computer Games in the Educational Process

The paper presents the opinions of mathematics teachers regarding expediency and possibility of using computer mathematical games in the educational process. The survey was conducted in urban and rural schools of Ukraine in 2019 (sample size - 48) and 2021 (sample size - 55). Teachers of all age categories and levels of school education (primary, secondary, senior secondary) were involved. As a result of the study, the growing interest of Ukrainian mathematics teachers in computer mathematical games was noted after long-term online learning during quarantine measures on COVID-19. Moreover, some teachers already use computer mathematical games to develop the knowledge and skills of both students (15%) and their own children (40%).However, every fifth teacher does not consider it necessary to use electronic games in mathematics lessons. In general, there is a trend towards their implementation at various levels of education: from school to future teachers training faculties, but there are still a number of unresolved important issues, including didactic ones.