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The purpose of the article is to study the communicative features of asynchronous multiplayer video games. Research methodology. This study uses general scientific methods of analysis and synthesis, as well as the historical method. The analysis was used for the existing theories that study asynchronous video games, as well as for the study of gaming experience in relevant projects. The synthesis allows us to form a general vision of the functioning of the considered class of video games in the context of popular communication models. The historical method allows us to observe the dynamics of the development of approaches implemented in asynchronous gameplay. The scientific novelty is to clarify the communicative specificity of asynchronous video games by using communicative models to describe the interaction of players in them. Conclusions. An asynchronous multiplayer video game demonstrates broad communication capabilities that differ to some extent from those presented in more familiar synchronous ones. Among the basic models of communication (linear, interactive, and transmission), no single one was found that would fully describe the phenomenon under study. It turned out that the technical features of communication in the studied video games are closer to the linear model, but organizing the communication process goes beyond it, creating various modifications. The most complex multiplayer asynchronous games build interaction based on cultural, social, and other contexts, which is more relevant to the transactional model. In other words, communication in asynchronous video games is described by a complex model that has elements of the linear and transactional models. While the communication of the first asynchronous multiplayer video games was limited to the motivation to compete, modern examples of video games are beginning to focus on more complex forms of communication., Метою статті є дослідження комунікативних особливостей асинхронних багатокористувацьких відеоігор. Методи дослідження. У цьому дослідженні використано загальнонаукові методи аналізу та синтезу, а також історичний метод. Аналіз використано для наявних теорій, що досліджують асинхронні відеоігри, а також для дослідження ігрового досвіду в релевантних проєктах. Синтез дає змогу сформувати загальне бачення функціонування розглянутого класу відеоігор в контексті популярних моделей комунікацій. Історичний метод дає змогу спостерігати динаміку розвитку підходів, що реалізовуються в асинхронному ігровому процесі. Наукова новизна полягає в з’ясуванні комунікативної специфіки асинхронних відеоігор за допомогою комунікативних моделей для опису взаємодії гравців у них. Висновки. Асинхронна багатокористувацька відеогра демонструє широкі комунікативні можливості, які певною мірою відрізняються від тих, що представлені в більш звичних синхронних. Серед базових моделей комунікації (лінійної, інтерактивної та трансмісійної) не було знайдено єдиної такої, яка повною мірою описувала б досліджуване явище. Виявилося, що технічно особливості комунікації в досліджуваних відеоіграх ближчі до лінійної моделі, але організація процесу комунікації виходить за її межі, створюючи різні модифікації. Найкомплексніші багатокористувацькі асинхронні ігри будують взаємодію, яка базується навколо культурного, соціального й інших контекстів, яка більш релевантна трансакційній моделі. Інакше кажучи, комунікація в асинхронних відеоіграх описується комплексною моделлю, яка має елементи лінійної та трансакційної. Якщо комунікація перших асинхронних багатокористувацьких відеоігор була обмеженою мотивацією до змагання, то сучасні приклади відеоігор починають орієнтуватися на складніші форми комунікації.

The purpose of the articleis to study the communicative features of asynchronous multiplayer video games. Research methodology.This study uses general scientific methods of analysis and synthesis, as well as the historical method. The analysis was used for the existing theories that study asynchronous video games, as well as for the study of gaming experience in relevant projects. The synthesis allows us to form a general vision of the functioning of the considered class of video games in the context of popular communication models. The historical method allows us to observe the dynamics of the development of approaches implemented in asynchronous gameplay. The scientific noveltyis to clarify the communicative specificity of asynchronous video games by using communicative models to describe the interaction of players in them. Conclusions.An asynchronous multiplayer video game demonstrates broad communication capabilities that differ to some extent from those presented in more familiar synchronous ones. Among the basic models of communication (linear, interactive, and transmission), no single one was found that would fully describe the phenomenon under study. It turned out that the technical features of communication in the studied video games are closer to the linear model, but organizing the communication process goes beyond it, creating various modifications. The most complex multiplayer asynchronous games build interaction based on cultural, social, and other contexts, which is more relevant to the transactional model. In other words, communication in asynchronous video games is described by a complex model that has elements of the linear and transactional models. While the communication of the first asynchronous multiplayer video games was limited to the motivation to compete, modern examples of video games are beginning to focus on more complex forms of communication.

Animal Crossing is an online multiplayer game that supports social communication and collaboration. Its recent version, New Horizons, is immensely popular having sold over 32 million copies worldwide, with many players attracted to the opportunities it provides to remotely socialize during the COVID-19 pandemic. To understand players' increased positive emotions and social interactions, we surveyed 119 of them betweenMay and December 2020 and conducted remote interviews with 25 respondents. We identified the social dynamics among players and with non-player characters (NPCs), and analyzed how positive social interactions were facilitated under player-generated narratives and game-determined narratives. Based on our empirical analyses, we have extended our understanding of how to create positive, safe, and friendly interactions: (1)the design of mood-improving game worlds with flexible game tasks, (2) implementation of game-determined activities with social implications, (3) provision of player rewards to reinforce their social interactions, and (4)creation of opportunities to integrate NPCs' game-determined narratives into player-generated narratives.

This paper introduces the core enterprise into the traditional accounts receivable financing model, which only includes the bank and the small and medium-sized enterprise (SME), and further analyse...

Izrađena Connect four igrica na programskom jeziku Python. Grafiku, odnosno sam izgled igrice izrađen je koristeći PyGame koji omogućuje stvaranje potpuno opremljene igrice. Postoje dva tipa igre; jedna u kojoj igraju dvije fizičke osobe i druga u kojoj fizička osoba igra protiv stroja, odnosno umjetne inteligencije. Created Connect four game in Python programming language. The graphics was created using PyGame, which allows the creation of a fully equipped game. There are two game types: one in which two natural persons play and the other in which a natural person plays against a machine, i.e. artificial intelligence.

U ovom radu je obrađena tema stvaranja demonstracijske višekorisničke igre. Objašnjena je važnost takvih igara, te su navedene danas najpopularnije platforme i alati za izradu višekorisničkih igara. Korištenjem Unityja i Photona (PUN 2) stvorena je demonstracijska igra iz koje je stvoren projekt s nepotpunim kôdom. Igra se sastoji od dvije scene – scene s izbornicima i scene za igru. U sceni s izbornicima odvija se matchmaking tj. spajanje igrača s poslužiteljem, stvaranje novih soba, pregled postojećih soba i pridruživanje u postojeće sobe. Također, iz ove scene (iz sobe) može se započeti igra. U sceni za igru svaki igrač ima svoje „tijelo“ i svoju kameru, te se može slobodno kretati i gađati druge igrače koristeći svoje oružje. Cilj je u određenom vremenu pogoditi što je više protivničkih igrača i izbjeći što više tuđih napada (gađanja). Pri kraju igre tj. pri isteku vremena na ekranima svih igrača prikazuje se ljestvica bodova. Pomoću potpune verzije projekta, stvorena je nepotpuna verzija i upute sa zadacima. Pomoću uputa i zadataka, koji su namijenjeni učenicima i studentima, moguće je nadopuniti kôd do potpune i funkcionalne verzije. Ova vježba služi za demonstraciju stvaranja umrežene videoigre i sadrži sve najbitnije koncepte umreženosti. This thesis covers the topic of creating a demonstrational multiplayer game. The importance of such games is explained, and the most popular platforms and tools for creating multiplayer games today are listed. Using Unity and Photon (PUN 2), a demonstrational game was created from which a project with incomplete code was created. The game consists of two scenes - a scene with menus and a scene for the game. In the menu scene, matchmaking takes place, such as connecting players to the server, creating new rooms, listing existing rooms and joining them. Also, from this scene the game can be started. In the game scene, each player has their own "body", their own camera and can move freely and shoot other players using their weapons. The goal is to hit as many enemy players as possible in a given time and be hit the least. At the end of the game, when the timer hits zero, a rank list of scores is shown to each player. With the full version of the project, an incomplete version and instructions with tasks were made. With the help of instructions and tasks, which are intended for pupils and students, it is possible to fill the code to a complete and functional version. This exercise serves to demonstrate the creation of a networked video game and contains all the most important concepts of networking.

In this article, we propose a method for constructing artificial intelligence (AI) player of Mahjong , which is a multiplayer imperfect information game. Since the size of the game tree is huge, constructing an expert-level AI player of Mahjong is challenging. We define multiple Markov decision processes (MDPs) as abstractions of Mahjong to construct effective search trees. We also introduce two methods of inferring state values of the Mahjong using these MDPs. We evaluated the effectiveness of our method using gameplays vis-a-vis the current strongest AI player.

Human computation and crowdsourcing have been successfully proposed and applied to solve problems that are difficult to solve due to either the limitations of current computing technology or the existence of only a few experts. A common way to solve problems through human computation and crowdsourcing systems is to convert them into interactive games that target a wide audience of non-experts. Leveraging humans’ innate ability to recognize patterns, a few systems have solved the problem of synthesizing loop invariants through single-player puzzle games.This thesis proposes to apply human computation to synthesize loop invariants by having players find them through a multiplayer game. We explain the challenges involved in designing such games and explore the advantages multiplayer games offer over single-player games in terms of players’ efficiency of solving problems and the level of fun they have.

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to develop and test a theoretical model that accounts for an individual's we-intention to continue playing a mobile multiplayer game.Design/methodology/approachDrawing on habit-intention and habit formation theories, this study conceptualizes social play habit as a determinant of the we-intention to continue playing and identifies its antecedents. The proposed model was tested through a survey of 277 players of Honor of Kings, a popular mobile multiplayer game.FindingsThe results indicate that developing social play habit is critical to the formation of a we-intention to continue playing in the context of mobile multiplayer games. The results also suggest that technological (social features embedded in the game) and individual (desire for co-play and privacy concerns) factors jointly influence social play habit.Research limitations/implicationsThis study contributes to the literature on we-intention by conceptualizing social play habit and verifying its role in facilitating a shared intention to continue playing mobile multiplayer games. Our work responds to the call for understanding the mechanism by which multiple people form a shared intention to continue using an information technology at a collective level. Our findings provide significant insights into the design of information technologies for collaboration.Originality/valueThis study is among the first to extend the literature on gaming habits by considering other players' involvement. Specifically, our study shifts researchers' attention from gaming habits characterized by individual properties to social gaming habits characterized by communal properties.

Covert channels allow one to transmit information using mechanisms that were not originally intended for transmission. An example is a process in which a transmitter encodes information in moves of a character of a multiplayer game, and a receiver observes the moves and decodes the original message. This channel may be noisy, since the character may fall out of the receiver’s sight, a number of network packets may be lost, etc. Thus there emerges a natural problem of ogranizing a reliable channel. We propose a formal model called a partial erasure channel that describes the interaction of a transmitter and a receiver, introduce the notion of a consistent transmission protocol, formulate and prove the consistency criterion on the transmitting side and construct the optimal receiver for the given consistent transmitter.

Recent decline in active transport and increase in motorized transport decreases physical activity and increases air pollution. Using games to motivate people to change their behavior toward active transport can mitigate this. We proposed Tic–Tac-Training , a distributed, collaborative, and competitive game for promoting active transport at workplaces. Tic–Tac-Training was developed through a multidisciplinary and iterative user-centered design (UCD) process in four stages: 1) paper prototype, 2) low-fidelity prototypes, 3) high-fidelity prototypes, and 4) digital prototype. User testing and playtesting ( N = 12) yielded a number of improvement suggestions. We also analyzed how Tic–Tac-Training supports the eight core drives of gamification (Octalysis), and presented 17 lessons learned in four categories. Findings suggest that UCD can be useful for developing exergame interventions for workplaces. Moreover, the lessons learned can benefit exergame designers. More research is needed to measure the behavior change effect of Tic–Tac-Training and its applicability to other use cases.

This article provides an overview of the advantages and disadvantages of game engines. The rationale for the choice of a game engine when creating a client-side multiplayer game of a certain genre based on the developer’s experience is given.

In the practice of the Russian courts, when creating an account in an online multiplayer game, any agreement concluded between the provider and the user seems to be covered by article 1062 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, which is why this topic is not subject to judicial examination. However, this approach is unlikely to be applied for much longer, as it does not stand up to criticism. It can only be interpreted as a court attempt to insulate itself from the issue of virtual property. This article is devoted to the consideration the key risks to a provider related to the uncertain legal status of an online games’ terms of use, particularly the prohibition to share a user’s account or login credentials with anyone and a user’s actual rights to virtual content associated with his account. To achieve the research goal, the authors review the legal literature and perform a case study in this area, use a comparative method to identify legislative approaches in different legal systems regarding a user’s rights to their account and the virtual content connected with it, and determine the aspects of the user agreement that obviously contain risks for the provider. As a result of the research, the authors conclude that online multiplayer games are a sphere that tends to self-regulate. Therefore, to the extent possible, the risk of imbalance between self-regulation capabilities and the need to avoid abuse of the current situation, both by providers and users, should be minimized. The main source of regulation for relations between providers and players remains an agreement between them, which can be qualified as a mixed contract. However, such a qualification carries a risk for the provider, due to the complexity of determining the consequences of using the agreement as a single document, which combines various goals, ranging from determining the amount of processing of a player’s data and to fixing the legal regime of a user’s account. Regarding prohibition to share a user’s account, the authors assume that, according to Russian legislation, the most appropriate path is to determine it as a prohibition of assignment to secure providers from the liability for protection of users’ data. The lack of special regulation in this area allows the provider, through the terms of use, to sidestep the potential risk of protecting the player’s copyright on virtual content associated with his account. The authors, however, suggest that using an analogue of the American “sweat of the brow” doctrine in user agreements can to a certain extent remove the provider’s risks associated with the players’ real rights to their in-game property.

As for large-scale group decision-making (LSGDM) in disaster management, the number of decision makers is so large-scale that decision-making is time consuming, but sometimes disaster management is urgent for time. Inspired by multiplayer game theories, this paper proposes a two-stage optimization model that maximizes individual satisfaction at the first stage and minimizes group conflict at the second stage. Furthermore, the introduction of public social media data to determine decision criteria and weights greatly improves the objectivity of decision-making. The proposed method effectively saves the decision time while ensuring the quality of LSGDM. The case study verifies the feasibility of the method.

In the current era of smartphone, mobile games have become really popular. To the high growth rate of mobile media, online games are getting progressively well-known and have been generally played, particularly among teenage-aged citizens. Our paper is about learning the development process of an ordinary online multiplayer game model and analysis of the complexity for its mobile option by several types of testing using Unity game engine. The emphasis is put on utilizing the inherent Unity segments in a multiplayer game in particular, building up accessory practices to utilize Unity’s Scripting API for C# and incorporating outsider segments like the networking engine, 2D models, and molecule frameworks made for use with Unity and accessible through the Unity Asset Store. We choose to lead a convenient testing on the implemented mobile game application. We also make remarks on Unity as a multiplayer game improvement condition and execution engine.

In view of the particularity and high risk of coal mining industry, the decision-making behavior of multiple agents inside the coal-mine enterprise plays a very important role in ensuring the safety and sustainable development of coal mining industry. The existing literature studies on coal-mine safety production focus mainly on statically analyzing the game among the external entities such as the government, the enterprises themselves, and the employees inside the enterprise from a macro perspective,are short of research on revealing the dynamic interactions among the actors directly involved in the coal-mine accidents and also on proposals for effective interactions that will lead to improved safety outcomes. Therefore, this paper explores the use of evolutionary game theory to describe the interactions among the stakeholders in China’s coal-mine safety production system, which includes the organization, the first-line miners, and the first-line managers. Moreover, the paper also explores dynamic simulations of the evolutionary game model to analyze the stability of stakeholder interactions and to identify equilibrium solutions. The simulation results show that when certain conditions are met, the decision-making behavior of the organization, miners, and managers can evolve into the unique ideal steady state (1, 1, 1). In addition, the strategy portfolio with a relatively high initial proportion of three agents converges more quickly to an ideal state than a relatively low strategy portfolio. Moreover, the stable state and equilibrium values are not affected by the initial value changes. Finally, we find that the combination of positive incentive policies and strict penalties policies can make the evolutionary game system converge to desired stability faster. The application of the evolutionary game and numerical simulation when simulating the multiplayer game process of coal-mine safety production is an effective way, which provides a more effective solution to the safety and sustainable development of coal mining industry.

Based on the social-cognitive information processing model and the theory of normative beliefs, this study tests if gamers normalise aggression in games, and whether these normative beliefs explain their aggressive behaviour in games. Experimental cross sectional, worldwide data was collected through an online survey of gamers (N = 1646). Participants were randomly assigned to read a vignette describing an instance of verbal harassment occurring either online (within a multiplayer game) or offline (within a board game cafe) and were asked how acceptable and tolerable they found the harassment. There was a significant moderate main effect of context which indicated that harassment was perceived as more normal in the online gaming scenario. Normative beliefs about cyberaggression significantly predicted both general and prejudiced cyberaggression. Additionally, normative beliefs partially mediated the relationship between age and general cyberaggression (small effect) and gender and general cyberaggression (large effect). As normative beliefs are dynamic and modifiable, cyberaggression prevention and intervention efforts should include modification of beliefs which support the legitimacy and acceptability of cyberaggression in games. These findings provide insight into how gamer culture around acceptability of trash talk relates to toxicity in games and suggest directions for further research.

This booklet is a report of a two-day exchange in May 2022 in Viborg on the question: ‘What can VR-games learn from participatory performance in terms of hosting and guiding the players?’ This question was posed by Michelle Kranot, who is curious to learn more on the strategies participatory performance artists use to prepare an audience into a performance and the skills a performer requires to guide an audience. This question seemed imperative for VR-game development since, in this field, there is little knowledge on hosting players. For this exchange, Kranot invited participatory performance artists Sarah John (AU/DK) and Katrien Oosterlinck (BE) to lead two workshops – one for young people from a local art school on Monday May 23rd 2022 and one for pedagogy students at the university on Tuesday May 24th. These workshops introduced (1) the aesthetic language of John and Oosterlinck in which the audience is an artistic medium (alike sound, words, or movement). These workshops also were (2) a precursor for two in-depth conversations between Kranot, John, Oosterlinck, and Belgian scholar in arts education Elvira Crois (Vrije Universiteit Brussel & University of Antwerp). These conversations addressed the questions: ‘How do you host players of a VR-game? How to get people into the space? How to lead them out of the space? What parameters and steps are needed to guide an audience? What is going on inside a host when they meet an audience?’

Gamification, which is defined as the use of game design elements in non-game contexts, is put forward as a solution to low motivation and is suggested for the creation of a sustainable learning ecology in open and distance learning (ODL). The overall purpose of the present study was to examine the distribution of the Hexad gamification user types and the correlations of gamification experience, game mode, and gender with the user types’ scores within the context of an ODL system. The researchers adapted quantitative cross-sectional survey design to seek answers in this study. The Hexad user types of distance learners were determined based on the online “Gamification User Types Hexad Scale.” Findings revealed that the most common user types in the ODL environment were Philanthropists, Achievers, and Free Spirits, followed by Socializers and Players with a lower mean, while the least common user type was Disruptors. Women tended to score higher than men on the Disruptor user type. Achievers, Socializers, Philanthropists, and Players preferred multiplayer game modes, while the game mode had little influence on Free Spirits and Disruptors. Regarding the gamification experience, Players and Free Spirits seemed to have more experience of gamified applications. This study provides insights to learning designers in developing gamified ODL systems to engage the different Hexad user types.

Game-based competitive or cooperative robotics activities constitute an effective approach to exploit the child-robot interaction perspective. However, in most game-based robotics activities robots act autonomously to achieve the goal. In this work, we aim to promote the child-robot interaction aspect through a multiplayer game where one team of robots and humans collaborates to compete with another team of humans and cobots. We describe the design of an open space that will allow children to gain access, locally and remotely, and program robotic agents to play the traditional “Capture the Flag” game in a physical stadium-arena. Through this space, we intend to teach robotics, while programming human-robot interfaces, within a computer-supported game-based learning environment. We give insights on the initial design of such an open space and the educational benefits of its use in the comprehension of abstract computational and STEM concepts.

The COVID-19 pandemic has greatly affected face-to-face social interaction with and among relational partners - relatives, friends, and others. Prior to the pandemic, many people relied on face-toface social play experiences to help them maintain relationships and satisfy relatedness needs. However, growing coronavirus-related concerns have made such activities unwelcome or inaccessible, leading many to turn to technology-mediated experiences, as a safer alternative means of supporting recreational play with nonproximal relational partners. But how does one design technologymediated recreational play experiences to satisfy a diverse range of user needs, interests, and preferences? To explore this area of interest we study the social experience afforded by the multiplayer game, Among Us. We conduct a diary study with students enrolled in an undergraduate HCI course and report on the findings of a post-study reflective activity. Our findings highlight that casual interdependent games that explicitly and implicitly foster social interaction among players, do provide opportunities for satisfying remote play social experiences when augmented by rich communication technologies. Published version

Battle Royale is a popular online multiplayer game genre that combines last-man-standing shooter gameplay with survival, combat, and scavenging elements. Since several abilities beyond basic combat skills affect player performance in game, the learning curve can be steep for many players. To enhance the gameplay experience, we propose the AI Coach algorithm to provide personalized and adaptive coaching suggestions to Apex Legends players. The proposed algorithm first models player game skills with a comprehensive set of in-game attributes using a random forest. Then, it artificially perturbs individual player data to search for impactful candidate attributes and the associated actions that an individual player can use to improve their game skill. The AI Coach technique provides automated and objective suggestions based on players’ recent gameplay data, optimizing expected game outcomes. We examined the efficacy of the AI Coach on Apex Legends recommendations using expected game performance improvement and a retrospective study. Our study results showed that a player’s acceptance of the top three coaching tips is associated with 4-7% improvement in expected player skill measurement. In addition, the retrospective study indicated that players who naturally accepted the top suggestions exhibit significant improvement in skill compared to players who did not.

Real networks, both social, business or informatics, and others, are evolving. It means that the composition of communities, mostly occurring in these networks, is also changing. Societies evolve and change in different ways. Also, their number in a particular network can change over time. In this paper, we discuss the identification and development of communities in a network over time. The basis of the interactions we take into account is a multiplayer game as a social dilemma played in a large network population. We assume that members interact in randomly formed coalitions. We have created a simulation model that allows us to model community building as specific coalitions. The proposed model also includes mechanisms that occur in real networks. It contains the cost of maintaining links between network members and the possibility of selecting partners for interactions primarily. It affects the dynamics of community development processes in networks. Simulation experiments show the development of communities in the network and the influence of various parameters, especially the cost of maintaining relationships between players in the network.

Decentralized apps offer users significant advantages. One main advantage is that the content belongs to the users. Although decentralized apps have been developed, decentralized multiplayer games have still been a challenge. This research work is therefore based on the question: Is it possible to create a turn-based real-time online multiplayer game based on decentralized applications on blockchain targeting the mobile market? This question is answered by the successful development of a decentralized online multiplayer game based on a blockchain.

Self-organization over ad hoc networks is of growing interest due to their application to collective adaptive systems of IoT devices, such as wearables and drones. These devices can possess situational goals that depend on the availability of external services provided by service providers (SPs) within the ad hoc network. SPs have quality-of-service (QoS) attributes whose values are based on the service(s) they have available. These QoS attributes can be negatively affected by environmental sources of uncertainty as well as behavioral constraints imposed on the SP to support self-organization via integration. Novel mechanisms are needed to evaluate the impact of an integration configuration on the SP's QoS attributes to produce Pareto optimal configurations. We construct a stochastic multiplayer game (SMG) that evaluates a SP's expected satisficing level given its privileged data access, sources of uncertainty, and QoS values. Polynomial regression is applied to the output of the SMG to produce a model to evaluate an integration configuration at runtime. We demonstrate the model on a rescue scenario involving wearables and drones and examine the efficacy of the resulting configurations.