• Asia pacific journal of information systems
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.69-98
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• 2009

We investigated what factors motivate gamers to participate in a guild and why they continue to be engaged as members of the guild. We find that, based on the result of focus group interviews with MMORPG gamers, social support and self-esteem factors play important roles. Considering both prior research and the focus group interviews we have conducted, we define social support and character control as independent variables. Character identity, guild identity, and self-esteem are proposed as mediating variables while guild flow and game loyalty as dependent variables. Accordingly, we develop the research model and hypotheses, and verify them empirically. Based on our experiences of playing the WoW game, we proposed a research model and conducted focus-group interviews (FGIs). FGIs involve formulating a hypothesis and then collecting some relevant data. FGIs were conducted face-to-face with students of C University in Korea. We formulated structured interview schedules, and the questions were based on our research variables and personal experiences. The questions for the interviews encompassed the following areas: (a) the demographic characteristics of the focus group; (b) the number of years for which respondents had played online games; (c) the motive for starting a game; (d) the number of game-characters assumed by each gamer; (e) the type of game played; and (f) other issues such as the reasons for involvement in the play, the willingness to reuse the game in case new versions were released, etc. On average, it took two hours to interview each of three groups. A primary set of FGIs was conducted with three groups on the premise that there would be some differences caused by character race (Horde vs. Alliance) or by playable server (Normal vs. Combat). With respect to the manner of playing, we found that guild members shared information, felt a sense of belonging, and played computer games for quite a long time through the guild; however, they did not undergo these experiences when playing alone. Gamers who belonged to a specific guild helped other players without expecting compensation for that, freely shared information about the game, gave away items for free, and more generous with other members who made mistakes. The guild members were aware of the existence other members and experienced a sense of belonging through interactions with, and evaluations from, other players. It was clear that social support was shown within the guild and that it played an important role as a major research variable. Based on the results of the first FGIs, a second set of in-depth FGIs was carried out with a focus on the psychology of the individual within the guild and the social community of the guild. The second set of FGIs also focused on the guild's offline meetings. Gamers, over all, recognize the necessity of joining a community, not only off-line but also online world of the guild. They admit that the guild is important for them to easily and conveniently enjoy playing online computer games. The active behavior and positive attitudes of existing guild members can motivate new members of the guild to adapt themselves to the guild environment. They then adopt the same behaviors and attitudes of established guild members. In this manner, the new members of the guild strengthen the bonds with other gamers while feeling a sense of belonging, and developing social identity, thereby. It was discovered that the interaction among guild members and the social support encouraged new gamers to quickly develop a sense of social identity and increase their self-esteem. The guild seemed to play the role of socializing gamers. Sometimes, even in the real world, the guild members helped one another; therefore, the features of the guild also spilled over to the offline environment. We intend to use self-esteem, which was found through the second set of FGIs, as an important research variable. To collect data, an online survey was designed with a questionnaire to be completed by WoW gamers, who belong to a guild. The survey was registered on the best three domestic game-sites: 'WoW playforum,' 'WoW gamemeca,' and 'Wow invent.' The selected items to be measured in the questionnaire were decided based on prior research and data from FGIs. To verify the content of the questionnaire, we carried out a pilot test with the same participants to point out ambiguous questions as a way to ensure maximum accuracy of the survey result. A total of 244 responses were analyzed from the 250 completed questionnaires. The SEM analysis was used to test goodness-of-fit of the model. As a result, we found important results as follows: First, according to the statistics, social support had statistically significant impacts on character control, character identity, guild identity and self-esteem. Second, character control had significant effects on character identity, guild identity and self-esteem. Third, character identity shows its clear impact on self-esteem and game loyalty. Fourth, guild identity affected self-esteem, guild flow and game loyalty. Fifth, self-esteem had a positive influence on the guild flow. These days, the number of virtual community is rising along with its significance largely because of the nature of the online games. Accordingly, this study is designed to clarify the psychological relationship between gamers within the guild that has been generally established by gamers to play online games together. This study focuses on the relationships in which social support influences guild flow or game loyalty through character control, character identity, guild identity, and self-esteem, which are present within a guild in the MMORPG game environment. The study results are as follows. First, the effects of social support on character control, character identity, guild identity and self-esteem are proven to be statistically significant. It was found that character control improves character identity, guild identity and self-esteem. Among the seven variables, social support, which is derived from FGIs, plays an important role in this study. With the active support of other guild members, gamers can improve their ability to develop good characters and to control them. Second, character identity has a positive effect on self-esteem and game loyalty, while guild identity has a significant effect on self-esteem, guild flow and game loyalty. Self-esteem affects guild flow. It was found that the higher the character and guild identities become, the greater the self-esteem is established. Contrary to the findings of prior research, our study results indicate that the relationship between character identity and guild flow is not significant. Rather, it was found that character identity directly affects game players' loyalty. Even though the character identity had no direct effect on increasing guild flow, it has indirectly affected guild flow through self-esteem. The significant relationship between self-esteem and guild flow indicates that gamers achieve flow, i.e., a feeling of pleasure and excitement through social support. Several important implications of this study should be noted. First, both qualitative and quantitative methods were used to conduct this study. Through FGIs, it was observed that both social support and self-esteem are important variables. Second, because guilds had been rarely studied, this research is expected to play an important role in the online community. Third, according to the result, six hypotheses (H1, H5, H6, H7, H8, and H11) setup based on FGIs, were statistically significant; thus, we can suggest the corresponding relationships among the variables as a guideline for follow-up research. Our research is significant as it has following implications: first, the social support of the guild members is important when establishing character control, character identity, guildidentity and self-esteem. It is also a major variable that affects guild flow and game loyalty. Second, character control when improved by social support shows notable influence on the development of character identity, guild identity and self-esteem. Third, character identity and guild identity are major factors to help establish gamers' own self-esteem. Fourth, character identity affects guild flow through self-esteem and game loyalty. The gamers usually express themselves through characters; the higher character identity is, the more loyalty a gamer has. Fifth, guild identity, established within the guild, has clear effects on self-esteem, guild flow and game loyalty. Sixth, qualitative and quantitative methods are employed to conduct this study. Based on the results of focus group interviews and SEM analysis, we find that the social support by guild members and psychological factors are significant in strengthening the flow of guild and loyalty to the game. As such, game developers should provide some extra functions for guild community, through which gamers can play online games in collaboration with one another. Also, we suggest that positive self-esteem which is built up through social support can help gamers achieve higher level of flow and satisfaction, which will consequently contribute to minimizing the possibility for the players to develop negative attitude toward the guild they belong to.

• Korean Journal of Health Education and Promotion
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.1-16
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• 2005

Objectives: This study was conducted to identify the computer game usage of elementary school children and their needs for education on the prevention of computer game addiction. Methods: The subjects of this study were 455 elementary school children. The data were collected from an open and structured questionnaire on the subjects' computer game usage and their needs for education on the prevention of computer game addiction. Results: The boys played computer games more than the girls. There were statistical differences in the durations of the computer game use, the main locations of the computer games they played, the times of the day when they used computers, the times of the day when they played computer games, the number of times in a week they visited Internet cafes, what motivated them to play computer games, and their partners in playing computer games according to gender. From an analysis of 714 statements of the subjects with respect to their need to be educated on computer game addiction prevention, six domains and 19 themes were drawn. The six main domains identified were Definition & Status, Etiology & Process, Influences, Prevention, Diagnosis & Coping with Computer Game Addiction, and General Information on Computer Games. This study results revealed that elementary school children have to be comprehensively educated on how to prevent computer game addiction. Conclusion: A computer game addiction prevention program concerning these themes and domains must be developed. A study should also be conducted to identify the educational needs of parents of elementary school children on computer game addiction prevention.

• KSII Transactions on Internet and Information Systems (TIIS)
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• v.12 no.5
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• pp.2313-2326
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• 2018

The method of operating a game could determine the psychological distance between the player and the game character, and thus, in the Virtual Reality, players' control methodologies are important to enhance their immersion. This study has the objective of examining the difference in games according to the method of operation based on the player's movements. This study researched the effect of the method of operating movement conforming to the movement of the character and the physical operation of the body on forming game experiences for the player. The result of performing an experiment increased reality for the game player through a controller in the shape of the actual control, to increase focus in the game. As so, game play through movements, including actual movements by the player displayed to enhance game satisfaction. In the part of media remediation field, Game can be defined as media which has their own unique hypermediacy. Especially, in the motion based game, players' movement mediates players and the game, therefore, players' movement could make players' experience augmented or immediate in accordance with the characteristics of movements. Even though sports and dances genres of motion-based games are common, RPG or adventure genres are rare. It can be explained that the characteristics of the action have been explained in the immediacy. In a game of fantasy, which is difficult to experience in real-life situations, the nature of the player's motion can increase the immersion of the game, which can contribute to utilization of players' motion and experience design in the various genres and suggestion of grounds theory. In addition, through this study, it is able to design motion-based games of various genres.

• Journal of Korea Multimedia Society
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• v.17 no.8
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• pp.1033-1040
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• 2014

Recently, the concept of mobile content service has changed from providing unilaterally contents for single-device to providing same contents for multi-device. This service should be able to provide diverse contents for multi-devices without platform and specification of multi-device. In this study, we propose a bridge technique of heterogeneous smart platform supporting social immersive game. It is possible to access social immersive game by using a multi-platform bridge. To achieve this, we explain techniques of device connection and data transmission between heterogeneous devices using server-client structure and UPnP. It provides an immersive game environment for multi-user, which is able to play in a public place using big screen.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Information and Commucation Sciences Conference
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• 2018.05a
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• pp.383-386
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• 2018

Interesting and focused learners are attracting more and more interesting and efficient learning methods. Research on game-based learning that converges information and communication technology in accordance with this trend is being attempted. I want to take advantage of the characteristics of the game that enhance the concentration. However, if you play a game, you may get less exercise. Therefore, in this paper, we have designed and implemented a system that improves fitness and improves the performance by using Dance Dance Revolution (DDR) to fuse games and sports.

• Journal of Korea Game Society
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.3-9
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• 2002

게임을 실제 이용하는 게임 플레이어와 게임을 이용한다는 의미에서의 게임 플레이는 그 동안 컴퓨터 게임을 개발하는 과정에서 중요하게 고려되어온 컴퓨터 게임의 요소들이다. 하지만 현재 게임 플레이어와 게임 플레이에 대한 학문적 의미와 게임 시스템 구축을 위한 개념 모델은 어떻게 되는가를 질문 했을 때, 많은 사람들이 다양한 관점에서 대답을 하고 있다. 따라서 본 논문에서는 기존의 게임 플레이어와 게임 플레이에 대한 개념들을 학문적으로 재조명하고, 컴퓨터 게임 시스템 구현에서 참조할 수 있는 개념 모델을 제안하였다. 먼저 본 논문에서는 게임 플레이어란 게임 시스템이 제공하는 각 종 정보를 처리하는 정보 시스템 관점에서 재해석할 수 있으며, 따라서 정보처리시스템에서 제안한 지각시스템, 인지시스템, 운동시스템을 바탕으로 게임 플레이어에 대한 개념 모델을 제안하였다. 한편 게임 플레이에 대해서는 상호작용과 문제해결과정이라는 이론을 바탕으로 게임 플레이에 대한 학문적 의미를 재조명하였고, 이를 바탕으로 개념 모델을 제안하였다. 본 논문의 결과는 차후에 진행될 컴퓨터 게임에 대한 학문적 연구의 기본 개념을 제공해 줄 수 있을 것이다.

• Journal of Korea Game Society
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.31-42
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• 2011

This article is designed to investigate the nature of gamestorytelling as action-narrative through analyzing player acting in game context. Gamestorytelling is a narrative product which makes up of acting by players with story elements by producers, in a different such as novels, movies that express of showing and telling. The tradition of action-narrative can be found in myth and play.

• Journal of Digital Contents Society
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.51-59
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• 2007

In case of the service of the existing PC package game, the production cost and distribution cost is high, the illegal copies by Internet is widespread. To prevent, game production companies and distributors provide a GOD(Games On Demand) service that players download the game content by internet to play games. But, there is little research on current status of GOD service in the country. Therefore, in this paper, we define GOD service, analyse the structure of GOD service, describe domestic current status and research on the problem and solutions of GOD service. This paper gives useful information to companies providing GOD.

• Journal of the Semiconductor & Display Technology
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.116-119
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• 2019

User interface/experience and realistic game manipulation play an important role in virtual reality first-person-shooting game. This paper presents an intuitive hands-free interface of gaming interaction scheme for FPS based on user's gesture recognition and VR controller. We focus on conventional interface of VR FPS interaction, and design the player interaction wearing head mounted display with two motion controllers; leap motion to handle low-level physics interaction and VIVE tracker to control movement of the player joints in the VR world. The FPS prototype system shows that the design interface helps to enjoy playing immersive FPS and gives players a new gaming experience.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.23 no.6
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• pp.535-547
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• 2022

Handball sport, as its name postulates, is a team sport which highly physical workout. During a handball play, several ball impacts are applied on the hands resulting vibration in the forearm, upper arm, shoulders and in general in whole body. Hand has important role in the handball's game. So, understanding about the dynamics and some issues that improve the stability of the hand is important in the sport engineering field. Ulna and radius are two parallel bones in lower arm of human hand which their ends are located in elbow and wrist joint. The type of the joint provides the capability of rotation of the lower arm. These two bones with their ends conditions in the joints constructs a 4-link frame. The ulna is slightly thinner than radius. So, understanding about hand kinematics in handball's game is an important thing in the engineering field. So, in the current work with the aid of a multi-physics simulation, dynamic stability analysis of the ulna and radius bones will be presented in detail.