Learning and Strategy Acquisition in Digital Games
Lead Research Organisation:
University of York
Department Name: Computer Science
Abstract
Given the success and impact of games and the gaming industry, it is unsurprising that it has become the centre of a significant body of academic research and other literature. However, while the cognitive effects of gameplay have been extensively studied, this has typically been done from a "black-box" perspective - that is, looking at the effects of gameplay as a whole upon some other task or metric, such as ability to strategize or proclivity to violence - leaving the inner mechanisms of cognition during gameplay much less understood. In particular, while the idea of learning from games is an area of continued interest in educational psychology, very little literature exists on the subject of how learning in games actually occurs on a cognitive level.
This study would aim to fill this knowledge gap by examining the ways in which player learning and strategy acquisition occur within games. This examination will have two main hierarchical goals. In the first phase, the study will use experimental methods inspired by analysis of learning methods used in games as well as literature review of more general theories of learning and cognition, such as the dual-process account or the CLARION model, in order to form a model better specialized for the field of digital gaming. In the second phase, it will analyse how such a theory may be put to practical use to inform the design of games and game-like experiences.
These two phases can be summed up in the following main research questions:
Phase 1: How can strategy acquisition in digital games most effectively be explained as a cognitive process?
Phase 2: How can this understanding be put into practice in the development of games with specific desirable characteristics?
By linking a more complete understanding of cognition and learning during games with measurable or observable gameplay characteristics, this study will further research on gameplay experience, such as that on immersion. The first phase of research additionally has relevance to the field of AI, in which human responses to difficult and complex problems such as digital games may be mimicked or otherwise used to inform the design of new techniques, as well as to gamification, which attempts to elicit such responses in non-game contexts.
This study would aim to fill this knowledge gap by examining the ways in which player learning and strategy acquisition occur within games. This examination will have two main hierarchical goals. In the first phase, the study will use experimental methods inspired by analysis of learning methods used in games as well as literature review of more general theories of learning and cognition, such as the dual-process account or the CLARION model, in order to form a model better specialized for the field of digital gaming. In the second phase, it will analyse how such a theory may be put to practical use to inform the design of games and game-like experiences.
These two phases can be summed up in the following main research questions:
Phase 1: How can strategy acquisition in digital games most effectively be explained as a cognitive process?
Phase 2: How can this understanding be put into practice in the development of games with specific desirable characteristics?
By linking a more complete understanding of cognition and learning during games with measurable or observable gameplay characteristics, this study will further research on gameplay experience, such as that on immersion. The first phase of research additionally has relevance to the field of AI, in which human responses to difficult and complex problems such as digital games may be mimicked or otherwise used to inform the design of new techniques, as well as to gamification, which attempts to elicit such responses in non-game contexts.
Planned Impact
The IGGI Centre for Doctoral Training will impact upon:
The Digital Games Industry: IGGI will inject a substantial cohort of 55+ PhD graduates and a wide range of academic research leaders with direct experience of research collaboration with the UK digital games industry. Although large, the UK games industry is fragmented and geographically dispersed, consisting primarily of SMEs. Increasing skill levels and injecting research advances in such a community is best achieved through employment of and engagement with creative and entrepreneurial PhD graduates with good communication skills, and through stable long-term government-funded collaborative projects which offer the opportunity for research engagement at a time to suit the business cycles of games industry partners. IGGI offers the opportunity for a step change, yielding increased profits through an internationally distinctive UK games industry which is technologically advanced and research-aware. The financial barriers to starting a company in this area are low and many IGGI graduates will start their own games businesses, mentored by experienced investors and entrepreneurs, significantly increasing their chances of creating a successful games enterprise. Data mining tools developed during IGGI will allow increased understanding of game players, which can increase profitability of mainstream games.
Parents, Game Players and Wider Society: Large and growing numbers of people are playing digital games with unprecedented enthusiasm. In a recent Forbes magazine article it was suggested that, by the age of 21, the typical child has played an average of 10,000 hours of digital games. Creating games which engage a wider range of players and which increase the social and scientific value obtained through playing games can have massive benefits: both economic ones and ones which harness the massive "cognitive surplus" implied by game players who are clocking up thousands of game hours. The potential benefits here are cultural (e.g. to raise awareness in important areas such as environmental change), scientific (e.g. to conduct experiments which use artificial economies to test economic theory), social (e.g. to educate children about science) and therapeutic (e.g. to use games to increase mobility in the elderly).
Scientists: Gameplay data can provide information about human behaviour and preference on a massive scale - this provides a major new experimental tool for researchers in Economics, Ecology/Biology, Computer Science, Psychology, Mathematics, Media and others. The very recent announcement (20th June) of a proposed call in the EU Horizon 2020 research funding programme on "Advanced digital gaming/gamification technologies" underlines how much the EU values this area and the opportunities for pan-European research in games and sustainability for IGGI.
IGGI Graduates and Supervisors: Digital games are already a major attractor to computer science and digital media courses. IGGI will provide a beacon for innovation in digital games, with heavy competition for PhD places allowing recruitment of top students. For each IGGI graduate, learning and conducting research alongside a strong cohort of students with related but different interests and expertise, with extensive interaction with industry, will give rise to a highly rounded and employable PhD graduate, who will be highly sought by both UK games industry and the growing games research community. Supervisors will gain knowledge at the cutting edge of games and gamification research.
Through the CDT, IGGI investigators, supervisors and students will become well versed in the issues and techniques of the digital games industry, developing a long-term understanding which will, we believe, result in a stronger digital games industry, a wealth of fascinating new research questions, and real benefits for wider society through the now-ubiquitous medium of digital games.
The Digital Games Industry: IGGI will inject a substantial cohort of 55+ PhD graduates and a wide range of academic research leaders with direct experience of research collaboration with the UK digital games industry. Although large, the UK games industry is fragmented and geographically dispersed, consisting primarily of SMEs. Increasing skill levels and injecting research advances in such a community is best achieved through employment of and engagement with creative and entrepreneurial PhD graduates with good communication skills, and through stable long-term government-funded collaborative projects which offer the opportunity for research engagement at a time to suit the business cycles of games industry partners. IGGI offers the opportunity for a step change, yielding increased profits through an internationally distinctive UK games industry which is technologically advanced and research-aware. The financial barriers to starting a company in this area are low and many IGGI graduates will start their own games businesses, mentored by experienced investors and entrepreneurs, significantly increasing their chances of creating a successful games enterprise. Data mining tools developed during IGGI will allow increased understanding of game players, which can increase profitability of mainstream games.
Parents, Game Players and Wider Society: Large and growing numbers of people are playing digital games with unprecedented enthusiasm. In a recent Forbes magazine article it was suggested that, by the age of 21, the typical child has played an average of 10,000 hours of digital games. Creating games which engage a wider range of players and which increase the social and scientific value obtained through playing games can have massive benefits: both economic ones and ones which harness the massive "cognitive surplus" implied by game players who are clocking up thousands of game hours. The potential benefits here are cultural (e.g. to raise awareness in important areas such as environmental change), scientific (e.g. to conduct experiments which use artificial economies to test economic theory), social (e.g. to educate children about science) and therapeutic (e.g. to use games to increase mobility in the elderly).
Scientists: Gameplay data can provide information about human behaviour and preference on a massive scale - this provides a major new experimental tool for researchers in Economics, Ecology/Biology, Computer Science, Psychology, Mathematics, Media and others. The very recent announcement (20th June) of a proposed call in the EU Horizon 2020 research funding programme on "Advanced digital gaming/gamification technologies" underlines how much the EU values this area and the opportunities for pan-European research in games and sustainability for IGGI.
IGGI Graduates and Supervisors: Digital games are already a major attractor to computer science and digital media courses. IGGI will provide a beacon for innovation in digital games, with heavy competition for PhD places allowing recruitment of top students. For each IGGI graduate, learning and conducting research alongside a strong cohort of students with related but different interests and expertise, with extensive interaction with industry, will give rise to a highly rounded and employable PhD graduate, who will be highly sought by both UK games industry and the growing games research community. Supervisors will gain knowledge at the cutting edge of games and gamification research.
Through the CDT, IGGI investigators, supervisors and students will become well versed in the issues and techniques of the digital games industry, developing a long-term understanding which will, we believe, result in a stronger digital games industry, a wealth of fascinating new research questions, and real benefits for wider society through the now-ubiquitous medium of digital games.
Organisations
People |
ORCID iD |
| Paul Cairns (Primary Supervisor) | |
| Rory Davidson (Student) |
| Description | Through qualitative analysis of "Let's Play" style videos online, distinct patterns of video game learning were identified. The first of these was the way in which the experience of insight, or sudden mental breakthroughs that can occur irrespective of obvious prior progress towards a solution, mediated the players' learning and problem-solving experiences, cueing switches between explorative or experimental modes of problem solved to planned, goal-oriented activity. The second of these was the way in which the players' awareness of the designed nature of the game world altered their behaviour and the way in which they solved problems and learned, using "design cues" such as the expectation that if an object was placed in the world by the designer, it must be reachable by the player or otherwise serve some purpose. This awareness of design was so great that it appeared to have pseudosocial elements, as players addressed the game directly in the second person, had a sense that the game contained some intent for their actions or experience, and had expectations of the game's design in turn. Furthermore, this work also developed the use of a relatively novel data type - user-uploaded gameplay footage, and identified one clear way in which this data can be made use of in academic research through treating it in a similar manner to a think-aloud study. |
| Exploitation Route | The most obvious impact naturally lies in game design - through clearly identifying player learning patterns and behaviours, games designers can better tailor their games to provide the desired experience with an appropriate learning curve. From edutainment titles to gamification applications, there have been a great many attempts to leverage the unique immersive qualities of games for useful learning as well - to greater or lesser success. While there has been much research in the field of gamification with many successful applications developed, it is often unclear which "gameful" elements lead to success or to predict which applications will fail and which will not. By establishing first a clear basic theory of how learning in games themselves occurs, these applications of gameful learning can also be improved with a better understanding of why games are valuable for learning in the first place, with obvious impact in education, development of gamification applications, conveying information through interactive experiences (for instance in museum exhibits), and in training in artificial spaces such as simulation. |
| Sectors | Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software),Education,Leisure Activities, including Sports, Recreation and Tourism,Culture, Heritage, Museums and Collections |