International Journal of Games and Social Impact

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    Beyond the screen : exploring the player’s role and its impact on emotional experiences in video games
    (Lusofona University, 2024-09-01) Pinto, Filipe; HEI-LAB - Human Environment Interaction Lab
    This article explores the idea of the player as a co-creator of their own experience in video games, focusing on how we can define their role within the game’s architecture and how they shape their emotional experiences. By agreeing to an implicit ‘contract’ as they play a video game, players not only accept to adhere to the rules of the game world but allow themselves to become engaged in the game’s narratives, landscapes, characters, and other elements, opening themselves to deep emotional involvement and becoming integral parts of the narrative structure. Drawing on examples from games like Mass Effect, God of War, Doki Doki Literature Club!, and The Last of Us, among others, the article examines how players form emotional connections through romantic relationships, familial bonds, and friendships. Using concepts inherent to video games, such as agency and immersion, alongside others like involvement and incorporation, as well as those applicable to all fictional works, like suspension of disbelief and rational distance, the article ties these concepts together to better understand the player’s role and its impact on their experience. It highlights how that role influences these emotional experiences, allowing them to extend beyond the game world and leave lasting personal impacts on players.
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    Board games on the path to environmental education for sustainability
    (Lusofona University, 2025-02-27) Antunes, Maria Raquel; Moreira, Aurora; Reis, Catarina Schreck; HEI-LAB - Human Environment Interaction Lab
    The response to global Anthropocene challenges requires a reimagined science education, shifting its goal from supplying hu-man capital with skills and capabilities in specific areas toward educating scientifically literate citizens who can make informed sustainable choices (Gough, 2021; Luttenberger & Mandi?, 2022). Aiming to contribute to such change, this article explores the intersection of STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics) education and education for sustainability (EfS), emphasizing the need for innovative frameworks and tools to facilitate a transition toward a more sustainable future. As gamification emerges as a powerful mechanism for engaging learners, fostering scientific literacy, and driving sustainable practices, this article presents an original framework that leverages the synergies between these areas and supports the design of three STEAM educational board games addressing environmental education for sustainability.Keywords: education for sustainability; environmental education; board games; STEAM; living labs
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    Designing romance and the 'playersexuality' debate : love, romance, identity, and player perceptions of baldur's gate 3 and the dragon age series
    (Lusofona University, 2024-11-14) Tomlinson, Christine; HEI-LAB (FCT) - Digital Laboratories for Environments and Human Interactions
    Players of role-playing games have become increasingly interested in romantic narratives as part of the play experience. These romantic possibilities with pre-programmed in-game characters can be an exciting part of play, giving games more depth and allowing players to feel more connected to game content. This qualitative project applies content analysis to the Dragon Age video game series and Baldur’s Gate 3 as well as online conversations among players of these games to investigate how players interpret, experience, and evaluate in-game romance. I find that players’ relationship with romance in video games is complex. Romance is often also built around the idea of player agency, aiming to fulfill fantasies and emphasize player choice over repre-senting sexualities as part of characters’ identities. This has resulted in tensions as players seek out in-game romance, selecting in-game partners, exploring facets of identity, and often pursuing realistic stories when it comes to love. While some players appreciate playersexual models of in-game romance that make characters love them at the press of a button, the desire for realism – including the inclusion of characters with their own sexualities – often undercuts desires for control. Keywords: video games, narrative, romance, identity, representation
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    Editorial - playful by design : transformative approaches to game studies
    (Lusofona University, 2024-01-01) de Sousa, João Alves; FCAATI - Faculty of Communication, Architecture, Arts and IT; HEI-LAB - Human Environment Interaction Lab
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    Editorial : Programmed to love: choice, inclusivity, and connection
    (Lusofona University, 2024-09-01) Ntelia, Renata; HEI-LAB - Human Environment Interaction Lab
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    Editorial : The challenges of making games for Contemporary Societies
    (Lusofona University, 2025-02-27) Sousa, Micael; HEI-LAB - Human Environment Interaction Lab
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    Enhancing brain health and cognitive development through sensorimotor play in virtual reality : uncovering the neural correlates
    (Lusofona University, 2024-01-01) Lekova, Anna K.; Tsvetkova, Paulina; Andreeva, Anna; HEI-LAB - Human Environment Interaction Lab
    Brain health is a critical part of well-being because it is a foundation for the ability to communicate, make decisions and solve real-life problems. Virtual reality games involve motor and sensory activities that can help to improve brain connectivity by pro-viding an immersive and interactive experience that engages multiple brain regions simultaneously. Reinforcing sensorimotor activities influences cognitive skills and improves brain health. Sensorimotor play in virtual reality is a relatively new concept that is gaining attention as a tool for promoting brain health and cognitive abilities. It is believed that this type of play can have positive impact on brain health and cognitive function, such as improving memory, enhancing focus, and reducing stress and anxiety. The aims of the current paper are (1) - to present evidence, based on neuro correlates, of the importance of the sensorimotor play to the brain health and (2) - to propose a conceptual model for a personalized VR game design using neurocognitive feedback obtained through Brain-Computer Interface that assesses brain areas during sensorimotor stimulation.Keywords: virtual reality, sensorimotor play, neurocognitive evidences, brain development, serious games.
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    Enhancing the learning of students with specific learning disabilities in resource rooms : an educational game to teach the concepts of expansion and contraction
    (Lusofona University, 2025-02-27) Yaman, Havva; Er Nas, Sibel; HEI-LAB (FCT) - Digital Laboratories for Environments and Human Interactions
    The purpose of this study is to demonstrate how resource rooms for the concepts of "expansion" and "contraction" may be enhanced with educational games. The study focuses on how the game's included features might affect social skills and cognitive development of students and highlights the game arrangements for students with specific learning disabilities. For educational equity and social justice pedagogy for all science learners, it is crucial to support students with specific learning disabilities in their study of science. A new educational material for resource rooms to teaching and learning is designed, based on effective educational game features. Playing the Carpet game can improve knowledge of expansion and contraction concepts and increase awareness of real-world applications of these concepts. Creating specific educational materials helps to clarify how science education teachers can improve a resource rooms for students with specific learning disabilities. It is highly possible that the game can be readily modified with only minor adjustments for any other educational level, nation, or set of conditions. Future studies should create comparable sample games and share them with stakeholders (such as science teachers, physics teachers, special education teachers, and science/physics academicians) because this study proposes to design the game of the "expansion” and “contraction” concepts.
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    Existential love : romance in single-player RPGs
    (Lusofona University, 2025-02-27) Anand, Anubhav; Kumar, Ajay; HEI-LAB - Human Environment Interaction Lab
    The impact of romantic interactions within the game world varies significantly, especially in RPGs due to their intricately detailed worlds. Unlike linear games where romance unfolds passively through cutscenes, exerting minimal influence within game world, RPGs that offer high player agency create an immersive virtual environment that resonates with existential tenets. The choices made by players in terms of romance can have significant repercussions, haunting the player throughout the game. These games often feature complex and realistic love mechanics, offering a diverse range of experiences akin to real life, including inclusivity and infidelity. Many modern RPGs offer path-specific romance options, acknowledging that not all characters will be equally charismatic to every player as individuals have varied dispositions. Video games with high agency allow players to exercise authenticity and make decisions that align with their individuality. This article explores how these variables manifest in the context of romance in single-player RPGs. Keywords: In-game Romance, Choices and Consequences, Existentialism, Game-mechanics of Love, Authenticity
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    Gameful pedagogy : towards a students' bill of rights
    (Lusofona University, 2024-11-14) Pintar, Judith; Richardson, Courtney; Choi, Alyssa; Cruz-Taylor, Jessica; Hopping, David A.; Mecolli, Megi; Oshe, Rewo; HEI-LAB - Human Environment Interaction Lab
    Adopting the central premise of gameful pedagogy that the rules and mechanics of classrooms can be productively analyzed as if they were games, this paper summarizes the results of a study that adopts the concerns of player-centered user-experience to evaluate the effects of instructional design on students’ well-being. Taking inspiration from game designer Graham Nelson’s “Players’ Bill of Rights,” we conducted focus group sessions with undergraduates at the University of Illinois, asking them to connect specific elements of instructional design with their emotional experiences in the classroom. In crafting an analogous “Students’ Bill of Rights,” we reframed course development as a student-centered design process. Student well-being is often implicit within learning frameworks which promote inclusive course design, but there is a need to make the connection between instruction and wellness more explicit. This study provides empirical support for best practices in instructional design and recommends that instructional designers become more conscious of the effect of course design elements on the emotional well-being of students. Gameful Pedagogy, User Experience (UX), Game Design, Gamer’s Bill of Rights, Student Well-being
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    I'd rather have cake : asexual representation and queer designing of games
    (Lusofona University, 2024-09-01) Parker, Todd; Ntelia, Renata; HEI-LAB (FCT) - Digital Laboratories for Environments and Human Interactions
    Queer game academics have identified an increase in the number of games that explore queer experiences by experimenting with the limitations of games, particularly from small independent creators, that has been described as a queer games avant garde. Despite this, this paper identifies a notable under representation of identities and experiences along the asexual spectrum. In this vein, it documents a study that looked to explore whether the dominant way in which game design is approached as practice, with frameworks that separate formal gameplay elements from aesthetic elements, hinders the authentic representation of the asexual lived experience. This falls in line with existing pushes in the queer design space to move beyond popular forms of queer representation in games that have often limited it to dramatic elements such as narrative and art. To do this, the study employed popular design frameworks for designing a playable proof of concept with the aim to convey asexual experiences. Using design as a research method, the study showed that while these formal elements can convey themes, even those relating to the asexual lived experience, they fall short as a lone avenue for queer representation. Instead, the paper calls for the exploration of a more comprehensive design framework and proposes affect theory as an appropriate conceptual tool not only for game analysis but also for game design. Asexuality, Queer Game Design, Affect Theory, Games, Representation, Play
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    Learning engagement in a pre-alpha version of an educational game : evaluation and proposed solutions
    (Lusofona University, 2024-01-01) MARCELINO, LÍLIA SOFIA FERREIRA LOPES; Fernandes, Pedro Miguel Alves; Cerqueira, Ricardo João Ramos; FCSEA - Faculty of Social Sciences, Education and Administration; HEI-LAB - Human Environment Interaction Lab
    Game-based learning focuses on engaging and immersing students in playability, and User Experience is a good opportunity to improve the game experience and to engage students in real learning. A theoretical five-factor model of learning engagement is used to analyse the overall sense of engagement in primary and secondary school students in a playtesting setting in the early stages of developing an inclusive educational mathematics video game mainly designed for deaf and hearing students. A meas-uring engagement usability playtest was conducted to answer the following research questions: a) What do students perceive as a sense of engagement? b) What information about the engagement is worthwhile to improve the game design and game experience? Twenty-three hearing students (15 boys and eight girls) participated in the study. The participants are 2nd to 12th graders, with a mean age of 13.7. After students played the pre-alpha version of a video game, most agreed that the prototype was challenging, reporting motivation to undertake the game's mathematical challenge. They perceived the game activity as clear and achievable. The students also reported having control over different types of actions in the game, and nearly one-quar-ter of the students perceived the game activity as not immersive. Also, the older students expressed that the game's purpose seemed irrelevant to their age group, which ultimately affected the game's general rating on the clarity of the game's purpose. The playtesting sessions reveal that players need help separating the game from its educational goal, and the misalignment between the character's movements affects the game's action control. After collecting engagement problems in playtesting sessions, the study proposes solutions, including changing interface elements. The current work demonstrates the importance of evaluating engagement in playtesting sessions in the early stage of development to improve the game experience long before the final version.Keywords:video game, game-based learning, mathematics, engagement, playtesting
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    "Meeple-Centred Design" to assess collaborative play : the case of team3
    (Lusofona University, 2024-01-01) Barros, Joana Mourato Sardinha Figueiredo de; Casimiro, Cátia Sofia Fernandes; HEI-LAB - Human Environment Interaction Lab; CICANT - Centre for Research in Applied Communication, Culture, and New Technologies
    The social model of disability refers to the fact that disabilities occur when the surrounding environment isn’t prepared to accommodate the needs of People with Disabilities. Since accessibility has been given more importance in several areas of social life, we argue here that board games can also contribute to promoting the social life of People with Disabilities, since they can help combat their social isolation. As such, we will be doing an analysis of a game based on its accessibility.Keywords: Board game accessibility; Team3; Accessibility guidelines; Accessibility evaluation; Inclusion
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    Playful by design : a third space community of practice for game studies & design
    (Lusofona University, 2024-01-01) Pitar, Judith; Bievenue, Lisa; HEI-LAB - Human Environment Interaction Lab
    This paper traces the history and development of Playful by Design, a cross-campus initiative at the University of Illinois Urba-na-Champaign from which the interdisciplinary Game Studies & Design program emerged. Interdisciplinary collaborations bridge differences between academic cultures and can spur innovative research and new programs and initiatives. Games, under-stood both as objects of study and as a methodology for conducting research on topics other than games, are moving into the mainstream within multiple academic disciplines; that doesn't mean that interdisciplinary game studies must disappear as an intellectual endeavor. Playful by Design has become a local and global community of practice in which shared and overlapping interests in game-relevant research of all kinds, but also in design, pedagogy, and technology, provide a durable interdiscipli-nary third space. As a network, it can welcome multidisciplinary activities pursued by teachers, scholars, artists, and designers within their own disciplines and in their own ways. Through creative collaborations, the sharing of resources, and the growth of team-based studio work and other experiential learning, this approach facilitates the emergence of transdisciplinary and glocal aspirations. These include shared values of accessibility and inclusion, reflected in how we teach and conduct research, and in the design and creation of games, simulations, and other interactive and immersive experiences that address the critical shared challenges of our times.Keywords: Game Studies, Game Design, Game Development, Community of Practice, Third Space, Glocal, Collaboration, Accessi-bility, Emerging Technologies, Playful by Design
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    Playful PHI : using cognitive behavioral game design (CBGD) to create a COVID-19 prevention game, vaccine nation
    (Lusofona University, 2024-01-01) Starks, Katryna; HEI-LAB - Human Environment Interaction Lab
    During the Covid-19 pandemic, scientists and public health organizations such as the CDC and the WHO promoted health guide-lines to the public. However, social media misinformation, social stigma, and a drastic change in lifestyle lead to reduced com-pliance or non-compliance with these measures. As a result, playful public health messaging emerged as an attempt to increase health literacy around Covid-19 preventative practices, one of which was the tower defense game, Vaccine Nation. This article outlines the design principles of Cognitive Behavioral Game Design (CBGD) and how they were used to design the tower-defense game Vaccine Nation, incorporating recommended health interventions including isolating, hand hygiene, social distancing, wearing masks, and eventually getting vaccinated. Keywords: games, public health, Covid-19, disease prevention, health literacy, play, health promotion, Vaccine Nation