Numerous research studies have been conducted on the use of videogames as tools to improve one's cognitive abilities. While meta-analyses and qualitative reviews have provided evidence that some aspects of cognition such as spatial imagery are modified after exposure to videogames, other evidence has shown that matrix reasoning measures of fluid intelligence do not show evidence of transfer fro...

In recent years, games and learning researchers have increasingly become interested in the "affinity spaces" (Gee, 2004) around popular videogames, identifying them as instructional spaces (Squire and Giovanetto, 2008) and contexts in which sophisticated reasoning practices are enacted (Steinkuehler and Duncan, 2008). However, the motivation for participation in these communities as well as the...

This chapter aims to offer a user-centred methodological framework to guide the design and evaluation of Brain-Computer Interface videogames. This framework is based on the contributions of ergonomics to ensure these games are well suited for their users (i.e., players). It provides methods, criteria and metrics to complete the different phases required by ae human-centred design process. This ...

In the problematic exploration of the narrative potential of videogames, one of the clearest aspects that bridge stories and games is space. This paper examines the different devices that videogames have used to incorporate stories through spatial design and what is known as environmental storytelling, focusing on the design elements that make the story directly relevant to gameplay beyond worl...

Serious games are becoming a powerful tool in education. However, there are still open issues needing further research to generalize the use of videogames and game-like simulations in the educational system. On the one hand, how to take advantage of the videogames’ inherent adaptation behaviour in order to maximize the effectiveness of the learning experiences is still a world worth to be explo...

This paper studies the use of play as a method to unlock creativity and innovation within a community of practice (a group of individuals who share a common interest and who see value in interaction to enhance their understanding). An analysis of communities of practice and the value of play informs evaluation of two case studies exploring the development of communities of practice, one within ...

People who play videogames often report the sense of immersion in the game with a particular feature of immersion being a loss of the sense of time passing. In this paper, we investigate if altering the degree of immersion in a videogame really does influence people’s psychological perception of time passing. We use music to make a maze game more immersive and we measure time perception using t...

Emerging from a legitimate contest regulated by a set of rules, professional wrestling is today a fictional product, where no actual competition takes place. Those same rules serve as a setting for a particular kind of narration: the kayfabe, the fictional framework for all professional wrestling’s narrative, a fictional world with the characteristic of having a 1:1 ratio between real time and ...

There is a trend in Virtual Learning Environments (VLE) towards flexible and adapted learning experiences that modify their contents and behavior to suit the needs of different learners. On the other hand, the use of educational videogames is also an emerging trend to address diverse aspects, such as student engagement and exploratory learning. Additionally, videogames support adaptation in a n...

Spanning 30 years and 40 individual videogames across a range of platforms, Pac-Man is one of the most recognizable of all videogame characters and a pop–culture icon. In spite of its widespread popularity, the game receives little sustained academic engagement or analysis. In an attempt to address this, the paper argues that in its classic iterations PacMan generates complex notions of space a...