Underground: A serious game for laparoscopic surgery

A wii videogame called ‘Underground‘ was developed by Grendel Games as a serious game for laparoscopic surgery. According to a recent Nintendo Life interview, the developers were approached by Dr. Henk ten Cate Hoedemaker (University Medical Center Groningen) to create the game as existing laparoscopic simulators were not fun which discourage them from using them unless they’re told to. Drs. Maarten Jalink, Jetse Goris, Erik Heineman, Jean-Pierre E. N. Pierie, and Henk ten Cate Hoedemaker published two studies in Surgical Endoscopy regarding the effectiveness of Underground.

The game uses a custom-designed game peripheral that mimics laparoscopic equipment as shown below. The developer did mention that it can be played with the Wii U’s gamepad.

The gameplay involves the player’ interactions through two extended mechanical arms that mimics laparoscopic equipment. The game world is an underground mine involving robots. You use these arms to grab, drag or break objects, kind of like Surgeon Simulator 2013 (well more easy to use). The objectives is to create a path for allied non-player characters who must reach a destination (Nintendolife review).

Engaging children’s learning of reading through challenge and rewards (Ronimus et al., 2014)

The education field has a longstanding interest in videogames and I believe its educational potential is one of its earliest recognized benefits. James Paul Gee (Arizona State University) is one of the most notable academic advocates. Education scholars publish studies as many as psychological researchers do. I have not covered much because it’s outside of my field. Therefore, I randomly picked an education-related study peeking what they are doing.

This is a study published in Computers & Education from Miia Ronimus, Janne Kujala, Asko Tolvanen, and Heikki Lyytinen (University of Jyväskylä) from their education videogame, GraphoGame.

Abstract

This study investigated the effects of two game features (the level of challenge and the reward system) on first and second graders’ engagement during digital game-based learning of reading. We were particularly interested in determining how well these features managed to maintain children’s engagement over the 8-week training period. The children (N = 138) used GraphoGame, a web-based game training letter–sound connections, at home under the supervision of parents. Data regarding the children’s gaming and engagement were stored on the GraphoGame online server. A 2 × 2 factorial design was used to investigate the effects of the level of challenge (high challenge vs. high success) and the presence of the reward system (present vs. absent). Children’s engagement was measured by session frequency and duration and through an in-game self-report survey that was presented at the end of the each session. According to the results, the children enjoyed GraphoGame but used it less frequently than expected. The reward system seemed to encourage the children to play longer sessions at the beginning of the training period, but this effect vanished after a few sessions. The level of challenge had no significant effect on children’s engagement. The results suggest a need to investigate further the effectiveness of various game features in maintaining learner’s engagement until the goals set for learning are achieved.

I’m already feeling exhausted and we’ve just started the semester.

You are what you play: videogames, personality and academic performance (Ventura et al., 2012)

Mizore Shirayuki (Rosario + Vampire) is optimistic about her poor grades.

There is no doubt people have preferences in their consumption, from foods, sports, hobbies, literature and videogames. In videogames, some are immediately appealing in various ways from the senses, narrative or gameplay, others are acquired tastes, and . The latter is difficult to investigate because of attrition whereas the former is easier because of a combination of stable internal traits and short-term appeals. Matthew Ventura (Florida State University) and colleagues investigated the relationship between academic performance, personality and videogame play, but with a novel take worthy of attention.

Abstract

The relationship between video gameplay, video game genre preference, personality, and GPA was investigated in an online correlational study with university students. In addition to administering selfreport measures of GPA and personality, we asked three different questions regarding styles of video gameplay. The first asked the average time spent playing video games per week (habitual players), the second asked the total time spent playing favorite video games (selective players), and the third asked the number of different video games played in a year (diverse players). Students who were medium in selective player style (spent 11–50 h) had significantly higher GPAs than students low on selective player style (spent 0–10 h). Students high on habitual playing style (7 or more hours a week) showed significantly lower levels of Conscientiousness compared to students low on habitual playing style (0–1 h a week). Students who were high on the diverse style (i.e., 7 or more games played a year) showed significantly higher Openness scores than students low on the diverse style (0–3 games a year). Finally, several notable relations were found between video game genre preference, GPA, and personality. Results are discussed in terms of the positive implications of video gameplay on academic performance.

Reddit was filled with finals macros and I realized that most university are at their end-of-semester period, except for OSU.

Baka and videogames: summon the smackdown (Bijvank et al., 2011)

The school year has started for most students in the Western world, with the exception for students under the quarter system including OSU, we start at the end of September. In Fumizuki Academy, students get to fight using grades as their power.

For the Dutch students starting their secondary education, they attend different schools that fit to their academic abilities (see Wikipedia article on education in the Netherlands; sadly they don’t get to summon avatars). It is quite a peculiar education system that entails separating (or segregating, for those who want to cry foul) students whose placement is decided by everyone involved (i.e. test scores, teachers, parents, and the child). This system seems to have worked quite well for the Dutch as their students ranked higher than their American counterparts in the OECD’s Programme for International Student Assessment.

Marije Nije Bijvank, Elly Konijn (VU Amsterdam University) and Brad Bushman (Ohio State University) have an article in the Journal of Adolescence that examined adolescent boys’ videogame preferences, motivations in relation to their aggressiveness. Their study’s unique contribution is they can examine group differences across the three ability groups of Dutch high school.

Abstract

This research focuses on low educational ability as a risk factor for aggression and violent game play. We propose that boys of lower educational ability are more attracted to violent video games than other boys are, and that they are also higher in trait aggressiveness and sensation seeking. Participants were Dutch boys in public schools (N = 830, age-range 11–17). In the Netherlands, standardized tests are used to place students into lower, medium, and higher educational ability groups. Results showed that boys in the lower educational ability group preferred to play violent, stand-alone games, identified more with video game characters, and perceived video games to be more realistic than other boys did. Lower groups of education were also related to higher levels of aggressiveness and sensation seeking. Higher educational ability boys preferred social, multiplayer games. Within a risk and resilience model, boys with lower educational ability are at greater risk for aggression.

For those interested, you can watch episodes of Baka and Test on FUNimation’s channel.

Native American representations in videogames (Lameman, 2011)

Sociological Images posted a video that was blogged in Racialicious about representations of Native American representations in videogames. The video referred to Dmitri Williams and colleagues videogame census study back in 2009.

Vodpod videos no longer available.

 

 

Persuasive games: The expressive power of videogames (Bogost, 2007)

If you ask me about persuasion in the media, I’d just spout out theories, like the elaboration likelihood model and theory of reasoned action. When it comes to persuasive videogames, I’d say the same things, in addition to Ian Bogost’s (Georgia Tech) book: “Persuasive Games: The expressive power of videogames”. The book delivered some interesting insights on how videogames can be expressed as a persuasive medium, although parts of it are hard to follow, given my psychology background.

The book is organized into four parts. Part one consisted of the first chapter where Bogost elaborated quite extensively on various concepts like rhetoric, procedurality, and features of videogames which these lead to his concept of procedural rhetoric. The following parts were applied analyses of procedural rhetoric of videogames in three domains of persuasion: politics, advertising and learning. In this opinion post, I will outline procedural rhetoric as I understood it. Then I will write several instances of the three parts that stuck out.  

Special section on learning and skill acquisition in Child Development Perspectives (2011)

Medical News Today reported on an article published in June’s issue of  Child Development Perspective. The article in question was Douglas Gentile’s (Iowa State University) multi-dimensional effects of video games. The Medical News Today article mainly focused on Gentile’s paper where he argued that videogames are a gray area that politicians, parents, educators, game designers, researchers among others have seemed to miss the point, and Gentile wrote in the academic article, the polarizing rhetoric surrounding the issue generates more heat than illumination (ah! Good one!).

What MNT did not report is that Gentile’s article is part of a special section on learning and cognitive skill acquisition. Five articles discussed various perspectives on videogames. Fran C. Blumberg (Fordham University) wrote the introductory article of the section.

Abstract

The prevalence of video game play as an integral part of children and adolescents’ media diet has generated interest in how it might affect academic learning. However, current developmental research fails to highlight this issue. The 5 articles in this special section are designed to spark developmental psychologists’ greater interest by suggesting ways to conceptualize what children and adolescents gain from the time they spend playing video games, and how the cognitive skills and strategies they use may transfer to, or at least influence, what they do in the context of more academic tasks.

PlaySpent, a persuasive game of poverty in the U.S.

Via Sociological Images, a neat interactive game of living under the poverty line in America sends quite a powerful message of how bad an economic system that disadvantages people who have fallen through the cracks. PlaySpent is a no-win scenario game, no matter what I do, the outcomes are very grim and this only after surviving just one month! Imagine surviving through a whole year. Although I do find some of the random events marring the realism in my play, some of them involves helping your own child, paying off your college loan, and many events that have large impact that might not apply to everyone. Nevertheless, role-taking as a person of a demographic (i.e. recently graduated from college single mom) that would suffer the most is very chilling and I wonder how many fit that categorization at this moment?

Videogames are effective training tools for employees (Sitzmann, 2010)

Via the Science Codex, a meta-analytical study due to be published in the Winter edition of Personnel Psychology has revealed (from what the press release is telling me) that videogames made by companies as training tools for incoming employees were found to be effective. The author of this study is Traci Sitzmann (University of Colorado Denver).

As it is outside of my area of expertise, I vaguely knew that the military used videogames for military training, but I didn’t know that corporations were also on the videogames as training tool bandwagon. One interesting and funny fact is an ice cream company created a videogame on how to serve the appropriate amount of ice cream because they were losing money from employees serving too much.

I don’t have the full-text copy, and I don’t think I’ll make any serious review on it since it’s a meta-analysis. I wish there was a game on to effectively manage your time.

Sitzmann, T. (in press) A meta-analytic examination of the instructional effectiveness of computer-based simulation games. Personnel Psychology.

Recorder Hero (Joy Tunes, 2010)

Tsukasa Hiiragi (Lucky Star) playing her recorder

Some PR sent me an email about an educational videogame called Joy Tunes, or as I begin to see as, Recorder Hero. Of course, the press release attached with the email says that the recorder is just the first in series. Looks interesting and given that I started my life as a grad student. I decided to write the post first and send a reply later because they’re offering 20% off for the readers of this puny insignificant and sorry excuse of a blog.

What? I only get a three digit daily hit count and most of it from random encounters.

Some quotes:

JoyTunes was recently announced the winner of this fall’s prestigious Parents’ Choice Award for Software. According to one Parents’ Choice review, “We were impressed by how much and how well the game encouraged our testers to practice, and by how much they learned… steady practice with the program’s fundamentals may bring much-welcomed harmony to your family room.”

JoyTunes was also selected by MassChallenge from among of a global list of candidates as a Top 100 finalist for the Most Innovative Startup of 2010. On October 15, a prestigious panel of judges will select the winner. If JoyTunes wins, they will receive a $50,000 to $100,000 award to help develop this novel approach to musical education.

Oh! I wish I have that money since I an unfunded graduate student. Yes, I like to repeat myself because I’m already a jaded academic with a negative life value (conceptualize it! – that’s what my methods teacher would say).