Leveraging digital social games for relatedness satisfaction

社交游戏——而非个人游戏——正迅速成为数字游戏的主要形式：大多数玩家至少每周玩一次多人游戏，因为他们觉得电子游戏能帮助他们与朋友和家人联系。数字游戏——无论是面对面玩还是在线玩——可以促进对我们的健康至关重要的社会互动；但是，在游戏中培养社交亲密感的机制和交流技术也可能导致有害的社交行为。由于设计师和开发者目前对如何设计能够带来社交亲密感而非毒性的多人游戏缺乏指导，我的长期研究目标是建立游戏设计因素与社交结果之间的关系，并在多人游戏界面和系统的设计中利用这些关系。******我将专注于三组游戏设计因素。在讨论游戏的结构元素时，我将分解机制、规则、程序和游戏模式。为了研究交流元素在游戏中的作用，我将研究玩家之间的人际交流。为了考虑个体差异的作用，我将研究个体差异对玩家动机和游戏风格的调节作用。对于每个游戏设计因素，我将采用三种互补的研究方法。首先，我将系统地解构哪些设计因素促进社会互动或导致有害行为，通过控制实验生成设计框架和关系描述。其次，我将从设计因素如何导致积极的社会结果的自然玩法中创建预测模型，通过数据挖掘和预测建模建立数学模型，为理论和设计提供信息。第三，我将设计和评估新颖的界面，将交互推向积极的社会行为，通过迭代界面设计方法创建交互技术和新颖的界面。******我将在9个项目中直接培训17名HQP，这些项目将跨越3个游戏设计因素和3种研究方法。他们的研究将导致科学发现和新技术的发明。将在人机交互（HCI）、游戏研究、用户建模和计算机支持的协同工作（CSCW）方面取得开创性进展。这个研究项目将通过培训HQP的专业技能使加拿大受益，这些技能在加拿大蓬勃发展的游戏和软件开发行业中是非常需要的，将通过帮助加拿大游戏公司改进他们的产品并将其扩展到新的市场而使加拿大受益，并将通过开发可以直接改善其社会福祉的技术来帮助加拿大人。

Social – rather than individual – play is quickly becoming the dominant form of digital game play: the majority of gamers play in multiplayer mode at least weekly because they feel that video games help them connect with friends and family. Digital games – played both in-person and online – can foster social interactions that are vital for our well-being; but, the same mechanics and communication technologies that foster social closeness in games can also lead to harmful toxic social behaviours. As designers and developers currently have little guidance on how to design multiplayer games that lead to social closeness rather than toxicity, my long-term research objective is to establish the relationships between game design factors and social outcomes and leverage these relationships in the design of multiplayer game interfaces and systems.******I will focus on three groups of Game Design Factors. In looking at the Structural Elements of Games, I will break down mechanics, rules, procedures, and patterns of play. To investigate the role of Communication Elements in Games, I will study interpersonal communication between players. And to consider the role of Individual Differences, I will investigate the moderating influence of individual differences in player motivation and play style. For each Game Design Factor, I will take three complementary Research Approaches. First, I will systematically deconstruct which design factors foster social interaction or lead to toxic behaviour, generating design frameworks and descriptions of relationships through controlled experiments. Second, I will create predictive models from natural gameplay of how design factors lead to positive social outcomes, building mathematical models that inform theory and design through data mining and predictive modeling. Third, I will design and evaluate novel interfaces that nudge interactions towards positive social behaviours, creating interaction techniques and novel interfaces through an iterative interface design approach. ******I will directly train 17 HQP in 9 projects that cross the 3 Game Design Factors with the 3 Research Approaches. Their research will lead to scientific discoveries and the invention of novel technologies. Pioneering advances will be made in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), games research, user modeling, and Computer-Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW). This program of research will benefit Canada by training HQP with specialized skills who are in great demand in the thriving Canadian game and software development industries, will benefit Canadian game companies by helping to improve their products and extend them to new markets, and will help Canadians by developing technologies that can directly improve their social well-being.