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导形式：大多数游戏玩家至少每周都会玩多人游戏，因为他们觉得视频游戏可以帮助他们与朋友和家人联系。面对面和在线玩的数字游戏可以促进对我们的福祉至关重要的社交互动;但是，在游戏中促进社交亲密度的机制和通信技术也可能导致有害的有毒社交行为。由于设计师和开发人员目前对如何设计多人游戏，导致社会亲密而不是毒性的指导很少，我的长期研究目标是建立游戏设计因素和社会结果之间的关系，并在多人游戏界面和系统的设计中利用这些关系。在研究游戏的结构要素时，我将分解游戏的机制、规则、程序和模式。为了研究游戏中沟通元素的作用，我将研究玩家之间的人际沟通。为了考虑个体差异的作用，我将研究个体差异对球员动机和比赛风格的调节作用。对于每个游戏设计因素，我将采取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毒行为，通过受控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游戏中创建预测模型，通过数据挖掘和预测建模构建数学模型，为理论和设计提供信息。第三，我将设计和评估新颖的界面，推动积极的社会行为的互动，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3个游戏设计因素与3个研究方法交叉。他们的研究将导致科学发现和新技术的发明。 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）方面将取得开创性的进展。该研究计划将通过培训HQP来使加拿大受益，这些HQP具有蓬勃发展的加拿大游戏和软件开发行业中非常需要的专业技能，将通过帮助改进其产品并将其扩展到新市场来使加拿大游戏公司受益，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.