Being an interactive artefact, games demand players to exert mental effort which encompasses processes like planning and calculating. Such exertions feel engaging in some games while in many gamified systems; the same kinds of exertions can feel tedious or externally imposed. To explore this, we 'reflexively' and 'iteratively' examine definitions of games to identify the implicitly embedded understanding of conditions that gives rise to game-like effort. Employing hermeneutic literature review as an approach, we analyze 22 game definitions to trace diverse conditions that can 'afford' game-like effort. Drawing from Wittenstein's concept of family resemblance, we propose a 'flexible network of overlapping and contradictory conditions' as preferable to 'a fixed set of essential conditions.' We enlist such conditions, highlight their overlaps and contradictions, and show how different configurations afford different kinds of effort. This offers a perspective for understanding why effort in some systems feels meaningful and engaging, while in others it may feel hollow.

In this paper we deliberate on the second-order nature of experiences in games, and contemplate around the epistemological and methodological challenges it creates for design researchers. Role of design research in game studies is examined and re-examined, to arrive at the proposition that design research in games should study experiences in relation to the game rules. Overall, the paper aims to initiate and expand a discussion around the approaches and methods which can further the epistemological imagination and methodological wherewithal.

Games serve as mediums for social interaction, reflecting our intrinsic need to connect and take part in shared experiences. The ability of games to facilitate social interaction has been popular but the concept of "social interaction" in tabletop games remains vaguely characterized in academic texts. In this paper, we seek to review and synthesize existing literature across the domains of game studies, sociology and design to identify patterns, contradictions, and gaps in the understanding of social interaction as a concept in tabletop games. We engage with what contributes to social interaction and what are some related constructs that are distinguished from social interaction like communication, collaboration, co-presence and so forth. The study offers implications of the proposed attributes of social interaction in tabletop games.

Uncertainty is a core aspect of games; it shapes gameplay dynamics and influences players' experiences. Several dimensions of uncertainty have been studied, such as its relation to player engagement and motivation, sources, levels, and degrees. However, the relationship of uncertainty with effort and emotions that emerge as players navigate unpredictable game states remains underexplored. This study employs a qualitative methodology with eight players to examine the association between uncertainty and effort-emotion duo, analyzing two tabletop games, "Splendor" and "Azul." Based on collected data, we introduce adverb-verb phrases to capture players' emotions and mental exertions. Since uncertainty is a pervasive element in gameplay, it is challenging to attribute a particular emotion or the nature of mental effort solely to a specific kind of uncertainty. Hence, we group it into three distinct yet interconnected categories: continuous uncertainty, stagespecific uncertainty, and cumulative uncertainty. Our findings indicate that player emotions and efforts in tabletop games are neither static nor predictable based on game outcomes alone. Instead, they exhibit dynamic trajectories, fluctuating in response to the changing uncertainties. By highlighting the associations between uncertainty, effort, and emotion, this study offers a granular understanding of player experiences, underscoring the necessity of considering these elements in game design and analysis.

Emotions and mental effort are both central elements of games. Usually, we link in-game exertions to observable actions and logical decisions. Moreover, the emphasis on evaluating and comparing games based on the “quantification of effort” disguises its underlying processes. The association of effort with emerging emotions also gets neglected. In games research, the significance of effort’s perception on other broader emotional experiences like immersion, engagement, flow, frustration, and fun is often discussed but hardly empirically explored, especially through qualitative methods. This paper presents a specific research project aimed at delving into novel methods to observe, capture, and detail the linkage between effort and emotions in tabletop games. It will be shown that using qualitative data collection methods like experience sampling and analysis approaches such as thematic analysis opens possibilities to trace the nature of the association between effort and emotion during gameplay. Effort and emotions are not seen as sharing a “cause-and-effect” relationship but are understood as co-existing and overlapping to the extent that it is difficult to separate one from the other, hence called “Effort-Emotion Concomitance.” Consequently, this study provides an innovative consideration for gameplay research.

The idea of 'smart' is pervasive in technological landscapes. There are smartphones, smartwatches, smart refrigerators, smart mattresses and even smart bottles. This descriptor for technology has an ambiguous sense of what 'smart' implies. Its ambiguity is imaginative, allowing various interpretations, projections, meanings, and logics of 'smartness' to emerge and propagate. We attempt to capture some of the many meanings of contemporary 'smartness', including what might be called 'smart dumbness' through the examination of 'smart' as an imaginary. Three prevalent logics are proposed: the logic of augmentation, the productivity logic, and the logic of anticipation, through analysis of communication materials, device capabilities, and user practices. Our analytical observations draw attention to the different meanings of 'smartness,' the technological imaginations it creates, and the need to develop a body of work that broadens our collective imagination about technology.

Compared to various market, state, and civil society sectors, schools' experiences of urban 'greening' in India remain curiously under-researched, despite the fact that schoolscapes are emerging as both awareness-raising agents for and fantastical visions of 'green' living. The paper seeks to address this lacuna in schoolscape scholarship by examining the experiences of four government schools in suburban Mumbai. Drawing on oral testimonies of teachers, and field observations, the paper elucidates a contrast between the 'green' vision, and the ground realities of school practitioners. While the official logic of 'greening' might have been predicated on the need to establish harmony between human well-being and planetary health, the actual performance of 'greening' schoolscapes brings into play dynamic and multifarious imaginings of school-nature relation arising from signifiers which do not fully reflect urban realities and school life in particular, but still engender a desire for those imaginings.

Understanding of player experiences in games necessitates acknowledging the role of mental effort, which intertwines with sentiments like fun, immersion, and frustration. This study adopts a qualitative approach from a constructivist perspective to gain insights into the subjective experiences of effort in gameplay. To capture the intricate nature of player effort, we iteratively employed a range of data collection methods, including post-gameplay interviews, written narratives, speculative modification discussions, and experience sampling techniques. Each method provided unique insights into different facets of effort, enabling a comprehensive understanding of the subjective dimensions involved. These methods were carefully assessed based on their depth of insights, the nature of data collected, participant engagement, researcher's bias, and practical feasibility. The study uncovered that focus group interviews effectively distilled complex ideas, while retrospective methods had limitations in capturing associated emotions. In contrast, experience sampling, particularly when written in the first person, provided a detailed description of the nuanced dynamics of effort and other related emotions throughout the gameplay experience.

This paper examines teachers’ use of students’ lived experiences in primary Environmental Studies (EVS) classrooms of government schools in suburban Mumbai. Data was collected through ethnographic field notes and semi-structured interviews across four schools and fifteen teachers teaching Grades 3 to 5. Environmental Education (EE) is a crucial aspect of the integrated STEM field, for advancing sustainability in a rapidly changing world. EE in primary grades in India is introduced through the subject ‘Environmental Studies’ (EVS). EVS integrates the concepts and issues of science (physical, chemical and biological), social studies (history, geography, civics, society, culture) and environment education (protection and conservation). Under efforts to generate quality education, several activities have been introduced to link theoretical concepts and students’ real-world scenarios. While the effectiveness of curricular activities and resources for EVS in promoting student learning is often investigated, teachers’ implementation of these materials have received less attention. Students bring different lived experiences into the classroom, and we examine what those mean to the teachers. We examine teachers’ approaches towards inviting these experiences as part of their process of adapting textbook activities. Episodes of teacher practice illustrate the wide variety in their use of timing and reasons for introducing and sustaining discussions with students. The study also describes how the teachers integrate their own life experiences with those of the students to support meaningful dialogue. Finally, teacher views on limitations and possibilities of using students’ lived experiences are discussed.

Fun is a fundamental driver of games. In serious games, the expectation to fulfil the purpose is oftentimes prioritised over elements of fun. In this paper, we analyse the concept of fun across domains and distinguish it from its allied constructs like flow, enjoyment, amusement, and so forth. We deduce the attributes of fun and elaborate concepts and their relationships. Our approach helps to advance the conceptualisation of fun in games from a design science perspective and suggests possible directions to assess serious games for better player experiences. Implications of the suggested attributes of fun in the domain of serious games are discussed.

Appears in: EDULEARN22 Proceedings Publication year: 2022Pages: 2189-2196ISBN: 978-84-09-42484-9ISSN: 2340-1117doi: 10.21125/edulearn.2022.0569Conference name: 14th International Conference on Education and New Learning TechnologiesDates: 4-6 July, 2022Location: Palma, Spain

Cohesion between content and gameplay can lead to games that are educational and enjoyable at the same time, making them effective. Endogenous designs, wherein the game elements emerge from the content, lead to such cohesion. However, endogenous design is not commonly observed in practice. Lack of guidance on conceptualizing endogenous design is an important factor hampering production of effective educational games. In this paper, we present ‘Endogen’ framework for designing endogenous educational games. The framework synthesized using the ‘function-behavior-structure’ approach is composed of a set of design strategies that we discovered in our recent work. It is validated using a multi-method approach wherein designers use the framework to design games and then rate it on various parameters. Results indicate that Endogen achieves the stated objective of creating endogenous design, therefore offering exciting content integration possibilities for game designers.

Defining the form factor and set-up of surfaces, i.e., their size, position, and orientation, is one of the first decisions made when designing multisurface environments (MSE). To support these choices, we conducted a study on how the orientation of a large display used alongside tablets impacts collaboration. Previous research involving only one interactive surface shows that display orientation changes how people interact with the display, the way they position themselves, or look at each other. Our study shows that in a MSE setting, the orientation of a large surface has a different impact: (1) it nuances previous results showing that horizontal surfaces are better for collaboration. (2) it impacts the way activities are conducted. The horizontal condition leads to more implicit coordination and balanced interaction with the large display, but to less structured work, while in the vertical condition, group coordination is more explicit and is structured around one main interactor. Compared to previous work, we also propose a more structured, comprehensive and detailed analysis grid for collaboration in MSE. Finally, based on our results, we derive recommendations for MSE design.