SPECIAL PUBLICATION GAME

RESEARCHUTRECHT CENTER FOR GAME RESEARCH

GAMES THAT CHANGE YOUR MIND INTRO Utrecht Center for Game Research

ver the past four years, Utrecht Uni- edge about games, technology, persuasion as versity has created four strategic a means of changing attitudes and behaviour, Othemes and twelve research focus learning processes, and design. The necessary areas to strengthen the focus and enhance expertise was provided by our research groups the societal impact of its research. Game from disciplines including sociology, psychol- Research is one of these research focus are- ogy, media studies, computer science, edu- as. We started the Utrecht Center for Game cation, and medicine. All faculties at Utrecht Research in 2014 to develop an integrated University were involved. approach to scientific and social questions For the years ahead, we are looking forward by linking academic excellence and funda- to implementing the university-wide objec- mental research to the university's societal tives as they were set out in its Strategic Plan: mission. 2016-2020. We will further strengthen our in- terdisciplinary research collaborations on a By organizing networking meetings, offer- local, national, and international scale; we will ing valorisation support, and allocating seed continue to contribute to the education of the money grants to interdisciplinary projects, we next generation of game scholars; and we will have strengthened our research and teaching, keep on addressing the question of how seri- expanded our research volume, and increased ous games can best be theorised, designed, societal impact, especially within the three and validated to help solve major global issues, domains of Games for Learning, Games for and by doing so contribute to a better world. Health, and Games for Change. We would like to thank Utrecht University’s Executive Board for making Game Research • Games for Learning: e.g. games for chil- one of Utrecht University’s focus areas for the dren, higher education, and professional period 2014-2018. Our special thanks go to our skills. Examples of research projects are deans, Professor Gerrit van Meer (Faculty of the use of games to develop number sense Science) and Professor Keimpe Algra (Faculty with children, and to train pharmacists in of Humanities); without their support, Utre- communication skills. cht University would not have acquired such • Games for Health: e.g. healthy living, a prominent international position in the field well-being, and rehabilitation. Our re- of Game Studies. search includes game-based enhance- ment of behaviour control, and training stroke patients in a virtual reality envi- ronment. • Games for Change: e.g. for sustainability, social inclusion, smart cities, conflict and security. We perform research, for exam- ple, on playful cities, and how games can be used for energy saving.

In this magazine, we present an overview of the work we have done during the past four years. We have invested not just in research but also in a broad field of game-related edu- cation and in collaborative efforts with part- ners in government, business, society, and other universities. We achieved high-quality research results through our interdiscipli- Joost Raessens & Remco Veltkamp nary collaborations. We combined knowl- Utrecht University, September 2017

GAME RESEARCH MAGAZINE • UTRECHT UNIVERSITY • 3 INTRO

Facts & Figures GAME RESEARCH MAGAZINE Editors about the Joost Raessens Remco Veltkamp [email protected] [email protected]

Utrecht Center for Contributors & interviewees Wouter Boendermaker, Sasja Duijff, Jan Dirk Fijnheer, Stefan van Game Research Geelen, Alex Gekker, Coert van Gemeren, Roland Geraerts, René Glas, Stef Haarler, Teresa de la Hera, Marries van de Hoef, Johan Jeuring, Ioannis Lampropoulos, Michiel de Lange, Heidi Lesscher, Sjors Martens, Sanne Nijhof, Tom Overmans, Ronald Poppe, Nina Rosa, Stephanie de Smale, Nieske Vergunst, Joost Vervoort, Christiaan Vinkers, Jesse de Vos, Jasper van Vught, Stefan Werning, Zerrin Yumak

Production, design, editing Het Redactielokaal PARTICIPATING Matthijs Dierckx 100RESEARCHERS [email protected] Eric Bartelson & Alessandra van Otterlo

Additional editing Textcase Vertalingen [email protected]

UTRECHT CENTER FOR GAME RESEARCH

Faculties Executive board Project management Joost Raessens & Lisanne Walma 7 @ Remco Veltkamp L.W.B.WALMA UU.NL Heleen Groenendijk

Steering committee Mirko Lukács Harold van Rijen UU Holding BV Medicine - UMC Utrecht

Albert Postma Liesbeth Kester Social and Behavioural Sciences Social and Behavioural Sciences Psychology Education & Pedagogy

Research domains EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMS Games for Learning Games for Change Liesbeth Kester Sustainability: Joost Raessens VII Marieke van der Schaaf Social Inclusion: Teresa de la Hera Wouter van Joolingen Smart Cities: Michiel de Lange Conflict and Security: Games for Health Roland Geraerts & Tanja Nijboer Stephanie de Smale

Participating research groups Faculty of Science Faculty of Law, Economics and projects Artificial Intelligence Governance Interaction Technology School of Governance 20 Software Systems Virtual Worlds Faculty of Veterinary Medicine Behavioural Neuroscience Faculty of Humanities €5,000,000 GAP: Center for the Study of Faculty of Medicine – UMCU total funding Digital Games and Play Blended learning Faculty of Social and Faculty of Geosciences Behavioural Sciences Healthy Urban Living Education & Learning Psychology Contact Postal Address Game Research, attn. G. Leebeek Dept. of Information and Computing Sciences, Utrecht University P.O. Box 80089 • 3508 TB Utrecht, The Netherlands collaborating companies Online 50 Web: www.gameresearch.nl E-mail: [email protected] Facebook: facebook.com/groups/UtrechtGameResearch

4 • GAME RESEARCH MAGAZINE • UTRECHT UNIVERSITY Contents.

CHANGE HEALTH LEARNING GAMES

6 26 36 46 Sustainability Games for Health L2TOR: the RoboTeach ‘I know that song!’ The impact of ecogames Health games –or games with a focus Child friendly tutoring Citizen science Joost Raessens, with Jan Dirk on health, healthcare, and well- Remco Veltkamp being– are interactive virtual worlds robot Fijnheer, Ioannis Lampropoulos, Language acquisition benefits from How can you persuade a sufficient Michiel de Lange, Joost Vervoort, for playing, training, and learning, large number of people to often in a form of simulation. early, personalised and interactive Stefan Werning tutoring, thus, a robot is created participate in a scientific research? Games with a focus on ecosystems to teach preschoolers a second Making separate collections of folk and sustainability improve language. Its name? L2TOR. songs and songs broadcast on early awareness of climate issues. They 28 radio accessible to the general imagine both a future world and how Annihilating alcohol public. to turn this world into a better one. abuse… with a game 38 13 Interview with Wouter The Virtual Patient 48 Boendermaker Persuasive games Preventing binge drinking among The good news about Playing the archive Games that change your adolescents? Let them play games, bad news René Glas, Jasper van Vught, Jesse de Vos Old games don’t play on modern mind but not just any. Interview with Johan Jeuring Good news: delivering bad news can equipment. To retain this part of our Interview with Teresa de la Hera cultural heritage, we took action. Games that make you think, change be trained. And thanks to a game, your behaviour, or mentally prepare 32 that training just got a whole lot you for medical treatment. Teresa To play, or not to play more accessible. 51 de la Hera helps us understand this Healthy play, better 4 PhD-candidates & phenomenon. coping 41 their research projects 16 Sanne Nijhof, Stefan van Geelen, Island of science The Graduate Stef Haarler, Sasja Duijff, Christiaan Control the crowd... Vinkers, Heidi Lesscher Go Go Gozo – a playful Programme & save the day Stimulating play through games may field course Four excellent PhD students were Roland Geraerts empower chronically ill children in Alex Gekker, René Glas, selected for this programme and Have you ever felt unsafe when their everyday lives. Stephanie de Smale present their PhD research projects. walking in a dense crowd? We have The Erasmus+ funded Go Go Gozo researched a model for simulating field course project explored the 54 crowds in big infrastructures, at links between play, mapping and Body movement events, and in computer games. mobility, delivering informal learning Detecting lies, UTRECHT UNIVERSITY through field-based methodologies. 20 improving games Smart cities evolved 44 Interview with Ronald Poppe Measuring and analysing body Turning citizens into Simulations and games movement and posture helps to creators for tertiary education detect lies. The same technology can Michiel de Lange 62 Play to learn? be applied to improve serious games. Thanks to digital media technologies, Utrecht: game city Games and simulations are finding 56 our cities will become smart. How their way into the ­university. But to can games and play involve urban Utrecht is the home and birthplace RAGE! Europe’s prime of many Dutch game studios. what extent? And are they proper stakeholders in making the smart city? educational tools? An interfaculty ecosystem for applied 23 63 study has the answers. games Change: inclusion Activate! Our RAGE project Games have the unique quality to An overview of some of the activities Zerrin Yumak break through any of the barriers that were organised at Utrecht Social animations for virtual humans we build as a society. Whether University. in games. it’s age, gender, race, religion or sexual orientation, games transcend 66 58 all differences and bring people together. That’s why they play such a Game research VIEWW Virtual Worlds big part in these three projects about through the years for Well-being inclusion. Joost Raessens and Remco Veltkamp The most interesting VIEWW projects take a deep dive into the history of and results. game research at Utrecht University.

GAME RESEARCH MAGAZINE • UTRECHT UNIVERSITY • 5 CHANGE

The impact of ecogames Sustainability

6 • GAME RESEARCH MAGAZINE • UTRECHT UNIVERSITY Sustainability

Games with a focus on ecosystems and sustainability improve awareness of climate issues. They imagine both a future world and how to turn this world into a better one.

By: Joost Raessens

Digital games are not only used for entertain- used to persuade people, raise their awareness ment purposes, but also for making players and change or reinforce their attitudes and aware of the need to find solutions for major behaviour for the good of society. Persuasive global issues, such as climate change, war and ecological games not only seek to contribute to conflict, poverty, an ageing population and ecological thought but also to convince people migration. Ecogames –or games with a focus to become ecological citizens. In the last few on ecosystems and sustainability– belong to years, digital games have encouraged support, these so-called Games for Change (G4C). They sympathy and action for a variety of ecological are imaginative spaces for playing and learn- issues. According to many researchers, there ing, expressing often contested moral and po- is growing evidence on the effectiveness of litical values, raising awareness for a variety of games as a medium for persuasive communi- sustainability issues, such as renewable ener- cation. This kind of validation research actual- gy transition, circular economy, sustainable ly helps Dutch gaming companies in the design mobility, and green water use and energy con- of better games, and to answering the question sumption. of under what conditions playing these games These persuasive and participatory games could actualize their ‘civic potential’ and help represent an experiential turn in climate com- turn players into ecological citizens. munication and storytelling, trying to rein- force ecological attitudes and behaviour and Climate paradox stimulate collaborative environmental deci- What makes ecogames so special is that they sion making. seem to be able to counter the critique of re- searchers such as Danish psychologist and Ecological citizens economist Per Espen Stoknes. According to Contemporary digital games are increasingly Stoknes, conventional climate communication

IMAGE LEFT: ECO, Winner of the Games for Change Climate Challenge Award. Eco is an online game where players must collaborate to A CIRCULAR AMSTERDAM FROM5TO4 build a civilization in a world A role playing game designed for local entrepreneurs and A gamified solution that helps reduce traffic congestion where everything they do citizens to gain knowledge on circular urban development by persuading commuters to travel smarter for just one and link it to their daily business. workday: by cycling to work, taking the train, carpooling, or affects the environment. GAMESFORCITIES.COM working one day a week from home. ORGANIQ.NL STRANGELOOPGAMES.COM u

GAME RESEARCH MAGAZINE • UTRECHT UNIVERSITY • 7 CHANGE Sustainability

WIJK & WATER BATTLE For Vitens, the country's largest water company, Grendel Games designed the Wijk & Water Battle. This game was developed to reduce customer’s water consumption and to avoid peak moments. GRENDEL-GAMES.COM

Bio.

v PROF.DR. JOOST ELEMENTARY SCHOOL-LOI KIDZZ RAESSENS is full professor COLLAPSUS-ENERGY RISK CONSPIRACY is a conspiracy A new type of environmental education. of Media Theory at thriller about ten young people all over the world and how Playing ecogames helps children prepare for school entrance Utrecht University, Faculty the worldwide energy crisis affects them. It links the necessity exams. of Humanities, and one of energy transition with the notion of stable energy delivery LOIKIDZZ.NL of the directors of the and economic independence. COLLAPSUS.COM Utrecht Center for Game Research. He is project leader of the NWO-funded often leads to the ‘psychological climate para- project Persuasive gaming. their attitudes and behaviour. The collabora- From theory-based design dox’: the fact that climate science facts are be- to validation and back tion of game researchers and leading Dutch coming more solidly documented and disturb- (2013-2018). His research game companies helps finding solutions to ing every year, while most people either don’t concerns the ‘ludification major global issues such as climate change. of culture,’ focusing in believe in or do not act upon those facts. particular on persuasive, serious, or applied gaming Civic imagination Top-of-mind (in relation to global issues Environmental issues pose imaginative chal- such as climate change, A study of The Netherlands Institute for Social refugees), on the playful lenges for game producers. Games for Change Research in 2016 shows that, for the Dutch construction of identities, made in the Netherlands such as Wijk & Water population, the issue of climate change and and on the notion of play as Battle (Grendel Games, 2015), From5to4 and a conceptual framework for energy transition is indeed not ‘top-of-mind’. the analysis of media use. Elementary School-LOI Kidzz (both Organiq, Research done in the NWO-funded project 2014), A Circular Amsterdam (Play the City, Persuasive gaming: From theory-based design 2016) and Collapsus – Energy Risk Conspiracy to validation and back shows that the playing (2010) embody what American media theorist of ecogames can help improve this situation Henry Jenkins described as ‘civic imagina- (see the article starting on page 13). These tion’: it shows the ability of ecogames to im- games can inform players about the issue of agine both a future world and how to turn this climate change, and can change or reinforce world into a better one. u

8 • GAME RESEARCH MAGAZINE • UTRECHT UNIVERSITY Sustainability

Games as a tool for policy & strategy One of the games of the Transmango European game jam project on the future of food, by Team Rebound (Glasgow, Scotland) Beside his role as co-leader of the pro- ject on game co design for sustainable city governance, Dr. Joost Vervoort is in- volved in a great number of projects fo- Game co-design for cused on the use of games for sustain- ability. His focus is primarily on the use of games, and in particular game co-de- sustainable city sign, as tools for policy and strategy. He is the leader of a global project that uses games and other futuring tech- governance niques as tools for policy formulation in the context of climate change, agri- This project focuses on the use of team. An example is a large-scale culture and food security (the CCAFS game co-design as an approach series of game jams across Eu- Scenarios Project) – a project which to innovative urban governance rope on food futures with the has helped develop policy in seven toward sustainable future cities. Utrecht School of the Arts and the global regions. Another example is the City-level responses to sustaina- EU-funded Transmango and Jam- Seeds of Good Anthropocenes project, bility challenges show great po- Today projects. One of the games which has united researchers who have tential, due to the concentration emerging from these game jams worked on major global sustainability and nature of urban populations has been used in Kyoto to help assessments in an attempt to help de- and organization. To harness this people in the urban food system velop plausible, actionable bottom-up potential, there is a need for the experiment with new forms of futures by collecting different trans- participatory conceptualization governance such as food policy formative sustainability practices from and design of creative, societally councils. Several games designed around the world that are currently engaged city governance strat- to communicate urban govern- operating in the margins but that could egies. We see game co-design ance concepts such as the circu- grow to have a global impact. Vervoort as being uniquely suited to this lar economy and the common and his colleagues focus on how games need. As strategic planning tools, good have been developed. One can be used to imagine new futures games can function as system has already been used with stake- based on such current practices. Oth- representations, but also allow holders in the city of Eindhoven er projects include the development players to step into actor roles to help plan more sustainable of games for widespread educational and investigate interaction pos- futures. A number of proposals purposes for university students, and a sibilities. Game co-design goes have been submitted, several of collaboration with Purdue University on beyond the limitations of games which have been secured, focus- the development of a negotiation and as pre-designed objects with pre- ing on projects from the local to imagination game for country delegates set procedural rhetoric – instead, the global. Among these is a pro- who take part in global climate negoti- those involved in game co-design ject funded by BNP Paribas on ations. can actively experiment with anticipatory governance in the game rules as representations Global South with the Universi- JOOST VERVOORT is assistant professor of Fore- of institutions, creating more ties of Oxford, Wageningen, and sight for Environmental Governance at the Coper- ownership and possibilities for partners in four global regions. nicus Institute of Sustainable Development, UU (Faculty of Geosciences), and Senior Researcher insight and creative governance Furthermore, this project focuses at the Environmental Change Institute, University solutions. A great number of ac- on building a community of prac- of Oxford. tivities on game co-design for tice on its topic, and contributed sustainable cities have been con- to the 2017 Focus Area Symposi- ducted by the project research um on Ecogames for this purpose.

PROJECT LEADS: MICHIEL DE LANGE is assistant professor STEFAN WERNING is associate professor of New Media Studies at Utrecht University, of New Media Studies at Utrecht University, Faculty of Humanities. He is co-founder of The Faculty of Humanities. He coordinates the Mobile City, a platform for the study of new graduate program Game Research and the media and urbanism. Utrecht Game Lab.

JOOST VERVOORT (for bio see the boxout)

GAME RESEARCH MAGAZINE • UTRECHT UNIVERSITY • 9 CHANGE Sustainability Environmental impact of games

The symposium Ecogames: Game Research meets Sustain- ditions of a transition to a sustainable society, and the ability (Utrecht University, 30 January 2017), brought role ecogames could play in such a transition. Four Dutch together experts in the fields of game design and re- game studios and creative storytelling agencies (Grendel search, communication, media and urban studies, eth- Games, Spektor, Organiq, and Play the City) presented ics, geosciences, data and computer science. It explored their media productions and discussed how these pro- the psychological, social, cultural and institutional con- ductions can be understood as rhetorical devices.

Vice-Dean Wiljan van den Akker The main focus during this symposium was on how eco­ games and their characteristics can help in the debate on global warming and sustainability. Vice Dean Wiljan van den Akker opened the evening by providing the overall context, focusing on the societal impact of academic research. He stressed the impor- Prof. Joost Raessens tance of creating an academic context for dealing with Prof. Joost Raessens referred to an alarm- complex issues such as sustainability. Bringing together ing conclusion from the Netherlands In- designers of games and scholars from computer science, stitute for Social Research. A recent study informatics, the humanities, communication studies identified a big gap between national and and philosophy, the symposium was a perfect example international policy on the one hand (such of research with impact. as the Paris Climate Agreement, the Dutch Energy Agenda and the Dutch initiative for a climate bill) and the general lack of concern Tim Murck, among the Dutch, on the other. The energy Strategic Lead at the storytelling company Spektor transition is simply not a matter of high in- The power of narratives was discussed by several speak- terest for most people in The Netherlands. ers, as well as some aspects of narratives which should According to Raessens, Dutch ecogames be considered when designing for sustainability. Murck such as the Wijk & Water Battle (Grendel explained the story of Hemelswater – a beer promoted by Games, 2015), From5to4 (Organiq, 2014), A Spektor in a sustainable way that became big partly due to Circular Amsterdam (Play the City, 2016) and the narrative. According to Murck, game mechanics and Collapsus – Energy Risk Conspiracy (Subma- storytelling are valuable tools in turning a narrative into rine, 2010) can play an important role here. an experience. This latter category is necessary to hook They can raise awareness of a variety of sus- the audience and ensure lasting actions. Murck func- tainability issues, by reinforcing sustainable tioned as a practical example on the value of narrative in attitudes and behaviours and stimulating the efficacy of ecogames. collaborative sustainable decision-making.

Game scholar Joost Vervoort Communication professor Exploring alternatives to current Hans Hoeken conditions within ecogames de- Hoeken focused on what elements sign was advocated by Vervoort. in narrative can be used pragmat- According to him, co-designing ically to form a strong narrative games will let players question of the kind described by Murck. what alternative roles they can Hoeken spoke about the impor- take in a certain situation or prob- tance of character identification - lem, and help them explore mul- agreeing with a character’s values tiple possible actions and other - as is the case in Collapsus – En- system elements. Ecogames can ergy Risk Conspiracy (Submarine, let players practice policy through 2010), which, according to Hoek- their co-designing involvement in en’s analysis, is a good example of scenarios. a successful ecogame.

10 • GAME RESEARCH MAGAZINE • UTRECHT UNIVERSITY Sustainability

Reducing household energy consumption Persuasive games and gamification can be effective ways to change peo- ple’s attitudes on energy use. When people are highly engaged in the game they are apt to adopt the attitude pro- moted in the game. This can lead to a higher awareness of relevant factors involved in saving energy, for instance. In effect, they may experience a posi- tive change in attitude which may then Prof. Maarten Hajer trigger a change in energy saving be- Another important aspect discussed in the sympo- haviour itself. sium dealt with the power of imagination. Raessens mentioned civic imagination, or showing both a fu- For our research project, we designed ture world and how to turn this world into a better the Powersaver Game. Families play this one. Prof. Maarten Hajer discussed the problems of game for five weeks in their own house- imagining, and especially why imagining a different hold. Real-world behaviours, e.g. the future is so difficult. By creating imaginaries – con- use of electricity and gas in the home, structed hypothetical versions of a situation – sus- tainability can be approached more creatively than are integrated into the gameplay. A real with technical jargon. The social values of technolo- time connection between the household gy can be reflected upon in imaginaries – placing the energy meter and game server is accom- many possible futures more firmly within the realm plished by dataloggers with an Internet of experience of citizens. connection. The main goal is to reduce energy consumption by at least 15%. Every other day, the game sets the family Game designer Ekim Tan on missions to save energy The idea of co-design was The first experiment in the form of a demonstrated by Tan, founder media comparison study asked whether of Play the City, who showed people learn better from games or con- examples of games that sup- ventional media. Families were asked port informed decision-mak- either to play the game or use the ener- ing about urban issues. As gy dashboard as a control version. The such, ecogames can play a big form, timing and content of the informa- role, not necessarily in chang- ing citizen behaviour, but in tion the control condition were kept as helping the debate along. similar as possible as in the game condi- tion, but excluded game elements. This was followed by a value-added approach which queried which of the game's fea- tures promote learning, What impact did such features as feedback (minimum versus maximum information), person- al relevance (by means of customized Prof. Marcus Duwell avatars, activities, goals and feedback) Finally, Duwell rounded up the symposium by con- and social interaction (by means of com- sidering the ethical side of sustainability. He re- petition) have on energy consumption flected on the possibility of choice in the current knowledge, attitudes, and behaviours. political climate. Referring back to the call to create imaginaries, Duwell explained that there are always more choices to be made. If a situation seems to be PROJECT LEAD: without alternatives, the smart thing to do is to keep JAN DIRK FIJNHEER is PhD candidate Persuasive looking, creatively and collaboratively. The symposi- Games and Lecturer at the Faculty of Science, Utrecht University & Lecturer at Inholland um was a tribute to this final thought. University of Applied Sciences.

GAME RESEARCH MAGAZINE • UTRECHT UNIVERSITY • 11 CHANGE Sustainability

Demand DREAM

DEMAND Response RESPONSE

SERIOUS Energy GAMES

Application CONSUMER ENGAGEMENT Methodology

The DREAM project aims to contribute to a cost- effective energy transition. u

The increasing share of intermittent renew- «Emphasis demand. Demand response options are em- able energy resources and the targets for the ployed by electricity system planners, market reduction of greenhouse gas emissions pose should be on parties and operators as resource options for enormous challenges for the reliable and empowering market optimisation, balancing supply and economic operation of electrical power sys- consumers» demand and ensuring system security. tems. An effective energy transition requires drastic actions for for the efficient integra- Game-enhanced consumer tool tion of distributed demand and supply in The Demand Response Energy Application combination with increased energy savings Methodology (DREAM) project aims to con- and efficiency. As prescribed by the Euro- tribute to a cost-effective energy transition pean Union energy winter package 2016, by exploiting the opportunities offered by emphasis should be given to empowering demand response mechanisms and con- consumers, enabling demand flexibility, and sumer engagement. DREAM is targeting the promoting prosumers, aggregators and local design, development and deployment of a energy communities. game-enhanced consumer tool to address Flexibility is considered one of the intrinsic consumer engagement in demand response features that will characterise future power mechanisms through gamification tech- systems, both for power system manage- niques while stimulating and organising co- ment and energy market objectives. The operation between consumers. further development of flexibility, including The tool will be part of a web-based platform demand response, self-consumption, aggre- that provides energy analytics through smart gation entities, and energy storage, is rec- meters in order to assess the role of game fea- ognised by academics, policy, and industry tures on consumer behaviour. The tool will bodies as crucial for the efficient integration be designed, implemented, tested, and val- of intermittent renewable energy resources idated through pilot experiments with par- PROJECT LEAD: IOANNIS into the grid. LAMPROPOULOS works as ticipating consumers and prosumers. The Demand response programmes are designed a postdoctoral researcher at knowledge generated in DREAM will result to incentivise end-users to alter their short- the Copernicus Institute for into a methodology with high replicability Sustainable Development, term electricity usage patterns by schedul- Utrecht University, Faculty of potential for further exploitation by other ing and levelling the instantaneous power Geosciences. relevant stakeholders throughout Europe.

12 • GAME RESEARCH MAGAZINE • UTRECHT UNIVERSITY A BREATHTAKING JOURNEY (2016) Persuasive games Games that change your mind

Games that make you think, change your behaviour, or mentally prepare you for medical treatment. Teresa de la Hera helps us understand this phenomenon.

Interview with Teresa de la Hera

Playing an immigration officer in a fictional potential of games: to have us reflect about Eastern European country? In what universe things, talk about them. Games can be great does that make for an appealing game, one conversation starters.” that two million people will buy and actually De la Hera wasn’t really surprised by the impact play? Well, as it turns out: ours. Papers, Please had on her. She couldn’t have Papers, Please is literally the name of the game been, since she’s one of the most prolific re- where players do little else than denying or searchers in the field of games with a message, granting access to people crossing the border. with a goal beyond entertainment or training. Role-playing the immigration officer seems A lot of her research revolves around what is simple, maybe even superficial at first. It is, called ‘persuasive games’. however, the complete opposite. “A persuasive game is a game that has been “This game made me think”, says Teresa de la designed with the intention of influencing the Hera, a postdoctoral researcher and lecturer attitude or behaviour of a player beyond the at Utrecht University. “And I feel this is the real gaming session”, de la Hera explains. “There u

GAME RESEARCH MAGAZINE • UTRECHT UNIVERSITY • 13 CHANGE

PAPERS, PLEASE (2013) is a single- player 'Dystopian Document Thriller' in which the player steps into the role of an immigration inspector in the fictional country of Arstotzka in the year 1982. The image is a still from the short movie based on the game. PAPERSPLEA.SE

are multiple applications in many different Bio. Connecting people and making them think, is fields, think education, health, advertising, no mean feat. However, games have the capaci- politics… They can be used, for example, to ty to go even further. De la Hera: “I love the cas- change the attitude of players towards relevant es in which digital games are used to improve matters such as climate change or the refugee the quality of life of players in different and crisis, by being used as persuasive media.” meaningful ways. I have studied, for example, “Persuasive games are also used to motivate the different ways in which digital games have and engage players into activities that they been used to increase adherence of young chil- need to perform, but are difficult or boring for v DR. TERESA DE LA HERA dren to cancer treatments. Cancer treatments them, such as therapies for cognitive rehabili- is postdoctoral researcher are difficult to go through and have a lot of side and lecturer at the Faculty tation, just to mention an example.” of Humanities, Utrecht effects. For children it’s not easy to understand University. She started her why they have to undergo these treatments, as Fascination academic career in Spain in they make them feel terrible. Digital games 2006, where she conducted De la Hera’s 2011 PhD thesis Persuasive Struc- research in the fields of have been used in different ways to help them tures in Advergames was called ‘the best aca- new media and persuasive to adhere to the treatment. Re-Mission, for demic work by a Spanish scholar in the field of games. She moved to the example, is a well known example of a game Netherlands, where she audiovisual communication’. It’s just one entry obtained an International that is used to help children and adolescents in her long list of projects and publications on PhD Fellowship to finish her to better understand how the chemotherapy persuasive games. Why the fascination? PhD Persuasive Structures works in their bodies. By understanding how in Advergames at Utrecht “Through different research projects I had University. the treatment works they are more open and the opportunity to see how persuasive games positive to get through, even though they feel have been used to change the life of players in terrible during the process.” positive and significant ways. It is fascinating Project Info. to discover to which extent new technologies, v PERSUASIVE GAMING: Effectiveness FROM THEORY-BASED and especially digital games, can be used to DESIGN TO VALIDATION One of the research projects De la Hera was make us think about a topic in a different way, AND BACK recently involved in was the project Persuasive to engage us to do something that we want to MAIN PROJECT MEMBERS gaming: From theory-based design to validation do but we cannot find the motivation to per- UTRECHT UNIVERSITY: and back. “The unique aspect of that project is form, or to connect people. PROF.DR. JOOST RAESSENS that we study three different aspects related DR. TERESA DE LA HERA “I conducted a study, for example, in which a ERASMUS UNIVERSITY to persuasive games, by joining the expertise game was used to foster interaction between ROTTERDAM: of researchers from three different universi- PROF.DR. JEROEN JANSZ children with different cultural backgrounds, DRS. RUUD JACOBS ties. First, at Utrecht University, where I work who recently arrived in the Netherlands and EINDHOVEN UNIVERSITY as postdoc researcher, we focus on explaining who did not have the language skills to com- OF TECHNOLOGY: in which different ways persuasive games can PROF.DR. BEN SCHOUTEN municate with classmates. The game was used DRS. MARTIJN KORS be used to persuade players from a theoretical in this case as mediation tool to initiate an in- perspective. teraction in which verbal communication was FUNDED BY THE “Second, at the Eindhoven University of Tech- NETHERLANDS not central. It was really exciting to see the ORGANISATION FOR nology, my colleagues transform theoretical SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH evolution of the relationship of players during (NWO), CREATIVE claims into design principles to be used to the playing sessions.” INDUSTRIES support the design of persuasive games. They

14 • GAME RESEARCH MAGAZINE • UTRECHT UNIVERSITY constantly work on student projects that help them test which design strategies work better, depending on the purpose of the game. One example of this is A Breathtaking Journey, a virtual reality game which has been designed to increase empathy for refugees. “Finally, at the Erasmus University Rotterdam my colleagues are focused on validating the effectiveness of persuasive games. They are not only testing the effectiveness of concrete games included in their studies, but also pro- posing validation protocols and models that can be used by researchers and companies working with persuasive games.” And? Have you proven their effectiveness? RE-MISSION 2 (2013), es, however, the game is designed to reach a a series of games from “We cannot say, in general, if persuasive games the non-profit HopeLab, specific target audience. So, it, again, depends are effective or not. It really depends on the uses the research and on the objectives of the game. But it does not experience obtained ® game and its objectives. Persuasive games are from the first Re-Mission mean that because the game has a serious effective when the game is effectively designed in 20066 to GAMES.provide an COUNTLESSpurpose, WAYS it should TO beFIGHT boring CAN or not CER. attractive considering specific persuasive objectives, the even more accessibleBased on scientificenough research toand players. designed with the input of young and engaging series ofcancer patients, each Re-Mission 2 game puts players inside context in which it is going to be played and action gamesthe targeted human body to fight“A cancer relevant with an challengearsenal of weapons is to and find super-powers, a game mechan- like chemotherapy, antibiotics and the body’s natural defenses. the characteristics of the players that are go- specifically at adolescents ic that is attractive to players and that works and young adults with ing to play it. The results of our project include cancer. PLAY FREEfor the AT persuasive RE-MISSION2.ORG goals that the game needs to RE-MISSION2.ORG theoretical models and design and validation NANOBOT’S REVENGE NOW ON MOBILE A PROJECTmeet. OF OurWITH SUPPORTresearch FROM project, Persuasive gam- protocols that help not only to study persua- ing, is focused on providing knowledge that sive games, but also to design them and vali- helps to better connect these different aspects date their effectiveness.” related to persuasive games.” More.

Attractive v PERSUASIVEGAMING.NL Bad games If a game is typically designed as a persuasive Asked for an example of a bad, dysfunction- game, is it still capable of reaching a large au- al, and therefore non-persuasive game, De la dience? Obviously, without an audience, even Hera opts not to refer to a specific game, but A BREATHTAKING a good persuasive game will not persuade an- JOURNEY (2016) places to a concrete ‘mistake’ she commonly en- ybody. “A persuasive game is a game. It should the player in the shoes of counters in persuasive games. “I was talking be designed in a way that is attractive to the a refugee who is fleeing before about the need of persuasive games to from a war-torn country players that are supposed to play it. If it is not in their struggle to escape be interesting and attractive to players. Some- interesting to them, then it is a bad persuasive the increasing violence times, with the intention of designing games against citizens. This game, in the same way you can find a bad en- interactive virtual reality that are attractive to players, game mechanics tertaining game. experience is an attempt get implemented that are not in tune with the “A persuasive game can reach a large audience to increase empathy persuasive intent of the game. For example, towards refugees. if that is the objective of the game. In some cas- ABREATHTAKINGJOURNEY.COM designing a game to learn a new alphabet, and including time pressure as one of the mechan- ics to make the game more exciting. If I am try- ing to learn new letters, I need a game mechan- ic that allows me to take the time that I need to learn each character. If you add time pressure, I probably need to repeat the same steps again and again, and I get frustrated or bored.

“It’s also common to see a persuasive game that is a copy of an entertainment game, just with a different theme. For example, theBe - jeweled-game transformed into an advertising game by changing the diamonds for logos of the brand. Why would someone play the ad- vertising version of this game instead of the original one? So, a good balance between en- tertaining goals and persuasive goals is rele- vant to design a successful persuasive game.” u

GAME RESEARCH MAGAZINE 2017/2018 • UTRECHT UNIVERSITY • 15 CHANGE Control the crowd... & save the day

16 • GAME RESEARCH MAGAZINE • UTRECHT UNIVERSITY Image: Still from a movie showcasing the Utrecht University crowd simulation plug- in for the Unity game engine.

GAME RESEARCH MAGAZINE • UTRECHT UNIVERSITY • 17 CHANGE

Crowds deciphered: simulation and control of the mass

Have you ever felt unsafe when walking in a dense crowd? We have researched a model for simulating crowds in big infrastructures, at events, and in computer games.

By: Roland Geraerts

How can a city accommodate 500,000 peo- Bio. quality of simulated agents. These agents need ple during an event? How long does it take to a navigation mesh which is difficult to extract evacuate a train station? Where and when can from a 3D virtual environment. Agents behave potentially dangerous situations occur, how unrealistically, they collide a lot, get trapped can we detect them, and what can we do dur- near narrow passages and react poorly to ing an event to avoid these situations? These sudden changes in the environment (like a are important questions, illustrated by tragic collapsing bridge). Hardly an optimal game incidents that happened during events such vDR. ROLAND GERAERTS experience. Finally, current simulations cost a as the Hajj in Mecca (2,400 deaths), the Love is assistant professor at lot of processing power and, consequently, the the Virtual Worlds group Parade in Germany (21 deaths) and Dutch Re- in the Department of number of simulated agents is kept to a few membrance Day (63 injuries). Simulating big Information and Computing hundred at the most. crowds can be of vital importance to be better Sciences, Faculty of Science, Utrecht University. There, prepared. he obtained his PhD on Software engine sampling-based motion Our team has created a software package for So why do we need simulations to answer planning techniques. His efficient crowd simulation in multi-layered current research focuses on these questions? Simulations are needed be- path planning and crowd 3D dynamic environments. The framework cause large-scale exercises (with over 500 peo- simulation in games and generates a compact but complete representa- ple) are impractical or impossible in the real virtual environments. He is tion of the navigable areas in an environment one of the co-founders of world. For instance, such a real-life exercise the annual Motion in Games so the simulation can be run efficiently and has a big impact on the environment or sur- conference. accurately. This representation is a navigation roundings, it costs a considerable amount of mesh suitable for representing the walkable time, tests can be performed on a few scenar- areas in a 2D environment (such as a city with ios only, and the building/infrastructure may Start-up. a footprint that represents buildings) or a mul- not even exist yet. Using simulations instead Roland Geraerts and his ti-layered 3D environment, such as a train/ can alleviate these problems. group have received an metro station, or a soccer stadium. NWO Take-off grant. "This allows us to realise Gaming applications our dream: setting up a Our simulation framework consists of the fol- start-up, uCrowds, which The availability of more realistic computer offers a software engine lowing five levels of planning: games is growing because PCs, consoles and for simulating crowds • At the top of the hierarchy, event manage- smartphones are becoming more powerful. in big infrastructures, at ment and action planning generate a set of events or in computer While much innovation has been done in 3D games." geometric path planning queries, consisting of graphics, the AI side is lagging, including the start/goal pairs. In this phase, we support so-

18 • GAME RESEARCH MAGAZINE • UTRECHT UNIVERSITY Smart city: an augmented-reality crowd simulation demo In May 2016 we demonstrated an augmented-reality crowd simulation demo to all EU ambassadors and policy makers who were paying a visit to Utrecht. The demo displayed a simulation in a part of this city. Users could interact with the simulation by inserting or removing illuminated blocks. This allowed them to play with different scenarios in an interactive and intuitive way.

The table is designed by Wijnand Veneberg and Machiel Veltkamp (z25.org).

cial groups, large groups, re-planning of agents when the navigation mesh changes or when Crowd flow optimisation crowd densities change, for instance. • Next, the global route planning level uses We performed simulations for the Grand Départ of the a query to produce an indicative route for Tour the France in 2015. The city of Utrecht wanted an agent or group, which indicates how they to know whether the crowd would be safe when an would generally walk. event might draw anywhere from 600,000 to 800,000 • The three lower levels move the crowd in spectators to Utrecht. Based on the simulations, the city every step of the simulation. On the route decided to move fences, install pedestrian bridges, and following level, the global routes are being have one-way traffic at certain places. traversed, yielding preferred velocities (i.e. speed/direction pairs). Image: Virtual Grand Départ visitors at the Jaarbeursplein. • The preferred velocities are adapted in the local movement level where an agent might temporarily deviate from its general route to coordinate its movements and to handle po- tential collisions with the crowd, yielding a ve- locity that is used by the animation system in the lowest level to move an agent.

Usage in practice Our software was used to investigate the amount of time it takes to evacuate a metro station. We did that in collaboration with our partner Movares for several stations of the North/South metro line in Amsterdam. With Movares we have also analysed a large range of scenarios that could occur during the Grand Départ of the Tour de France in Utrecht. Fi- nally, we created a plug-in for a popular game engine, Unity, to enrich computer games with big and believable crowds. u

GAME RESEARCH MAGAZINE • UTRECHT UNIVERSITY • 19 CHANGE Smart cities evolved Turning citizens into creators

Thanks to digital media technologies, our cities will become smart. How can games and play involve urban stakeholders in making the smart city?

By: Michiel de Lange

How can games and play involve urban stake- Quick View. researcher, in order to find out how this may holders in making their city? In recent years In recent years cities happen. many cities have adopted smart city policy have been trying to become smart cities with agendas, often in collaboration with technol- the use of technologies. Rezone, the game ogy companies and knowledge institutions. The emphasis is often Can games help to address a complicated ur- These policies seek to use smart technologies on smart technologies ban issue like vacant buildings or underused instead of smart people. to address urban issues like mobility, clean Games and play can land? In times of complex questions and eco- energy, water and food production and distri- be useful tools to nomic decline it is hard to reach solutions bution, health, living and public participation. leverage the smartness through conventional means. Traditional par- of different people in But what about the people living in these cit- shaping the future of ties involved in urban development are not ies? How are they involved? their urban environment inclined to invest. They wait for others to take and take ownership. In the first step. Two cultural organizations from this contribution we look The playful city is a complementary take on at Rezone the game, Den Bosch in the Netherlands, The Bosch Ar- the efficiency-driven smart city agenda. In this which attempts to bring chitecture Initiative and Digital Workplace, col- vision, games and play enable citizens to be- together a variety of laborated with a game design school to create stakeholders around come creative agents who can take ownership urban vacancy. Rezone (rezone.eu), an urban game that chal- over urban issues and act as decision makers. lenges players to ‘fight blight’. The playful city assumes that play has a lot of Players in the game keep the city safe from potential to include citizens in the making of deterioration and vacancy by salvaging real es- smarter cities that are not just designed for Lingo. tate from decline. It features four player roles: them, but also with and by them. How? First, v SMART CITY the proprietor (owner of real estate), mayor games and play can be used to leverage citizen A city that uses digital (representing the municipality), engineer (ur- media and data to creativity (smartness). Second, games and play improve infrastructures ban designer) and citizen (neighbours). are ways to organize engagement and create and services. Rezone is composed of a physical board game collectives (civic participation). Third, games v PLAYFUL/PLAYABLE CITY with a number of 3D printed iconic buildings and play can be used to experiment with alter- A city that attempts that represent the neighbourhood, an aug- native solutions and futures for the city that to foster creativity mented reality layer of real-time information in its people to are not just technology-driven (cityness). Let’s improve liveability and about these buildings projected on a screen, have a look at Rezone, a game about vacant ur- potentially address and a computer algorithm programmed to let societal issues. ban spaces, in which I have been involved as a buildings descend into vacancy like a wildfire. u

20 • GAME RESEARCH MAGAZINE • UTRECHT UNIVERSITY «In times of complex questions, it is hard to reach solutions through conventional means»

GAME RESEARCH MAGAZINE • UTRECHT UNIVERSITY • 21 CHANGE

«In Rezone, citizens are not merely passive users of their city, but clever creators»

A camera above registers the players’ moves Bio. games is part of their cultural repertoire. Sec- by scanning QR codes on pawns. The game en- ond, many argue that we live in a playful me- gine continually adapts to changes. To beat the dia culture. We are continuously surrounded system, players must strategically collaborate by a plethora of technologies that offer spaces instead of pursuing their self-interest. The for playful experimentation and shape our un- game was tested during a series of events like derstanding of the world as playful. For these The Playful Arts Festival, and Rezone Playful reasons it no longer seems strange to have all Interventions, with, among others, the mayor v DR. MICHIEL DE LANGE kinds of organizations turn to games to ad- of Den Bosch playing –as the mayor, of course! is assistant professor at dress serious issues. the Department of Media A big Dutch building company got interested and Culture Studies, and this started a collaboration that led to a Faculty of Humanities, What do we want? new game concept. Utrecht University; co- The playful city opens up key questions about founder of The Mobile City (themobilecity.nl), a smartness, about the future of cities, and about Playful atmosphere platform for the study of technologies and civic participation. Such In Rezone citizens are not merely passive us- new media and urbanism; questions can be grouped along the lines of co-founder of [urban ers of their city, but clever creators. Through interfaces] (urbaninterfaces. feasibility (can it be done?), viability­ (what val- play they can take ownership. The game helps net), a cross-disciplinary ues can we generate with it?), and –especially stakeholders to generate smart plans for the research group focusing on important for my argument– ­desirability (do media and art and urban future of their city. However, Rezone does not culture. He works as a we want it?). I argue that the challenge of mak- provide solutions, at least not directly. By play- researcher and teacher in ing our cities smart impels us to ask what de- ing together, trust and connections between the field of (mobile) media, sirable outcomes are. Do we want smart tech urban culture, identity and stakeholders are forged. Stakeholders meet play. programmed by companies to make decisions each other in a playful atmosphere instead of for us? Or do we want to include the ‘smarts’ of at the negotiation table. The game is fun and actual people? Do we want efficient cities, or do acts as a catalyst for potential follow-up steps. we include other values like playfulness and a It is a simplified artificial setting where real sense of ownership? Do we consider technolo- emotions and preferences and horizons for gies as just a solution, or more broadly as part action emerge. It invites people to tempo- of our everyday culture and experiences? My rarily stand in their adversaries’ shoes. This answer is that if we are serious about smart cit- could lead to better understanding of mutual ies, we need to understand our cities as playful. standpoints through embodied experience in- stead of mere argumentation and deliberation. Hence, the playful cities agenda should be Playful civic participation puts agency central More. pushed along these lines: in the notion of citizenship instead of rational v REZONE THE GAME: 1. Research: What aspects of urban issue lend discourse. WWW.REZONE.EU themselves to being addressed by games, and what are the limitations and considerations? What can we take from this case? There is a 2. Design: What type(s) of games, and which long-standing history of understanding the mechanics-dynamics-aesthetics, can be em- city in terms of games and play. From the ployed for particular complex urban issues? “bread and games” of the Romans, to the ludic 3. Validation: How can we assess and validate and subversive artistic interventions of the the role of games and play in urban culture? Situationists, the city has often been viewed as 4. Governance: How can we scale up and in- playful. Today, that connection becomes even stitutionalize the use of games for complex more important for at least two reasons. First, urban issues (stakeholder coalitions, toolkit, for an increasing number of people playing best practices)? u

22 • GAME RESEARCH MAGAZINE • UTRECHT UNIVERSITY Change: Inclusion Games have the unique quality to break through any of the barriers we build as a society. Whether it’s age, gender, race, religion or sexual orientation, games transcend all differences and bring people together. That’s why they play such a big part in these three projects about inclusion.

1. Children in multi-resident families Where do I belong?

Project Info. Most of our knowledge on family relationships, parenting, and child development stems vWHERE DO I BELONG? from traditional two-parent families. However, there are often questions and concerns CHILDREN IN MULTI- about the psychological and ethical aspects arising in modern, non-traditional families. RESIDENT FAMILIES

INTERDISCIPLINARY Research shows that the quality of the parent-child relationship does not depend on the ge- PROJECT, WITH THE netic relationship between parent and child, and that family structure matters less for chil- UTRECHT CENTER FOR GAME RESEARCH AND THE dren's psychological development and well-being than the quality of family relationships. CHILD EXPERTISE CENTER The project aimed to provide an innovative interdisciplinary perspective on these societally relevant issues. We’ve looked at them from a psychological/pedagogical perspective, the per- PART OF DYNAMICS OF YOUTH • DYNAMICS OF spective of language and communication, and a legal perspective. We’ve learned about how YOUTH IS ONE OF THE to use serious gaming to facilitate the development of a sense of belonging and social iden- STRATEGIC THEMES OF tity in children, and to create a (partly) virtual environment where children feel safe and UTRECHT UNIVERSITY. where they can stay in touch with their parents even if they don’t live in the same household. u

GAME RESEARCH MAGAZINE • UTRECHT UNIVERSITY • 23 CHANGE

2. Young and old Intergenerational digital game design

For this project we conducted a literature review of sixteen academic papers that discussed the use or design of digital games to foster intergenerational interaction or that were aimed at mixed-aged players.

Among these papers we identified four types of benefits of this type of games: (1) The potential to reinforce family bonds. (2) The capacity to enhance reciprocal learning. (3) The value of increased understanding of the other generation. (4) Their usefulness in reducing social anxiety.

We also identified two types of factors which are important when designing intergenera- tional digital games: player-centric and game-centric factors. Player-centric factors in- clude: the nature of the interactions between older and younger players that the game is Team members. aiming for, the motivations of targeted players to play digital games and the different abili- UTRECHT UNIVERSITY: ties of targeted players. The most relevant game-centric factors were found to be goal-relat- TERESA DE LA HERA EUGÈNE LOOS ed (competitive versus collaborative play) and space-related forms of interaction (co-loca- MONIQUE SIMONS tive versus virtual play).

24 • GAME RESEARCH MAGAZINE • UTRECHT UNIVERSITY 3. Social skate Ice skating exergame played by refugees

Team members. Exergames are digital games combining exercise with game play. These games and UTRECHT UNIVERSITY: the playful interactions fostered during play contribute to help establish, reinforce TERESA DE LA HERA and change the nature of social interactions among refugees and Dutch children in CATRIN FRINKENAUER EUGÈNE LOOS school classes. MONIQUE SIMONS Exergame play enables multiple players to compete or cooperate on a team, thereby ERASMUS UNIVERSITY providing both virtual and real social interaction. In this case we focused on coop- ROTTERDAM: erative play in order to enable cooperative interaction. By working together, partic- AMANDA PAZ ipants had common goals and equal status, which facilitated the opportunities for UNIVERSITY OF intercultural interaction. The game selected for this project was a Dutch ice skat- GRONINGEN: ing game that was played by 15 pairs consisting of one refugee and one Dutch child CLAUDINE LAMOTH (8-9 years old) in controlled playing sessions organized at two different schools.

«Change the nature of social interactions among refugees and Dutch children»

GAME RESEARCH MAGAZINE • UTRECHT UNIVERSITY • 25 HEALTH

Health games symposium

Health games –or games with a focus on Healthy health, healthcare, and well-being– are inter- active virtual worlds for playing, training, and learning, often as a form of simulation. They are used, for instance, to train for rehabili- urban life tation or prevention, to assess health condi- tions, and to teach facts and skills. Using game elements such as posing challeng- More and more people live, com- tional research consortium PRE- es, giving feedback, offering different levels, mute and work in the city. But how Health. They do research into how and relations allows users to play, train, and do we keep cities good to live in digital applications ­–apps and learn in a safe environment. and healthy? These are challenges mobile games– can be deployed This symposium, which was organised by many big cities are dealing with. to encourage people in the city to the Utrecht Research Focus Area Game Re- The success of Niantic's Pokémon use the public space more often search, brought together experts in the fields GO shows the many possibilities for physical exercise. Besides the of game design and development, psychol- mobile games offer to reach a big Netherlands, the consortium also ogy, neuroscience, physiotherapy, and data audience and 'play' with the way consists of Germany, Greece and and computer science. The program featured you use a city. Hungary. talks from game researchers, developers, Together with a European con- The deployment of mobile games companies, and medical experts. A demo sortium, Healthy Urban Living for a healthy urban life is one of market offered a range of live game demos. researcher Monique Simons the research lines of the interdis- Photo: JAN WILLEM HUISMAN, co-founder and creative of Utrecht University received ciplinary research group Healthy director of leading serious game developer IJsfontein, 350,000 euro from the Erasmus+ Urban Living (HUL) of Utrecht Uni- talking about his company's format to chart the needs and wishes of their clients. programme for the big interna- versity, which includes Simons.

DietCare: the value of game elements

Keeping track of your daily intake to the following research question: of food and fluids can be a hassle, What gamification aspects would even if there's a handy mobile app serve as stimulus to record fluid in- to help you. But what if that app take in a health coaching app? contains game elements? What if One baseline and three gami- keeping track feels like playing a fied prototypes are being tested game rather than paperwork? in order to assess and compare It stands to reason this would in- their performances. Here, perfor- crease the accuracy, or actually the mance is defined as the degree to frequency of data input by the user. which a gamified prototype stim- To find out if it really works like this, ulates participants to measure Utrecht University student Chris (keep track) of their daily fluid Verbeek is conducting an inter- intake compared to the baseline, esting research project, DietCare. non-gamified prototype.” In his own words: “The goal of the experiment is to provide an answer Project lead: Maartje Poelman

26 • GAME RESEARCH MAGAZINE • UTRECHT UNIVERSITY A virtual sleep coach in your pocket

Researchers from Utrecht Universi- sleep training programmes are com- ty, the University of Amsterdam and pleted by only half of the people with TU Delft have developed an app that sleeping problems. Researchers from helps users learn to sleep better. The Utrecht University, the University of goal of this virtual coach is to help peo- Amsterdam and TU Delft recently ple who suffer from chronic insom- revealed in the Journal of Medical In- nia comply with their recommended ternet Research that the effectiveness course of treatment. The coaching of insomnia treatments is related to process with the app is comparable therapy compliance. In order to in- PROJECT: SLEEPCARE MORE: WWW.IKGALEKKERSLAPEN.NL to personal coaching using Whatsapp. crease the effectiveness of sleep train- There are many different ways to ing, the researchers developed an in- PARTNERS: UTRECHT UNIVERSITY AND DELFT support insomnia treatments with teractive virtual coach, the SleepCare UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY. SLEEPCARE IS technology, such as apps that meas- app. SUPPORTED BY PHILIPS, THE NETHERLANDS ORGANISATION FOR SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH ure your sleep or smart alarm clocks (NWO), AND THE NATIONAL INITIATIVE BRAIN that wake you at the right time. How- The app is currently available for AND COGNITION ever, such technology-supported Android phones.

Virtual supermarket

The Virtual Supermarket is an innovative way to study the brain performance of people who have had serious health issues and experience psychological traumas as a result. The research combines virtual reality with custom made VR eye tracking technologies. This allows better testing, overview and measurement of behav- ioural responses than typical pen-and-paper tests do. PARTNERS: UTRECHT UNIVERSITY, BRAIN CENTER RUDOLF MAGNUS OF THE UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER UTRECHT (UMC), ATOM 2 BITS, HOOGSTRAAT REVALIDATIE, REVALIDATIE FONDS

GAME RESEARCH MAGAZINE • UTRECHT UNIVERSITY • 27 HEALTH

Annihilating alcohol abuse …with a game

28 • GAME RESEARCH MAGAZINE • UTRECHT UNIVERSITY Prevention & adolescents Preventing binge drinking among adolescents? Let them play games, but not just any.

Interview with Wouter Boendermaker

The game is called The Fling. On the screen, little green cubes race across three lanes, towards the player. In sync with the music, these cubes cross a certain threshold near the bottom of the screen. At the exact moment a cube crosses that line, the player hits a key. And again. And again. Following the cubes crossing the line and the rhythm of the music. Then, suddenly, one of the cubes doesn’t bear the colour green. It’s red. The player’s instinct tells them to tap the key when that cube crosses the line, just as with all the other cubes. However, the red colour says ‘no’. Ignore me. Do not follow the rhythm with this one. To avoid making the mistake of pressing the key at the wrong moment, i.e. a red cube crossing the line, the player needs to summon some sort of re- flexive self control. They need to suppress an al- most subconscious signal to hit that button. That form of self control is underdeveloped in adoles- cents who show a greater fondness for alcohol than is healthy for anyone. The game described is an experimental means of training that exact counter-response of inhibition and self control.

Wishful thinking? Granted, alcohol abuse is the result of many fac- tors; social environment and genetics play an im- portant role. Preventing alcoholism with a mere u

GAME RESEARCH MAGAZINE • UTRECHT UNIVERSITY • 29 HEALTH

«We may move to heavier drinking adolescents, for our next study»

game may sound like an oversimplification, if Bio. ger an adverse effect. You should only claim not plain wishful thinking. Wouter Boender- something works after you have validated the maker, PhD, researcher at Utrecht University, method.” talks us through the idea of a serious game ac- tually helping in this matter. More applications “The idea of a serious game is that it com- Going back to The Fling. Notwithstanding the bines two aspects: a fun element, the game, need for further research, the first results in- and a more ‘serious’ element, which can be v DR. WOUTER vite cautious optimism. Assuming in the end, based on scientific research. The Fling is based BOENDERMAKER a game like The Fling does indeed help to pre- is a psychological on a cognitive training paradigm aimed at scientist with interests vent alcohol abuse, could it have more appli- strengthening inhibitory control functions in in child development, cations? Boendermaker: “Previous research the brain. This aspect formed the basis for the clinical intervention has shown, to some degree of success, that the techniques, experimental game design. As such, it is not necessarily the design, development same cognitive training principles can also be game aspect that helps people to drink less, (programming) of scientific applied in subjects with ADHD, anxiety, and but rather the evidence based training prin- assessment and training other substance use problems. As the training tasks and serious games ciples underlying the game design. The game and teaching at bachelor paradigms are very similar, they, too, can be elements are primarily used to make the train- and master level. He works used as a basis for serious games. As the field ing more fun to do, which could result in lower at the Faculty of Social of cognitive training, especially through seri- and Behavioural Sciences, dropout rates and potentially better training Utrecht University. ous games, is fairly young, there is still a lot to outcomes.” discover. Among other things, questions that remain to be answered are which training par- Results adigms, but also which game elements, work So far the theory. The game has been put to best for which audiences? Can we take these the test. Boendermaker shares the results trainings out of the lab to have people train at the team collected so far. “We evaluated the home? We are currently working hard to find game in an experiment where we compared the answers.” the active game training with a placebo game without inhibition training, and a regular Small warning inhibition training without game elements. Project Info. Boendermaker has a small warning concern- During one month, 185 adolescents trained in v BEAT IT! ing the use of serious games: do not call them four twenty-minute sessions. As expected, we TRAINING BEHAVIORAL a game. “When you tell a group adolescents CONTROL IN found that the game variants were evaluated ADOLESCENTS they’re going to play a game, they think of big more positively than the standard training. 3D action games, of popular shooters like Call Inhibition also improved, but also in the place- MAIN PROJECT MEMBERS: of Duty, Battlefield. When presented with a WOUTER J. bo game group, suggesting the game activities BOENDERMAKER, REMCO non-commercial, perhaps less exciting, serious alone may already have had a beneficial effect. VELTKAMP, ROBBERT game, they may get disappointed before they “As the levels of drinkingIntroducing: in our first sample JAN BEUN, RENS VAN DE even get started. TheSCHOOT, Fling AND MARGOT were low, no significant training effects on PEETERS (ALL UTRECHT “However, when you first tell them they’re go- drinking behaviour were found yet. However, UNIVERSITY) ing to do some tests, some exercises, and then now that we know that the game training can they find out it’s actually a nice, little game, TrainingFUNDED BY inhibition DYNAMICS OF: be effective, both in terms of motivating the then that’s going to be an unexpected plus. A GOYOUTHor STOP participants and affecting inhibition, we may pleasant surprise. And that creates a way bet- move to heavier drinking adolescents for our TimingDYNAMICS very OF YOUTH important IS ter mindset to start with.” ONE OF THE STRATEGIC next study." THEMES OF UTRECHT UNIVERSITY. Grand Theft Auto The researcher, somewhat of a gamer him- Speaking of popular games, why not have large, self, stresses the importance of more studies. commercial studios incorporate inhibition con- “Every seriousThe Fling game,adds: especially in health- trol training exercises in their games? Wouldn’t care, reallyStoryline, needs tohumor be validated. Sometimes that instantly turn them into the world’s most it seemsRhythm inevitable an idea will work, but you popular anti alcohol abuse-tools? only really know after extensive, scientific, “Unlikely”, says Boendermaker, not entirely 3D (Unity) controlled tests. More importantly, in extreme unexpected. “Combining the very specific, evi- cases, a Points,badly designed level structure game could even trig- dence-based cognitive training paradigms with

More info: Boendermaker, Veltkamp, Beun, van de Schoot, & Peeters (2016). Introducing The Fling – An innovative serious game to train behavioral control in adolescents: Protocol of a randomized controlled trial. In R. Bottino, J. Jeuring, & R. C. Veltkamp (Eds.), Proceedings of the 2016 Games and Learning Alliance (GALA) Conference (pp. 120-129). Springer Lecture Notes in Computer Science 30 • GAME RESEARCH MAGAZINE • UTRECHT UNIVERSITY «There are still many avenues to be studied in our research»

Still from Grand Theft Auto V. "Combining the very specific cognitive training paradigms with commercial games will in be very hard to achieve"

commercial games will in most cases be very hard to achieve. Imagine incorporating large A cure? pictures of alcoholic beverages, and systemat- ically approaching or avoiding these pictures, If games can prevent alcoholism, throughout a game like Grand Theft Auto. The is there a chance that they could seriousness of such a game would probably also cure it? Well... stand in the way of the commercial aspects. “Nevertheless, there has been some research Wouter Boendermaker: “Actually, that has looked at the cognitive effects of com- the strongest scientific and clinical mercial gaming, which has shown some inter- effects using regular training are esting benefits in hardcore games. However, found among longtime heavy alcohol for the purpose of directed training, these users in clinics, where the cognitive games may be less suitable. trainings are combined with cog- nitive behavioural therapy, but still Explicit messages result in an added effect. Although "Another option is to take the more direct route a cure is probably too strong a term of explicit drug education as a basis for a seri- in this context, given the notion that ous game. The benefit there would be that ex- currently, relapse prevention is still plicit messages are probably easier to incorpo- a big problem, any significant im- rate in commercially fun games. However, the provement we can achieve is rele- efficacy of such explicit techniques may also vant. Whether games can play a role be more limited, especially in the case of sub- More. depends largely on the patient’s own stance use. For example, most people already v PROJECT BEAT-IT! motivation to change their behav- know that smoking is bad for their health, yet UU.NL/ONDERZOEK/ iour: if it is already high, games may they still have a hard time quitting. BEAT-IT only make the training a bit more “So in short, there are still many avenues that bearable, but if motivation is low, as v PERSONAL can be studied in our search to find ways to WEBSITE OF WOUTER is typically the case in adolescents, help adolescents battle their heavy substance BOENDERMAKER then a good serious game training use, and I believe serious games can certainly WWW.WOUBOE.NL may really make the difference.” aid in that effort.” u

GAME RESEARCH MAGAZINE • UTRECHT UNIVERSITY • 31 HEALTH To play, or not to play Healthy play, better coping

Stimulating play through games may empower chronically ill children in their everyday lives.

By: Sanne Nijhof, Stefan van Geelen, Stef Haarler, Sasja Duijff, Christiaan Vinkers, Heidi Lesscher

Chronic diseases negatively impact quences of their chronic or life-threat- children’s physical, behavioural and ening condition, so that they can ulti- cognitive development beyond the ac- mately develop into healthy adults. tual illness itself. Also in infants with «I always feel (early) life-threatening events, such as From a developmental perspective, remission after childhood cancer or play offers ample physical, emotional, as if people admission to neonatal intensive care cognitive, and social benefits. It allows can’t help me unit (NICU), physical development ob- children and adolescents to develop viously can be affected, but negative their motor skills, experiment with with any of consequences on their psychological their (social) behavioural repertoire, well being and social participation helps them simulate alternative sce- my problems. could be significant as well. Physical narios, and address the various pos- This makes disabilities, developmental disorders, itive and negative consequences of and social exclusion are major factors their behaviour in a safe and engaging me anxious, that may lead to limited play options context. for these children. Play behaviour is nervous essential for the development of an Innovative forms of play and lonely» individual. Therefore, on top of their Recently, we started a new multi-dis- (physical) disease, impaired play may ciplinary research project regarding Adolescent have long-lasting consequences for the developmental and therapeutic these children as they grow up. Stud- aspects of play and applied games in patient with ying and developing play and game children and adolescents with chronic Chronic Fatigue interventions for this particular pop- or life-threatening conditions. A prom- ulation is of utmost importance: to ising collaborative network of profes- Syndrome empower them and combat the conse- sionals from various disciplines across u

32 • GAME RESEARCH MAGAZINE • UTRECHT UNIVERSITY «Will I participate at the level of an elderly person, or will I not participate at all?» Young patient with Cystic Fibrosis

GAME RESEARCH MAGAZINE • UTRECHT UNIVERSITY • 33 HEALTH

«I remember that I always had to be aware of my arthritis.

(CHRONICAL) INFLUENCES When other ILLNESS (APPLIED) GAME - TREATMENT kids played - BEHAVIOR outside, I couldn’t take LIMITS INFLUENCES TYPE OF part» Young CHILD STIMULATES TYPE OF adult patient DEVELOPMENT PLAY (DIGITAL) GAME with Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis Conceptual research area of games as intervention for (chronic) diseased children.

the Utrecht University campus will Bio. redefine health as 'the ability to adapt help to answer questions such as: What and self-manage in the face of social, v DR. STEFAN VAN GEELEN is a philosopher is the adaptive functionality of play in and researcher at the Wilhelmina Children's physical and emotional challenges'. In children with chronic or life-threat- Hospital Utrecht. His main academic interests line with such notions, patients, re- are in the conceptual and empirical study of how ening diseases? How can innovative vulnerable patient groups experience themselves searchers, caretakers and policy mak- forms of play and gaming interventions and developing and testing new strategies to ers emphasize the need to help people stimulate coping with their situation? promote health. with chronic and/or life-threatening Will better coping improve their devel- v STEF HAARLER studies Information Science at conditions to increase their ability to opment, leading, for example, to better the University of Utrecht and is contributing to adapt, and their self-manage capaci- this project for his master thesis. social participation later in life? ties. Optimal comprehensive strate- v DR. HEIDI LESSCHER is behavioural gies addressing childhood conditions neurobiologist and researcher at the Faculty of Bullying Veterinary Medicine. She is interested in the might therefore use theories of play Children and adolescents with chron- role of behavioural characteristics, including as a conceptual framework. They will ic conditions constitute at least 15% social play and impulsivity and age-of-onset in also systematically monitor the child's the development of addiction and behavioural of the Dutch population under the control. capacity and ability to play and the age of 18. This means that roughly well-being of the patients and their v DR. CHRISTIAAN VINKERS is a psychiatrist and 600,000 children in the Netherlands researcher at the Rudolf Magnus Brain Center. families. This will help to assess vul- are chronically ill, ranging from mild His overall research objective is to investigate nerabilities and resilience among chil- impairments to severe limitations in the neurobiological background of stress dren with chronic and/or life-threat- resilience and vulnerability including (epi)genetic, daily functioning. Naturally, they suf- neuroendocrine, and brain circuitry factors, with ening conditions. This knowledge can fer the somatic and psychological con- a special interest in the GABA system. be used as an innovative and interac- sequences of their illnesses. However, v DR. SASJA DUIJFF is a paediatric psychologist tive method for creating prevention isolation, stigmatization, inequality, and researcher at the division of Paediatrics, and treatment strategies. Conceptu- bullying, and doubts concerning their UMCU. She has a special interest in the cognitive alizing and studying play – precisely development of children with the 22q11.2 physical and intellectual capacities deletion syndrome. understood as stimulating the ability are everyday realities for this vulner- to adapt and self-manage as an inte- v DR. SANNE NIJHOF is a paediatrician and able group in our society. researcher at the Wilhelmina Children's Hospital gral part of child's health - is therefore Utrecht. She investigates ‘patient related timely and much needed. outcomes’ like fatigue, pain, well-being, and Health redefined societal participation in various somatically In 1948, the World Health Organiza- defined paediatric patient groups, and uses their Constructive influence tion defined health as 'a state of com- experience in research at web-based monitoring There is growing evidence that ac- of health-related outcomes and treatment plete well-being and absence of dis- modalities. tion games can have a constructive ease'. Recently, it has been proposed to influence on young people’s cogni-

34 • GAME RESEARCH MAGAZINE • UTRECHT UNIVERSITY «I’m often tired at school and not very social. It’s difficult to have many friends as they prefer talking to more social people. It’s hard to see them going into town during school breaks: I can’t go with them, I have to save my energy for the rest of the day. Those are choices I have to make and my classmates don’t» Adolescent patient with Inflammatory Bowel Disease

Project Info.

v HEALTHY PLAY, BETTER COPING tive processes such as focus, prob- these complex multi-level topics, the lem solving skills, spatial skills and consortium uses animal models to de- FUNDED BY DYNAMICS OF YOUTH mental rotation. Moreover, a positive termine whether and how chronic or DYNAMICS OF YOUTH IS ONE OF THE STRA- relationship between playing video life-threatening illness affects social TEGIC THEMES OF UTRECHT UNIVERSITY games and a child’s creativity has also play behaviour and, as a result, alters been reported, and high usage seems social and neurocognitive develop- APPROXIMATELY TWENTY TEAM MEMBERS to be positively correlated with good ment. From a developmental perspec- ARE INVOLVED IN THIS PROJECT. intellectual functioning and academ- tive, we will examine the role of im- THESE ARE THE PARTICIPATING INSTITUTES: ic achievement. Just as with regular paired play behaviour resulting from WILHELMINA CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL (WKZ)/ play, video games can be real enough childhood health issues on social de- UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER UTRECHT (UMCU) to make the accomplishments of goals velopment, societal participation and matter, but are also a safe way to prac- stress-regulation. This can result in DEPARTMENT OF INFORMATION AND COM- tice such skills as controlling or mod- novel preventive strategies to increase PUTING SCIENCES, FACULTY OF SCIENCE UTRECHT UNIVERSITY ulating negative emotions in order to the resilience and social participa- achieve those goals. It has also been tion of young people with long-term DEPARTMENT OF ANIMALS IN SCIENCE AND suggested that the immersive social illnesses. In a collaboration between SOCIETY, FACULTY OF VETERINARY MEDI- CINE, UTRECHT UNIVERSITY context of today's games help gamers preclinical neuroscientists, paedia- rapidly learn social skills and pro-so- tricians, psychologists and other car- FACULTY OF SOCIAL AND BEHAVIOURAL cial behaviour, which might general- egivers/scientists, we will attempt to SCIENCES, UTRECHT UNIVERSITY ize to their peer and family relations influence treatment outcomes and UTRECHT UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF GOVERN- outside of gaming environments. In assess whether stimulation of play ANCE, FACULTY OF LAW ECONOMICS AND GOVERNANCE, UTRECHT UNIVERSITY this context, it becomes increasingly will help children with chronic or interesting to study whether interac- life-threatening diseases, as well as PRINCESS MAXIMA CENTER FOR PAEDIAT- tive technology might enable young their families, to more effectively deal RIC ONCOLOGY UTRECHT patients to rise above the limitations with their condition. Using innova- TRIMBOS INSTITUTE UTRECHT of their conditions and to participate tive applied gaming approaches and in play in augmented realities. interaction technology in childhood illness, we aim to facilitate the healthy Animal models development of bodily self-awareness, Still, very little is known on the re- physical and motor skills, emotional lation between play/gaming, child sensitivity and flexibility, cognitive development and chronic and/or abilities, social competence, creativity life-threatening illness. To address and problem-solving capabilities. u

GAME RESEARCH MAGAZINE • UTRECHT UNIVERSITY • 35 LEARNIING

«The robot is designed as a tool to support preschool teachers»

The 4 Rules of Robot Research.

The L2TOR project addresses the following four objectives:

1. Study the science and technology of social robots for second language tutoring with children in a preschool setting.

2. Define the pedagogy of robot assisted language tutoring.

3. Determine design principles of developing a social robot for (second) language tutoring with a clear commercial focus.

4. Innovate multimodal interaction management for robotic tutors.

36 • GAME RESEARCH MAGAZINE • UTRECHT UNIVERSITY L2TOR: the RoboTeach Child friendly tutoring robot Language acquisition benefits from early, personalised and interactive tutoring, thus, a robot is created to teach preschoolers a second language. Its name? L2TOR.

L2TOR (pronounced ‘el tutor’) is a scientif- learning through storytelling. For each do- ic research project officially namedSecond main, three lessons have been defined in spe- language tutoring using social robots. The cific domain-relevant language, such as count- project’s aim: design a child-friendly tutor ing numbers or spatial prepositions (in, on, robot that can be used to support teaching over, etc.), which are being taught to the child. preschool children a second language (L2) by SOCIAL ROBOTS are an increasing part of our interacting with children in their social and society, and can support Commercial use referential world. humans in a multitude The robot is designed as a tool to support pre- of ways – in health care, In particular, the project focuses on teach- elderly care, entertainment, school teachers by allowing children at risk ing English as L2 to native speakers of Dutch, and education. The vision of language delay, or those learning English is that social robots can German and Turkish, and teaching Dutch and contribute to Europe’s as a foreign language, to spend time with the German as L2 to immigrant children speaking aim to teach every child robot in one-to-one tutoring sessions. Tutor- a second language (L2) Turkish as a native language. The L2TOR robot through one-on-one ing robots have considerable market poten- is designed to interact naturally with children tutoring. The role of a social tial. They could find their way into formal robot as a second language about four years of age in both the second lan- tutor can facilitate the one- education, as assistive teaching technology guage and the child’s native language. to-one tutoring of children offering one-on-one tutoring to children who using a perfect model of the target language, while need additional support or who enjoy an ad- Body language at the same time being ditional challenge. But there is also potential proficient in the children’s The robot’s social behaviour is based on how mother tongue. Moreover, in the edutainment market for language tu- human tutors interact with children, and uses being situated in the toring robots; the already large edutainment physical world, interactions verbal as well as non-verbal communication, with a social robot can be market has room for social robots for infor- such as gestures and other types of body lan- multimodal and refer to mal home education. concrete objects and events, guage. The robot is able to adaptively respond thus enhancing the learning to children’s actions and engage with them in environment of the child. The L2TOR project capitalises on recent de- tutoring interactions. The child is provided velopments in human-robot interaction in Bio. with increasingly complex stimuli and utter- which the use of social robots is explored in ances in the second language, as well as ap- v PROF.DR. PAUL LESEMAN the context of teaching and tutoring. Social propriate feedback that supports the child’s is a full professor of robots have been shown to have marked ben- education, in particular language development. learning disabilities and efits over screen-based tutoring technolo- This L2TOR system has been designed and school problems of low gies, and have demonstrable positive impacts will be evaluated for three educational do- income and minority on motivation in learners and their learning children, at the Faculty mains typically used at preschools, and in- of Social and Behavioural outcomes. corporates language-based tutoring about: Sciences, Utrecht University. v L2TOR is an international collaboration between these 1) numbers and pre-mathematical concepts, partners: Plymouth University, Tilburg University, University of Bielefeld, Utrecht University, Koç University, Aldebaran 2) spatial language, and 3) basic vocabulary Robotics and QBMT. u

GAME RESEARCH MAGAZINE • UTRECHT UNIVERSITY • 37 LEARNIING The Virtual Patient The good news about bad news

Good news: delivering bad news can be trained. And thanks to a game, that training just got a whole lot more accessible.

Interview with Johan Jeuring

Telling a patient they have an incurable dis- Bio. and adapted to a specific group of students, ease is not easy. But holding such conversa- has almost no additional cost per trainee. tions is a skill that can be learned. There is no need to reinvent the wheel for every such con- Choices versation. Jeuring explains the workings of the game: “A bad news conversation typically consists of “Using Communicate!, a student chooses be- a number of steps that have to be performed in tween several dialogue options, and observes the right order. The bad news should be deliv- v PROF.DR. JOHAN JEURING the reaction in a virtual character, both in an ered immediately, and the information provid- is Head of department emotion as in a response sentence. If a stu- and professor of Software ed should be limited.” Technology for Learning dent does not follow the desired sequence of Speaking is Prof. Dr. Johan Jeuring, a long- and Teaching at the steps, the virtual character gets very angry, time researcher of computer programming; Institute of Information and leaves the scene. Each choice has a score and Computing Sciences of his first scholarly publications dating all the Utrecht University (Faculty on the learning goals of the dialogue, and at way back to 1990. Jeuring helped create Com- of Science), and professor of the end of a conversation, the student gets an municate!, a game that trains users how to Software Technology at the overview of the results of their choices on the School of Computer Science have such conversations. of the Open University learning goals.” (OUNL). The game has been through a long testing The Communicate! project was started in process, including a pilot. Jeuring continues: response to lecturers’ requests for a tool to “There are several aspects of Communicate! teach communication skills at health care we have tested throughout the years: how do study programmes. Typically this is done by students play the game, how can it be used actors, making training time intensive and ex- in a communication skills course, how do the pensive. By contrast, a game, once developed choices of students change when they play u

38 • GAME RESEARCH MAGAZINE • UTRECHT UNIVERSITY «It started as a research project, but ended up delivering a usable product»

GAME RESEARCH MAGAZINE • UTRECHT UNIVERSITY • 39 LEARNIING

«It is not the goal of our research to develop products that can be sold on the market»

two similar dialogues? Is there a difference Project Info. between first reading about communica- v COMMUNICATE! Games in education. tion skills and then playing, or the other way around, et cetera? TEAM MEMBERS: JOHAN JEURING, FRANS “In some experiments the game worked bet- GROSFELD, BASTIAAN Although Communicate! and its off- ter than in others. Three aspects we think HEEREN, MICHIEL spring, The ­Virtual Patient, may have are important. One - a scenario should not be HULSBERGEN, RICHTA found their way into the hands of stu- IJNTEMA, VINCENT too long: a scenario that takes longer than 15 JONKER, NICOLE dents and professionals, games aren’t minutes to play is too hard. Two - it is easier MASTENBROEK, MAARTEN particularly mainstream in current to create a scenario for conversations with a VAN DER SMAGT, FRANK day education. Prof. Dr. Johan Jeur- WIJMANS, MAJANNE clearly preferred structure. Three - it is good WOLTERS, HENK VAN ing: “The adoption of simulations and to have some different scenarios for the same ZEIJTS games in education isn’t a speedy pro- purpose.” cess. But I think it will accelerate and FUNDED BY UTRECHT UNIVERSITY TEACHING extend in the coming years. Every- Virtual Patient FUND where I look, I see people introducing Currently, Communicate! is used at the univer- more tech in education.” sity in several programmes: pharmacy, psy- chology, veterinary medicine, medicine, peda- One of the obstacles is finding the right gogy, and more programmes are working on it. business models. “Currently, the large Health care foundation Stichting Volte created educational publishers are delivering its own version, called the Virtual Patient. the minimum of what schools are ask- Jeuring: “The Volte Foundation uses the Virtu- ing of them in terms of tech. A lot of al Patient to train professionals for difficult sit- books can be easily replaced by soft- uations, in which there is no obvious wrong or ware, but there’s no business incentive right. Trainees discuss several options offered for the publishers. in the scenario, and sometimes even add their own. Utrecht University uses Communicate! to “The development of a game is quite train students in slightly more structured con- expensive. Consider Communicate!, versations, such as a bad news conversation, which took about five person-years or an anamnesis.” to develop, and we’re still working on it. On top of that, educational games Conquer the market should be easy to adapt to different Communicate! started as a research project, groups of students, further complicat- but ended up delivering a usable product. ing the development.” However, that was not the initial idea. Jeuring: “It is not the goal of our research to develop Despite these obstacles, Jeuring is op- products that can be sold on the market. The timistic. “The European Union is really distance from research to marketable prod- pushing schools to adopt more technol- ucts is almost always too large. In this case, ogy. And there are already some fields the product was directly usable in education, in which game-like environments are and turning the prototype into a market-ready the de facto standard. Programming product turned out to be not too hard. In such skills are a great example, with projects a case I think it is very nice to take the step to like Code.org being used by millions the market, and to show what we can contrib- worldwide.” ute with the research we do.” u

40 • GAME RESEARCH MAGAZINE • UTRECHT UNIVERSITY Island of science Go Go Gozo – a playful field course

The Erasmus+ funded Go Go Gozo field course project explored the links between play, mapping and mobility, delivering informal learning through field-based methodologies.

By: Alex Gekker, René Glas, Stephanie de Smale

GAME RESEARCH MAGAZINE • UTRECHT UNIVERSITY • 41 LEARNIING

A break in between classes at the Gozo university campus. Instead of a smoking or coffee break, we opted for short play breaks to energize the participants and open up potential new ways of doing things.

“I've often been accused of making anthro- pology into literature, but anthropology is also field research”, renowned anthropol- ogist Clifford Geertz once stated in an in- terview, “Writing is central to it”. Each year between 2015 and 2017, a group of Utrecht University staff and students ventured to the Maltese island of Gozo to participate in “Go Go Gozo’’, a ten-day field course funded by the European Commission’s Erasmus+ pro- gram. The persisting question of these exer- cises was found in the tension identified by Geertz – how does one reconcile the messy realities of fieldwork with the crisp, clean writing outcomes expected from a research- er? Understanding the playful nature of re- Translating fieldwork into group work. Creating a final playful presentation of the results. search is key.

The course delivered a field-based encounter between students and staff from different disciplines, bringing together students with academic researchers from Media, Geogra- phy, Game and Play Studies, Sociology, De- velopment Studies, Geoinformatics, Inter- disciplinary Studies and New Media Studies (among others) in order to explore the links between mapping, mobility and play in an insular fieldwork setting. The other partici- pating universities were University of Man- chester (project lead), University of Warwick, University of Olomouc (Czech Republic) and the University of Malta.

“Go Go Gozo” explored the links between play, mapping and mobility, delivering infor- mal learning through field-based methodolo-

Pieces of the field: twigs, maps, laptops. gies. One of the key objectives of the project is to bring students from different contexts to the field where they will explore the use

42 • GAME RESEARCH MAGAZINE • UTRECHT UNIVERSITY Bio.

v DR. ALEX GEKKER is lecturer at the Faculty of Humanities, Utrecht University. He completed his PhD on the interplay between modern map- making practices, digital interfaces and the power that arises in between them.

v DR. RENÉ GLAS is assistant professor at the Faculty of Humanities, Utrecht University, specializing in the field of game studies. Both within and outside of academia he is involved in projects dealing with video game culture and its history, play as a method to investigate A map of the hybrid game we created for the students to this culture and history, and game literacy. explore the island. v STEPHANIE DE SMALE is a PhD candidate at the department of Media and of embodied, digital, mobile and map-based Culture Studies at the Faculty of Humanities, research methods and skills, and to assess Utrecht University. Her the potential of playful, experiential and par- interdisciplinary background ticipatory learning in this context. The staff is in communication and (new) media studies, and students participating from Utrecht Uni- specializing in: games versity primarily came from the programmes and play, design, politics, ethnography, and violent Media and Performance Studies and New conflict. Media & Digital Culture, both within the de- partment of Media and Culture Studies. As such, Utrecht University’s contribution was very much dedicated to the playful and the digital within a methodological context. The photos on these pages capture the tension between free-flowing forms of play and rigid structures of education, as witnessed by us over three years.

Kite mapping: charting an island using camera’s on kites.

Exploring the island of Gozo.

«The project plays with and challenges dominant ways of learning and doing research. Its playful character triggered my curiosity, while my curiosity triggered my playfulness, consequently opening creative spaces to practice/theory» Peter, participating student

GAME RESEARCH MAGAZINE • UTRECHT UNIVERSITY • 43 LEARNIING Simulations and games for tertiary education Play to learn?

Games and simulations are finding their way into the ­university. But to what extent? And are they proper edu- cational tools? An interfaculty study has the answers.

Simulations and games play an important role Bio. fessional practice and the labour market, in in how young people learn. Through simula- particular in executing complex tasks and tions and games, students can practice skills concerning solving problems in multidiscipli- that are relevant for professional practice. They nary and interdisciplinary collaborations. learn to deal with complexity and diversity in a safe environment. Simulations and games al- Project Results ready play a role in higher education, although v PROF.DR. WIEGER To achieve the above goals, the team chose to it remains modest, fragmented and insuffi- BAKKER is the initiator of deliver five sets of results summarised here. this study. He is professor ciently embedded in learning objectives, and of Quality and Innovation the evidence for their effect remains limited. of Society-oriented Higher 1. Literature Review Education at the Utrecht School of Governance of the This was the point of departure for a broad- Utrecht University Faculty The objective of the literature review was to of Law, Economics and based interfaculty group of Utrecht Universi- Governance. investigate the effectiveness of simulations ty colleagues who, in 2014, set to work on the and games in tertiary education. We looked joint project, Simulations and Simulation Gam- into the relationship between deploying sim- ing in Tertiary Education, initiated by the Utre- ulations and games in university degree pro- cht Education Incentive Fund. grammes and achieving learning objectives.

Ambitious and diverse v TOM OVERMANS is the Results: From the systematic literature review From the outset, the objectives were ambi- general project leader. we found a cautiously positive effect between He is assistant professor tious and diverse. The primary aims of the at the Utrecht School of deploying simulations and games, and achiev- project were: Governance of the Utrecht ing learning objectives. In addition, we found University Faculty of Law, • To make available and accessible knowledge Economics and Governance. three key factors for the successful deploy- about and the possibilities of simulations and In 2014, after a successful ment of simulations and games: the role of the career as organisational games in tertiary (skills) education in relation consultant, Tom transferred lecturer and game leader, the specificity of the to the learning objectives of courses and de- to academia. simulation or game, and the integration of the gree programmes. The members of the project simulation or game in the course. • To stimulate those in charge of degree pro- team that carried out the study: Mirjam Bastings, grammes to develop and integrate didactic Wim Dictus, Anouck 2. Database methods into their programmes that concen- Gielisse, René Glas, Liesbeth van de Grint, Johan Jeuring, trate on simulation and games that are respon- Marc van Mil, Gerard van The objective of setting up a database contain- sive to the changes in learning styles and the der Ree, Benedikte Sam, ing all the simulations and games that were Stephanie de Smale and learning strategies of students. Yvonne van Zeeland. used at Utrecht University, was to lower the • To strengthen the alignment between ter- threshold for lecturers and professors to de- tiary education and the requirements of pro- ploy simulations and games in teaching.

44 • GAME RESEARCH MAGAZINE • UTRECHT UNIVERSITY CRISIS IN DOM-CITY (Crisis in Domstad) is one of the database entries.

The subject of this simulation is the decision- making-process in times of crisis. The simulation is intended to increase your understanding of the relationship between politics and administration. It focuses on the interaction between politicians, civil servants, the media and various interest groups.

Results: There was much fragmented infor- What’s what? 3. Clinical Reasoning teaches students to solve mation, knowledge and experience at Utrecht a pathological problem in a systematic and University on the effective deployment of sim- problem-oriented fashion. ulations and games in teaching. We brought all 4. The Performance Management Game teaches of these fragments together in one place that is hospital managers how to organise physicians logical and accessible to lecturers (tauu.uu.nl/ in a clever, productive, yet humane manner. games). They learned that sometimes an ex- isting external or internal simulation or game 5. Utrecht University Simulation Lab v GAMES VERSUS SIMS could be well-suited for use in their own teach- A clear and unambiguous ing, thus saving them much time and effort. definition of ‘simulations’ The objective of the sub-project Utrecht Uni- and ‘games’ does not exist. Simulations are generally versity Simulation Lab was to explore the pos- 3. Knowledge Network considered to be models sibilities of developing and financing a simula- expressing complex, real-life tion lab at Utrecht University. It could play an systems. Games, by contrast Building a knowledge network had both an in- to simulations, are goal- explicit role in further connecting researchers ternal and an external component. The first orientated activities with a who are, for instance, involved in developing objective was to strengthen the interfaculty distinct end. While playing a simulations or measuring the effects of simu- simulation, there are goals, collaboration in this field at Utrecht Universi- but successful completion lations in tertiary education. ty. In addition, the knowledge network was to of the simulation does connect with companies and knowledge insti- not necessarily result Results: the first concrete steps towards mate- from meeting the specific tutions outside Utrecht University. conditions for a "win" rializing a Utrecht University Simulation Lab were taken. Results: The collaboration created opportuni- Image: Statecraft, a popular simulation targeted ties for better and more structured internal at university students. and external exchange of knowledge. Simu- Statecraft could just as lations and gaming have been placed on the easily be called a game, Conclusion considering its resemblance agenda and people now meet periodically. to commercial games such For simulations and games to have added val- as Europa Universalis. ue, attention must be given to the role of the 4. Simulation Game Prototypes lecturer and game leader, the specificity of the simulation or game and the integration of the Four simulations were developed by four dif- simulation or game in the course. Simulations ferent initiators on the project team. and games are not the final solution for all the 1. SMOI is a business game used by students to More. problems in tertiary education. Nevertheless, practice leadership competence. they can play an important role in improving THE DATABASE: 2. EthiCo is a game about coping with ethical v TAUU.UU.NL/GAMES education and in increasing the extent to which dilemmas. specific learning objectives are achieved. u

GAME RESEARCH MAGAZINE • UTRECHT UNIVERSITY • 45 GAMES

‘I know that song!’ Citizen science How can you persuade a sufficient large number of people to participate in a scientific research? Making separate collections of folk songs and songs broadcast on early radio accessible to the general public.

By: Remco Veltkamp

46 • GAME RESEARCH MAGAZINE • UTRECHT UNIVERSITY «The amount of data is unprecedented in the field of music information retrieval»

v The Project Bio. tations provided by listeners help to establish COGITCH, short for Cognition Guided Inter- the relationships between hooks (perceptually operability beTween Collections of musical salient musical patterns) and music. Heritage, is a project of Utrecht University, the University of Amsterdam, the KNAW Meertens v The Project Results Institute, and the Netherlands Institute for The practical results of COGITCH are an in- Sound & Vision. The project’s name also refers teroperable search infrastructure and a work- to ‘cognitive itch’, which is a song fragment v PROF.DR. REMCO flow for the extraction of music thumbnails. that you keep on hearing in your head, also VELTKAMP is full professor The scientific results are models of music cog- of Game and Media known as an earworm. Technology at the Faculty of nition, cognition-based similarity measures, The Netherlands Institute for Sound & Vision Science, Utrecht University. and ground-truth data. These will enable fu- possesses a unique collection of popular Dutch His research topics are the ture music cognition research, musicological analysis, recognition and music. The Meertens Institute possesses a retrieval of, and interaction research, and music retrieval benchmarking. unique collection of Dutch folk songs. These with, games, 3D objects two collections of musical heritage belong to and scenes, images, video, v The Game and music. He has written the same culture, but are only separated for in- over 200 refereed papers The interactive game Hooked! was developed stitutional reasons. Sound & Vision wishes to in reviewed journals and as part of the study with the goal of unlocking make these musical archives accessible for the conferences, and supervised the secrets of what makes music memorable. 20 PhD theses. general public in an integrated way. Meertens Working with 14,000 song fragments, corre- Institute wishes the same, to enable musico- sponding to the first 15 seconds of the major logical research on the evolution of popular Lingo. structural sections (verse, chorus, bridge, etc.) songs. Driven by these demands, COGITCH's v Music Information of popular songs, the game recorded how long objective is to develop generic techniques and Retrieval it took participants to recognize a fragment or Interdisciplinary field of an interoperable system to index distributed retrieving information from to be confident that they did not. The experi- sources. Collaborative research cutting across and about music. ment yielded 130,000 responses. People who the boundaries between music cognition and played the game were asked if they recognized v Citizen science computer science resulted in the development Public (non-professional) a song, which was randomly selected from the of generic techniques for relating music from participation in scientific NPO Radio 2 broadcasting Top 2000 playlist. different collections. A top-down approach to research. The game collected an amount of data that is developing retrieval methods was taken, work- v Game with a purpose unprecedented in the field of music informa- ing from musical knowledge and cognitive Game which is fun to play, tion retrieval. For the record, the Spice Girls' psychology towards the identification and pro- but developed to solve a debut single Wannabe was the most quickly problem or collect data. cessing of audio features. Citizen science anno- recognized song by participants. u v Other terms for Cognitive Itch: Brain Itch, Auditory Itch Earworm, Ohrwurm Musical Hook More. Involuntary Musical Imagery The Top 10 Sticky Tunes, Sticky Songs v PROJECTS.SCIENCE. UU.NL/COGITCH Music Memes The top ten of songs that were recognized Humbugs v WWW.HOOKEDGAME.NL Song In My Head, Tune In fastest in the Hooked! game (with the aver- FUNDED BY THE My Head, Head Song NETHERLANDS age time in seconds): Obsessive Musical Thought ORGANISATION FOR 1. Spice Girls: Wannabe (1.78 s) Tune Wedgies SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH (NWO), THE NWO-CATCH 2. Aretha Franklin: Think (1.856 s) Aneurhythms PROGRAMME. Repetunitis 3. Queen: We Will Rock You (1.86 s) Chiclete De Ouvido ('Ear PROJECT MEMBERS: UTRECHT UNIVERSITY: 4. Christina Aguilera: Beautiful (2.00 s) Chewing Gum') JAN VAN BALEN, DIMI- 5. Amy Macdonald: This Is The Life (2.01 s) Music Virus, Sound Virus, TRIOS BOUNTOURIDIS, Viral Music FRANS WIERING, REMCO 6. The Police: Message In A Bottle (2.08 s) VELTKAMP. UNIVERSITY Stuck Tune Syndrome, Stuck OF AMSTERDAM: ASHLEY 7. Bon Jovi: It’s My Life (2.16 s) Song Syndrome, Last Song BURGOYNE, HENKJAN HON- 8. Bee Gees: Stayin’ Alive (2.16 s) Syndrome ING. THE NETHERLANDS Melodymania INSTITUTE FOR SOUND 9. ABBA: Dancing Queen (2.17 s) AND VISION: MAARTEN Humsickness BRINKERINK, JOHAN 10. 4 Non Blondes: Whats Up? (2.20 s) Haunting Melody OOMEN. THE MEERTENS INSTITUTE: MARTINE DE BRUIN, LOUIS GRIJP

GAME RESEARCH MAGAZINE • UTRECHT UNIVERSITY • 47 GAMES Playing the Archive

In early 2016 the Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision received an important collection of early Dutch video games from developer Radarsoft, an active publisher on the 1980s Commodore 64 platform. The collection not only includes entertainment titles, but also early educational games.

48 • GAME RESEARCH MAGAZINE • UTRECHT UNIVERSITY During the Let’s Play exhibition at Sound and Vision, the research project set up a dedicated Let’s Play recording booth. Visitors were invited to record a play session of old Dutch games while commenting on their gameplay.

Old games don’t play on modern equipment. To retain this part of our cultural heritage, we took action.

By: René Glas, Jasper van Vught, Jesse de Vos

Bio. Between 2015 and 2017, a collaborative project of the need to focus on documenting play as a v DR. RENÉ GLAS between Utrecht University researchers and preservation strategy rather than collecting is assistant professor at the Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision and presenting games as objects. This aligned the Faculty of Humanities, Utrecht University, set out to create the first unified effort between with what scholars in the field of game pres- specializing in the field of game research, cultural heritage institutions ervation has already pointed out: to preserve game studies. Both within and outside of academia and the Dutch game industry to preserve Dutch games as socio-cultural phenomena, shaped he is involved in projects games as national cultural heritage. What start- over time by both developers and especially dealing with video game ed out with a Focus Area seed money grant players, will require a focus on preserving play culture and its history, play as a method of investigating eventually turned into a larger NWO Museum as well. this culture and history, and Grant project with the name Game On!. game literacy. The aim of the research project was to think Authentic experience v DR. JASPER VAN VUGHT about how the complex nature of digital games This realization led us to experiment with a is assistant professor at informs archival policy and practices for cul- novel way of documenting gameplay in the the Faculty of Humanities, Utrecht University, also tural heritage preservation and presentation. form of Let’s Play videos. Even though there are specializing in game studies. To that extent, we were interested in questions many styles of Let’s Play videos, in most cases His focus is on game theory and methodology, video like: How can we define and approach the his- Let’s Play videos are disorderly, unstructured game ethics, and the history tory of Dutch digital games? What should a recordings of play – rather than dedicated play and preservation of games as art forms. preservation effort of Dutch digital game her- sessions showing off skill – and rely on the itage include (and therefore also exclude)? often humorous commentary to offer a more v JESSE DE VOS works at the Netherlands Institute What does the selection policy look like to pre- free-flowing, “authentic” experience of playing for Sound and Vision as a serve and archive such material? How can the a game. Currently, the Let’s Play video is one of curator and researcher of digital game heritage be open up to both the the most popular online video forums, with new and interactive media. His current topics of interest the general public and to specialist groups? several Let’s Play channels ranking among the cover the preservation and most subscribed to on YouTube. As such, the presentation of games and websites. He was the lead Over the course of the project, a lot of these Let’s Play video has become a prominent way curator of the Let’s Play questions converged in our growing awareness for players to engage with games, both in terms u exhibition in 2016.

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Anne Bras, the biggest Dutch collector of boxed games, engaged in creating a Let’s Play video during the exhibition. Such recordings were collected, archived and published on YouTube, and played an important part in the research project’s aim to focus on the notion of play as part of preserving and exhibiting games as cultural heritage.

of creating such videos or by watching others temporary perspective? And can it help us un- More. play. derstand video games as a developing medium For a full overview of all For the purpose of game preservation, we ar- by drawing historical connections that can shine the results of the project, gued, Let’s Play videos have the potential to pro- a new or different light on this now well-estab- including a selection vide a viewer with a sense of playing in a more lished medium? matrix for including games into the archive, user direct or engaging way than a regular gameplay research on potential uses recording would. We proceeded to create a small History of play experiences of the archive, as well Let’s Play recording studio in the Museum of In the end, our project yielded various interest- as video recordings of the symposium’s various Sound and Vision within a larger “Let’s Play!” ing results with regards to both the preservation presentations, go to: exhibition set up by the project’s research in- and presentation of older games. The Let’s Play BEELDENGELUID.NL/ tern Hugo Zijlstra. Here, we encouraged mu- videos for instance highlighted the potential for KENNIS/PROJECTEN/ GAME-ON seum visitors to record their own gameplay of creating a history of play experiences, where old Dutch games like Radarsoft’s Eindeloos (a new encounters with old games provide a re- For the LET'S PLAY-videos side-scrolling, maze-like shooter, 1985) or Topo- newed understanding of the games’ historical on Youtube, go to (case sensitive): grafie Wereld (an educational game with the aim significance. They also provided insight into the BIT.LY/OLD-GAMES of learning topography, 1984). These videos then importance of the materiality of the gameplay became part of the exhibition and were also put experience, with players comparing their expe- online on a dedicated YouTube channel. riences with old hardware to contemporary con- soles. It also confronted players with their own Commodore 64 game literacy, or lack thereof, as they noted how Within this Let’s Play setup, we were particularly playing these games met or defied their expec- interested in seeing how players nowadays ne- tations. These results have yielded interesting gotiate and discuss the semantics and mechan- insights into games as forms of cultural herit- ics of older games. In that respect, we intended age, which go well beyond merely preserving the to move beyond an idealization or recreation of games as objects themselves. an ‘original experience’ of playing these games. While the players did engage with the games on The results of the project were presented at a an original Commodore 64 console, we wanted symposium the research team organized at the to explore the new interpretative frames that Institute for Sound and Vision called Let’s Play players brought to these older games so that we Dutch Game History and were subsequently could understand what kind of games they are published. While the collaboration between Utre- now. How do players, for instance, highlight or cht University and the Netherlands Institute for negotiate the social, cultural, and technological Sound and Vision continues, the GAME ON pro- significance of older Dutch games from a con- ject wrapped up during the summer of 2017. u

50 • GAME RESEARCH MAGAZINE • UTRECHT UNIVERSITY 4 PhD-candidates & their research projects The Graduate Programme

The graduate programme of the Utrecht Center for Game Research offers talented students the opportunity to write their own PhD proposals. In a two-year master's degree phase, selected graduate students learn about different aspects of game research, and write their own research proposals. Four excellent PhD students were selected and they present their PhD research projects on these pages.

1. Nina Rosa: Seeing, Hearing and Touching New Worlds The Player-Avatar Relation in Multimodal «This Augmented Reality Games sensation can be more When players experience a virtual world feel that touch on our own skin, we start to feel through multiple senses, the relationship be- as if the avatar is part of our own body. Similar intense tween players and their in-game avatars may feelings occur when a player is in complete con- when start to feel real. What are the consequences trol of the avatar. This sensation can be more players are of this for the experience and performance? intense when players are absorbed in the game. absorbed in The field of game technology is ever chang- My research focuses on the relationship be- the game» ing. One important change we expect is the tween player and avatar during gameplay in shift towards virtual and augmented reality multimodal augmented reality games. I want techniques. The first allows the compelling to understand what the consequences of this experience of a virtual game environment, the are for the experience and player performance, latter a game world that is integrated into the by taking into account how we experience our real world. Another change is the shift towards real bodies: is the relationship between player multimodal experiences, meaning players will and avatar similar to how we experience our be able to experience the game world through bodies in everyday life? multiple senses, sometimes in ways that can- not be experienced in the real world. If this were not mind-boggling enough, studies NINA ROSA is PhD candidate at the Department of Information and Computing Sciences, Faculty of Science. In 2015, Rosa won a have shown that when we see a virtual game national thesis prize with her thesis on multimodal virtual reality body (a.k.a. an avatar) being touched and we experiences.

GAME RESEARCH MAGAZINE • UTRECHT UNIVERSITY • 51 GAMES

2. Marries van de Hoef: Why are Games Appealing? Understanding the variety of reasons why video games are appealing

It’s probably the most fundamental ques- tive. This makes it very difficult to compare tion in games research: what makes video and combine the knowledge. Identifying the games appealing to the billions of players aggregate of the existing knowledge on this around the world. topic is my first research goal. Three main ap- pealing factors are currently emerging from There is a lot of research investigating why my data: challenging factors, social factors and games are appealing. This question is usually exploration factors. not addressed directly, but disguised as re- These factors are portrayed differently in the search into player motivation, different types various perspectives, and factors are common- of fun, or emotions generated by games. These ly added or subdivided. Combining the insights «Three different perspectives have not only produced of all perspectives gives a better insight into similar results, but also striking differences. how games appeal. This insight can be used in main It is my hypothesis that all this research is ad- game design to understand what parts of the appealing dressing the same underlying question: what game are appealing and how to improve them. factors are makes games appealing? However, these dif- currently ferent perspectives each highlight certain as- pects while ignoring others. MARRIES VAN DE HOEF is a PhD candidate at the Department emerging The current situation with all these perspec- of Information and Computing Sciences, Faculty of Science. He has been awarded with the Science Faculty's thesis prize of 2014. from my tives is messy: there are a lot of theories about Image: The Witcher III, The Wild Hunt (CD Projekt RED), one of data» these topics, but each has a different perspec- the most popular games this decade.

52 • GAME RESEARCH MAGAZINE • UTRECHT UNIVERSITY «We are «Cities have been called seeing Smart, playful, sustainable, a rise in hackable and social» games specifically 4. Sjors Martens: about civilians City-Game Cycle suffering in Fitting the Game to conflict» the City Challenge

3. Stephanie de Smale: Think of the best city you know and think of what makes it so amazing. Is it social? Play- Patterns in Conflict ful? Efficient? Homely? Now ask yourself what kind of interaction with the city would Mapping Assemblages of best express your experience to others?

Contemporary Conflict in Digital Cities have been called smart, playful, sus- tainable, hackable, social – all terms that de- War Game Culture scribe the roles of cities and actions of their citizens. Games targeting these citizens are Video games don’t shy away these war games translate media increasing in number. Matching this increase from depicting the horrors representations to create fiction- are new and recurring narratives about what of war. How do digital games alised experiences of human suf- the city is. In my research I argue that the city represent human suffering in fering in wartime. However, the games developed to foster these city ideas are war contexts? How are they media platforms we use and the initially informed by (sometimes implicit) produced, circulated, and re- actors involved also shape this values about the city. The subsequent design ceived in contemporary digital experience and understanding of of the game ensures game mechanics that culture? war. Furthermore, the life of these allow the players to undertake actions that global media products circulate make these values come to fruition. This gives In this dissertation, I explore how in online media platforms such rise to the City-Game Cycle: where a game al- digital games represent human as YouTube, extending the life of lows a concept of the city to be realized. suffering in war contexts and experiencing the game through how these representations are playing, to watching gameplay on As it turns out, many city games are not spe- they produced, circulated, and video platforms. cifically tailored to the city values that have to received in contemporary digi- To make sense of the social ef- come out of it. Games pursuing one set of val- tal culture. Since 2012 the game fects of these kinds of war rep- ues suddenly provoke different actions. For industry has seen a rise in war resentations, I break down its instance, Pokémon Go was a way to make peo- games where the aim is to experi- study into four themes: the pro- ple go out and spend money, but it ultimately ence civilian suffering in conflict. duction of war representations also made city space social. In my research, Games such as Spec Ops: The in the design of digital games; I develop a method to determine whether Line, Papers Please, or This War humanitarian fundraising on and how the game mechanics fit the city val- of Mine coincide with images gaming platform Steam; the ues initially intended. By looking at this ‘fit’ seen in the mass media of the en- circulation of war narratives I strive to explain how certain game designs during Syrian conflict, the height in gameplay videos; and lastly, are popular in city games, and dispel often of the European migrant crisis, the role of YouTube as a site for used designs that don’t seem to work. Ulti- or the annexation of Crimea. meaningful interaction on real mately I will argue that games for cities are In contemporary, digitally mediat- world conflicts. only useful for a handful of city values and ed society, global war representa- should therefore not be seen as a panacea for tions play a large role in shaping STEPHANIE DE SMALE is PhD candidate reaching utopia. our understanding of today's at the Department of Media and Culture Studies, Faculty of Humanities. SJORS MARTENS is PhD candidate at the conflicts. Dominant ideas, stere- Her interdisciplinary background is in Department of Media and Culture Studies, otypes and iconic images used in communication and (new) media studies, Faculty of Humanities. He graduated from news media and the humanitar- specializing in: games and play, design, politics, ethnography, and violent conflict. Media and Performance Studies at Utrecht ian industry form a social imagi- University after graduating from Theatre, Film nary of war. Using this imaginary, Image: This War of Mine (11bit Studios) and Television Studies at Utrecht University (both cum laude).

GAME RESEARCH MAGAZINE • UTRECHT UNIVERSITY • 53 GAMES

Body movement Detecting lies, improving games Measuring and analysing body movement and posture helps to detect lies. The same technology can be applied to improve serious games.

54 • GAME RESEARCH MAGAZINE • UTRECHT UNIVERSITY «We can do a lot more than detect lies»

Imagine: a police officer is interrogating a sus- Bio. always looking for ways to improve and they pect and that suspect claims he drove from A way forward is using video. to B in half an hour. Now, if the distance be- “The issue is that 3D video is more reliable for tween A and B is over 100 kilometres, it’s bla- analysis than 2D. Luckily 3D cameras are gain- tantly obvious the suspect isn’t making any ing popularity. We’ve even seen them in smart sense. He’s lying. phones. Currently we’re looking at ways to do However, some lies, the better ones, are way more, for instance, can we measure and ana- more difficult to detect. But the more com- v DR.IR. RONALD POPPE is lyse body movements from a distance?” plicated the lie, the more difficult it is to cre- assistant professor at the Faculty of Science, ate and maintain. While an increasingly large Utrecht University. His 21th century skills part of your brain is involved with the lie, an research interests include The use of video instead of motion sensors increasingly smaller part is controlling your the analysis of human opens up new possibilities for the application motion from videos movements. and other sensors and of body movement analysis. Poppe: “We can Because of this, people who are telling lies are the understanding and do a lot more than detect lies. We can measure prone to move in a much less controlled fash- modelling of human body movements that convey people’s abilities (communicative) behaviour ion. These less than deliberate movements in various, natural settings. in 21th century skills." provide important hints for the trustworthi- Imagine being able to measure the confidence ness of their story. of a participant answering multiple choice questions. That would provide more infor- Stressful mation about their capabilities than merely Ronald Poppe and his team have conducted a list of correctly answered questions. Poppe: a lot of research in this area. “Lying is cogni- “During simulations, e.g. a role-play, we're able tively demanding and stressful and we’re re- to go beyond judging the decisions the partici- searching how the body reacts to that. We’re pants make. We can judge how they communi- actually measuring the direction of move- cate their decisions. ments, the distance, the speed. People wear “A manager conducting a bad news conversa- straps with motion sensors on their elbows, tion, should say the right things, yes, but they wrists and hands. By combining the data these also need to be convincing. That is what we can sensors provide, we can accurately measure measure by looking at someone's body move- body movements, even subtle ones. ments. “Straps with sensors or body suits provide ex- “In the same way, we can help improve serious tremely accurate measurements. But, they’re games. A game needs to see if you are actual- very impractical. They’re only useful in a lab ly learning. With instant video analysis of the setting, not in real world scenarios. So, we’re player, that would become a possibility.” u

100% score on national television

The technology developed by Poppe and his team was featured on national television. The system was able to correctly identify all five lies told by the test subject.

One of the phenomena Poppe’s team investi- trolled. If you’re having a nice and relaxed gated is mimicry. And no, not the biological conversation, you are in full control of your Mimicry phenomenon, the behavioural one. body and movements. But lying is cogni- tively demanding, so your body switches Poppe: “It’s an interesting and addition- to a more automated movement pattern. al way of detecting possible lies. During a It starts to simply mirror the posture and conversation, if somebody is copying your movements of the person with who you are posture, your arm movements, your facial having this conversation. Thus, the amount expressions, chances are they’re lying.” of mirroring, mimicry, may be a good indi- “This is automated behaviour, it’s not con- cator for possible lies.”

GAME RESEARCH MAGAZINE • UTRECHT UNIVERSITY • 55 GAMES

RAGE! Europe’s prime ecosystem for applied games. Partners. The Open University of the Netherlands (the Netherlands), Universidad Complutense de Madrid RAGE, Realising an Applied Gaming Ecosys- five end-users and one dissemination and ex- (Spain), INESC-ID (Portugal), tem, aims to develop, transform and enrich ploitation partner. Currently, the project is PlayGen (UK), OKKAM (Italy), FTK (Germany), The advanced technologies from the leisure games in its second year. It has already created the University of Bolton (UK), industry into self-contained gaming assets RAGE ecosystem with several assets from the Technische Universitaet Graz (Austria), INMARK that will help game studios develop applied research partners and developed games in (Spain), Utrecht University games more easily, quickly, and cost-effective- the areas of job and interview skills training. (the Netherlands), The University Politehnica ly. These assets will be available along with a The RAGE ecosystem is a social space that will of Bucharest (Romania), large volume of high-quality knowledge re- be the single entry point for applied gaming. Nurogames (Germany), BiP media (France), The sources through a self-sustainable ecosystem, Besides the technology assets developed by Sofia University St. Kliment which is a social space that connects research, the RAGE project, it will realize centralized Ohridski (Bulgaria), Stichting Praktijkleren (the gaming industries, intermediaries, education access to a wide range of applied gaming soft- Netherlands), Gameware providers, policy makers and end-users. ware modules, services and resources (or their Europe (UK), Escola de Polícia Judiciária Portugal), Randstad The consortium is composed of nine re- metadata) that have been designed and devel- (France), Hull College of search institutions, four game companies, oped in regional and EU-funded projects. Further Education (UK)

56 • GAME RESEARCH MAGAZINE • UTRECHT UNIVERSITY In depth: our RAGE project Social animations for virtual humans in games

By: Zerrin Yumak

Who are we and what is our role in the Then we use these insights and motion cap- RAGE project? ture data to generate the animations. Starting I am Zerrin Yumak, assistant professor of with the captured motions as a basis, we gen- computer science at Utrecht University, lead- erate new animations by modifying and com- ing Task 3.2: Embodiment and Physical Inter- bining the existing ones. That requires motion action in the RAGE project. The task develops signal processing and constrained motion assets that support the easy creation of flex- graph search algorithms. ible embodiment of virtual characters. We provide virtual character assets in which mo- What we have done so far? tions are adapted by specifying constraints. We developed the Virtual Human Controller Constraints affect the joint orientations of asset which is a collection of modules that an underlying skeleton, but other aspects of allows to create virtual characters that can characters as well. The constraints can be talk, perform facial expressions and ges- supplied by the environment, the propor- tures. The asset provides a quick pipeline to tions of the character but also the emotional build conversational 3D non-player charac- and social context. Enforcing motion con- ters from scratch. It is built on top of the Unity straints requires dealing with non-lineari- 3D Game Engine (a popular tool for building ties in the rotational domain and restrictions games) and provides three functionalities: on the degrees of freedom of the joints. We 1) Creating an animatable 3D avatar 2) Indi- view motion on a semantic level, where we vidual animation controllers (speech, gaze, can specify the meaning of a motion, which is More. gestures) 3) Multimodal animation genera- then translated to a motion of the particular v ZERRINYUMAK.COM tion using the Behaviour Mark-up Language. character that performs it. Based on studies We successfully integrated our asset with the on how well emotions displayed by virtual Communicate! dialogue manager. In addition characters are perceived, we support more Bio. to inter-asset integration, our asset is cur- efficiently production of emotional anima- rently being used by the game developers at tions. BiP Media in Paris and in the interview skills training game for Randstad. What is special about our research? Believability of the virtual human motions is What is next? crucial to engage the people and to create an Currently, we are working on three research illusion of reality. However, it is not very easy vDR. ZERRIN YUMAK is projects. The first one is generating lip-sync assistant professor at the to create believable characters. Motion cap- Department of Information animation based on the analysis of linguistic ture is an effective way to generate real-life and Computing Sciences cues and emotional speech given real human motions. Our research is about analysing so- at the Faculty of Science, audio as input. Another project aims to gen- Utrecht University, under cial and emotional behaviours and turning the Interaction Technology erate believable gesture motion for non-play- them into expressive character animations. division. er characters, based on conversational atti- For this, we first analyse the behaviours of tudes such as friendly and conflictive styles, people in real contexts. For example, we cap- and drives the behaviour based on the pitch ture and analyse how people behave during and amplitude in the audio files. Last but not group social interactions, how often they look least, we are also working on automated so- away or they look at the other person, and cial behaviour in group casual conversations what kind of non-verbal behaviours they dis- by analysing a motion capture database of play. We also look into their attitudes and roles real human interactions. We look at how peo- in the conversation. By learning patterns from ple take turns, give the floor and interrupt data, using machine learning algorithms, we each other and use these insights to generate get some insights into real-life behaviour. synchronised gaze and gesture behaviour. u

GAME RESEARCH MAGAZINE • UTRECHT UNIVERSITY • 57 GAMES

Virtual Worlds for Well-being VIEWW

Virtual worlds play an increasingly important role in our lives as places where people meet and make friends. Moreover, they influence the way we live, learn, communicate, heal, and entertain. When de- signed and applied appropriately they will have a strong positive influence on our well-being. Well-being, or vital- ity, has at least three components: the physical body, the perception in the mind and the emotional state of the person. Current virtual worlds, however, exhibit poor affect and, therefore, do not offer a rich, emotional experience. VIEWW aims to im- prove the sense of well-being in virtu- al worlds, including the emotion- al perspective.

On these pages you'll find the most interesting VIEWW projects and results.

This project was part of the na- tional program COMMIT. COMMIT-NL.NL

58 • GAME RESEARCH MAGAZINE • UTRECHT UNIVERSITY Affective Body Animation

In many current systems, 3D player avatars can only be controlled through very basic means such as a small set of pre-recorded motions or a few different facial expres- sions. To create more involved experiences in virtual worlds it is essential that virtu- al characters can express their emotions (such as happiness) and physical state (such as tiredness) much more convincingly. In order to achieve this, not only the visualiza- tion of these aspects should be realistic, but also the way users control their avatars: in an easy and natural way. Within this work package an integrated framework is being developed in which mo- tion and emotional expressions are com- bined into a generic approach for affective character animation. This includes the de- velopment of new algorithms to automati- cally compute synchronous facial and body motions that can express a variety of emo- Sensing Emotion in Music tions and physical states, with a focus on stronger expressions like laughing, crying, Music has considerable emotional impact shouting and heavy breathing. on people. This work package in Virtual Another development is a mechanism with Worlds for Well Being copes with the mu- which users can steer the animation of their sical aspects of semantic and emotional in- avatars through a simple interface such as a formation in personal communication. few sensors placed on the user’s arms and legs, which will drive an animation engine Music has been analysed statistically in that translates these signals into similar av- many ways on the basis of low level features, atar motions. counting pitch classes, beats per minutes, etc. This gives a broad categorization, but PROJECT LEAD: still provides little semantic or emotional DR.IR. ARJAN EGGES, FORMERLY OF UTRECHT UNIVERSITY information, which is much more person- al, and less statistical. Research within this work package focused on identifying the relevant parameters, and creating compu- Social Animation tational models, implementations, and pro- totype systems. Since one of the main goals of virtual envi- ronments is to create a social experience, it PROJECT LEAD: is crucial that animated characters and av- DR. FRANS WIERING, FACULTY OF SCIENCE, atars in these environments move accord- UTRECHT UNIVERSITY ing to established social rules. In this work package new techniques are being investi- gated for computing realistic movements and animations for such socially-driven multi-character animations.

PROJECT LEAD: DR. ROLAND GERAERTS, FACULTY OF SCIENCE, UTRECHT UNIVERSITY

For more on this subject: read the article Control the crowd and save the day, starting on page 16 of this magazine.

GAME RESEARCH MAGAZINE • UTRECHT UNIVERSITY • 59 GAMES

Sensing emotion in video

In social settings, people interact in close proximity. When analysing such encounters from video, we are typically interested in distinguishing between a large number of different interactions. Our work focuses on finding models to train interaction recognition and how to detect such interactions in both space and time from video. When considering many different types of interaction, we face two challenges. First, we need to distinguish between interactions that initially appear indis- tinguishable. Second, it becomes more difficult to obtain sufficient specific training examples for each type of in- teraction. Our research addresses both issues. We have created a framework that can distinguish very fine differ-

ences among interactions. Our method STILL FROM A VIDEO USED TO ANALYSE HUMAN INTERACTIONS. can be refined with body part detectors from non-specific images with pose in- formation. Such resources are widely available. We have introduced a train- Project:​ People suffering from dementia often ing scheme and a model formulation to feel confused and depressed. Some allow for the inclusion of this auxiliary Personalised of them also display wandering be- data. interactive wall haviour. We build an interactive wall for for people suf­fering from dementia. The wall uses compu­ ter vision to rec- elderly with ognize the person in front of the wall dementia and to recognize his or her behaviour TEXT: COERT VAN GEMEREN and emotional state. Based on the be- PROJECT LEAD: DR.IR. RONALD POPPE haviour detected, the wall then gives a personalized experience using video and music that appeals to that person. Family members can upload content. The interaction with the wall may di-

THE INTERACTIVE WALL RIGHT AFTER BEING ASSEMBLED. minish the behavioural problems of dementia such as agitation, aggres- sion, fear, depression and apathy. The wall also gives those who display wan- dering behavio­ ur a virtual place to go to.

INVOLVED PARTNERS: UTRECHT UNIVERSITY, AMSTERDAM UNIVERSITY OF APPLIED SCIENCES, AMSTERDAM UNIVERSITY AND CGI.

60 • GAME RESEARCH MAGAZINE • UTRECHT UNIVERSITY STILLS FROM THE VIDEO EXPLAINING THE GAME. 88 YEAR OLD LISA CLARKE IS PARTICIPATING AND BEING MONITORED.

Project:​ Many older people, especially people with neurological or orthopaedic disorders, ex- Biomechanical animation Exercise game perience restrictions in their ability to sud- to reduce the denly change their walking patterns. These risk of falling people have a higher risk of falling, for exam- This work package focuses on the study ple when trying to step over an obstacle. To and adaptation of computational meth- reduce the falling risk, researcher developed ods to estimate a person's physical a fun and motivating exercise game. well-being based upon existing muscu- During an assessment on a walking belt we loskeletal models. Because of the focus measure the adaptivity of a patient’s walking on a low level of restriction, the study style. After defining a comfortable walking uses low-cost devices (such as Micro- speed, we present visual feedback of a target soft’s Kinect camera or a set of acceler- step length. The subject then needs to re- ometers). These methods produce esti- spond by taking smaller and larger steps re- mated measures of the user's muscular spectively. The belt speed adjusts automati- activity to control the characters and cally to ensure a constant step frequency. drive the characters in the virtual world. Controlled belt speed changes stimulate the Physical fatigue and local soft-tissue patient to change his step frequency by con- deformations is derived from simulating trolled belt speed changes in combination the human motion. As these methods with target step-lengths. Our assessment are typically computationally intensive, measures how well the patient performs ad- research will determine the proper justments in step lengths and step frequen- amount of optimization and offline com- cies. The better the adjustment, the lower putation. Finally the translation of the the risk of falling. model outputs to the user through ava- tars is being investigated. PROJECT LEAD: ZERRIN YUMAK PARTNERS: MOTEK MEDICAL, UTRECHT UNIVERSITY, AM- PROJECT LEAD: DR.IR. ARJAN EGGES, FORMERLY OF STERDAM UNIVERSITY OF APPLIED SCIENCES, AMSTER- UTRECHT UNIVERSITY DAM UNIVERSITY, WAAG SOCIETY, DIGIFIT AND CGI. u

GAME RESEARCH MAGAZINE • UTRECHT UNIVERSITY • 61 UTRECHT UNIVERSITY Utrecht: game city Utrecht is the home and birthplace of many Dutch game studios. For a large part these studios have founders who are alumni of the Utrecht University or HKU University of the Arts Utrecht.

Dutch Game Garden (DGG) The national game incubator Dutch Game Garden (DGG) is the Netherlands' largest game incubator and business centre, its main location is positioned in Utrecht. DGG's mission is to create economic growth by supporting the Dutch games in- dustry and promote entrepreneurship. Besides providing studio space, events, advice & matchmaking, DGG’s incubation program helps prom- ising game start-ups with individual coaching, workshops, and lectures. DUTCHGAMEGARDEN.NL

Abbey Games

Founded by four Utrecht University alumni, Abbey Ronimo Games Games developed two consecutive Ronimo Games is one of the first game stu- hits: REUS in 2013 dios founded by a mix of alumni from HKU and Renowned University and Utrecht University. Their Explorers in 2015. first game, De Blob, was sold to a publisher Both games were who developed it into a worldwide hit for heralded for their Nintendo Wii. Swords & Soldiers (2009) original take on was critically praised and won the Control the strategy genre, Industry Award 2009 for Best Game Devel- game design and oped by a Dutch Studio. Their biggest hit technical prowess. however, was the 2012 Awesomenauts. A In 2013 the studio frantic multiplayer arena shooter, oozing won the Control with charm. Like Abbey Games, Ronimo Industry Award developed their own game engine, the foun- for Best Game De- dation on which a game runs. This is such a veloped by a Dutch technically challenging task, that most stu- Studio. dios opt to acquire an existing one instead of developing their own. A year later, Ronimo ran an extremely suc- cessful crowdfunding campaign which net- ted them over 400 thousand dollar, making it one the most successful Dutch crowdfund campaigns to date.

62 • GAME RESEARCH MAGAZINE • UTRECHT UNIVERSITY Activate!

An overview of some of the activities that were organised at Utrecht University.

Symposium Conference GALA on Music in Play/Perform/ Meeting EU Conference Videogames Participate Ambassadors 2016 Intetain 2016 Ludo 2015 2015 2016

In December In June 2016, On 9 and 10 In April 2015 the European 2016, the annual Utrecht University April, the annual second conference ambassadors GALA (Games And organised the symposium of the by the International visited Utrecht Learning Alliance) 8th International research group Society of in 2016 on the conference Conference Ludomusicology Intermedial occasion of The was held at the on Intelligent about music in Studies took Netherlands' Utrecht University. Technologies video games took place at Utrecht presidency of the Over three days, for Interactive place at Utrecht University. The EU. They were numerous guests Entertainment. University. panels addressed introduced to from all over the The conference The event was the most important demos by Utrecht world attended addresses issues supported by themes and topics University, HKU various lectures, concerning the Institute for in contemporary and UMC Utrecht tutorials and demo relationships Cultural Inquiry media cultures in in the application sessions focused on between human- (ICON), GAP: Center an interdisciplinary areas sustainability, games and learning. computer for the Study of way. health, open, safe The conference was interaction and Digital Games and inclusive held in association entertainment. and Play and the societies, and with the Serious research focus area adapting to a Games Society. Game Research. changing society.

GAME RESEARCH MAGAZINE • UTRECHT UNIVERSITY • 63 UTRECHT UNIVERSITY

Summerschools

Utrecht University organises Summerschools, courses tar- geted at university students from all over Europe. The first interdisciplinary European summer school in game and play research took place in 2014 and was an overwhelming success, featuring an impressive list of international lecturers. Mathias Fuchs, Institute of Frans Mäyrä, Miguel Sicart, Center for Culture and Aesthetics of Game Research Lab, Computer Games Research, Digital Media, Leuphana University of Tampere, IT University Copenhagen, Students participated in lectures, University Lüneburg, Germany Finland Denmark disciplinary seminars, prac- tice-based workshops, a game- jam, and were introduced to local game and play companies. Some 60 national and interna- tional students and over 20 game scholars from the Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, Brasil, UK, USA, Mexico, Austria, Sweden, Finland, Poland, and Spain vis- ited Utrecht. Each of the insti- tutions involved brought their own unique (inter)disciplinary perspectives to the programme, providing a rich foundation for discussion on games and play re- search. Students exchanged and discussed methods and theories from their own discipline, in par- ticular during the lectures and interdisciplinary seminars. Game and play scholars such as Miguel Sicart, Frans Mäyrä, Helen Kenne- dy, Annika Waern, Mathias Fuchs, and Joost Raessens presented their state-of-the-art research. While morning sessions focused on theoretical discussions, in the afternoon the programme was much more practice-based. For instance, participants visit- ed game hub Dutch Game Gar- den and participated in practical workshops, such as the workshop game design hosted by creative cultural institution SETUP. In 2016 the Summerschool con- tinued in a successful manner, with the course Multidiscipli- nary Game Research. This year’s edition featured another course: Game Design and Development.

Photo: Joeri Taelman

64 • GAME RESEARCH MAGAZINE • UTRECHT UNIVERSITY DiGRA Pitch Event

The Dutch chapter of DiGRA organised a pitch event in Utrecht earlier this year. Game researchers from across the coun- try gave no less than 25 three-minute pitches for their projects. A great show- case of the current state of game research in the Netherlands. DiGRA (Digital Games Research Associa- tion) is the association for academics and professionals who research digital games and associated phenomena. It encourages high-quality research on games, and en- courages its members to collaborate and share their work. In 2003, Utrecht Uni- versity organised ‘Level Up’, the inaugural conference of the Digital Games Research Association (DiGRA). During the event, 25 researchers from Utrecht University, Erasmus University, Fontys University of Applied Sciences, NHTV Breda, Delft University of Technol- ogy, University of Twente, Eindhoven Uni- versity of Technology and the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences presented their current game research in three min- ute pitches.

Serious gaming course

In 2015 the Department of Information and Computing Sciences organised a Se- rious Gaming course for university stu- dents. The seminar we provided an in- troduction to the world of serious games, explored their application domains, and examined the key activities that concern the creation of serious games following principled design and evaluation.

Educate-it

The university-wide Educate-it pro- gramme supports teachers as they fu- ture-proof and enhance their teaching practice. It helps teachers innovate their teaching practice by incorporating blend- ed learning and using the available IT tools to engage students and clear the logjams that obstruct effective teaching.

GAME RESEARCH MAGAZINE • UTRECHT UNIVERSITY • 65 UTRECHT UNIVERSITY Game research through the years

Joost Raessens and Remco Veltkamp take a deep dive into the history of game research at Utrecht University.

Joost Raessens (JR): “I think we succeeded in making people see games as a serious subject, worthy of research. Games are an important part of our society; there is so much more to them than addiction or violence. “Game studies start- ed as a course within a single discipline. 1637: 1998: First 2003: DiGRA 2005: Master It quickly became The Maliebaan official game conference programme multi- and interdisci- courses plinary and now it’s In the 17th centu- Utrecht University Start of the master even transdiscipli- ry the lawn game The Faculty of Hu- organises Level Up, programme Game & nary.” Pall-mall, known as manities launches the first conference Media Technology, Malie in Dutch, was its first official game of the newly created a two year research Remco Veltkamp very popular among courses, as part the Digital Games master. (RV): students. It was so master New Media & Research Association “Game technology popular that Utrecht Digital Culture. (DiGRA). RV: “We educate studies are strongly University, which students rooted in educa- was founded in 1636, JR: “The official JR: “There had been to develop and tion. They kind of and the city council European launch of some smaller events, explore new came into existence created a dedicated the firstTomb Raider but we wanted to do technologies to organically. There alley for the game game in 1996 was something… big. It build the next was a real sense of in 1637, the Malie­ the spark that set worked, the con- generation of games ‘this is important, we baan. This is the first everything in motion. ference was a huge and interactive should develop these example of games I was invited to talk success. In 2015 we virtual environ- courses’. To this day, being important to about the increasing were able to revive ments.” we offer complete Utrecht students importance of games, the entire confer- programs that are and scholars. I got to know some ence archive and unique to universities people at Eidos, and make it accessible at in the Netherlands.” they helped us digra2003.org.” with the develop- ment of the first game courses in Utrecht.”

66 • GAME RESEARCH MAGAZINE • UTRECHT UNIVERSITY Game research for training and entertainment final publication | 2012

2005: 2005: 2006: 2007: GATE Mark Overmars Advanced Handbook Ludification of It’s impossible to talk Gaming and of Computer culture The GATE project about game research Simulation Game Studies (2007-2012) posi- in Utrecht and not Raessens coins the tions The Nether- mention prof.dr. In 2005, Utrecht MIT Press publishes phrase “Ludification lands as a strong Mark Overmars. The University, TNO, and the Handbook of of culture” in angrowing gaming ecosystem. prolific scientist, the Utrecht Uni- Computer Game article for theknowledge first With a total budget programmer and versity of the Arts Studies, edited by issue of the quar- of 19 million euros, former full professor (HKU) launch the Joost Raessens and terly peer-reviewedfor gamesUtrecht University created GameMaker, joint Center for Ad- Jeffrey Goldstein. journal Gamesresults from and the gate researchcoordinates project dozens a toolset for game Game research for training and vanced Gaming and Culture. Raessens of research projects.entertainment developers which, Simulation (AGS), JR: “In 2000 I only further elaborated to this day, is among bringing together a knew a couple of on this idea, a sort of RV: “GATE had a the most widely unique combination good books that extension of Johan great impact. It was used game develop- of scientific re- covered computer Huizinga's homo bigger than the Fac- ment software pack- search, professional game research. So, ludens, in his 2012 ulty of Science, or the ages. He received his skills, and creative when I visited MIT, inaugural lecture, Faculty of Human- PhD from Utrecht talents. Mark Over- I wanted to buy all Homo Ludens 2.0. ities. It was bigger University aged 24, mars (UU), Peter their books on games. The Ludic Turn in than Utrecht. It was developed the prob- Werkhoven (TNO), To my surprise, they Media Theory. a national, transdis- abilistic roadmap and Jeroen van only had one. At the ciplinary scientific method for robotics, Mastrigt (HKU) draft exact same time, effort. Within the and co-founded and a scientific pro- Jeffrey Goldstein was projects academics sold several game gram, ranging from in the same place, worked alongside companies. Before technical aspect of looking for the same game industry pro- he left the Univer- simulations to the kinds of books. We fessionals. The results sity, Overmars was x-factor of games. started to talk and we were disseminated one of the founding This ambitious pro- decided right there regularly in relevant fathers of GATE. gram leads to GATE and then to edit our publications and (2007). own handbook.” symposia.”

2009: 2013: 2013: The 2014: Summer- 2014-... Creative Game Persuasive minor Game school Utrecht Center Challenge Games Studies for Game The first interdis- Research The first of four The Persuasive The minor Game ciplinary European Creative Game Gaming in Context- Studies is being summer school JR/RV: “We started Challenges, a game project launches, a established as a part in game and play the Utrecht Center design competition, four year project. of the Faculty of Hu- research takes place for Game Research tasks high school The research in this manities. The focus at Utrecht Universi- to develop an inte- students with project is concerned of the programme ty. JR: “Two weeks, grated approach to creating their own with the characteris- lies in the study of 60 students from all scientific and social game. RV: “The tics, design princi- digital games and over the world, some questions, by linking project introduced ples, and effective- the role of play in of the biggest names academic excellence high school students ness of persuasive our contemporary in the field, it truly and fundamental to game development gaming. culture. felt like Utrecht was research to the and computer the centre of game university’s societal sciences.” (More on page 13) research in Europe.” mission.” u EOF

GAME RESEARCH MAGAZINE • UTRECHT UNIVERSITY • 67 UTRECHT CENTER FOR GAME RESEARCH

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