Game Research @CHI PLAY 2024!

The Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play (CHI PLAY) is an international and interdisciplinary conference (by ACM SIGCHI) for researchers and professionals across all areas of play, games, and human-computer interaction (HCI). CHI PLAY 2024 (celebrating its 10th anniversary) took place in Tampere, Finland from October 14-17. The conference featured an interesting program with 63 full papers and a variety of other tracks such as works-in-progress, perspectives on play, interactivities, workshops, panels, a student game design competition, and a doctoral consortium.

Our researchers were strongly involved in the organization (serving as papers chair, student volunteer chair, and workshop organizers) and presented a variety of contributions.

Overview of contributions:

How To Tame a Toxic Player?

Michel Wijkstra, Katja Rogers, Regan L. Mandryk, Remco C. Veltkamp and Julian Frommel

Click here to read the paper

Low Latency Feedback: Contrasting Training Outcomes of Immediate versus Delayed Feedback in Speedrunning Super Mario Bros.

Ioannis Bikas, Johannes Pfau, Thomas Muender, Rainer Malaka

Click here to read the paper

Researchers

dr. Julian Frommel

 Julian Frommel is an assistant professor in the Interaction/Multimedia group. He is interested in the design and implementation of interactive digital systems that provide enjoyable, meaningful, safe, and healthy experiences for users. In one research line, he addresses hate in online games. His research also investigates how interactive systems can help mitigate their negative outcomes in adaptivity and intervention approaches.

Federica S. Giusti

Federica is a PhD candidate at the Human-Centered Computing interaction, researching gender representation in digital games to reduce disparity and create a more inclusive player experience. Her work blends design, psychology, and technology to promote respectful, balanced gaming environments.

dr. Johannes Pfau

Johannes is an Assistant Professor within the Interaction/Multimedia group. His work revolves around the intersection of video games, (generative) AI, analytics and data science. Most of his innovations are implemented and evaluated directly within established games and/or developed in direct collaboration with representatives of the industry.

dr. Susanne Poeller

Susanne is an assistant professor in Human-Centred Computing, seeking to create welcoming and inclusive gaming communities. She applies psychological theories of motivation and self-regulation to better understand the problem of online toxicity (especially verbal abuse and discrimination). Specifically, she is focused on how we can promote empathy and positive social interactions to counteract the prevalent negativity.

Michel Wijkstra

Michel is a PhD Candidate with the Interaction and Multimedia group. The subject of his work is toxic behaviors and harassment in multiplayer games. This broad topic includes detection and prevention techniques and analysis of the causes and effects of this type of behavior. In his work he has assessed the current state of the design space for intervention systems and is currenly working on various ways of adressing toxicity. He also teaches game programming and serious games courses and supervises both bachelor and master theses.

Filed under

, , , , ,

, ,

Read more

Summer School Game Design and Development 2024

From August 19-23, 2024, we had the pleasure of hosting this year’s Summer School Game Design and Development, organized by Dr. Sandes Bakkes and Dr. Julian Frommel and supported by Jens Steenmetz and Philip Tap. We had the pleasure of welcoming 23 students from various countries and a wide range of disciplinary backgrounds to Utrecht.

Editorial Team
29-08-2024 // Education, Insights //

CFP: Dutch DiGRA 2024 Symposium

Our colleagues at Erasmus University are hosting a Symposium for the Dutch chapter of the Digital Games Research Association (DiGRA). The full CFP should prove interesting for all game researchers at UU.

Editorial Team
21-08-2024 // Events // Criticism and Analysis, Games and Sustainability, Games Beyond Entertainment, Multi theme

Meet the Makers: Roos Groothuizen

The Transmission in Motion research group is organizing another Meet the Maker event, this time focusing on media artist Roos Groothuizen who works primarily with playful media.

Editorial Team
17-10-2024 // Events, News // Extended Realities (AR/VR/XR), Games Beyond Entertainment

Fostering an Open Mind – First Test of WP2

On June 7th 2024, the Fostering an open mind and open attitude in higher education using games and art-based educational activities (Open Mind) project ran an initial play test of the first two components of Work Packet 2 (WP2), a toolbox to aid students in building games that deal with often complex and polarizing topics in an approachable manner.

Editorial Team
12-06-2024 // Insights, Longread, News // Games Beyond Entertainment

Ecogame Playtesting Series 2024/25

In September 2024, the Network for Environmental Humanities (NEH) and the Utrecht Game Lab are launching a new series of events playtesting and discussing ‘ecogames’: or games that engage with the environment and with the climate crisis.

Editorial Team
23-08-2024 // Events // Games and Sustainability

What is (Dutch) Game Research? – Part 2

Discussing the themes and patterns presented by game researchers from a variety of backgrounds at the UU helps offer an insight, offers an insight into possible expressions of the field of game research as a whole. This second part of the series explains the reasoning behind the interviews conducted.

Amy Lycklama
04-11-2024 // Insights, Longread // Multi theme