Towards a Social Game Interaction Taxonomy

1. 1:1 Towards a Social Game Interaction Taxonomy • 1:n GameDays //2012 and Edutainment //2012 Session: Emerging Learning and Gaming Technologies19th September 2012 Publication as Springer LNCS PDF:http://tinyurl.com/TowardsSGIT GameSituations • Vote • Post • Comment • Chat • Tag • Invite • Connection • Join Mapping Patterns Dipl.-Inform. Johannes Konert Interaction Types

2. Motivation: Peer Tutoring • Learning with Games (Singleplayer) • Today: • Well designed Digital Storytelling • Player seeks help for challenges from friends, forums, .. • Challenges: • No integrated assistance and help • Only ‘random’ match (person or content) for assistance • Idea: • Support knowledge transfer by Peer Tutoring using the social network of players Power Of Research, TPM Games Der Wechsel, TUD FIF

3. Motivation: Peer Assessment • Assessment in Games (Singleplayer) • Today: • Gaming complexity improves fast • More sophisticated learning content • Challenges: • Missing complex open format challenges • Assessment by (limited) computer algorithms • Idea: • Support player feedback by Peer Assessment using the social network of learners 2weistein, Brainmonster Studios PEDALE Learning Environment(closed-format part)

4. Goal • Serious Games • Challenges • Virtual Scenarios • Fun & Interactivity • Online Social Network • Assistance • Social Influence • (Content) Exchange • Social Serious Gameswith Peer Education components • Peer Tutoring (Knowledge Transfer) • Peer Assessment (Feedback, Reflection)

5. Agenda and focus of this talk • Introduction • Motivation • Goal • Social Serious Games • Social Games • Social Networks • Approach • Social Media Interaction Patterns • Game Situations • Mapping Patterns • Taxonomy Towards a Social Game Interaction Taxonomy • First Conclusions • Implementation (Architecture) • RQs and next steps Serious Games Online Social Networks Social Serious Gameswith Peer Education 1 2 3

6. Social Serious Games What is a Social (Casual) Game? Criteria for a Social Game Asynchronous Playeach player at his own time, pace and intensity Casual Multiplayerawareness of others actions in game Coopetitionlow competition, high cooperation, no direct drawbacks for individual players Beneficial Social Media Integrationuser generated content as knowledge resource, physicality of game play activity • casually played or • with easy to use interfaces which are • connected to OSNs (Loreto & Gouaïch, 2004) A Social Serious Game is a Serious Game satisfying all criteria mandatory for a Social Game. References: (Loreto & Gouaïch, 2004) (O’Neill, 2008) (Nalebuff, 2007) (PlayGen, 2010)

7. Social Networks • Social network users as a knowledge resource • The strength lies in weak ties • The will to contribute depends on social context • Effects • Additional resource to instructor • Increased interest for peer solutions • Social skills development • Knowledge transfer • Learning by teaching References: (Granovetter, 1973) (Constant, Sproull, & Kiesler, 1996) (Damon, 1984) (Mohammad, Guetl, & Kappe, 2009) (Stepanyan, Mather, Jones, & Lusuardi, 2009) (Westera& Wagemans, 2007)

8. Approach

9. Social Media Interaction Patterns • Interaction between a computer game user and social media users • 12 Social Media Interaction Types (simplified) • Post, Share, Update, • Vote, Comment, • Chat, Invite, • Join, Tag, • Connect, Buy, Play Fig: Share, Vote and Comment Interactions Schemes • References: (Crumlish, 2009) (Julien, 2011)

10. Game Situations • Genre-dependency = limitations • Story-based • Single player • Educational games

11. Mapping Patterns • Game-dependent four patterns • Single player – Single Social Media User • Single player – Multi Social Media Users • Multi player(s) – Multi Social Media Users • Multi player(s) – Single Social Media User Single player Multi player suit motivation scenariosfocus on Single player Educational Adventure Games

12. Agenda and focus of this talk • Introduction • Motivation • Goal • Social Serious Games • Social Games • Social Networks • Approach • Social Media Interaction Patterns • Game Situations • Mapping Patterns • Taxonomy Towards a Social Game Interaction Taxonomy • First Conclusions • Implementation (Architecture) • RQs and next steps Serious Games Online Social Networks Social Serious Gameswith Peer Education 1 2 3

13. 1:n1:1 • 1:1 Taxonomy (intermediate result)Towards a Social Game Interaction Taxonomy • 1:n • Game Start • Game Scene • Situation Loops • Save-game • Game End • NPC Dialog Scene • New Quest Scene • Branching Scene • Minigame Scene • Conflict Scene • Quest Solving GameSituations Mapping Patterns • Vote • Post • Comment • Chat • Tag • Invite • Connection • Join Interaction Types

14. Taxonomy (intermediate result)Towards a Social Game Interaction Taxonomy (Incoming interactions to the game marked as I:, outgoing as O:, items only for 1:1 are italic green)

15. Taxonomy (intermediate result)Towards a Social Game Interaction Taxonomy • Game Influence(for Peer Tutoring and Assessment) • Content Exchange(for Peer Tutoring) (Incoming interactions to the game marked as I:, outgoing as O:, items only for 1:1 are italic green)

16. First conclusions • Posts(incoming) are mainly 1:1 content  Individual Peer Tutoring, content contributions, player-to-player transfer • Votesare suitable for both 1:1 and 1:n mappings Peer (group) Assessment, influence, personalization, assistance • Comments as a feedback for posted (out) content Social influence, support • Connection (incoming) for cooperation only for 1:1 or mini games • Join for sidekick in both 1:1 and 1:n • Invite suitable for recommending (out) game content • Chat or Tag are of rare use Game-Events & Data, User-Requests Social MediaPlatform(g+, fb, …) Existing Serious Games Vote Results, Hints, Experience

17. Implementation: ArchitectureSocial Serious Game Middleware • Implementation • Java Servlet application • REST API (HTTP) • JSON plus HTTP-GET for fetch/response OSN Gaming Middleware Social GameInfluenceTaxonomy Social GameInfluence System(Assessment,Personalization) Social MediaMessaging Social NetworkMessaging Definitions(API) <def> <use> <def> <use> (Social)SeriousGame SSGMiddleware Online Social Networks(Social Graph) <use> User-generated ContentDefinitions Social GameContentIntegration(User-generated Content) <def>

18. RQs and next steps • Research Questions • RQ1:Do game developers value the taxonomy as reasonable covering the main influence kinds for their Serious Games for Learning? • RQ2:Do players value such features in games for Peer Education and knowledge transfer? • RQ3: Are players more engaged and reach further in the game if games are enhanced by the Social Game Influence Taxonomy system? • RQ4: Can the awareness of Serious Games be increased for non-players by the participatory effects and interactivity caused by the use of the Social Game Interaction Taxonomy compared to (passive) wall posts?

19. Questions & Contact • Connect on www.linkedin.com/in/johanneskonert Thank you for your • Attention, • Questions and • Feedback.

20. Bonus Levels

21. Application scenario GENIUSEvaluation • Phase 1: Expert interviews • N=6, 3 CEOs, 3 employees, conducted 03.04.-25.04.2012 • 11 questions concerning acceptance, complexity,covered features, improvement suggestions and limitations • Results • API valued positive (6/6)* and need is addressed by functionality • Feature recommendations made* • [OT] Monetization concepts discussed (P1) DECK13 Weltenbauer (P5) (P6) Zuuka KTX (P2) (P4) TUD WInf RQ3 (Developer Value) (P3) RealityTwistMunich * diagram and details available in appendix

22. Application scenario GENIUSEvaluation • Phase 1: Expert interviews • N=6, 3 CEOs, 3 employees, conducted 03.04.-25.04.2012 • Results • API valued positive (6/6) and need is addressed by functionality P1 DECK13 P5 Weltenbauer P6 Zuuka P2 KTX P4 TUD WInf P3 RealityTwist(Munich) LegendP1-P6: Interview Partner

23. Application scenario GENIUSEvaluation

24. Game-Events & Data, User-Requests Social MediaPlatform(g+, fb, …) Existing Serious Games Vote Results, Hints, Experience

25. Appendix: References • [Chen2007] Chen, J., 2007. Flow in Games ( and Everything Else ). Communications of the ACM, 50(4), p.31-34. Available at: http://delivery.acm.org/10.1145/1240000/1232769/p31-chen.pdf?key1=1232769&key2=3643268821&coll=GUIDE&dl=GUIDE&CFID=111187921&CFTOKEN=25517040. • [Constant1996] Constant, D., Sproull, L. & Kiesler, S., 1996. The Kindness of Strangers: The Usefulness of Electronic Weak Ties for Technical Advice. Organization Science, 7(2), p.119-135. Available at: http://www-2.cs.cmu.edu/~kiesler/publications/PDFs/Constantkindness.pdf. [Crumlish2009] Crumlish, C. & Malone, E., 2009. Designing Social Interfaces: Principles, Patterns, and Practices for Improving the User Experience (Animal Guide), Yahoo Press. Available at: http://www.amazon.com/Designing-Social-Interfaces-Principles-Experience/dp/0596154925 [Accessed May 8, 2012]. [Damon1984] Damon, W., 1984. Peer education: The untapped potential. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 5(4), p.331-343. Available at: http://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/0193397384900066. [Granovetter1973] Granovetter, M.S., 1973. The strength-of-weak-ties perspective on creativity: a comprehensive examination and extension. The American Journal of Sociology, 78(6), p.1360-1380. [Jarvinen2010] Jarvinen, A. (2010). Social game Design for Social Networks. PlayGen., from http://playgen.com/game-design-for-social-networks/. [Accessed January 22, 2011] [Julien2011] Julien, J., 2011. Social Media Interaction Pattern Library. The Jordan Rules. Available at: http://thejordanrules.posterous.com/social-media-interaction-pattern-library [Accessed May 8, 2012]. [HistoryGames2012] History of Games Timeline. (n.d.). Retrieved April 28, 2012, from http://www.historicgames.com/gamestimeline.html [Konert2011] Konert, J., Richter, K., Göbel, S., & Bruder, R. (2011). Knowledge Sharing in the classroom - A social network approach for diagnostic assessment and learning together. Proceedings of the 11th IEEE International Conference on Advanced Learning Technologies (ICALT). Athens, Georgia, USA: IEEE. Retrieved from http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpls/abs_all.jsp?arnumber=5992341&tag=1 [Loreto2004] Loreto, I.D. & Gouaïch, A., 2004. Social Casual Games Success is not so Casual. Word Journal Of The International Linguistic Association. [Mohammad2009] Mohammad, A.L.S., Guetl, C. & Kappe, F., 2009. PASS: Peer-ASSessment Approach for Modern Learning Settings. In Advances in Web Based Learning-ICWL 2009: 8th International Conference, Aachen, Germany, August 19-21, 2009, Proceedings. Springer-Verlag New York Inc, p. 44 [Nalebuff2007] - Nalebuff B., Brandenburger A. Coopetition — kooperativkonkurrieren. Mit der SpieltheoriezumUnternehmenserfolg. In: Boersch C, Elschen R, eds. Das Summa Summarum des Management. 1st ed. Gabler; 2007:217-230. [ONeill2008] - O'Neill N. What exactly are social games? Social Times. 2008. Available at: http://www.socialtimes.com/2008/07/social-games/ [Accessed January 18, 2011]. [PlayGen2010] - PlayGen. Social Games - Make Games with PlayGen. PlayGen. 2010. Available at: http://playgen.com/social-games/ [Accessed January 3, 2011]. [Stepanyan2009] Stepanyan, K., Mather, R., Jones, H., & Lusuardi, C., 2009. Student Engagement with Peer Assessment: A Review of Pedagogical Design and Technologies. Advances in Web Based Learning–ICWL 2009, 367–375. Springer. doi:10.1007/978-3-642-03426-8_44 [Westera2007] Westera, W., & Wagemans, L., 2007. Help me ! Online Learner Support through the Self- OrganisedAllocation of Peer Tutors. Abstracts of the 13th International Conference on Technology Supported Learning & Training (pp. 105-107). Berlin: ICEW GmbH. Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/1820/2075 Dipl.-Inform. Johannes Konert