Demolishing the Competition: The Association between Competitive Video Game Play and Aggression among Adolescents and Young Adults

The link between video game play and aggression is an important issue as video games The link between video game play and aggression is an important issue as video games are the fastest growing form of entertainment in the world. Past research on this association has been focused primarily on the link between video game violence and aggression; however, this research has confounded the effect of video game violence versus competition on aggression. The main goal of the current dissertation, therefore, was to examine the short- and long-term associations between competitive video game play and aggression. In addition, the longitudinal work on this association to date has been limited to adolescent samples, but not young adults. Thus, the second goal of the dissertation research was to investigate whether video game play predicts aggression in the long-term among young adults in addition to adolescents. To address these goals, three studies were conducted. Study 1 consisted of a series of experiments examining the short-term effect of video game violence versus competition on aggression. Study 2 examined the long-term association between competitive video game play and aggression among adolescents, and Study 3 examined this long-term link among young adults, in addition to adolescents. Taken together, the results of the three dissertation studies converged to suggest that video game competition, rather than violence, may be a stronger predictor of aggression in both the short- and long-term. Overall, the current research represents an important advance in our understanding of the association between video game play and aggression, and leads to a new direction in the video game and aggression literature. are the fastest growing form of entertainment in the world. Past research on this association has been focused primarily on the link between video game violence and aggression; however, this research has confounded the effect of video game violence versus competition on aggression. The main goal of the current dissertation, therefore, was to examine the short- and long-term associations between competitive video game play and aggression. In addition, the longitudinal work on this association to date has been limited to adolescent samples, but not young adults. Thus, the second goal of the dissertation research was to investigate whether video game play predicts aggression in the long-term among young adults in addition to adolescents. To address these goals, three studies were conducted. Study 1 consisted of a series of experiments examining the short-term effect of video game violence versus competition on aggression. Study 2 examined the long-term association between competitive video game play and aggression among adolescents, and Study 3 examined this long-term link among young adults, in addition to adolescents. Taken together, the results of the three dissertation studies converged to suggest that video game competition, rather than violence, may be a stronger predictor of aggression in both the short- and long-term. Overall, the current research represents an important advance in our understanding of the association between video game play and aggression, and leads to a new direction in the video game and aggression literature.

Strategies to develop divided attention skills through video game training

Research .over the past two decades has confirmed the learning opportunities that video games can offer. The objectives of the current study were to investigate the ability of video games to enhance divided attention skills and compare these skills based on individuals' level of expertise in video game playing. Female participants aged between 17-25 years categorised as experts or novices, were divided into experimental and control groups. All participants completed the pre and post-test of divided attention between which only the experimental group received video game training. Results indicate that participants who received video game practice achieved an increase in their dual-attention skills compared to those who did not receive any training, with novices displaying a greater
enhancement in perfonnance. Implications include the provision of video game training to enhance divided attention skills in air pilot training, driving, and heavyequipment operation apart from other tasks necessitating dual-task efficiency.

Impact of an active video game on healthy children’s physical activity

OBJECTIVE: This naturalistic study tests whether children receiving a new (to them) active video game spontaneously engage in more physical activity than those receiving an inactive video game, and whether the effect would be greater among children in unsafe neighborhoods, who might not be allowed to play outside.

METHODS: Participants were children 9 to 12 years of age, with a BMI >50th percentile, but <99th percentile; none of these children a medical condition that would preclude physical activity or playing video games. A randomized clinical trial assigned children to receiving 2 active or 2 inactive video games, the peripherals necessary to run the games, and a Wii console. Physical activity was monitored by using accelerometers for 5 weeks over the course of a 13-week experiment. Neighborhood safety was assessed with a 12 item validated questionnaire.

RESULTS: There was no evidence that children receiving the active video games were more active in general, or at anytime, than children receiving the inactive video games. The outcomes were not moderated by parent perceived neighborhood safety, child BMI z score, or other demographic characteristics.

CONCLUSIONS: These results provide no reason to believe that simply acquiring an active video game under naturalistic circumstances provides a public health benefit to children.

Video Game Training and Reaction Time Skills Among Older Adults

The aim of the current study was to examine whether reaction time (RT) among older adults could be improved through video game training. Twenty-nine participants between the ages of 50 and 84 either played (N = 14) or did not play (N = 15) a video game, Pac-Man: Adventures in Time. All participants completed a pre- and postassessment of RT. Results from this study showed that there were no significant differences between the control and experimental groups on RT performance across time. These findings indicate that the amount of training provided may have been inadequate to improve RT skills. It is therefore important to investigate the amount of training required to allow older adults to respond faster to environmental stimuli and transfer skills to activities of daily living.

Does playing a sports active video game improve young children's ball skill competence?

OBJECTIVES: Actual and perceived object control (commonly ball) skill proficiency is associated with higher physical activity in children and adolescents. Active video games (AVGs) encourage whole body movement to control/play the electronic gaming system and therefore provide an opportunity for screen time to become more active. The purpose of this study was to determine whether playing sports AVGs has a positive influence on young children's actual and perceived object control skills. DESIGN: Two group pre/post experimental design study. METHODS: Thirty-six children aged 6-10 years old from one school were randomly allocated to a control or intervention condition. The Test of Gross Motor Development-3 assessed object control skill. The Pictorial Scale of Perceived Competence for Young Children assessed perceived object control skill. The intervention consisted of 6×50min lunchtime AVG sessions on the Xbox Kinect. Two to three sport games were chosen for participants to play each session. General linear models with either perceived object control or actual object control skill as the outcome variables were conducted. Each base model adjusted for intervention status and pre-score of the respective outcome variable. Additional models adjusted for potential confounding variables (sex of child and game at home). RESULTS: No significant differences between the control and intervention groups were observed for both outcomes. CONCLUSIONS: This study found that playing the Xbox Kinect does not significantly influence children's perceived or actual object control skills, suggesting that the utility of the Xbox Kinect for developing perceived and actual object control skill competence is questionable.

Cardiovascular responses induced by acute video game boxing performance in healthy women

BACKGROUND: Previous studies suggested that some interactive video games induce cardiovascular responses. However, some different styles of video games have not been investigated. OBJECTIVE: We aimed to evaluate cardiovascular responses induced by video game boxing performance in healthy women. METHOD: We evaluated ten female sedentary volunteers, aged 20.9 ± 1.4 years, weight 58.7 ± 8.0 kg, height 163.2 ± 5.4cm. All subjects were weighed and measured. Their heart rate, blood pressure and lactate levels were recorded before and after video game performance. The volunteers played a Sony video game (Nintendo® Wii) by using the boxing method, in which all volunteers played for 10 minutes without interruption. At the end of the game the volunteers were reassessed using the same parameters mentioned above. RESULTS: At the end of the video game boxing performance we observed highly significant increases of lactate production (p < 0.0035) and the double product (heart rate vs. systolic blood pressure) was also higher (p < 0.0001). Both parameters indicate that the performance increased demands of the cardiovascular system. CONCLUSION: We conclude that a ten-minute video game boxing performance induces cardiovascular responses similar to aerobic exercise. This may be a practical form of exercise, but care should be exercised concerning subjects with cardiovascular disorders.

The influence of career histories on team perfomance in new product development: a study of the video game industry

The purpose of this research is to contribute to the literature on organizational demography and new product development by investigating how diverse individual career histories impact team performance. Moreover we highlighted the importance of considering also the institutional context and the specific labour market arrangements in which a team is embedded, in order to interpret correctly the effect of career-related diversity measures on performance. The empirical setting of the study is the videogame industry, and the teams in charge of the development of new game titles. Video games development teams are the ideal setting to investigate the influence of career histories on team performance, since the development of videogames is performed by multidisciplinary teams composed by specialists with a wide variety of technical and artistic backgrounds, who execute a significant amounts of creative thinking. We investigate our research question both with quantitative methods and with a case study on the Japanese videogame industry: one of the most innovative in this sector. Our results show how career histories in terms of occupational diversity, prior functional diversity and prior product diversity, usually have a positive influence on team performance. However, when the moderating effect of the institutional setting is taken in to account, career diversity has different or even opposite effect on team performance, according to the specific national context in which a team operates.

Innovations in the video game industry: changing global markets

The paper examines the video game industry in the perspective of being the paradigm of innovation in digital media and content. In particular, it analyses the response to two main factors that have impacted this industry over the last decade. First, it tracks the evolution of its global market and its emerging geography with the rise of Asia. Second, within this global landscape the paper explores how the changes derived from mobile and on-line gaming enabled major transformations of this industry. From here, some conclusions on the lessons from the evolution of this sector for the whole media and content industries are presented.

3D simulation of complex shading affecting PV systems taking benefit from the power of graphics cards developed for the video game industry

Shading reduces the power output of a photovoltaic (PV) system. The design engineering of PV systems requires modeling and evaluating shading losses. Some PV systems are affected by complex shading scenes whose resulting PV energy losses are very difficult to evaluate with current modeling tools. Several specialized PV design and simulation software include the possibility to evaluate shading losses. They generally possess a Graphical User Interface (GUI) through which the user can draw a 3D shading scene, and then evaluate its corresponding PV energy losses. The complexity of the objects that these tools can handle is relatively limited. We have created a software solution, 3DPV, which allows evaluating the energy losses induced by complex 3D scenes on PV generators. The 3D objects can be imported from specialized 3D modeling software or from a 3D object library. The shadows cast by this 3D scene on the PV generator are then directly evaluated from the Graphics Processing Unit (GPU). Thanks to the recent development of GPUs for the video game industry, the shadows can be evaluated with a very high spatial resolution that reaches well beyond the PV cell level, in very short calculation times. A PV simulation model then translates the geometrical shading into PV energy output losses. 3DPV has been implemented using WebGL, which allows it to run directly from a Web browser, without requiring any local installation from the user. This also allows taken full benefits from the information already available from Internet, such as the 3D object libraries. This contribution describes, step by step, the method that allows 3DPV to evaluate the PV energy losses caused by complex shading. We then illustrate the results of this methodology to several application cases that are encountered in the world of PV systems design. Keywords: 3D, modeling, simulation, GPU, shading, losses, shadow mapping, solar, photovoltaic, PV, WebGL

Hardware gimmick or cultural innovation? Technological, cultural, and social foundations of the Japanese video game industry

This paper examines the role of creative resources in the emergence of the Japanese video game industry. We argue that creative resources nurtured by popular cartoons and animation sector, combined with technological knowledge accumulated in the consumer electronics industry, facilitated the emergence of successful video game industry in Japan. First we trace the development of the industry from its origin to the rise of platform developers and software publishers. Then, knowledge and creative foundations that influenced the developmental trajectory of this industry are analyzed, with links to consumer electronics and in regards to cartoons and animation industry.

Industry evolution and cross-sectoral skill transfers:a comparative analysis of the video game industry in Japan, the United States, and the United Kingdom

In this paper we explore the interrelationship between technological progress and the formation of industry-specific skills by analysing the evolution of the video-game industry in three countries: Japan, the United States, and the United Kingdom. We argue that the cross-sectoral transfer of skills occurs differently depending on national contexts, such as the social legitimacy and strength of preexisting industries, the socioeconomic status of entrepreneurs or pioneer firms in an emerging industry, and the sociocultural cohesiveness between the preexisting and emerging industries. Each country draws on a different set of creative resources, which results in a unique trajectory. Whereas Japan's video-game industry emerged out of corporate sponsorships in arcades, toys, and consumer electronics industries and drew skills from the comic book and animated-film sectors, the video-game industry in the United States evolved from arcades and personal computers. In the United Kingdom the video-game industry developed bottom-up, through a process of skills formation in the youth culture of 'bedroom coders' that nurtured self-taught programmers in their teens throughout the country.