This paper examines the relation between social interaction and fun in multi-player console gaming contexts. It points to the fruitfullness of integrating game studies and game sociology with cultural studies of television and video use in order to explain both the framing and (social) use of console games and the fun of playing them. A prestudy of the relation between social interaction and fun in the playing of the game Super Monkey Ball reveals that there is a close relation between gaming skills, the gaming situation as a pleasurable and relieving social activity and the experience of fun. Read more...

Data about analog and digital play behaviors were collected. Results show that there are significant gender differences in types of play, attitudes towards play, and technological self-efficacy in the study population. Those who play with digital technology feel more empowered in relation to digital technology than those who do not. Encouraging digital gameplay in females might increase self-efficacy towards technology and help address the current deficit of females in technology-related fields.

The popularity of computer games has exploded in recent years, yet methods of evaluating user emotional state during play experiences lag far behind. There are few methods of assessing emotional state, and even fewer methods of quantifying emotion during play. This paper presents a novel method for continuously modeling emotion using physiological data. A fuzzy logic model transformed four physiological signals into arousal and valence. A second fuzzy logic model transformed arousal and valence into five emotional states relevant to computer game play: boredom, challenge, excitement, frustration, and fun. Modeled emotions compared favorably with a manual approach, and the means were also evaluated with subjective self-reports, exhibiting the same trends as reported emotions for fun, boredom, and excitement. This approach provides a method for quantifying emotional states continuously during a play experience. Read more...