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Conversation dynamics in a multiplayer video game with knowledge asymmetry

Despite the challenges associated with virtually mediated communication, remote collaboration is a defining characteristic of online multiplayer gaming communities. Inspired by the teamwork exhibited by players in first-person shooter games, this study investigated the verbal and behavioral coordina...

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Autores principales: Simpson, James, Nalepka, Patrick, Kallen, Rachel W., Dras, Mark, Reichle, Erik D., Hosking, Simon G., Best, Christopher, Richards, Deborah, Richardson, Michael J.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9669907/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36405156
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.1039431
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author Simpson, James
Nalepka, Patrick
Kallen, Rachel W.
Dras, Mark
Reichle, Erik D.
Hosking, Simon G.
Best, Christopher
Richards, Deborah
Richardson, Michael J.
author_facet Simpson, James
Nalepka, Patrick
Kallen, Rachel W.
Dras, Mark
Reichle, Erik D.
Hosking, Simon G.
Best, Christopher
Richards, Deborah
Richardson, Michael J.
author_sort Simpson, James
collection PubMed
description Despite the challenges associated with virtually mediated communication, remote collaboration is a defining characteristic of online multiplayer gaming communities. Inspired by the teamwork exhibited by players in first-person shooter games, this study investigated the verbal and behavioral coordination of four-player teams playing a cooperative online video game. The game, Desert Herding, involved teams consisting of three ground players and one drone operator tasked to locate, corral, and contain evasive robot agents scattered across a large desert environment. Ground players could move throughout the environment, while the drone operator’s role was akin to that of a “spectator” with a bird’s-eye view, with access to veridical information of the locations of teammates and the to-be-corralled agents. Categorical recurrence quantification analysis (catRQA) was used to measure the communication dynamics of teams as they completed the task. Demands on coordination were manipulated by varying the ground players’ ability to observe the environment with the use of game “fog.” Results show that catRQA was sensitive to changes to task visibility, with reductions in task visibility reorganizing how participants conversed during the game to maintain team situation awareness. The results are discussed in the context of future work that can address how team coordination can be augmented with the inclusion of artificial agents, as synthetic teammates.
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spelling pubmed-96699072022-11-18 Conversation dynamics in a multiplayer video game with knowledge asymmetry Simpson, James Nalepka, Patrick Kallen, Rachel W. Dras, Mark Reichle, Erik D. Hosking, Simon G. Best, Christopher Richards, Deborah Richardson, Michael J. Front Psychol Psychology Despite the challenges associated with virtually mediated communication, remote collaboration is a defining characteristic of online multiplayer gaming communities. Inspired by the teamwork exhibited by players in first-person shooter games, this study investigated the verbal and behavioral coordination of four-player teams playing a cooperative online video game. The game, Desert Herding, involved teams consisting of three ground players and one drone operator tasked to locate, corral, and contain evasive robot agents scattered across a large desert environment. Ground players could move throughout the environment, while the drone operator’s role was akin to that of a “spectator” with a bird’s-eye view, with access to veridical information of the locations of teammates and the to-be-corralled agents. Categorical recurrence quantification analysis (catRQA) was used to measure the communication dynamics of teams as they completed the task. Demands on coordination were manipulated by varying the ground players’ ability to observe the environment with the use of game “fog.” Results show that catRQA was sensitive to changes to task visibility, with reductions in task visibility reorganizing how participants conversed during the game to maintain team situation awareness. The results are discussed in the context of future work that can address how team coordination can be augmented with the inclusion of artificial agents, as synthetic teammates. Frontiers Media S.A. 2022-11-03 /pmc/articles/PMC9669907/ /pubmed/36405156 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.1039431 Text en Copyright © 2022 Simpson, Nalepka, Kallen, Dras, Reichle, Hosking, Best, Richards and Richardson. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Psychology
Simpson, James
Nalepka, Patrick
Kallen, Rachel W.
Dras, Mark
Reichle, Erik D.
Hosking, Simon G.
Best, Christopher
Richards, Deborah
Richardson, Michael J.
Conversation dynamics in a multiplayer video game with knowledge asymmetry
title Conversation dynamics in a multiplayer video game with knowledge asymmetry
title_full Conversation dynamics in a multiplayer video game with knowledge asymmetry
title_fullStr Conversation dynamics in a multiplayer video game with knowledge asymmetry
title_full_unstemmed Conversation dynamics in a multiplayer video game with knowledge asymmetry
title_short Conversation dynamics in a multiplayer video game with knowledge asymmetry
title_sort conversation dynamics in a multiplayer video game with knowledge asymmetry
topic Psychology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9669907/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36405156
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.1039431
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