Explanipedia

Exploring the Effects of Dynamic Difficulty Adjustment Functions on Player Experience and Physical Effort in a Running Exergame Open

Sittikrai Chorrojprasert, Ben Kirman, Myat T. Aung, Alena Denisova · 2025

Exploring Curiosity in Games: A Framework and Questionnaire Study of Player Perspectives Open

Ziao Tang, Ben Kirman · 2024

In game design, curiosity is often a critical driver of player engagement, yet its complex role in influencing player experience remains underexplored. The present study aims to delineate the categorisation and representation of curiosity …

Identifying the Developmental Challenges of Creating Virtual Reality Theatre Open

Daniel Lock, Ben Kirman · 2023

Virtual Reality Theatre continues to grow as a form of digital creative output for theatre practitioners. However, understanding the common challenges faced during the development of productions by practitioners and the barriers to entry p…

Time to Die 2: Improved in-game death prediction in Dota 2 Open

Charles Ringer, Sondess Missaoui, Joanna Hodge, Alan Pedrassoli Chitayat, Athanasios Kokkinakis , et al. · 2023

Competitive video game playing, an activity called esports, is increasingly popular to the point that there are now many professional competitions held for a variety of games. These competitions are broadcast in a professional manner simil…

Playful networks: measuring, analysing and understanding the social effects of game design Open

Ben Kirman · 2023

Games are fundamentally a social activity. The effects of this foundation can be felt at every level - from the social negotiation of rules, through cooperation and collaboration between players during the game, to the effects of relations…

Thinking outside the bag: Worker-led speculation and the future of gig economy delivery platforms Open

Ben Kirman · 2022

Gig economy is presented as disruptive, technologically driven, and forward think-ing. Design is explicit in this framing, through use of slick apps to reduce friction and simplify experience for customer and worker. However, this framing …

Time to Die 2: Improved In-Game Death Prediction in Dota Open

Charles Ringer, Sondess Missaoui, Joanna Hodge, Alan Pedrassoli Chitayat, Athanasios Kokkinakis , et al. · 2022

Lessons From One Future of Work: Opportunities to Flip the Gig Economy Open

Oliver Bates, Carolynne Lord, Hayley Alter, Adrian Friday, Ben Kirman · 2021

Pervasive technologies are already transforming "The Future of Work." Mobile technologies, IoT, and data promise efficient and convenient work "on-demand." They are convenient too for platform providers whose clean and efficient interfaces…

Echo Suite of Software (Showcase Brochure) Open

Florian Block, Marian F. Ursu, Jonathan Hook, Ben Kirman, Anders Drachen , et al. · 2020

Automatic Generation of Text for Match Recaps using Esport Caster Commentaries Open

Oluseyi Olarewaju, Athanasios Kokkinakis, Simon Demediuk, Justus Roberstson, Isabelle Nölle , et al. · 2020

Unlike traditional physical sports, Esport games are played using wholly digital platforms. As a consequence, there exists rich data (in-game, audio and video) about the events that take place in matches. These data offer viable linguistic…

Catastrophic co-production: A student-staff partnership for developing an educational game Open

Nicholas R. Glover, Kerry J. Knox, Ben Kirman, Matthew Topham, Katylily Westbury-Hawkins , et al. · 2020

We describe the production of an educational game (Catastrophic) for supporting biology learning in higher education (HE) that was developed through a partnership between students and academic staff. We consider the ways in which the devel…

Let's start talking the walk Open

Oliver Bates, Carolynne Lord, Hayley Alter, Ben Kirman · 2020

Gig economy platforms are having profound impacts on when and how much we work. But it is not just the qualities of work that are changing, as these platforms have also eroded workers' rights in disempowering workers around the world whils…

Social Icebreakers Everywhere: A Day In The Life Open

Robb Mitchell, Enrique Encinas, Ben Kirman · 2020

Developing systems to spark face-to-face interactions between strangers is a recurring challenge that may benefit from drawing together inspiration from many different creative fields. This paper presents a design fiction that makes access…

The future of computing and wisdom: Insights from Human–Computer Interaction Open

Daniel Pargman, Elina Eriksson, Oliver Bates, Ben Kirman, Rob Comber , et al. · 2019

Sustainable Platform Cooperativism:Towards social and environmental justice in the future of the gig-economy Open

Oliver Bates, Ben Kirman · 2019

Gig-economy platforms are disrupting the way that work is managed, completed and measured in low and no skill work in the UK. 2.8 million people work in the UK’s gig-economy, in which “the exchange of labour for money between individuals o…

The role of social media in artisanal production Open

Derek Foster, Ben Kirman, Conor Linehan, Shaun Lawson · 2017

We present craft beer as part of an artisan industry case study that demonstrates how the use of social media creates a community narrative that engages both producer and consumer around the artisanal produce and its values. In contrast to…

Counter-Discourse Activism on Social Media: The Case of Challenging “Poverty Porn” Television Open

Tom Feltwell, John Vines, Karen Salt, Mark Blythe, Ben Kirman , et al. · 2017

In this paper we investigate how online counter-discourse is designed, deployed and orchestrated by activists to challenge dominant narratives around socio-political issues. We focus on activism related to the UK broadcast media's negative…

"Could You Define That in Bot Terms"? Open

Kiel Long, John Vines, Selina Sutton, Phillip Brooker, Tom Feltwell , et al. · 2017

Bots are estimated to account for well over half of all web traffic, yet they remain an understudied topic in HCI. In this paper we present the findings of an analysis of 2284 submissions across three discussion groups dedicated to the req…

MC Hammer Presents Open

Conor Linehan, Ben Kirman · 2017

We argue that the huge success of Augmented Reality game Pokémon Go has little to do with clever design. Rather, the success is due to the nostalgic branding, with a franchise for which people already have great affection. As exasperated a…

Managing Multiple Identities to Combat Stigmatisation in the Digital Age Open

Tom Feltwell, Shaun Lawson, Ben Kirman, John Vines · 2016

It has long been identified that people consciously curate, manage and maintain multiple online individual identities based on characteristics such as race, gender, and societal status; research has also established that people may choose …

"After All the Time I Put Into This" Open

Alexandra Samper-Martínez, Kathrin Gerling, Ercilia García‐Álvarez, Ben Kirman, Shaun Lawson · 2015

User engagement in processes of co-design and co-creation are common practices in Social Network Games (SNGs). Though the interdependency between producer and user is of mutual benefit throughout much of the lifetime of an SNG, there are c…

Exploring Twitter as a Game Platform; Strategies and Opportunities for Microblogging-based Games Open

Kieran Hicks, Kathrin Gerling, Ben Kirman, Conor Linehan, Patrick Dickinson · 2015

Recent years have seen the massive daily engagement of players with games that are integrated with online social networking sites, such as Facebook. However, few games have successfully created engaging experiences through integration with…

Creating wheelchair-controlled video games: Challenges and opportunities when involving young people with mobility impairments and game design experts Open

Kathrin Gerling, Conor Linehan, Ben Kirman, Michael R. Kalyn, Adam B. Evans , et al. · 2015

Cunt touch this: a conversation on intimate design and embarrassment Open

Ben Kirman, Sabine Harrer, Andrea Hasselager, Conor Linehan, Ida Toft , et al. · 2015

This position paper presents a conversation between players and the designers of the unique mobile game experience Cunt Touch This. \nRevisiting their personal experiences with playing the game, the player-authors read the game as a syste…

Problematising Upstream Technology through Speculative Design Open

Shaun Lawson, Ben Kirman, Conor Linehan, Tom Feltwell, Lisa Hopkins · 2015

There is growing interest in technology that quantifies aspects of our lives. This paper draws on critical practice and speculative design to explore, question and problematise the ultimate consequences of such technology using the quantif…

Player superstition as a design resource Open

Ben Kirman, Tom Feltwell, Conor Linehan · 2015

This paper discusses superstitious behaviour in game play, explains that superstition is a natural component of learning, suggest strategies for harnessing player superstition as a design resource, and presents a case study of a game, Non-…

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