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Reality Reaching into Games - Weather as a Dynamic Link to Real-World Streams of Information

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Serious Games (JCSG 2016)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNISA,volume 9894))

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Abstract

This paper describes the design and applied use of in-game weather systems to convey streaming real-world information to the game player. Weather systems were selected as the form of ambient in-game information due to their visual presence and limited involvement in gameplay. This allows change to the weather, based on real-world data, without negatively effecting gameplay. This mechanism provided an ambient in-game source of information that kept the player informed regarding a source of streaming information from the real world, while also allowing for the immersive game experience to be maintained. Results from the experimental trial (n = 35) showed that the weather simulation, linked to real-world information stream, enhanced reported levels of information engagement, without negative effect in terms of player sense of immersion and realism. These results indicate the potential for in-game weather to be used as an effective, time varying form of immersive information transfer.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Griffith University, Gold Coast, Australia

    Dale Patterson & Scott Roberts

Authors
  1. Dale Patterson
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  2. Scott Roberts
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Dale Patterson .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Griffith University, Brisbane, Australia

    Tim Marsh

  2. University of Huddersfield, Huddersfield, United Kingdom

    Minhua Ma

  3. SINTEF Technology and Society, Oslo, Norway

    Manuel Fradinho Oliveira

  4. University of Bremen, Bremen, Bremen, Germany

    Jannicke Baalsrud Hauge

  5. Technische Universität Darmstadt, Darmstadt, Germany

    Stefan Göbel

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© 2016 Springer International Publishing AG

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Patterson, D., Roberts, S. (2016). Reality Reaching into Games - Weather as a Dynamic Link to Real-World Streams of Information. In: Marsh, T., Ma, M., Oliveira, M., Baalsrud Hauge, J., Göbel, S. (eds) Serious Games. JCSG 2016. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 9894. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-45841-0_16

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-45841-0_16

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-45840-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-45841-0

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

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