3 
The article aims to present, analyze, and discuss the attitudes of the three groups of adultsótheorists, hobbyists and “everyday players “ótoward play(ful) behavior and activities in relation to character toys. The rhetoric of play theorists is mirrored against the rhetoric of organized players (hobbyists) and (nonorganized) everyday players through in-depth interviews and participatory observation. Questions […]
5 
Juvenile animals of many species engage in social play, but its functional significance is not well understood. This is especially true for a type of social play called fair play (Fp). Social play often involves behavioral patterns similar to adult behaviors (e.g., fighting, mating, and predatory activities), but young animals often engage in Fp behaviors […]
6 
This study considers children’s informal musicking and online music teaching, learning, playing, and invention through an analysis of children’s clapping games on YouTube. We examined a body of 184 games from 103 separate YouTube postings drawn from North America, Central and South America, Europe, Africa, Asia, Australia, and New Zealand. Selected videos were analyzed according […]
Performative Let’s Play gaming videos are a part of contemporary Internet culture through which morality becomes shared. Many digital games draw on Gothic traditions to feature human-like monsters who demand morally complex interpretations from players. This study examines what kinds of moral evaluations players form of ambiguous Gothic monsters in Let’s Play videos of the […]
8
This study investigated problematic mobile gameplay. Adopting Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders-style criteria for pathological gambling to identify cases of problematic play, the study compared the mobile gaming habits, preferences, and demographics of problematic and nonproblematic game players. Of the 1,950 mobile players sampled, 3% (n = 58) demonstrated signs of possible pathological […]
8 
The diagnosis of attention deficit hyperactivity disorders (ADHD) has been increasing at an alarming rate, paralleled by the prescription of highly effective psychostimulants whose developmental effects on growing brains remain inadequately characterized. One reason for the increasing incidence of ADHD may be the diminishing availability of opportunities for pre-school children to engage in natural self-generated […]
8 
Drinking motives have been theorized as “the final common pathway ” to alcohol use, and have been found to be associated with certain drinking patterns and related outcomes. Given the importance of the context in which people drink, researchers have also begun to pay close attention to motives that are specific to participation in a […]
7 
This article highlights the necessity of considering socio-cultural values and attitudes when designing digital media, through presenting a study that explores parental attitudes toward play and digital media in childhood. Here we present a study examining the effectiveness of a mobile application designed to encourage real-world play between parents and their children (aged three to […]
8
The present study examined early social game routines during natural face-to-face mother-infant interactions and their relationship with oxytocin. Forty-three mother-infant dyads were observed, when infants were 4 months old, during a procedure involving a baseline and a natural interaction, where mothers were instructed to interact with their infants as they would at home. During this […]
3 Our submission describes the design, development and evaluation of an intergenerational game prototype called Cosmonauts. The aim of the prototype is to identify design factors for intergenerational games that are easy to learn, feature a simple and intuitive control scheme, and offer a certain amount of depth that keeps players enjoying themselves. In detail, our […]
3 Designers of persuasive games typically apply various types of rewards to increase the player’s play persistence and to motivate the player for real world goals such as a behavioral change. In this paper, we tested if different major types of game-rewards resulted in different play persistence behavior. Additionally, we investigated if rewards were suitable to […]
0
Commercial games are rarely studied for their links to civic behavior. Yet small-group games online can affect the social networks that spill into civic life (and vice versa). This study examined players of the world’s most popular personal computer game, League of Legends. Such games are theorized as mirrors that reflect civic tendencies and help […]
6 
Exergames, more specifically console-based exergames, are generally enjoyed by adolescents and known to increase physical activity. Nevertheless, they have a reduced usage over time and demonstrate little effectiveness over the long term. In order to increase playing time, mobile exergames may increase potential playing time, but need to be engaging and integrated in everyday life. […]
2 
This article examines how maps in location-based mobile games are used as surfaces on which players can inscribe their whereabouts and other local information while being on the move. Using different examples of location-based games (LBGs) to which the map is central, our main argument is that such cartographical LBGs foreground the fluidity of mapping […]
5 
As children in Norway increasingly spend time in online worlds, often identifying closely with their avatars, the potential for experiencing distress as a consequence of losing control of these digital selves has also increased. This article investigates the local notion of ‘hacking’ among a group of 8- and 9-year-old friends, and shows how users of […]
7 
This paper conceptualizes the teaching and learning of physically active play (PAP) in the early childhood curriculum. The conceptualization emerges from ‘doing complexivist bricolage’ and draws on complexity thinking features and concepts to position teaching and learning in PAP as children and teachers together exploring three different and coupled facets: fundamental movement patterns, group movement […]
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