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As video games and esports continue to grow in popularity, gaming injuries are also on the rise. In recent years, medical professionals have placed greater emphasis on preventing and treating gaming injuries and proposed specific gaming health guidelines. However, the game industry and game research community have not done enough to address the hazards of gaming injuries or raise awareness about such hazards to players, parents, and game designers. In this paper, we propose a framework of injury-aware game design that addresses the two main causes of gaming injuries: prolonged gaming and repetitive microtrauma. We have identified a set of injury-aware game design techniques to help raise awareness of gaming-related hazards, promote healthy gaming behavior, and optimize gameplay to prevent injuries. We believe an effective way to deliver gaming-related health information to game players is through games themselves. To demonstrate this framework, we have developed an injury-aware game and conducted a user study with players and game designers. The results from the proof-of-concept game and user study show that both players and designers have a positive reception to the idea of implementing more inclusive measures into games, with nearly all participants of the user study being interested in the idea of hand exercise recommendations.
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This content will become publicly available on October 14, 2025
Toxicity by Game Design: How Players Perceive the Influence of Game Design on Toxicity
Toxicity in online games refers to behaviors where players disrupt the gaming experience of others, leading to adverse outcomes such as depression and low self-esteem. Although scholars have identified various factors contributing to toxicity, ranging from individual motivations to team dynamics to cultural backgrounds, the role of game design has been less frequently discussed. To bridge this gap, we conducted an interview study to explore players' perceptions of how game design influences toxicity. Our research identified four game design elements that participants perceived as contributing factors to the emergency of toxicity in their experiences: team interdependency, fairness, interaction design, and privacy. These findings help us shed light on how game design unintendedly triggers toxic intentions, exposes players to vulnerability, making them potential victims, and affects player interactions which lead to toxicity. We further propose design implications that can mitigate toxicity in online games.
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- Award ID(s):
- 2326505
- PAR ID:
- 10552300
- Publisher / Repository:
- ACM
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction
- Volume:
- 8
- Issue:
- CHI PLAY
- ISSN:
- 2573-0142
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 1 to 31
- Subject(s) / Keyword(s):
- Toxicity Game Design Video Games Online Games Design Affordance Unintended Consequences
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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