Cover not available
Article published In:
Translation, Cognition & Behavior
Vol. 1:2 (2018) ► pp.299–318

Gamer emotions in laughter

Towards affect-oriented game localisation

 | University of Auckland
 | Aarhus University
This study is motivated by the assumption that today’s function-oriented game localisation approach has room for improvement by incorporating an affect-oriented approach. It draws on the concept of “affective framing” in a game with humour as “emotionally competent stimuli”. Laughter as emotion data were collected from German, Japanese and Irish participants playing in their native language relevant versions of the US-origin casual game Plants vs. Zombies. This small-scale empirical study, combined with gamer interviews and gameplay trajectory, reveal evidence of specific functions of gamer emotions across all three groups, most often as a relief during game play, facilitating the gamer’s ability to retain engagement by accessing the emotional function of humour. The data suggest that affective framing through humour that is made culturally relevant is deemed more important for the German group than the other groups. This group negatively perceived cultural stereotypes in the game, whereas the Irish group perceived cultural associations positively. The focus on user emotions brings the neglected affective dimension to the fore and towards affect-oriented game localisation as interdisciplinary research.
Keywords: gamer emotion, affect, laughter, humour, culture, videogames, game localisation
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction: Videogames and gamer emotion
  • 2.Related research on gamer emotions: Laughs and humour in videogames
    • 2.1Game design and gamer emotion
    • 2.2Humour, games and translation
  • 3.Methodology
    • 3.1Research design and theoretical underpinnings
    • 3.2Procedures
      • 3.2.1Data collection instruments
      • 3.2.2Game, gameplay sessions and participants
      • 3.2.3Emotion mining
  • 4.Data analysis
    • 4.1Relief during game-over sequence
    • 4.2Surprise with game mechanics, dubious NPC design and lacklustre zombie note
      • 4.2.1Game mechanics, plants and zombies
      • 4.2.2NPC: Crazy Dave
      • 4.2.3Verbally expressed humour: The zombie note
  • 5.Discussion and conclusions
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 27 September 2018
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/tcb.00013.oha
References (39)
References
Attardo, Salvatore. 1994. Linguistic Theories of Humor. Berlin: De Gruyter.Google Scholar
Calvo, Rafael A., and Sidney K. D’Mello. 2010. “Affect Detection: An Interdisciplinary Review of Models, Methods, and their Applications.” IEEE Computer Society 1 (1): 18–37.Google Scholar
Chandler, Heather M., and Stephanie O’Malley Deming. 2012. The Game Localization Handbook, 2nd ed. Ontario: Jones & Bartlett Learning.Google Scholar
Chiaro, Delia, guest ed. 2005. Humor and Translation. Special issue of Humor 18 (2). Berlin: De Gruyter.Google Scholar
Chen, Chaona, and Rachael Jack. 2017. “Discovering Cultural Differences (and Similarities) in Facial Expressions of Emotion.” Current Opinion in Psychology 171: 61–66. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Damasio, Antonio. 2003. Looking for Spinoza: Joy, Sorrow, and the Feeling Brain. New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.Google Scholar
Dekker, Andrew, and Erik Champion. 2007. “Please Biofeed the Zombies: Enhancing the Gameplay and Display of a Horror Game Using Biofeedback.” In Proceedings of DiGRA 2007: Situated Play, September 24–28, 2007, Tokyo.Google Scholar
Dormann, Claire. 2015. “A Battle of Wit: Applying Computational Humour to Game Design.” In Entertainment Computing—ICEC 2015. Edited by K. Chorianopoulos, M. Divitini, J. B. Hauge, L. Jaccheri, and R. Malaka, 72–85. London: Springer.Google Scholar
Dormann, Claire, and Robert Biddle. 2009. “A Review of Humor for Computer Games: Play, Laugh and More”. Simulation & Gaming 40 (6): 802–824. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Dormann, Claire, Pippin Barr, and Robert Biddle. 2006. “Humour Theory and Videogames: Laughter in the Slaughter.” In Proceedings of the 2006 ACM SIGGRAPH Symposium on Videogames, 95-98. Boston, MA. July 30-31, 2006. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Edwards, Kate. 2012. “Culturalization of Game Content”. In The Game Localization Handbook, 2nd ed. Edited by Heather M. Chandler, and Stephanie O’Malley Deming, 19–34. Ontario: Jones & Bartlett Learning.Google Scholar
Ekman, Paul, and Wallace V. Friesen. 1978. Facial Action Coding System. Palo Alto, CA: Consulting Psychologists.Google Scholar
El Refaie, Elisabeth. 2011. “The Pragmatics of Humor Reception: Young People’s Responses to a Newspaper Cartoon.” Humor-International Journal of Humor Research 24 (1): 87–108. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Elliott, Amy-Mae. 2010. “Plants vs. Zombies for iPhone: 9 Days, $1 Million in Sales.” Accessed 7 August 2017. Available at [URL]
Gamberini, Luciano, Anna Spagnolli, Giulio Jacucci, Benjamin Blankertz, and Jonathan Freeman, eds. 2017. Symbiotic Interaction. Symbiotic 2016. New York: Springer.Google Scholar
Gruner, Charles E. 1997. The Game of Humor: A Comprehensive Theory of Why We Laugh. New Brunswick: Transaction.Google Scholar
Gulas, Charles S., and Marc C. Weinberger. 2006. Humor in Advertising: A Comprehensive Analysis. New York: M. E. Sharpe.Google Scholar
Hokkanen, Sari, and Kaisa Koskinen. 2016. “Affect as a Hinge: The Translator’s Experiencing Self as a Sociocognitive Interface.” Translation Spaces 5 (1): 78–96. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Huizinga, Johann. 1955. Homo Ludens: A Study of the Play-element in Culture. Boston, MA: The Beacon Press.Google Scholar
Isbister, Katherine, Kia Hook, Jarmo Laaksolahti, and Michael Sharp. 2007. “The Sensual Evaluation Instrument: Developing a Trans-Cultural Self-Report Measure of Affect.” International Journal of Human-Computer Studies 651: 315–328. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Juul, Jesper. 2005. Half-real: Video Games Between Real Rules and Fictional Worlds. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Kohler, Chris. 2005. Power-Up: How Japanese Video Games gave the World an Extra Life. Indianapolis: Brady Games.Google Scholar
Lazzaro, Nicole. 2004. “Why We Play Games: Four Keys to more Emotion without Story.” Accessed 22 September 2017. Available at [URL]
Lepre, Ornella. 2014. “Playing with Humor: The Translation of Humor in Video Games.” In Translating Humour in Audiovisual Texts. Edited by G. L. de Rosa, F. Bianchi, A. de Laurentiis, and E. Perego, 499–516. Berlin: Peter Lang.Google Scholar
Levenson, Robert W. 2011. “Basic Emotion Questions.” Emotion Review 3 (4): 379–386. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Levinson, Jerrold. 2006. Contemplating Art. Oxford: Oxford University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Lévy, Pierre. 2013. “Beyond Kansei Engineering: The Emancipation of Kansei Design.” International Journal of Design 7 (2): 83–94.Google Scholar
Mangiron Hevia, Carme. 2010. “The Importance of Not being Earnest: Translating Humour in Video Games.” In Translation, Humour and the Media. Edited by D. Chiaro, 89–107. London: Continuum.Google Scholar
Martin, Rod A. 2007. The Psychology of Humor: An Integrative Approach. Burlington, MA: Elsevier. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
McAllister, Graham, and Gareth R. White. 2010. “Video Game Development and User Experience.” In Evaluating User Experience in Games: Concepts and Methods. Edited by R. Bernhaupt, 107–128. New York: Springer. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
McGhee, Paul. E. 1972. “On the Cognitive Origin of Incongruity Humor: Fantasy Assimilation versus Reality Assimilation.” In The Psychology of Humor: Theoretical Perspectives and Empirical Issues. Edited by J. H. Goldstein, and P. E. McGhee, 61–80. New York: Academic. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Meyer, John. C. 2000. “Humor as a Double-Edged Sword: Four Functions of Humor in Communication.” Communication Theory 101: 310–331. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Nacke, Lennart, and Andres Drachen. 2011. “Towards a Framework of Player Experience Research.” Proceedings of the 2011 Foundations of Digital Games Conference, Bordeaux, France. EPEX 11 Workshop. Toronto: ACM Publishers. Available at [URL]
O’Hagan, Minako. 2009. “Towards a Cross-cultural Game Design: an Explorative Study in Understanding the Player Experience of a Localised Japanese Video Game.” The Journal of Specialised Translation 111: 211–233. Available at [URL]
. 2016. “Game Localisation as Emotion Engineering: Methodological Exploration.” In Conflict and Communication: A Changing Asia in a Globalising World: Language and Cultural Perspectives. Edited by M. O’Hagan and Q. Zhang, 81–102. New York: Nova Publishers.Google Scholar
Picard, Rosalind W. 2000. Affective Computing. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Shaffer, Jerome. 1983. “An Assessment of Emotions.” American Philosophical Quarterly 201: 161–173.Google Scholar
Tavinor, Grant. 2009. Art of Videogames. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Wood, Richard TA, Mark D. Griffiths, Darren Chappell, and Mark Davies. 2004. “The Structural Characteristics of Video Games: A Psycho-Structural Analysis.” Psychology & Behavior 7 (1): 1–10. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cited by (4)

Cited by four other publications

Caro, Marina Ramos & Ana María Rojo López
2024. When faces don’t lie. Translation, Cognition & Behavior 7:1 ► pp. 116 ff. DOI logo
Deckert, Mikołaj, Miguel Ángel Bernal-Merino & Krzysztof Hejduk
2024. Towards Game Translation User Research, DOI logo
Hsu, Hao & Minako O’Hagan
2024. International players’ perceptions of localization in their gameplay experiences. Translation Spaces DOI logo
Muñoz Martín, Ricardo
2021. Situated cognition. In Handbook of Translation Studies [Handbook of Translation Studies, 5], ► pp. 207 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 30 december 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.