Browsing by Author "Vieira, Catarina"
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- Howl’s moving castle: perspectives from literature to filmPublication . Vieira, Catarina; Kunz, SahraHowl’s Moving Castle (2004), commonly known as a highly acclaimed animation film directed by the master filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki, was based on a teen fiction novel written by the late author Diana Wynne Jones. Miyazaki adapted the book and transformed it into one of his beloved animation films. Although the concept and the overall message is the same, this paper has the objective of carefully analyzing the differences concerning the characters, the plot and the message between the novel and the motion picture, as well as comparing the film version to Miyazaki’s personal aesthetic and his train of thought in order to understand where the differences are coming from.
- Mahou shoujo: from Japan to global phenomenonPublication . Vieira, Catarina; Kunz, SahraThe mahou shoujo genre (magical girl) focuses on the life of a female child or teenager, who possesses magical powers. Due to various suc- cesses such as Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon or Cardcaptor Sakura, the mahou shoujo is associated with Japanese animation. This kind of narra- tive emerged in Japan and quickly spread to the rest of the world. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to analyze the main works of this genre, how they spread globally, influencing the animation produced in the West, and how they served as a foundation for the current anime franchises of the mahou shoujo genre.
- Review: playing at a distance: borderlands of videogame aestheticPublication . Vieira, CatarinaSonia Fizek's Playing at Distance: Borderlands of Video Game Aesthetic navigates the intricate intersection of digital technology, aesthetics, and play in the context of video games, challenging conventional ideas of player agency. This critical recension delves into the book's contributions, highlighting its innovative exploration of mediated distance, interactivity, delegation, automation, ambience, spectacle, and the evolving nature of player engagement. While acknowledging its theoretical depth, this review emphasizes the book's significance in reshaping our understanding of video game aesthetics and the complex relationship between humans, machines, and digital play.
- Serious game design and clinical improvement in physical rehabilitation: systematic reviewPublication . Vieira, Catarina; Pais-Vieira, Carla Ferreira da Silva; Novais, João; Perrotta, AndréBackground: Serious video games have now been used and assessed in clinical protocols, with several studies reporting patient improvement and engagement with this type of therapy. Even though some literature reviews have approached this topic from a game perspective and presented a broad overview of the types of video games that have been used in this context, there is still a need to better understand how different game characteristics and development strategies might impact and relate to clinical outcomes. Objective: This review assessed the relationship between the characteristics of serious games (SGs) and their relationship with the clinical outcomes of studies that use this type of therapy in motor impairment rehabilitation of patients with stroke, multiple sclerosis, or cerebral palsy. The purpose was to take a closer look at video game design features described in the literature (game genre [GG], game nature [GN], and game development strategy [GDS]) and assess how they may contribute toward improving health outcomes. Additionally, this review attempted to bring together medical and game development perspectives to facilitate communication between clinicians and game developers, therefore easing the process of choosing the video games to be used for physical rehabilitation. Methods: We analyzed the main features of SG design to obtain significant clinical outcomes when applied to physical rehabilitation of patients recovering from motor impairments resulting from stroke, multiple sclerosis, and cerebral palsy. We implemented a PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) database-adjusted electronic search strategy for the PubMed, IEEE Xplore, and Cochrane databases. Results: We screened 623 related papers from 2010-2021 and identified 12 that presented results compatible with our inclusion criteria. A total of 512 participants with stroke (8 studies, 417 participants), cerebral palsy (1 study, 8 participants), and multiple sclerosis (2 studies, 46 participants) were included; 1 study targeting the elderly (41 participants) was also included. All studies assessed motor, sensory, and functional functions, while some also measured general health outcomes. Interventions with games were used for upper-limb motor rehabilitation. Of the 12 studies, 8 presented significant improvements in at least one clinical measurement, of which 6 presented games from the casual GG, 1 combined the casual, simulation, and exergaming GGs, and 2 combined the sports and simulation GGs. Conclusions: Of the possible combinations of game design features (GG, GN, and GDS) described, custom-made casual games that resort to the first-person perspective, do not feature a visible player character, are played in single-player mode, and use nonimmersive virtual reality attain the best results in terms of positive clinical outcomes. In addition, the use of custom-made games versus commercial off-the-shelf games tends to give better clinical results, although the latter are perceived as more motivating and engaging.
- Serious games as a tool for physical impairment rehabilitation: a reviewPublication . Vieira, Catarina; Perrotta, André; Novais, João; Pais-Vieira, Carla
- Serious games for physical rehabilitation: aesthetic discrepancies between custom-made serious games and commercial titles used for healthcarePublication . Vieira, Catarina; Perrotta, André; Pais-Vieira, CarlaSerious games are videogames that are used with purposes that go beyond the mere entertainment of the player. Among their many applications, healthcare is one of the most prominent ones, as serious games can have a wide range of uses within this field, namely physical rehabilitation of patients. For this purpose, both custom-made serious games and commercial entertainment titles, such as those for Nintendo Wii, can be used. However, while custom-made serious games appear to be more clinically effective, patients seem to prefer the gaming experience of playing a commercial title. This paper aims to compare the game goals and the aesthetics of Wii Sports (a commercial title used in the context of physical rehabilitation) with custom-made serious games that have obtained clinically significant results in upper limb rehabilitation, in order to try and understand what can be done to bridge the gap between these two approaches.
- Small data as a tool to predict player game design preferences: a qualitative pilot studyPublication . Vieira, Catarina; Alves, Pedro; Alves, Jorge; Perrotta, AndréVideogames, besides a form of entertainment, can be of added value to purposes such as physical rehabilitation (serious games). In this context, custom made serious games may be of great value, especially if they combine the necessary actions that the user must perform with engaging and captivating gameplay. Given data protection and ethical constraints, assessing a patient’s gaming preferences and personal traits to predict preferred game design by big data from online social profiles is not possible. In this matter, we developed a questionnaire that tries to infer patients’ gaming preferences from limited personal information, which we denote as “Small Data”. The questionnaire was tested in a pilot study with 17 healthy participants and results suggest that the collected information may help decide what kind of videogame better suits a particular patient, potentially aiding the process of developing Serious Games for healthcare.