The paper presents a critical and analytical review of national and foreign scientific works on transformational effects of video games. It focuses the attention on contradictions in the data presented by scientists on the impact of the gaming activity on psychological changes among gamers. It carries out a comparison of the results of the research, presented in the scientific literature, on the impact of computer games on gamers with aggressive and violent content. The article shows the differences in the results of investigating the impact of video games on attention deficit among players, their anxiety and depression, and poor progress at school. It indicates the tendency to unreasonable stereotyping of ideas about the negative effect of the gaming activity. It shows that the differences in the results obtained are caused not only by the subjectivity of the researchers and the ambiguous research methodology, but also by the fact that the game is not differentiated, without isolating its formal and substantive components, which alone or in systemic interaction with other components of the game can explain the transformational effect.

Семантика образа героя: межкультурные различия (на примере российских и македонских подростков) Представлены результаты исследования особенностей восприятия образа героя российскими и македонскими подростками. На основе данных, полученных с помощью семантического дифференциала, определены факторы семантической оценки исследуемого стимула. Выявлены достоверные различия в оценке «героя» россиянами и македонцами, больше выраженные у подростков, чем у взрослых. Обнаружена трансформация традиционной семантики архетипического образа у российских школьников. Показана ее связь с презентацией образа героя в медиапространстве. Ключевые слова: архетип; культурный герой; традиционные ценности; медиапространство; семантическая оценка; факторный анализ.

No abstract

No abstract

The article presented the rationale and description of a universal classification model of computer games. The basis of its development was the principle of systematic and psychosemiotic approach that afforded considering both semantic and syntactic (formal) features of a game as factors mediating its effect on gamers. A computer game came under consideration as a system entity whose classification profile took shape following unique combination of thirty-four components that were interconnected in the manner of mutual cooperation. They combined into seven levels, two of which were: the game-play and setting — attributed to the fundamentals inherent to any game, while five were variable: the narrative, semantic, personal, communicative and ethic. Criteria to determine intensity of manifestation of the described components in a game that served as the basis for its expert evaluation, were presented. The results of investigation of «The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt» computer game were quoted. The study involved ten experts (8 men and 2 women) with a higher education and a great interactive gaming experience. The participants were made familiar with the classification algorithm of video games assessment and, in the process of complete ‘play-through’ of a game under consideration, categorized it into thirty-four components. Statistical processing of the data demonstrated high degree of consistency of the estimates: the value of α-Kronbach index amounted to 0.971. That afforded grounds to infer that the Master Form presented may serve as a reliable basis to analyze games and propose hypotheses about the nature of their effect on gamers.