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Beck, Michael J. "Shall We Play a Game?: The Performative Interactivity of Video Games." Thesis, University of North Texas, 2014. https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc700111/.
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This study examines the ways that videogames and live performance are informed by play theory. Utilizing performance studies methodologies, specifically personal narrative and autoperformance, the project explores the embodied ways that gamers know and understand videogames. A staged performance, “Shall We Play a Game?,” was crafted using Brechtian theatre techniques and Conquergood’s three A’s of performance, and served as the basis for the examination. This project seeks to dispel popular misconceptions about videogames and performance and to expand understanding about videogaming as an embodied performative practice and a way of knowing that has practical implications for everyday life.
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Fidalgo, Christopher J. "Art, Gaut and Games: the Case for Why Some Video Games Are Art." Digital Archive @ GSU, 2012. http://digitalarchive.gsu.edu/philosophy_hontheses/5.
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In this paper, I argue that there are some video games which are art. I begin my paper by laying out several objections as to why video games could not be art. After laying out these objections, I present the theory of art I find most persuasive, Berys Gaut’s cluster concept of art. Because of the nature of Gaut’s cluster concept, I argue that video games, as a medium of expression, do not need to be defended as a whole. Rather, like all other media of expression, only certain works are worthy of the title art. I then introduce and defend several games as art. After, I return to the initial objections against video games and respond in light of my defended cases. I conclude that video games, as a medium of expression, are still growing, but every day there are more examples of video games as art.
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Bratkowski, Tad. "The Aesthetic Experience of Video Games: A Pluralistic Approach." OpenSIUC, 2014. https://opensiuc.lib.siu.edu/dissertations/799.
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In this dissertation, I make a serious philosophic application of several aesthetic theories to the emerging medium of video games. I look at concepts such as the play of art, psychical distancing, and an experience, and apply each of these to a representative video game. Hence, I use a variety of aesthetic works, but apply these in a pluralistic manner. The thesis I defend is that a number of specific video games offer possibilities for aesthetic experience that can be comprehended through these traditional aesthetic theories. The purpose of my project is not a comparative one among these theories: I do not argue that any one of these is definitive in application to all video games. Instead, I hold these theories in tension by showing that each has practical merit in being applied to different games I use a variety of aesthetic approaches to argue that a specific game exemplifies the aesthetic value which is at the core of a particular theory. I apply John Dewey's notion of an experience as a single, distinctive whole consisting of parts in unity to the music-based game Rock Band. To consider the distance between the player of a video game and the game's content, I discuss Edward Bullough's theory of psychical distance and apply this concept to a violent game such as Grand Theft Auto IV. Finally, I consider Hans-Georg Gadamer's thoughts on the play of art and the connection of play to seriousness and apply these thoughts to a game which integrates a sense of playfulness with serious themes: Braid.
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Ströberg, Simon. "ADHD Through the Lens of Game Design : How Digital RPGs Neutralize the Symptoms of Inattention Amongst Swedish Adults with ADHD." Thesis, Uppsala universitet, Institutionen för speldesign, 2018. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-394208.
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ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) is a commonly diagnosed mental disorder with an estimated global prevalence of 5.29% that exhibit inattentive, hyperactive and impulsive behaviors, many of which can negatively impact an individual’s social, academic, occupational and everyday-life. Studies based on the Delay Aversion Hypothesis have shown that video-games effectively contribute to the neutralization of some of the inattentive symptoms of ADHD, and that games could act as a possible treatment option for individuals with ADHD. Attempts to use video games as a treatment option has previously been tried, however to a limited extent. This study approaches the topic from the game design perspective, and discusses which game mechanics, activities and stimuli contribute to the possible neutralization of the inattentive symptoms of ADHD, in order to lay a foundation for future research within the area. The study found that the participants with ADHD acted in ways that contradicted some of the described symptoms of ADHD in the DSM-5 (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders) when playing video games, which could be attributed to the amount of stimuli available in video games. Additionally, the participants’ level of motivation when playing video games seemed to be strongly correlated to the principles of andragogy, which could indicate that children with ADHD might benefit from an educational system that combines and incorporates principles from both andragogy and pedagogy.
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Wunderlich, Ralf. "Der kluge Spieler und die Ethik des Computerspielens." Universität Potsdam, 2012. http://opus.kobv.de/ubp/volltexte/2012/5551/.
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„Der kluge Spieler und die Ethik des Computerspielens“ ist eine moralphilosophische Analyse der sogenannten „Killerspiel-Diskussion“. Als Aufhänger dient der Amoklauf von Winnenden, in dessen Nachgang Diskussionen über Computerspiele, speziell solche mit gewalthaltigem Inhalt, aufkamen. In der öffentlichen Meinung wird häufig davon ausgegangen, dass das Spielen solcher Computerspiele auch in der Realität zu gewalttätigem Verhalten führt. Einige Politiker stellen diese Spiele sogar mit Kinderpornographie gleich.
Mithilfe dreier bekannter normativer ethischer Theorien – dem Konsequentialismus (Mill), der Deontologie (Kant) und der Tugendethik (Aristoteles) – werden die wissenschaftlichen Argumente contra Computerspiele analysiert und bewertet.
Die Computerspielgegner konzentrieren sich auf den Inhalt und die grafische Darstellung der Spiele (narratologischer Ansatz). Am Ende einer ausführlichen Darstellung ihrer Argumente stellt sich heraus, dass keines davon haltbar ist, wenn man die ethischen Theorien auf sie anwendet. Einzig der tugendethische Ansatz scheint Ansätze zu bieten, auf denen man aufbauen kann, allerdings nicht gegen, sondern für Spiele.
Diesem wird im zweiten Teil des Buches nachgegangen. Miguel Sicarts Werk „The Ethics of Computer Games“ versucht, eine konkrete Ethik des Computerspiels zu entwickeln. In „Der kluge Spieler und die Ethik des Computerspielens“ wird Sicarts Werk zum ersten Mal im Deutschen vorgestellt, in seine einzelnen Bestandteile zerlegt und re-strukturiert.
In Sicarts Ethik-Konzept für Computerspiele werden die Inhalte und die Grafik der Computerspiele komplett außen vor gelassen. Sein Ansatz ist ein ludologischer (spielwissenschaftlicher), der das Regelwerk und System der Spiele in den Vordergrund schiebt. Die drei Kernelemente seiner Theorie werden dargestellt: 1. das Computerspiel als moralisches Objekt, 2. der Computerspieler als moralisches Subjekt und 3. das Computerspielen als moralische Handlung.
Diese drei Aspekte wirken zusammen und miteinander. Es entsteht eine Wechselwirkung zwischen dem Spiel und dem Spieler, in den auch das Nicht-Spieler-Subjekt einbezogen wird. Ein Mensch spielt ein Computerspiel und wird dadurch zum Spieler dieses Spiels. Er nimmt das Regelwerk auf und ruft seine vorhandene Erfahrung aus früheren Spielen ab, um somit ein möglichst gelungenes Spielen zu bewerkstelligen. Damit ist gemeint, dass er nicht schummelt, dass er keine Tricks anwendet, dass er in Mehrspielerspielen Fairplay walten lässt etc. Zusätzlich ist dieser Spieler aber nicht nur ein Spieler, sondern er befindet sich in sozialen Kontexten, hat Werte und Ansichten und diese fließen in sein Spieler-Repertoire ein.
In solch einer Wechselwirkung verhält sich der Spieler moralisch korrekt, wenn er dem Spiel zu dem verhilft, was es ist: eine Erfahrung. Das Spiel ist nämlich zweierlei: 1. Das Objekt, also eine CD in einer Hülle mit einer Spielanleitung etc. 2. Das Spiel, das am Bildschirm tatsächlich erfahren wird, indem es gespielt wird. Sieht das Spiel eine gewalthaltige Lösung vor, ist es in Sicarts Ethik des Computerspiels moralisch richtig, diese zu vollziehen. Was Sicart mit seiner Theorie letztendlich zeichnet, ist das Bild eines „klugen Spielers“.
Der dritte Teil des Buches analysiert Sicarts Ethik des Computerspiels und zeigt mithilfe eines praktischen Beispiels seine Schwachstelle auf. Während die Computerspielgegner sich ausschließlich auf den Inhalt und die Grafik konzentrieren, ignoriert Sicart sie gänzlich. Somit stellen beide Ansätze Extrempositionen dar. Sicarts Ansatz wird in eine „Ethik des Computerspielens“ uminterpretiert und anschließend auf die Diskussionen rund um den Amoklauf von Winnenden angewendet. Dadurch können die Ausgangsargumente gegen Killerspiele endgültig wissenschaftlich widerlegt werden.
Im letzten Teil des Buches wird die Brücke zum tugendethischen Ansatz des Aristoteles geschlagen: der gemäßigte Mittelweg führt zu einem guten Leben. Eine komplette Computerspielethik muss beide Aspekte beinhalten: den grafisch-inhaltlichen („narratologischen“) und den spieltechnischen („ludologischen“) Ansatz. Nur im Zusammenspiel beider kann eine umfassende Computerspielethik gesucht und gefunden werden. Hierzu wird ein Grundgerüst vorgeschlagen sowie zwei Ideen, welche für weitere Forschung auf dem Gebiet verwendet werden können.“The Prudent Player and the Ethics of Computer Gaming” is a moral philosophical analysis of the so called “killergame-controversy”. After the gun rampage of Winnenden, heavy discussions arose in Germany about video games, especially those with violent content. The public opinion is that violent video games cause violent behaviour in real life. Some German politicians even claimed that such games would be on one level with child pornography. With the help of three known normative ethical theories – consequentialism (Mill), deontology (Kant) and virtue ethics (Aristoteles) – the scientific arguments against video games are analysed and evaluated. The opponents of video games focus on the content and graphics of the games (narratological approach). After an extensive presentation of their arguments, it turns out that none remains valid after applying the ethical theories to them. Solely the virtue ethics approach seems to be of help, however not against but in aid of video games. This is dealt with in the second part of the book. Miguel Sicart’s work “The Ethics of Computer Games” tries to develop a tangible ethics for computer games. “The Clever Player and the Ethics of Computer Gaming” presents Sicart’s theory for the first time in German and re-structures it’s content by focussing on the main ingredients of his theory. Sicart’s concept does not include any content or graphical aspects. It is a strictly ludological (game studies) approach which focuses on the rules and the system of the games. The three main elements of his theory are: 1. the video game as a moral object, 2. the player as a moral subject and 3. playing video games as a moral act. These three aspects work together. The result is an interaction between the game and the player which also includes the non-playing-subject of the player. A person starts playing a video game and hence becomes the player of this game. He acts according to the rules and uses his previous experience with other games in order to play as properly as possible. This means that he does not cheat, does not use tricks, acts with fair play in multiplayer games etc. Since the player is more than just a player, he also uses his virtues and perspectives from the real world as a player-tool. The player acts morally correct in such an interaction, if he helps the game become an experience rather than a mere object (CD/DVD). Only when a game is experienced on the screen by a player, it becomes a real game as intended by it’s designers. And if this game needs a violent on-screen solution for solving a problem, then the player ought to do so. The player which Sicart describes is a “clever player” and not some sort of zombie without thoughts and evaluation of what is happening. The third part of the book analyses Sicart’s framework and shows his weakness with the help of a practical example. While the opponents of video games focus on the content and graphics only, Sicart’s approach does not include them at all. Therefore, both positions are extreme and Sicart’s point of view is re-interpreted into an “Ethics of Computer Gaming”, pointing out the active part of his theory. Now it is scientifically possible to prove all arguments against video games following the Winnenden-controversy wrong at one go. The last part of the book goes back to Aristoteles’ view on ethics: living a good life means finding the middle ground between extremes. Hence, a complete ethics of computer games needs both approaches: the narratological (graphics and content) and the ludological (rules and game systems). Only when both are combined, a real ethics of computer games is possible. A framework for such a theory is proposed as well as two ideas which can be helpful for further research in this field.
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Sweeney, Mark Richard. "The aesthetics of videogame music." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2014. https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:70a29850-0c0d-4abd-a501-e75224fa856a.
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The videogame now occupies a unique territory in contemporary culture that offers a new perspective on conceptions of high and low art. While the fear that the majority of videogames 'pacify' their audience in an Adornian "culture industry" is not without justification, its reductionism can be countered by a recognition of the diversity and aesthetic potential of the medium. This has been proposed by sociologist, Graeme Kirkpatrick, although without close attention to the role of music. Videogame music often operates in similar ways to music in other mixed-media scenarios, such as film, or opera. In the same way that film music cannot be completely divorced from film, videogame music is contingent on and a crucial part of the videogame aesthetic. However, the interactive nature of the medium - its différance - has naturally led to the development of nonlinear musical systems that tailor music in real time to the game's dynamically changing dramatic action. Musical non-linearity points beyond both music and videogames (and their respective discourses) toward broader issues pertinent to contemporary musicology and critical thinking, not least to matters concerning high modernism (traditionally conceived of as resistant to mass culture). Such issues include Barthes's "death of the author", the significance of order/disorder as a formal spectrum, and postmodern conceptions and experiences of temporality. I argue that in this sense the videogame medium - and its music - warrants attention as a unique but not sui generis aesthetic experience. Precedent can be found for many of the formal ideas employed in such systems in certain aspects of avant-garde art, and especially in the aleatoric music prevalent in the 1950s and 60s. This thesis explores this paradox by considering videogames as both high and low, and, more significantly, I argue that the aesthetics of videogame music draw attention to the centrality of "play" in all cultural objects.
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Morisset, Thomas. "Du beau jeu. Pour une esthétique des jeux vidéo." Thesis, Sorbonne université, 2020. http://www.theses.fr/2020SORUL006.
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Cette thèse aborde les jeux vidéo par l’expérience qui en est faite et cherche à rendre compte de celle-ci par la construction d’un modèle théorique croisant deux traditions philosophiques distinctes : l’esthétique et la philosophie de la technique. Mettant en évidence l’existence de différents régimes d’expérience, ce travail entend prouver que lesdits régimes (nommés jeu fermé, jeu ouvert et beau jeu) sont chacun sources d’un plaisir spécifique qui trouvent son expression dans un jugement d’appréciation sensible. Or, parmi ces expériences, certaines, à cause de leur caractère ludique même, orientent le joueur vers le développement d’un savoir-faire technique et requièrent des dynamiques attentionnelles différentes de celles d’une expérience esthétique. Prenant alors appui sur une définition technique des jeux et du jouer, cette thèse montre qu’il existe un régime technique d’appréciation de la beauté proche, mais distinct, du régime esthétique. Elle entend ainsi montrer que les jeux vidéo sont un objet privilégié pour donner accès à cette beauté technique, tout en développant, en même temps, des spécificités esthétiques originalesThis PhD thesis approaches videogames through the lense of player experience and aims to build a theoretical model that draws on two distinct philosophical traditions : aesthetics and philosophy of technology. It aims to prove both the existence of different regimes for experiencing games (namely closed play, open play and beautiful play) and that from each of these regimes stems a specific kind of sensible pleasure, expressed by an appreciative sensible judgement. Among these experiences, some are particularily defined by their ludic aspect. They lead the player to develop technical skills and henceforth require attentional dynamics which differ greatly from those implied by aesthetic experience. Relying on a technical definition of both game and play, this work shows that a technical regime of feeling and judging beauty exists which is close to the aesthetic regime and yet remains distinct from it. This thesis thus considers video games as a privileged means to reach this technical beauty and as one that develops aesthetic properties of their own
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Drazdauskas, Laurynas. "Virtual Reality as a Phenomenon of Art." Thesis, Linköping University, Department of Philosophy, 2006. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:liu:diva-7645.
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In this essay results are developed on two different levels. First, it is shown in demonstration that a phenomenological analysis on the lines of Roman’s Ingarden’s study of works in literature can be applied to Virtual Reality works, such as professional-simulators and video-games. In particular it can then be pointed out that: i) sound is separable from the scene, but using sound VR becomes enriched; ii) the main role in literature is left for the imagination, while in VR we find richness in concretization.
Second, it is argued in discussion that works in VR can be qualified as works of art. These electronic works may have all the aesthetical qualities (based on the phenomenology of Roman Ingarden) of the works of art in the traditional sense. So, that paper has two objectives: an analysis of VR and the search for the status of VR in art.
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Rutherford, Kevin J. "Pack Your Things and Go: Bringing Objects to the Fore in Rhetoric and Composition." Miami University / OhioLINK, 2015. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=miami1436295241.
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Casanova, Vilela Alexis Agustin, Márquez Alex Javier León, Infante Cynthia Bertila Mosqueira, and Canales Erick Dyan Pflucker. "Video Games Xchange." Bachelor's thesis, Universidad Peruana de Ciencias Aplicadas (UPC), 2019. http://hdl.handle.net/10757/626325.
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Video Games Xchange (VGX) se crea con la finalidad de interactuar y conectar a aquellos usuarios que gustan de los videojuegos en nuestro país; ya que dicha industria en el Perú, en estos últimos años, mueve 138 millones de dólares cada año; que nos ubica en el puesto 49 a nivel mundial en este rubro.
Nuestra empresa se inicia con un estudio de mercado en los diversos sectores del país donde haya más demanda de videojuegos, y poder ver el comportamiento de los usuarios tanto en la variedad que pueda existir en nuestro mercado interior como en el exterior.
En la actualidad en el Perú el 76% de Gamers son hombres a diferencia del 24% que son mujeres, de los cuales el 32% juega en plataformas de consolas como el Play Station, XBOX, Nintendo 64, entre otros. Como dato a resaltar en Latinoamérica se genera el 3.6% del total de 137, 900 billones de dólares en el mundo por ingresos de videojuegos.
Para llevar a cabo nuestro proyecto se va requerir una inversión inicial de S/ 92,580.00, financiado un 40% de inversionistas y un 60% con el aporte los socios, que se estima recuperarlo en el tercer año de su operación.Video Games Xchange (VGX) was created with the idea of implementing a platform that allows people, who enjoy video games in our country, to connect and interact, given that such industry (video gaming) in Peru has generated about $138 million dollars in last the year, placing Peru in 49th place worldwide in this industry. The idea of the business starts with a market study of the gaming industry in the different sectors of the Peruvian population, segregated by the different regions, given that the preferences vary based on the local culture. Furthermore, we have analyzed and compared the local and international market to fully understand and forecast the development of our gaming platform and their futures grow in the global market. Nowadays and while reviewing the statistical data, we have identified that in Peru about 76% of gamers are men and 24%, are women. Of this population, approximately 32% use video consoles such as Play Station, XBOX and Nintendo Switch. This information is key for our project since it shows that a there is a solid gaming market in Perú. For the execution our business project, we will require funds in the sum of S/92,000, part of this will be financed, with an initially structured to be 40% funded by investors and 60% with paid in capital from our shareholders. The return of the invested capital is estimated to be fulfilled in the second year of operations, as it is reflected in the cash flow of our business plan.
Trabajo de investigación
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Jensen, Remy. "Video Games: Game AI." Thesis, Norges teknisk-naturvitenskapelige universitet, Institutt for datateknikk og informasjonsvitenskap, 2010. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:no:ntnu:diva-11994.
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The goals of this project was to learn the industry standards of what good and challenging game AI was. The author reviewed literature on the topic and had personal correspondence where the research questions was answered by professionals within the field. The availability of open literature and the openness of the professionals really helped with understanding the industry standards to game AI.Using the information from the research a prototype system adhering to the industry standard was made with the intention of expanding it into an experimental prototype using unorthodox techniques to achieve the appearance of intelligence. By practical application of the methods learned it became apparent certain theoretical ideas was not optimally compatible with the provided framework. And a redesign of the conflicting module was nescecary.The system implemented performed well within the industry standards. But no experimental prototyping of unorthodox methods could be made with the system due to lack of time to implement such features. A couple of optimality tweaks been discovered since the end of the implementation phase of the project and the author will keep theese in mind when continuing work on the system in the future.
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Stinson, Samuel D. "Writing with Video Games." Ohio University / OhioLINK, 2018. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ohiou1525803463021262.
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Tisa, Lynda Giselle. "Adolescents and video games what I discovered about authentic learning and video games /." Access to citation, abstract and download form provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company; downloadable PDF file 0.87Mb, 99 p, 2005. http://wwwlib.umi.com/dissertations/fullcit/3181865.
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Afiouni, Einar Nour, and Leif Julian Ovrelid. "Negotiation for Strategic Video Games." Thesis, Norges teknisk-naturvitenskapelige universitet, Institutt for datateknikk og informasjonsvitenskap, 2013. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:no:ntnu:diva-23166.
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This project aims to examine the possibilities of using game theoretic concepts and multi-agent systems in modern video games with real time demands. We have implemented a multi-issue negotiation system for the strategic video game Civilization IV, evaluating different negotiation techniques with a focus on the use of opponent modeling to improve negotiation results.
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Stone, William Bruce. "Violent video games and forgiveness." [Ames, Iowa : Iowa State University], 2010. http://gateway.proquest.com/openurl?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:dissertation&res_dat=xri:pqdiss&rft_dat=xri:pqdiss:1476353.
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Shoemaker, Broderick James. "Competitive multi-player video games." Thesis, Boston University, 2006. https://hdl.handle.net/2144/27769.
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Boston University. University Professors Program Senior theses.PLEASE NOTE: Boston University Libraries did not receive an Authorization To Manage form for this thesis. It is therefore not openly accessible, though it may be available by request. If you are the author or principal advisor of this work and would like to request open access for it, please contact us at open-help@bu.edu. Thank you.
2031-01-02
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Edlund, Joar, and Jack Jönsson. "Reinforcement Learning for Video Games." Thesis, KTH, Skolan för elektroteknik och datavetenskap (EECS), 2018. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:kth:diva-239363.
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We present an implementation of a specific type of deep reinforcement learning algorithm known as deep Qlearning. With a Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) combined with our Q-learning algorithm, we trained an agent to play the game of Snake. The input to the CNN is the raw pixel values from the Snake environment and the output is a value function which estimates future rewards for different actions. We implemented the Q-learning algorithm on a grid based and a pixel based representation of the Snake environment and found that the algorithm can perform at human level on smaller grid based representation whilst the performance on the pixel based representation was fairly limited.
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Hardy, Robert Stafford. "Cheating in Multiplayer Video Games." Thesis, Virginia Tech, 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/10919/31881.
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Cheating in video games has been prevalent ever since the days of Pong. Games have evolved much since then and the ways in which people play together have changed as well. Older systems required people to play together in the same room, but with the advent of the internet, gaming consoles allow us to play games together with people located all over the globe. Cheating has evolved as well, since gamers no longer have the luxury of monitoring the person sitting next to them; anti-cheating mechanisms are built into most online systems and suspicious behavior is monitored by gaming companies.
Most of the current research has surrounded ways in which players cheat and their reasoning for doing so. This is only half of the equation however, what happens after a gamer is caught cheating? What are the repercussions for being caught cheating and how does being caught influence future decisions to cheat? By putting gamers in a situation where they are caught cheating, three different responses were revealed: those who are determined to cheat no matter what, those who scale back their cheating in the hopes of remaining undetected, and those who stopped cheating altogether.Master of Science
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Ossege, Jennifer M. "Violent Video Games and Aggression." Xavier University / OhioLINK, 2003. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=xavier1382971482.
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Bernal-Merino, Miguel Angel. "The localisation of video games." Thesis, Imperial College London, 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/39333.
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The present thesis is a study of the translation of video games with a particular emphasis on the Spanish-English language pair, although other languages are brought into play when they offer a clearer illustration of a particular point in the discussion. On the one hand, it offers a descriptive analysis of the video game industry understood as a global phenomenon in entertainment, with the aim of understanding the norms governing present game development and publishing practices. On the other hand, it discusses particular translation issues that seem to be unique to these entertainment products due to their multichannel and polysemiotic nature, in which verbal and nonverbal signs are intimately interconnected in search of maximum game interactivity. Although this research positions itself within the theoretical framework of Descriptive Translation Studies, it actually goes beyond the mere accounting of current processes to propose changes whenever professional practice seems to be unable to rid itself of old unsatisfactory habits. Of a multidisciplinary nature, the present thesis is greatly informed by various areas of knowledge such as audiovisual translation, software localisation, computer assisted translation and translation memory tools, comparative literature, and video game production and marketing, amongst others. The conclusions are an initial breakthrough in terms of research into this new area, challenging some of the basic tenets current in translation studies thanks to its multidisciplinary approach, and its solid grounding on current game localisation industry practice. The results can be useful in order to boost professional quality and to promote the training of translators in video game localisation in higher education centres.
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Yan, Jingjing. "Gender and computer games / video games : girls’ perspective orientation." Thesis, Gotland University, Institutionen för humaniora och samhällsvetenskap, 2010. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:hgo:diva-575.
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The topic of this thesis is “Gender Differences in Computer games/ Video games Industry”. Due to rapid development in technology and popularization of computers all around the world, computer games have already become a kind of common entertainment. Because computer games were designed especially for boys at the very beginning, there are still some remaining barriers when training female game designers and expanding game markets among female players.This thesis is mainly based on two studies which have enormous contributions to gender issue in computer games area. A simple model is established by summarizing factors mentioned and discussed in those two books. The main purpose consists of two comparisons under Gender Differences: one comparison is between the current data with the previous one, in order to check whether there are any changes during the past 10 years. The other one compares the young people in two regions, Sweden and China, in computer games perspective.Model designing, test, questionnaire and interview methods are used in this paper aiming to collect and categorize the data, which facilitates to analyze the results of the comparisons. The results reflect that although computer becomes a familiar “friend” in modern daily life, there are not obvious changes of girls‟ perspectives in computer game industry. Certainly, there are some differences between the young people coming from two regions which will be expounded in the thesis.
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Chateau, Canguilhem Johann. "La chair virtuelle du cyberérotisme." Thesis, Bordeaux 3, 2014. http://www.theses.fr/2014BOR30017/document.
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L’approche pluridisciplinaire de cette thèse a pour objet principal la définition et l’évaluation du concept de « cyberérotisme ». L’évocation de cette notion est d’une prégnance telle au sein de la représentation du « corps virtuel » qu’il semble désormais possible de la considérer comme la figure emblématique des rapports au corps qui émergent dans le champ contemporain. Notre méthode, alliant esthétique, études culturelles et psychanalyse, s’établit en trois temps. Il s’agit tout d’abord d’élaborer une base de données afin de mettre en évidence l’appréhension conceptuelle qui va nous permettre de composer une première grille de lecture ; pour ce faire, nous établissons un corpus des films consacrés qui témoignent d’une approche spontanée du sujet, principalement eXistenZ, Demonlover, The Cell et Le Cobaye. Une seconde base de données est constituée à partir de l’observation des jeux vidéo, notamment les jeux pornographiques et hentai, afin de cerner les conditions de l’expérience dans son accomplissement actuel. Enfin, la rémanence des thèmes de la violence, du sadisme, de l’abandon du corps, de son renouvellement ou sa reconfiguration désignent finalement l’angoisse comme l’aspect central de l’expérience. C’est à partir de cette hypothèse de recherche que s’élabore, in fine, la dernière partie de cette thèseThe main purpose of this multidisciplinary research is to define and assess the concept of “cybereroticism”. This notion is of such significance in the « virtual body » representation that it now seems possible to consider it an emblematic figure of the way the body is implicated in the contemporary field. Our method, combining aesthetics, cultural studies and psychoanalysis, is set up in three steps. First of all, we will provide a database highlighting the conceptual framework, which will allow us to create the initial terms of reference. In order to achieve this, we will provide a corpus of serious movies reflecting a spontaneous approach of this topic, mainly eXistenZ, Demonlover, The Cell and The Lawmmower Man. A second database will be achieved by observing video games, including pornographic and hentai games, in order to identify the conditions of the experience in its current state. Lastly, we will demonstrate how the persistence of the themes of violence and sadism, as well as the abandon of the body, its renewal or its reconfiguration, refer ultimately to anguish as a key aspect of the experience. This research hypothesis will eventually represent the last part of this thesis
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Ahmed, Usman, and Inam Ullah. "Video Games Addiction : POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE EFFECTS OF PLAYING VIDEO GAMES ON YOUTH AND CHILDREN." Thesis, Högskolan i Borås, Institutionen Handels- och IT-högskolan, 2013. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:hb:diva-17237.
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Mankind has developed a lot in the field of Information Technology (IT), Computer Science and Media entertainment. Video games are also the most popular form of media entertainment and gaming environment. It has been popular long before the new generation video games idea was ever thought by the video game designers. Through our research we tried to investigate the positive and negative effects of video games on youth and children. This form of entertainment is more designed attracted among the people, due to the high sophisticated music and environment, which catches every eye. We not only analyzed the previous attempts in this area, but also tried to add some contribution to it. The excessive use of video games makes it more damaging effects on a young mind. Parents and teachers should keep a check on youngsters, and also the companies who design such violent games should keep in account that, what they show through these video games must have some logical or educational value. Many children and youngsters we found through our survey like to play video games because they do not have any other entertaining options. Violent video games are the most appreciated one among children and young people because of the detailed high quality graphics, more realistic images, use of artificial intelligence, complex game strategies, intelligent game inference engines and human-machine interaction. Parents should keep check on their children and select such video games for them which teach their children some useful things and beneficial for them in studies and near future. The teachers in school should also talk more about the advantages of educative games or physical games to develop the young minds more professional and realistic, rather than creating fantasy and fake imaginations. Our survey and research showed us that due to the high attraction of the video games, positive and negative effects are going side by side. Many youth and children do not take the video games seriously and just play them as any another game, while some video game players have disturbed their studies and health by playing the video games for many hours. Many children and young generation denied calling it as an addiction or bad habit. If violence and killing a life is entertainment then human beings will consider it, as a fun and modern society cannot be defined as civilized. This is what we found from our research and survey.Program: Magisterutbildning i informatik
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Brorsson, David. "Training attention with video games : How playing and training with video games impact attentional networks." Thesis, Högskolan i Skövde, Institutionen för biovetenskap, 2020. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:his:diva-19464.
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Video games as an entertainment form are very popular. Understanding what video games do to us in a long-term and short-term manner is therefore of interest. Attention is a widely studied field and research into how attentional networks are affected by video is a research field on the rise. Here, I will be investigating how video game play affects our attentional networks and if it is possible for elderly individuals to train their attentional networks with video games. Video game players have high performance in reaction time and accuracy in different attentional, working memory, and cognitive control tasks. As the difficulty of video games increase video game players seem to more efficiently utilize their attentional networks. Whilst some articles cannot replicate findings in other articles this irregularity might be explained with by level of difficulty or load during task performance. Studies see group differences only when the task difficulty is high. Therefore, an important part of video game research is to find an effective and replicable standard for video game research. Measuring video game play with EEG shows that players better can forgo distracting stimuli in central and peripheral view and discriminating stimuli giving video game players more confidence when making decisions. Video game players also seem to have more efficient processes and functional connectivity in attentional networks but utilizing these networks more as non-video game players as mental load increases. Not only does video game players have more efficient attentional networks, but attentional benefits from video games is also something that can be trained with those who do not play video games. Suggesting that older individuals can utilize video games to train attentional networks.
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Girina, Ivan. "Cinematic games : the aesthetic influence of cinema on video games." Thesis, University of Warwick, 2015. http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/74038/.
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During its first decade, Game Studies debate mainly revolved around the juxtaposition between two perspectives: the one of ludology and the one of narratology, each positing a primary quality of video games against the other. The study of the relationship between cinema and video games got somehow caught in the crossfire between these two fields. In this work, I investigate the extent to which representation in video games is connected to cinema and its representational codes. A number of authors before challenged this assumption, theorising models that only partially connect the cinematic form to video games. Such investigations have always started from the ludologically educated assumption that video games are different from cinema and, therefore, for the premises of this comparison to be considered “vitiated”, only tangentially useful due to the irreconcilably different nature of the two media. The adjective “cinematic” is a concept constantly evoked in cultural discourses concerning video games. Magazines, reviewers, critics, but also designers, artists, users and commentators (even scholars) often summon the idea of cinematic games in the attempt of describing some peculiar features that share affinities with films and suggesting that video games possess the aura of the big screen. Cinematic games are born at the crossroads between interactive movies and video games, for which the cinematic expression is retained by means of audiovisual representation while keeping the action in the hands of the player. Due to the vast scale of the subject, my work focuses on relatively recent developments in game design which have yet to be fully investigated, and seeks to extend existing attempts to apply the tools of film theory to Game Studies. A secondary value of this work is an annotation on the disengagement of moving image scholars with video games, and it partly serves as an invocation for this to change.
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Wolf, Mark J. P. "Theorizing navigable space in video games." Universität Potsdam, 2011. http://opus.kobv.de/ubp/volltexte/2011/4980/.
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Space is understood best through movement, and complex spaces require not only movement but navigation. The theorization of navigable space requires a conceptual representation of space which is adaptable to the great malleability of video game spaces, a malleability which allows for designs which combine spaces with differing dimensionality and even involve non-Euclidean configurations with contingent connectivity. This essay attempts to describe the structural elements of video game space and to define them in such a way so as to make them applicable to all video game spaces, including potential ones still undiscovered, and to provide analytical tools for their comparison and examination. Along with the consideration of space, there will be a brief discussion of navigational logic, which arises from detectable regularities in a spatial structure that allow players to understand and form expectations regarding a game’s spaces.
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Moorcroft, Johnny. "The Detrimental Effects of Video Games." UOIT, 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/10155/60.
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Tulloch, Rowan Christopher English Media & Performing Arts Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences UNSW. "Powerplay: video games, subjectivity and culture." Publisher:University of New South Wales. English, Media, & Performing Arts, 2009. http://handle.unsw.edu.au/1959.4/43519.
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This thesis examines single-player video gaming. It is an analysis of video game play: what it is, how it functions, and what it means. It is an account of how players learn to play. This is done through a set of close readings of significant video games and key academic texts. My focus is on the mechanisms and forces that shape gameplay practices. Building on the existing fields of ludology and media-studies video-game analysis, I outline a model of video game play as a cultural construction which builds upon the player's existing knowledge of real world and fictional objects, scenarios and conventions. I argue that the relationship between the video game player and the software is best understood as embodying a precise configuration of power. I demonstrate that the single-player video game is in fact what Michel Foucault terms a 'disciplinary apparatus'. It functions to shape players' subjectivities in order to have them behave in easily predicted and managed ways. To do this, video games reuse and repurpose conventions from existing media forms and everyday practices. By this mobilisation of familiar elements, which already have established practices of use, and by a careful process of surveillance, examination and the correction of play practices, video games encourage players to take on and perform the logics of the game system. This relationship between organic player and technological game, I suggest, is best understood through the theoretical figure of the 'Cyborg'. It is a point of intersection between human and computer logics. Far from the ludological assumption that play and culture are separate and that play is shaped entirely by rules, I show video game play to be produced by an array of complex cultural and technological forces that act upon the player. My model of video game play differs from others currently in circulation in that it foregrounds the role of culture in play, while not denying the technological specificity of the video gaming apparatus. My central focus on power and the construction of player subjectivities offers a way to move beyond the simplistic reliance on the notion that rules are the primary shaping mechanism of play that has, to date, dominated much of video game studies.
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Al-Sader, Mohamed. "Gaze-driven interaction in video games." Thesis, Linköpings universitet, Medie- och Informationsteknik, 2018. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:liu:diva-156718.
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The introduction of input devices with natural user interfaces in gaming hardware has changed the way we interact with games. Hardware with motion-sensing and gesture recognizing capabilities remove the constraint of interacting with games through typical traditional devices like mouse-keyboard and gamepads. This changes the way we approach games and how the game communicates back to us as the player opening new levels of interactivity. This thesis covers how eye tracker technology can be used to affect rendering effects in games.
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Zhadan, Anastasiia. "Artificial Intelligence Adaptation in Video Games." Thesis, Linnéuniversitetet, Institutionen för datavetenskap och medieteknik (DM), 2018. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:lnu:diva-79131.
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One of the most important features of a (computer) game that makes it memorable is an ability to bring a sense of engagement. This can be achieved in numerous ways, but the most major part is a challenge, often provided by in-game enemies and their ability to adapt towards the human player. However, adaptability is not very common in games. Throughout this thesis work, aspects of the game control systems that can be improved in order to be adaptable were studied. Based on the results gained from the study of the literature related to artificial intelligence in games, a classification of games was developed for grouping the games by the complexity of the control systems and their ability to adapt different aspects of enemies behavior including individual and group behavior. It appeared that only 33% of the games can not be considered adaptable. This classification was then used to analyze the popularity of games regarding their challenge complexity. Analysis revealed that simple, familiar behavior is more welcomed by players. However, highly adaptable games have got competitively high scores and excellent reviews from game critics and reviewers, proving that adaptability in games deserves further research.
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Costa, Liliana Filipa Vale. "Networked video games for older adults." Master's thesis, Universidade de Aveiro, 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/10773/11326.
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Mestrado em Comunicação MultimédiaNa atualidade, o envelhecimento da população ativa é uma realidade omnipresente. Recentemente, o estudo de produtos ou serviços comercializados para o cidadão sénior começa a despertar o interesse junto da comunidade científica e empresarial. A mesma tendência poderá surgir na indústria dos videojogos em que os seniores, especialmente os reformados, poderão tornar-se nos próximos consumidores de videojogos. Até ao momento, vários estudos têm-se debruçado sobre o papel dos videojogos na manutenção ou melhoria das capacidades cognitivas. No entanto, a ausência de informação sobre a utilização dos videojogos em rede numa idade mais avançada parece prevalecer. A componente social dos videojogos em rede neste público-alvo tem sido descurada bem como o seu potencial na promoção da inclusão digital e minimização das barreiras sociais. O objetivo desta investigação é compreender as componentes de design de videojogos em rede que estimulam o cidadão sénior a jogar, utilizando o método de investigação social aplicada. Deste modo, dois grupos etários (G1: 50-64 anos e G2: idade igual ou superior a 65) com elevada literacia foram envolvidos neste estudo, com a finalidade de compreender as tendências do futuro cidadão sénior enquanto jogador. Esta investigação oferece uma nova perspectiva do perfil de jogador, ao aplicar um questionário a 245 jogadores com idade igual ou superior a 50, dois focus group e técnicas de análise de conteúdo aplicadas na contrução da prova de conceito para o game design de um jogo em rede para esta faixa etária. Os resultados indicam que não há diferenças significativas entre jogadores de diferentes faixas etárias relativamente às preferências de jogo, sendo que os jogos de aventura são preferidos. As capacidades cognitivas que mais gostam de praticar são a resolução de problemas e a memória, estando relacionadas com o tipo de jogos que jogam. Além disso, os desafios cognitivos são valorizados e a colaboração entre jogadores deve ser enfatizada em relação à competição ou combate. A informação recolhida por esta investigação permitiu a observação de que um novo perfil de jogador emerge e que novos desafios aguardam os designers de jogos.
We are witnessing an increasingly ageing society. Recently, there has been a growing interest in studying products or services marketed to older adults either by the scientific community or by enterprises. In the video game industry, the elderly, especially retirees, tend to become the next generation of avid consumers. Many recent studies have focused on the role of video games in maintaining and improving cognitive capacities. However, there is a lack of information about the use of networked video games in later age. No real attention has been paid to the collective component of video games and their power to promote digital inclusion and eradicate social barriers. The aim of this research is to understand the main game design components of networked video games that encourage older adults to play, using an applied social research methodology. Thus, two age groups (G1: individuals aged between 50 and 64 years and G2: individuals aged 65 and over) with higher levels of education have been involved in this study, aimed at understanding the tendency of the next generation of older adults as gamers. The study provides insight into a new video gamer profile by employing a survey questionnaire with 245 gamers aged 50 and over, two focus groups and content analysis techniques used to the proof of concept of a networked video game addressed to this audience. Findings indicate that there were no significant differences between a younger age group and older adults in their choices of video games played. Adventure games are preferred and problem-solving and memory span were the skills that participants liked to practise. Cognitive challenges are valued and collaboration between players should be prioritized over competition and combat. These data support the view that a new older adult’s gamer profile is emerging and it will bring new challenges for game designers.
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Cooley, Benjamin. "Detecting Learning Styles in Video Games." DigitalCommons@CalPoly, 2015. https://digitalcommons.calpoly.edu/theses/1369.
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Video games are increasingly becoming more intelligent, able to adapt themselves to the individual gamer. Learning styles are a set of models used to categorize people into different types of learners to explain why some people learn better through different methods. Since learning and exploration are such fundamental parts of the video game experience, it is interesting to consider the possibility of applying these learning style models to video games, allowing the video game to adapt to its player, providing a better experience. To consider such adaptation, the game must first be able to detect that learning style from how the player has interacted with it.
Simple metrics collected during game play of an instrumented game (opensource Supertux) are compared to the results of the Hay Group’s Kolb Learning Style Inventory, a paper test designed to determine one’s learning style. A relationship between recordable game play metrics and the academic model for learning would allow a game designer to potentially infer that model from game play and use it to adapt the game to that type of learner.
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Scott, Gavin. "Complementary Companion Behavior in Video Games." DigitalCommons@CalPoly, 2017. https://digitalcommons.calpoly.edu/theses/1744.
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Companion characters in are present in many video games across genres, serving the role of the player's partner. Their goal is to support the player's strategy and to immerse the player by providing a believable companion. These companions often only perform rigidly scripted actions and fail to adapt to an individual player's play-style, detracting from their usefulness. Behavior like this can also become frustrating to the player if the companions become more of a hindrance than they are a benefit. Other work, including this project's precursor, focused on building companions that mimic the player. These strategies customize the companion's actions to each player, but are limited. In the same context, an ideal companion would help further the player's strategy by finding complementary actions rather than blind emulation.
We propose a game-development framework that adds complementary (rather than mimicking) companions to a video game. For the purposes of this framework a "complementary" action is defined as any that furthers the player's strategy both in the immediate future as well as in the long-term. This is determined through a combination of both player-action and game-state prediction processes, while allowing the companion to experiment with actions the player hasn't tried. We used a new method to determine the location of companion actions based on a dynamic set of regions customized to the individual player. A user study of game-development students showed promising results, with a seventeen out of twenty-five participants reacting positively to the companion behavior, and nineteen saying that they would consider using the framework in future games.
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Wibom, Martin. "Exploration of smell rehabilitation video games." Thesis, Malmö universitet, Institutionen för konst, kultur och kommunikation (K3), 2021. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:mau:diva-45926.
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This project explores opportunities in designing hybrid digital/physical smell rehabilitation video games using no unique game peripherals. During a 13-week process, three major iterations were created and externally tested on a small user group. The first two iterations contained five simple minigames that served to explore different types of game concepts. For the final iteration, two minigames were fully developed, a slow- and fast-paced game. The main findings were that slow-paced better-facilitated smell training than fast-paced games; aesthetics increased the player’s focus on small training; not utilising unique game peripherals limited the design opportunities and implementation of smell mechanics.
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Nichols, Randall James. "The games people play : a political economic analysis of video games and their production /." view abstract or download file of text, 2005. http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/uoregon/fullcit?p3201695.
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Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Oregon, 2005.Typescript. Includes vita and abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 225-252). Also available for download via the World Wide Web; free to University of Oregon users.
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Pelletier-Gagnon, Jérémie. "Video games and Japaneseness: an analysis of localization and circulation of Japanese video games in North America." Thesis, McGill University, 2011. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=104849.
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Since the release of the Nintendo Entertainment System in the 1980s, the video game industry has transformed itself to become very dependent of the transnational circulation and localization of its products. In this thesis, I take a look at this current trend of video game's transnationalization, analyze its processes and components as well as uncover its impact on both games and gamers. Through the analysis of video game localized both by the industry and by amateur translation groups, this thesis investigates how transnational circulation of Japanese video games from Japan to North America influences the definition of Japaneseness in this media as well as a binary and culturally determined interpretation of the video game global culture of circulation. This work focuses on the dynamics that drive different localization processes from both the industry and fan communities. It also sets to explore the conflicts that occur when certain translated titles do not blend in their new media environment or are rejected by certain fan communities. This thesis demonstrates that both those localization processes and reception conflicts shape the video game culture of circulation in a binary fashion, opposing notions of Japanese and Western video games. This thesis concludes by stating what is at stake in video game localization processes as well by explaning the risks entailed by relying to much on such as culturally determined interpretation of the media.Depuis la mise en marché de la Nintendo Entertainment System en 1980, l'industrie du jeu vidéo s'est transformée pour devenir très dépendante de la localisation et de la circulation transnationale de ses produits. Dans ce mémoire, je porte un regard sur cette tendance actuelle de transnationalisation en analysant les processus et les éléments qui les composent tout en mettant à jour ses impacts à la fois sur les jeux et les joueurs. À travers l'analyse de produits localisés à la fois par l'industrie et par des groupes de traduction amateurs, cette étude porte sur la façon dont la circulation de jeux vidéo japonais en Amérique du Nord influence la définition de la notion de Japonité dans ce média ainsi qu'un perspective binaire de la culture de circulation du jeu vidéo définie par rapport à la culture de la provenance d'un produit. Ce travail fait la lumière sur les différentes dynamiques régissant la localisation de jeux vidéo à la fois dans l'industrie et dans certaines communautées de fan. Il explore aussi les formes de conflicts engendrés par l'importation de certains titres lorsqu'ils ne s'intègrent pas facilement à leur nouvel environment médiatique ou lorsqu'ils sont rejeté par certain communautées de fans. Cette thèse démontre que ces processus de localisation et les conflits entourant la réception de jeux vidéo localisés façonne la culture de circulation du media de façon binaire, opposant les notions de jeux vidéo Japonais et Occidentaux. Ce mémoire se conclu par une présentation des enjeux qui sont au coeur des différents processus de localisation de jeux vidéo ainsi que par une présentation des risques encourus lorsque notre négociation avec le media se repose trop sur une telle interprétation déterminée par l'origine culturelle des produits.
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Du, Plessis Corné. "Video games as “play assemblages”: applying philosophical concepts from deleuze and guattari to create a novel approach to video games." Thesis, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, 2017. http://hdl.handle.net/10948/16119.
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The phenomena that we collectively refer to as “play” form a significant part of life at numerous levels. According to the play scholar, Johan Huizinga, play has not only been part of all human societies, it is also at the root of the development of numerous cultural activities, including structured games and sports, certain judicial and legal activities, war, and numerous forms of art. Despite its importance, play, with its various manifestations, is often relegated to being a children’s activity or an occasion of pure waste, and is a surprisingly marginalized topic in academic scholarship. In part to remedy this deficit, my aim in this thesis is to explore the comparatively new phenomenon of video games as a particular form of play. While there are undoubtedly many philosophical approaches that can respond to different aspects of the “problem” of video games, I propose that Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari’s philosophy of “difference” and “becoming” is particularly useful. On the one hand, Deleuze and Guattari’s philosophy provides a viable framework through which to determine the limitations of the current prominent theories in the field of video game studies, which include “narratology”, “ludology”, and the more recent “hybrid approach”. On the other hand, their philosophy enables one to extend the creative and transformative potential that is inherent to a philosophical “problem”, in this case the “problem” of video games. By adapting selected Deleuzian and Deleuzoguattarian philosophical concepts, including “assemblage”, “percept”, “affect”, “transversal becoming”, and “becoming-imperceptible”, I aim to establish a philosophical framework through which different forms of play, and different video games, can be analyzed in terms of their capacity to generate “difference” and “becoming”. More specifically, I argue that video games can be understood as particular kinds of “play assemblages” that can potentially open the player to “transversal becomings”. The video games that I analyze as play assemblages that can generate “transversal becomings” are Thatgamecompany’s Flower (2009) and Journey (2012). Importantly, “transversal becomings”, understood in this instance as the “becoming-other” of human individuals, have the potential to contribute to the individual’s capacity for creative thought and action. Therefore, I argue that video games, far from being activities of pure waste, can potentially open the player to various forms of “becoming-other”, which can, in turn, increase the player’s capacity to think differently, to become different and to create differences. Ultimately, I aim to promote the value of play and video games on the one hand, and the value of Deleuze and Guattari’s philosophy on the other hand, for the aim of extending the questioning power of life, and increasing our capacity to effectively respond to a continuously changing world of problems.
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Perry, Allison. "Women and Video Games: Pigeonholing the Past." Scholarship @ Claremont, 2012. http://scholarship.claremont.edu/scripps_theses/135.
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Academic work dealing with the overlap between video games and female representation is limited in both volume and proper research. Most texts agree on three supposed flaws with video games: they alienate female participants, there are no games for female players, and female players cannot relate to female characters. This thesis sheds light on these points, not only citing specific counter-examples, but also showing how many of these issues reflect on a larger societal problems.
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Zettersten, Theodor. "Parallel Architecture for Real-Time Video Games." Thesis, KTH, School of Information and Communication Technology (ICT), 2010. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:kth:diva-24300.
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As the number CPU cores increases, game-developers struggle to extract as much performance as possible from the underlying hardware. Aside from difficulties in designing software for concurrency, the extensive use of middleware further limits the opportunity for parallelization. Over recent years, several customized parallel solutions for real-time game applications have been developed, threading specific functionality, but a more generic solution is necessary for the future.
The purpose of this project is to design, implement and evaluate an architecture for parallelizing real-time gaming and simulation software. The focus is on scheduling and state-management components that enables transparent performance scalability, for an suiting a traditional game-framework.
A generic design is proposed which allows a game-framework to be configured for several scheduling strategies, depending on the specific application’s requirements. A standard has been created which, synchronously or asynchronously, executes wrapped units of work, iterative cycles. Furthermore, a centralized state manager has been developed, tailored for a distributed either deferring state-change notifications to an exclusive propagation point, or immediately propagating state-changes while locks to guarantee thread-safety.
To evaluate the proposed architecture a demo application has been developed to run a flocking behavior simulation with typical game-related functional blocks such as: rendering, physics, AI, input handling etc. The demo achieves scalable performance benefits through exploiting dataparallelism and dynamically batching entity-processing to maintain an appropriate taskgranularity. A comparison between the two major synchronization strategies revealed a marginal performance benefit when deferring state-change notifications and supporting exclusive propagation.
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Schweizer, Bobby. "Representations of the city in video games." Thesis, Atlanta, Ga. : Georgia Institute of Technology, 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/1853/28251.
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Thesis (M. S.)--Literature, Communication, and Culture, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2009.Committee Chair: Pearce, Celia; Committee Member: Do, Ellen Yi-Luen; Committee Member: Knoespel, Kenneth; Committee Member: Nitsche, Michael.
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Orkin, Jeffrey David. "Learning plan networks in conversational video games." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2007. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/41757.
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Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, School of Architecture and Planning, Program in Media Arts and Sciences, 2007.Includes bibliographical references (p. 121-123).
We look forward to a future where robots collaborate with humans in the home and workplace, and virtual agents collaborate with humans in games and training simulations. A representation of common ground for everyday scenarios is essential for these agents if they are to be effective collaborators and communicators. Effective collaborators can infer a partner's goals and predict future actions. Effective communicators can infer the meaning of utterances based on semantic context. This thesis introduces a computational cognitive model of common ground called a Plan Network. A Plan Network is a statistical model that provides representations of social roles, object affordances, and expected patterns of behavior and language. I describe a methodology for unsupervised learning of a Plan Network using a multiplayer video game, visualization of this network, and evaluation of the learned model with respect to human judgment of typical behavior. Specifically, I describe learning the Restaurant Plan Network from data collected from over 5,000 players of an online game called The Restaurant Game.
by Jeffrey David Orkin.
S.M.
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Shen, Elizabeth M. "Sprite tracking in two-dimensional video games." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2017. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/113111.
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Thesis: M. Eng., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 2017.This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections.
Cataloged from student-submitted PDF version of thesis.
Includes bibliographical references (page 32).
I explore various computer vision techniques and their application towards processing and extracting information from two-dimensional video games. The bulk of existing research is designed to work on real-world images, and thus makes assumptions about the world that do not translate to synthetic, stylized environments. Processing video game footage has promising applications in competitive gaming, such as analyzing strategy in multiplayer online games, or optimizing routes in speed-running. I present the exploratory results, details of a successful algorithm, and some sample applications.
by Elizabeth M. Shen.
M. Eng.
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Bloom, Victoria. "Multiple Action Recognition for Video Games (MARViG)." Thesis, Kingston University, 2015. http://eprints.kingston.ac.uk/37171/.
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Action recognition research historically has focused on increasing accuracy on datasets in highly controlled environments. Perfect or near perfect offline action recognition accuracy on scripted datasets has been achieved. The aim of this thesis is to deal with the more complex problem of online action recognition with low latency in real world scenarios. To fulfil this aim two new multi-modal gaming datasets were captured and three novel algorithms for online action recognition were proposed. Two new gaming datasets, G3D and G3Di for real-time action recognition with multiple actions and multi-modal data were captured and publicly released. Furthermore, G3Di was captured using a novel game-sourcing method so the actions are realistic. Three novel algorithms for online action recognition with low latency were proposed. Firstly, Dynamic Feature Selection, which combines the discriminative power of Random Forests for feature selection with an ensemble of AdaBoost classifiers for dynamic classification. Secondly, Clustered Spatio-Temporal Manifolds, which modelled the dynamics of human actions with style invariant action templates that were combined with Dynamic Time Warping for execution rate invariance. Finally, a Hierarchical Transfer Learning framework, comprised of a novel transfer learning algorithm to detect compound actions in addition to hierarchical interaction detection to recognise the actions and interactions of multiple subjects. The proposed algorithms run in real-time with low latency ensuring they are suitable for a wide range of natural user interface applications including gaming. State-of-the art results were achieved for online action recognition. Experimental results indicate higher complexity of the G3Di dataset in comparison to the existing gaming datasets, highlighting the importance of this dataset for designing algorithms suitable for realistic interactive applications. This thesis has advanced the study of realistic action recognition and is expected to serve as a basis for further study within the research community.
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Saari, M. (Marko). "How usability is visible in video games." Bachelor's thesis, University of Oulu, 2017. http://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:oulu-201702231258.
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As video games have become have become more popular and as popular as music and movies, the need for more video game developers have increased also. But even though there are more people developing video games, there still exists usability issues in video games like also in general computer software. The purpose of the thesis is to find out how usability issues can be seen in video games.
To find out the answer for this research question, research was done as literature review. There already existed a fair amount of literature relating to usability issues of video games. Also the usability issues of computer software were discussed a little bit as video games are similar to computer software. The research on existing literature provided usability issues to be discussed and to find out the answer.
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Cachide, Olga Rute Gil Lemos de Albuquerque Carvalho. "Violence and video games in youngsters' lives." Master's thesis, Universidade de Aveiro, 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/10773/2838.
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Mestrado em Línguas, Literaturas e CulturasO presente trabalho propõe-se divulgar o impacto que os vídeo jogos têm na vida dos pré-adolescentes e adolescentes; quais os seus vídeo jogos preferidos e o controlo que pais e lojas exercem sobre o uso de vídeo jogos por parte destes adolescentes. Este trabalho também visa contribuir para o debate em curso sobre uma possível associação entre o consumo de vídeo jogos violentos e comportamentos agressivos e violentos. Depois de estudar a literatura existente sobre os possíveis efeitos da exposição à violência transmitida pelos meios de comunicação, foram conduzidos questionários e entrevistas com alunos de diversas faixas etárias. Os resultados demonstram que os vídeo jogos são o meio de entretenimento mais extensivamente utilizado pelos jovens, confirmando a ideia de que afectam a sua vida de diferentes maneiras. Através da análise do conteúdo dos vídeo jogos mais jogados, demonstra-se como a violência está explicitamente expressa e como os jogos são projectados para ser viciantes. Estes resultados abrem caminho para posterior pesquisa sobre os efeitos sociais e culturais dos vídeo jogos. ABSTRACT: This dissertation examines the impact of video games on the lives of youngsters; their prime video games, and the control that parents and shops exert over the use of video games by youngsters. It also aims at contributing to the ongoing debate about media effects by analyzing a probable association between violent video games and violent and aggressive behaviours. After studying the existing literature on the effects of exposure to media violence, questionnaires and interviews were conducted with students of different age groups in order to determine the impact that videogames have on their lives. It was found that video games are indeed the most extensively-used entertainment media among youngsters, confirming the view that they affect young people’s lives in several ways. Through content analysis of the prime video games, it is demonstrated how violence is explicitly expressed and how these games are designed to be addictive. These findings lead the way to more extensive studies on the social and cultural effects of videogames.
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Ögren, Erik. "Hopelessness in Video Games : Motivating the player." Thesis, Uppsala universitet, Institutionen för speldesign, 2020. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-411097.
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This bachelor thesis details the study and analysis of hopelessness, motivation, and personality types concerning game design. It offers definitions for hopelessness based on previous studies and explains what makes people experience hopelessness in games. The thesis compares previously conducted studies on hopelessness and motivation, confirms their validity, and applies the conclusion to theories of game design, such as MDA.
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Mudrock, Libby Ann. "What motivates children to play video games?" The Ohio State University, 1985. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1239795078.
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Roach, Lisa N. "Examining Gender Bias in Children's Video Games." Ohio University Honors Tutorial College / OhioLINK, 2014. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ouhonors1399981766.
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Bailey, Joseph Harold. "When pixels speak: why video games deserve free speech protection; why video games will not receive free speech protection." Texas A&M University, 2003. http://hdl.handle.net/1969.1/5743.
Full textAbstract:
This dissertation examines how games have been construed legally and publicly
and compares the nature of games to the de facto legal criteria: in order for games to
receive free speech protection, games must inform and communicate. In Chapter I, I
review the literature surrounding the effects of violent video games. This literature
review serves as a foundation for the rhetorical nature of the legal controversy since the
controversy has no clear-cut answer to the effects of video games. Instead of a clear
"Yes"ÃÂÃÂ or "ÃÂÃÂNo"ÃÂÃÂ answer, game effects researchers can only posit "Maybe"ÃÂÃÂ and "No"ÃÂÃÂ
findings. Game antagonists employed long-shot and shoddy research to argue their case
that violent games produce violent people.
The next two chapters lay a foundation for justifying why games have become
increasingly controversial to date. In Chapter II, I outline a history of games and argue
that games became communicative in the early 1990s. As a response to graphically
communicative games and congressional bullying, the video game industry created a self
regulatory rating board which should have quelled the public controversy. It did not. In Chapter III, I argue that Columbine changed the face of the game industry in
the eyes of the public, as a matter of public morality. Before 1999, the public viewed
games in a positive light, embodying one of America'ÃÂÃÂs pastimes and helping the disabled
with their motor skills. After the events at Columbine, the public saw the video game
industry as an unruly and rogue force.
In Chapter IV, I explain the legal hurtles the game industry faces in becoming
protected speech. While video games have become communicative and informative, they
likely will not receive free speech protection because of the public scapegoating of the
industry during the last two and a half decades. I conclude by discussing the latest Grand
Theft Auto "ÃÂÃÂHot Coffee"ÃÂÃÂ controversy and how game developers remain gun-shy about the
free speech issue.
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Bailey, Joseph Harold. "When pixels speak why video games deserve free speech protection; why video games will not receive free speech protection /." [College Station, Tex. : Texas A&M University, 2006. http://handle.tamu.edu/1969.1/5743.
Full textAbstract:
Thesis (Ph. D.)--Texas A&M University, 2006."Major Subject: Speech Communication" Title from author supplied metadata (automated record created on Sep. 18, 2007.) Vita. Abstract. Includes bibliographical references.