In a time of 'Big Data,' 'Personal Informatics' and 'Infographics' the definitions of data visualization and data analytics are splintering rapidly. When one compares how Fortune 500 companies are using analytics to optimize their supply chains and lone individuals are visualizing their Twitter messages, we can see how multipurpose these areas are becoming. Visualization and analytics are frequently exhibited as tools for increasing efficiency and informing future decisions. At the same time, they are used to produce artworks that alter our perspectives of how data is represented and analyzed. During this time of turbulent reflection within the fields of data visualization and analytics, digital games have been going through a similar period of data metamorphosis as players are increasingly being connected and tracked through various platform systems and social networks. The amount of game-related data collected and shared today greatly exceeds that of previous gaming eras and, by utilizing the domains of data visualization and analytics, this increased access to data is poised to reshape, and continue to reshape, how players experience games. This dissertation examines how visualization, analytics and games intersect into a domain with a fluctuating identity but has the overall goal to analyze game-related data. At this intersection exists play analytics, a blend of digital systems and data analysis methods connecting players, games and their data. Play analytic systems surround the experience of playing a game, visualizing data collected from players and act as external online hubs where players congregate. As part of this dissertation's examination of play analytics, over eighty systems are analyzed and discussed. Additionally, a user study was conducted to test the effects play analytic systems have on a player's gameplay behavior. Both studies are used to highlight how play analytic systems function and are experienced by players. With millions of players already using play analytics systems, this dissertation provides a chronicle of the current state of play analytics, how the design of play analytics systems may shift in the future and what it means to play with data.

The author narrative and the player narrative are distinct and separate parts that make up the whole of videogame literature. The videogame medium encourages a mixed-media understanding of conventions and the rejection of essentialism that leads to, inspires, and facilitates the player narrative. Videogame literatures require discreet actions that, as part of any possible reading, the player must do-- and in doing the player must make a choice with mind and body that involves a human-to-machine expression of agency within constraints that define the player narrative. So the decision making process in videogame storytelling is that human-to-machine interaction that can be understood as both the means by which the videogame story progresses, and the process by which the player wields his or her narrative within the procedural possibility space. Videogame literary analysis requires understanding how players make those decisions, understanding how the player leverages media conventions in order to wield power over the narrative, and understanding what role the player has in videogame storytelling. The choice dynamics of a videogame narrative are the key narrative elements within videogame literature that provide players and researchers tools for evaluating choice opportunities within videogame literature toward forming a better understanding of the space between and connection to the author narrative and the player narrative. All of these analyses combine to form a picture of decision making processes in videogame literature that are complex and contradictory path making endeavors that define the narrative experience in videogame literature, and the interconnected dynamics of the author and player narrative space.

Research suggests that playing violent video games increases the likelihood of aggression. However, less clear is how individual characteristics influence the mechanisms that lead to aggression. Using Anderson and Bushman’s (2002) General Aggression Model as a framework, the present study examined the independent and joint effects of individual differences and situational factors on affective and physiological reactivity to playing a violent video game. One hundred thirty-three participants completed self-report measures of trait aggression and violent video game exposure. They were randomly assigned to groups instructed to play a video game using either violent or nonviolent strategies while facial electromyography, heart rate, and electrodermal activity were measured. Positive and negative affect was assessed via self-report prior to and following video game play. It was hypothesized that trait aggression and level of past exposure to violent video games would be positively related to increases in physiological arousal and negative affect among participants in a violent, relative to a nonviolent, condition. Hierarchical regression analyses failed to detect a significant relationship between trait aggression and changes in heart rate, facial electromyography, or self-reported affect as a function of game condition. However, significant positive relationships were found between trait aggression and skin conductance, but only in the nonviolent condition. Analyses revealed that past exposure to violent video games was positively related to increased skin conductance among participants in the non-violent, but not the violent video game condition. Past exposure to violent video games was also positively related to increased heart rate, but this was among participants in the violent, but not the non-violent condition. Significant relationships between past exposure to violent video games and changes in facial electromyography and self-reported affect as a function of video game condition were not found. Findings are discussed in terms of how trait aggression and past exposure to violent video games influence arousal, and potentially, the likelihood of aggressive behavior.

Video games are a part of modern culture. As video game spaces begin to enter a new generation’s spatial lexicon, it is important for architects, curators of spatial design, to understand this new medium of space. This thesis aims to introduce two concepts specific to video game design, the magic circle and flow, to architects as a means of understanding the design of video game spaces. First coined by the Dutch historian Johann Huizinga in Homo Ludens, and later adapted by video game designers Katie Salen and Eric Zimmerman, the magic circle refers to the boundary created by the rules of a game that separate reality from the fantasy of the game. Within the magic circle, the rules of play can transform and give new meaning to spatial organizations that could be considered problematic in real world architectural design. Flow is a psychological concept introduced by Hungarian psychology professor Mihály Csíkszentmihályi. When completing a task, flow occurs when both the skill level of the participant and the challenge level of the task are equally high. When a state of flow is achieved, the task becomes enjoyable and can be carried out indefinitely until the balance is broken. Effective video games spaces are specifically designed to contribute to flow experiences, while ineffective spaces can make a game too easy or too hard, creating a boredom or anxiety for the player. Through a series of explorations and video game case studies, specifically in the first-person and third person shooter genre, this thesis first observes the transformation of implied spatial meanings in the magic circle. It then introduces the unique spatial languages used to generate spaces that support the creation of flow alongside the gameplay and narrative of a video game. This thesis culminates with the design and execution of an original capture the flag map created with the Unreal Engine that tests the concepts of the magic circle and flow in video game spaces. As video games become increasingly ubiquitous, this thesis acts as means of entry for architects to understand the unique properties of an emerging form of spatial design.

Interactive media technologies like the Internet and video games have opened new avenues of opportunity for many, yet at the same time they represent new challenges and risks, especially for young people. In our study, eleven families were interviewed. Their perceptions, experiences and risk management are described in this paper. The children we interviewed were not high media consumers. The vast majority appeared to have a positive attitude towards the Internet, and had learned to handle common interactive media challenges and risk. Nonetheless some online behaviors which we consider risky were indeed commonly practiced. The most commonly encountered risk experienced by children in our study was exposure to undesirable content. Yet, in a group of eleven children two had been victim of cyberbullying and one had been harassed by some classmate or family member. The most recurrent negative comments parents made about the internet or video games and children were about the danger of being contacted by strangers, as well as the excessive use of the interactive media technologies.

A review of the history of video game design reveals an emphasis on themes of competition, survival, and combat. Game designers are now increasingly exploring other themes, including ethics, morality, and religious or spiritual subjects. This thesis analyzes the design of a 2D single-player computer game based on Christian principles, investigating morality, ethics, and meaning in video games. The game builds on previous games, examining the ethical relevance of certain video games as cultural artifacts and as personal inspiration, expounding on how games can be both inspirational and educational. Though violent games can provide moral challenges and "ethically significant experiences," in this project, non-violent solutions are more conducive for a game based on Christian tenets. This thesis project reinterprets the idea of the "shmup" or scrolling shooter game by changing the game mechanics and win condition to express a non-violent process. The player takes on the role of an angel who has been sent to rescue birds from demons, presenting general subjects for wide audience appeal regardless of religious beliefs. The thesis outlines the process used in the design, the philosophical approach, and the technical and artistic methods used to create the game. The game is evaluated subjectively with respect to the goals set forth in the design, based on informal player feedback. This thesis contributes to the exploration of games in a spiritual, artistic, moral, and emotional context and the process outlined herein provides a practical example to other independent game developers in the design of a game based on spiritual themes.

Motion controlling is a rapidly improving area of game technologies. In the last few years, motion sensing devices for video games such as Nintendo Wii, Microsoft Kinect for Xbox 360 and Sony PlayStation Move have gained popularity among players with many compatible motion controlled games. Microsoft Kinect for Xbox 360 provides a controller free interaction system in which the player controls games by using only body movements. Although Kinect provides a natural way of interaction, rolling action of body joints are not recognized within the standard motion sensing scope of the tool. Aim of this thesis is to provide an improved gameplay system with an increased degree of freedom by introducing rolling axis of movement using Microsoft Kinect for Xbox 360 for motion sensing. This improved gameplay system provides the players a more natural and accurate way of motion controlled interaction, eliminating unnatural gestures that are needed to be memorized to compensate for lacking of the roll movement recognition.

Recent years have witnessed great improvements in ways of game controlling yielding to higher level of interaction. Release of motion controller devices radically changed the conventional ways of interaction that have been used for controlling games so far, also giving developers the opportunity of exploring various new possible ways of interaction. One of these off the shelf tools, Microsoft Kinect for Xbox 360, recognizes motions of the players as game controlling inputs. Although touchless interaction is perceived to be attractive, games that mimic real life activities such as table tennis, sword fighting, baseball and golf may benefit from the player&rsquo / s holding a tangible object to get more involved into game, sensing the actions deeply. In this thesis, a tangible gameplay interaction method that senses whether or not the player holds an object in the hand / if so, detects its dimensions and incorporates the hand-held object into gameplay by projecting motions of the player accordingly, is developed using Microsoft Kinect for Xbox 360. Developed algorithm is implemented on an experimental game and a user study is performed which revealed that an improved gameplay with more natural and accurate motion controlling yielding to new possible actions is achieved with the developed system.

In this work, I propose an analytical rubric called the Interpretive Spiral designed to examine the process through which players create meaning in videogames, by examining their composition in three categories, across four levels of interaction. The most familiar of the categories I propose is the Mechanical, which refers to the rules, logic, software and hardware that composes the core of videogames. My second category, which I call the Thematic, is a combination of Arsenault and Perron's Narrative Spiral of gameplay, proposed in their Magic Cycle of Gameplay model (accounting for embedded text, videos, dialog and voiceovers) and Jason Begy's audio-visual level of his Tripartite Model of gameplay (accounting for graphics, sound effects, music and icons), though it also accounts for oft-neglected features such as interface and menu design. The third category, the Affective, refers to the emotional response and metaphorical parallels inspired by the combination of the other two levels. The first level of interaction I explore actually precedes gameplay, as it is common for players to begin interpreting games before playing them, and is called the Pre-Play Level of interpretation. Next I examine the Fundamental Level of interpretation, which entails the learning phase of gameplay. The Secondary Level of gameplay is the longest level of play and describes the shift from learning the game to informed, self-conscious play. The Third and final, elective level of interpretation, is where the player forms connections between his gameplay experience, and other concepts and experiences that exist outside of the game artifact. To put my model through its paces, I apply the model in its entirety to three influential and critically acclaimed videogames, and in part to several other titles.

Den sociala videoplattformen YouTube firar i år sitt 10-årsjubileum och har under den tiden bildat en kraftfull kultur. Över en biljard användare som delar och tittar på videoklipp innebär att tusentals individer kan kalla webbplatsen YouTube för sin arbetsplats. Genom att skapa videoklipp som många tycker om bildas en enorm attraktion till vissa kanaler och utifrån detta genereras så kallade YouTube-kändisar. Den här kvalitativa studien dyker in i upplevelsen av att inneha en populär YouTube kanal genom att intervjua fem individer som besitter just en sådan. Är det verkligen drömjobbet som alla talar om? Resultaten visar en talande ökning av entreprenörskap på YouTube. För att bygga en publik krävs strategi och passion. Denna undersökning resulterar i en överläggande förståelse för hur deras personliga framgång har gått till, men även en aning om var YouTube är på väg i framtiden.