As students transition into middle school science courses, their interest and engagement in the subject declines. This decline is most significant among girls, particularly for topics in physical science. While several factors have been identified that contribute to the decline, one area that is emerging as a new way to help improve girls' view of science is the use of educational video games to improve engagement and interest in science content, particularly as video games have been steadily rising in popularity with girls. This study used Cultural Historical Activity Theory to understand how middle school girls engage with an educational video game designed to teach physical science concepts and how game design influences engagement. Ten participants played three games. Games were chosen to reflect diverse designs and mechanics. Participants were observed and audio recorded during the play and debriefed after the play. Games designs like open exploration, an in-game story, and gradually increasing challenges connected to content all supported engagement. Game design that used low cognitive demand, repetitive tasks, and increasing difficulty connected to game mechanics discouraged engagement. The enjoyment of the game itself increased interest in physical science topics. By better understanding the perspective of female students, these findings guide educators in selecting educative games for middle school girls and support game designers to better engage girls in the games and interest them in science.

Online gaming has over the years become very popular and during the global pandemic of 2019, gained an even larger amount of people indulging in the activity. All this online activity has led to a decline in in-person social interactions which have been researched to have negative effects on young adults. This thesis aims to find ways to promote more in-person social interaction with the help of games. An artifact in the form of a video game was created with active video game principles and pervasive game characteristics in mind, with the goal of achieving social interaction between players and spectators. Nintendo Joy-Con controllers are the main controller used and an external microphone to capture sounds is used to fulfill the prerequisites of pervasive games. A collection of five different minigames was created, all with different ways that noise can affect the gameplay. The results of the experiments showed that the artifact promotes in-person social interactions between players and spectators by making the spectators able to interact with the games.

Sedan dataspelens begynnelse har spelen innehållit olika former av narrativ. Med tiden har dessa narrativ blivit mer komplicerade, från de tidigaste spelens påmålade teman som bakgrundsberättelser, till moderna spelberättelser vars narrativ kräver signifikant ansträngning från spelarna. Tidigare studier har visat en viss korrelation mellan spelares tillfredsställelse för spelen och deras narrativa komplexitet. Syftet med denna studie är att bidra med mer data till denna hypotes, genom att skapa två versioner av ett kort spel, med olika nivåer av just narrativ komplexitet. Frågeställningen som ämnades besvaras genom att värdera testpersoners upplevelse av de olika varianterna var följande: Kan svårförstådda berättelser göra spel mer tillfredsställande? Resultatet av de speltester som genomfördes visade på liknande resultat som de tidigare nämnda studierna, men artefakternas likhet och den begränsade mängden testdeltagare resulterade i osäkerhet kring testets reliabilitet. Framtida studier inom ämnet skulle gagnas av ett mer iterativt arbete med artefakterna samt betydligt fler speltester. / <p>Det finns övrigt digitalt material (t.ex. film-, bild- eller ljudfiler) eller modeller/artefakter tillhörande examensarbetet som ska skickas till arkivet.</p><p>There are other digital material (eg film, image or audio files) or models/artifacts that belongs to the thesis and need to be archived.</p>

Most scientist agree that, by the year 2060, research on artificial intelligence will result in the creation of constructs that exceeds human intellect, starting the most impactful event in our history, the technological singularity. Raising awareness on this concept is important and video games have their role to play, but no research has been made regarding the design principles that they should follow to succeed. This paper aims to rectify that and explain how games raise awareness on the systemic consequences of the technological singularity. To do so, a selection of games which explore singularity-related concepts were analyzed to establish how, and how well they represent the theory, following design methodologies highlighted by other studies. This review provided the necessary design principles to create an awareness raising game on the singularity but also exposed how games fail in tackling the subject, as they do not clearly incorporate or discuss the singularity in their narrative. This research paper is helpful for researchers and game designers as it provides them with the necessary information to analyze or create educational games on the systemic impacts of the singularity.

For the past decade and even earlier, globalization has been a popular buzzword in academia and has provoked a number of intellectual discussions concerning its nature and effects. In these discussions concepts such as cultural imperialism, cultural homogenization, and indigenization appear which are perceived by-products of globalization in many cases. While some debate the moral implications of globalization and these related phenomena few prefer to take a more neutral stance and simply investigate the objects that are born from the combination two distinct cultural traditions. My research investigates the cultural flow between the United States and Japan which can be considered 'cultural sharing'. In this context, globalization is a phenomenon that can happen on equal footing and can support the exchange of distinct cultural ideas as a beneficial and voluntary process. In the last century, both Japan and the United States have borrowed cultural items from one another and localized them. The step after borrowing and localization occurs when parties from each country work together with the intent of creating a joint project. Kingdom Hearts stands as a prime example of this because the Japanese company Square and the American company Disney collaborated in order to create a product which represents a hybridization of both cultures.

Background: The video game industry thrives on innovation and technology, striving to understand player preferences to maintain a competitive edge. Forecasts indicate significant growth, with the virtual reality (VR) gaming market expected to become a major player, driven by technological advancements and rising consumer interest in immersive experiences. However, the current adoption of the VR gaming rate remains low, indicating a substantial gap between interest and actual usage.  Purpose: The purpose of the thesis is to investigate the key game components that influence players’ intention to play VR games while also evaluating the significant role of players' emotions within this context. Additionally, it establishes connections between these game elements and the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) constructs, providing a comprehensive understanding of the factors shaping VR game acceptance.  Method: The research is grounded in the positivist paradigm, employing a deductive approach and quantitative methodology. It involves the analysis of 657 observations extracted from 200 reviews of two popular VR games on the Steam platform, using content and sentiment analysis techniques. Subsequently, the Baron and Kenny method is employed to explore potential mediations of TAM constructs between players’ sentiments and their intention to play VR games.  Conclusion: The results indicate that players’ sentiments significantly influence the acceptance of VR games. Among the TAM constructs, perceived enjoyment (PE) plays the most pivotal role and is the sole mediator between sentiments and the intention to play. Game elements linked to PE, such as game content, gameplay, and interactivity, tend to elicit positive emotions from players. Conversely, elements associated with perceived ease of use (PEOU), such as bugs, technical performance, and optimization issues, tend to evoke negative sentiments.

This licentiate thesis describes the development of the Swedish computer and video game industry. The main focus is on the Swedish game development industry. Little research on the industry has been done and the purpose is to define the companies involved and to create an initial overview of the development of the industry. This overview will later be used as a platform for the doctorial thesis. Games are a growing culture form and today a lot of people are playing different types of computer and video games. Internationally the industry has expanded and some of the successful games have generated spectacular revenues. In Sweden the industry has received attention from different actors like universities, government bodies and media. There are today educations that are focused on game development and there are programs which allocates grants towards game companies. The rapid development in the computers technology has had a great impact on the game industry, which is dependent on hardware development to create games. The first computer games were made for some of the very first computers in the 1940´s and 1950´s. In the 1970´s a market for games was created when arcade machines and somewhat later home consoles were introduced. The industry has grown and includes today some of the largest companies in the world. The Swedish industry follows the international pattern but developed a bit later and the first Swedish game companies were founded in the late 1980´s. The industry has expanded, especially between 1998 and 2002. In 2005 the number of people employed in the industry had increased to over 600. During the period under study the industry seems to have had a constant problem with making a profit. Especially in 2002 and 2003 the industry has had economic problems and some of the lager companies were bankrupt.

L’objectif de cette thèse est de réfléchir aux enjeux d’une histoire du jeu de stratégie en temps réel (STR). Il s’agit de mieux comprendre les contextes dans lesquels le genre prend sens pour historiciser son émergence et sa période classique. Cette thèse cherche à documenter, d’une part, la cristallisation du STR en tant qu’objet ayant une forme relativement stable et en tant que corpus précis et identifié et, d’autre part, l’émergence des formes de jouabilité classiques des STR. La première partie est consacrée à décrire l’objet de cette recherche, pour mieux comprendre la complexité du terme « stratégie » et de la catégorisation « jeu de stratégie ». La seconde partie met en place la réflexion épistémologique en montrant comment on peut tenir compte de la jouabilité dans un travail historien. Elle définit le concept de paradigme de jouabilité en tant que formation discursive pour regrouper différents énoncés actionnels en une unité logique qui n’est pas nécessairement l’équivalent du genre. La troisième partie cartographie l’émergence du genre entre les wargames des années 1970 et les jeux en multijoueur de la décennie suivante. Deux paradigmes de jouabilité se distinguent pour former le STR classique : le paradigme de décryptage et le paradigme de prévision. La quatrième partie explique et contextualise le STR classique en montrant qu’il comporte ces deux paradigmes de jouabilité dans deux modes de jeu qui offrent des expériences fondamentalement différentes l’une de l’autre. / This thesis is a reflection on the stakes of a history of the real-time strategy (RTS) genre. The goal is to understand contexts in which RTS makes sense to historicize its emergence and its classical period. It seeks to document, on the one hand, the crystallization of RTS as an object having a relatively stable form and as a precise and identified corpus and, on the other hand, the emergence of classical RTS gameplay figures. The first part of this thesis describes the object of this research in order to understand the complexity of the words “strategy” and “strategy games.” The second part puts in place the epistemological thinking by showing how gameplay can be taken into account in a history of video games. It defines the gameplay paradigm concept as a discursive formation to regroup actional statements as a logical unit that is not necessarily equivalent to a genre. The third part maps the emergence of the genre from wargames in the 1970s to multiplayer games of the following decade. Two gameplay paradigms are distinguished and will form the classical RTS: the paradigm of decryption and the paradigm of prediction. The last part explains the role of classical RTS by showing how these two paradigms coexist as two different game modes that offer fundamentally different gameplay experiences.

Mass Effect is a Science Fiction/Action Role Playing/Third Person Shooter video game series that takes place in the year 2183, in which the player assumes control of Commander Shepard. Players can choose to customize the character based on his/her gender, appearance, sexual orientation, background origin and occupation. The choices that show up in the game are also based on how the player wants their version of Shepard to interact with other characters and allows players some leeway to shape their own narrative. The series also discusses and acknowledges issues of race, gender, subjecthood and sovereignty, politics and sexual orientation within its narrative. This analysis focuses on the text of the series and its implications concerning hegemonic reinforcement and/or resistance in terms of race, gender, sexual orientation, politics, and warfare tactics. / Includes bibliography. / Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2014. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

Os videogames são hoje uma das formas de entretenimento mais populares em todo o mundo. Muito desse sucesso só foi possível graças à tradução, a qual, por meio de versões localizadas para os mais diversos idiomas, contribuiu decisivamente para que os videogames alcançassem um número cada vez maior de mercados e chegassem a milhões de lares ao redor do planeta. Esta dissertação, de caráter eminentemente historiográfico, tem por objetivo examinar a relação entre a tradução/localização e os videogames desde seu início até os dias de hoje. Além disso, pretende também, por meio da análise de alguns jogos, traçar um panorama acerca de como se dá esta relação sob o contexto brasileiro, abordando as características e especificidades que a localização de games tem apresentado no Brasil ao longo do tempo. A análise desses jogos está fundamentada sob duas perspectivas: a) uma perspectiva histórica, em que se buscará situar as épocas em que foram lançados às etapas de evolução dos videogames e sua relação com a tradução/localização em cada momento; e b) uma perspectiva descritiva, em que se realizará uma análise dos aspectos acerca da tradução/localização observados nesses jogos, fundamentada sob as bases teóricas utilizadas nesta dissertação: o conceito de domesticação/estrangeirização (Venuti, 1995), a teoria funcionalista do Skopos (Vermeer, 1986) e o conceito de Gameplay Experience (Souza, R.V.F., 2014). / Video games are today one of the most important forms of entertainment worldwide. Much of this success was only made possible due to translation, which, through localized versions into various languages, contributed decisively for video games to achieve a growing number of markets and reach millions of homes across the globe. This dissertation, of an eminently historiographical nature, aims to examine the relation between translation/localization and video games from their beginning until the present day. Furthermore, it also intends, through the analyses of a number of games, to provide an overview on how this relation works under the Brazilian context, addressing the characteristics and specificities that video game localization has been showing over time. The analysis of such games is founded upon two perspectives:a) a historical perspective, which will seek to situate the times when they were released to the stages of evolution of video games and their relation with translation/localization in each moment; and b) a descriptive perspective, which will undertake an analysis of translation/localization aspects observed in such games, founded upon the theorical basis utilized in this dissertation: the concept of domestication/foreignization (Venuti, 1995), the functionalist Skopos theory (Vermeer, 1986) and the concept of Gameplay Experience (Souza, R. V. F., 2014).