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This study examines the cultural place and status of video and computer games in the Swedish public library. Using works on popular culture and the theories of Pierre Bourdieu, this study employs quantitative methods, as well as textual analysis, to analyze the results of an online questionnaire with 19 questions focusing on selection criteria, shelf placement, perceived competence, as well as reasoning for having or not having these games in the library. 286 out of the 440 libraries contacted is participating in the study, and the libraries consist exclusively of public libraries in Sweden that are found in the database of the Royal Library. The results of this study show that a larger number of libraries than previously indicated have started to provide electronic games to their patrons. At the same time, patterns in the data and comments suggests that these games in many cases still do not enjoy the same level of cultural recognition as other media. Indicative of this is the way most libraries seem to focus on the medium being exclusively for their young patrons, with seem-ingly very little in the way of investment for adults. Also relevant is selection process being highly influenced by the type and amount of violence in the games, regardless of the level of competence and knowledge about games among library staff. These findings relate to and expand upon previous studies regarding electronic games, cul-ture and the public library. This study constitutes a two years master’s thesis in Archive, Library and Museum studies.

In 2012, the Entertainment Software Association announced that 47% of all game players are women. Before this statistic came out, it wasn't a surprise that girl gamers existed but the fact that this supposed 'minority' almost shared equal parts with the majority was used as a catalyst for the types of gaming environments we have today where females are faced with sexism, patriarchy, and other various forms of prejudice. This, in turn has initiated both positive and negative discourse and has perpetuated social change in the video game community. This is my response...

As motion interactive games have become more widespread the interest in using these games in rehabilitation of children with motor disorders has increased among both clinical professionals and the families of these children. The general aim of this thesis was to evaluate the feasibility of using interactive games in rehabilitation of children to promote motivation for practice, physical activity, and motor control. A systematic review of published intervention studies was conducted to obtain an overview of existing research and the current levels of evidence for using interactive games in motor rehabilitation of children. Sixteen studies met the inclusion criteria, out of these three were randomized controlled trials while half were case series or case reports. Thirteen studies presented positive findings, which indicated a promising potential. However, more convincing research is needed. Commercially available motion interactive games have only been used in a few studies on motor control, and in none of these home based practice was provided. Moreover, no earlier studies have evaluated if these games may increase motivation for training and daily physical activity among children with disabilities. To address these issues a feasibility intervention including 15 children in the ages 6-16 years and with mild to moderate cerebral palsy was conducted. Each child was provided with a Sony PlayStation2â and the EyeToyâ games in Play3, and was recommended to practice with the provided games for at least 20 minutes/day during four weeks. The intervention was evaluated with gaming diaries, physical activity monitors (SenseWear Armband), interviews with the parents, and the clinical motor tests Movement Assessment Battery for Children-2 (mABC-2), Bruininks-Oseretsky Test of Motor Proficiency subtest 5:6, and the 1 Minute Walk Test. In addition, 3D motion analysis was used to evaluate effects on quality of goal-directed arm movements towards virtual and real objects, respectively. Motivation for practice and compliance of training were high, although declining somewhat during the course of the four weeks. The children’s physical activity increased significantly during the intervention. However, four children were excluded from this analysis due to lack of complete data from the physical activity monitors. According to mABC-2 the children’s motor performance improved, but there were both floor and ceiling effects, indicating a low sensibility of this test. The two additional motor tests showed only non-significant progress. Results from the 3D motion analysis suggest that the children improved movement precision when playing the games, movement smoothness when reaching for real objects, and used a more economic reaching strategy with less trunk involvement. In the interviews the parents expressed the view that motion interactive games promote positive experiences of physical training and add elements of social interaction to the training. They also experienced less urge to take on a coaching role. The training provided by the games was considered unspecific and there was a desire for individualized games to better address the unique rehabilitative need of each child. In conclusion, it is feasible to use motion interactive games in home rehabilitation for children with cerebral palsy to promote short term motivation for practice and general physical training. Specific effects on motor control need to be further explored and there is also a need for reliable tests that are adequate and sensitive enough to capture changes in movement control. In future development of interactive games for rehabilitation purposes, it is a challenge to preserve the motivational and social features of games while at the same time optimizing an individualized physical training.

Interactive stationary bikes provide positive affective experiences and physiological benefits; however research has been limited to adults within laboratory settings. Using a randomized, controlled trial design (RCT), this study sought to examine usage of GameBikes (GB) compared to traditional stationary bikes (TSB) among families in the home-setting including the theory of planned behaviour (TPB) to understand motivation for use. Parents completed questionnaires after having a ten minute trial with the bike (T1) and then again after six weeks (T2). Usage was tracked by all family members and belief elicitation was performed with GB families following the trial. Repeated measures (RM) ANOVA for frequency of use yielded a large time effect (F5,34 = 3.15, p < .05; η2 = .32); post-hoc analysis illustrated decrease by TSB (t18 = 3.77, p < .01; d = .89) and GB (t20 = 1.02, p = .32; d = .32). Parents in the GB group increased the proportion of those meeting Health Canada’s Physical Activity guidelines by 33.3% compared to 8.34% for TSB (h = .51). RM ANOVA for affective attitude (AA) of parents yielded large time and intervention effects (F1,22 = 32.73, p < .01, η2 = .60; F1,22 = 8.54, p = .01, η2 = .60 respectively). GB (t11 = 6.08, p < .01, d = 1.67) and TSB (t11 = 3.27, p < .01, d = .88) lowered across time; GB experienced higher levels of AA at T1 (t25 = 2.69, p < .01, d = 1.55) and T2 (t22 = 2.58, p < .05, d = 1.39). Elicited beliefs were primarily affective- and control-based and concerned the equipment and sizing for children. From this study, it is noted that usage decreases less rapidly with the GB than with TSB. Also, differences in AA between groups highlight the importance of AA in PA interventions. This study provides support for the use of interactive video games to augment current PA initiatives with larger scale trials.

Non-Player Character (NPC) behaviors in todays computer games are mostly generated from manually written scripts. The high cost of manually creating complex behaviors for each NPC to exhibit intelligence in response to every situation in the game results in NPCs with repetitive and artificial looking behaviors. The goal of this research is to enable NPCs in computer games to exhibit natural and human-like behaviors in non-combat situations. The quality of these behaviors affects the game experience especially in story-based games, which rely heavily on player-NPC interactions. Reinforcement Learning has been used in this research for BioWare Corp.s Neverwinter Nights to learn natural-looking behaviors for companion NPCs. The proposed method enables NPCs to rapidly learn reasonable behaviors and adapt to the changes in the game environment. This research also provides a learning architecture to divide the NPC behavior into sub-behaviors and sub-tasks called decision domains.

Throughout the history of strategy games, the concept of realism has taken part of cultural discourses that claim such games reproduce dynamics of war. In this thesis, A. Galloways, I. Bogosts and C. Pierces work are used to construct the concept of procedural realism to support the thesis that strategy games build realist fiction based on the execution of game processes through the Heads Up Display interface. Discussion on the visibility of rules will draw attention to the extra-diegetic dimensions of games, to explore how these devices promote ideological approaches to the real. The form of realism found in computer strategy games is an example of Katherine Hayles regime of computation, where [c]ode is understood as the discourse system that generates nature itself (27). This worldview is also present in non-computational strategy wargames; however, analysis focuses on Real Time Strategy and Turn-Based Strategy games non-diegetic devices. / Modern Languages and Cultural Studies

Thesis (M.Soc.Sc.)--University of Waikato, 2009. / Title from PDF cover (viewed October 2, 2009) Includes bibliographical references (p. 137-146)

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Ohio University, March, 2010. / Title from PDF t.p. Includes bibliographical references.