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.

This study has investigated what affects players' experience of different methods of narrative delivery in computer games. Different methods for narrative delivery are discussed as well as findings on similarities between these methods. The players experience of methods for narrative delivery was studied, as well as research on affect and how affect impacts the experience of methods for narrative delivery in computer games. The analysis resulted in: sound, unexpected event, game character behavior, action and excitement, interaction, comedy, many events at once, backstory as well as visual elements, that are nine factors that affect a player's experience of different methods for narrative delivery in computer games. A model for sorting and structuring the factors was then discussed in the discussion chapter. The nine factors identified in the analysis have strong links to affect-inducing elements previously identified by De Byl (2015), Freeman (2004) and Hudlicka (2008). These elements are: Events in the game, Game interaction, Game sound, Game characters. Using these, game designers can utilize traditional narrative techniques, as well as game-specific techniques, to create stories that make players experience affect. A connection was also identified which shows that the number of factors that affect the affective experience varies depending on which narrative delivery method is used. / Denna uppsats har undersökt vad som påverkar spelares upplevelse av olika metoder för att förmedla narrativ i datorspel. Olika metoder för att förmedla narrativ tas upp och fynd kring likheter mellan olika metoder diskuteras. Upplevelsen av metoderna för att förmedla narrativ studerades samt forskning om affekt och vad affekt har för betydelse för upplevelsen av metoder för att förmedla narrativ i datorspel. Ur analysen framkom: ljud, oväntad händelse, spelkaraktärers beteende, action och spänning, interaktion, komedi, många händelser samtidigt, spelkaraktärers bakgrundsberättelse samt visuella element, som nio faktorer som påverkar en spelares upplevelse av olika metoder för att förmedla narrativ i datorspel. En modell för att sortera och strukturera faktorerna diskuterades sedan fram i diskussionskapitlet. De nio faktorer som identifierats i analysen har starka kopplingar till de affektskapande element som tidigare identifierats av De Byl (2015), Freeman (2004) och Hudlicka (2008). Det som överensstämmer med tidigare forskning är att genom: Händelser i spelet, Spelinteraktion, Spelets ljud, Spelets karaktärer, kan speldesigners med hjälp av traditionella berättartekniker, samt spelspecifika tekniker, skapa berättelser som får spelare att uppleva affekt. Ett samband identifierades också som visar att mängden faktorer som påverkar den affektiva upplevelsen varierar beroende på vilken narrativ förmedlingsmetod som används.

The project focuses on computer tools suitable for particular game genres and how they are used to develop 3D computer games. As part of learning about the tools, the author developed a 3D computer adventure game called "Adventures of Smiley" using Macromedia Director MX and 3D Studio Max. The game's purpose is to engage children using a friendly interface while they learn about different topics in various subject areas through lessons and puzzles. The research gathered information about the current game industry, technologies and game genres, which can be used as a reference for the beginning level game programmer. The project documentation and the game are also published on the Internet and can be freely accessed online.

This thesis is a reception analysis using qualitative interviews to investigate the formation of cultural groups around computer-game LANs present in Rhodes University. It also looks at how issues of social inequalities evident on the university's campus impact on the participation of students in these LANs. The findings of this study are that the participants have established a community around the practice of computer LAN-gameplay based on values developed through the combination of the material and gameworlds. It serves as a home-on-campus for them; where they can fully explore their passion for games thus reaffirming their identity as gamers on a campus where being a gamer is viewed negatively. In this light, computer-game playing is not just a practice these participants perform, but a culture they live out every day. This is a culture predominantly lived out by men. One of the reasons for this is because most women have been raised to believe to have negative predispositions about digital gaming e.g. that it is childish, addictive and anti-social, but also that computer are meant to be used by men - women use them only when it is absolutely necessary, for example, that it is childish, for academic-related purposes. As a result, not many of them will use computers for any otherreason for fear of being socially criticised. In addition, the gaming culture being dominated by whites is due to the fact that admittance in to this community is still unaffordable for the majority of black students on the Rhodes University campus as a result of their social backgrounds.

This dissertation is an exploration of the practice of social digital gaming, using a mixed methods approach with complementary data and analytical methods. The main themes are the prevalence and meaning of gamers’ experiences of social gaming and the underlying structures limiting or assisting social gaming, both material and social. Applying an everyday perspective, focus is on gamers’ day-to-day practices and experiences. Studies I and II enquire into relational aspects of social gaming based on interviews and survey data. Study III investigates the relationship between game design and gamer agency and its importance for social interaction with strangers, using in-game participant observation. Lastly in Study IV, building on interviews, female gamers come to the fore as their gender construction in an online game is examined with the aim of understanding the connection between online and offline. The main result concerns how social gaming takes place in various social relations. How gaming comes to be―what it means―is dependent on the relations between gamers, be they family members, real life friends, Internet friends or strangers. In these interactions, gender and sexual identity are realized; in the relations between gamers, physical proximate or online. Finally, virtuality is shown to be a social accomplishment of the people engaging in games rather than a property of the games themselves. Focus on the relational unveils how gaming comes to be in the process of interaction, a process at the same time dependent on underlying structures, i.e. games as designed platforms with certain affordances for social behaviour. We are able, thus, to reconcile the social constructivist position that (social) gaming is created in the relations between gamers engaging in games with the more formalist approach that games are rule based structures. Games create a foundation for interaction that can further develop into the creation/maintenance of relationships and identity. / <p>At the time of the doctoral defense, the following papers were unpublished and had a status as follows: Paper 1: Manuscript. Paper 2: Manuscript. Paper 3: Manuscript.</p>

Walking outdoors requires one to deal with a wide range of visual and cognitive perturbations, i.e., multiple object tracking and making timely decisions while ignoring irrelevant information, etc. Using dual-task gait paradigm, the purpose of this thesis was to evaluate the age effects of different types of visuospatial cognitive tasks, i.e. designed cognitive game tasks and commercial computer games on gait and cognitive performances in older adults as compared to the younger adults. A standardized dual-task assessment approach, i.e. objectively evaluating both gait and cognitive performances simultaneously, has potential to be the screening tool to detect gait and cognitive impairments in early stages. Further, evaluating the training value of commercial computer games by comparing them with the designed cognitive games with objective outcome measures will help in developing multimodal dual-task intervention platform to treat and prevent age-related physical and cognitive impairments. / October 2016

This creative project explores some major issues about visual communication in digital games. The project will continue to address new questions and invite questions from my visual and communication design colleagues. My hope is that, through this document, designers will see digital games like photography was seen around the turn of the century, and movies in the 1950's and 60's. In other words, as a rich new medium that offers creative people a virtually unexplored environment in which to work and create.&#0;

This thesis focuses on the phenomenon of live-streaming of computer games in the Czech Republic. This thesis is based on an approach of online ethnography and tries to describe what meaning do the producers of content (who are labeled as performers in this thesis) ascribe to streaming, what are their motivations to stream, how they present themselves on the streams and what is the content of those streams. The live-streaming of computer games in this thesis is put into context of user-generated content. The main part of this thesis is a qualitative research realized through an online observations of streams and through interviews with the performers, who stream on the streaming service Twitch. The findings show that streaming is entertaining and time passing activity for the performers, but also a form of a social contact. Some motivations of the performers include the satisfaction of their viewers and recurring contact with them. There were no financial motivations involved among the performers. Performers mostly do not stylize themselves into any specific role, however some of them do take on themselves the roles of teachers, who teach their viewers to be a better gamer, or the roles of entertainers. During the stream the performers mostly put their attention to only a single game and also to an...

This work focuses on a gender analysis of female characters in video games, specifically the action genre of computer games in which players play from the perspective of a third party (ie see a playable character on canvas). Pays attention to very specific situations in which the female figure is markedly ambivalent status - show clearly feminine characteristics, it moves but clearly masculine space and pay the archetypal clearly masculine activities. Working with so anlýzou konrkétních computer games and playable characters trying to determine whether computer games as a new medium for his portrayal of female characters contribute to gender stereotypes and whether, therefore, become another medium, that these stereotypes produces and reproduces that deconstructs these stereotypes and changing, or whether it even creates new stereotypes. The analysis is the analysis itself as a representation of female characters in visual, narrative or folder of computer games and interactive component analysis itself - that is playing. In this sense, the work seeks to determine how the female characters look if they present archetypal feminine or masculine characteristics and what pleasure playing them can offer both male and female players. In conclusion, the work also attempts to describe the transformations which...

The thesis deals with the historical development of computer adventure games in the Czech Republic. It focuses on the period that started in 1994 with the production of the first commercial PC game Tajemství Oslího ostrova (The Secret of Donkey Island), and ended in 1998. It also touches an earlier period and factors that influenced the production of the adventure genre in the nineties. Researched titles belong to the genre of 2D point-and-click adventure. The paper brings the analysis of the games according to the theories of game studies, context of their production, information about their producers and analysis of the feedback in the press that focused on computer games. The thesis tries to identify the common features of the first commercial PC games thanks to which the games became very popular in the nineties and also describes the obstacles that the first producers had to overcome in the post socialistic country. At nearly twenty titles the paper tries to reveal the new elements that showed in the historical development of the adventure games and also to describe the differences among monitored titles. The sources of information for the thesis were both the literature, which dealt with computer games, and the interviews with the developers, game designers and distributors who focused on the...