Alternate reality games (ARG) are a relatively new type of game that distributes game content across several media without explicitly identifying that content as part of a game. While players benefit from this aesthetically immersive experience the type of game has the potential to cause confusion over the status of its dispersed content as real or as part of a game. This thesis offers a case study of the 2012 game. The case is contextualized within the disciplines of media studies and games studies, in a wider digital culture where the ubiquity of technology converges to user experience design. A theoretical framework based on Charles S. Peirce’s semiotic, supplemented by Erving Goffman’s frame analysis and James J. Liszka’s transvaluation theory is used to explain the ARG’s problematic relation to the experience of reality.

Alternate reality games (ARG) are a relatively new type of game that distributes game content across several media without explicitly identifying that content as part of a game. While players benefit from this aesthetically immersive experience the type of game has the potential to cause confusion over the status of its dispersed content as real or as part of a game. This thesis offers a case study of the 2012 game. The case is contextualized within the disciplines of media studies and games studies, in a wider digital culture where the ubiquity of technology converges to user experience design. A theoretical framework based on Charles S. Peirce’s semiotic, supplemented by Erving Goffman’s frame analysis and James J. Liszka’s transvaluation theory is used to explain the ARG’s problematic relation to the experience of reality.

This research will strive to establish a design methodology to achieve an ideal balance or ratio between solar energy available at a given site and the electrical energy requirement of a residence in a humid subtropical climate. Solar technology should be considered as an important element of the design and not a mere energy source added after the design has been completed. The introduction of this technology should be established at the conceptual stage and evolve through the whole design process of the project. Solar energy is without doubt the best choice as an alternate to fossil fuels in Florida's humid subtropical climate, however harnessing this readily available energy source requires careful planning. Adding solar energy components during the final design stage will impact negatively on the aesthetics of the design and most likely will not provide the energy necessary to achieve sustainability. Each climate and latitude requires different strategies to maximize available solar energy, thus the design has to adapt to the energy source of the given site. Florida's original vernacular design concepts dealt with solar energy issues in a passive way, by providing shelter from the sun and creating air circulation for evaporative cooling. Today's photovoltaic technology can activate vernacular principles and create new sustainable typologies. Unlike tropical climates, the humid subtropical deals with high relative humidity in the summer months, thus demanding the use of mechanical cooling in order to reach the required comfort zone within the building's envelope. Fortunately solar energy is readily available in Florida during the critical summer season when the largest electrical loads are required by mechanical cooling. An "off the grid" sustainable design could be achieved if electrical energy use is minimized to the essentials, wind technology is used to complement the photovoltaic system and alternate energy sources as gas, alcohol and alike are used for other household energy demands that do not need to be of electrical type. This design criteria will allow Florida residents to experience a more fulfilling existence by interacting with nature in a more dynamic, efficient and intimate way.

Gamification is now a household word, but it remains at the top of the lists of emerging technology and expected trends for the future of instructional design. If this is true, how can we take gamification to a level beyond badges and points? This paper argues that narrative is a key element that has not yet been fully realized in gamification, reviewed through its prior successes in entertainment-education, game-based learning, project-based learning, and digital storytelling. It suggests that Alternate Reality Games may be the true future of gamification as we know it today.

This thesis concerns the development of alternate bars under steady state flows. The movable bed is flat at the beginning of the experiment; the bars reach their equilibrium or developed state at the time Td. The thesis has two objectives. The first is to introduce new equations for the geometric characteristics, namely height and length, of alternate bars at the fully developed stage, and to evaluate them against the existing equations. The second objective is to present the results of two series of experiments carried out to characterize the process of development of alternate bars and obtain estimates of their time of development. The data resulting from these experiments are intended as a foundation for future work towards the establishment of a predictive equation for the development time of alternate bars. The new equations for bar height and length rest on dimensional considerations and all the available data. Bars produced under rough turbulent and transitional flows are treated separately. The proposed equations are found to consistently give more accurate estimates of alternate bar dimensions than existing equations. The experiments to quantify the time of development of alternate bars are carried out in the 21 m long, 0.76 m wide sediment transport flume of the Queen’s Coastal Engineering Laboratory. In addition to providing estimates of the time of development of alternate bars, these experiments reveal aspects of the process of development of alternate bars that had not been reported previously. In particular, they show that, all other conditions being the same (including the sediment transport capacity of the initial flow), the more pronounced alternate bars formed under shallower flows develop faster than less pronounced bars formed under deeper flows. The findings of this study highlight the fact that the previously unexplained wide variation in alternate bar dimensions is related to the plotting position of the data point in the alternate bar existence region of Ahmari and da Silva (2011). This study also sheds light on the evolution and development of alternate bars, which establishes a strong foundation for future studies on the topic. / Thesis (Ph.D, Civil Engineering) -- Queen's University, 2014-03-30 16:27:07.025

South Africa produces alternative fuels from a number of different sources. The properties of a fuel are known to affect the nature of combustion in compression-ignition engines significantly, and have occasionally resulted in engine failures. Combustion analyses have been conducted on a wide range of fuels and combustion has been thoroughly quantified. However, the role played by the different combustion variables in failures was not known. The result was that it was not possible to predict the implications of variations in the nature of combustion. There was thus a need to investigate the relative role of combustion variables in the failure of engines. The mechanisms of combustion and engine failure were studied. All the variables required to determine combustion and engine durability were measured simultaneously. This research required the development of a complete engine research facility as well as specialized transducers. Fast response surface thermocouples were designed and constructed in order to monitor transient surface temperatures. Heat transfer rates were then calculated with the aid of Fourier analysis. Dynamic stresses were monitored by strain-gauges applied to the engine. A special high speed data acquisition system was developed. An existing heat release model was modified and used to calculate combustion rates. A comprehensive finite element model was developed to calculate piston temperatures and stresses. The role of each combustion variable in stress and durability was investigated by statistical analysis. The results successfully identified the causes of combustion related engine failures. The primary cause of engine failure was found to be thermal loading. The principal cause of any variation in thermal loading and thus engine durability was maximum cylinder pressure. The life of the engine was proved to be determined almost entirely by peak cylinder pressure. The role of the rate of pressure rise was proved to be insignificant. All the implications of variations in the nature of combustion can now be determined accurately. It will thus be possible to optimise engine modifications and fuel properties before validation by durability testing. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 1989.

Humans are surrounded by objects. The human-object interaction is more frequent than the human-human interaction. The history of objects is as old as the history of human beings. This fact establishes and defines their meanings in a social and cultural context. This essay aims to look at the established meanings of corpus objects and possibilities of developing new meanings of tableware and other objects related to table in contemporary craft. To investigate if the perception of the object changes with the change of material or its formal aesthetics. How can the meanings of the objects and their identities be altered  or substituted? Do we recognize the objects the same way if their form and function is altered? What role does material play in how one reads an object? This essay looks at the importance of objects and the role they play in our daily life. To explore what lies in an object beyond its function and the notion of materiality, what can be the boundaries and limitations of our perception, understanding and tradition of objects?

Alternate reality games (ARG) are a relatively new type of game that distributes game content across several media without explicitly identifying that content as part of a game. While players benefit from this aesthetically immersive experience the type of game has the potential to cause confusion over the status of its dispersed content as real or as part of a game. This thesis offers a case study of the 2012 game. The case is contextualized within the disciplines of media studies and games studies, in a wider digital culture where the ubiquity of technology converges to user experience design. A theoretical framework based on Charles S. Peirce’s semiotic, supplemented by Erving Goffman’s frame analysis and James J. Liszka’s transvaluation theory is used to explain the ARG’s problematic relation to the experience of reality.

Alternate Reality Games (ARG) have been one of the first and most prominent viral marketing tools. In a dynamic marketing world, where new practices appear every other day and seemingly ‘old’ practices lose their appeal very quickly, Blizzard Entertainment – a leading video game developer – gained much attention regarding its marketing strategy promoting the release of a new playable hero called ‘Sombra’ for their online game Overwatch, which is the third most-played game in the world with over 20 million unique users. For the campaign, the publisher used in-game hints as well as short clips with further hints (such as ASCII algorithms and hidden QR codes), which had to be decrypted by the users. This virtual scavenger hunt even included seemingly real websites of fictional companies with telephone numbers that could be called leading to further hints. In this paper we take a closer look at this particular campaign that has been praised internationally for its marketing both pre- and post-release. However, parts of the Overwatch community have complained on various online platforms about numerous aspects of the ARG experience. The paper serves two main purposes. Firstly, we explore the ARG participants’ experiences in terms of their customer satisfaction. Secondly, from a theoretical viewpoint, we investigate the applicability of the expectancy disconfirmation theory in this particular case. Thus, this paper may assist future ARG developers in creating engaging content by providing insights concerning the satisfaction of its participants. [... from the introduction]

Alternate reality games (ARG) are a relatively new type of game that distributes game content across several media without explicitly identifying that content as part of a game. While players benefit from this aesthetically immersive experience the type of game has the potential to cause confusion over the status of its dispersed content as real or as part of a game. This thesis offers a case study of the 2012 game. The case is contextualized within the disciplines of media studies and games studies, in a wider digital culture where the ubiquity of technology converges to user experience design. A theoretical framework based on Charles S. Peirce’s semiotic, supplemented by Erving Goffman’s frame analysis and James J. Liszka’s transvaluation theory is used to explain the ARG’s problematic relation to the experience of reality.