Thesis (M.Comp.Sc.)--University of Wollongong, 2008. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references: leaf 88-98.

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

Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka hur mellanstadieelever kommunicerar med varandra när de spelar datorspel tillsammans för att synliggöra hur spel kan påverka elevers muntliga kommunikativa språkfärdigheter i engelska. Forskning tyder på att datorspel kan förbättra elevers ordförråd i engelska genom att de kommunicerar och samarbetar med andra personer. Studien grundar sig i Vygotskijs sociokulturella perspektiv där språket är ett redskap för att lära sig nya saker. För att besvara studiens syfte har en mellanstadieklass observerats när de har spelat ett datorspel i par. Eleverna har observerats och spelats in. Resultatet visar att eleverna mest kommunicerade med sin kamrat de spelade tillsammans med. När eleverna pratade med varandra angående ord i spelet översattes de inte till svenska. Istället försökte eleverna förklara för varandra vad ordet betydde och hur det skulle användas. När eleverna sa ett engelskt ord i ett svenskt sammanhang böjdes ordet med en svensk ändelse. Eleverna visade att de hade förståelse för hur orden skulle användas och i vilket sammanhang ordet kan användas. / The purpose of this study is to examine how middle school pupils communicate between them when they are playing computer games to visible how games can affect pupil’s oral communication language skill in English. Scientists believe that computer games can improve pupil’s vocabulary through communication and collaboration with other people. This study is using Vygotskij’s sociocultural perspective, that the language is a tool to learn new things. To answer this study’s purpose a class of middle school pupils has been observed while playing a computer game in pair. The result show that the pupils communicated a lot with their partner. When they talked about an English word they did not translate it. Instead they talked about its meaning and how it was supposed to be used. When they bent an English word in a Swedish sentence they used Swedish grammar and suffix. The pupils showed that they had language skill to use the English words that occurred in their dialogues.

This study is about possibilities for improving representation of mentally ill characters in roleplaying computer games. The areas of improvement are empathy for the characters by the players, enjoyment of the game by players, and more accurate depictions of mental illness in computer games. The qualitative study created three unique character concepts, each with two backstories/game concepts, and interviewed respondents on the three aforementioned areas. The research focused on common stereotypes held in modern society and the history of these embedded beliefs, as well as what mental illness really looks like and how negative stereotypes affect an audience. The research also covers current representation of mental illness in video games and analyses their depictions. The study concludes that stereotypes about mentally ill people are harmful, and that accurate and empathetic representations of mentally ill characters in video games should begin with detailed research and respect for the issue at hand.

This work focuses on the analysis of visual representation, behaviour and development of female characters in the video games series the Witcher, which consists of three games with consequential stories. The aim of this work is to analyse all female characters that appear in this three-part series, from main characters to supporting characters and female monsters. In the first part of this work, there is the theoretical clarification of the basic gaming terms and how the gender problematics are connected with video games - namely femininity, sexism and basic female archetypes, which are an inseparable part of games. Furthermore, the thesis introduces the origin of the Witcher world as well as its main hero, Geralt, and briefly introduces the plot of the series. In the second part of this work, the three main characters of the series are analysed in the terms of their visual representation, behaviour, motivation as well as their relationship with the main hero, their behaviour during fights and their relationships with other characters. Furthermore, this work analyses selected female characters, which are examined as individuals (for example sorceresses and warriors) or as groups (for example village women, town women and vampires), according to how significant they are. This thesis focuses on how...

Over the last ten years Internet become substantial information and communication tool for all age and social groups of Society, but it has a specific status among the younger generations. This thesis understands the Internet as a virtual environment which supports the formation of new Youth subcultures and also the communication of currently existing subcultures. Theoretical part defines the basic terms and concepts (Youth, socialization, identity, culture, subculture, and counterculture) which correspond with the orientation in researched environment. The thesis characterizes also virtual environment, computer games and psychosocial aspects of these worlds. The practical part is based on qualitative research study (depth interviews) of the subculture of the on-line computer games players. The data gathered by depth interviews were processed on the basis of the methods of grounded theory.

Desde os primeiros filmes realizados em jogos digitais nos anos 1990, a noção de machinima vem sendo associada às convenções do cinema clássico. Com isso, ela falha em abranger a diversidade das obras audiovisuais produzidas em ambientes virtuais interativos em tempo real. Assim, o presente estudo busca contribuir com uma melhor compreensão dessa noção, através da análise interpretativa dos seus filmes experimentais e da bibliografia específica. Ele também pretende colaborar com a sua expansão como meio de comunicação e expressão artística. Em um primeiro momento, busca-se evidenciar a associação da noção de machinima com o cinema clássico, através da apresentação dos filmes relevantes durante a sua história e também de uma análise interpretativa das primeiras publicações teóricas. A partir dessa constatação, são apresentadas práticas audiovisuais precedentes e filmes experimentais realizados nos seus anos iniciais. Em seguida, pretende-se demonstrar que o afastamento da narrativa representado pelas obras experimentais de machinima abre espaço para a identificação de outros elementos que possam colaborar com um entendimento mais aprofundado da sua noção. Dessa forma, as seguintes características são apresentadas e analisadas em relação a essa ideia: a performance, a intervenção e o registro. Essa aproximação é prosseguida pela análise interpretativa dos filmes Formation (Difference and Repetition), de Baden Pailthorpe, 30 Seconds or More One Animation a Day, de Victor Morales e Abstract Livecoded Machinima (Missile Command), de David Griffiths. Ao enfatizar as obras experimentais de machinima, a proposta deste estudo é evidenciar que há uma diversidade de caminhos, entre a narrativa e a experimentação, a serem percorridos pelos artistas com machinima e que a sua noção deve abranger a pluralidade dessas produções audiovisuais. / Since the first films accomplished in digital games in the 1990s, the concept of machinima has been associated to the conventions of classical cinema. Therewith, it fails to embrace the diversity of audiovisual works produced in real-time interactive virtual environments. Therefore, this study aims to contribute to a deepen comprehension of this concept through an interpretative analysis of its experimental films and also of the specific bibliography. It also intends to collaborate with its expansion as a communication and an artistic expression medium. First, it is aimed to evince the association of the idea of machinima with the classical cinema, through the presentation of the relevant films of its history and also through an interpretative analysis of the first theoretical publications. From this verification, the previous audiovisual practices and experimental movies accomplished in its first years are presented. Then, it is intended to demonstrate that the distance from narrative represented by the experimental works in machinima makes room for the identification of other features that may collaborate to a deepening understanding of its concept. Thus, the following features are presented and analyzed in relation to this idea: the performance, the intervention, and the record. This approximation is followed by the interpretative analysis of the films Formation (Difference and Repetition), by Baden Pailthorpe, 30 Seconds or More One Animation a Day, by Victor Morales, and Abstract Livecoded Machinima (Missile Command), by David Griffiths. By emphasizing the experimental works in machinima, the proposal of this study is to evince that there is a diversity of paths, between the narrative and the experimentation, to go through by the artists with machinima. Thus, its concept must include the plurality of these audiovisual productions.

Um dos desafios da Inteligência Artificial aplicada em jogos é o aprendizado de comportamento, em que o objetivo é utilizar estatísticas obtidas da interação entre jogador e jogo de modo a reconhecer características particulares de um jogador ou monitorar a evolução de seu comportamento no decorrer do tempo. A maior parte dos trabalhos na área emprega modelos previamente aprendidos, por meio da utilização de algoritmos de Aprendizado de Máquina. Entretanto, são poucos os trabalhos que consideram que o comportamento de um jogador pode evoluir no tempo e que, portanto, reconhecer quando essas mudanças ocorrem é o primeiro passo para produzir jogos que se adaptam automaticamente às capacidades do jogador. Para detectar variações comportamentais em um jogador, são necessários algoritmos que processem dados de modo incremental. Esse pré-requisito motiva o estudo de algoritmos para detecção de mudanças da área de Mineração em Fluxos Contínuos de Dados. Entretanto, algumas das características dos algoritmos disponíveis na literatura inviabilizam sua aplicação direta ao problema de detecção de mudança em jogos. Visando contornar essas dificuldades, esta tese propõe duas novas abordagens para detecção de mudanças de comportamento. A primeira abordagem é baseada em um algoritmo incremental de agrupamento e detecção de novidades que é independente do número e formato dos grupos presentes nos dados e que utiliza um mecanismo de janela deslizante para detecção de mudanças de comportamento. A segunda abordagem, por outro lado, é baseada na comparação de janelas de tempo consecutivas utilizando espectrogramas gerados a partir dos dados contidos em cada janela. Os resultados experimentais utilizando simulações e dados de jogos comerciais indicam a aplicabilidade dos algoritmos propostos na tarefa de detecção de mudanças de comportamento de um jogador, assim como mostram sua vantagem em relação a outros algoritmos para detecção de mudança disponíveis na literatura / One of the challenges of Artificial Intelligence applied to games is behavior learning, where the objective is to use statistics derived from the interaction between the player and the game environment in order to recognize particular player characteristics or to monitor the evolution of a players behavior along time. The majority of work developed in this area applies models that were previously learned through the use of Machine Learning techniques. However, only a few pieces of work consider that the players behavior can evolve over time and, therefore, recognizing when behavior changes happen is the first step towards the production of games that adapt to the players needs. In order to detect changes in the behavior of a player, incremental algorithms are necessary, what motivates the study of change detection algorithms from the area of Data Stream Mining. However, some of the characteristics of the algorithms available in the literature make their application to the task of change detection in games unfeasible. To overcome these difficulties, this work proposes two new approaches for change detection. The first approach is based on an incremental clustering and novelty detection algorithm which is independent of the number and format of clusters and uses a mechanism for change detection based on sliding windows. The second approach, on the other hand, is based on the comparison of consecutive time windows using spectrograms created from the data inside each window. Experimental results using simulations and data from commercial games indicate the applicability of the proposed algorithms in the task of detecting a players changing behavior, as well as present their advantage when compared to other change detection algorithms available in the literature

This thesis answers the question of how, and what, people communicate to each other while playing games. The presented conclusions offer guidance to computer game developers on what means of communication they should support in games in order to provide better possibilities for interaction between people that play games together. The data for this study was collected from two sources: the first was during LinCon, an annual game convention in Linköping, and consists of four players playing a game of WarCraft: The Board Game; the second is from a game session of the multiplayer roleplaying game World of WarCraft. The sessions where documented using a combination of video recordings and participant observation in order to increase the quality and speed of the analysis. The video recordings were subsequently sorted into labelled passages and then organised into categories based on their similarity to each other with the purpose of finding categories and means of information exchange. The analysis identify five categories of information that people exchange between each other while playing games and three categories of how they convey that information. The implication of these categories on game design practice is also discussed.

This thesis deals with issues of violence, gender and multiculturalism in videogames and computer games. The theoretical part summarizes the history of videogames and describes what videogames are, who are they for and who actually plays them. Next, it describes the problems and criticism of videogames regarding violence, gender and multiculturalism and showcases the issues on select videogames. The practical part showcases presentation of violence, sexual content, female characters and racial and ethnic minorities in videogames in a case study of the game The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. The case study also comments on criticism the game has received because of these issues. The author considers the game to be problematic in some aspects, but generally not racist or sexist. The thesis includes a study of demographical distribution of players in Czech Republic and their opinions about violence, gender and multiculturalism in videogames. The study had the form of an online questionnaire; the respondents were asked to take part via social media. The players do not mind violence in videogames and their opinions are in accord with the latest studies. Their opinions on gender and multiculturalism differ from the opinions of experts and the players generally consider videogames to be more inclusive than they...