Companies and projects often face the challenge of creating something new to increase their competitiveness. In this process of creating something new creativity is an important factor. By using a creative approach and utilizing creative processes new innovations emerges. An industry that has grown in recent years is the computer games industry. Competition is fierce and for the companies to succeed, the product need that extra something to make it stand out among all the produced games. The project manager's role in the creative process and the ability to be creative within a distance based company is not something highlighted by previous research. This formed the basis of our research question: How do project managers act to create conditions for creativity among employees in a remotely organized computer game company? To answer our question, we chose to make a descriptive case study. The project is based in the Nordic countries with employees worldwide. It is altogether a distance based project with no shared workspace. We interviewed the projects two project managers, and supplemented with a qualitative survey amongst the employees. The collected material was analyzed with a methodology inspired by Grounded Theory and previous research results. Three approaches of how the project managers act to promote creativity are evident in their stories. These approaches are trust, availability and tolerance. They form the basis of our model on how the project managers in this case act to promote employee creativity. Besides the three approaches, two concepts emerged as important tools for creativity in the project: motivation and communication. Our conclusion can be described as follows: Motivation provides the conditions for creative thinking. By building an organization where project leaders show trust in the ability of employees, and allows tolerance to be a watchword for collaboration, project managers work to improve employee motivation. This will create opportunities for creativity among the employees in this distance based project. Communication is essential for creative work in the project and virtual means of communication a way to increase availability. / Företag och projekt ställs ofta inför utmaningen att skapa något nytt för att till exempel öka sin konkurrenskraft. I processen att ta fram denna nya produkt är kreativitet en viktig faktor. Med hjälp av ett kreativt förhållningssätt och en kreativ process kan nya innovationer växa fram. En bransch som växt mycket de senaste åren är datorspelsbranschen. Konkurrensen är hård och om företagen ska lyckas krävs det att produkten har något extra som gör att det sticker ut bland alla spel som produceras. Projektledarens roll i kreativitetsprocessen är ett område som tidigare forskning inte har belyst särskilt mycket. Inte heller har möjligheten att skapa förutsättningar för kreativitet inom ett distansbaserat företag behandlats särskilt mycket. Studiens forskningsfråga är: Hur agerar projektledare för att skapa förutsättningar för kreativitet hos projektmedarbetare i ett distansbaserat datorspelsutvecklingsprojekt? För att besvara vår frågeställning valde vi att göra en deskriptiv fallstudie. Projektet har sin bas i Norden med medarbetare över hela världen. Det är helt och hållet ett distansbaserat projekt på så sätt att ingen delar arbetsplats. Vi djupintervjuade projektets två projektledare och kompletterade med en kvalitativ enkät till medarbetarna. Med en utgångspunkt i Grounded Theory och tidigare forskningsresultat analyserades materialet. Ur projektledarnas berättelser framträdde tre förhållningssätt. Dessa är tillit, tillgänglighet och tolerans. De ligger till grund för vår modell om hur projektledarna i det undersökta fallet agerar för att främja kreativiteten hos medarbetarna. Dessutom visade det sig att motivation och kommunikation var två viktiga verktyg för att skapa förutsättningar för kreativitet hos medarbetarna. Vår slutsats kan beskrivas på följande sätt: Motivation ger förutsättningar för kreativt tänkande. Genom att bygga en organisation där projektledarna visar tillit till medarbetarnas förmåga, och låter tolerans vara ett ledord för kollaboration, arbetar projektledarna för att höja medarbetarnas motivation. Därmed skapas förutsättningar för kreativitet hos medarbetarna i detta distansbaserade projekt. Kommunikation är en förutsättning för kreativt skapande i projektet och virtuella kommunikationsmedel ett sätt att öka tillgängligheten.

Problem-posing is recognized as an important component in the nature of mathematical thinking (Kilpatrick, 1987). More recently, there is an increased emphasis on giving students opportunities with problem posing in mathematics classroom (English& Grove, 1998). These research has shown that instructional activities as having students generate problems as a means of improving ability of problem solving and their attitude toward mathematics (Winograd, 1991). In this study, teaching Taxicab Geometry which is a non-Euclidean geometry is aimed to mathematics teacher candidates by means of computer game-Simcity- using real life problems posing. This studies’ participants are forty mathematics teacher candidates taking geometry course. Because of using Simcity computer game, this game is based on Taxicab Geometry. Firstly, students had been given Taxicab geometry theory for two weeks and then seperated six each of groups. Each of groups is wanted to posing problem and solving from real life problems at Taxicab geometry. In addition to, students applied to problem solving at Simcity computer game. Studens were model into Simcity game. They founded ideal city, healty village, university campus, holiday village, etc. interesting of each others.

This thesis explores how massively multiplayer online games (MMOGs), as an exemplary new media form, disrupt practices associated with more conventional media. These intensely social games exploit the interactivity and networks afforded by new media technologies in ways that generate new challenges for the organisation, control and regulation of media. The involvement of players in constituting these games - through their production of game-play, derivative works and strong social networks that drive the profitability of the games - disrupts some of the key foundations that underlie other publication media. MMOGs represent a new and hybrid form of media - part publication and part service. As such they sit within a number of sometimes contradictory organising and regulatory regimes. This thesis examines the negotiations and struggles for control between players, developers and publishers as issues of ownership, governance and access arise out of the new configurations. Using an ethnographic approach to gather information and insights into the practices of players, developers and publishers, this project identifies the characteristics of the distributed production network in this experiential medium. It explores structural components of successful interactive applications and analyses how the advent of player agency and the shift in authorship has meant a shift in control of the text and the relations that surround it. The integration of social networks into the textual environment, and into the business model of the media publishers has meant commerce has become entwined with affect in a new way in this medium. Publishers have moved into the role of both property managers, of the intellectual property associated with the game content, and community managers. Intellectual property management is usually associated with the reproduction and distribution of finished media products, and this sits uneasily with the performative and mutable form of this medium. Service provision consists of maintaining the game world environment, community management, providing access for players to other players and to the content generated both by the developers and the other players. Content in an MMOG is identified in this project as both the 'tangible' assets of code and artwork, rules and text, and the 'intangible' or immaterial assets of affective networks. Players are no longer just consumers of media, or even just active interpreters of media. They are co-producing the media as it is developed. This thesis frames that productiveness as unpaid labour, in an attempt to denaturalise the dominant discourse which casts players as consumers. The regulation of this medium is contentious. Conventional forms of media regulation - such as copyright, or content regulation regimes are inadequate for regulating the hybrid service/publication medium. This thesis explores how the use of contracts as the mechanism which constitutes the formal relations between players, publishers and developers creates challenges to some of the regimes of juridical and political rights held by citizens more generally. This thesis examines the productive practices of players and how the discourses of intellectual property and the discourses of the consumer are mobilised to erase the significance of those productive contributions. It also shows, using a Foucauldian analysis of the power negotiations, that players employ many counter-strategies to circumvent the more formal legal structures of the publishers. The dialogic relationship between players, developers and publishers is shown to mobilise various discursive constructions of the role of each. The outcome of these ongoing negotiations may well shape future interactive applications and the extent to which their innovative capacities will be available for all stakeholders to develop.

[Truncated abstract] Online games are an exciting new trend in the consumption of entertainment and provide the opportunity to examine selected antecedents of online game-playing based on studying the cognitive, experiential and habitual factors. This study was divided into two parts. The first part analysed the structural relations among research variables that might explain online game-playing using the Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) techniques. These analyses were conducted on a final sample of 218 online gamers. Specific issues examined were: If the variables of Perceived Game Performance, Satisfaction, Hedonic Responses, Flow and Habit Strength influence the Intention to Replay an online game. The importance of factors such as Hedonic Responses and Flow on Satisfaction in online game play. In addition to the SEM, analyses of the participants? reported past playing behaviour were conducted to test whether past game play was simply a matter of random frequency of past behaviour, or followed the specific pattern of the Negative Binomial Distribution (NBD). … The playing-time distribution was not significantly different to the Gamma distribution, in which the largest number of gamers plays for a short time (light gamers) and only a few gamers account for a large proportion of playing time (heavy gamers). Therefore, the reported time play followed a simple and predictable NBD pattern (Chisquare=. 390; p>.05). This study contributes to knowledge in the immediate field of online games and to the wider body of literature on consumer research. The findings demonstrate that gamers tend to act habitually in their playing behaviour. These findings support the argument that past behaviour (habit) is a better explanation of future behaviour than possible cognitive and affective explanations, especially for the apparent routinesed behaviour pattern on online games. The pattern of online game-playing is consistent with the finding of the NBD pattern in television viewing, in which the generalisability of the NBD model has been found in stable environments of repetitive behaviour. This supports the application of the NBD to areas beyond those of patterns in gambling and the purchase of consumer items. The findings have implications both for managerial and public policy decision-making.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Wollongong, 2006. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references: leaf 192-203.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Alberta, 2009. / A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Neuroscience, Centre for Neuroscience. Title from pdf file main screen (viewed on October 18, 2009). Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Masters) -- The College of Saint Elizabeth, 2010. / Typescript. Available at The College of Saint Elizabeth - Office of Graduate Programs. "March 2010"

Thesis (MEng)--Stellenbosch University, 2014. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Massively Multiplayer Online Games are large virtual worlds co-inhabited by players over the Internet. As up to thousands of players can be simultaneously connected to the game, the server and network architectures are required to scale e ciently. The traditional client/server model results in a heavy nancial burden for operation of the server. Various alternative architectures have been proposed as a replacement for the traditional model, but the adoption of these alternatives are slow as they present their own set of challenges. The proposed hybrid system is based on many di erent architectures and peer-topeer concepts that were reviewed in the literature. It aims to provide a compromise for existing, commercially successful MMOGs to introduce peer-to-peer components into their systems with no requirement of modi cation to their server or client software. With the system's design presented, the middleware software is implemented and deployed in a real, controlled environment alongside an Ultima Online game server and its clients. The movement game mechanic was distributed amongst the peers while the others remained the responsiblity of the server. A number of performance experiments are performed to measure the e ects of the modi ed system over the original client/server system on bandwidth, latency, and hardware impact. The results revealed an increase in the server bandwidth usage by 35%, slave bandwidth usage by 17% and supernode bandwiwdth usage by 3111%. The latencies of distributed server mechanics were reduced by up to 94%, while the non-distributed latencies were increased by up to 6000%. These results suggested that a system with absolutely no modi cation to the server is unlikely to provide the desired bene ts. However, with 2 minor modi cations to the server, the middleware is able to reduce both server load and player latencies. The server bandwidth can be reduced by 39%, while the supernode's bandwidth is increased only by 1296%. The distributed latencies maintain their reduction while non-distributed latencies remain unchanged from the C/S system. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Massiewe Multispeler Aanlyn Speletjies (MMAS) is groot virtuele w^erelde op die Internet wat bewoon word deur spelers. Aangesien duisende spelers gelyktydig kan inskakel op die speletjie word daar verwag van die bediener en netwerk argitektuur om e ektief te skaleer om die groot hoeveelhede spelers te kan hanteer. Die traditionele kli ent/bediener model lei tot 'n groot nansi ele las vir die operateur van die bediener. Verskeie alternatiewe argitekture is al voorgestel om die tradisionele model te vervang, maar die aanvaarding en in gebruik neem van hierdie alternatiewe (soos eweknie-netwerke) is 'n stadige proses met sy eie stel uitdagings. Die voorgestelde hibriede stelsel is gebaseer op baie verskillende argitektuur- en eweknie konsepte wat in die literatuur oorweeg is. Die doel is om 'n kompromie vir bestaande komersieel suksesvolle MMASs te verskaf om eweknie komponente te implementeer sonder om die die bediener- of kli ent sagteware aan te pas. Met hierdie stelsel se ontwerp word die middelware sagteware ge mplementeer en gebruik in 'n regte, dog gekontroleerde omgewing, tesame met 'n Ultima Online bediener en sy kli ente. Die beweging speletjie meganisme word versprei onder die eweknie netwerk en die ander meganismes bly die verantwoordelikheid van die bediener. 'n Aantal eksperimente is ingespan om die e ek van die hibriede stelsel te meet op die oorspronklike kli ent/bediener stelsel, in terme van bandwydte, vertraging en impak op hardeware. Die resultate toon 'n toename van 35% in bediener-, 17% in slaaf-, en 3111% in supernodus bandwydte gebruik. Die vertraging van verspreide bediener meganismes neem af met tot 94%, terwyl onverspreide vertragings toeneem met tot 6000%. Hierdie resultate wys dat 'n stelsel wat geen aanpassing maak aan die bediener sagteware onwaarskynlik die gewenste voordele sal lewer. Deur egter 2 klein aanpassings toe te laat tot die bediener, is dit moontlik vir die hibriede stelsel om data las van die bediener en die speler se vertraging te verminder. Die bediener bandwydte kan met 39% verminder word, terwyl die supernodus bandwydte slegs met 1296% toeneem. Die verpreide vertragings handhaaf hul vermindering, terwyl die onverspreide vertragings onveranderd bly van die C/S stelsel.

Acompanha: Guia prático de programação de simulações PhET para o ensino de ciência e matemática: básico e avançado / Esta pesquisa teve como objetivo investigar os efeitos da aplicação de game design em uma simulação interativa do projeto PhET no processo de ensino e aprendizagem, e quanto ao interesse dos estudantes em acessarem, espontaneamente, as simulações. A metodologia envolveu 75 estudantes do Ensino Médio em um design experimental com grupo de controle (S) e grupo experimental (G). A análise dos dados apontou que a aplicação de game design não afeta (p = 0,16) a aquisição de conhecimento e a atitude dos alunos ao final da aula. Porém, uma diferença com significância (p < 0,01 e r = 0,34) foi observada para o teste de retenção, sendo maior para o grupo G. A diferença entre o teste de retenção e o pós-teste (p <0,001 e r = 0,38) foi favorável para o grupo G. As curvas de regressão para a retenção apresentaram-se inclinadas e com um gap positivo para o grupo G, quando comparado com o grupo S, utilizando o conhecimento prévio como covariante. O experimento foi replicado em um design quase-experimental com 64 participantes, a comparação com o teste de retenção, manteve-se favorável para o grupo G, reforçando a validade externa do experimento. O efeito positivo na retenção de conhecimento, proporcionado pela seção de jogo é discutido com referência na Teoria da Carga Cognitiva. A seção de jogo presente na simulação potencializa a sua função como material instrucional, facilitando a construção e automatização de esquemas cognitivos na memória de trabalho dos estudantes. Um maior interesse dos estudantes, em acessarem as simulações PhET, foi observado após a aplicação de elemento de game design sociointerativo, no caso, com um placar de pontuações. Esse resultado foi discutido com referência no conceito de Homo ludens. Tendo como referência o escopo teórico de Richard E. Mayer, é possível compreender as observações obtidas nesta pesquisa, o qual destaca que: métodos de aprendizagem por descoberta, sem orientação, geralmente, são ineficientes e ineficazes para promoverem a aprendizagem conceitual. A aplicação de game design permite que a simulação seja utilizada tanto em espaços formais de ensino, com foco na aprendizagem pela descoberta guiada, como em situações adversas, em uma aprendizagem baseada em jogos digitais. Como contribuição para a área de Design Instrucional no ensino de Ciência, conclui-se nesta tese: a presença de uma seção de jogo em uma simulação interativa de Física possui efeitos positivos na retenção de conhecimento (d = 0,81), na motivação dos estudantes em acessarem, espontaneamente, as simulações, e não há evidências de aumento de carga cognitiva na memória de trabalho dos aprendizes. / This research aimed to investigate the effects of applying game design to a PhET interactive simulation on the teaching and learning process, and on student interest in spontaneously accessing the simulation. The methodology involved 75 high school students in an experimental design with a control group (S) and an experimental group (G). Data analysis highlighted that applying game design did not affect the acquisition of knowledge and student attitudes at the end of the class (p = 0.16). However, a significant difference (p <0.01 and r = 0.34) was observed for the retention test, being greater for the G group. The difference between the retention test and the post-test (p <0.001 and r = 0.38) was favorable for the G group. The regression curves for retention were inclined with a positive gap for the G group when compared with the S group, using previous knowledge as a covariate. The experiment was replicated in a quasiexperimental design with 64 participants, and the retention test comparison remained favorable for the G group, reinforcing the external validity of the experiment. The positive effect on knowledge retention provided by the game section is discussed with reference to cognitive load theory. The game section present in the simulation enhances its function as instructional material, facilitating the construction and automation of cognitive schemes in students' working memory. Greater student interest in accessing the PhET simulation was observed after adding a sociointeractive game design element, in this case, a high score board. This result was discussed with reference to the concept of Homo ludens. With reference to the theoretical scope of Richard E. Mayer, it is possible to understand the results obtained: learning methods by discovery, without guidance, are generally inefficient and ineffective in promoting conceptual learning. Applying game design allows the simulation to be used in both formal teaching spaces focused on learning by guided discovery and in adverse situations with digital game-based learning. As a contribution to the area of instructional design in science teaching, this thesis concludes that the game section present in a physics interactive simulation positively affects the retention of knowledge (d = 0.81) and student motivation to spontaneously access the simulation, with no evidence of cognitive load increases in students’ working memory.

Detta arbete undersöker hur animerat teckenspråk upplevs inom förstapersonsperspektiv i spel för svenska teckenspråksanvändare. Studien är inspirerad av en liknande undersökning av Kerstin Liliedahl (2017). Bakgrunden redogör om teckenspråkets nuvarande representation inom digital media, de tekniker samt avatarer som används och dess användning i digitala spel. Hur det svenska teckenspråket är uppbyggt samt hur det används. Frågeställningen till denna studie har försökt undersöka om förstapersonsperspektiv till spelmiljöer, är ett lämpligt perspektiv för användandet av digitalt teckenspråk för svenska teckenspråkstalare. Artefakten består av två 3D-animerade spelsimulationer i videoform, där deltagarna till studien fick rangordna samt resonera om hur användandet av digitalt teckenspråk fungerade till perspektivet. Urvalsgruppen bestod utav svenska tekenspråksanvändare. Varav 22 testpersoner deltog i enkäten. 14 svarade med att de var hörlsenedsatt eller döv. Tre hade närstående som var hörselnedsatt, och övriga var intresseanvändare. Framtida studier kan vidarutveklas för att förbättra och undersöka nya inkluderingar i speldesign för att öppna nya vägar till inkluderandet av teckenspråk i spelmarknaden idag.