This thesis argues that the notion of player experience in relation to computer games is intrinsically linked to the body. Taking the idea of aesthetic experience, or sensuous experience, in computer game play as its starting point, my thesis considers computer games from within an interdisciplinary cross section of phenomenology, cultural studies and visual culture. Computer games have in a reasonably short amount of time reached a stage where they are an integral part of contemporary society: historically, economically and culturally. The current field of computer games comprises a vast array of genres, styles, stories, experiments and media. Because computer games are interactive objects, I argue that an analysis should begin with a discussion of player experience, and that this experience is inherently embodied. The embodied and temporal nature of game play means it is problematic to simply transfer established frameworks of meaning making in other audiovisual media onto computer games. The thesis attempts to understand the notion of player experience through a phenomenological reading of the interactive experience, and as such I argue that the individual, temporal and iterative aspect of this experience means computer games should not necessarily be squeezed into already established categories of earlier forms of entertainment media. Through three main chapters I explore the role of the body and embodied experience from three different points of view, roughly divided into the three aspects that make up the feedback loop of game play; hardware, software and interface. Each chapter considers the unique role and importance of the body at each point in the game play process.

This thesis puts an emphasis on the use of gaming technology as a form of computer-assisted language learning (CALL) activity, investigating its effects on interaction and willingness to communicate (WTC) in the target language (TL) of Thai English as a foreign language (EFL) learners. The study, adopted the pseudo-empirical research design with a pre-test structure, was carried out with 30 third year undergraduate students enrolled in a course of English for Information Technology 1 at a university in Thailand. The study modified an existing commercial game to better meet specific objectives of the language course. The data were collected by means of quantitative and qualitative research techniques (i.e., recordings of TL interaction in class and computer game activities, questionnaires, and interviews). The transcripts of participants’ interaction were analysed for the amount of words and turns and for the characteristics of their TL use. The questionnaire and interview responses were analysed to provide the evidence of participants’ WTC. The study found that gameplay encouraged a significant increase in the quantity of TL interaction which also contained a variety of discourse functions associated with social, collaborative interaction (e.g., greetings, requests, and questions) and covered ranges of linguistic features (e.g., use of a variety of verb forms). This provided evidence that language learners received opportunities to interact using the TL when playing games. In addition, participants’ responses to WTC questionnaires and interview questions indicated that the level of WTC appeared to be enhanced by taking part in the game, as positive perceptions of WTC, low anxiety when interacting in the TL, high self-perceived communicative competence, and high frequency of TL use, were reported. This indicated that language learners benefited from less stressful environments within the game and thus were willing to use the opportunities provided to practice and use the TL. In light of these findings, this study draws attention to the role and effectiveness of computer games in encouraging TL use for authentic communication and willingness to use the language. The study offers some suggestions for future research and concludes with implications for second/foreign language pedagogy, curriculum and CALL material design, and educational game development.

No description available.

This thesis work presents a new algorithm for simulating fluid based on the Navier-Stokes equations. The algorithm is designed for cell based sandbox games where interactivity and performance are the main priorities. The algorithm enforces mass conservation conservatively instead of enforcing a divergence free velocity field. A global scale pressure model that simulates hydrostatic pressure is used where the pressure propagates between neighboring cells. A prefix sum algorithm is used to only compute work areas that contain fluid.

The use of 'ethnographic research' to solve problems in the relationship between technology and culture has resulted in a simplification of the role of 'design' in product development, especially in the design and diffusion of technological innovations. Norman (1990, 1998, 2004) decries the popular 'focus group' design research method as misleading and inappropriate, preferring instead a model for 'rapid ethnography' which may lead designers to understand product uses within their social environment. In the same vein, the 'product semantics' of Krippendorff and Butter (1984), and the 'high design' approach of various industry professionals, aim to enhance the designer's understanding of the consumer's individual 'needs' and 'desires.' / However, these approaches often result in an oversimplification of the relationship between design, production and consumption. In many cases this is an interactive and reflexive relationship, as can be seen by examining the consumption practices of certain subcultures. In contrast to the 'rapid ethnography' of Norman, Miller (1988) suggests a view of consumption in which 'design' is not the only means through which artefacts acquire cultural 'relevance' (a view supported by Forty [1986], Julier [2000], and Clark [1999]. Whilst the intent of this thesis is not to formulate a universal model for 'design research' that may be applied to all categories of product design (and it is acknowledged that in many product categories 'reflexive' design is neither feasible nor required), this thesis provides insights for designers in the often - difficult area of the diffusion of technological innovations. In the 'leisure' community of Local-Area Network (LAN) gaming culture, for example, technological innovations (both hardware and software) form a platform upon which the 'group values' of the culture are formed. This is evidenced by the modification, customisation and improvement of computer equipment within a community setting. Furthermore, these subcultural 'signifying practices' are not in essence opposed to systems of design and production for the 'mainstream.' On the contrary, such practices may be effectively utilised in the 'pre-critical mass' development and validation of new technologies and their social contexts. As this suggests, design, production and consumption continuously inform and influence one other in a continual and interactive process. / Thesis (MDes(Architecture))--University of South Australia, 2005.

Doctor of Philosophy / Computational models of motivation are software reasoning processes designed to direct, activate or organise the behaviour of artificial agents. Models of motivation inspired by psychological motivation theories permit the design of agents with a key reasoning characteristic of natural systems: experience-based attention focus. The ability to focus attention is critical for agent behaviour in complex or dynamic environments where only small amounts of available information is relevant at a particular time. Furthermore, experience-based attention focus enables adaptive behaviour that focuses on different tasks at different times in response to an agent’s experiences in its environment. This thesis is concerned with the synthesis of motivation and reinforcement learning in artificial agents. This extends reinforcement learning to adaptive, multi-task learning in complex, dynamic environments. Reinforcement learning algorithms are computational approaches to learning characterised by the use of reward or punishment to direct learning. The focus of much existing reinforcement learning research has been on the design of the learning component. In contrast, the focus of this thesis is on the design of computational models of motivation as approaches to the reinforcement component that generates reward or punishment. The primary aim of this thesis is to develop computational models of motivation that extend reinforcement learning with three key aspects of attention focus: rhythmic behavioural cycles, adaptive behaviour and multi-task learning in complex, dynamic environments. This is achieved by representing such environments using context-free grammars, modelling maintenance tasks as observations of these environments and modelling achievement tasks as events in these environments. Motivation is modelled by processes for task selection, the computation of experience-based reward signals for different tasks and arbitration between reward signals to produce a motivation signal. Two specific models of motivation based on the experience-oriented psychological concepts of interest and competence are designed within this framework. The first models motivation as a function of environmental experiences while the second models motivation as an introspective process. This thesis synthesises motivation and reinforcement learning as motivated reinforcement learning agents. Three models of motivated reinforcement learning are presented to explore the combination of motivation with three existing reinforcement learning components. The first model combines motivation with flat reinforcement learning for highly adaptive learning of behaviours for performing multiple tasks. The second model facilitates the recall of learned behaviours by combining motivation with multi-option reinforcement learning. In the third model, motivation is combined with an hierarchical reinforcement learning component to allow both the recall of learned behaviours and the reuse of these behaviours as abstract actions for future learning. Because motivated reinforcement learning agents have capabilities beyond those of existing reinforcement learning approaches, new techniques are required to measure their performance. The secondary aim of this thesis is to develop metrics for measuring the performance of different computational models of motivation with respect to the adaptive, multi-task learning they motivate. This is achieved by analysing the behaviour of motivated reinforcement learning agents incorporating different motivation functions with different learning components. Two new metrics are introduced that evaluate the behaviour learned by motivated reinforcement learning agents in terms of the variety of tasks learned and the complexity of those tasks. Persistent, multi-player computer game worlds are used as the primary example of complex, dynamic environments in this thesis. Motivated reinforcement learning agents are applied to control the non-player characters in games. Simulated game environments are used for evaluating and comparing motivated reinforcement learning agents using different motivation and learning components. The performance and scalability of these agents are analysed in a series of empirical studies in dynamic environments and environments of progressively increasing complexity. Game environments simulating two types of complexity increase are studied: environments with increasing numbers of potential learning tasks and environments with learning tasks that require behavioural cycles comprising more actions. A number of key conclusions can be drawn from the empirical studies, concerning both different computational models of motivation and their combination with different reinforcement learning components. Experimental results confirm that rhythmic behavioural cycles, adaptive behaviour and multi-task learning can be achieved using computational models of motivation as an experience-based reward signal for reinforcement learning. In dynamic environments, motivated reinforcement learning agents incorporating introspective competence motivation adapt more rapidly to change than agents motivated by interest alone. Agents incorporating competence motivation also scale to environments of greater complexity than agents motivated by interest alone. Motivated reinforcement learning agents combining motivation with flat reinforcement learning are the most adaptive in dynamic environments and exhibit scalable behavioural variety and complexity as the number of potential learning tasks is increased. However, when tasks require behavioural cycles comprising more actions, motivated reinforcement learning agents using a multi-option learning component exhibit greater scalability. Motivated multi-option reinforcement learning also provides a more scalable approach to recall than motivated hierarchical reinforcement learning. In summary, this thesis makes contributions in two key areas. Computational models of motivation and motivated reinforcement learning extend reinforcement learning to adaptive, multi-task learning in complex, dynamic environments. Motivated reinforcement learning agents allow the design of non-player characters for computer games that can progressively adapt their behaviour in response to changes in their environment.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Nevada, Reno, 2007. / "August, 2007." Includes bibliographical references (leaves 104-108). Online version available on the World Wide Web.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of New South Wales, 2000. / Also available online.

Thesis (M.E.E.)--University of Delaware, 2008. / Principal faculty advisor: John G. Elias, Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.Arch.) - Carleton University, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 91-92). Also available in electronic format on the Internet.