The rise of competitive e-sports and its increasing popularity with several million players worldwide across various games has sparked an interest in the cognitive abilities associated with it. This study aimed to investigate if there is a relationship between competitive play and an increase in cognitive ability, as measured by performance in cognitive tasks. The research question focuses on whether or not players who dedicate a significant amount of time playing Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CSGO) to compete on a higher level will perform better in cognitive tasks than non-competitive players. In this differential study with a between-group design, a total of 24 participants participated, with 12 in each group. Data for cognitive abilities were measured by performance across a battery of cognitive tests consisting of the Iowa Gambling Task, Inhibition of Return, Multitasking, and the Tower of Hanoi, with the latter acting as a control for general cognitive ability. All data were gathered online. Results show that competitive players performed significantly better in the multitasking task than their non-competitive counterparts. Furthermore, there seems to be no significant difference overall in general cognitive ability or for the other tasks. This finding suggests that the competitive environment of CSGO may be effective for increased performance in some cognitive tasks like multitasking. However, this might not be true regarding other cognitive abilities such as decision-making.

Studien ämnade att undersöka om det fanns en skillnade avseende aggressivitet hos personer som spelade det våldsamma skjutspelet Counter Strike: Global Offensive och personer som spelade det icke-våldsamma fotbollspelet FIFA17. Självskattad aggressivitet mättes genom att använda Buss-Perry Aggression Questionnaire. Deltagarna rekryterades genom facebookgrupper dedikerade till vardera spel och fick besvara en enkät om spelvanor och aggressivitet. Resultaten visade att det fanns en signifikant skillnad avseende ilska, där FIFA17-spelarna fick ett högre resultat. Det visades också att Counter Strike: Global Offensive-spelarna inte fick ett signifikant högre resultat än normpopulationen. Resultaten går emot mycket tidigare forskning som argumenterar för att upprepat spela våldsamma spel ger upphov till en ökad aggressivitet. Studien visar därmed att tidigare uppsatta teorier och modeller kanske inte är applicerbara på alla typer av spel, samt att det inte är våldet i ett spel som avgör huruvida spelarens aggressivitet förändras. / The study’s goal was to examine if there was a difference in aggression between subjects who played the violent shooter game Counter Strike: Global Offensive and subjects who played the nonviolent soccer game FIFA17. Self-reported aggression was measured with the Buss-Perry Aggression Questionnaire. The participants were recruited through Facebook groups dedicated to each game and answered a survey about gaming habits and aggression. The results showed that there was a significant difference in anger, where the FIFA17-players scored higher. It also showed that the Counter Strike: Global Offensive-players did not score higher than the norm values of the instrument. The results go against a lot of the earlier research, which has shown that repeatedly playing violent games leads to an increase in aggression. Through this, the study shows that the established theories and models might not be applicable to all types of games, and that it might not be the violence in a game that is the determining factor whether the player’s aggression is changed.

6 personer deltog i en undersökning där ljuddesignen i Counter Strike: Global Offensive (2012) modifierades för att undersöka om deltagarnas prestation förändrades på grund av detta. En fördjupning i informativ ljuddesign i digitala spel utförs i rapporten med syfte att ge modifieringen stöd, då de ljud som förändrades var de mest informativa ljuden i spelet. Undersökningens frågeställning är ”Hur påverkar förändrad ljuddesign spelarprestation i CS:GO?”. Deltagarna spelade 5 rundor mot datorstyrda bottar i en icke modifierad samt en modifierad version av spelet. Därefter svarade de på en enkät där svaren sedan diskuterades i individuella intervjuer. Resultatet av studien visade på att den förändrade ljuddesignen påverkade deltagarnas prestation men att det var den initiala reaktionen till det nya ljuden som hindrade dem från att prestera som vanligt. Testets utformning behöver likna en normaliserad spelsession av Counter Strike: Global Offensive (2012) för att korrekt mäta huruvida spelarprestationen påverkas av ljuddesignen. / <p>Det finns övrigt digitalt material (t.ex. film-, bild- eller ljudfiler) eller modeller/artefakter tillhörande examensarbetet som ska skickas till arkivet. </p>

Context. People in recent times are getting engaged more often in playing video games. Few play for enjoyment, few play for stress relaxation and so on. Generally, the degree of involvement of a player with the game is described as game immersion. People when immersed into playing a game doesn't realize that they are getting dissociated with the outside world and are losing track of time. Objectives. In this research, the main objective is to explore the relationship between the game immersion and game experience using the five factors of game immersion. In addition, the study also involves exploring different methods that can be used to measure game immersion. Methods. In this research, initially literature review has been conducted to explore the meaning of game immersion and also different methods that can be used to measure it and next user studies in the form an experiment was conducted to measure game immersion. After the experiment was conducted regression analysis was performed on the data obtained from the results to describe the relation between game immersion and game experience. Results. After the experiment participants were asked to answer the IEQ questionnaire and the answers obtained from the questionnaire are analyzed using regression analysis. An inverse linear regression was observed between game immersion and game experience. Conclusions. After analyzing the data, from the observed inverse linear regression, it is concluded that game immersion levels decrease with the increase in the game experience.

Tio personer deltog i ett experiment där 2 olika ljud läggningar av spelet Counter Strike: Global Offensive studerades. Version A var en beta version från 2013 och Version B var den senaste uppdateringen av spelet vid datumet 2023-02-10. Deltagarna spelade 5 rundor som terrorister och 5 rundor som anti-terrorister på kartan Dust II. Deltagarna spelade mot datorstyrda motståndare med en enkel svårighetsgrad. Efter speltestet svarade deltagarna på en enkät som sedan följdes upp av en semi-strukturerad intervju. Syftet med experimentet var att ta reda på vilka element av skott och fotstegs ljuden som påverkade deltagarnas inlevelse mellan versionerna. Syftet var även att förstå varför och hur dessa ljud påverkar spelarens inlevelse mellan versionerna. Resultatet visade att majoriteten av deltagarna föredrog version B’s ljudläggning på grund av att skott- och fotstegsljuden var “mjukare”, mer detaljerade och enklare att urskilja från varandra. / <p>Det finns övrigt digitalt material (t.ex. film-, bild- eller ljudfiler) eller modeller/artefakter tillhörande examensarbetet som ska skickas till arkivet.</p>