This study addresses the state of scholarship regarding fantasy literature and questions the position of scholars who have dismissed it as panegyric. This study notes that no accepted definition of fantasy exists, sets forth its own, and questions the value of fantasy literature. Moving from definition, this study notes that fantasy literature limits artistic freedom by supplementing the reality principle of minimal distance in mimetic fiction with penemaximal distance. Penemaximal distance affords fantasy a great remove from the actual world but adds the generic megatext as a frame of reference that defines reality. This allows fantasy literature to create semantic and episodic memory of diegetic worlds no longer limited by actual world foreknowledge and perception. Engaging narrative and cognitive theory, this study argues that authors utilize semantic memory to work within established truths of the genre, and readers hold authors to those rules unless authorial justification merits revision of generic epistemology. By maintaining a link to semantic memory (truth), fantasy texts create belief in the diegesis through an acceptance of affective and cognitive significance. An examination of Charles Finney's The Circus of Dr. Lao notes the control of the reader's semantic memory in the catalogue presented following the text that forces a reconsideration of the assumptions made by the reader. This leads to a discussion of the reader's necessity regarding diegetic creation. Brandon Sanderson's The Emperor's Soul is engaged as a metacomment on writing fantasy and links the protagonist, Shai, to the author through plot and position regarding world-building and the creation of episodic memory that alters the reader in the actual world. Lastly, Steven Erikson's Malazan Book of the Fallen is positioned as fantasy that satirizes generic expectations and confronts reader assumptions in the diegesis, leading to episodic memory of a meritocratic world and actual world demystification. Gary Wolfe posits the idea of deeper belief, where experiences within the text become virtual analogues for actual world experiences, and this study argues this moment as the creation of episodic memory. This is one value of fantasy literature; the memory of experiencing worlds not limited by empirical perception. / Includes bibliography. / Dissertation (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2019. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

Detta examensarbete undersöker frågeställningen “Hur kan diegetisk ljudsättning användas för att vägleda spelare i first-person shooters?”. Detta görs med hjälp av teorier från bl.a. Michel Chion, Christine Jørgensen och Karen Collins som sedan tillämpats i analyser av spelen “Half-Life 2” (Valve Corporation 2004) och “Shadow Warrior” (Flying Wild Hog 2013) för att ta reda på vilka tekniker dessa spel använder sig av ljud. Dessa tekniker har vi sedan använt oss av i vårt eget first-person shooter spel, ett spel utan någon som helst visuell feedback, för att sedan speltesta spelet och komma fram till slutsatser angående vägledande ljudsättning. Resultaten visar att det går att spela ett spel utan visuell feedback så länge ljudläggningen följer specifika regler. / This bachelor’s thesis examines the question “How can diegetic sound design be used to guide players in first-person shooters?”. This is done with theories from authors including Michel Chion, Christine Jørgensen and Karen Collins, which are then applied in two analyzes of the games “Half-Life 2” (Valve Corporation 2004) and Shadow Warrior” (Flying Wild Hog 2013) to find out which techniques they use when working with sound. We then used these techniques in our own first-person shooter, a game without any form of visual feedback, in order to performe a game test and draw our own conclusions concerning guiding sound design. The results show that it’s possible to play a game without any visual feedback, as long as the sound design follows a set of specific rules.

The diegetic game world places high demands on how it is designed. It is common that game developers wants to create a deeper player immersion and some developers believe to achieve this by integrating HUD elements into the game world. To find out how digital games can rely on the design of the game world, we performed user studies on beginners who have very limited experience of playing digital games. By observing the beginners, we could discern the visual aspects in the diegesis that helps players understand the game rules and objectives because the beginners won`t make their choices based on previous gaming experiences. If players encounter a variety of difficulties to understand the rules of a game, then it will less likely be a successful game. The design must reach out to a broader range of players and therefore it is fundamental to see how beginners act, in this case in a new environment. We also found it useful to split the players into two levels and review what differences and similarities that occurred between the levels. By doing so we could formalize some guidelines for developers who plan to transfer system information from the screen into the game world.

I detta kandidatarbete undersöker vi om diegesis har en potentiell påverkan på människors känslor, genom att designa ljudberättelser baserat på abstrakta dikter. Vår utmaning är att med designperspektivet The vision project ta fram exempel på hur ett skifte i diegesis påverkar en lyssnares känslor. Rosa brus, equalizer, spatialisering av ljud och konvolutionsreverb är tekniker som implementeras för att förstärka känslan vid skifte av diegesis. Brainstorming och mindmap, samt prototyping med iterationer är metoderna vi använder oss av vid skapade av gestaltningar. Förutom berättarröst i gestaltningarna så fyller vi ut med trampljud (foley) och ambiens för att förstärka narrativet. Svaren vi får från intervjuade i vår undersökning låter oss komma närmare ett tydligt svar. Vi diskuterar sedan svaren och vad vi kunde ha gjort bättre, samt hur vi kan ta vår design vidare. / In this thesis, we investigate whether diegesis has a potential impact on people's emotions, by designing audio plays based on abstract poems. Our challenge is to design examples from the design perspective The vision project of how a shift in diegesis affects a listener's emotions. Pink noise, equalizer, spatialization of sound, and convolution reverb are techniques that are implemented to enhance the feeling of a shift in diegesis. Brainstorming and mindmap, as well as prototyping with iterations, are the methods we use when creating our audio plays. In addition to narrative voices in the audio plays, we fill in with foley and ambience to reinforce the narrative. The answers we get from those interviewed in our survey allow us to get closer to a clear answer. We then discuss the answers and what we could have done better, as well as how we can continue our design.

Simultaneity and conflict are incessant qualities one is confronted with when looking at things. Shifting from familiar to foreign, from present to implied. There seems to be a tendency, if not necessity to embrace this multiplicity. Using the film theory construct of extra-diegetic and relative qualifier 'sort of' to investigate Pulp Fiction, Bose Wave CD player, Sunset Boulevard, American Apparel, and The Uncanny.

Selon la définition classique, le théâtre est action et parole en action : « c’est une imitation faite par des personnages en action et non par le moyen d’une narration » (Aristote, Poétique, 1449b). Or, force est de constater que le théâtre d’Eugène Ionesco déroge à ce précepte et constitue une entorse à la conception aristotélo-hégélienne du genre fondé sur le primat du dialogue et la représentation de conflits entre personnages. La diégésis sous toutes ses formes – récits stricto sensu, mais aussi récits protopoétiques, descriptions et portraits – y abonde. Si le glissement modal devient systématique, la narration continue à être conditionnée par le contexte mimétique. Néanmoins, le cadre spatio-temporel s’en trouve foncièrement fragmenté, les notions d’intrigue et d’action mises à mal ou supplantées, sans que cette esthétique dramatique ne devienne pour autant épique au sens brechtien. Dans la prolongation des écrits non fictionnels de Ionesco, la narration est à la fois une trace du processus d’écriture et un moyen d’investigation ; elle devient le creuset d’une quête à la fois identitaire et mystique. / According to the classical definition, theatre is conceived as action and words in action : “it represents men in action and does not use narrative” (Aristotle, Poetics, 1449b). The theatre of Ionesco, however, clearly bends the rules of the aristotelo-hegelian primacy of dialog and representation of conflicts between characters. It is rich in diegesis in all its forms – storytelling, protopoetic narrative, descriptions and portraits; the shift in modes becomes systematic. Nonetheless, narrative is conditioned by the dramatic, mimetic framework. But space and time are fragmented, the concepts of plot and action undermined, without the aesthetics of Ionesco becoming epic in the Brechtian sense. Prolonging the non fictional writings of Ionesco, narrative in his theatre is to be considered both as a trace of the writing process and a means of investigation, located at the crossroads between a search for identity and a quest for mysticism.

Made available in DSpace on 2015-05-14T12:39:43Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 ArquivoTotal.pdf: 1456148 bytes, checksum: d3eb35cf9cefab697fa728d56763f419 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013-03-27 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - CAPES / The present work aims to promote a different study concerning the narrator. Thinking about the complexity of the short story O alienista (Machado de Assis), we observed that such aspect results of the 'manners' of intervention that the narrator accomplishes by a 'historiographic' discourse. Through this discourse, he is able to project events and ideologies from the moment of enunciation (narration) on the elements of the statement (diegesis). Hence the difficulty that the short story introduces to the critic suggests an approach that goes beyond the traditional theoretical classifications about the narrator, once the richness of the category does not reside in the stagnated characteristics of its form, but in its manner of proceeding actively on the report. Based on this, we propose a study that is centered not properly in the narrator's figure as 'typological' result, according to the traditional theoretical classifications, but in the formal means that act, starting from the narration, on the constitution of the diegesis. In other words, we tried to study the category indirectly through the relationships between strategic discursive means, enunciation and statement. Such relationships are capable to dissimulate an entire implicit universe that hides ferocious criticismo to different domains of the reality. Therefore we need a research to be ruled by different concepts when the subject is the reflection on unconventional manners with which the narrator intervenes in his report. The immediate consequence of such a study concerning this subject is a methodological arrangement that is based on new concepts formulated by a range of theorists that belong not only to literary theory. Thereby we built and adopted, throughout the whole analysis, some specific notions, as it is the case of the allusion-that results from the dialogue between the ideas of Gérard Genette s narrative levels, the ideas of Peirce s indexicality and the Grice s implicature. This conglomeration of theoretical aspects from different áreas can suggest a certain perplexity. However, at the end, the allusion and its constituent phases -as it results from the a fore mentioned theoretical connection provides an indispensable service to our analysis. Still of our specific method another fundamental concept arises: the prototypicality. By this term we want to designate the cutting done by the narrator of certain essential lines that configure particularities of the reality. / O presente trabalho tem como objetivo promover um estudo diferente acerca da categoria narrador. Pensando na complexidade da obra O alienista, de Machado de Assis, observamos que tal aspecto resulta dos modos de intervenção que o narrador realiza através do seu discurso historiográfico . Por meio deste discurso, ele está habilitado a projetar eventos e ideologias do momento da enunciação (narração) sobre os elementos do enunciado (diegese). Nessa perspectiva, a dificuldade que o conto apresenta ao crítico sugere uma abordagem que em muito ultrapassa as tradicionais classificações teóricas do narrador, tendo em vista que a riqueza da categoria não se encontra nas características estanques de sua forma, mas nos seus modos de proceder ativamente sobre o relato. Decorre disso um estudo que se centra não propriamente na figura do narrador enquanto resultado tipológico , segundo as classificações teóricas tradicionais, mas nos meios formais que agem, a partir da narração, sobre a constituição da diegese. Ou seja, ao considerarmos a categoria, procuramos estudá-la indiretamente por meio das relações entre estratégias procedimentais , enunciação e enunciado. Tais relações são capazes de dissimular todo um universo implícito que esconde críticas ferozes a distintos domínios da realidade objetiva. Resulta, portanto, de semelhante observação uma pesquisa pautada em conceituações bem diferentes das que nos são indicadas inicialmente quando o assunto é a reflexão sobre o narrador. A consequência imediata de um estudo direcionado para estas questões é um arranjo metodológico que se baseia em autores e conceitos diversos. Dessa maneira, construímos e adotamos, durante toda a análise, algumas noções específicas, como é o caso da alusão que resulta da junção entre as ideias dos níveis narrativos de Gérard Genette, do índice de C. S. Peirce e da implicatura de H. P. Grice. Este conglomerado de aspectos teóricos de áreas relativamente diferentes pode sugerir certa perplexidade. Entretanto, no final, a alusão e suas fases constituintes como resulta da junção teórica mencionada presta um serviço imprescindível a nossa análise. Ainda de nosso método específico decorre outro conceito fundamental o de prototipicidade. Com este termo queremos designar o recorte feito pelo narrador de certos traços essenciais que configuram particularidades da realidade objetiva.

With the success of technology, computers and digital games have become a new, more advanced, medium for storytelling. What sets digital games apart from more traditional forms is that the player must engage and interact with a game world and the characters on a whole new level. Immersion is a term that is described as the experience of feeling deeply engaged within another reality. So how does a player become immersed in the game? In order to enable the necessary interactions between the player and the game, a user interface is required. User interface elements can be designed in a variety of ways. Some elements are part of the game’s geometric world and its narrative, so-called diegetic elements. Then there is the opposite, nondiegetic elements, which have no connection to the game story at all and only fulfill the purpose of conveying information to the player. The aim of this thesis was to investigate how the user interface affects the players’ immersion. The study consisted of a theoretical literary section and two empirical investigations in the field of user tests and online surveys. What was investigated in this thesis was how non-diegetic user interface elements affect immersion as well as whether immersion increases by integrating the user interface into the gaming world. Determining a statistical significance difference in immersion seems difficult. But with the help of interviews and online surveys, the player’s preferences have shown that minimizing non-diegetic elements can increase immersion and that integrating the user interface into the game world is a very good and preferred solution for conveying the necessary information to the player. However, the data collected indicate that failure to convey the necessary information can lead to the opposite, reduced immersion.

Hur en spelare förstår gameplay är en diskuterad fråga bland forskare inom det ludologiska fältet. Denna studie ser specifikt på förståelsen av genomförbara interaktioner i spelvärlden och forskning kring ämnet som grundar sig i ekologisk psykologi samt kognitionsvetenskap. Detta med målet att se hur diegetiska element i spelvärlden kan kommunicera mening till spelaren. Studien ser även på förändringar i denna förståelse när spelare utsätts för stress för att kunna anpassa de diegetiska elementen till spel med högt tempo. Baserat på den framtagna forskningen har designprinciper samt två versioner av en artefakt skapats, varav en har dessa principer implementerade. Dessa artefakter har spelats av fem deltagare vardera som observerats och sedan intervjuats om deras upplevelse av spelet. Datamängden från undersökningarna har sedan utvärderats och en jämförande analys utförts av de två observatörerna. Resultatet pekar på tendenser för att de skapade designprinciperna hjälper spelare att förstå möjliga interaktioner i spelvärlden.

Diegesis and Spatiality are fundamental to visualization techniques in games. The impact of integrating user interfaces into the game world is a contentious issue between minimizing the heads-up display or maximizing functionality above realism. Previous studies have shown conflicting results determining what approach is better, but these studies have focused on conventional genres like the First Person Shooter. Strategy games, or more specifically, the grand strategy genre, is different in perspective and role of the player, as the genre places a heavier emphasis on panel elements than other genres. In this paper, we created two similar prototypes that differed in their focus on integration or superimposition. We then evaluated their impact on performance and the user experiences. The results showed that strictly spatial integration attributed to negative results, but diegetic integration was better received. Additionally, we identified several areas where implementing diegetic interfacing in grand strategy games is different from other genres of games. Finally, we gave recommendations to enhance the strengths and overcome the limitations of diegetic interfacing in grand strategy games. / Datorspel är levande världar som strävar efter att spelare ska ha kul. Olika spel har olika fokus på spelupplevelse, men också olika mängd gränssnitt som finns fastsatt på skärmen kontra inuti spelvärlden. Valet mellan fastsättning och integrering beror på genre och preferens, men mycket av nutida forskning fokuserar på mer vedertagna genrer såsom förstapersonskjutare. Strategispel, och mer specifikt, “grand strategy” spel följer inte samma konventioner, då perspektivet och rollen på spelaren är annorlunda. I detta examensarbete evaluerade vi hur en förändring i fokus mellan fastsättning och integrering av spelelement förändrade spelarprestandan och användarupplevelsen. Resultatet visar att strikt placering av panelelement i världen gav dålig användarupplevelse, men att diegetisk integration gynnade upplevelsen. Till sist analyserade vi hur utveckling av integrerade användargränssnitt inom genren var annorlunda gentemot andra genrer, och gav sedan rekommendationer på styrkor och svagheter som genrenhar.