Thesis (M.A.)--West Virginia University, 2000. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains vi, 133 p. : ill. Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 107-109).

Thesis (M.A.)--Ball State University, 2008. / Title from PDF t.p. (viewed on Sept. 08, 2009). Includes bibliographical references (p. 100-104).

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Alberta, 2009. / Title from PDF file main screen (viewed on Sept. 9, 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, Department of Computing Science, University of Alberta." Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Wisconsin--La Crosse, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references.

Foam fighting is a form of Live Action Role Playing (LARP) that focuses on mock combat and recreational battle, with role-playing aspects taking a less prominent role. It is sometimes referred to as a “poor man’s martial art”.While there does not appear to be any clear documentation concerning the origins, research on foam fighting suggests the sport began in Maryland in the 1970’s and slowly spread throughout the United States. This research will illustrate how the sport of foam fighting demands a level of critical thinking that takes both the participant and audience beyond the sight of a swinging stick. I plan to show how this sport provides an outlet for high levels of creativity, social interaction and strategic planning skills. It is a hobby that has had a great impact on the daily lives of many of its participants and continues to grow and evolve. / Includes bibliography. / Thesis (M.F.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2016. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

This thesis presents the playthrough evaluation framework, a novel framework for the reliable usability evaluation of first-person shooter console video games. The framework includes playthrough evaluation, a structured usability evaluation method adapted from heuristic evaluation. Usability evaluation can help guide developers by pointing out design issues that cause users problems. However, usability evaluation methods suffer from the evaluator effect, where separate evaluations of the same data do not produce reliably consistent results. This can result in a number of undesirable consequences affecting issues such as: • Unreliable evaluation: Without reliable results, evaluation reports risk giving incorrect or misleading advice. • Weak methodological validation: Typically new methods (e.g., new heuristics) are validated against user tests. However, without a reliable means to describe observations, attempts to validate novel methods against user test data will also be affected by weak reliability. The playthrough evaluation framework addresses these points through a series of studies presenting the need for, and showing the development of the framework, including the following stages, 1. Explication of poor reliability in heuristic evaluation. 2. Development and validation of a reliable user test coding scheme. 3. Derivation of a novel usability evaluation method, playthrough evaluation. 4. Testing the method, quantifying results. Evaluations were conducted with 22 participants, on 3 first-person shooter action console video games, using two methodologies, heuristic evaluation and the novel playthrough evaluation developed in this thesis. Both methods proved effective, with playthrough evaluation providing more detailed analysis but requiring more time to conduct.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of North Carolina at Wilmington, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves : [50]-54).

A thesis presented on modern tabletop role-playing games and how they offer anthropologists a new way to approach issues of creativity, identity construction, social interaction, and the nature of play in American culture. In these games, players continuously challenge and redefine aspects of personal identity, social paradigms, gender identity, and reality construction. This thesis is exemplified by the interactions of two separate role-playing groups in Muncie, Indiana, as well as multiple interviews with gamers from many different areas. This idea is also clearly reflected in the interactions of role-players, both in their own personas and in character. Multiple layers of roles, in both the fictional world and within the social group of the players, are created, accepted, adapted, and discarded during the course of an average game. Gamers’ voices are emphasized, rather than game play itself, in order to explore how gamers feel and think about their play. Both Ludology and Carnival are explored as possible ways to approach the subject. Play in general allows individuals and/or small groups the creative space to form new strategies to enact personal and cultural change in the reality outside of the game; while tabletop RPGs allow players the liminal space to explore different aspects of their personal identities, even as they create an outlet for challenging social strictures. Negative cultural labeling of these games as deviant and subversive has created the illusion of secrecy that helps the games to function in this manor. The importance of both play and narrative become obvious when speaking to gamers about their hobby; allowing the gamers to form a sub-culture based on the shared experiences of the games. And it is in these shared experiences that the gamers find the power to alter their real-life self images, and experiment with change. / Department of Anthropology

The purpose of this thesis is to explore the following research question: How does immersion occur in a virtual game environment? Specifically, this study will focus on the Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game (MMORPG) World of Warcraft. Approaching the question using a grounded theory methodology, the study finds that immersion takes place in two primary areas: Environmental and Social. Environmental immersion concerns technical aspects of the game including aesthetic detail, sensory stimulation, and narratives. Social immersion evolves as a paradigmatic opposition of cooperation and intimidation. Players are not fully immersed in the world until they have accepted cooperation as their dominant paradigm for play. / Department of Telecommunications

Thesis (M.A.)--Bowling Green State University, 2006. / Document formatted into pages; contains ix, 174 p. Includes bibliographical references.