We can think about ourselves in a variety of ways, but only some of the thoughts that we entertain about ourselves will be thoughts which we know concern ourselves. I call these first-person thoughts, and the component of such thoughts that picks out the object about which one is thinking—oneself—the self-concept. In this thesis I am concerned with providing an account of the content of the self-concept. The challenge is to provide an account that meets two conditions on first-person thought. The account must show how we are aware of ourselves when we entertain first-person thoughts, so that we have an account that establishes the cognitive significance of first-person thoughts. But, in addition, this awareness must be as robust as the thinker’s ability to entertain first-person thoughts if our account is to respect the guaranteed referential success of the self-concept. I introduce both the subject matter of the thesis, and the constraints on a satisfactory account of that subject matter in the first chapter. In the second chapter I then set up a further problem: much of our self-knowledge is knowledge of our current mental states and it is often argued that we know about and can ascribe those mental states on the basis of introspection alone. The first constraint on an account of first-person thought described in the preceding paragraph requires that we be aware of ourselves in some way if our thoughts are to have the special cognitive significance of first-person thoughts. Yet, I argue, we neither do nor can introspectively observe a subject of thought and experience when we come to know about our mental states and experiences. The failure of introspection to supply us with perceptual information about a subject of thought presents us with the further potential problem. According to Fregean semantics sense determines reference: we count on the content of the elements of thought to determine the reference of terms that are used to express those elements. If we do not introspectively observe a subject of thought then we seem to be at a loss to account for the concept and we are at risk of having to accept that neither the self-concept nor the first-person pronoun are referential. In the remainder of my thesis I consider various responses that we can offer to this problem. First, I examine whether we can avoid the problem with an alternative account of first-person reference according to which reference is fixed by a reflexive rule, and whether we can also base an account of first-person thought on this account of first-person reference. Secondly, I look at the descriptivist view of first-person thought which could potentially provide both an account of first-person thought and first-person reference. These two suggestions must be rejected on the grounds that they fail to accommodate the special cognitive significance of first-person thought. A third approach to first-person thought argues that we employ an objective self-concept when we think about ourselves, a concept that is informed by bodily experience, rather than by introspective observation of a subject. Yet such an account cannot make sense of first-person thoughts in which we question our own embodiment. Lastly I consider whether it is possible to explain the cognitive significance of first-person thought in terms of non-conceptual first-person contents.

This essay is about side health indicator in FPS, why they look like they do and what function they provide in FPS and their existence in modern FPS. The essay also contains information about traditional health indicators, psychology in colors, the crosshair focus area and research about FPS in modern times. The author research of 44 FPS games is find out the amount of side health indicators against the more traditional types and the reasons a developer would include a side health indicator instead of the others. In his research he found out that in the selected games, a fair amount of them did include only a side health indicator but a far larger amount of the combination type, using a traditional type as a primary health indicator and a side health indicator when an avatar takes too much damage or nearing death. The author also found out a type he had not thought of, called full screen health indicators, which affects the whole screen to indicate the avatars state of health.

Thesis (MA)--University of Stellenbosch, 2006. / Bibliography. Also available via the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 1998. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves [155]-162).

Thesis (B.A.)--Haverford College, Dept. of English, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-29T14:23:17Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Carlos Augusto Pinheiro de Sousa.pdf: 807423 bytes, checksum: acb6baf5371f4d9b5d445fff6a41e41b (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012-10-25 / This research aims to investigate immersion and presence in FPS as qualitative approach. This investigation is done by taking in account the two decades of successes on the FPS genre in the games industry in which has been observed paradigm transformations that include control mappings, depth of interaction, graphic realism, considerable expansion in multi-user environments etc. The methodology has been an heuristic one with such an ontological focus situated between the relations of the specific FPS genre and virtual reality done by an organization of bibliographic references and a discussion with professionals from the international industry. From the selected survey which has been organized and selected as a qualitative approach withing the academic literature in both virtual reality and digital games to establish a synthesis of factors to be observed in case studies and evaluated by invited developers from the FPS games industry. This way, it relates the concepts, situating immersion in the field of the convincing experience of the game and that of being in the game . In parallel, the term virtual reality (as a support), by which multi-form definitions emplaces it between device configurations or setups related to sensorial perception and of psychological experiences provided by this medium, the extra-sensorial reach, reflects the development of a projected immersive reproduction by which users of this medium describe the sense of presence, of being in another place or another world. It is believed that the result of this work should contribute to fulfill of studies in the specific FPS genre field, within the own virtual reality studies and possibly in the aiding of design for the development of the FPS games / A pesquisa investiga os conceitos de imersão e presença nos jogos FPS (First-Person Shooters, Jogos de Tiro em Primeira Pessoa) a partir de uma perspectiva qualitativa. Realiza uma investigação tomando o fenômeno dos jogos FPS em duas décadas de sucesso na indústria dos jogos, dentro da qual observou-se transformações paradigmáticas que incluem mapeamentos de controle, à profundidade de interação, realismo gráfico, expansão considerável de ambientes multi-usuário (multijogador), etc. A metodologia foi heurística com enfoque ontológico, situando-se nas relações entre o específico gênero de jogo FPS e realidade virtual, a partir de uma organização da bibliografia e discussão com profissionais da indústria internacional. A partir dos levantamentos realizados organiza e apresenta uma análise qualitativa através da literatura acadêmica tanto em realidade virtual quanto em jogos digitais para estabelecer uma síntese de fatores a serem observados em estudos de caso e avaliados por desenvolvedores convidados da indústria de jogos FPS. Deste modo, relaciona os conceitos, situando a imersão no campo experiência convincente de jogo e de se estar no jogo . Paralelamente, o termo realidade virtual (como suporte), cuja descrição multiforme situa-o entre configurações de dispositivos relacionados à percepção sensorial e de experiências psicológicas providas por este meio, do alcance extra-sensorial, reflete o desenvolvimento projetado para a reprodução imersiva no qual participantes relatam a sensação de presença, de estarem em outro ambiente ou outro mundo. Acredita-se que o resultado deste trabalho poderá contribuir para suprir uma carência de estudos no campo do genêro FPS, dentro dos atuais estudos sobre realidade virtual e possivelmente no auxílio para design e desenvolvimento de jogos FPS

The present paper critically examines the epistemic status of first-person accounts and first-person methods in Francisco Varela’s research program neurophenomenology, which integrates a phenomenological perspective in cognitive science. The paper also questions Varela’s description of neurophenomenology as an ontological recategorization of nature and a solution to the hard problem of consciousness.

When player skill levels differ widely in a competitive First-Person Shooter (FPS) game, enjoyment suffers: weaker players become frustrated and stronger players become less engaged. Player balancing techniques attempt to assist the weaker player and make games more competitive, but these techniques have limitations for deployment when skill levels vary substantially. In this thesis, we developed new player balancing schemes to deal with a range of FPS skill difference, and tested these techniques in a series of five studies using a commercial-quality FPS game developed with the UDK engine. Our results showed that our balancing techniques (Combo and Delay) are extremely effective at balancing, even for players with large skill differences. These techniques also led to higher enjoyment of the game by players of all skill levels. Our studies are the first to show that player balancing can work well in realistic FPS games, providing developers with a way to increase the audience for this popular genre. In addition, our results demonstrate the idea that successful balancing is as much about the way the technique is applied as it is about the specific manipulation.

The dissertation is a collection of eighteen short stories. These stories relate the life experiences of the first-person narrator and chronicle a period of twenty years. They are arranged in five thematic groups: Expectations, Questions, Lighter Moments, Answers, and Separation. The focus of each one represents the narrator's experiences with his father, as the narrator attempts to understand a man who exerts such control over his life. Expectations contains three stories, with the first depicting the narrator's earliest association with his father. The other two represent significant growth experiences. The five stories in the Questions portion focus on the youthful narrator as he tries to understand the reasons behind his father's values and moral lessons. In the section, Lighter Moments, there are four stories in which the narrator is in his late teens and recalls four incidents that lacked the usual serious undertones prevalent in most of his experiences with his father. Answers is composed of three stories in which the narrator, nearing manhood, struggles with feelings of disillusionment with the life his father has planned for him, as well as the realization that his father controls every aspect of his life. The final section of three stories, Separation, depicts the narrator, a young man in his twenties with his own family, coping with the need to escape his father's control.

For the purpose of this study, Poe's tales were read and considered carefully in chronological order, the idea being to discover growth and development. Poe's literary career was relatively brief (1832-1849), and there are no dramatic or definite breaks or periods. Though his production shows growth in sophistication and artistry, it has been deemed more instructive to group Poets first-person narrators according to the part they play in the story, that is, (1) main actor or protagonist, (2) minor character, (3) observers and (4) combinations of the foregoing three. An attempt will be made to note both variation and pattern, and hence artistic skill, in Poe Is handling of each particular type of narrator.