This thesis answers the question of how, and what, people communicate to each other while playing games. The presented conclusions offer guidance to computer game developers on what means of communication they should support in games in order to provide better possibilities for interaction between people that play games together. The data for this study was collected from two sources: the first was during LinCon, an annual game convention in Linköping, and consists of four players playing a game of WarCraft: The Board Game; the second is from a game session of the multiplayer roleplaying game World of WarCraft. The sessions where documented using a combination of video recordings and participant observation in order to increase the quality and speed of the analysis. The video recordings were subsequently sorted into labelled passages and then organised into categories based on their similarity to each other with the purpose of finding categories and means of information exchange. The analysis identify five categories of information that people exchange between each other while playing games and three categories of how they convey that information. The implication of these categories on game design practice is also discussed.

League of Legends is one of the most popular video games in the world, and yet it is also infamously known as being filled with harassment and failure. Why do I continue to play? In this project, a critical autoethnography is used to illustrate what it is like to play in this male-dominated space as a woman. Using feminist and queer game studies as my theoretical framework, this project investigates three distinct, but interconnected concepts: hegemonic masculinity, weaponized failure, and subversive play. In chapter one, I use Raewyn Connell’s theory of hegemonic masculinity to analyze League of Legends. I argue that gameplay elements such as champion selection, communication, and role-play make it difficult to challenge hegemonic masculinity in League of Legends. However, I do acknowledge that it is possible to challenge through playing the role of support properly – by concentrating on teamwork and sacrifice. In chapter two, I use queer video game studies, including key texts by Bonnie Ruberg and Jesper Juul, to consider failure in League of Legends. While queer failure can be fun in single-player video games, I argue that failure in League of Legends can be used as a weapon to intentionally hurt your teammates. Finally, in chapter three I consider my own subversive playstyle. While some academics have argued that woman who play masculine video games using male-coded skills cannot challenge the patriarchy, I argue that embracing my femininity in League of Legends allows me to persevere and push against the patriarchy. I argue that my feminine visibility in the form of my gamertag, SJW Queen, my communication style that emphasizes positivity and mediation, and how I play League of Legends are all examples of subversive gameplay. I bring my femininity into League of Legends uncompromised and I embrace it, rather than try to escape from it.

This thesis will investigate how developers can create recognizable and historically realistic female game characters while balancing historically accurate aspects and creative aesthetics.This paper is meant to give a better understanding of the importance of accurate historical female costumes in games, and investigate whether or not these are preferable to a gaming audience. The results will be reached by analysing the results collected from two online surveys where six 3D models’ turnarounds from two different eras with different levels of historical accuracy will be represented.

The vast majority of videogames is consisting of fiction. One of the ways of approaching fiction is the literary theory of fictional worlds. However, this begs a question if we would be able to use this theory. The purpose of our thesis is to determine how literary theorists define fictional worlds. Furthermore, we will look at the way that this concept is used by ludologists and how they work with it. If our hypothesis, that we can apply this theory to videogames, will be confirmed, then we investigate how those worlds are different from the literary ones. Then, with the help from the acquired knowledge, we will conduct case studies on selected games. Finally, we will demonstrate how researching of fictional worlds can be profitable for game studies and how to utilize the theory more.

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Historiska strategispel som Europa Universalis IV och Civilization V försöker på olika sätt representera historia samtidigt som de försöker skapa engagerande spel. I följande studie jämförs historierepresentationen med fokus på spelmekaniker som representerar imperialism. Genom en utförlig analys av båda spelens mekaniker och en efterföljande jämförelse har deras likheter samt skillnader inom representation av imperialism belysts. Resultatet har visat att Civilization V har enklare och mindre utförliga mekaniker för imperialistiskt agerande i jämförelse med Europa Universalis IV. Däremot måste spelaren i Civilization V interagera med dessa mekaniker medan i Europa Universalis IV är dessa mekaniker inte nödvändiga att interagera med. Vidare forskning kan utföras genom att vidga definition av imperialism som spelen undersöks med för att inkludera intern imperialism då studien huvudsakligen fokuserat på extern imperialism. Vidare forskning skulle även kunna utföras genom att undersökas fler spel inom genren som därmed skulle kunna öppna möjligheten att göra resultaten generaliserbara.

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