Problematic use of massively multiplayer online games (MMOGs) is an emerging societal challenge worldwide. There are increasing numbers of incident of problematic use of MMOGs and even reported cases of death from playing MMOGs excessively. With its prevalence, problematic use of MMOGs has received increasing awareness from the scientific community, the general public, and the media. Since information systems (IS) research traditionally emphasizes the positive and productive values of system usage, relatively few published studies on problematic use of MMOGs are found in mainstream IS journals. In addition, research on problematic use of MMOGs is hindered by a lack of uniform conceptualizations, valid measurement instruments, and theory-guided study. As a step towards bridging these gaps and fostering the understanding of problematic use of MMOGs, this study aims (1) to conceptualize problematic use of MMOGs and distinguish it from its counterparts, (2) to develop and validate an instrument of it using a rigorous approach (Study 1), and (3) to propose and empirically test a theory-driven model explaining the development of problematic use of MMOGs (Study 2). Study 1 aims to conceptualize problematic use of MMOGs, and develop and validate an instrument of it. First, drawing on the literature of problematic use of MMOGs and behavioral addiction, this study distinguishes among the often interchangeably used terms of “addiction, “problematic use, “excessive use, and “dependence, suggesting that their use requires careful consideration of the research scope and context. Second, following the robust paradigm in the IS literature, the instrument development process is carried out in three stages, including item generation, scale development, and instrument testing. The instrument is empirically validated with 517 active MMOG players. The final instrument, consisting of 37 items, exhibits adequate levels of reliability, convergent validity, discriminant validity, and nomological validity. The validated instrument adds to the repertoire of rigorous research instruments available to future IS researchers, helping to establish a tradition of IS research on problematic use of MMOGs and other hedonic technologies. Study 2 aims to advance theoretical understanding of the development mechanism of problematic use of MMOGs. Drawing on the hedonic management model of addictions, this study proposes a theoretical model explaining how the duality of hedonic experiences, mood enhancement and emotional relief, derived from playing MMOGs lead to problematic use. The research model is empirically tested with 468 active MMOG players with the majority of the hypotheses supported. The findings suggest that both mood enhancement and emotional relief are important mechanisms leading to salience of gameplay, which in turn, explains the development of problematic use of MMOGs. This study adds to the growing body of knowledge on technology usage-related problems and advances theoretical understanding of development mechanism of problematic use of MMOGs. In addition, the findings provide MMOG developers, policymakers, and educators with insights on how to alleviate problematic use of MMOGs

The aim of this research lies in the study of how Japanese console videos games have been re-territorialized into Taiwan in Taiwanese context. Since making its debut in 1970s, video game industry has developed into a multi-billion dollar business in which Japanese console and game developers have been the pioneers. Academic studies on video games, however, had been largely focusing on the physical and mental affection of video game playing, and it is until recent years that video game has begun to be analyzed as a cultural product. Looking to fill the research space of how video games have been consumed and received under different geographical and social contexts, this research examine show Taiwanese, the former colonial subjects of Japan, localize Japanese console video games through measures during the process of production, re-production, circulation, and consumption in the context of Taiwanese society. Attention has been particularly paid to Taipei City Mall, where gamer gatherings of a Japanese video game had been regularly held. Through intensive participatory observation on the gathering and in-depth case studies on a few selected personalities, the author will show how a Japanese cultural good is being re-territorialized under an alien social context. The thesis then argues a new paradigm, in which the individual desire is considered as equally important with other mediation factors, should be adopted in conceptualizing the migration of a cultural good. / published_or_final_version / Modern Languages and Cultures / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

This study examines the social organization of Gaiscíoch, a large online gaming community that exists within the simulated world of a massively multiplayer online role playing game (MMORPG). It provides an ethnographic account of an online gaming community that is open to any player without skill or time commitment requirements, but still maintains high status within the game world. This project identifies eight elements that make this inclusive, friendly, and casual community successful in virtual worlds that tend to be dominated by communities that have a competitive, strict, and exclusive approach to online gaming (social interaction, code of values, leadership, rank system, events, community building, population size, gameplay). Lastly, this project briefly inquires about the nature of the border between the virtual and the physical and establishes that gamers can be considered pseudo-border-inhabitants that are in control of the community they place adjacent to them in the cyber world. / Includes bibliography. / Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2015. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

Recently, many researchers have been interested in how videogames can influence the attitude and behavior of children. It has also been questioned if videogames can be a useful teaching tool in the classroom. There are many games that have been created to teach traditional school subjects such as Math and English. But what about creating games to teach about current environmental issues? The goal of my thesis project is to create an educational advocacy game for smartphone devices that will educate children about the effects of overfishing on marine life and how it can negatively affect coastal communities in the Caribbean. / Includes bibliography. / Thesis (M.F.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2014.. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

The Internet has enabled the popular pastime of playing video games to grow rapidly by connecting game players in disparate locations. However, with popularity have come the two challenges of hosting a large number of users and detecting cheating among users. For reasons of control, security, and ease of development, the most popular system for hosting on-line games is the client server architecture. This is also the most expensive and least scalable architecture for the game publisher, which drives hosting costs upwards with the success of the game. In addition to the expense of hosting, as a particular game grows more competitive and popular, the incentive to cheat for that game grows as well. All popular online games suffer from cheats in one form or another, and this cheating adversely affects game popularity and growth. In this dissertation we follow a hypothetical game company (GameCorp) as it surmounts challenges involved in running an on-line game. We develop a characterization of gamer habits and game workloads from data sampled over a period of years, and show the benefits and drawbacks of multiplexing online applications together in a single large server farm. We develop and evaluate a geographic redirection service for the public server architecture to match clients with servers. We show how the public server game architecture can be used to scalably host large persistent games such as massively multiplayer (MMO) games that previously used the client server architecture. Finally we develop a taxonomy for client cheating in on-line games to focus research efforts, and specifically treat one of the categories in detail: information exposure in peer-to-peer games. The thesis of this dissertation is: a methodology for accurate usage modeling of server resources can improve workload management; public-server resources can be leveraged in new ways to serve multiplayer on-line games; and that information exposure in peer-to-peer on-line games is preventable or detectable with the adoption of cryptographic protocols.

This paper is about locating the meaning of a series of games known as the Dark Souls series in relation to contemporary social conditions in Japan. I argue that the game should be thought of as an emblem of the current cultural zeitgeist, in a similar way one might identify something like Jack Kerouac's The Dharma Bums as an emblem of the counter cultural 60s. I argue that the Dark Souls series expresses in allegorical form an anxiety about living in a time where the meaning of our everyday actions and even society itself has become significantly destabilized. It does this through a fractured approach to story-telling, that is interspersed with Buddhist metaphysics and wrapped up in macabre, gothic aesthetic depicting the last gasping breath of a once great kingdom. This expression of contemporary social anxiety is connected to the discourse of postmodernity in Japan. Through looking at these games as a feedback loop between text, environment and ludic system, I connect the main conceptual motifs that structure the games as a whole with Osawa Masachi's concept of the post-fictional era and Hiroki Azuma's definition of the otaku.

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Cyberanthropology or the anthropology of cyber space/culture is an emerging subfield of cultural anthropology that deals with the varied integration of human beings and technology. This specialized area of study focuses on topics ranging from new technologies used in ethnographic research to information and communication technologies utilized by specific societal groups. Communication technology encompasses the World Wide Web, email, and online multiperson interactive spaces such as chatrooms and video games. In this work, I ethnographically investigate human social interactions in the online gaming realm of World of Warcraft. On the whole, the expanding numbers of virtual communities in existence today offer new and exciting realms for social scientists in general, and anthropologists in particular, to expand their knowledge of social interaction. During the period between August 2007 and May 2009 I “lived” with the players of WoW as a participant observer. The culmination of this research spotlights virtual group formation and dynamics from an anthropological perspective and is intended to pave the way for future research.

Mass Effect is a Science Fiction/Action Role Playing/Third Person Shooter video game series that takes place in the year 2183, in which the player assumes control of Commander Shepard. Players can choose to customize the character based on his/her gender, appearance, sexual orientation, background origin and occupation. The choices that show up in the game are also based on how the player wants their version of Shepard to interact with other characters and allows players some leeway to shape their own narrative. The series also discusses and acknowledges issues of race, gender, subjecthood and sovereignty, politics and sexual orientation within its narrative. This analysis focuses on the text of the series and its implications concerning hegemonic reinforcement and/or resistance in terms of race, gender, sexual orientation, politics, and warfare tactics. / Includes bibliography. / Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2014. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

EverQuest is a multiplayer online role playing game that serves as a practical incarnation of life as a cyborg in a posthuman community. Using cultural materialsim, this thesis demonstrates how the words of EverQuest interactants - from message boards, interviews, and player in-game communications - construct the world of EverQuest and the roles of the interactants as its citizens. More specifically, this thesis will argue that the EverQuest world serves to reify the ideas of consumer capitalism that informs the "real" world, even as EverQuest itself promises an escape from that world.