The purpose of this study was twofold. First, it aimed to present and understand the experiences of online gamers from the paradigm of positive psychology. To achieve this, the phenomenon of flow was investigated to see whether or not, it is experienced whilst gaming online and if present, how it is revealed in this context. The second purpose was to contribute to theory building and to respond to extant research recommendations. Aligned with a qualitative orientation, the method selected to achieve the objectives of the study was interpretative phenomenological analysis. A sample of four participants who met the criteria for inclusion in the research were selected and interviewed using semi-structured interviews. Data was analysed and interpreted inductively and categorised into superordinate themes. These were presented as two sections: Section A explored the experience and meaning of online gaming through the following three superordinate themes; intention, pre-gaming rituals and gaming process. Section B discussed the social experience and meaning of gaming online through the superordinate theme, a gamers way. This study both challenged and supported theory and research in the field and introduced novel areas, such as pregaming rituals and the subthemes; marijuana and gaming space. This is a notable and promising "side effect" of a research design that is exploratory. Findings called for future multi-disciplinary research into flow, gaming and online relationships considering Csikszentimaihalyi‟s concept of autotelic relationships and Heideggers‟ philosophical framework.

The proliferation of the Internet and online-based social interactions has become an increasingly popular topic with communication scholars. The goal of this study was to explore how massively multi-player online role playing game (MMORPG) players make sense of and negotiate their online social interactions. This study (N = 292) examined how players of SecondLife and World of Warcraft evaluated their online relationships compared to their offline relationships and investigated how different levels of realism within different MMORPGs effected player's online experiences. The results indicated that players of SecondLife placed higher values of emotional closeness to their online relationships when compared to players of World of Warcraft and SecondLife was rated more real by its players than World of Warcraft. Results further indicated that players of SecondLife had higher levels of perceived online emotional closeness when compared to perceived offline emotional closeness. Implications of this study focus on developing a bottom up holistic profile of online game players as opposed to the current top down research model.

published_or_final_version / abstract / Sociology / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Science, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science. Johannesburg, 2014. / Virtual worlds and massive multiplayer online games are amongst the most popular applications on the Internet. In order to host these applications a reliable architecture is required. It is essential for the architecture to handle high user loads, maintain a complex game state, promptly respond to game interactions, and prevent cheating, amongst other properties. Many of today’s Massive Multiplayer Online Games (MMOG) use client-server architectures to provide multiplayer service. Clients (players) send their actions to a server. The latter calculates the game state and publishes the information to the clients. Although the client-server architecture has been widely adopted in the past for MMOG, it suffers from many limitations. First, applications based on a client-server architecture are difficult to support and maintain given the dynamic user base of online games. Such architectures do not easily scale (or handle heavy loads). Also, the server constitutes a single point of failure. We argue that peer-to-peer architectures can provide better support for MMOG. Peer-to-peer architectures can enable the user base to scale to a large number. They also limit disruptions experienced by players due to other nodes failing. This research designs and implements a peer-to-peer architecture for MMOG. The peer-to-peer architecture aims at reducing message latency over the network and on the application layer. We refine the communication between nodes in the architecture to reduce network latency by using SPDY, a protocol designed to reduce web page load time. For the application layer, an event-driven paradigm was used to process messages. Through user load simulation, we show that our peer-to-peer design is able to process and reliably deliver messages in a timely manner. Furthermore, by distributing the work conducted by a game server, our research shows that a peer-to-peer architecture responds quicker to requests compared to client-server models.

As puzzle-driven, character based games, Portal and Portal 2, developed by the Valve Corporation, are not only pioneering in their use of narrative, but they also revolutionize the function of aporia. This thesis explores the role of aporia and use of the narrative in the two video games. It will be argued that the games possess a rigid narrative structure, but while the narrative serves as a peripheral construction, there are other structures that contribute to the experience of gameplay. The research aims to determine how the games adapt narrative and use it in combination with other elements to move beyond simple play and storytelling. As video games become more widely studied in academia, it is important that they merit and maintain standing ; Portal and Portal 2 not only provide a rich gameplay experience, but also offer a particular interaction not found in other texts. / by Kimberly Copeland. / Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2012. / Includes bibliography. / Mode of access: World Wide Web. / System requirements: Adobe Reader.

Seventeen teens (mean age = 11.71. SD = 1.26) who had experiences in playing online games participated in the focus group interviews of Study 2. Their responses were collected in order to develop comprehensive scales to measure cyber-victimization and cyberbullying, so as to better understand the differences between online and real life friendship and also to reveal the reasons behind playing online games. Studies 3 and 4 were based on the same sample of six hundred twenty-six grade 5 and 6 students (mean age =10.81, SD = .83), but with different purposes. In Study 3, two scales, both ultimately (following test analyses) comprised of eight items were developed for measuring cyber-victimization and cyberbullying, They demonstrated satisfactory reliabilities and criterion validities. In Study 4, the relative quality of best friendship in online games versus in real life, as well as the relative importance of friendship, victimization, and bullying in real life and in online games in relation to early adolescents' overall psychosocial adjustment were examined. Online victimization and online bullying were negatively related to psychological well-being of early adolescents. After controlling demographics, computer gaming habits, school victimization and real life friendship, online victimization still significantly and negatively explained additional variance in friendship satisfaction, while online friendship still positively and significantly explained additional variance in social competence, friendship satisfaction, self esteem and life satisfaction after demographics, computer gaming habits, school victimization, and real life friendship were statistically controlled. Gender moderated the relationship between real life friendship and social competence and friendship satisfaction, but it did not moderate the relationship between online friendship and the other psychological constructs. This research demonstrated the theoretical and practical importance of investigating social experiences (both negative, i.e. being cyber-bullied, and positive, i.e. building up online friendship) in the online context. / The present research comprised four studies to investigate the relation of online game playing and correlates of three important aspects, namely friendship, victimization and bullying, of social development of Hong Kong Chinese grade 5 and 6 students. Comparisons of these correlates across two contexts, the real life and internet experiences, were also made. Four hundred ninety-four grade five and six students (mean age = 11.54, SD = .91) participated in Study 1. Average times spent on different types of different type of computer games and the importance of social functioning of online games were determined. Average time spent per day on Massively Multiplayer Online Games (MMOGs), solitary computer games, handheld video games e.g. NDS, PSP, and home video consoles (e.g., Wii) were 2.38 hours (SD =2.21), 1.66 hours (SD =1.86), 1.25 hours, (SD =1.54), and .67 hours (SD =1.15), respectively. Social functioning of online games was positively correlated with life satisfaction of early adolescents. / Leung, Nga Man. / Adviser: Catherine McBride-Chang. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 72-04, Section: B, page: . / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2010. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 109-119). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, MI : ProQuest Information and Learning Company, [200-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstract also in Chinese.

Wong Sun Fai. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2001. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 95-102). / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / Chapter Chapter I: --- Introduction --- p.9 / Chapter Chapter II: --- A New Issue in Historiography / Chapter 2.1 --- Issues on Historiography in Recent Years --- p.16 / Chapter 2.2 --- Computer Game as a Topic of Historical Study --- p.32 / Chapter Chapter III: --- The Scope of Game/Play Studies / Chapter 3.1 --- Archeology of Game Studies: Historical Approach --- p.34 / Chapter 3.2 --- Anthropology and (Post-)structuralism --- p.37 / Chapter 3.3 --- Psychology and Pedagogy --- p.40 / Chapter 3.4 --- Cultural Studies and Recent Approaches --- p.45 / Chapter Chapter IV: --- Romance of Three Kingdoms / Chapter 4.1 --- The Company: KOEI --- p.52 / Chapter 4.2 --- The Simulation of History --- p.54 / Chapter 4.3 --- Controlling and Interactivity --- p.61 / Chapter 4.4 --- Digitalization of Historical Image --- p.65 / Chapter 4.5 --- Reconstructing of Historical Ideology --- p.70 / Chapter Chapter V: --- Reconstructing History / Chapter 5.1 --- Evolution of Medias --- p.76 / Chapter 5.2 --- Game as Media --- p.80 / Chapter 5.3 --- Virtual Reality and the Reconstruction of History --- p.84 / Chapter Chapter VI: --- Conclusion --- p.91 / Reference --- p.95

According to a 2009 study, 68% of American households played video games (Entertainment Software Association). With this number continually on the rise, video games and their cultures are in need of further scholarly exploration. A video game of particular interest is a massive online game known as World of Warcraft, drawing over twelve million players worldwide (Blizzard Entertainment, 2010). With a cyberspace-based culture, World of Warcraft exposes its players to phenomenon that are unique to it, and thereby not easily understood through the same measures and evaluations offered by society at large. One such phenomena is that of gender, or more specifically the bending of gender by which players assume characters of the opposite gender. Although a common practice in video games like World of Warcraft, its motivations have yet to receive adequately scholarly attention. The present study seeks to explore the process of gender selection in the massive online game World of Warcraft through qualitative methods utilizing interviews, texts, and field notes. The data is then analyzed using Kellner's (2003) methods of critical analysis of media and Langian's (1975) work on thematization.

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published_or_final_version / Modern Languages and Cultures / Master / Master of Philosophy