This research investigates the gendered nature of video arcades and video games, in relation to the perceptions and attitudes of the users to them. Video arcades are relatively recent sites of leisure and engagement with electronic games. Very little research (if any) in this area has been done in South Africa. This research is concerned with both media and gender and draws on a theoretical framework informed by poststructural understandings of gender construction and discourse. The research also examines users' habits and attitudes to and perceptions of the video arcades, the games and their narrative scenarios, in relation to gendered behaviours. As a Media Educator, these findings reinforce the researcher's belief in an urgent need for Media Education in South African schools. / Thesis (M.Ed.)-University of Natal, Durban, 2001.

Whether virtual reality will have positive or negative implications on the social structure is debatable, but one thing is certain- virtual reality will play an increasingly important role in public and private life as we move toward the future (1). Over the years there has been a notable increase in the amount of people playing online virtual reality games. World of Warcraft (WoW) alone has an estimated eight million account holders, making it the largest Massive Multi-player Online Role-playing Game (MMORPG) in the world. Although the Internet has been appropriated by social practice, it does have specific affects on the social practice itself. Role-playing and identity building form the basis of online interaction (Castells, 2001:118), which suggests that social patterns of communication are starting to change. This study starts with the basic explanation of the Internet and Globalization which lends a hand to those wanting to escape into parallel online worlds, where they are able to reinvent themselves. This will lead into a discussion on how virtual reality online gaming can aid in the erosion of social communication as well as enhance it, through communities, the identity, and addiction. Theorists such as Rheingold (1994), Turkle (1998), Robins (1998) and Yee (2006) discuss how virtual reality gaming provides a window to a different world, where players can experiment with their identities as well as interact with people from around the world; all of which aid in the shift of normal social patterns and self construction. Finally a close look is taken on why these virtual reality online games hold such an allure to its players, turning them into gaming addicts, or is it an online communication addiction. During this dissertation a preliminary case study was under taken with a collected group of the Durban youth, regarding WoW and their online interactions with people abroad. It is evident that further research needs to be conducted in order to fully understand the extent of virtual reality online games and their effect on social behaviours and communication patterns. As a transformation in the relationship between the self and the social outside worlds, tends to blur when gamers enter into their fantasy society. (1) www.bilawchuk.com / Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2010.

This dissertation explores the emerging relationship between the U.S. military and the commercial video game market. Specifically, this study situates this relationship in terms of the U.S. military's evolving role in a variety of media-such as Hollywood feature films, television, and television news-for the purposes of propaganda and the influencing of public opinion. Consequently, an analysis and critique of the U.S. military's production and commissioning of commercial video games will be advanced that takes into account contemporary analyses and media critiques with respect to war and representation. Since these games are also a part of the larger field of entertainment and cultural production, this study will attempt to understand these products for the complex ways they combine cultural expression, modern spectatorship and the desire to influence or mediate popular conceptions of war. Consideration will also be given to situating these products within the emerging field of video game studies and aesthetics, as well as questions concerning genre, realism, historical revisionism, and the ethics of simulation.

The processes that accompany the transition to social and political inequality have perplexed archeologists in their attempts to explain the emergence of complex society. Over the past decade, archaeological excavations in the Mazatan region of Chiapas, Mexico, has yielded new information on the processes surrounding this social and political transformation. Most recently, the earliest known ballcourt was discovered at the site of Paso de la Amada in the Mazatan region. This ballcourt predates all other known ballcourts by more than 500 years. For over 2500 years, ballcourts and the associated ballgame formed an integral part of religious, social, and political life of Mesoamerican complex societies. The tremendous success of the ballgame lies in its ability to act as a medium of social and political integration while simultaneously encouraging intense rivalry. This dissertation uses ballcourts and competitive games to address the larger question of how social and political inequality evolves. Using architectural, artifactual, and settlement pattern data, I argue that an emerging complex society was involved in the construction and use of the ballcourt at Paso de la Amada. I suggest that elites sponsored the ballcourt construction, enabling them to expand their regional networks and enhance their own social positions. I present evidence to support these claims, and review several existing models for the emergence of complex society in light of this discovery. I conclude that competitive games and gaming facilities, such as ballcourts, played a crucial role in the emergence of complex society in Mesoamerica and have significant implications for how this process is modeled.

The processes that accompany the transition to social and political inequality have perplexed archeologists in their attempts to explain the emergence of complex society. Over the past decade, archaeological excavations in the Mazatan region of Chiapas, Mexico, has yielded new information on the processes surrounding this social and political transformation. Most recently, the earliest known ballcourt was discovered at the site of Paso de la Amada in the Mazatan region. This ballcourt predates all other known ballcourts by more than 500 years. For over 2500 years, ballcourts and the associated ballgame formed an integral part of religious, social, and political life of Mesoamerican complex societies. The tremendous success of the ballgame lies in its ability to act as a medium of social and political integration while simultaneously encouraging intense rivalry. This dissertation uses ballcourts and competitive games to address the larger question of how social and political inequality evolves. Using architectural, artifactual, and settlement pattern data, I argue that an emerging complex society was involved in the construction and use of the ballcourt at Paso de la Amada. I suggest that elites sponsored the ballcourt construction, enabling them to expand their regional networks and enhance their own social positions. I present evidence to support these claims, and review several existing models for the emergence of complex society in light of this discovery. I conclude that competitive games and gaming facilities, such as ballcourts, played a crucial role in the emergence of complex society in Mesoamerica and have significant implications for how this process is modeled. / Arts, Faculty of / Anthropology, Department of / Graduate

In the age of computing, we rely on software to manage our days, from the moment we wake up until we go to sleep. Software predicts the future based on actualized data from the past. It produces procedures instead of experiences and solutions instead of care. Software systems tend to perpetuate a normalized state of equilibrium. Their application in social media, predictive policing, and social profiling is increasingly erasing diversity in culture and identity. Our immediate reality is narrowing towards cultural conventions shared among the powerful few, whose voices directly influence contemporary digital culture. On the other hand, computational collective intelligence can sometimes generate emergent forces to counter this tendency and force software systems to open up. Historically, artists from different artistic moments have adopted collaborative making to redefine the boundary of creative expression. Video Gaming, especially open-world simulation games, is rapidly being adopted as an emerging form of communication, expression, and self-organization. How can gaming conventions such as Narrative Emergence, Hacking, and Modding help us understand collective play as countering forces against the systematic tendency of normalization? How can people from diverse backgrounds come together to contemplate, make, and simulate rules and conditions for an alternative virtual world? What does it mean to design and virtually inhabit a world where rules are rewritten continuously by everyone, and no one is in control?

Esta pesquisa enumera os principais jogos encontrados no romance de Machado de Assis, assim como descreve os modos de representação do lúdico na construção de seu imaginário. Na prosa do autor, a sociabilidade da matéria histórica representada é exposta em situações ficcionais que demandam uma interpretação integrativa, incluindo nesta o ponto de vista do lúdico. O jogo participa da ficção machadiana ora como objeto cenográfico, ora como metáfora das relações sociais. Além disso, o jogo pode dinamizar a interação das diversas instâncias ficcionais de produção e recepção. O vocábulo jogo é entendido aqui antes de tudo como um vetor lúdico, isto é, como componente capaz de relacionar elementos textuais com imagens de jogos, metáforas que presidem os modos de construção ficcional. Assim, o conceito alvitrado nesta pesquisa contempla os diversos planos de ficcionalização do texto. Relações lúdicas definem motivações primárias dos personagens, tais como o jogo de sedução, o jogo de empulha, e o jogo de predição; estabelecem parâmetros para a estilização do texto, por meio de artifícios da escrita, como a paródia, pastiche, citação, charada, autorreferenciação, metáfora, iconização tipográfica e jogo do narrador com o leitor. A leitura destas estruturas lúdicas permite a descoberta de novos percursos interpretativos. Deste modo, o corpus selecionado para este trabalho de pesquisa é definido preferencialmente por situações ficcionais lúdicas nos romances machadianos que suscitam comentários relevantes para os diversos sentidos de cada narrativa. No desdobramento destas questões, podem ser desenhados traços formativos da sociedade e do homem representados, assim como se percebe a ironia orientadora do juízo do autor na interação de autores ficcionais, narradores e leitores. / This study reveals the main ludic structures found in the novels of Machado de Assis and describes the imaginative modes of representation of playfulness constructed by the novelist. In the authors prose, the sociability of the depicted historical matters is exposed in fictional situations that require an integrative interpretation one that takes into account his playful point of view. The ludic structure in Machados fiction sometimes involves a scenic object and sometimes functions as a metaphor of social relations. Furthermore, the game can boost interaction among several fictional instances of production and reception. The term game is understood here primarily as a vector of playfulness or, in other words, as a component capable of relating textual elements with game images metaphors which underpin the methods of writing invention. Thus, the proposed objective of this study is to contemplate the various strategies of fictionalization in Machados texts. Playful relations define the primary motivations of the characters, such as the game of seduction, the game of trickery, and the game of prediction. Further, they establish parameters for the text style, through literary devices such as parody, pastiche, quotation, charade, self-referencing, metaphor, typographic iconization, and the game between the narrator and reader. The reading of these play structures allows for the discovery of new interpretive paths. Thus, this study focuses on the playful fictional situations in Machados novels that contribute multiple levels of meaning to each narrative. The unfolding of these issues sheds light on formative traits of human beings and of the represented society, as one begins to appreciate the irony guiding the authors judgment in his rendering of the interaction between fictional writers, readers and storytellers.

Esta pesquisa enumera os principais jogos encontrados no romance de Machado de Assis, assim como descreve os modos de representação do lúdico na construção de seu imaginário. Na prosa do autor, a sociabilidade da matéria histórica representada é exposta em situações ficcionais que demandam uma interpretação integrativa, incluindo nesta o ponto de vista do lúdico. O jogo participa da ficção machadiana ora como objeto cenográfico, ora como metáfora das relações sociais. Além disso, o jogo pode dinamizar a interação das diversas instâncias ficcionais de produção e recepção. O vocábulo jogo é entendido aqui antes de tudo como um vetor lúdico, isto é, como componente capaz de relacionar elementos textuais com imagens de jogos, metáforas que presidem os modos de construção ficcional. Assim, o conceito alvitrado nesta pesquisa contempla os diversos planos de ficcionalização do texto. Relações lúdicas definem motivações primárias dos personagens, tais como o jogo de sedução, o jogo de empulha, e o jogo de predição; estabelecem parâmetros para a estilização do texto, por meio de artifícios da escrita, como a paródia, pastiche, citação, charada, autorreferenciação, metáfora, iconização tipográfica e jogo do narrador com o leitor. A leitura destas estruturas lúdicas permite a descoberta de novos percursos interpretativos. Deste modo, o corpus selecionado para este trabalho de pesquisa é definido preferencialmente por situações ficcionais lúdicas nos romances machadianos que suscitam comentários relevantes para os diversos sentidos de cada narrativa. No desdobramento destas questões, podem ser desenhados traços formativos da sociedade e do homem representados, assim como se percebe a ironia orientadora do juízo do autor na interação de autores ficcionais, narradores e leitores. / This study reveals the main ludic structures found in the novels of Machado de Assis and describes the imaginative modes of representation of playfulness constructed by the novelist. In the authors prose, the sociability of the depicted historical matters is exposed in fictional situations that require an integrative interpretation one that takes into account his playful point of view. The ludic structure in Machados fiction sometimes involves a scenic object and sometimes functions as a metaphor of social relations. Furthermore, the game can boost interaction among several fictional instances of production and reception. The term game is understood here primarily as a vector of playfulness or, in other words, as a component capable of relating textual elements with game images metaphors which underpin the methods of writing invention. Thus, the proposed objective of this study is to contemplate the various strategies of fictionalization in Machados texts. Playful relations define the primary motivations of the characters, such as the game of seduction, the game of trickery, and the game of prediction. Further, they establish parameters for the text style, through literary devices such as parody, pastiche, quotation, charade, self-referencing, metaphor, typographic iconization, and the game between the narrator and reader. The reading of these play structures allows for the discovery of new interpretive paths. Thus, this study focuses on the playful fictional situations in Machados novels that contribute multiple levels of meaning to each narrative. The unfolding of these issues sheds light on formative traits of human beings and of the represented society, as one begins to appreciate the irony guiding the authors judgment in his rendering of the interaction between fictional writers, readers and storytellers.

This dissertation seeks to formulate guidelines for the construction of a Let's Pretend game in order for a group to create a collaborative narrative through pretend play. A Let's Pretend game would provide a system for a performance event in which players are able to enter an imaginary world, take on roles in such a world and take actions in these roles. For this a Let's Pretend game should have a structured system of play; the structure for narrative in an imaginary environment; the means for participants to collaborate; and the means for participants to direct themselves. The practical component of this research, The Foreshadowing workshop, combines the role-playing game and a devised theatre workshop into one process. In this process the elements of games of make-believe can be identified. Bernard Suits' theory on games of make-believe identifies the prelusory goal, lusory means, constitutive rules, and the lusory attitude as the basic elements of a game. The guidelines for a Let's Pretend game can be derived from the conventions of the role-playing game and devised theatre workshop. These guidelines would address all the requirements of a Let's Pretend game, except self-direction, which is not available in the role-playing game, or devised theatre workshop. For self-direction, guidelines are derived from Bernard Suits' notion of the game as institution through the process of rules clarification. The primary guidelines for constructing a Let's Pretend game then are: that the game structure should foster fidelity to game world specifically through the imaginary roles. The character creation process should allow these roles to be the focus for action resolution. These roles should be able to develop through interactions and these interactions, as dramatic moves, would determine the plot. The structure of the game should further foster collaboration, be easily learnt and transferred, allow for the negotiating of rules and most importantly afford all players access to the directorial function. This dissertation, however, does not attempt the construction of such a Let's Pretend game. This would be the subject of future study. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2005.

In an attempt to shed light on the further sophistication of opinion leadership in online communities, this study examined the forces and structures that affect their formation in the League of Legends subreddit. By investigating what users thought about the various types of individuals with which the communicate, the researcher hoped to begin to understand and record how those forces work bother on this particular subreddit and in mass media beyond. Opinion leadership continues to be an integral force in deciding what information is consumed by a public and under what frames and agendas it is contextualized. If researchers can operationalize formal definitions for the influences and structures that occur online, they can better navigate the deep waters that are global communication on the internet.