The thesis maps and compares the success of solving the game activities of the players of the Czech women's national football team. It is a diagnostic of eight games played in the qualifications for the 2019 World Championship. The thesis investigates the success of the selected gaming activities of the Czech team as a whole, and in these activities it compares the success of defensive players, midfielders and offensive players.

Researchers and practitioners have both acknowledged the importance of attracting the right employees. The study aims to explore and analyze how Swedish gaming start-ups attract talent. The authors investigated eight gaming companies based in Sweden, conducting semi-structured interviews with founding team or management team that were responsible for talent attraction in their respective companies. Study draws on theory of employer brand and examines how game development start-ups overcome their challenges in employee attraction context. Results of the research show that most gaming companies offer variety of employment benefits described in employment brand theory, but for them to have a competitive advantage, they should incorporate innovative new ideas in talent attraction. We propose an ‘employer innovation matrix model’ that can be a strategic talent attraction planning tool for companies.

The aim of this study was to create an understanding through qualitative interviews with treatment providers, how their way of behaving towards young boys with gaming addiction affects the treatment. More specifically its aim was to find out how treatment providers help boys to break their ongoing gaming addiction and what kind of difficulties they have experiences from. The study's empirical material was obtained through semi-structured interviews with six treatment providers with experience of gaming addiction. Three themes were identified: difficulties, working methods and therapeutic alliance. The analysis was based on two different kinds of perspectives: symbolic interactionism and Erving Goffman’s dramaturgical perspective. The first theme has highlighted the subject's complexity, perceptions and self-insight. The clearest result that emerged under the second theme is the importance of different types of conversations. The study shows that motivational interviewing has helped young boys gain insight into their situation. Prohibition is not an appropriate measure, however, restrictions are necessary. The main result that emerged from the third and last theme is that therapeutic alliance is an important basis for change.

Globalization is here to stay, and with an increasing number of brands deciding to test their fortune abroad, the importance of branding increases alike. The choice of globalizing a brand comes with potential financial benefits but it is not done without considerable effort. According to Kotler and Keller, the choice regarding differentiation to competitors is one of the main factors a brand must consider when expanding abroad (2009). One key factor that determines the level of success of international companies is the amount of brand knowledge (Guedes & da Costa Soares, 2005). Consumer brand knowledge and its importance for financial success has been extensively studied by researchers (Fill & Turnbull, 2016) and it has been found that solid brands continuously outperform their markets (Pirrie, 2006). The purpose of this study was to evaluate whether demographic factors such as age, gender and nationality significantly affect consumer brand knowledge. The chosen brand for the study was Razer that practices a standardized global targeting strategy. Razer is a company that produces gaming equipment for gamers. Gamers constituted the desired sample of the study due to their belonging within the brands target segment. A survey based on and constructed using the “Dimensions of Brand Knowledge” by Keller (1993) was issued online in Sweden and Lithuania on social media within groups that share the common interest of gaming. 540 responses were collected, and 8 hypotheses were tested using SPSS linear regression tests. Findings showed that brand recognition differed in regard to demographic factors of the respondents, supporting H2.  However, the remaining aspects of brand knowledge did not differ regarding the combined demographic factors, therefore, the remaining hypotheses were rejected. These results may aid marketers and scholars in the comprehension of factors that may affect their global marketing efforts within the gaming industry and contribute to the current research done within the field of gaming equipment, which is quite understudied given its economic potential.

Com o crescimento da indústria dos jogos eletrônicos, surgem novos mercados e tecnologias. Os jogos eletrônicos da última geração exigem cada vez mais processamento e placas de vídeo mais poderosas. Uma solução que vem ganhando cada vez mais destaque é o Cloud Gaming, no qual o jogador realiza um comando e a informação é enviada e processada remotamente em uma nuvem, localizada na Internet, e que retorna com as imagens como uma sequência de vídeo para o jogador. Para melhorar a qualidade de experiência (QoE) é proposto um modelo que diminui o tempo de resposta entre o jogador e a nuvem, através de um arcabouço chamado Cloud Manager que utiliza a técnica de implementação de camadas, na camada do plano de fundo e predição de movimentos, utilizando uma matriz de predição, na camada do personagem. Para validar os resultados é utilizado um jogo de ação com ponto de vista onipresente dentro do sistema de Cloud Gaming Uniquitous. / With the growing video games industry, new markets and technologies are emerging. Electronic games of the new generation are increasingly requiring more processing and powerful video cards. The solution that is gaining more prominence is Cloud Gaming, which the player performs a command, the information is sent and processed remotely on a cloud, then the images return as a video stream back to the player using the Internet. To improve the Quality of Experience (QoE), it is proposed a model that reduces the response time between the player command and the stream of the resulting game scenes through a framework called Cloud Manager that use layer caching techniques, in the background, and future state prediction using a prediction matrix, in the character layer. To validate the results, a action game with god-view as point of view is used in a Cloud Gaming system called Uniquitous.

<div>Although some literature suggests that video games improve attention skills within the game-play, this study addressed translating this effect on attention in the real world. Research has shown video games can help people focus. Yet, there is lack of evidence displaying whether video games improve or diminish attention skills. The video game “The Inattentive Mind”, a game created for this study, used a method of overstimulation in the form of user interfaces, sound, and environmental interaction to try and help participants to empathize or improve their attention skills outside of the game. Using an experimental design of pre-test, video game intervention, and post-test, results were expected to show improved attention skills. These results did not show conclusive evidence of significant changes in attention skills. However, the results did show an increase in ADHD understanding.<br></div>

The purpose of this study was to examine female Twitch streamers and compare the gaming- discourse in Swedish and English language environments from a gender perspective. Twitch as a platform for gamers and streamers has grown to be one of the largest online gaming communities in the world. Earlier studies focused on gender and sexual harassment have shown that sexism is a regular phenomenon in the world of gaming, although little research has been done comparing gaming discourses based on the language. The empirics are based on three Swedish-speaking female streamers and three English-speaking, who all stream full time, meaning that they get their income from their streaming activities. Methods used in the study were a multimodal analysis combined with a critical discourse analysis. The results of the study show that women tend to be dominated by men in the gaming discourse’s power relations. Sexism also occurred frequently both in the Swedish-speaking gaming discourse as well as in the English-speaking, although the sexism in the Swedish-speaking discourse was milder than in the English-speaking one.

Este trabalho tem por objetivo a reflexão sobre uma alternativa de ensino e aprendizagem de Língua Portuguesa no Fundamental II cujo foco esteja no desenvolvimento efetivo das habilidades de leitura, oralidade e escrita por meio de atividades lúdicas. Para tanto, pautou-se pela experiência bem sucedida com esse tipo de recurso no ensino e aprendizagem de Língua Inglesa, notadamente em cursos de idiomas, cuja orientação metodológica é a Abordagem Comunicativa, e, em especial, o Task-based Language Teaching. O conceito de jogo aqui empregado provém das obras de Huizinga (2004), Wittgenstein (1975) e Brougère (1995, 1999), enquanto a relação entre jogo e Educação foi discutida tendo em vista as considerações de Kishimoto (1992, 1994, 1998, 2001, 2007), Brougère (1995, 1999) e Macedo, Petty e Passos (2005), e entre jogo e língua estrangeira, por Crookall e Oxford (1990) e Bullards (1990). Discutiu-se as abordagens e metodologias mais difundidas no Brasil (FERRO, 1998; RODRIGUES, 2005; BERGO E GOMES, 1985) com a finalidade de se contextualizar a utilização do jogo no Task-based Language Teaching (ELLIS, 2003). A análise do que se compreende como tarefa central do ensino e aprendizagem de Língua Portuguesa privilegiou quatro pontos de vista distintos: o da tradição escolar, dos resultados das avaliações do ensino Fundamental, da perspectiva oficial (PCN) e dos estudos lingüísticos voltados à Educação. Partindo desse referencial teórico, realizou-se em duas etapas uma pesquisa de cunho etnográfico. A Primeira Entrada em Campo consistiu na observação de aulas de Língua Portuguesa e de Língua Inglesa extracurricular em um colégio particular em São Paulo. Objetivou-se verificar como tem sido a prática efetiva nessas disciplinas com relação ao uso de jogos em sala de aula, concluindo-se que 60% do tempo das aulas observadas de Língua Inglesa foram ocupados por atividades lúdicas, enquanto, a rigor, nenhuma atividade desse caráter ocorreu na de Língua Portuguesa. Na Segunda Entrada em Campo realizou-se um minicurso de leitura, oralidade e escrita, ministrado pela pesquisadora a alunos da rede pública de ensino, no qual verificou-se as possibilidades reais de sucesso de uma metodologia de Língua Portuguesa cuja prática considerasse as atividades lúdicas como uma alternativa ao excesso de atividades metalingüísticas revelados por estudos de Neves (2003) e Semeghini- Siqueira (1998, 2006a). O referencial metodológico para a elaboração das aulas do minicurso pautou-se pelos conceitos de Avaliação Diagnóstica e Formativa (SEMEGHINI-SIQUEIRA, 1997, 2002) e Seqüência Didática (SCHNEUWLY; DOLZ; NOVERRAZ, 2007) como forma de estruturação para atividades lingüísticas e epilingüísticas (SEMGHINI-SIQUEIRA, 1977, 1997, 2001, 2005, 2006b, 2006c; FRANCHI, 1991; GERALDI, 1985, 1991, 2002; TRAVAGLIA, 1996; POSSENTI, 1996), organizadas em torno do gênero textual entrevista. A inserção de atividades lúdicas que privilegiaram diversas habilidades e diferentes formas de abordagem da língua resultou em um aprendizado mais significativo e eficiente do que aquele observado em aulas de Língua Portuguesa cujas atividades restringem-se apenas às metalingüísticas. / This dissertation aims at reflecting upon an alternative to Portuguese learning and teaching in Middle school1 in which the focus is the development of the proficiency in reading, writing and speaking by means of game-like activities. Therefore, it bears resemblance to the highly successful experience conducted by English courses in line with the Communicative Approach, specially, those of Task-based Language Teaching orientation. The concept of game hereafter presented comes from the works of Huizinga (2004), Wittgenstein (1975) and Brougère (1995, 1999), meanwhile the relationship between games and education relies upon the considerations of Kishimoto (1992, 1994, 1998, 2001, 2007), Brougère (1995, 1999) and Macedo, Petty e Passos (2005); as for games and second language learning and teaching, by Crookall and Oxford (1990) and Bullards (1990). Approaches and methodologies with a greater importance in the Brazilian context (FERRO, 1998; RODRIGUES, 2005; BERGO E GOMES, 1985) were discussed in order to provide background information on the usage of games in Task-based Language Teaching (ELLIS, 2003). Four points of view were privileged to the analysis of the main reasons for learning and teaching Portuguese: the schooling tradition, the results of the evaluation conducted to measure the performance of the students enrolled on the Middle school, the official perspective (PCN) and the linguistic studies related to Education. Having this theoretical scope in mind, two different pieces of ethnographic research were conducted. The first one consisted of the observation of both Portuguese and English (extracurricular) classes at a private school in São Paulo, so that it would be possible to verify whether their delivery has really been taking into consideration the use of games or not. It was reached the conclusion that 60% of the time spent in the English classes observed were on game activities. On the other hand, none activity was observed during the Portuguese class. In the SECOND FIELD STUDY, there was a mini-course of reading, writing and speaking, taught by the researcher, in which students from a public school in São Paulo participated in. Its main objective was to access the real possibilities of success in teaching Portuguese by making use of game activities instead of the metalinguistic ones, pointed as the major resource for Portuguese classes by Neves (2003) and Semeghini-Siqueira (1998, 2006a). The methodological reference for the mini-course is based upon the concepts of \"Avaliação Diagnóstica e Formativa\" (SEMEGHINI-SIQUEIRA, 1997, 2002) and \"Seqüência Didática\" (SCHNEUWLY; DOLZ; NOVERRAZ, 2007) as a means of structuring the linguistic and epilinguistic activities (SEMGHINI-SIQUEIRA, 1977, 1997, 2001, 2005, 2006b, 2006c; FRANCHI, 1991; GERALDI, 1985, 1991, 2002; TRAVAGLIA, 1996; POSSENTI, 1996) around the interview genre. As a result, the game activities carried out in the Portuguese classes held by the mini-course proved to be very effective, therefore the learning was enriched by the variety of approaches as well as the range of skills involved in performing the tasks.

Com o crescimento da indústria dos jogos eletrônicos, surgem novos mercados e tecnologias. Os jogos eletrônicos da última geração exigem cada vez mais processamento e placas de vídeo mais poderosas. Uma solução que vem ganhando cada vez mais destaque é o Cloud Gaming, no qual o jogador realiza um comando e a informação é enviada e processada remotamente em uma nuvem, localizada na Internet, e que retorna com as imagens como uma sequência de vídeo para o jogador. Para melhorar a qualidade de experiência (QoE) é proposto um modelo que diminui o tempo de resposta entre o jogador e a nuvem, através de um arcabouço chamado Cloud Manager que utiliza a técnica de implementação de camadas, na camada do plano de fundo e predição de movimentos, utilizando uma matriz de predição, na camada do personagem. Para validar os resultados é utilizado um jogo de ação com ponto de vista onipresente dentro do sistema de Cloud Gaming Uniquitous. / With the growing video games industry, new markets and technologies are emerging. Electronic games of the new generation are increasingly requiring more processing and powerful video cards. The solution that is gaining more prominence is Cloud Gaming, which the player performs a command, the information is sent and processed remotely on a cloud, then the images return as a video stream back to the player using the Internet. To improve the Quality of Experience (QoE), it is proposed a model that reduces the response time between the player command and the stream of the resulting game scenes through a framework called Cloud Manager that use layer caching techniques, in the background, and future state prediction using a prediction matrix, in the character layer. To validate the results, a action game with god-view as point of view is used in a Cloud Gaming system called Uniquitous.

An increasing amount of people play games in their spare time, especially children and teenagers. Several studies have shown a positive correlation between gaming and ESL grades. It is therefore important to examine how teacher perceive and use games and extramural gaming in their classrooms, which is the aim of this thesis. In order to fulfil this aim, the research questions "how and to what extent are games used in the classroom", "how and to what extent is gaming as an extramural activity used in the classroom" and "what attitudes do teachers have towards using games or extramural gaming in the classroom" were used. Data was gathered using a mixed-methods design with a questionnaire and interviews. The questionnaire was distributed to 53 Swedish ESL teachers (47 of which completed the entire questionnaire), and three Swedish ESL teachers were then interviewed to provide further information. The results showed that games are not used in these teachers’ Swedish EFL classrooms, and students’ interest in games as an extramural activity is only used to a very small extent in their classrooms. The participating teachers’ attitudes were mildly positive to the possibility of students learning from games, and positive to the possibility of student becoming more interested if games were used or referenced in education. However, teachers could generally not see themselves using gaming to their advantage, and many claimed not to know how they would use games or their student’s extramural gaming in the classroom. This suggests a lack of knowledge among the teachers, and a need for further education on the subject so that the full potential of this increasingly popular extramural activity can be taken advantage of in the classroom.