Ad-hoc wireless networking has recently become a standard feature of handheld video gaming systems. This capability, along with the portability of the devices, increases the number of places where people can easily engage in multiplayer games. The Nintendo DS, a handheld gaming system with ad-hoc wireless networking, has sold 64 million units worldwide. Its feature set, combined with its ubiquity, enable new forms of multiplayer gaming to emerge. Understanding how people adopt this technology is important for proposing how future handheld gaming systems could be better designed. This thesis reports findings from a qualitative study investigating the collocated multiplayer gaming practices of Nintendo DS users. Through interviews with fifteen DS owners and observations of seven organized public gaming events we examined why, where, and who participants played with, as well as the details of how games were formed, carried out, and experienced as social activities. With this data it is possible to describe how the DS's unique characteristics impact multiplayer gaming practices and the social gaming experience. From our data, we identified three major themes surrounding the social, multiplayer gaming practices of DS users: renegade gaming, or the notion that users reappropriate locations and contexts for multiplayer gaming, and social boundaries on multiplayer gaming contexts; practical and social barriers to the formation of pick-up games; and private gaming spheres, or the individualized gaming contexts that the handheld device's form factor creates within larger social contexts. These findings lead us to propose a set of design implications for future handheld gaming systems in order to better support pick-up gaming and sharing experiences with groups and crowds.

Ad-hoc wireless networking has recently become a standard feature of handheld video gaming systems. This capability, along with the portability of the devices, increases the number of places where people can easily engage in multiplayer games. The Nintendo DS, a handheld gaming system with ad-hoc wireless networking, has sold 64 million units worldwide. Its feature set, combined with its ubiquity, enable new forms of multiplayer gaming to emerge. Understanding how people adopt this technology is important for proposing how future handheld gaming systems could be better designed. This thesis reports findings from a qualitative study investigating the collocated multiplayer gaming practices of Nintendo DS users. Through interviews with fifteen DS owners and observations of seven organized public gaming events we examined why, where, and who participants played with, as well as the details of how games were formed, carried out, and experienced as social activities. With this data it is possible to describe how the DS's unique characteristics impact multiplayer gaming practices and the social gaming experience. From our data, we identified three major themes surrounding the social, multiplayer gaming practices of DS users: renegade gaming, or the notion that users reappropriate locations and contexts for multiplayer gaming, and social boundaries on multiplayer gaming contexts; practical and social barriers to the formation of pick-up games; and private gaming spheres, or the individualized gaming contexts that the handheld device's form factor creates within larger social contexts. These findings lead us to propose a set of design implications for future handheld gaming systems in order to better support pick-up gaming and sharing experiences with groups and crowds.

Background Svenska Spel is a regulated company run by the state and government, where CSR, community and social responsibility is in focus. The highly regulated Swedish gaming market has in recent years become more exposed to competition by foreign unregulated betting companies thru Internet. Problem discussion There are two views regarding CSR and how they are affecting competitive advantage and profitability. On one hand, it suggests that companies foremost shall focus profits and act in the best interest of the shareholders. On the other hand, it connects CSR to be a contributor to competitive advantage that increases the company’s profitability. Problem formulation Svenska Spel is competing with other betting companies who doesn´t act under the same conditions, betting companies that don´t have a responsibility to the state. Svenska Spel has legal obligations to adopt CSR into their business. The other companies choose themselves how they want to act with CSR on the gaming market, they have greater opportunities to choose a strategy that they think is the best. Problem definition Which approach has the unregulated gaming companies on CSR compared with Svenska Spel and their social responsibility in the gaming market? Purpose The purpose of this paper is to compare Svenska Spel with unregulated gambling companies based on how they present and use CSR in the gaming market. Method The scientific method in this study adopted a qualitative, deductive approach with a descriptive touch. The study was based upon the theoretical concepts of CSR and competition, and applied to the empirical study, consisting of data from interviews and secondary sources. The empirical data were the basis for the authors' interpretations through the theoretical frame to complete analyzes and conclusions. Conclusion Svenska Spel´s CSR is deeply implemented in their business and strategies and is the basis for how they operate. The unregulated companies see CSR as a sideline with a relatively strong focus on player responsibility, which also is Svenska Spel´s most important part. Every company in this study upholds an 18-year-old limit for games and the biggest difference between Svenska Spel and the unregulated gaming companies is the player’s budget limit, at Svenska Spel it is mandatory to define your playing budget limit in order to access the games, at the unregulated companies it is optional.

The purpose of this paper was to study the information behaviour of players in an online computer game, namely the MMORPG1 World of Warcraft. To this end a survey was constructed to gather empirical data about the habits of players. In the survey the respondent was presented with four different scenarios and asked to first rank these by complexity and then answering which path they usually take to satisfy the informational need. The complexity was introduced as a possible contributing factor influencing the path taken. A study of different principles relevant to information behaviour was completed and in addition to the main theory, theory regarding social capital and information gatekeepers was included. Some background to what kind of different online games there are and what an MMORPG is. A total of 58 responses was collected and although the data wasn't deemed descriptive of the population as a whole, it showed quite clearly that within the context of World of Warcraft the most common way to fulfil an information need is by visiting a third-party website to obtain the needed information. Out of 229 possible responses spread over the four different scenarios, a staggering 177 answered that they visit a third-party website. This however resonates well with the principle of least effort, where a seeker always aim to use the path that over time results in the least effort.

Shadow economy is affecting economic behavior of human beings in almost the same mode as mainstream economy, yet it is difficult to evaluate in same economic mode and it has heavy impact on the regulation of a government. Gaming is one of the most possible shadow economic activities. The regulation of government over gaming is in one way in paternalism, telling its subjects that gaming is not a good behavior and gambling is forbidden. But on the other way, in the name of social welfare, the government is playing as banker and make it public to promote. The conflict and contradiction are generated in different systems. Taking the overseas successful development of the gaming policy and studying and discussing the provisions governing the gaming and entertainment of tourist casinos, the government has gone through years of debates. Although it allows the off-shore areas to develop gaming industry, the gaming industry areas will be allowed to run only on condition that they pass the referendum. However, there are a lot of counties and cities in Taiwan also bent on gaining the benefit of gaming industry and actively striving to set up tourist casinos. Bound by the institution and the subjective values of different stakeholders, resulting in differences in cognition and leading to conflict, the government is still wavering between regulation and deregulation. This study combines th institutional analysis and development with the cross-border analysis of the public affairs management framework, exploring and analyzing the institution and condition of gaming governance. Besides, from the angle of cognition, take the regulation and deregulation of tourist casinos of Kaohsiung city to question a number of people as a variable, also to explore the government employees, policemen and city people of different interests, asking them what they think about the benefit and cost of different gaming policies, including their information, cognitive algebra confirmation and the social welfare standard of the system. Moreover, use three strategic decisions such as economic industry, social culture, and the facilities of environment as reference to explore the cognitive conflicts of different interest groups. The results of this study are as follows: I. Cognitive algebra confirmation. i. With regard to the regulated tourist casinos situation, the city government employees use equal-weight averaging model to integrate benefit and cost information in whole analysis, and with regard to the deregulated tourist casinos situation, they use different-weight averaging model to integrate information in whole analysis. ii. With regard to the regulated and deregulated tourist casinos situation, policemen use unequal right and weight average model to integrate benefit and cost information in whole analysis. iii. With regard to the regulated and deregulated tourist casinos situation, city people use equal right and weight average model to integrate information. iv. When city government employees compare the right and weight of the deregulated tourist casinos situation, the right and weight of benefit are greater than those of cost. v. When policemen compare the right and weight of the regulated and deregulated tourist casinos situation, the right and weight of benefit are greater than those of cost. II. Social welfare standard. i. With regard to the social welfare standard of the regulated tourist casinos situation, city people have the highestr social benefit standard, then city government employees, and policemen are the lowest. There are noticeable differences between policemen and city people. ii. With regard to the social welfare standard of the deregulated tourist casinos situation, policemen have the highest social welfare standard, then the city government employees, and city people are the lowest. However, there is little noticeable difference among the three groups. iii. With regard to the social welfare standard of the deregulated tourist casinos situation, the three groups have higher standard than that of the regulated one. III. Clarification of cognitive conflict. i. Three variables such as economic industry, social culture, and the facilities of environment are useful variables for exploring the effective strategic decisions of the regulated or deregulated tourist casinos situation ii. In the judgment in the regulated tourist casinos situation, the priority order of the relative right and weight of three variables such as economic industry, social culture, and the facilities of environment is as follows: with city government employees: the highest is social culture; then comes the economic industry, the lowest is the facilities of environment; with policemen, the highest is social culture, then economic industry, and the lowest is the facilities of environment; with city people, the highest is economic industry, then social culture, and the lowest is the facilities of environment. iii. In the judgment in the deregulated tourist casinos situation, the priority order of the relative right and weight of three variables such as economic industry, social culture and the facilities of environment is as follows: with city government employees , the highest is economic industry, then social culture, and the lowest is the facilities of environment: with policemen, the highest is social culture, then economic industry and the lowest is the facilities of environment: with city people, the highest is economic industry, then social culture, and the lowest is the facilities of environment. iv. Three variables as reference for strategic decisions such as economic industry, social culture, and the facilities of environment are all related to the acceptable judgment of the regulated or deregulated tourist casinos situation.

In the networks of relationships that influence others behavior and attitude are called opinion leaders. The two-step flow theory suggests that information through a variety of media will receive by opinion leaders, and the opinion leaders will spread the information and have the effect to other people. Today's consumer market companies often offer a trial to the high popularity bloggers for product placement, to establish a positive attitude, good reputation, and to enhance consumers purchase behavior. The views of opinion leaders in the virtual community, either positive or negative affect, all have impact to the members of the community (Bansal & Voyer, 2000). In this study, we view the Xbox LIFE community website as a research field, and use depth interviews of qualitative research as a major research method. Through the depth interview we can know the type difference of community website members and understand how the opinion leaders in the community convey the information. In this study we found that opinion leaders¡¦high degree of participation and professional knowledge in the community played a great influence in the community. The opinion leaders¡¦ speeches and views have also become the main sources to the members of the group.This study will help enterprises to seek more marketing-effective way in use online WMO(word of mouth) in the future. From this study we can find that to operate the community website are not just set up the fan pages just because the community websites are in vogue. We must discover the key to affect the community websites¡¦ members, and create the way to bring the community members together. That is the key to promote brand and service.

¡@¡@By applying ¡§Case Study¡¨ as a research method, this essay is to explore the risk types derived from ¡§The Standardized Contract for Online Game¡¨ for the game operator to analyze the level of risks, as well as to know the implementing way for dealing with the risk. By interpreting these processes which may caused the impact on stakeholders, the study eventually makes a conclusion and suggestions for reducing the risk and settling the disputes. ¡@¡@The research result in the study has shown that the customers are protected effectively along with the implementation of ¡§The Standardized Contract for Online Game ¡¨ through rebuilding format and functions of contract itself. Reduce the consumer complaints such as account hack successfully. Relatively, government takes advantage of it; instead, the risk to the corporation management is increasing. As a result, it takes methodology, negotiation capability, business process to prevent, shift or take the risk at one¡¦s own risk. In this study, the stakeholders like consumers, employees and government are impacted the most, following with suppliers and distributors. Because of ¡§The Standardized Contract for Online Game ¡¨, each party undertakes the circumstance of risk transfer with others.

Recent advances in the field of educational technology have promoted the re-purposing of entertainment-oriented games and software for educational applications. This thesis extends a project developed at Texas A&M University called Room 309, a re-purposed modification of Valve Software’s Source Development Kit that models classroom scenarios to pre-service teachers. To further explore effectiveness in the area of re-playability, this work incorporates emergent game behaviors and environments using cellular automata, randomness, and influence maps within the existing nonemergent structure. By introducing these qualities game play is expected to become less predictable, thus increasing the effectiveness of Room 309 as a learning tool.

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Den sociala videoplattformen YouTube firar i år sitt 10-årsjubileum och har under den tiden bildat en kraftfull kultur. Över en biljard användare som delar och tittar på videoklipp innebär att tusentals individer kan kalla webbplatsen YouTube för sin arbetsplats. Genom att skapa videoklipp som många tycker om bildas en enorm attraktion till vissa kanaler och utifrån detta genereras så kallade YouTube-kändisar. Den här kvalitativa studien dyker in i upplevelsen av att inneha en populär YouTube kanal genom att intervjua fem individer som besitter just en sådan. Är det verkligen drömjobbet som alla talar om? Resultaten visar en talande ökning av entreprenörskap på YouTube. För att bygga en publik krävs strategi och passion. Denna undersökning resulterar i en överläggande förståelse för hur deras personliga framgång har gått till, men även en aning om var YouTube är på väg i framtiden.