Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Hospitality Management and Dietetics / Deborah D. Canter / SooCheong Jang / Senior casino gaming has been appearing as a leisure activity for the senior population as well as a research topic for many researchers from various academic disciplines. Finding out important reasons or motivations for older adults spending time in casino gaming will be the one of the fundamental ways to determine their future casino patronage intention. Accordingly, this study identifies a comprehensive inventory of senior casino gaming motivations by way of an exploratory approach. Followed Churchill’s (1979) scale development procedure, the study generated a to find five distinctive senior casino gaming motivation dimensions: winning and thrill, socialization, escape, enjoyment, and curiosity. Ultimately, confirmatory factor estimates supported that the finalized measure was unidimensional, reliable, and valid while the measurement scale was parsimonious and captured various dimensions of senior casino gaming motivation. The second part of this study investigated the applicability of an extended theory of planned behavior (TPB) with motivation component attached in context of senior casino gaming behavior. Seniors’ past casino visit was also tested for a moderator effect between the major predictor variables (attitude, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control, and motivation) and seniors’ casino behavioral intention. The findings of a structural equation modeling suggested that all predictable variables of TPB had positive effects on seniors’ casino gaming intention. Among senior casino gaming motivation, ‘winning and thrill’ and ‘enjoyment’ had direct positive effects on behavioral intention. The results of metric invariance test for moderating role of past casino visit showed that there was no indication of seniors’ past casino visit having any influence on their intention to participate in casino gaming. The overall study results suggested that the proposed extended model is a useful tool to use in studying of senior casino gaming behavior. In conclusion, theoretical and practical implications of the study findings were discussed.

Le Cloud computing émerge comme le nouveau paradigme informatique dans lequel la virtualisation des ressources fournit des services fiables correspondant aux demandes des utilisateurs. De nos jours, la plupart des applications interactives et utilisant beaucoup de données sont développées sur le cloud: Le jeu vidéo en est un exemple. Avec l'arrivée du cloud computing, l'accessibilité et l'ubiquité du jeu ont un brillant avenir; Les jeux peuvent être hébergés dans un serveur centralisé et accessibles via l'Internet par un client léger sur une grande variété de dispositifs avec des capacités modestes : c'est le cloud gaming. Le Cloud computing, dans le contexte de jeu vidéo a beaucoup attiré l'attention en raison de ses facilités d'évolution, de disponibilité et capacité de calcul. Cependant, les systèmes de cloud gaming actuels ont des exigences très fortes en termes de ressources réseau, réduisant ainsi l'accessibilité et l'ubiquité des jeux dans le cloud, car les dispositifs clients avec peu de bande passante et les personnes situées dans la zone avec des conditions de réseau limitées et/ou instables, ne peuvent pas bénéficier de ces services de cloud computing. Dans cette thèse, nous présentons une technique d'adaptation inspirée par l'approche du niveau de détail (Level of detail) dans les graphiques 3D. Elle est basée sur un paradigme du cloud gaming dans l'objectif de fournir une accessibilité multi-plateforme, tout en améliorant la qualité d'expérience (QoE) du joueur en réduisant l'impact des mauvaises conditions réseau (delai, perte, gigue) sur l'interactivité et réactivité du jeu. Notre première contribution se compose de modèles de jeu reliant les objets du jeu à leurs besoins en termes de communication représentés par leurs importances dans le jeu. Nous avons ensuite fourni une approche de niveau de détail pour gérer la distribution des ressources réseau basée sur l'importance des objets dans la scène et les conditions réseau. Nous validons notre approche en utilisant des jeu prototypes et evaluons la QoE du joueur, par des expériences pilotes. Les résultats montrent que le framework proposé fournit une importante amélioration de la QoE. / With the arrival of cloud computing technology, game accessibility and ubiquity havea bright future. Games can be hosted in a centralize server and accessed through theInternet by a thin client on a wide variety of devices with modest capabilities: cloudgaming. Some of the advantages of using cloud computing in game context includes:device ubiquity, computing exibility, affordable cost and lowered set up overheads andcompatibility issues. However, current cloud gaming systems have very strong requirementsin terms of network resources, thus reducing their widespread adoption. In factdevices with little bandwidth and people located in area with limited network capacity,cannot take advantage of these cloud services. In this thesis we present an adaptationtechnique inspired by the level of detail (LoD) approach in 3D graphics. It is based ona cloud gaming paradigm in other to maintain user's quality of experience (QoE) byreducing the impact of poor network parameters (delay, loss, bandwidth) on game interactivity.Our first contribution consist of game models expressing game objects and theircommunications needs represented by their importance in the game. We provided twodifferent ways to manage objects' importance using agents organizations and gameplaycomponents. We then provided a level of detail approach for managing network resourcedistribution based on objects importance in the game scene and network conditions. Weexploited the dynamic objects importance adjustment models presented above to proposeLoD systems adapting to changes during game sessions. The experimental validation ofboth adaptation models showed that the suggested adaptation minimizes the effects oflow and/or unstable network conditions in maintaining game responsiveness and player'sQoE.

Abstract available through Journal of Geriatric Physical Therapy.

Syfte: Syftet med studien är att undersöka marknadsföringskostnadernas påverkan på EBIT hos spelbolag som erhållit svensk spellicens, och korrelationen mellan europeiska spelbolags marknadsföringskostnader mot omsättning och EBIT hos svenska spelföretag. Metod: Uppsatsen utgår ifrån en kvantitativ metod och en deduktiv ansats. Data har hämtats från databasen Retriever Business samt spelbolagens årsredovisningar. Resultatet fås fram genom en tidsserieanalys, kointegrationstest samt regression. Slutsats: Syftet med studien var att undersöka marknadsföringskostnader och dess påverkan på EBIT hos spelbolag som erhållit svensk spellicens, och korrelationen mellan europeiska spelbolags marknadsföringskostnader mot omsättning och EBIT hos svenska spelföretag. Det förväntade resultatet var att ökade marknadsföringskostnader påverkar omsättning samt EBIT positivt, vilket bekräftades av resultatet från tidsserieanalysen, kointegrationstestet samt regressionsanalysen / Purpose: The aim of the study is to investigate the impact of marketing costs on EBIT in gambling companies that have received Swedish gaming license, and the correlation between European gambling companies marketing costs against sales and EBIT in Swedish gambling companies. Method: The thesis is based on a quantitative method and a deductive approach. The data has been retrieved from the database Retriever Business and the gambling companies annual reports. The result is obtained through a time series analysis, cointegration test and regression. Conclusion: The aim of the study is to investigate the impact of marketing costs on EBIT in gambling companies that have received Swedish gaming license, and the correlation between European gambling companies marketing costs against sales and EBIT in Swedish gambling companies. The expected result was that increasing marketing costs affected sales and EBIT positively, which was confirmed by the results from the time series analysis, the cointegration test and the regression analysis.

No description available.

Introduction: the playing of massively multiplayer online role - playing games (MMORPG) has been connected with computer technologies for few years. Despite the fact that the addiction on online role playing game is not officially in MKN - 10, it takes after gaming disorder following place within behavioral addictions. Aim: the main aim of the work was to describe the perception of subjective experience of gamers playing online games. Research questions regarded types of experience of gamers, incidence of addiction behavior, gamers differences in experience with and without addiction symptoms. Final question concerned gamers ability to be aware of addiction behavior. Methods and sample: the intentional sampling was used to obtain participants, including snow ball method through informants. Subsequently semistructured interviews were carried out. All participants filled out the record sheet showing sociodemographic data and questionairre of online gaming addiction. The research group consist of 9 participants, their mean gaming time was 15 hours per week, the participants ranged in age from 17 to 40 years. Results: from the interviews taken a few themes emerged. Subjective gamer's experience were positive and negative, positive dominated by most of gamers. In context of experience, the majority...

With the rapid expansion of e-sports, the e-sports federation in Sweden seeks legitimacy and support in their efforts to gain recognition as a real sport. With this background, a bill has been proposed to the National Sports Association of Sweden to include the movement as a member of the organization. Thus, granting the official legitimacy and support that the e-sports movement seeks as a sport. The purpose if this study was to examine how sports clubs perceive e-sports to see if they think it has a place within the context of a traditional sports club. The method used to retrieve this data was semi-structured interviews with key decision makers within the sports clubs randomly chosen within a specific county. The purpose was examined by breaking it down into three key questions, which were then used as headlines in the result. The results of the study are that there is a willingness among most of the sports clubs to begin the work of integrating e-sports within the club, but there were requirements. One of them was drift from the starters so that the board of direction can keep doing what they do, thus they want the e-sports section to operate on its own. Another requirement was that those who wish to start the e-sports sections know the economic parameters, preferably. The less enthusiastic leaders who did not wish to integrate e-sports still wished to learn more about e-sports as they saw that it will keep expanding, these leaders were however somewhat doubtful of how an e-sports club could be integrated into a sports club and what benefits there might be for both parties in this cooperation.

This is a qualitative study of motivators for gaming. The method used was grounded theory and data was collected through internet surveys on gaming forums, followed by further questions through e-mails. The data was analysed with affinity diagrams categorized by content to identify patterns. The results show that, entertainment, interactivity, experience and escapism are the overall motivating factors, while the factors that motivate players to play a specific game are narrative, gameplay, social and aesthetics. Furthermore, it was possible to find indications of a relationship between these factors.

Electronic sports (esports) is an activity in which players compete against each other in video games. It could be beneficial for the esports industry if players were to perform more consistently. The user interface in the game is one aspect that could impact player performance. In this study, the six user interface element types defined by Fagerholt and Lorentzon in 2009 were used as the context for comparing player performance. The purpose of this thesis was to discover how the graphical user interface of competitive first-person shooter (FPS) games affect the player’s ability to perform mechanically and comprehend information, as well as determining what players value in such user interfaces. This was achieved through the use of experiments and interviews in the context of a game that was developed for this study. In the game, the participants played through levels with different user interfaces in which player performance was tracked. This study discovered that the diegetic user interface performed the best in mechanical performance and information comprehension. Meta-perception resulted in some of the worst mechanical performance. More cluttered user interfaces appeared to worsen reaction times. There was also a vague indication suggesting that more cluttered user interfaces worsen information comprehension. In terms of user preferences, the non-diegetic user interface was the most preferred. In contrast, the participants preferred the geometric user interface the least. Through the thematic analysis, it was discovered that various factors may be beneficial to consider when designing user interfaces using different types of elements. The factors are beneficial to consider because they may affect player performance. The factors are concerned with the following: information balance, contrast, clutteredness, use of numbers, position of elements, use of health bars, element sizes and presentation of ammunition stacks. However, further studies generating statistically significant results would be required to confirm these insights.

The study aimed to explore the experiences of dual career (DC) among Swedish student-eSport players from a holistic perspective, and focused on the challenges faced in DC, the coping strategies used, and how DC influenced the student-eSport players. Interviews were conducted with 7 student-eSport players enrolled in an upper secondary school or university providing DC supportive resources. The participants were all males between 16 and 22 years of age (M= 18, SD= 2.16). The works of Stambulova et al. (2015) and Henriksen (2010) served as foundations in creating the two semi-structured interview guides used by the authors. The authors performed a thematic analysis of the data to identify experiences relevant to the concepts of dual career and athlete talent development. The results showed that the participants’ experienced challenges related to eSports, school, and their private lives. Their private lives were perceived to be the most challenging due to the need of balancing their time between their meaningful relationships and DC demands. Coping strategies claimed to be used were time management, physical activity, and relying on their supportive network. The supportive network encompassing the coach, school environment, friends, partner, and family were identified as a coping resource in congruence with the participants’ individual skills. Positive influence of DC on the student-eSport players was found in both academical and eSport, but negative in private life due to experiencing a lack of time to dedicate to family and friends. The results of the study reveal that Swedish student-eSport players’ DC experiences share similarities with those experienced by student-athletes in traditional sports, and highlights challenges and positive benefits associated with combining eSports with studies. / Studiens syfte var att utforska erfarenheterna av dubbla karriär (DC) bland svenska eSport-spelare ur ett holistiskt perspektiv, och fokuserade på att undersöka utmaningar som uppstod, coping-strategier som användes, och hur DC påverkade student-eSport spelarna. Intervjuer utfördes med 7 student-eSport spelare antagna på gymnasier eller universitet som erbjuder DC stöttande program. Deltagarna var män och var mellan 16 och 22 år gamla (M = 18, SD = 2,16). Arbetena av Stambulova et al. (2015) och Henriksen (2010) agerade grunder i skapandet av de två semi-strukturerade intervjuguiderna som användes av författarna. Författarna genomförde en tematisk analys av materialet för att identifiera erfarenheter relaterade till koncepten av dubbla karriärer och talangutveckling. Resultatet visade att student-eSport spelarna upplevde utmaningar relaterade till eSport, akademiskt och i sitt privatliv. Privatlivet upplevdes som det mest krävande på grund av att svårigheter med att balansera sin tid mellan sina meningsfulla relationer och kravställningar i DC. Copingstrategier som användes av deltagarna var tidshantering, fysisk aktivitet, samt att använda sig av sitt stödjande nätverk. Det stödjande nätverket innehållandes tränare, skolmiljö, vänner och familj fungerade även som en coping-resurs i samverkan med deltagarnas individuella kunskaper. Det inflytande DC hade på student-eSport spelarna var både positivt och negativt på olika områden. Positivt inflytande identifierades i både akademisk och eSport men negativt i privatlivet på grund av brist på tid att ägna till familj och vänner. Studiens resultat visar att svenska student-eSport spelares upplevelser av DC delar likheter med de upplevda av student-atleter i traditionella idrotter, och framhäver de utmaningar och positiva fördelar relaterade till att kombinera eSport med studier.