This thesis shines a light on tools that can be used in order to create persuasive and meaningful video games. This research was designed as an exploration of the game Behind Every Great One, with the purpose to determine if and how the game could attain a persuasive and meaningful representation of a benevolent sexist situation. To achieve this, the research took on three different approaches: an interview with the developer, a textual analysis of the game, and a qualitative survey analysing players' reactions to, and perceptions of, the game. The findings suggest that displaying characters' emotions in ways that transmit them to the players, paired with a realistic, complex representation of the social situation portrayed, are imperative for making the game have a persuasive and meaningful impact on the players. The researcher also suggests the term persuasive meaningful play as an applicable way to refer to games that contain similar characteristics as Behind Every Great One.

In this paper I investigate what effects realistic elements in video games have on the gaming experience. By using the term meaningful play as a guide to find the important parts that make up a good gaming experience, I look at a series of realism-based video games and try to uncover what parts of the gaming experience are made up of realistic factors. I do this by allowing six respondents to play different video games and then I interview them about the experience. The results are then analysed by using the term meaningful play to measure the amount of meaning different realistic factors have on a gaming experience in general. The definitive answer is that realism indeed play a significant role, especially graphically. Realistic game mechanics are not as crucial though, and in most cases, accessibility is of much higher value to the common player.

The purpose of this thesis was to find whether the abstraction of dialogue responses in computerized role-playing games could affect role-players’ immersion, PC control, and the meaningfulness of play. Two versions of the same role-playing scenario were created and tested by a group of eight players who all had role-played previously. Though results show that both interfaces come with pros and cons neither interface was found to be superior for role-playing. Rather it was a question of players favoring different ways of being presented with information. A more extensive study with more respondents is necessary to find out if role-players in general prefer either.

<p>Reklamspel är ett verktyg inom reklambranschen, en bransch som undergått stor förändring under senare års digitala utveckling. Denna förändring uppmanar ständigt till bredare kunskap och högre förståelse hos både skapare och användare.</p><p>Syftet med uppsatsen var att påbörja ett ramverk för skapandet av “bra” reklamspel. För det krävdes att ordet “bra” definierades och kunde förstås så att även diskussionen kring spel och reklam förbättrades.</p><p>Det material som uppsatsen grundats i kommer från en två månader lång praktik där ett reklamspel producerades och från det designdokument som digitalbyrån North Kingdom lämnade efter sitt reklamspel, The Coke Zero Game.</p><p>Med kvalitativa metoder samlades resultat in och jämfördes mot en teoretiskgrund byggd på kunskap inom marknadsföring, interaktions- och speldesign, användbarhet och uttryck ofta använda i spelsammanhang. Detta ledde efter analys tillslutsatser i form av ett ramverk på egenskaper som reklamspel bör sträva efter.</p> / <p>An advergame is a tool for the business of advertisment, a business which has during the past years of digital evolution gone through a lot of change. This change demands greater knowledge and a better understanding amongst both the creators and users of the games.</p><p>The purpose of the thesis was to initiate a framework for the creation of “good” advergames. For this the word “good” needed to be defined and understood so that also the discussion regarding games and advertising could improve.</p><p>The material which the thesis was based on originated from an advergame created during a two month long internship and from the design document that the digital agency North Kingdom released after their advergame, The Coke Zero Game.</p><p>With qualitative methods, results were collected and later on examined against a theoretic base of knowledge surrounding marketing, interaction- and game design, useability and common expressions used in the context of games. After the analysis the conclusions narrowed down into a framework of qualities that an advergame should strive for.</p>

Reklamspel är ett verktyg inom reklambranschen, en bransch som undergått stor förändring under senare års digitala utveckling. Denna förändring uppmanar ständigt till bredare kunskap och högre förståelse hos både skapare och användare. Syftet med uppsatsen var att påbörja ett ramverk för skapandet av “bra” reklamspel. För det krävdes att ordet “bra” definierades och kunde förstås så att även diskussionen kring spel och reklam förbättrades. Det material som uppsatsen grundats i kommer från en två månader lång praktik där ett reklamspel producerades och från det designdokument som digitalbyrån North Kingdom lämnade efter sitt reklamspel, The Coke Zero Game. Med kvalitativa metoder samlades resultat in och jämfördes mot en teoretiskgrund byggd på kunskap inom marknadsföring, interaktions- och speldesign, användbarhet och uttryck ofta använda i spelsammanhang. Detta ledde efter analys tillslutsatser i form av ett ramverk på egenskaper som reklamspel bör sträva efter. / An advergame is a tool for the business of advertisment, a business which has during the past years of digital evolution gone through a lot of change. This change demands greater knowledge and a better understanding amongst both the creators and users of the games. The purpose of the thesis was to initiate a framework for the creation of “good” advergames. For this the word “good” needed to be defined and understood so that also the discussion regarding games and advertising could improve. The material which the thesis was based on originated from an advergame created during a two month long internship and from the design document that the digital agency North Kingdom released after their advergame, The Coke Zero Game. With qualitative methods, results were collected and later on examined against a theoretic base of knowledge surrounding marketing, interaction- and game design, useability and common expressions used in the context of games. After the analysis the conclusions narrowed down into a framework of qualities that an advergame should strive for.

In 2015, the Narrative model was created as a result of a study exploring how episodic games keep player’s interests through combining narrative and gameplay. In this thesis, the Narrative model is used as a framework for designing a language game for children to see whether that makes players more inclined to keep playing than a game not designed based on the model. Two games were created and evaluated in a within subject controlled experiment. Player enjoyment was measured by using GameFlow as a basis for interview questions and Likert scales. The results indicated that the game based on the model more successfully achieved GameFlow than the game that was not. As such, it was concluded that the model can be used as a tool for game design to increase the desire to keep playing a game, but that it needs further study to be validated.