Imagination and fantasy environments created by writers and artists have always drawn people into their worlds. Advances in technology have blurred the lines between reality and imagination. My interest has always been to question the validity of these worlds and their cultures and to transcend the evolving virtual dimension by fusing it with what we perceive to be reality.

The objective of this study was to investigate how players experience learning English through playing the popular MMORPG Final Fantasy XIV. It also discussed the improvement in English skills achieved through playing the game, exploring what aspects they have improved and how they were able to do that. This research may interest individuals seeking to understand how video games can improve language skills. Moreover, it is relevant to those who play MMORPGs, a genre where players can experience and practice real-life situations and roles. The research has been done through conducting semi-structured qualitative online interviews with six informants from different backgrounds and English levels. During the interviews, informants were questioned about their experience with learning English while playing Final Fantasy XIV. The results suggested that they improved their vocabulary knowledge and their communication skills through using productive skills with other players. Furthermore, players had different experiences on how they have learned, a few of them learned through repetition and exposure to the game’s content.

Introducció: L'addicció a Internet i l'abús d'altres tecnologies són tòpics molt estudiats en els darrers anys malgrat encara no s'ha aconseguit el consens respecte al seu diagnòstic, definició i instruments per a la seva detecció. Objectiu principal: Analitzar si Internet, el telèfon mòbil, els jocs de rol en línia (MMORPG) i altres tecnologies de la informació i la comunicació poden ser addictives. En cas que ho siguin, explorar i descriure les característiques que tindrien aquestes addiccions i elaborar un instrument per al seu diagnòstic.Instruments utilitzats: CERI, CERM, Trait Meta-Mood Scale (TMMS-24) i Symptom Checklist-90-R (SCL-90-R). Anàlisis: bibliomètrica, teòrica, psicomètrica, correlacional i de regressió.Resultats: En l'anàlisi bibliomètrica s'observà que els anys de més producció científica sobre l'addicció a Internet, mòbil i videojocs foren el 2004 i el 2005. "Internet Addiction" es la cerca que produeix més resultats i l'anglès és l'idioma principal. De l'anàlisi teòrica s'extreuen els criteris diagnòstics per a l'addicció a Internet: dependència psicològica (focalització, pèrdua de control, craving i modificacions en l'estat d'ànim) i efectes perjudicials greus (intra i interpersonals). En l'anàlisi psicomètrica s'elaboren el CERI i el CERM, dues escales breus que avaluen les conseqüències negatives degudes a un ús excessiu d'Internet i mòbil, respectivament. Les dones es caracteritzaren per utilitzar el mòbil com a mitjà per expressar i comunicar les emocions i tenir, en general, puntuacions més elevades en el CERM. L'ús d'ambdues tecnologies és més problemàtic en l'adolescència. L'anàlisi correlacional i de regressió mostrà relació entre la Intel·ligència Emocional Percebuda i l'ús desadaptatiu d'Internet i de mòbil. En major grau, l'ús desadaptatiu d'Internet mostrà relació amb el malestar psicològic.Conclusions: Internet i, concretamentels jocs de rol en línia (MMORPG) i els xats oberts (IRC), són susceptibles de provocar addicció i efectes perjudicials greus. Les altres tecnologies poden provocar abús, sobre tot, en els més joves. El CERI i CERM són dues escales que faciliten la detecció de les conseqüències negatives degudes a l'abús però que no substitueixen l'entrevista clínica diagnòstica. S'observa una prevalença baixa d'addicció a Internet i d'abús de mòbil entre els joves universitaris. El tractament per addicció a MMORPG ha de ser multimodal, flexible i individualitzat i els criteris per al diagnòstic han de ser menys rigorosos i apostar per una detecció precoç i preventiva. / Introducción: La adicción a Internet y el abuso de otras tecnologías son tópicos muy estudiados en los últimos años aunque todavía no se ha alcanzado el consenso respecto a su diagnóstico, definición e instrumentos para su detección.Objetivo principal: Analizar si Internet, el teléfono móvil, los juegos de rol en línea (MMORPG) y otras tecnologías de la información y la comunicación pueden ser adictivas. En caso de que lo sean, explorar y describir las características que tendrían dichas adicciones y elaborar un instrumento para su diagnóstico.Instrumentos utilizados: CERI, CERM, Trait Meta-Mood Scale (TMMS-24) y Symptom Checklist-90-R (SCL-90-R). Análisis: bibliométrico, teórico, psicométrico, correlacional y de regresión.Resultados: En el análisis bibliométrico se observó que los años de más producción científica sobre la adicción a Internet, móvil y videojuegos fueron el 2004 y el 2005. "Internet Addiction" es la búsqueda que produce más resultados y el inglés es el idioma principal. Del análisis teórico se extraen los criterios diagnósticos para la adicción a Internet: dependencia psicológica (focalización, pérdida de control, craving y modificaciones en el estado de ánimo) y efectos perjudiciales graves (intra e interpersonales). En el análisis psicométrico se elaboran el CERI y el CERM, dos escalas breves que evalúan las consecuencias negativas debidas a un uso excesivo de Internet y móvil, respectivamente. Las mujeres se caracterizaron por utilizar el móvil como medio para expresar y comunicar las emociones y tener, en general, puntuaciones más elevadas en el CERM. El uso de ambas tecnologías es más problemático en la adolescencia. El análisis correlacional y de regresión mostró relación entre la Inteligencia Emocional Percibida y el uso desadaptativo de Internet y de móvil. En mayor grado, el uso desadaptativo de Internet mostró relación con el malestar psicológico.Conclusiones: Internet y, concretamente los juegos de rol en línea (MMORPG) y los chats abiertos (IRC), son susceptibles de provocar adicción y efectos perjudiciales graves. Las otras tecnologías pueden provocar abuso, sobre todo, en los más jóvenes. El CERI y CERM son dos escalas que facilitan la detección de las consecuencias negativas debidas al abuso pero que no sustituyen la entrevista clínica diagnóstica. Se observa una prevalencia baja de adicción a Internet y de abuso de móvil entre los jóvenes universitarios. El tratamiento por adicción en MMORPG tiene que ser multimodal, flexible e individualizado y los criterios para el diagnóstico tienen que ser menos rigurosos y apostar por una detección precoz y preventiva. / Introduction: Internet addiction and the abuse of other technologies are much studied topics in the last years in spite of it has not been achieved the consensus about its diagnosis, definition and instruments for its detection.Main goal: Analyzing if on-line role-play games (MMORPG) and other information and communication technologies can be addictives. In case they are, exploring and describing the characteristics that these addictions would have, and developing an instrument for its diagnosis.Used instruments: CERI, CERM, Trait Meta-Mood Scale (TMMS-24) and Symptom Checklist-90-R (SCL-90-R). Analysis: bibliometric, theoretical, psychometric, correlation and regression analysis.Results: In bibliometric analysis it was observed that the years of more scientific production about Internet addiction, cell phone and video games were 2004 and 2005. "Internet Addiction" is the search that produces more results and the English is the main language. The diagnostic criteria are extracted for Internet addiction in the theoretical analysis: psychological dependence (salience, loss of control, craving and mood modifications) and serious adverse effects (intra and interpersonal). CERI and CERM are elaborated in the psychometric analysis. They are two brief scales that evaluate negative consequences due to an excessive use of Internet and cell phone, respectively. Women were characterized by using the cell phone to express and communicating emotions and they have, in general, higher scores in CERM. The use of both technologies is more problematic in the adolescence. The correlation and regression analysis show the relation between the Perceived Emotional Intelligence and the Internet and cell phone disadaptative use. In major degree, disadaptative use of Internet shows relation with the psychological distress.Conclusions: Internet and, precisely, on-line role-play games (MMORPG) and Internet Real Chat are susceptible of provoking addiction and serious adverse effects. The other technologies can develop abuse, overall, in the youngest. CERI and CERM are two scales that facilitate the detection of negative consequences due to the abuse but they cannot substitute the diagnostic clinical interview. There is a low prevalence of Internet addiction and cell phone abuse among the college students. The treatment from addiction in MMORPG has to be multimodal, flexible and individualized and the criteria for the diagnosis have to be less rigorous and to consider a precocious and preventive detection.

The possibility of co-creation exists for all media, but game design has developed a culture that is unusually open to co-creation. This dissertation investigates significant cases of co-creation in mainstream games in order to explore how games can be co-created as alternative or critical media by their players. The core argument in the dissertation is that players co-create the design of a game only if certain conditions are met, namely: (1) player creation of a text or communication infrastructure that modifies the properties of the game and from which play emerges; (2) that this is done for a considerable group of players who share a particular practice of play; (3) that this is done not only by playing the game but by changing how others play it in a distinct creative activity, and (4), with the potential to subvert or contest the original design of the game. This situation where player creators have influence over the design of the game (but little power to enforce their interests) is problematic from the perspective of alternative or critical media, as alternative, local, production is seen as one reason for why a medium can have an alternative message. The industrial production of games as cultural commodities does limit the potential of co-creative game design for subversion because it reduces the level of participation in the creation process, thus keeping player creators relatively disempowered. Player creators do have influence on the design of the game, while at the same time having very little power to enforce their interests and design visions. The influence of player creators comes from the consumer power of millions of players who use co-created assets and who want to them to continue exiting, and this creates a mutually dependent relationship (and even partnership), between co-creators and commercial owners. The dissertation concludes that co-creative game design, despite limitations related to the industrial production of games as cultural commodities, is already happening, and shows a potential for turning games into alternative media.

玩大型多人角色扮演線上遊戲(MMORPGs)的行為在國內日漸普遍，但是許多人玩線上遊戲的現象卻經常被社會大眾和媒體報導認為是一種負面社會問題，並將玩遊戲與遊戲成癮作直接的連結。許多成癮研究也強化了「持續玩線上遊戲的行為，最終容易導致病態行為成癮的結果」之因果邏輯。但是，事實上許多玩家經常自行決定進入、持續玩，和退出一款線上遊戲，並非最終都會走向遊戲成癮的宿命。因此，本研究的主要目的即在於透過遊戲玩家的個人線上遊戲生命歷程，重新檢視遊戲「成癮」以及「玩線上遊戲便注定導致病態成癮」的邏輯。 運用深度訪談和參與觀察方法，描繪出線上遊戲玩家的長期線上遊戲生命歷程，再試圖詮釋他們離開、持續玩、退出遊戲這些投入程度的變化是受到哪些因素影響，以及在什麼脈絡之下做出的決定。本研究發現許多玩家曾經意識到自己「成癮」於玩線上遊戲，但是只是階段性的反常狀態，甚至是可以接受的一種生活方式。玩家們不只是受到線上遊戲設計的被動牽引而長時間持續投入大量心力玩遊戲，他們在玩遊戲的過程中，受到遊戲設計、玩家社群、生活脈絡和個人對於這些因素的價值判斷等多元因素的影響，持續調整和監控自己的遊戲行為和投入程度，從中協調出最能夠滿足他們的多元愉悅感。另外，當他們對於自己玩遊戲的投入程度感到疑惑時，傾向於尋求玩家社群的協助。因此，本研究認為玩線上遊戲導致病態成癮的論述須要被重新檢視，因為許多被認定為病態成癮的現象只是線上遊戲玩家生命過程中的片段現象。 / Playing massive multiplayer online role playing games (MMORPGs) has become a popular activity in Taiwan, but it has often been regarded as a social problem, linking to game addiction, by the mass media and the public. Many addiction researches have also enforced the logic that “pathological game addiction is the most likely result of continuous online gaming activity”. However, many gamers in fact often begin, continue, and quit playing an online game according to their own will, instead of ending up as a pathologic game addict. Therefore, the main purpose of this research is to re-approach game “addiction” and the logic of “online gamers are destined to be addicted” through gamers' online gaming life story. Using methods of depth interview and participant observation to depict gamers’ long-term online gaming life story, this research tries to interpret under what social context and influencing factors, do gamers change their attitude and effort to playing online games. Findings of this research tells us that many online gamers claim to have been “addicted” to online gaming some time in the past, but the “addiction” is only a certain stage in their long-term gaming life, and even regarded as a life-style by some. Online gamers do not continuously put a lot of effort to playing games just because they are attracted by the features of online game design. During the course of game play, they are persistently influenced by game design, gaming community, social context, and their own judgment of values. Also, they often self-monitor and re-adjust their gaming styles and effort, in order to meet their needs of multiple pleasures. Moreover, when gamers become confused of how they should re-adjust their gaming activities, they tend to search for assistance from the gaming community. Therefore, this research believes that the problematic logic of pathological game addiction being the final destined result of gaming should be reconsidered and understood from other perspectives, because many phenomenon currently considered pathologic addiction, may only be a short period or segment of gamers’ normal long-term online gaming life.

The theoretical part of this thesis describes addictive behavior on the Internet and on- line games, the profile of the target group of students in primary schools in connection with a range of personality traits in terms of posing a risk of substance use. The purpose of the research thesis is the implementation of a questionnaire study on the prevalence of addictive behavior in using the Internet to play on-line games and identify links between this behavior and the various activities carried out on the Internet, sociodemographic characteristics, experience with substance use and risk factors for anxiety, hopelessness, search experiences and impulsivity. The basic set consists of all students 6 to 9 years of school districts in Kolin and Kutna Hora. The aim is to get around the 50 respondents showing signs of addictive behavior or threat of execution dependency behavior of the correlation study, the research file contains more than 600 pupils.

<p>Massiva onlinerollspel är idag mycket populära och försäljningen och spelandet utav dessa ökar markant. I och med detta väcks frågan om vad det är i dessa onlinespel som gör att människor spelar och fortsätter spela. Denna uppsats inriktas främst mot MMORPG:s, Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games, då författarna anser att det är i denna onlinespelsgenre den största möjligheten att finna och definiera de faktorer, som påverkar</p><p>spelares vilja att spela, finns. För att ta reda på dessa faktorer skapades en enkät vars frågor utformades med en gameflowmodell i baktanken. Denna enkät lades sedan ut på sex olika onlinespelsanknutna forum, där totalt 105 spelare anonymt deltog. Den bygger dock även på tidigare gjorda undersökningar och rapporter om onlinespelandets anledningar, analyserade artiklar inom ämnet MMORPG spel och sist men inte minst författarnas egna erfarenheter utav MMORPG spel.</p>

<p>Abstract</p><p>Title: Interactivity and participation - a qualitative study about the making of machinima with</p><p>World of Warcraft (Interaktivitet och och deltagande – en kvalitativ studie kring skapandet av</p><p>machinima med World of Warcraft)</p><p>Number of pages: 68 total, 50 without appendix</p><p>Author: Peter Brandberg</p><p>Tutor: Else Nygren</p><p>Period: Autumn 2006</p><p>Course: Media and Communication Studies C</p><p>University: Division of Media and Communication, Department of Information Science, Uppsala University</p><p>Purpose/Aim: The aim of this study is to take a closer look at the phenomenon machinima by analysing a number of specific movies from the site worldcraftmovies.com. This analyse is focusing on how the content of these movies relate to the wider game culture of the MMORPG World of Warcraft, what specific elements in the movies is referring to and if there is differences or similarities between different genres (or categories).</p><p>Material/Method: The method used in analysing the movies is a combined method inspired by hermeneutic, semiotics and discourse analysis.</p><p>Main results: Instead of answers this study raises many questions about the diverse content of the movies. A general division can be seen between movies focusing on the games rules and movies that are trying to present a fictive world. But the study also shows how there are many movies moving between these two points. The study also suggests that further studies need to focus on the emotional investment players put into the game.</p><p>Keywords: cultural studies, participatory culture, convergence culture, fan culture, new media, game studies, machinima, MMORPG, World of Warcraft</p>

Abstract Title: Interactivity and participation - a qualitative study about the making of machinima with World of Warcraft (Interaktivitet och och deltagande – en kvalitativ studie kring skapandet av machinima med World of Warcraft) Number of pages: 68 total, 50 without appendix Author: Peter Brandberg Tutor: Else Nygren Period: Autumn 2006 Course: Media and Communication Studies C University: Division of Media and Communication, Department of Information Science, Uppsala University Purpose/Aim: The aim of this study is to take a closer look at the phenomenon machinima by analysing a number of specific movies from the site worldcraftmovies.com. This analyse is focusing on how the content of these movies relate to the wider game culture of the MMORPG World of Warcraft, what specific elements in the movies is referring to and if there is differences or similarities between different genres (or categories). Material/Method: The method used in analysing the movies is a combined method inspired by hermeneutic, semiotics and discourse analysis. Main results: Instead of answers this study raises many questions about the diverse content of the movies. A general division can be seen between movies focusing on the games rules and movies that are trying to present a fictive world. But the study also shows how there are many movies moving between these two points. The study also suggests that further studies need to focus on the emotional investment players put into the game. Keywords: cultural studies, participatory culture, convergence culture, fan culture, new media, game studies, machinima, MMORPG, World of Warcraft

Studiens syfte är att studera de bakomliggande sociala faktorerna som kan bidra till utvecklingen av datorspelsberoende. Studien genomfördes kvalitativt genom att intervjua fem personer som själva ansett sig vara datorspelsberoende. Tidigare forskning som berört detta ämne har handlat om hur användare påverkas av spelet, och inte vad som lett fram tillatt det intensiva spelandet påbörjades. Som teoretisk utgångspunkt för studien valdes den utvecklingsekologiska modellen som användes för att studera individen utifrån ett mikro-,meso-, exo-, makroperspektiv. Våra data visar resultat främst på en mikronivå där vi fann att en problematik på denna nivå fanns genomgående för samtliga informanter. Vi fann också att datorspelsberoende passar in på de kriterier för beroende som satts upp av American Psychiatric Association trots att datorspelsberoende inte ingår i de erkända beroendena.