The purpose of this study was to explore the junior high school students' online gaming experiences and its relationship with self-concept, life adaptation and well-being. The data was collected by means of questionnaires, and the participants were junior high school students in Kaohsiung area. The employed instruments were to reorganize questionnaires of other people. A questionnaire including basic data, scale of online game experiences, scale of online game participation motive, scale of self-concept, scale of life adaptation, and scale of well-being was implied to the studnets of 10 junior high schools in Kaohsiung area and 887 effecitve paritcipants were obtained. Finally, the data was analyzed with the methods of Chi-square test, Independent t-test, MANOVA, Multiple Regression Analysis. The results of this study were as following: 1. At present, 68.5% of junior high students participate in online games. Among them, most students choose to play free online games at home. 2. In the online gaming participation rate, player experiences, everyday average time of playing online games and participation motive, boys are significantly higher than girls. 3. Parents don¡¦t restrict children to play online games, and then children spend longer time playing online games and the motive in playing online games is stronger. 4. Compared with the non-experience, students who have online gaming experiences have poor ¡§family self¡¨, but have better ¡§physical self¡¨. 5. Compared with students of having online gaming experiences, students who don¡¦t have online gaming experience have better ¡§life adaptation¡¨. 6. ¡§Self-assurance¡¨ dimensions, ¡§social interaction¡¨ dimensions and ¡§recreation amusement ¡§ dimensions of the online gaming participation motive toward self-concept, life adaptation and well-being are low explanation. That shows other important factors need exploring. Finally, some practical suggestions based on the results of this study were provided to those related education organizations, teachers, parents, and researchers as the references in the future.

本篇論文將針對線上遊戲產業之雲端運算服務平台之發展進行研究與探討。從線上遊戲產業發展的現況與趨勢中，看到線上遊戲仍是市場的主流，更是付費機制的成熟產品，但也看到新興遊戲如SNS網頁遊戲、App遊戲的衝擊下，線上遊戲已不再是大型遊戲或是只有大型公司才有能力開發製作的產品，而中小型團隊也開始蜂擁加入開發的行列。 在線上遊戲產品開發流程與產業價值鏈的文獻探討中，看到線上遊戲的開發與營運價值單元，且這些價值單元都是非常符合雲端運算的功能與架構，並再透過詳細解析產品開發流程與營運價值鏈的每個環節中去對應雲端運算架構與功能，分析雲端運算對線上遊戲之開發端及消費端所提昇之價值與效益面，以及線上遊戲之雲端運算服務平台的可能功能與服務模式。 線上遊戲因為具備文件、物件資料量龐大、即時運算需求極高、中小型開發團隊須降低軟硬體開發成本需求殷切以及需要共用之伺服器軟硬體環境，還有備援且不允許因維運、修改、除錯等而可能停機或當機之風險產生等特性，使得在這一波雲端運算的潮流與趨勢中，選擇提供線上遊戲開發與營運之雲端運算平台服務，應是一項可預期的發展機會。 本研究最後透過一家已推出線上遊戲雲端運算服務平台的個案研究，再呼應前面線上遊戲與雲端運算功能與架構的關聯框架及分析，最後提出對個案公司應以大量即時運算為核心能力，提供跨業服務、以核心技術發展技轉與合作營運模式、結合HTML5或Yahoo的YUI等技術，全力搶攻新興連線遊戲市場、研發雲端Server端引擎產品等建議外，也對線上遊戲之雲端運算服務平台提出可發展SaaS、PaaS、IaaS等各別專業及可具備彈性且可發展成機動組合的混合型雲端服務模式之結論與建議等。 / This report is the research and investigation of the cloud computing platform development in online game industry. We find that online game is still the mainstream as well as a developed product under the paid mechanisms through the condition and trend of online game industry. However, because of the impact of SNS website game and App game, the online game no longer just a hug online game or develop by big companies, instead the medium and small groups can develop the online game as well now. We find out that there are some unites in the literature investigated the development process and industrial value chain of online fit in with the function of cloud computing and its framework. In addition, we will do the detailed analysis of production developing process and operation value to correspond to the function and framework of cloud computing, analyze the value and benefit the cloud computer can do to improve the beginning and consumption-side of online game and its possible function and service mode for online game. The online game needs huge quantity of data in document and object, so the need of instant cloud computing is high. For that reason, when develop the software and hardware, the medium and small groups need to reduce the cost. Moreover, they need the server that can use in both new software and hardware, the backup, un-interruptible power supply and the feature of operating normally while doing the maintenance, modification, debug, etc. So, in the trend of current cloud computing, one of the predictable development opportunity is have the cloud computing platform service that can help to develop and operate online game. In the end, the study will take the case study of cloud computing platform that have released online game as example, correspond to the relevant framework and analysis from the previous online game and the function and framework of cloud computing and finally give the suggests and conclusion to the case company, which is taking great amount of instant cloud computing as core ability, provide cross-field services, use core technology development transformation and cooperation service mode, The use of HTML5 or Yahoo's YUI technology put in all effort to earn the new market of online game and research and develop the cloud computer server engine. Other than that, we also bring up the individual professional service that can develop in the cloud computing platform of online game such as SaaS, PaaS, IaaS and the suggestions and conclusions relate to the flexible and assembling-based complex cloud service.

Master of Science / Department of Computing and Information Sciences / David A. Gustafson / IEDs are a prevailing threat to today’s armed forces and civilians. With some IEDs being well concealed and planted sometimes days or weeks prior to detonation, it is extremely difficult to detect their presence. Remotely triggered IEDs do offer an indirect method of detection as an insurgent must monitor the IED’s kill zone and detonate the device once the intended target is in range. Within the safe confines of a video game we can model the behavior of an insurgent using remotely triggered IEDs. Specifically, we can build a model of the sequence of actions an insurgent goes through immediately prior to detonating an IED. Using this insurgent model, we can recognize the behavior an insurgent would exhibit before detonating an IED. Once the danger level reaches a certain threshold, we can then react by changing our original course to a new one that does not cross the area we believe an IED to be in. We can show proof of concept of this by having human players take on the role of an insurgent in an online video game in which they try to destroy an autonomous agent. Successful tactics used by the autonomous agent should then be good tactics in the real world as well.

The Taiwan earliest online game company was Huayi International which was established in 1993 by introducing the first complete online game ¡§Stone Age¡¨ that caused a network wave and lead Taiwan¡¦s formal entry into the field of online game. Since 1999, the rise of South Korean online game technology which created the huge benefit from online game market and cause this industry into a whole new generation. As mention about the development of the online game in Taiwan, actually it is a contradiction issue, because the position of online game has not been consider a health and leisure activities. In addition, the primary channel of promote online game is net coffee, which is often regarded as improper place, thus the online game has been in the ambiguous environment. As the change of different generation, online game become more diversified chose and leads to high competition pressure of market, therefore, the free web game developing fast and has the trend replace a part of online game market. From the gaming market and user perspective, the web game is definitely not a mainstream game; furthermore, it also can not become mainstream production. But it meets the needs of some people to adapt to a market segment. Therefore, this research is analysis the management and marketing strategy of web game company ¡§ Cool You network company¡¦s web game production---Magic Mirror web game¡¨. The purpose of this research is through the analysis by the case interview to understand the innovative of marketing strategy and new idea of web game that in order to assist the game industry to develop effective marketing strategy to attract consumers.

This study investigate how the players' virtual community citizenship behavior were influence by online social identity and impression management of online game discussion forum. A questionnaire was designed for the online survey that resulted in a total of 692 valid responses. The results suggested that the player were more spontaneous involved in organizational citizenship behavior when they had higher identity on discussion forum. The player had more positive action in organizational citizenship behavior when they had higher attention on self impression management. This research is different from those past gaming community researches focus on the user's addiction and motivation, and give suggestions for future research.

As the change of external environment and internal resources, web portals have transformed their business models from online advertisement model into others, such as electronic commerce model, online game model and short message service model. Different external environment, as well as diverse resources of the main web portals of Taiwan and Mainland China , leads the different transformation process across the Taiwan Strait. Generally, the main web portals in Taiwan like Yahoo! Kimo, PC home and Yam, have chosen online advertisement and electronic commerce model as their main business. On the contrary, Sina, Sohu and NetEase, the main web portals in China, which have transformed their business model into online game and short message service model. This research explores some factors which may influence the transformation of web portals in Taiwan and China, and constructs the internal and external conditions which could successfully transform the web portals to their business models by secondary data analysis and case analysis. There are several factors which influence the web portals to adopt certain business to run their business models.

This is a description of and rationale for The Learning Game, a cross platform Web application that will act as a portal into an online social network built around education. The application provides a space for users to create, share, modify, translate, and play online multiplayer educational games and simulations. Upon launch language learning will be the focus (specifically Mandarin Chinese and English initially), but The Learning Game is designed to expand to potentially any subject through user created content and regular updating of the application itself. This paper establishes a need for education reform by discussing the costs and shortcomings of existing systems of formal education, and then offers a theoretical background for key characteristics of The Learning Game based on research in education and second language acquisition. A case is made for its potential growth and success, important considerations are laid out, and finally a description of the interface, key features, and initial content is given with further considerations that must be kept in mind during development. / text

I ett samhälle där datorspelare anses vistas i en högst amoralisk miljö, vill vi med den här studien granska hur etik och moral ter sig i den virtuella världen via ett symboliskt interaktionistiskt perspektiv. Genom kvalitativa intervjuer har elva spelare av onlinespel fått redogöra för sin egen upplevelse av den interaktion de genomgår dagligen. Med hjälp av utförliga teorier kring etik och moral, symbolisk interaktionism och spelkultur har studien ett brett teoretiskt underlag som appliceras i en hermeneutisk analys. Resultatet visar att etik och moral existerar i onlinespel, samtidigt som amoraliteten. Det verkar röra sig om två olika kulturer. Studien lägger sin fokus på den förstnämnda och beskriver både vad fenomenet består i, och hur det ter sig. Essensen handlar om den sociala aspekten, det vi kan kalla för socialitet. Vi fann essensen utifrån fem teman, som alla rör grupp, socialitet och samspel. Slutsatsen visar att det finns en moralisk spelkultur och en amoralisk, baserat på graden av socialitet och inlevelse. Den moraliska spelkulturen skapas och återskapas utifrån spelarnas meningsskapande, sociala behov och den virtuella världens flexibilitet.   Nyckelbegrepp: Etik, Moral, Onlinespel, Spelkultur, Symbolisk interaktionism. / In a society in which gamers are considered to engage in an amoral environment, we intended with this study to examine how ethics and morality appears in the virtual world through a symbolic interactionist perspective. Through qualitative interviews eleven gamers have been able to give their own views about their experiences of the interaction they undergo daily. With help from detailed theories about ethics and morality, symbolic interactionism and gaming culture, this study has a wide theoretical foundation which applies in a hermeneutical analysis. The results show that ethics and morality exists within online games, as well as an amoral gaming culture. It appears to be two cultures, in which this study puts its focus on the first and describes both what the phenomenon is made of, and how it appears. The essence is about the social aspect, what we call sociality. This essence was found through five themes, all regarding group, sociality and interaction. The conclusion shows that there is a moral gaming culture as well as an amoral one, based on the degree of sociality and immersion. The moral gaming culture is created and recreated from the creation of meaning and social needs through the gamers as well as the flexibility of the virtual world.   Keywords: Ethics, Morality, Online game, Game culture, Symbolic interactionism.

The aim of this study is to examine Japanese gendered language use in online game streaming, and the differences in gendered language use between male and female streamers. The main aim of this thesis is to examine how, and to what extent, young Japanese adults use gendered language when broadcasting gaming streams online. I will examine how pronounced the differences in gendered language use are between male and female streamers, and see if the major theories about gendered language apply in the Japanese streaming community. To collect the data, I looked at 20 game streamers, with each stream lasting 15-30 minutes. I transcribed the streamers’ commentary, and examined the frequency of certain sentence ending particles, personal pronouns, and polite speech/word choice. The streamers were chosen with regards given to certain criteria to prevent skewed results, and to control the independent variables to a certain extent. For example, the streamers must be playing alone to ensure that the streamer is the only person speaking. I analyzed the results using a qualitative method, which indicated that the greater gender differences are found in the use of personal pronouns, but not as much in the use of sentence ending particles or politeness level.

Firms are interested in identifying customers who generate the highest revenues. Typically, customers are regarded as isolated individuals whose buying behavior depends solely on their own characteristics (e.g., previous purchase behavior, demographics etc.). In a social network setting, however, customer interactions can play an important role in purchase behavior. This thesis develops a generalizable methodology to identify high-value customers in a network. Previous work on social networks has focused most attention on modeling the interaction between individuals and understanding the positions of individuals in a network (e.g., measuring the influence of an individual based on his/her degree of network centrality). Little is known about how network influence directly translates into the benefits to the firm. In this study, the importance of taking into account both an individual characteristics and network effects when measuring customer value is argued. Drawing upon the spatial statistics literature, a spatial autocorrelation model is constructed that explicitly shows how these effects interact in generating firm revenue. This model is applied to a unique user-level dataset from a popular online gaming company in Korea. The data contain information about demographics of individual gamer, interaction between gamers, behavior within the game environment, and revenues generated by each individual. First, we propose a static model studying gamers' revenue in one period. We quantify the relative impact of an individual characteristics and network effects on revenue. The proposed static model shows better forecasts of an individual's value within a network for the firm than the benchmark models. The empirical analysis shows that individuals who are most influential in a network sense are not necessarily individuals who have the highest customer value. Next, we incorporate the spatio-temporal aspects of social influence in a network into the static model. This model is extended to construct the spatial dynamic model to forecast revenue in a social network. Second, we account for the homophily effects by separating the contemporaneous network effects out into the contemporaneous, temporal, and spatio-temporal effects. The proposed spatial dynamic model allows us to quantify an individual value in a network in a long-term perspective. The dynamic model is shown to outperform the static, and the other benchmark models in quantifying an individual value in revenue generation to the firm. Lastly, a dynamic coevolution model to account for homophily is suggested and discussed for future research.