En la actualidad los consumidores enfrentan problemáticas al adquirir un bien o servicio, ya sea por problemas con la disponibilidad de dinero, tiempo o algún otro tipo de limitante. Asimismo, al enfocar esta escena en el panorama digital, las variables antes descritas se mantienen, añadiendo la desconfianza a la lista. Por tal motivo, este trabajo de investigación plantea una nueva forma de adquirir bienes y servicios, de una manera novedosa que pretende eliminar las negativas mencionadas anteriormente. Esta iniciativa será llevada cabo mediante la implementación de una plataforma llamada Rifus que digitalice, casi en su totalidad, el proceso de venta de rifas. Esta se llevará a cabo mediante la adquisición de productos llamativos para el público en general y se venderá una cantidad previamente establecida de tickets virtuales para que el usuario pueda participar por ganar el producto de su agrado. Para poder conocer los atributos que el usuario valora al actuar en este entorno se realizaron investigaciones que permitieron moldear Rifus de acuerdo con lo que los usuarios consideraban pertinente. Algunas de estas fueron las motivaciones que tienen los usuarios para participar en ese tipo de sorteos, los productos por los que prefieren participar, entre otros. Finalmente, para poder conocer la viabilidad de Rifus se utilizaron diferentes indicadores financieros como el VAN y la TIR que respaldan que es rentable. Asimismo, mediante las encuestas ya mencionadas se pudo conocer la opinión de los entrevistados sobre el proyecto y se validó que la propuesta de valor es de su agrado. / Currently, people suffer from problems when they want to acquire a good or service, whether due to problems with the availability of money, time or some other type of limitation. Also, by focusing this scene on the digital landscape, the variables described above could be added, adding distrust to the list. For this reason, this research paper proposes a new way of acquiring goods and services, in a novel way that aims to eliminate the previously required refusals. This initiative will be carried out by implementing a website called Rifus that digitizes, almost entirely, the raffle sale process. This initiative will be carried out by acquiring flashy products for the general public and a previously established amount of virtual tickets will be sold so that the user can participate to win the product of their choice. In order to know the attributes that the user values in acting in this environment, research that allows Rifus to be molded according to what users consider relevant is investigated. Some of these were the motivations that users have to participate in this type of society, the products for which they prefer to participate, among others. Finally, in order to know the viability of Rifus, different financial indicators will be used, such as the NPV and the IRR that support that it is profitable. In the same way, through the surveys and the results, the opinion of the interviewees on the business model was known and the value proposal was endorsed by them. / Trabajo de investigación

Den ökade populariteten av onlinespel har skapat nya sätt att interagera med varandra i en virtuell värld. Spelare kan idag möta andra spelare och tävla mot varandra bland dagens populära onlinespel. Onlinespel tillför inte bara nöje utan kan också ha negativa konsekvenser på spelaren. Trolling är ett framväxande problem i gamingvärlden och kan förknippas med nätmobbning. Spelare som trollar kan tillämpa olika trollingtaktiker, de kan utnyttja kommunikationskanaler för att trakassera andra spelare eller använda spelmekaniker för att sabotera spelupplevelsen. Syftet med studien är att skapa en förståelse för fenomenet trolling i onlinespel genom att undersöka hur spelare tillämpar olika trollingtaktiker. För att besvara studiens frågeställning och nå ökad förståelse för hur spelare trollar har en kvalitativ studie genomförts med onlinespelare som spelar frekvent. Respondenternas svar på vilka trollingtaktiker de använde varierade men det gick att konstatera att beteendet var ett vanligt förekommande. I slutsatsen presenteras hur våra respondenter tillämpar olika trollingtaktiker i onlinespel. / The increased popularity of online games has created new ways to interact with each other in a virtual world. Players can now meet other players and compete against each other among today's popular online games. Online gaming does not only bring the user pleasure but can also have negative consequences on the player. Trolling is an emerging problem in the gaming world and can be associated with cyber-bullying. Players can use different trolling tactics, they can use communication channels to harass players or use game mechanics to sabotage the gaming experience. The purpose of this study is to create a better understanding of trolling by examining which trolling tactics players use in online games. To get a better understanding of how players troll, we performed a qualitative study with online players who play frequently. Respondents' responses to the trolling tactics they used varied, but it was found that the behavior was a common occurrence. The conclusion presents how our respondents apply different trolling tactics in online games.

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A distributed virtual environment (DVE) is a shared virtual environment where multiple users at their workstations interact with each other. Some of these systems may support a large number of users, e. g. , massive multi-player online games, and these users may be geographically distributed. An important performance measure in a DVE system is the delay for an update of a user's state (e. g. , his position in the virtual environment) to arrive at the workstations of those users who are affected by the update. This update delay often has a stringent requirement (e. g. , less than 100 ms) in order to ensure interactivity among users. <br /><br /> In designing a DVE system, an important issue is how well the system scales as the number of users increases. In terms of scalability, a promising system architecture is a two-level hierarchical architecture. At the lower level, multiple service facilities (or basic systems) are deployed; each basic system interacts with its assigned users. At the higher level, the various basic systems ensure that their copies of the virtual environment are as consistent as possible. Although this architecture is believed to have good properties with respect to scalability, not much is known about its performance characteristics. <br /><br /> This thesis is concerned with the performance characteristics of the two-level hierarchical architecture. We first investigate the issue of scalability. We obtain analytic results on the workload experienced by the various basic systems as a function of the number of users. Our results provide valuable insights into the scalability of the architecture. We also propose a novel technique to achieve weak consistency among copies of the virtual environment at the various basic systems. Simulation results on the consistency/scalability tradeoff are presented. <br /><br /> We next study the update delay in the two-level hierarchical architecture. The update delay has two main components, namely the delay at the basic system (or server delay) and the network delay. For the server delay, we use a network of queues model where each basic system may have one or more processors. We develop an approximation method to obtain results for the distribution of server delay. Comparisons with simulation show that our approximation method yields accurate results. We also measure the time to process an update on an existing online game server. Our approximate results are then used to characterize the 95th-percentile of the server delay, using the measurement data as input. <br /><br /> As to the network delay, we develop a general network model and obtain analytic results for the network delay distribution. Numerical examples are presented to show the conditions under which geographical distribution of basic systems will lead to an improvement in the network delay. We also develop an efficient heuristic algorithm that can be used to determine the best locations for the basic systems in a network.

A distributed virtual environment (DVE) is a shared virtual environment where multiple users at their workstations interact with each other. Some of these systems may support a large number of users, e. g. , massive multi-player online games, and these users may be geographically distributed. An important performance measure in a DVE system is the delay for an update of a user's state (e. g. , his position in the virtual environment) to arrive at the workstations of those users who are affected by the update. This update delay often has a stringent requirement (e. g. , less than 100 ms) in order to ensure interactivity among users. <br /><br /> In designing a DVE system, an important issue is how well the system scales as the number of users increases. In terms of scalability, a promising system architecture is a two-level hierarchical architecture. At the lower level, multiple service facilities (or basic systems) are deployed; each basic system interacts with its assigned users. At the higher level, the various basic systems ensure that their copies of the virtual environment are as consistent as possible. Although this architecture is believed to have good properties with respect to scalability, not much is known about its performance characteristics. <br /><br /> This thesis is concerned with the performance characteristics of the two-level hierarchical architecture. We first investigate the issue of scalability. We obtain analytic results on the workload experienced by the various basic systems as a function of the number of users. Our results provide valuable insights into the scalability of the architecture. We also propose a novel technique to achieve weak consistency among copies of the virtual environment at the various basic systems. Simulation results on the consistency/scalability tradeoff are presented. <br /><br /> We next study the update delay in the two-level hierarchical architecture. The update delay has two main components, namely the delay at the basic system (or server delay) and the network delay. For the server delay, we use a network of queues model where each basic system may have one or more processors. We develop an approximation method to obtain results for the distribution of server delay. Comparisons with simulation show that our approximation method yields accurate results. We also measure the time to process an update on an existing online game server. Our approximate results are then used to characterize the 95th-percentile of the server delay, using the measurement data as input. <br /><br /> As to the network delay, we develop a general network model and obtain analytic results for the network delay distribution. Numerical examples are presented to show the conditions under which geographical distribution of basic systems will lead to an improvement in the network delay. We also develop an efficient heuristic algorithm that can be used to determine the best locations for the basic systems in a network.

Board and Card Game (BCG) sites allow people to connect over the Internet to play virtual versions of games, like Chess or Canasta, that can be played on a physical table. Many of these sites are successful as they have large memberships, are extremely active, and persist for a long time. However, when analysing the BCG site PlayOK, I found that the community did not exhibit behaviours traditionally associated with successful community: there was little verbal communication; most interactions were impersonal and once-only; and the player population was highly transient. The problem is that designers and researchers have a poor understanding of the characteristics of BCG communities, and how those characteristics are affected by factors that are typically seen as important for community such as size and leadership. In this thesis, I improve understanding of BCG site communities through three studies: 1 No research describes community behaviour in BCG sites. I analysed community behaviour in the PlayOK BCG using ‘social accounting’ methods, which generate summary behavioural statistics from log traces. I found that players were motivated by wanting an opponent, without being concerned with the opponent’s identity. 2 The effects of community size on BCG community behaviour are poorly understood. I used social accounting analyses to compare a small site (GameCenter), with the large PlayOK site. I found that the smaller GameCenter exhibits very similar behaviour but is less efficient due to the smaller population. 3 There are no empirical studies of the role of leadership in online game communities through a substantial change in leadership. I used social accounting techniques to analyse GameCenter BCG before and after a substantial change in leadership. I found that sub-communities responded differently according to how they relied on the leadership for their core activities. This research is the first to identify a type of community that is sustained through impersonal, non-verbal interactions. This important because examples exist in BCG sites and may exist as sub-communities in other settings such as online discussion forums, social media sites, and other online games.

The purpose of this thesis is to analyse storytelling in Korean online games, mainly represented by MMORPG genre. The first chapter introduces five essential Korean MMORPGs that will be subjected to the analyses throughout the thesis. Next chapters research storytelling in MMORPGs and its instruments, which are used to anchor the story inside the game. Main practical part then analyses mentioned online games and searches for motives based on Asian mythology, history and culture. For better comprehension a technical vocabulary related to gaming industry is also included at the end of the thesis. Because of technical reasons, all mentioned games are analysed in their European versions. Key words Korean online games, MMORPG, storytelling, mythology, multiplayer, asian motives, Heterocosmica

This research focuses on the connection between voice-based interactions and harassment in online games, from the point of interaction design. It points out severe faults in privacy afforded by voice-based communication and explores beyond this medium to design a communication system that relies only on non-verbal communication (NVC). Such system was co-created with the players supporting the idea that inclusion starts even in the early design stages. Through the playtesting of the NVC system the research shows the many ways in which the type of communication impacts the game and how players experience cooperation, cohabitation, and inclusion in online games. However, to achieve this, this research had to create a framework and mapping methods that focus on the players and their communicative intention. Hence, the “levels of multiplayer communication” is proposed as a tool to analyze and a method to design for communication in games, and it stands as a knowledge contribution along with the information acquired through its use.

Thesis (PhD)--Stellenbosch University, 2013. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Recently, there has been significant research focus on Peer-to-Peer (P2P) Massively Multi-user Virtual Environments (MMVEs). A number of architectures have been presented in the literature to implement the P2P approach. One aspect that has not received sufficient attention in these architectures is state management and state persistency in P2P MMVEs. This work presents and simulates a novel state management and persistency architecture, called Pithos. In order to design the architecture, an investigation is performed into state consistency architectures, into which the state management and persistency architecture should fit. A novel generic state consistency model is proposed that encapsulated all state consistency models reviewed. The requirements for state management and persistency architectures, identified during the review of state consistency models, are used to review state management and persistency architectures currently receiving research attention. Identifying some deficiencies present in current designs, such as lack of fairness, responsiveness and scalability, a novel state management and persistency architecture, called Pithos, is designed. Pithos is a reliable, responsive, secure, fair and scalable distributed storage system, ideally suited to P2P MMVEs. Pithos is implemented in Oversim, which runs on the Omnet++ network simulator. An evaluation of Pithos is performed to verify that it satisfies the identified requirements. It is found that the reliability of Pithos depends heavily on object lifetimes. If an object lives longer on average, retrieval requests are more reliable. An investigation is performed into the factors influencing object lifetime. A novel Markov chain model is proposed which allows for the prediction of objects lifetimes in any finite sized network, for a given amount of redundancy, node lifetime characteristics and object repair rate. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Onlangs is daar ’n beduidende navorsingsfokus op Eweknie Massiewe Multi-gebruiker Virtuele Omgewings (MMVOs). ’n Aantal argitekture is in die literatuur beskikbaar wat die eweknie benadering voorstel. Een aspek wat nie voldoende aandag ontvang in hierdie argitekture nie is toestandsbestuur en toestandsvolharding in eweknie MMVOs. Hierdie werk ontwerp en simuleer ’n nuwe toestandsbestuur- en toestandsvolhardingargitektuur genaamd Pithos. Ten einde die argitektuur te ontwerp is ’n ondersoek uitgevoer in toestandskonsekwentheidargitekture, waarin die toestandsbestuur- en toestandsvolhardingargitektuur moet pas. ’n Nuwe generiese toestandskonsekwentheidargitektuur word voorgestel wat alle hersiene toestandskonsekwentheid argitekture vervat. Die vereistes vir die toestandsbestuur- en toestandsvolhardingargitekture, geidentifiseer tydens die hersiening van die toestandskonsekwentheidargitekture, word gebruik om toestandsbestuuren toestandsvolhardingargitekture te hersien wat tans navorsingsaandag geniet. Identifisering van sekere leemtes teenwoordig in die huidige ontwerpe, soos ’n gebrek aan regverdigheid, responsiwiteit en skaleerbaarheid, lei tot die ontwerp van ’n nuwe toestandsbestuur- en toestandsvolhardingargitektuur wat Pithos genoem word. Pithos is ’n betroubare, responsiewe, veilige, regverdige en skaleerbare verspreide stoorstelsel, ideaal geskik is vir eweknie MMVOs. Pithos word geïmplementeer in Oversim, wat loop op die Omnet++ netwerk simulator. ’n Evaluering van Pithos word uitgevoer om te verifieer dat dit voldoen aan die geïdentifiseerde behoeftes. Daar is gevind dat die betroubaarheid van Pithos afhang van die objek leeftyd. As ’n objek gemiddeld langer leef, dan is herwinning versoeke meer betroubaar. ’n Ondersoek word uitgevoer na die faktore wat die objek leeftyd beïnvloed. ’n Nuwe Markov ketting model word voorgestel wat voorsiening maak vir die voorspelling van objek leeftye in eindige grootte netwerke, vir gegewe hoeveelhede van oortolligheid, nodus leeftyd eienskappe en objek herstelkoers.