Στα πλαίσια αυτής της διπλωματικής εργασίας μελετούνται οι ιστότοποι κοινωνικής δικτύωσης, καθώς και οι εφαρμογές παιχνιδιών μέσα σε αυτούς με σκοπό την ανάπτυξη μιας εκπαιδευτικής εφαρμογής μέσα σε έναν από αυτούς, το Facebook. Έχοντας εξετάσει αρκετούς χώρους κοινωνικής δικτύωσης και αφού καταλήξαμε να κάνουμε χρήση του Facebook σαν πλατφόρμα ανάπτυξης της εφαρμογής μας, προχωρήσαμε στην ανάπτυξη του παιχνιδιού, αφού πρώτα διατυπώσαμε την ιδέα του. Ποιο είναι το παιχνίδι; Το Back to School είναι ένα ατομικό, διαδραστικό παιχνίδι ερωτήσεων κυρίως γεωγραφικού, αλλά και εν μέρει ιστορικού περιεχομένου. Πιο συγκεκριμένα, ο παίκτης καλείται να εντοπίσει πάνω στο χάρτη (Google Maps) κάποια χώρα, πρωτεύουσα, ή τον τόπο γέννησης κάποιας ιστορικής προσωπικότητας, ανάλογα με την κατηγορία και αντίστοιχα το ένα από τα τρία επίπεδα δυσκολίας που θα επιλέξει, πραγματοποιώντας ένα διαδραστικό τεστ γεωγραφίας. Ο χρόνος που έχει στη διάθεσή του για κάθε παιχνίδι είναι 3 λεπτά, ενώ για κάθε σωστή απάντηση λαμβάνει 100 πόντους. Επιπλέον του δίνονται 3 ζωές (lives) προτού χάσει, ανεξαρτήτως του χρόνου που του απομένει, καθώς και ένας αριθμός βοηθειών (hints) για παράλειψη ερωτήσεων που δε γνωρίζει. Έχοντας αποσαφηνίσει το περιεχόμενο του παιχνιδιού και γνωρίζοντας το που θα αναπτυχθεί, μελετήσαμε το απαραίτητο υλικό για την ανάπτυξη της εφαρμογής στον κοινωνικό χώρο του Facebook, προκειμένου να μπορέσουμε να ενσωματώσουμε το παιχνίδι μέσα σε αυτόν, αξιοποιώντας κατάλληλα και τις δυνατότητες που προσφέρονται στους κοινωνικούς χώρους. Η εφαρμογή είναι διαθέσιμη προς χρήση στον παρακάτω ιστότοπο: apps.facebook.com/backtoschooool / Within this thesis, we study the social networking sites and game applications within these,in order to develop an educational application within one of these, Facebook. Having examined several social networking sites and ended up to use Facebook as a platform for our application development, we proceeded with the development of the game after we first formulated its idea. What's the game? Back to School is a single player, interactive quiz with mainly geographical, but also partially historical content. Specifically, the player is asked to locate on the map (Google Maps) a country whether a capital or the birthplace of a historical personality, depending on the category and on the one of the three corresponding levels of difficulty that he will choose, in order to take an interactive geography test. The time available for each game is 3 minutes, and for each correct answer receives 100 points. In addition he is given lives before losing, regardless of the time remaining as well as a number of hints in order to skip questions that he doesn’t know. Having clarified the content of the game and knowing where it would be developed, we studied the necessary material for the development of the application in the social space of Facebook, so that we can incorporate the game into it, while making appropriate use of the possibilities offered by social sites. The application is available for use on the following site: apps.facebook.com/backtoschooool

Approved for public release, distribution is unlimited / Human Systems Integration Report / In the past few years, Massive Multiplayer Online Games (MMOG) have gained in popularity in the gaming industry, the public and the Department of Defense. Improvements to computer technology and the increased data transfer rate over networks have caused the potential applications for networked environments to blossom. MMOGs are a product of these improvements, as technological advancements have made it possible for the masses to gain access to virtual environments and participate. The ability to communicate and interact within the virtual environment has the potential to make MMOG technology an ideal tool for evaluating C4I systems. The design and evaluation of C4I systems with MMOGs has the potential to allow for exploration in the areas of warfighter effectiveness, emergent behavior, collective decision making, human systems integration and effective information flow. This thesis strives to illustrate how a C4I system modeled in an MMOG can aid designers in gathering insights on the effectiveness of the system in various combat situations. The insights will be gathered through the interactions of players with the modeled system in the virtual environment. The human interaction with the modeled C4I system provides the ability to capture the effects of the C4I system on the warfighter. The resultant effects of the C4I system on the warfighter directly contribute to the overall combat effectiveness of the deployed military forces. The background of MMOGs and C4I systems, and attributes of MMOGs that are desirable in evaluating C4I systems are introduced and discussed. FORCEnet, a global C4I architecture still in the conceptual phase is then used as an example to illustrate the potential rewards to using MMOGs to evaluate C4I systems. / Lieutenant, United States Navy

BACKGROUND: Playing computer games is a favourite way to have fun since the end of the 20th century. The age of users rises together with the development of games and many gamers are nowadays middle-aged. Despite the growing number of research dealing with the issue of playing computer games, this phenomenon lacks a comprehensive definition and method of diagnosis. In some diagnostic tools, the conflict between gamers and a close person is the main and key criterion. AIM: The main aim of the research is to describe the symptoms of conflict in the close relationships of computer games players. A partial goal is to compare conflicts in close relationships in addicted or threatened by addiction gamers and non-addicted gamers. METHODS: The concept of the research is based on a qualitative research methodology. Respondents were recruited using the snow ball selection method and selected by targeted selection based on predefined criteria. The research sample consisted of 36 respondents. 18 were computer games players and 18 were close persons. All respondents took part in a semi- structured interview. The obtained data was analyzed using the pattern capture and comparison method. RESULTS: Symptoms of conflict in the close relationships of computer game players have been described by individual...

Orientador: Carlos Alberto Kamienski. / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Federal do ABC. Programa de Pós-graduação em Engenharia da Informação.

Submitted by Maicon Juliano Schmidt (maicons) on 2015-04-27T13:49:00Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Rebeca da Cunha Recuero.pdf: 11770215 bytes, checksum: 07c38c78dc089539e21f20149e0039ca (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2015-04-27T13:49:00Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Rebeca da Cunha Recuero.pdf: 11770215 bytes, checksum: 07c38c78dc089539e21f20149e0039ca (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-05-20 / Nenhuma / A presente tese parte do reconhecimento de que os social network games oferecem espaços para que os seus participantes exercitem a reflexão de suas identidades. Neles, sujeitos identificam-se e moldam seus perfis para serem reconhecidos e interagirem com os demais jogadores. O objetivo centra-se em compreender como são configuradas estas identidades do gamer nos seus jogos. A discussão teórica incluiu a problematização dos conceitos-chaves de identidade e de jogos online, questões relacionadas à visualização das identidades no Ciberespaço e a forma adquirida nos jogos online e mediações culturais, midiáticas, competências tecnológicas e relacionadas aos jogos. Os social network games foram contextualizados a partir de aspectos históricos, situação atual, ambientes suportes, possibilidades e dinâmicas sociais. A pesquisa empírica parte de uma construção de tipos de games em termos das possibilidades para a construção identitária, que inclui os jogos de Construção de Mundos, que estimulam a personalização do ambiente e os de Participação em Mundos, que estimulam a competição com atores da rede social. Optou-se pela realização da metodologia netnográfica desenvolvida em um jogo dentro de cada uma destas categorias: o Farmville e o SongPop (respectivamente), além de entrevistas com uma amostra de jogadores. Os resultados apontam a existência de elementos no jogo capazes de oferecerem lugares para o desenvolvimento de apropriações sociais (avatar, bens virtuais, interações sociais e território virtual), indicadoras de facetas identitárias destes sujeitos. Por meio deles, percebeu-se a existência de matrizes identitárias nos social network games (aleatórias, competitivas, representativas e valorativas) capazes de direcionar o modo de construção individual e coletivo destes indivíduos antes mesmo de terem contato com estes lugares de apropriação nos jogos. As implicações deste estudo revelam a existência de uma dupla via de afetação oriunda não apenas da estrutura dos jogos, mas, principalmente, dos espaços criativos que os sujeitos encontram para manifestarem suas identidades. Por meio deles, os social gamers não apenas revelam traços de si, como também parecem incorporar novas facetas identitárias oriundas destas construções no game ao seu self, o que sugere um importante papel destes ambientes lúdicos e virtuais na constituição identitária do sujeito atual. / This thesis begins with the recognition that social network games offer spaces for participants to reflect on their identities. In them, users identify themselves and shape their profiles to be recognized and to interact with other players. Our objective focuses on understanding how these identities are configured and how they reflect the gamer in their own games. The theoretical discussion includes key concepts such as identity and online games, the visualisation of identities in cyberspace, the forms online games and cultural mediations take and the technical skills related to these games. The social network games were contextualized from their social and historical aspects, present situation, media environments and dynamic possibilities. Our empirical research is grounded on a construction of types of games based on terms of possibilities for identity construction, which includes "World Construction" games that stimulate the customization of environments and "World Participation" games, which encourage competition with actors of the social network. We chose to use a netnography methodology, developed in games within each category: Farmville and SongPop (respectively), as well as interviews with a sample of players. The results show the existence of elements in the game that are able to offer places to the development of social appropriation (avatars, virtual goods, social interactions and virtual territory), indicators of identity facets of these subjects. Through them, we realized the existence of identity matrices in social network games (random, competitive, descriptive and evaluative) capable of directing the way individual and collective construct these subjects even before they have contact with these appropriation places in the games. The implications of this study reveal the existence of two ways of affecting users that arises not only from the structure of the games, but mainly from creative spaces where subjects manifest their identities. Through them, the social gamers not only reveal traces of themselves, but also seem to incorporate new identity facets of these constructs derived in the game to their self, which suggests an important role of these ludic and virtual environments in the identity constitution of the subject.

<p>This dissertation is a study of social interaction in virtual worlds and virtual world design. A virtual world is a synchronous, multi-user system that offers a persistent spatial environment for iconically represented participants. Together, these form an example of social interaction design. I have applied an arena perspective on my object of study, meaning that I focus on these socio-technical systems as places.</p><p>I have investigated the persistent qualities of social interaction in virtual worlds. What I have found is that virtual worlds are as real as the physical world. They are filled with real people interacting with each other evoking real emotions and leading to real consequences. There are no fixed boundaries between the virtual and physical arenas that make up a participant’s lifeworld.</p><p>I have found that participants in virtual worlds are not anonymous and bodiless actors on a level playing field. Participants construct everything needed to create social structures such as identities and status symbols. The qualities of social interaction in virtual worlds cannot be measured against physical interaction. Doing so conceals the qualities of virtual interaction. Through the concepts of levity and proximity, I offer an alternative measure that better captures the unique properties of the medium. Levity is related to the use of avatars and the displacement into a virtual context and manifests itself as a kind of lightness in the way participants approach the interaction. Proximity is my term for the transformation of social distances that takes place in virtual worlds. While participants perceive that they are in the same place despite being physically separated, the technology can also create barriers separating participants from their physical surroundings. The gap between the participant and her avatar is also of social significance.</p><p>As a theoretical foundation for design, I have used Michael Heim’s writings and practices as a base for a phenomenologically grounded approach, which provides an alternative to the dominating perspectives of architecture and engineering. Based on an explorative design project and the earlier mentioned findings regarding social interaction, I have formulated a model for virtual world design called interacture. This model takes the interaction between participants as the fundamental building material and the starting point of the design process. From there, layers of function and structure are added, all the time balancing the design between fantasy and realism.</p><p>I have explored the possibilities of using ethnographic studies as the foundation for a participant centered design approach. I have aimed for an inside view of my object of study both as an ethnographer and as a designer. One outcome of this approach is that I have come to understand virtual worlds not just as places but also as processes where the experience of participating can change drastically over time as the participant reaches new stages in the process.</p><p>In conclusion, the method of integrating ethnography with design and the understanding of social interaction as the fundamental building material is woven into a general approach to the study and design of socio-technical systems called social interaction design.</p>

This dissertation is a study of social interaction in virtual worlds and virtual world design. A virtual world is a synchronous, multi-user system that offers a persistent spatial environment for iconically represented participants. Together, these form an example of social interaction design. I have applied an arena perspective on my object of study, meaning that I focus on these socio-technical systems as places. I have investigated the persistent qualities of social interaction in virtual worlds. What I have found is that virtual worlds are as real as the physical world. They are filled with real people interacting with each other evoking real emotions and leading to real consequences. There are no fixed boundaries between the virtual and physical arenas that make up a participant’s lifeworld. I have found that participants in virtual worlds are not anonymous and bodiless actors on a level playing field. Participants construct everything needed to create social structures such as identities and status symbols. The qualities of social interaction in virtual worlds cannot be measured against physical interaction. Doing so conceals the qualities of virtual interaction. Through the concepts of levity and proximity, I offer an alternative measure that better captures the unique properties of the medium. Levity is related to the use of avatars and the displacement into a virtual context and manifests itself as a kind of lightness in the way participants approach the interaction. Proximity is my term for the transformation of social distances that takes place in virtual worlds. While participants perceive that they are in the same place despite being physically separated, the technology can also create barriers separating participants from their physical surroundings. The gap between the participant and her avatar is also of social significance. As a theoretical foundation for design, I have used Michael Heim’s writings and practices as a base for a phenomenologically grounded approach, which provides an alternative to the dominating perspectives of architecture and engineering. Based on an explorative design project and the earlier mentioned findings regarding social interaction, I have formulated a model for virtual world design called interacture. This model takes the interaction between participants as the fundamental building material and the starting point of the design process. From there, layers of function and structure are added, all the time balancing the design between fantasy and realism. I have explored the possibilities of using ethnographic studies as the foundation for a participant centered design approach. I have aimed for an inside view of my object of study both as an ethnographer and as a designer. One outcome of this approach is that I have come to understand virtual worlds not just as places but also as processes where the experience of participating can change drastically over time as the participant reaches new stages in the process. In conclusion, the method of integrating ethnography with design and the understanding of social interaction as the fundamental building material is woven into a general approach to the study and design of socio-technical systems called social interaction design.

As social interactions migrate to the ubiquitous Internet we are facing a change in theway we relate to each other, which presents interesting new opportunities foranonymity to create identities. An aspect of this radically evolving technology thatexhibits strong possibilities for altering or producing identities is the rapidly growingonline game genre MMOG (Massive Multiplayer Online Game) which isentertainment that millions of people all over the globe engage in daily. Thisrelatively new platform for socialising has become of cultural and social significance,which is why it calls for examination and research. Thus, the main research questionsasked in this thesis are as following: How does players of MMOGs utilise the nighcomplete anonymity to present or modify their identities online? In which ways areMMOGs used as a platform for socialising and development of social groupdynamics? After observing a large group of players in a popular MMOG, as well asconducting several interviews with key identities within the group, I discovered three fundamental parts of identity creation, and created a model for use and applicationin different social situations and constellations.

Submitted by Julio Santos (julioparsifal@hotmail.com) on 2016-09-02T23:14:13Z No. of bitstreams: 1 tese final.pdf: 8472411 bytes, checksum: 72cab36c2b81939419657a642cd00d98 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Maria Auxiliadora da Silva Lopes (silopes@ufba.br) on 2016-09-08T17:33:59Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 tese final.pdf: 8472411 bytes, checksum: 72cab36c2b81939419657a642cd00d98 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-09-08T17:33:59Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 tese final.pdf: 8472411 bytes, checksum: 72cab36c2b81939419657a642cd00d98 (MD5) / “O Fascínio e a Espetacularização como Pedagogias Corporais no World Of Warcraft.”, 247p. Tese (Doutorado), Faculdade de Educação, Universidade Federal da Bahia, Salvador-Bahia, 2016. O corpo sempre exerceu fascínio e os homens fizeram dele um dispositivo simbólico e cultural. Com o surgimento das tecnologias digitais se cria uma ampliação do seu processo de fascínio e espetacularização tendo nas relações sociais dos jogos online de MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role -Playing Game) um campo promissor para essa observação por se tratar de um espaço de ‘mundos persistentes’ em que se localizam relações sociais complexas. Nas redes o corpo está também para os aprendizados sociais. O argumento central da tese é que os processos de fascínio e espetacularização de si encontradas nas representações corporais do jogo online World of Warcraft, podem ser vistos como construtores de pedagogias corporais. O objetivo foi analisar nas criações corporais e nas relações dos personagens de jogadores do World of Warcraft processos de fascínio e espetacularização do corpo como parte das construções de pedagogias corporais. A metodologia utilizada foi a qualitativa de cunho descritivo e analítico, com dados construídos por meio de uma pesquisa participante e de entrevistas semi-estruturadas com roteiro. A pesquisa permitiu concluir, dentre outros aspectos, que os processos de fascínio e espetacularização de si, por meio de uma festiva exibição dos corpos dos personagens no jogo, embalados pela cultura da visibilidade, são estratégias para dão aos sujeitos acessos a diferentes experiências corporais mutantes. Esses corpos fascinantes e espetacularizados no jogo e em rede não se limitam apenas à aquisição de capital social, mas, também, são legítimos dispositivos pedagógicos e produtores de conhecimentos. / ABSTRACT The body has always held fascination and men made him a symbolic and cultural device. With the emergence of digital technologies to create an extension of its allure process and spectacle with the social relations of online games MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role Game -playing) a promising field for this observation because it is an area of 'worlds persistent 'where they are located complex social relations. In the networks the body is also to social learning. The central argument of the thesis is that the fascination processes and spectacle of themselves found in bodily representations of the online game World of Warcraft, can be seen as pedagogies body builders. The aim was to analyze the physical creations and relationships of the characters players of World of Warcraft fascination processes and spectacle of the body as part of the body pedagogies buildings. The methodology was qualitative descriptive and analytical, with data built through a participatory research and semi-structured interviews with script. The study concluded, among other things, that the fascination processes and spectacle of himself, through a festive display of the bodies of the characters in the game, packed the culture of visibility, are strategies to give individuals access to different bodily experiences mutants. These fascinating and espetacularizados in the game and network bodies are not limited to the acquisition of capital, but also are legitimate pedagogical devices and producers of knowledge. Keywords: World of Warcraft, Online Games and Education, Body Representations, Fascination and Spectacularization, pedagogies Body.

CAPES - Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / As relações e interações sociais mantidas através das TICS podem ser consideradas reais? Há um modelo político, ético ou estético a ser seguido neste contexto, e se houver ele se assemelha com o que já nos acostumamos no mundo real? O usuário das tecnologias, e principalmente dos jogos online, são afetados pelo ato de jogar? O desenvolvimento desta pesquisa e desta Dissertação inicialmente foram motivados por investigações como as acima propostas, que posteriormente se tornaram mais complexas. Questionar o modo de se pensar o uso das tecnologias e o pensamento sobre este uso foi o ponto de partida, mas somente tais questionamentos seriam insuficientes para compreender a virtualização, o virtual e toda a sua fecundidade. Partindo disto, pensar a formação do homem em geral influenciada, principalmente nos dias de hoje, pela prática dos jogos online norteou o núcleo deste trabalho. / The relationships and social interactions that occurs through Information and Communication Technologies can be considered reals? Is there a politic, ethic or aesthetic model that need to be followed in this context, and if it exists it is similar to real world models? The users of Technologies, and mainly online gamers, are affected by the act of playing electronic games? The development of this research and dissertation was initially motivated by these investigations, and posteriorly became more complex. Questioning the way of think technology use and how to think this use were the start point, but just these questions are insufficient to comprehend the virtualization, the virtual and all your fecundity. From there, think the influences of playing games, mainly in our days, in man formation guided the core of this research. / Dissertação (Mestrado)