Elden Ring, an open world game by From Software has used almost exclusively hiddenguidance systems to guide the players. This study provides insight on players’ experience ofplayer agency and freedom of choice. This is a pilot study into the subject of Elden Ring’ssuccess as an open world game while keeping visual guidance to the minimum. This researchwas conducted with a mixed methodology combining a quantitative survey for backgrounddata qualitative semi-structured interviews for further in-depth analysis. Data has shown thatall participants have experienced some form of player agency in Elden Ring, alongsideexperiencing different hidden guidance systems throughout different parts of the game. Thisstudy can be helpful for game developers and players alike to see how a successful openworld game guided players’ experience without using visual guidance. To conclude, based onthe data, it should be noted that the concept of agency is a construct that is decided by theplayer.

This research paper presents a study of the Teamfight Tactics (Riot Games, 2019) metagame and its evolution over time. For this research purpose, we have defined metagames as the ways in which games exist within broader social and cultural contexts. By using a mixed-methods approach, we explore players' relationship with the TFT metagame, their strategies used to succeed, and the factors that influence the metagame's evolution, as well as how TFT metamedia impacts players' relationship with the metagame. Our research's theoretical framework is based on the idea of metagame analysis presented in 2017 by Boluk and LeMieux. The main results of our study show that most players consume some kind of TFT-related metamedia, which suggests that metamedia has a big influence on how players approach TFT and formulate their gameplay strategies. Players with varying skill-levels may consume different kinds of metamedia, which raises the possibility that they may be persuaded to adopt distinct approaches to playing the game and thereby contribute to the emergence of the metagame. This implies that the impact of metamedia on the metagame is not ubiquitous for all players and that additional study is required to properly comprehend the connection between the consumption of metamedia, skill level, and the metagame evolution. Due to the focus on TFT and the small sample size of our data collection, our research is restricted. However, our findings may be intriguing to TFT players, game developers, and researchers who are interested in game design, player behavior, and competitive gaming. With a particular focus on highlighting insights of the TFT metagame and its relation with metamedia, this study contributes to the larger discussion on game metagames and their development over time.

Gaming, a widely adopted form of entertainment, brings out different reactions inpeople. While some perceive it as a leisure activity, other find it the element of violence that can be found troubling. Researchers have found that video games are associated with many advantages such as enhancing focus, multitasking ability and working memory. Educational games aim to create motivated learners, which can be described as enthusiastic, focused and engaged. To create motivated learners, it is important to stimulate players both through functionality and graphical design, as a poor graphical design can lead to unwillingness to continue playing. Therefore, it is important to conduct a thorough investigation on the impact of the user interface on user engagement in order to gain a comprehensive understanding. Previous research has highlighted the importance of extrinsic and intrinsic objectives, as well as the role of activities and emotions in player engagement. Moreover, the collective findings from previous research significantly enhance our understanding of player engagement and its importance in game design and educational settings. However, our research aims to specifically investigate the impact of user interface on user engagement and aim to contribute to the existing understanding in this specific area. This study focuses on addressing the issue of inadequate user engagement in the game SocioBalance. To do this, data on players' feedback of the user interface is collected to understand the source for its shortcomings and identify areas for improvement and subsequently update the user interface of the game. Players were invited to participate in a playtest session and a dedicated questionnaire is administered to gather feedback on the user interface. The findings indicated that by improving the user interface enhanced the clarity of the game's objective. Furthermore, a higher proportion of players found the game to be more appealing. In addition, there was an observed increase in the overall graphical experience and players' inclination to continue playing / Spel, är en allmänt accepterad form av underhållning, väcker diverse reaktioner hos människor. Vissa ser det som en fritidssysselsättning, medan andra anser att våldselement är oroande. Forskare har funnit att videospel är förknippade med många fördelar, exempelvis förbättrad fokus, förmåga att hantera flera uppgifter samtidigt och arbetsminne. Pedagogiska spel syftar till att skapa motiverade elever, vilket kan beskrivas som entusiastiska, fokuserade och engagerade. För att skapa motiverade elever är det viktigt att stimulera spelarna både genom funktionalitet och grafisk design, eftersom en dålig grafisk design kan leda till ovilja att fortsätta spela. På grund av detta är det viktigt att genomföra en noggrann undersökning av användargränssnittets inverkan på användarnas engagement för att få en omfattande förståelse. Tidigare forskning har framhävt vikten av extrinsiska och intrinsiska mål, samt rollen av aktiviteter och känslor för spelarnas engagemang. Dessutom förbättrar de samlade resultaten från tidigare forskning vår förståelse av spelarens engagemang och dess betydelse för speldesign och utbildningsmiljöer. Vårt forskningsprojekt syftar dock specifikt till att undersöka användargränssnittets inverkan på spelarnas engagemang och bidra till den befintliga kunskapen inom detta område. Denna forskningsstudie fokuserar på att adressera problemet gällande otillräckligt spelarengagemang i spelet SocioBalance. För att åstadkomma detta insamlades data angående spelarnas återkoppling på användargränssnittet för att förstå orsakerna för brister och för att identifiera potentiella förbättringsområden, varpå uppdaterades användargränssnittet. Spelare bjöds in för att delta i ett speltest och en speciell enkät användes för att samla in spelarnas synpunkter gällande användargränssnittet. Resultaten visade att förbättringar i användargränssnittet gjorde spelets mål tydligare, dessutom ansåg en större andel av spelarna att spelet var mer attraktivt. Vidare noterades en påtaglig förbättring av den övergripande grafiska upplevelsen samt en betydande ökning i spelarnas benägenhet att fortsätta engagera sig i spelet.

This research study explores the influence of perceived fairness on players' playstyle in multiplayer card games. The study focuses on a card game called "Insomnia" and its modified versions to investigate players' perceptions of fairness and their subsequent behavior. Two series of playtests were conducted with different groups of participants, and data were collected through gameplay observations and semi-structured group interviews. Thematic analysis was performed on the collected data, comparing findings with existing literature to provide insights into fairness in card games and the consequent playstyles. The results reveal that players adapt their strategies and playstyles when the game becomes difficult and unfair, shifting towards cooperative actions and helping others. Furthermore, the study shows that their goals, motivations, and perceived fairness influence players' preferences and behaviors. The findings underscore the interplay between fairness, playstyle archetypes, and player behavior in multiplayer card games. The study emphasizes the significance of understanding individual motivations, social dynamics, and game design elements in shaping player experiences. It suggests that game designers should consider the complexity of player decision-making and the intricate relationship between motivations and perceptions of fairness to foster engaging gameplay.

The purpose of this thesis is to find out how interactive level design directly impactsplayers’ experience of immersion. This was done by researching different perspectives andtheories for immersion and interactivity while using Genshin Impact as an example. For thisstudy, interactive level design means a piece of environment that reacts to a player’s input.This research is important as there is a gap in the research, as while there are existing theoriesfor interactivity, immersion, and level design independently, there is little existing researchlinking them together. Additionally, this thesis is important for future level design, as it willaid in making more interactive and immersive levels for games. The method of this thesisrelied on answers from 2 qualitative and quantitative surveys and 5 semi-structuredinterviews. The data gathered from the surveys and interviews were then separately analyzed.The results indicate that interactive level design indeed has an influence that heightensplayers’ experience of immersion.

Människor blir mer och mer stillasittande (Raustorp &amp; Fröberg 2018). Tidigare forskning har gjorts för att ta reda på om det går att motivera mänskor till att röra sig mer med hjälp av aktiverade spel. Smeddincka, Herrlichb, Wangc, Zhangd och Malakae (2018) kom fram till att deltagare fick en högre motivation till att träna om de visste att de fick en belöning i ett spel för att göra det. Undersökningen i detta dokument har tagit reda på om det går att höja människors motivation till att motionera ytterligare med hjälp av specifika ”player retention mechanics”. Två versioner av en träningsapplikation har skapats. Deltagarna i undersökningen blev uppdelade i två grupper och fick testa en av de två versionerna under en vecka. Resultatet visade att de deltagare som testade applikationen med de specifika ”player retention mechanics” ökade antalet steg under veckan med 20.4%. Gruppen utan ökade enbart antalet steg med 11.2%. / <p> Det finns övrigt digitalt material (t.ex. film-, bild- eller ljudfiler) eller modeller/artefakter ijllhörande examensarbetet somska skickas till arkivet.</p>

Aim  In the study, we problematize, among other things, the leadership qualities of players and why the majority of coaches in Swedish elite handball are former players.  Within the Swedish handball elite, over 60% of all head coaches have a previous successful playing career. According to a study by Werthner et al., (2009) this may be because with previous experience as a player, this can facilitate the work as a coach because you then have specific knowledge that may be needed. Players in team sports should be good at building relationships, be selfless and self-disciplined, etc. These are also qualities that are important for a coach to have. However, the position of team captain is more similar to the position of a coach than an ordinary player. Which is quite obvious when the team captain acts as a helping hand to the coach. There are different paths to becoming a coach, especially at the elite level. The purpose of this study was to problematize these pathways and find out if a household name and former elite player gets a faster route to success as a coach. Method  We conducted a qualitative study with semi-structured interviews from 10 coaches in the sample from four different leagues in the Swedish handball elite. These were Damallsvenskan, Herrallsvenskan, SHE and Handbollsligan. From Damallsvenskan there was one assistant coach and one head coach. In Herrallsvenskan we had one head coach. From SHE we had one assistant coach and two head coaches, and last we had one assistant coach and four head coaches. Consent was collected and it included knowing whether the participants wanted to be anonymous or not in the study. All gave consent to be mentioned by name after quotations in the study. We carefully followed the guidelines for GDPR and the Swedish Research Council's four general requirements. We then did a thematic analysis of the interviews, which contributed to a more detailed data collection. Results In the results, we divided the different stories from the participants into themes with sub-themes; Player career and personality traits, The coaches’ path to Swedish elite handball, Education connected to coaching and Coaches’ opinion regarding elite players becoming elite coaches. The results were created through our thematic analysis of the answers to our interview questions. Conclusion  The most important thing for us with this work was to reach out to the people with the dream of a coaching career at an elite level, that this is possible if you work for it. We discussed, reflected and drew conclusions in the discussion section about, among other things, the faster path that former players get is preferable and how faster it really is, given that they have no experience in pedagogy and didactics.

In this thesis we present two approaches to improve automatic playtesting using player modeling. By modeling various cohorts of players we are able to train Convolutional Neural Network based agents that simulate human gameplay using different strategies directly learnt from real player data. The goal is to use the developed agents to predict useful metrics of newly created game content. We validated our approaches using the game Candy Crush Saga, a non-deterministic match-three puzzle game with a huge search space and more than three thousand levels available. To the best of our knowledge this is the first time that player modeling is applied in a match-three puzzle game. Nevertheless, the presented approaches are general and can be extended to other games as well. The proposed methods are compared to a baseline approach that simulates gameplay using a single strategy learnt from random gameplay data. Results show that by simulating different strategies, our approaches can more accurately predict the level difficulty, measured as the players’ success rate, on new levels. Both the approaches improved the mean absolute error by 13% and the mean squared error by approximately 23% when predicting with linear regression models. Furthermore, the proposed approaches can provide useful insights to better understand the players and the game. / I denna uppsats presenterar vi två tillvägagångssätt för att förbättra automatisk speltestning genom modellering av spelare. Genom att modellera olika grupper av spelare kunde vi träna Convolutional Neural Network-baserade agenter för att simulera mänskligt spelande med hjälp av olika strategier som är lärda direkt från mänsklig spelardata. Målet är att använda de utvecklade agenterna för att förutsäga användbar metrik av nyskapat spelinnehåll. Vi validerade vårt tillvägagångssätt genom Candy Crush Saga, ett icke-deterministiskt 3-matchnings pusselspel med mer än tre tusen nivåer. Detta är första gången som spelarmodellering appliceras på ett 3-matchnings pusselspel. De presenterade tillvägagångssätten är mer generella och kan utökas till andra spel. De föreslagna tillvägagångssätten är jämförda med ett tillvägagångssätt som simulerar spelande genom en strategi som är lärd direkt från slumpmässig mänsklig spelardata. Resultatet visar att vårt tillvägagångssätt, genom simulering av olika strategier är, mer exakt för att förutsäga spelarens svårighet, mätt genom spelarens framgång, på nya nivåer. Båda tillvägagångssätten förbättrade mean absolute error med 13% och mean squared error med ungefär 23%. Dessutom kan de föreslagna tillvägagångssätten ge en användbar insikt för att bättre förstå spelarna och spelet.

While 3D degree video in recent times have been object of research, 2D flat frame videos in virtual environments (VE) seemingly have not received the same amount of attention. Specifically, 2D video playback in Virtual Reality (VR) and Mixed Reality (MR) appears to lack exploration in both features and qualities of resolution, audio and interaction, which finally are contributors of presence. This paper reflects on the definitions of Virtual Reality and Mixed Reality, while extending known concepts of immersion and presence to 2D videos in VEs. Relevant attributes of presence that can applied to 2D videos were then investigated in the literature. The main problem was to find out the components and processes of the playback software in VR and MR with company request features and delimitations in consideration, and possibly, how to adjust those components to induce a greater presence within primarily the 2D video, and secondary the VE, although the mediums of visual information indeed are related and thus influence each other. The thesis work took place at Advrty, a company developing a brand advertising platform for VR and MR. The exploration and testing of the components, was done through the increment of a creating a basic standalone 2D video player, then through a second increment by implementing a video player into VR and MR. Comparisons with the proof-of-concept video players in VR and MR as well as the standalone video player were made. The results of the study show a feasible way of making a video player for VR and MR. In the discussion of the work, open source libraries in a commercial software; the technical limitations of the current VR and MR Head-mounted Displays (HMD); relevant presence inducing attributes as well as the choice of method were reflected upon. / Medan 360 graders video under senare tid varit föremål för studier, så verkar inte traditionella rektangulära 2D videos i virtuella miljöer ha fått samma uppmärksamhet. Mer specifikt, 2D videouppspelning i Virtual Reality (VR) och Mixed Reality (MR) verkar sakna utforskning i egenskaper som upplösning, ljud och interaktion, som slutligen bidrar till ”presence” i videon och den virtuella miljön. Det här pappret reflekterar över definitionerna VR och MR, samtidigt som den utökar de kända koncepten ”immersion” och ”presence” för 2D video i virtuella miljöer. Relevanta attribut till ”presence” som kan appliceras på 2D video utreddes sedan med hjälp av litteraturen. Det huvudsakliga problemet var att ta reda på komponenterna och processerna i den mjukvara som skall spela upp video i VR och MR med företagsönskemål och avgränsningar i åtanke, och möjligen, hur man kan justera dessa komponenter för att utöka närvaron i framförallt 2D video och sekundärt den virtuella miljön, även om dessa medium är relaterade och kan påverka varandra. Examensarbetet tog plats på Advrty, ett företag som utvecklar en annonseringsplattform för VR och MR. Utveckling och framtagande av komponenterna, var gjorda genom inkrementell utveckling där en enklare 2D videospelare skapades, sedan genom en andra inkrementell fas där videospelaren implementerades i VR och MR. Jämförelser med proof-of-concept-videospelaren i VR och MR samt den enklare videospelaren gjordes. I diskussionen om arbetet, gjordes reflektioner på användningen av open source-bibliotek i en kommersiell applikation, de tekniska begränsningarna i nuvarande VR och MR Head-mounted displays, relevanta ”presence” inducerande attribut samt val av metod för utvecklingen av videospelaren.

This study aimed to compare the validity of a local positioning system (LPS) during outdoor and indoor conditions for team sports. The impact of different filtering techniques was also investigated. Five male team sport athletes (age: 27 ± 2 years; maximum oxygen uptake: 48.4 ± 5.1 mL/min/kg) performed 10 trials on a team sport-specific circuit on an artificial turf and in a sports hall. During the circuit, athletes wore two devices of a recent 20-Hz LPS. From the reported raw and differently filtered velocity data, distances covered during different walking, jogging, and sprinting sections within the circuit were computed for which the circuit was equipped with double-light timing gates as criterion measures. The validity was determined by comparing the known and measured distances via the relative typical error of estimate (TEE). The LPS validity for measuring distances covered was good to moderate during both environments (TEE: 0.9–7.1%), whereby the outdoor validity (TEE: 0.9–6.4%) was superior than indoor validity (TEE: 1.2–7.1%). During both environments, validity outcomes of an unknown manufacturer filter were superior (TEE: 0.9–6.2%) compared to those of a standard Butterworth filter (TEE: 0.9–6.4%) and to unprocessed raw data (TEE: 1.0–7.1%). Our findings show that the evaluated LPS can be considered as a good to moderately valid tracking technology to assess running-based movement patterns in team sports during outdoor and indoor conditions. However, outdoor was superior to indoor validity, and also impacted by the applied filtering technique. Our outcomes should be considered for practical purposes like match and training analyses in team sport environments.