Today in 2015 the game industry grows and games become more advanced. This leads to that the ways interactive media such as games portray their narrative are also improving. Therefore we chose to examine what factors affected how five experienced gamers viewed the narrative in the game Dear Esther (The Chinese Room, 2012) the first time they played it. The investigation used stimulated recall in order to collect data and the data were analysed with the help of the EPP methodology. Our study showed there was a diversity in how the game’s narrative was perceived and that a number of factors affected the interpretations of the narrative. These factors were organised in four categories: exploration, feeling and atmosphere, player experience, and identification with the player character and theories around the narrative. A fifth category evaluation of the storytelling, described the player’s thoughts about the way the narrative was told. Our main conclusion was that the factors affecting the way players perceived the narrative of the game varied much depending on who played the game and what their regular experience of games were. For example some were more affected by environment and monologue while others was more affected by earlier experiences of how games used to work. The respondent’s perception of the game narrative were also affected by their own thoughts and theories around the narrative and what might have happened. We could also see there were several different thoughts and opinions on how the narrative style of the game worked and three participants thought it worked well. / Idag 2015 publiceras fler och mer avancerade spel än någonsin tidigare. Hand i hand med denna utveckling borde också utvecklingen av de narrativ som spel kan berätta gå. Därför undersöker vi i denna uppsats vilka faktorer som påverkade uppfattningen av narrativet i Dear Esther hos fem spelvana personer som tidigare inte spelat spelet. Undersökningen gjordes med hjälp av stimulated recall och data analyserades med hjälp av EPP-metoden. Vår studie visade på en stor spridning av upplevelserna och en mängd faktorer som påverkade upplevelsen av narrativet. Dessa faktorer delade vi in i olika kategorier. Dessa var Utforskning, Känslor och stämning, Spelarvana samt Identifikation med berättarkaraktären och teorier kring narrativ. En femte kategori kallad Värdering av berättartekniken beskrev hur spelarna uppfattat spelets berättarteknik. Den främsta slutsatsen vi kan dra är att de faktorer som påverkade hur respondenterna uppfattade Dear Esther och dess narrativ varierade mycket beroende på vem som spelade. Vissa av respondenterna påverkades mer av omgivningar och monologer, medan andra påverkades mer av sin egen vana och insikt i hur spel bör fungera. Alla påverkads dock mycket av sina egna tankar känslor och teorier kring vad som en gång hänt. Vi kunde också se att det fanns olika tankar och åsikter angående hur berättartekniken i spelet ansågs fungera och tre av respondenterna ansåg att det fungerade bra.

Esta Tese possui como objeto teórico de investigação a experiência de jogo a partir de um viés fenomenológico, compreendendo o fenômeno lúdico e suas manifestações – no caso, o jogo – em nós, humanos, em seus aspectos ontológicos e relacionados à nossa capacidade de estabelecermos relações significativas com nosso próprio ser, com os outros e com as coisas do mundo em sua totalidade enquanto um processo de abertura de mundo. Partimos das premissas fenomenológicas e, em especial, da obra de Martin Heidegger, para caracterizar a existência, a natureza e a estrutura da experiência de jogo como um processo de afinação do homem no que chamamos de tonalidade afetiva ou Stimmung lúdica. O percurso teórico é iniciado pela abordagem do fenômeno lúdico e do jogo como problema ontológico, relacionado aos modos a partir dos quais estamos no mundo; em seguida, apresentamos o Ingress (2012), LARG utilizado para exemplificar e aplicar os possíveis efeitos que a afinação lúdica que a Stimmung pode desencadear na experiência de jogo em relação ao contexto urbano material, social, espacial e temporal no qual o jogo digital em questão ocorre. Deste modo, abordamos a experiência e a percepção também a partir da fenomenologia, principalmente relacionadas à espacialidade humana Para demonstrar o efeito que a Stimmung lúdica pode desencadear no Ingress, situamos o processo de desencantamento do mundo e suas tensões em relação às possibilidades de reencantamento a partir das experiências do jogador neste LARG. Ao aprofundar o conceito de tonalidade afetiva em Heidegger, também estabelecemos a sua estrutura existencial tríplice: um a priori lúdico; o comprometimento humano com o fenômeno lúdico enquanto antecipação futura; e a concretização da experiência de jogo na afinação da tonalidade afetiva lúdica enquanto atualização dos dois primeiros. Após, apresentamos o exercício de aplicação do conceito de Stimmung lúdico no Ingress, identificando possibilidades de reencantamento, utilizando uma metodologia inspirada na etnografia, com um questionário online e entrevistas presenciais com outros jogadores, além do relato do autor em relação ao mesmo. Por fim, são apresentadas as considerações finais e as referências bibliográficas consultadas para a realização desta Tese. / This Thesis has, as theoretical object of investigation, the experience of play from the phenomenological bias, comprising the play phenomenon and its manifestations - in this case, the game - in us, humans, in their ontological aspects and related to our ability to establish meaningful relationships with our own being, with others and with the things of the world as a process of world-opening. We start from the phenomenological premises, and especially from the work of Martin Heidegger, to characterize the existence, the nature and the structure of the game experience as a process of man's attunement in what we call playful attunement or Stimmung. We start our theoretical framework approaching the play phenomenon and the game as an ontological problem, related to the ways from which we are in the world; and so we introduce the LARG Ingress to exemplify and apply the possible effects that the playful Stimmung can trigger in the players’ experience in relation to the material, social, spatial and temporal urban context in which this game occurs. Therefore, we approach the experience and the perception also from the phenomenology, mainly related to the human spatiality In order to characterize the effect that the playful Stimmung can trigger in Ingress (2012), we approach the idea of the disenchantment of the world promoted by Modernity and situate its tensions in relation to the possibilities of re-enchantment from the players’ experiences in relation to this LARG. With the presentation of the concept of Stimmung in Heidegger, we establish the existential threefold structure of the same: an a priori ludic; the human commitment to the playful phenomenon as future anticipation; and the realization of the game experience as an attunement of the playful Stimmung as an concretion of the first two. After this, we present an exercise of application of the concept of playful Stimmung in the Ingress (2012), identifying the ways in which the re-enchantment it can trigger in the players’ experience, using an methodology inspired by ethnography, with an online survey and also interviews with other players, in addition to the author's report in relation to it. Finally, we present the final considerations and bibliographical references consulted for the accomplishment of this Thesis.

Obesity has become a worldwide problem that most countries are trying to fight. It affects many people, irrespective of age, race, gender, or religion; anyone can suffer from obesity, which leads to serious problems, both for individuals and for society as a whole. In this study we have selected two groups of people: the basic people who do not exercise on a weekly basis, and the average people who exercise regularly, every week. We have explored the attitude of the two groups in regards to mixing exercises with games, in order to motivate the people with basic activity levels to exercise more frequently. We have used a qualitative standard online questionnaire from AttrakDiff, which evaluates user experience through four important aspects: a) quality; b) subjective understanding of quality and subjective evaluation of quality; c) pragmatic and hedonic features; and d) emotional and behavioural effects. We also did a qualitative study and a quantitative study of some of the important factors present during exercise. The results of the qualitative and quantitative studies were very encouraging as they revealed that mixing games with exercise can transform boring exercises into entertaining ones. It can also motivate players to continue and repeat the exercises. The ANOVA test was applied and it shows that combining games with a stationary bike has a significant effect on the speed and the average rotation per minute of the participants.

Esta Tese possui como objeto teórico de investigação a experiência de jogo a partir de um viés fenomenológico, compreendendo o fenômeno lúdico e suas manifestações – no caso, o jogo – em nós, humanos, em seus aspectos ontológicos e relacionados à nossa capacidade de estabelecermos relações significativas com nosso próprio ser, com os outros e com as coisas do mundo em sua totalidade enquanto um processo de abertura de mundo. Partimos das premissas fenomenológicas e, em especial, da obra de Martin Heidegger, para caracterizar a existência, a natureza e a estrutura da experiência de jogo como um processo de afinação do homem no que chamamos de tonalidade afetiva ou Stimmung lúdica. O percurso teórico é iniciado pela abordagem do fenômeno lúdico e do jogo como problema ontológico, relacionado aos modos a partir dos quais estamos no mundo; em seguida, apresentamos o Ingress (2012), LARG utilizado para exemplificar e aplicar os possíveis efeitos que a afinação lúdica que a Stimmung pode desencadear na experiência de jogo em relação ao contexto urbano material, social, espacial e temporal no qual o jogo digital em questão ocorre. Deste modo, abordamos a experiência e a percepção também a partir da fenomenologia, principalmente relacionadas à espacialidade humana Para demonstrar o efeito que a Stimmung lúdica pode desencadear no Ingress, situamos o processo de desencantamento do mundo e suas tensões em relação às possibilidades de reencantamento a partir das experiências do jogador neste LARG. Ao aprofundar o conceito de tonalidade afetiva em Heidegger, também estabelecemos a sua estrutura existencial tríplice: um a priori lúdico; o comprometimento humano com o fenômeno lúdico enquanto antecipação futura; e a concretização da experiência de jogo na afinação da tonalidade afetiva lúdica enquanto atualização dos dois primeiros. Após, apresentamos o exercício de aplicação do conceito de Stimmung lúdico no Ingress, identificando possibilidades de reencantamento, utilizando uma metodologia inspirada na etnografia, com um questionário online e entrevistas presenciais com outros jogadores, além do relato do autor em relação ao mesmo. Por fim, são apresentadas as considerações finais e as referências bibliográficas consultadas para a realização desta Tese. / This Thesis has, as theoretical object of investigation, the experience of play from the phenomenological bias, comprising the play phenomenon and its manifestations - in this case, the game - in us, humans, in their ontological aspects and related to our ability to establish meaningful relationships with our own being, with others and with the things of the world as a process of world-opening. We start from the phenomenological premises, and especially from the work of Martin Heidegger, to characterize the existence, the nature and the structure of the game experience as a process of man's attunement in what we call playful attunement or Stimmung. We start our theoretical framework approaching the play phenomenon and the game as an ontological problem, related to the ways from which we are in the world; and so we introduce the LARG Ingress to exemplify and apply the possible effects that the playful Stimmung can trigger in the players’ experience in relation to the material, social, spatial and temporal urban context in which this game occurs. Therefore, we approach the experience and the perception also from the phenomenology, mainly related to the human spatiality In order to characterize the effect that the playful Stimmung can trigger in Ingress (2012), we approach the idea of the disenchantment of the world promoted by Modernity and situate its tensions in relation to the possibilities of re-enchantment from the players’ experiences in relation to this LARG. With the presentation of the concept of Stimmung in Heidegger, we establish the existential threefold structure of the same: an a priori ludic; the human commitment to the playful phenomenon as future anticipation; and the realization of the game experience as an attunement of the playful Stimmung as an concretion of the first two. After this, we present an exercise of application of the concept of playful Stimmung in the Ingress (2012), identifying the ways in which the re-enchantment it can trigger in the players’ experience, using an methodology inspired by ethnography, with an online survey and also interviews with other players, in addition to the author's report in relation to it. Finally, we present the final considerations and bibliographical references consulted for the accomplishment of this Thesis.

Esta Tese possui como objeto teórico de investigação a experiência de jogo a partir de um viés fenomenológico, compreendendo o fenômeno lúdico e suas manifestações – no caso, o jogo – em nós, humanos, em seus aspectos ontológicos e relacionados à nossa capacidade de estabelecermos relações significativas com nosso próprio ser, com os outros e com as coisas do mundo em sua totalidade enquanto um processo de abertura de mundo. Partimos das premissas fenomenológicas e, em especial, da obra de Martin Heidegger, para caracterizar a existência, a natureza e a estrutura da experiência de jogo como um processo de afinação do homem no que chamamos de tonalidade afetiva ou Stimmung lúdica. O percurso teórico é iniciado pela abordagem do fenômeno lúdico e do jogo como problema ontológico, relacionado aos modos a partir dos quais estamos no mundo; em seguida, apresentamos o Ingress (2012), LARG utilizado para exemplificar e aplicar os possíveis efeitos que a afinação lúdica que a Stimmung pode desencadear na experiência de jogo em relação ao contexto urbano material, social, espacial e temporal no qual o jogo digital em questão ocorre. Deste modo, abordamos a experiência e a percepção também a partir da fenomenologia, principalmente relacionadas à espacialidade humana Para demonstrar o efeito que a Stimmung lúdica pode desencadear no Ingress, situamos o processo de desencantamento do mundo e suas tensões em relação às possibilidades de reencantamento a partir das experiências do jogador neste LARG. Ao aprofundar o conceito de tonalidade afetiva em Heidegger, também estabelecemos a sua estrutura existencial tríplice: um a priori lúdico; o comprometimento humano com o fenômeno lúdico enquanto antecipação futura; e a concretização da experiência de jogo na afinação da tonalidade afetiva lúdica enquanto atualização dos dois primeiros. Após, apresentamos o exercício de aplicação do conceito de Stimmung lúdico no Ingress, identificando possibilidades de reencantamento, utilizando uma metodologia inspirada na etnografia, com um questionário online e entrevistas presenciais com outros jogadores, além do relato do autor em relação ao mesmo. Por fim, são apresentadas as considerações finais e as referências bibliográficas consultadas para a realização desta Tese. / This Thesis has, as theoretical object of investigation, the experience of play from the phenomenological bias, comprising the play phenomenon and its manifestations - in this case, the game - in us, humans, in their ontological aspects and related to our ability to establish meaningful relationships with our own being, with others and with the things of the world as a process of world-opening. We start from the phenomenological premises, and especially from the work of Martin Heidegger, to characterize the existence, the nature and the structure of the game experience as a process of man's attunement in what we call playful attunement or Stimmung. We start our theoretical framework approaching the play phenomenon and the game as an ontological problem, related to the ways from which we are in the world; and so we introduce the LARG Ingress to exemplify and apply the possible effects that the playful Stimmung can trigger in the players’ experience in relation to the material, social, spatial and temporal urban context in which this game occurs. Therefore, we approach the experience and the perception also from the phenomenology, mainly related to the human spatiality In order to characterize the effect that the playful Stimmung can trigger in Ingress (2012), we approach the idea of the disenchantment of the world promoted by Modernity and situate its tensions in relation to the possibilities of re-enchantment from the players’ experiences in relation to this LARG. With the presentation of the concept of Stimmung in Heidegger, we establish the existential threefold structure of the same: an a priori ludic; the human commitment to the playful phenomenon as future anticipation; and the realization of the game experience as an attunement of the playful Stimmung as an concretion of the first two. After this, we present an exercise of application of the concept of playful Stimmung in the Ingress (2012), identifying the ways in which the re-enchantment it can trigger in the players’ experience, using an methodology inspired by ethnography, with an online survey and also interviews with other players, in addition to the author's report in relation to it. Finally, we present the final considerations and bibliographical references consulted for the accomplishment of this Thesis.

Obesity has become a worldwide problem that most countries are trying to fight. It affects many people, irrespective of age, race, gender, or religion; anyone can suffer from obesity, which leads to serious problems, both for individuals and for society as a whole. In this study we have selected two groups of people: the basic people who do not exercise on a weekly basis, and the average people who exercise regularly, every week. We have explored the attitude of the two groups in regards to mixing exercises with games, in order to motivate the people with basic activity levels to exercise more frequently. We have used a qualitative standard online questionnaire from AttrakDiff, which evaluates user experience through four important aspects: a) quality; b) subjective understanding of quality and subjective evaluation of quality; c) pragmatic and hedonic features; and d) emotional and behavioural effects. We also did a qualitative study and a quantitative study of some of the important factors present during exercise. The results of the qualitative and quantitative studies were very encouraging as they revealed that mixing games with exercise can transform boring exercises into entertaining ones. It can also motivate players to continue and repeat the exercises. The ANOVA test was applied and it shows that combining games with a stationary bike has a significant effect on the speed and the average rotation per minute of the participants.

This bachelor thesis seeks to find out what players’ experiences with randomness in Teamfight Tactics (TFT) are like, what makes these experiences good and bad, and what a game developer can learn from them. TFT and Auto-Battlers in general are a topic that has not seen much research despite their immense popularity since their inception. In this research, we interviewed TFT players using semi-structured qualitative interviews asking them about their experiences with randomness, which ones they particularly remember, like or dislike and what they think about the way the game uses randomness in general. Overall, we found that players liked the random aspects of the game and thought that these mostly increase their enjoyment of the game as they provide replayability. Players also noted that skill matters much more than randomness when determining the outcome of a game. The most important takeaway from this study was that players, despite the fact that the larger community often speaks negatively and complains about the randomness, ultimately consider randomness a positive aspect of the game. This also echoes previous research on how randomness can enhance the play experience. Giving players sufficient control over their situation by offering them meaningful choices in the face of randomness is the main way that this can be done.

There is currently little research about how the aesthetics of a game affects the perceived PX. Especially, the aesthetics of the individual 3D game components, such as characters, enemies and environmental objects. This thesis project studies different design principles and approaches to create 3D game components. These are used in practice to create 3D game components for a video game. The 3D game components are evaluated with qualitative and quantitative methods, with the intention to find a method for creating 3D game components that evoke a certain PX. The results show that it is possible to create 3D game components that evoke positive emotions, by using color psychology, animation theory and by designing from the developers own feelings and experiences.

The eSports scene as well as the Multiplayer Online Battle Arena (MOBA) have rapidly grown in popularity over the past decade. Research regarding game design factors and player experience in this genre are still not fully explored. This study aimed to examine Heroes of the Storm (HotS), League of Legends (LoL) and Defense of the Ancients 2 (Dota2) through a tailored game ontology for MOBA games, if the game mechanics cause more frustration and challenge compared to other genres (Johnson, Nacke and Wyeth, 2015); and to better understand the effect on player experience in MOBA games. Results suggest that builds for heroes, including talents, items and meta strategies, are the most challenging aspects. Frustration may surge when players make mistakes or when communication within the team fails. Additionally, the main difference between these games is the level of difficulty and complexity making Dota2 the optimal choice for MOBA veterans and HotS a good introduction to the MOBA genre. / ESports scenen så väl som Multiplayer Online Battle Arena genren har snabbt vuxit i popularitet under de senaste tio åren. Forskning angående speldesignfaktorer och spelupplevelse har fortfarande inte blivit fullt utforskat. Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka  Heroes of the Storm (HotS), League of Legends (LoL) och Defense of the Ancients 2 (Dota2) genom en skräddarsydd ontologi för MOBA spel,  och hur spelmekanikerna skapar mer frustration och utmaning hos spelare i jämförelse med andra genrer (Johnson, Nacke och Wyeth, 2015) samt att bättre förstå vilken effekt de har på spelarna i MOBA genren. Resultaten tyder att builds för karaktärer, inklusive talents, items och metastrategier är dem mest utmanande elementen. Frustration kan uppstå när spelare gör misstag eller när kommunikationen inom laget ej fungerar. Den största skillnaden i mellan dessa spel är svårighetsgraden och komplexitet, vilket leder till att Dota2 är ett optimalt val för veteraner och HotS är en bra introduktion till MOBA genren.

Innovations in computer game interfaces continue to enhance the experience of players. Affective games - those that adapt or incorporate a player’s emotional state - have shown promise in creating exciting and engaging user experiences. However, a dearth of systematic exploration into what types of game elements should adapt to affective state leaves game designers with little guidance on how to incorporate affect into their games. We created an affective game engine, using it to deploy a design probe into how adapting the player’s abilities, the enemy’s abilities, or variables in the environment affects player performance and experience. Our results suggest that affectively adapting games can increase player arousal. Furthermore, we suggest that reducing challenge by adapting non-player characters is a worse design choice than giving players the tools that they need (through enhancing player abilities or a supportive environment) to master greater challenges.