Video game players demand a volume of content far in excess of the ability of game designers to create it. For example, a single quest might take a week to develop and test, which means that companies such as Blizzard are spending millions of dollars each month on new content for their games. As a result, both players and developers are frustrated with the inability to meet the demand for new content. By generating content on-demand, it is possible to create custom content for each player based on player preferences. It is also possible to make use of the current world state during generation, something which cannot be done with current techniques. Using developers to create rules and assets for a content generator instead of creating content directly will lower development costs as well as reduce the development time for new game content to seconds rather than days. This work is part of the field of computational creativity, and involves the use of computers to create aesthetically pleasing game content, such as terrain, characters, and quests. I demonstrate agent-based terrain generation, and economic modeling of game spaces. I also demonstrate the autonomous generation of quests for online role playing games, and the ability to play these quests using an emulated Everquest server.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-27T14:48:46Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Clodoaldo Barbosa da Silva.pdf: 1281221 bytes, checksum: c71e74bc966ddc0f534e7448a598d147 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-09-18 / The aim of this paper is in to create a training activity for teachers, directed to the process of continuing education, focusing on assessment of learning. The strategy is to apply concepts and consideration of procedures doing this performed through a Solo Adventure or Game Book, inspirited in role-playing Game - RPG. This training activity aims to create an analysis and an discussion of environment, related to the daily life in the classroom, leading teachers to reflect on their practices, while there is the appropriation of theoretical foundations that contribute to its formation in evaluation of the field of learning. The conclusion shows that the adaptation of a Solo Adventure, as a formative activity, stimulates the reactivity through issues-problem / O objetivo desse trabalho é a elaboração de uma atividade formativa para professores, direcionada ao processo de formação continuada, com foco na avaliação da aprendizagem. A estratégia leva à aplicação de conceitos e à reflexão dos procedimentos e é realizada por meio de uma Aventura Solo ou Livro Jogo, modalidade originária do Role-playing game- RPG. Essa atividade formativa tem como meta criar um ambiente de análise e discussão, relacionado com o cotidiano em sala de aula, levando os professores a refletir sobre suas práticas, ao mesmo tempo em que há a apropriação dos fundamentos teóricos que venham contribuir com sua formação no campo da avaliação da aprendizagem. A conclusão mostra que a adaptação de uma Aventura Solo, como atividade formativa, estimula a reatividade por meio de questões-problema

Fler timmar och större intresse läggs idag ner på onlinerollspel vilka under de senaste åren blivit omåttligt populära. Våra sociala beteenden har idag förändrats och vi behöver inte längre fysiskt beträda det rum vi vanligen kommunicerade i. Vi öppnar istället upp dörrarna till en ny dimension där du “är” en virtuell identitet, och där du kanske har väldigt många fler möjligheter än i ditt fysiska liv. World of Warcraft är just ett sådant spel vilket underhåller tusentals av spelare och som kommer ligga till grund för denna uppsats. Syftet är att skapa en dokumentation av och ge en insyn i dessa nya sociala miljöer som vi finner i World of Warcraft. Vad har tillexempel en online identitet för betydelse för jaget (spelaren) och kan det som händer i ett community på internet påverka våra fysiska sociala liv? Samma sak händer om man vänder på frågan, vad händer med spelvärldens sociala liv om man inte spelar tillräckligt mycket, hur påverkar det spelandet i sig? Är en spelare tvungen att välja bara en social arena, eller finns det en god möjlighet till en balans mellan miljöerna? Frågor om interagerbarhet, interaktivitet och kommunikation i spelet kommer också att vara centrala i uppsatsen, eftersom dessa i någon form påverkar oss som individer och sociala varelser. Alltså vad är det som lockar och varför kan vi som individer bli påverkade av detta? De komponenter jag finner mest bidragande till delaktighet i World of Warcraft diskuteras och analyseras sedan utifrån utvalda teoretiska utgångspunkter. Syftet är också att utifrån videoinspelade intervjuer med spelarna ge en slags bild av hur fenomenet kan se ut. I Själva dokumentärfilmen ( som tillhör uppsatsen och som finns på separat DVD) läggs Fokus på intervjuerna, (där de intervjuade får en chans att säga sin mening) och de spelmiljöer man kan stöta på i World of Warcraft . Vi följer spelaren in i världen .Med dessa rörliga bilder kan vi också få större förståelse för vad World of Warcraft är och vad det betyder för miljontals människor. I intervjuerna med dessa respondenter försöker jag att gå in i samtal som är mer djupgående och kvalitativa. Denna form av undersökning, där så få personer medverkar kan inte kvantitativt framlägga ett övergripande mönster av hur majoritetens spelvanor ser ut.

<p>Fler timmar och större intresse läggs idag ner på onlinerollspel vilka under de senaste åren blivit omåttligt populära. Våra sociala beteenden har idag förändrats och vi behöver inte längre fysiskt beträda det rum vi vanligen kommunicerade i. Vi öppnar istället upp dörrarna till en ny dimension där du “är” en virtuell identitet, och där du kanske har väldigt många fler möjligheter än i ditt fysiska liv. World of Warcraft är just ett sådant spel vilket underhåller tusentals av spelare och som kommer ligga till grund för denna uppsats.</p><p>Syftet är att skapa en dokumentation av och ge en insyn i dessa nya sociala miljöer som vi finner i World of Warcraft. Vad har tillexempel en online identitet för betydelse för jaget (spelaren) och kan det som händer i ett community på internet påverka våra fysiska sociala liv? Samma sak händer om man vänder på frågan, vad händer med spelvärldens sociala liv om man inte spelar tillräckligt mycket, hur påverkar det spelandet i sig? Är en spelare tvungen att välja bara en social arena, eller finns det en god möjlighet till en balans mellan miljöerna? Frågor om interagerbarhet, interaktivitet och kommunikation i spelet kommer också att vara centrala i uppsatsen, eftersom dessa i någon form påverkar oss som individer och sociala varelser.</p><p>Alltså vad är det som lockar och varför kan vi som individer bli påverkade av detta?</p><p>De komponenter jag finner mest bidragande till delaktighet i World of Warcraft diskuteras och analyseras sedan utifrån utvalda teoretiska utgångspunkter. Syftet är också att utifrån videoinspelade intervjuer med spelarna ge en slags bild av hur fenomenet kan se ut. I Själva dokumentärfilmen ( som tillhör uppsatsen och som finns på separat DVD) läggs Fokus på intervjuerna, (där de intervjuade får en chans att säga sin mening) och de spelmiljöer man kan stöta på i World of Warcraft . Vi följer spelaren in i världen .Med dessa rörliga bilder kan vi också få större förståelse för vad World of Warcraft är och vad det betyder för miljontals människor.</p><p>I intervjuerna med dessa respondenter försöker jag att gå in i samtal som är mer djupgående och kvalitativa. Denna form av undersökning, där så få personer medverkar kan inte kvantitativt framlägga ett övergripande mönster av hur majoritetens spelvanor ser ut.</p><p> </p>

Submitted by Automação e Estatística (sst@bczm.ufrn.br) on 2018-05-02T22:11:53Z No. of bitstreams: 1 ZaraCristinaDeAndradeBarbosa_DISSERT.pdf: 1286485 bytes, checksum: ac305da04e2c8d6c6aba84d0ee31d8d0 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Arlan Eloi Leite Silva (eloihistoriador@yahoo.com.br) on 2018-05-04T21:54:13Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 ZaraCristinaDeAndradeBarbosa_DISSERT.pdf: 1286485 bytes, checksum: ac305da04e2c8d6c6aba84d0ee31d8d0 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-05-04T21:54:13Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 ZaraCristinaDeAndradeBarbosa_DISSERT.pdf: 1286485 bytes, checksum: ac305da04e2c8d6c6aba84d0ee31d8d0 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017-02-21 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) / Este trabalho é uma pesquisa fenomenológico-hermenêutica de inspiração Heideggeriana, realizada com jogadores de Role Playing Game (RPG). A revisão de literatura mostrou que a produção acadêmica na área da Psicologia a respeito do RPG no Brasil é escassa, porém na Educação os estudos estão crescendo e abordam, em sua maioria, a utilização do jogo em salas de aulas como ferramenta facilitadora do processo de ensino-aprendizagem. Alguns estudos apontam para a eficácia do jogo no ensino de disciplinas escolares. Outros, focam nos benefícios para o desenvolvimento e estimulação da memória e da atenção, além de um melhor desempenho na leitura e escrita. No exterior existe um fluxo bem maior de estudos em Psicologia, abordando os benefícios na melhoria do desempenho cognitivo, desenvolvimento de habilidades sociais, formação de grupos de suporte, bem como ajuda na resolução de conflitos. Assim, estes estudos dão suporte para pensar e discutir o jogo por um caminho que vai além do pedagógico, preocupando-se em olhar para o jogador de RPG enquanto ser-no-mundo que, ao habitar sua existência, pensa e atribui sentidos às suas experiências. Portanto, esta pesquisa teve como objetivo compreender, à luz da hermenêutica heideggeriana, a experiência de ser um jogador de RPG. Para isto, foram realizadas entrevistas narrativas com três jogadores de RPG que demonstraram interesse em participar do estudo. A entrevista partiu de uma pergunta desencadeadora sobre como é para eles ser um jogador de RPG. Após as entrevistas, foram realizadas a leitura e análise das narrativas que tiveram como base o método fenomenológico hermenêutico, por entendermos que este método possibilita um olhar compreensivo do fenômeno, neste caso, a experiência dos jogadores. A partir dessas narrativas, foi possível perceber que o jogo possibilita um espaço no qual esses jogadores sentem-se livres para serem eles mesmos, ocupando um lugar de grande importância em suas vidas. / This work is a Phenomenological-Existential and Heideggerian-inspired research, done with Role Playing Game (RPG) players. The literature review showed that the academic production in the Psychology field about the RPG in Brasil is small, but in the Education and Psychology fields, the studies are growing and adresses, mostly, the use of the game inside the classrooms as a facilitating tool of the teaching-learning process. Some studies point to the effectiveness of the game on the teaching of school subjects. Ohter studies, focuses on the benefits for the development and stimulation of memory and attention, and improvement of the reading and writing performance. Abroad, there is a higher flow of studies in Psychology, addressing the benefits on the improvement of the cognitive performance, development of social skills, creation of support groups and conflicts resolution. These studies gives the support to think and discuss the game with a bias beyond the pedagogical one, worrying to look to the RPG player while being-in-the-world that, when inhabiting its existence, thinks and gives meanings to its experiences. Therefore, this research aims to understand, in the light of Heideggerian hermeneutics, the experience of being a RPG player. Narrative interviews were conducted with three RPG players with a triggering question about how it is for them to be an RPG player. The reading and analysis of the narratives were based on the phenomenological hermeneutic method, because it allows an understanding view of the phenomenon. It was possible to perceive, from the players' narratives, that the game provides a space in which they feel free to be themselves, occupying a place of great importance in their lives.

Genreblandning har de senaste fem åren blivit en allt större del i hur datorspel designas. Den här uppsatsen är en studie i hur genreblandning kan appliceras i en spelproduktion och hur denna produktion och dess genreblandning uppfattas av en grupp utomstående som sedan spelar spelet. Den blandning som studeras är den mellan genrerna role-playing game, dual-joystick shooter och minigolf. Resultaten från den enkät denna grupp sedan svarar på visar att genreblandning mellan de valda genrerna fungerar trots deras olikheter sinsemellan, men att det är mycket viktigt att spelets övriga element inte försummas till förmån för genreblandningen. Det framgår även att den grad till vilken de tre genrerna blandas i spelet respondenterna testar inte är den maximala.

Will more realistic behaviour among non-playing characters (NPCs) in a role-playing game(RPG) improve the overall feeling of the game for the player? Would players notice the enhanced life of a NPC in a role-playing game, or is the time spent in cities and villages insufficient to notice any difference at all? There are plenty best-selling RPGs with simplistic, repetitive NPC behaviour on the market. Does that mean that smarter NPCs is not necessary and that an improvement of them wouldn&apos;t benefit the players&apos; impression of it? Or would some of these well recognised games get even better with a more evolved AI? These are some of the thoughts that created the initial spark of curiosity that inspired the making of this article. By assuming that a more complex game AI for the NPCs will improve the realism and feeling in a role-playing game, a research about possible techniques to achieve this was made. The technique Smart Terrain was found most beneficial for the purpose with this research. It&apos;s been used successfully in the well-selling game The Sims and appeared to be a good choice for an NPC AI with the flexibility and expandability it delivers. With a technique of great potential selected, a first version of an AI using it was implemented as a module to the commercial RPG Neverwinter Nights 2(NWN2). With the implemented Smart Terrain AI at hand, twelve testers got to compare this AI with the one that is encountered in the original campaign of NWN2. As all the participants in the test thought the new version of the AI more realistic than the original AI, the hypothesis was proven to be true. The results gave a strong indication of that using the Smart Terrain technique is a good choice to achieve higher realism among non-hostile NPCs in a RPG like NWN2.

With the popularity of online role-playing games, a web-based battle application is designed to help the players to improve their characters for the combat. The developed prototype concentrates on one-player-multi-characters mode. The project consists of three major objectives. The first one focuses on the development of web-based interfaces for user registration and login. This functionality benefits the user with an individual and personalized member account. The second goal is to improve the existing web-application for character creation so the user data input is stored in a database for posterior retrieval. The third objective refers to the development of a web-based battle application that allows players to test created characters in a battle, one character against another one. This project also contributed with a logical database model that overcomes some design issues, such as normalization problems, in the current database model.

This project responds to a problem in scholarship describing the relationship between virtual avatars and their physical users. In Life on the Screen, Sherry Turkle identifies points of slippage wherein the persona of the avatar becomes conflated with the user‘s sense of self to create an authentic self predicated on both real and virtual experiences (Turkle 184-5). Although the conflation of the authentic self with the virtual has provided various affordances for serious games or other pedagogical projects such as classrooms hosted through the game Second Life, the processes enabling identification with an avatar have been largely overlooked. This project examines several layers of influence that affect how users play with identity to create successful social performances within an online community connected to a work of fiction. In doing so, the user must consider his or her own motivations for creating a persona, how these motivations will allow the avatar to achieve social acceptance, and how these social performances connect to the scene created by the work of fiction. Using an online role-playing forum based on a work of fiction as a site of analysis, this project will borrow from game studies, dramatism, and identity theory to create a framework for discussing processes through which users identify with their virtual avatars.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-03-15T19:43:06Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Adriana Kei Ohashi Sato.pdf: 1422574 bytes, checksum: 540e2341a2b34d4eca47c4af926c8a33 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2007-09-14 / This work intends to analyze design as the object that generates answers to the user's (gamer's) expectations based on the collective imaginarium. In turn, this imaginarium originates in a specific social-cultural context. Considering men as symbolic beings, they look for the reason of their existence by attribuing meaning to objects. Those meanings are interpreted by society, creating values, behaviors and cultural references. This work presents fundamental concepts about design and its presence in the social-cultural context, being design the language that interprets and re-signify the electronic game based on the collective imaginarium. / A presente pesquisa procura analisar o design como objeto gerador de respostas às expectativas do usuário (jogador) a partir do imaginário coletivo. Por sua vez, este imaginário, tem a sua origem em um determinado contexto sócio-cultural. Considerando o homem como um ser simbólico, este busca o sentido para sua existência por meio da atribuição de significados aos objetos. Tais significados são interpretados pela sociedade criando seus valores, comportamentos e referenciais culturais. Ao longo deste trabalho são apresentados conceitos fundamentais sobre o design e sua presença no contexto sócio-cultural, sendo o design, a linguagem que interpreta e resignifica, a partir do imaginário coletivo, um jogo eletrônico.