Ce travail s’attache à étudier les figures de la posthumanité en s’appuyant sur un corpus transmédial et transnational et à répondre à deux questions principales : Peut-on, au travers de la figure du posthumain, percer à jour les désirs et les angoisses de l'homme de ce millénaire encore naissant ? Comment l'expérience de pensée posthumaine, mise en mouvement par la fiction, questionne-t-elle la notion même d'humanité ? Dans un premier temps, il met en relief les liens existant entre la posthumanité et ce territoire homogène et récurrent dans le corpus, qu’on nommera à la suite d'Antonio Negri et Michael Hardt, l’Empire. Dans un second temps il s’intéresse à la plasticité du corps et de l’esprit posthumains, à la façon dont leurs multiples avatars se déploient à travers le temps ainsi qu’aux raisons qui sous-tendent cette extrême plasticité. Enfin, dans un dernier mouvement, il s’attelle à montrer que, loin de s’inscrire dans un imaginaire radicalement nouveau, le post-humain procède en fait du réagencement ou de la reconfiguration d’un imaginaire anthropologique déjà bien ancré dans l’inconscient collectif. / This work focus on the study of the posthuman figures. It is based on a transmedial and transnational corpus. It seeks to answer two key questions : can we expose, through the posthuman figure, the desires and the anguishes of this still rising millennium’s man ? How the posthuman thought experiment, set into motion by the fiction, challenge the very concept of humanity ? As a first step, this work emphasizes on the links that exist between posthumanity and this homogeneous and reccuring, in our fictions, territory that Antonio Negri and Micharl Hardt call Empire. Then, it’s interested in the plasticity of the posthuman bodies and minds, in the way that their numerous avatars expand through time as well as the reasons that underlie this extreme plasticity. Lastly, he tries to show that the posthuman do not fall into a dramatic new imagination, but that it proceeds, in fact, of the reordering or the reconfiguration of a anthropological imagination already well rooted in the collective unconscious.

Ant colony optimization (ACO) is an algorithm which simulates ant foraging behavior. When ants search for food they leave pheromone trails to tell other ants which paths to take to find food. ACO has been adapted to many different problems in computer science: mainly variations on shortest path algorithms for graphs and networks. ACO can be adapted to work as a form of communication between separate agents in a video game AI. By controlling the effectiveness of this communication, the difficulty of the game should be able to be controlled. Experimentation has shown that ACO works effectively as a form of communication between agents and supports that ACO is an effective form of difficulty control. However, further experimentation is needed to definitively show that ACO is effective at controlling difficulty and to show that it will also work in a large scale system.

Entre hier et aujourd’hui, entre la culture spectaculaire de la fin du XIXe siècle, le cinéma et la pratique des jeux vidéo, cette thèse explore les enjeux critiques d’une pensée des rapports du corps à la machine au prisme de la notion benjaminienne d’innervation. A partir d’une notion historiographique élaborée au sein de la thèse, celle de « continuité critique » qui consiste à déterminer des phénomènes de permanence à travers l’histoire, notre travail vise à définir une critique opératoire des nouveaux médias. Depuis les notions d’innervation et de continuité critique, nous étudions dans une perspective historique et théorique deux « états du corps » déterminant des points de résonance manifestes entre passé et présent. L’un se situe au tournant du siècle, l’autre au cours des années 1980. Le premier concerne le devenir-attraction des machines autour de 1900. Dans le prolongement de Tom Gunning nous pensons une telle attraction dans les termes d’un corps à corps entre le spectateur et la machine. À travers la culture visuelle et spectaculaire fin-de-siècle, nous identifions un motif récurrent : le voyage immobile. Nous étudions alors l’actualité critique d’un tel motif jusqu’à nos jours comme quelque chose qui, en dépit des innovations techniques, n’a pas changé. Le second état s’intéresse cette fois-ci aux transformations qui concernent les rapports du corps à l’écran dans la pratique du jeu vidéo. Il s’agit d’étudier cette fois-ci un ensemble de représentations qui apparaissent entre le début des années 1980 et le milieu des années 1990 et attestant la récurrence d’un autre motif : l’écran traversé. L’étude de ces deux motifs nous permet, par le biais de l’histoire, de formuler une critique des nouveaux médias sur le terrain-même de la nouveauté. / Between past and present, between the turn-of-the-century spectacular culture, cinema and video games, our thesis explores the critical aspects of body-machine relationships understandings regarding Walter Benjamin’s concept of innervation. From a historiographical concept formulated within this work, i. e. “critical continuity” which consists in crafting permanencies though history, our purpose is to delineate an operating critic of the new media. From the concepts of innervation and critical continuity, we explore two defining “state of body” to draw resonances between past and present. One takes place at the turn of the century while the other takes place during the 1980’s. The former concerns the becoming-attraction of the machines circa 1900. Extending Tom Gunning’s concept, we understand such an attraction as a corporeal relationship between the spectator’s body and the machine. Through 1900’s visual and spectacular culture, we examine a recurring topos: the immobile voyage. We find and explore the critical topicality of such a topos up to present day as something that has never changed despite technical innovations. The latter state explores the transformations regarding the body-screen relationships in video game practice. We study a collection of representations appearing between the early 1980’s up to the middle of the 1990’s featuring another recurring topos: the screen crossed whether by the game’s universe whether by the player. These two topoi help us to conceive a critic of the new media on the very basis of novelty.

<p>Video games are very popular among children in the Western world. This study was done in order to investigate if video games had an effect on 49 Swedish students‟ comprehension of English words (grades 7-8). The investigation was based on questionnaire and word test data. The questionnaire aimed to measure with which frequency students were playing video games, and the word test aimed to measure their word comprehension in general. In addition, data from the word test were used to investigate how students explained the words. Depending on their explanations, students were categorized as either using a “video game approach” or a “dictionary approach” in their explanations.</p><p>The results showed a gender difference, both with regard to the frequency of playing and what types of games that were played. Playing video games seemed to increase the students‟ comprehension of English words, though there was no clear connection between the frequency with which students were playing video games and the choice of a dictionary or video game approach as an explanation.</p>

The digital games take an increasing part of our western society. The time when gaming was excluded to the most frantic computer fans is long gone. Today the gaming industry competes with both the film- and music industry for the consumers’ attention. Despite this, research regarding the digital games has been put aside for a long time. But there is an ongoing process in establishing game studies regarding content and expression aspects that go beyond the question about possible psychological effects and such. But this process is still young and disagreements occur concerning how the games should be approached as an object of study. This debate, originating from two different approaches; the narratological and the ludological, has proven to be central to the research society. To reach a better understanding regarding storytelling within the digital games I carried out a narratological analysis of a video game; Shadow of the Colossus for Playstation 2. I used classical narratological tools regarding the syntagmatic structure of storytelling; Propp’s characters and functions and Todorov’s equilibrium formula. To be able to carry out this analysis the first step was to identify the storytelling elements of the game so that these could be properly recognized. After that the narratological tools were applied to these. In order not to neglect the medium specific characteristics that the digital games hold, I implemented a minor ludological analysis of its rules, to see how these were connected with the potential storytelling. The narratological analysis proved to be useful; a number of Propp’s functions were identified and the storytelling could also be described on the basis of Todorov’s equilibrium. Furthermore a clear connection between the storytelling of the game and the ludus rules, meaning the rules that define the winning conditions and how to reach them. The classic narratological analysis was fruitful, but the medium specific characteristics with systems of rules and their connection to the storytelling elements proved to be an important relationship to illustrate further. / De digitala spelen tar allt större plats i vårt västerländska samhälle. Tiden då spelande bara var för de mest inbitna datorfantasterna är sedan länge förbi. Idag konkurrerar spelindustrin med både film- och musikindustrin om konsumenternas uppmärksamhet. Trots det har forskning kring de digitala spelen länge åsidosatts. Men en process är nu i full gång för att etablera forskning kring spel och dess innehålls- och uttrycksmässiga aspekter som ser bortom frågan om eventuella skadliga psykologiska effekter och liknande. Men denna process är ung och oenighet råder om hur spelen som studieobjekt ska behandlas. Denna debatt som utgår från två olika ansatser; den narratologiska och ludologiska, har visat sig vara central i forskarvärlden. För att försöka nå bättre förståelse kring berättande i de digitala spelens värld genomförde jag en narratologisk analys av ett enskilt spel; Shadow of the Colossus till Playstation 2. Jag utgick från klassiska narratologiska verktyg som utgår från berättandets syntagmatiska struktur; Propps rollfunktioner och Todorovs jämviktsformel. För att kunna genomföra denna analys var första steget att först identifiera de berättande elementen i spelet så att dessa kunde kartläggas. När det var gjort applicerades de narratologiska verktygen på dessa. För att inte helt åsidosätta de mediespecifika kriterierna som de digitala spelen besitter, genomförde jag en enkel ludologisk analys av dess spelregler, för att se hur dessa var sammankopplade med eventuellt berättande. Den narratologiska analysen visade sig vara användbar; ett antal av Propps funktioner identifierades och berättandet kunde även beskrivas utifrån Todorovs jämvikt. Dessutom visades ett klart samband mellan spelets berättande och dess ludusregler, det vill säga de regler som definierar mål och hur dessa skall nås. Den klassiska narratologiska analysen var fruktbar, men de mediespecifika egenskaperna med regelsystem och dess sammankoppling med de berättande elementen visade sig vara ett viktigt förhållande att belysa.

Sweden. 1980. The term ‘video violence’ becomes public through the debates show Studio S. The show urges and obligates politicians to stop, regulate and ban video films with violent content from the market. 29 years later, the debates show Debatt raises concerns regarding a similar topic, ‘video game violence’. Both shows were produced and aired by the Public Service channels of Sveriges Television in Sweden. The purpose of this thesis was to study and examine if the media encourages and nourishes moral panics to the general public through debates shows. How does the host/journalist interact to steer the debate to the media agenda and how has the power structure changed in the debate genre over the years? Do the media nurture the root of moral panics? We based the study on a qualitative content analysis. We analyzed one episode from each of the two debate shows Studio S and Debatt. The method of analysis we used was discourse analysis with emphasis on relations and power structures. We also analyzed the episodes by using Goode and Ben-Yehudas five criteria’s for creating moral panic. The study shows that both debates shows fail to mention the problem in a larger societal context. They tend to only portray a scapegoat. Furthermore, they often show one-sided and violent sequences from the cultural phenomena. They use discourses to maintain the firm power in the debates to fulfill their pre-constructed bias agenda. We’ve also observed that it has become much more difficult for a moral panic to gain momentum compared with 1980, because of the medias decentralization.

<p>The digital games take an increasing part of our western society. The time when gaming was excluded to the most frantic computer fans is long gone. Today the gaming industry competes with both the film- and music industry for the consumers’ attention.</p><p>Despite this, research regarding the digital games has been put aside for a long time. But there is an ongoing process in establishing game studies regarding content and expression aspects that go beyond the question about possible psychological effects and such. But this process is still young and disagreements occur concerning how the games should be approached as an object of study.</p><p>This debate, originating from two different approaches; the narratological and the ludological, has proven to be central to the research society. To reach a better understanding regarding storytelling within the digital games I carried out a narratological analysis of a video game; Shadow of the Colossus for Playstation 2. I used classical narratological tools regarding the syntagmatic structure of storytelling; Propp’s characters and functions and Todorov’s equilibrium formula.</p><p>To be able to carry out this analysis the first step was to identify the storytelling elements of the game so that these could be properly recognized. After that the narratological tools were applied to these. In order not to neglect the medium specific characteristics that the digital games hold, I implemented a minor ludological analysis of its rules, to see how these were connected with the potential storytelling.</p><p>The narratological analysis proved to be useful; a number of Propp’s functions were identified and the storytelling could also be described on the basis of Todorov’s equilibrium. Furthermore a clear connection between the storytelling of the game and the ludus rules, meaning the rules that define the winning conditions and how to reach them. The classic narratological analysis was fruitful, but the medium specific characteristics with systems of rules and their connection to the storytelling elements proved to be an important relationship to illustrate further.</p> / <p>De digitala spelen tar allt större plats i vårt västerländska samhälle. Tiden då spelande bara var för de mest inbitna datorfantasterna är sedan länge förbi. Idag konkurrerar spelindustrin med både film- och musikindustrin om konsumenternas uppmärksamhet.</p><p>Trots det har forskning kring de digitala spelen länge åsidosatts. Men en process är nu i full gång för att etablera forskning kring spel och dess innehålls- och uttrycksmässiga aspekter som ser bortom frågan om eventuella skadliga psykologiska effekter och liknande. Men denna process är ung och oenighet råder om hur spelen som studieobjekt ska behandlas.</p><p>Denna debatt som utgår från två olika ansatser; den narratologiska och ludologiska, har visat sig vara central i forskarvärlden. För att försöka nå bättre förståelse kring berättande i de digitala spelens värld genomförde jag en narratologisk analys av ett enskilt spel; Shadow of the Colossus till Playstation 2. Jag utgick från klassiska narratologiska verktyg som utgår från berättandets syntagmatiska struktur; Propps rollfunktioner och Todorovs jämviktsformel.</p><p>För att kunna genomföra denna analys var första steget att först identifiera de berättande elementen i spelet så att dessa kunde kartläggas. När det var gjort applicerades de narratologiska verktygen på dessa. För att inte helt åsidosätta de mediespecifika kriterierna som de digitala spelen besitter, genomförde jag en enkel ludologisk analys av dess spelregler, för att se hur dessa var sammankopplade med eventuellt berättande.</p><p>Den narratologiska analysen visade sig vara användbar; ett antal av Propps funktioner identifierades och berättandet kunde även beskrivas utifrån Todorovs jämvikt. Dessutom visades ett klart samband mellan spelets berättande och dess ludusregler, det vill säga de regler som definierar mål och hur dessa skall nås. Den klassiska narratologiska analysen var fruktbar, men de mediespecifika egenskaperna med regelsystem och dess sammankoppling med de berättande elementen visade sig vara ett viktigt förhållande att belysa.</p>

Abstract Title: The game of playing: A media ethnographic study of children playing videogames on a Swedish after school recreation centre. Spelet om spelandet: En medieetnografisk studie av barns dataspelande på en fritidsklubb. Number of pages: 46 Author: Peter Brandberg Tutor: Amelie Hössjer Period: Spring term 2008 Course: Media and Communication studies D University: Division of Media and Communication, Department of Information Science, Uppsala University Purpose/Aim: The aim with this study is to describe how children play video games in an everyday context. In this study this context consists of a Swedish after school recreation centre. By combining three different aspects on the activity this study tries to understand how both the video game and the social and cultural context in which the activity takes place in influences it. This by taking one analyse of the specific game that the children played at the time of the study and how the overall environment is structured into account. Together these two perspectives contribute to the understanding of the playing as a complex and dynamic activity. Material/Method: The material and method consists primary of a participatory observation which were conducted for eight days in an after school recreation centre. The analyse of the video game uses specific parts from the ludologist Aki Järvinens “applied ludology” to understand the game Guitar Hero. Main results: The main results of this study shows how the social context influences the play activity in which the children needs to negotiate about the resources needed to play. They used different strategies to try to gain control over the interfaces to the game. The study also shows how the children didn’t relate to the fact that these interfaces looked like guitars in their use of them. Instead the children used knowledge about other interfaces and played the game by “pressing buttons in the right time”. Keywords: media ethnographic, participatory observation, ludology, applied ludology, video game, game studies, guitar hero, children, after school recreation centre, situated play

Cette thèse propose une analyse croisée du cinéma et du jeu vidéo sous un angle interdisciplinaire afin de montrer la réappropriation et le remédiatisation des structures narratives et formelles du jeu vidéo dans le cinéma d’effets visuels du tournant du XXIe siècle. Plus spécifiquement, la thèse porte sur l’analyse de trois figures majeures du jeu vidéo et de l’animation dans la trilogie Matrix (Larry et Andy Wachowski, 1999-2003), dans Avalon (Mamoru Oshii, 2001) et dans Kung-Fu Hustle (Stephen Chow, 2004). La première section de la thèse consiste en une mise en place théorique par la présentation de certains paramètres esthétiques du cinéma d’effets visuels et du jeu vidéo. Quelques réflexions préliminaires sur l’esthétique du cinéma d’effets visuels sont d’abord esquissées avant de présenter les principales relations transmédiales entre le cinéma et le jeu vidéo. Ensuite, c’est le cinéma transludique qui est défini alors que le terme découle de la synergie singulière entre le cinéma et le jeu vidéo. Puisque le cinéma transludique concerne spécifiquement la récupération de l’esthétique du jeu vidéo dans le cinéma contemporain, les prémisses d’une esthétique du jeu vidéo sont alors établies. Dans la deuxième section, ce sont les figures et sous-figures au cœur de cette réflexion qui sont développées, pour ensuite les appliquer aux films du corpus. La première figure à l’étude est celle de l’exploration, alors que l’analyse de la signification de cette figure dans la conception de jeu vidéo et dans les récits cinématographiques de science-fiction montre l’importance de la navigation comme expérience spatio-temporelle dans les univers virtuels. Ensuite, c’est l’utilisation récurrente de la figure vidéoludique du niveau (level) dans le cinéma hybride contemporain qui est soulignée, figure qui structure autant le récit que la forme représentationnelle des films transludiques. Enfin, la figure de la métamorphose, indissociable du cinéma d’animation, est étudiée afin de souligner l’importance de cette figure dans la création numérique et d’expliquer la transformation de l’image qui affecte le cinéma transludique, image qualifiée d’image-frontière. / This thesis proposes an analysis between cinema and video games from an interdisciplinary standpoint to demonstrate the remediation of video games’ narrative structures and forms in visual effects-driven films of the early twenty-first century. More specifically, the thesis focuses on the analysis of three major figures of video games and animation films in The Matrix trilogy (Larry and Andy Wachowski, 1999-2003), Avalon (Mamoru Oshii, 2001) and Kung Fu Hustle (Stephen Chow, 2004). The first section of the thesis is a theoretical framework in which the aesthetic parameters of visual effects-driven films and video games are introduced. Some preliminary thoughts on the aesthetics of visual effects-driven films are first outlined before presenting the main transmedial relationships between cinema and video game. Then, it is the transludic cinema which is defined as the term derives from the unique synergy between cinema and video game. Since transludic cinema specifically concerns the remediation of the aesthetics of video games in contemporary cinema, the grounds of an aesthetics of video game are established. In the second section, the figures and subfigures at the heart of this thesis are developed, and then applied to an analysis of the films. The first figure to be discussed is the motif of exploration, where I analyze the significance of this figure in the video game design and science-fiction films narratives, and the meaning of navigation as a spatio-temporal experience in virtual worlds. Then, I demonstrate the use of the recurring figure of the game level in the contemporary hybrid cinema, which structures the narrative as much as the representational image. Finally, the figure of metamorphosis, an essential characteristic of animation, is being studied to highlight the importance of this figure in digital films. I also explain the transformation of the image that affects the transludic film, an image qualified as an “image-frontière”.

This thesis outlines the structure and functionality of a selection of webseries, webshows, and eSports casting examples, in order to add to the discourse on online video. Webtelevision, or Web TV production, distribution, and financing systems will be detailed in the case studies made; and industry actors such as entrepreneurs, independents, corporations and conglomerates will be discussed and identified. Who are the producers, the advertisers, the distribution platforms, the sponsors, the rights holders, and how do they interact? In exploring the structure of some examples of Web TV, I wish to debunk the online-amateur association as an inaccurate or insufficient description which permeates much prior academic study on online video. Webshow content, business strategies, legal and copyright issues, as well as fan culture aspects will also be investigated; and in regards to eSports, the question of televised as opposed to streamcast tournaments will be examined.