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One of the major factors toward the persistence of college freshman with their education as discussed by Vincent Tonto is Social and Academic integration into the life of a university. Social integration is how well the student feels connected to other members of the university community. There has been a significant body of research done on the use of social networks to encourage social integration in a university setting. This project proposes the creation of a synchronous virtual community / social network to not only encourage social integration but also physical integration through use of the network. / Master of Science

<em>Small Tales</em> is a 2D video game with hand drawn and watercolor painted assets that incorporates a series of vignettes centered on the collection of artifacts. Growing up, I experimented with and  investigated a wide variety of media, such as Alice and GameMaker but ultimately decided to  sharpen my fine arts skills and incorporate them in to video game engines in this thesis. A variety  of point and click adventure games such as the <em>King's Quest</em> and <em>Monkey Island</em> series inspired  the development of this game due to their emphasis on narrative and player interaction. This thesis developed from a series of earlier projects that helped me settle on four  primary objectives: vignetted narratives, player choice and consequences, visual and text  components working harmoniously, and replayability via randomized generation. A Processing  sketch emphasized the need for strong visual assets in addition to text-based narrative; in  addition to replayability via randomized strings or text for a unique narrative every iteration.  Afterwards, a Twine game further encouraged visual assets working with text, but solidified a  foundation in player choice and consequences. Finally, my first experiment in Unity with the  Adventure Creator helped me establish a functional workflow to achieve my four goals.   <em>Small Tales</em> itself revolves around a series of vignettes connected by the world of the  player character. Players wander an unfamiliar neighborhood to find artifacts that at the end of  the game reveal tiny stories about other worlds. The game was received well by players during  my defense for its ethereal atmosphere and for creating an engaging story world. But a handful  of suggestions from these same players could push the game to be even better. <em>Small Tales</em> will be available online after these critiques are taken under consideration. / Master of Fine Arts / Small Tales is a 2D video game designed for children ages 8 - 12, with hand drawn assets that incorporates a series of vignettes centered on the collection of virtual artifacts. Growing up, I experimented with and investigated a wide variety of media, but ultimately decided to sharpen my fine arts skills and incorporate them in to video game engines in this thesis. A variety of early adventure games inspired the development of this game due to their emphasis on narrative and player interaction. This thesis developed from a series of earlier projects that helped me settle on four primary objectives: vignetted narratives, player choice and consequences, visual and text components working harmoniously, and replayability via randomized generation. After learning from these experiments, I settled on using the Unity game engine with the Adventure Creator toolkit to establish a functional workflow to achieve my four goals. Small Tales itself revolves around a series of vignettes connected by the world of the player character. Players wander an unfamiliar neighborhood, using their mouse to navigate and find artifacts that at the end of the game reveal tiny stories about other worlds. The game was received well by players during my defense for its ethereal atmosphere and for creating an engaging story world. But a handful of suggestions from these same players could push the game to be even better. Small Tales will be available online after these critiques are taken under consideration.

Over the past few decades, video games have become a popular avenue for dissemination of information and publicity about video games is word-of-mouth sharing. Thus, it is imperative for researchers to examine the social, and individual processes that guide this behavior. Focusing on prerelease sharing behavior specifically, this pair of studies aimed to identify predictors and dimensions of video game information sharing, and explore the impact content characteristics have on individuals' likelihood to share game information either online or to friends. A pretest survey (n = 577) investigated the prominence word-of-mouth communication has on video game information sharing amongst college students, finding it to be the most common method of sharing and obtaining game information. The main experiment (n = 227) examined participants' intent to share information after being exposed to a video game trailer manipulated to emphasize variations of core video game characteristics (control, narrative and mechanics) and emotional appeals (control, awe and hedonic). There were no findings suggesting the manipulations had a significant effect on participants' intent to share; however, those who reported first-person shooters as their favorite genre reported significantly more intent to share. Conceptualized through Social Exchange Theory and Social Identity Theory; the experiment also explored motivations to share based on exchange value, and gamer identity. Implications for our understanding of motivations to share game information based on social networks and content characteristics are discussed. / Master of Arts / Questions about what makes video games highly anticipated and commonly discussed before games are played by the general public were examined through a pretest survey and main experiment. A pretest questionnaire focused on potential motivations driving word-of-mouth information sharing among video game players about particular games. The main experiment further examined motivations to share game information but also considered the impact of content characteristics (games intended for enjoyment vs. awe-inspiring experiences) and game characteristics (games story driven vs. gameplay driven) used in video game trailers on intent to share and heightened anticipation surrounding an upcoming game. Word-of-mouth information sharing and social structures were highly related to participants’ intent to share information about games to friends, but specific content included in video game trailers did not significantly increase intent to share. This thesis contributes to word-of-mouth and marketing research in the context of prerelease video game promotional efforts by examining external and internal motivations which drive the sharing of information or content with friends.

With The Fabulist, I hope to provide many of the pleasures of popular narrative — addictive plot, compelling characters, immersive setting — while also conducting an earnest interrogation of the value of fantasy in all its forms, as well as the moral vacuity of the lonely fiefdom the protagonist constructs for himself out of pop cultural detritus and his various nostalgic and artistic whims. The book straddles two major settings and timelines: the suburban creep of Pooter Valentine's hometown, a world where strip malls and big box stores and fast food chains are being augmented in quiet magical realist fashion by something more sinister; and an ambiguously virtual game-world of Pooter's design, an RPG and DND-indebted land of endless quests and haunting vistas which may not have an exit. While the novel is grounded in the subjectivity of Pooter's anhedonia and egotism, it also aims to puncture his interiority by also becoming a story about his parents and the real people who begin to intrude (to Pooter's surprise and chagrin) upon the video-game world he is allegedly the master of. Ultimately, it intends to tell a story both of the everyday ways in which we escape (and in so doing, undermine) our reality, and of a grandly supernatural departure; of escapism as an act of abandonment, but also (at its best) a catalyst for new communities and connections. This novel draft aspires to all these goals, and may perhaps achieve some of them one day. / MFA

published_or_final_version / Public Administration / Master / Master of Social Sciences

Recently, many researchers have been interested in how videogames can influence the attitude and behavior of children. It has also been questioned if videogames can be a useful teaching tool in the classroom. There are many games that have been created to teach traditional school subjects such as Math and English. But what about creating games to teach about current environmental issues? The goal of my thesis project is to create an educational advocacy game for smartphone devices that will educate children about the effects of overfishing on marine life and how it can negatively affect coastal communities in the Caribbean. / Includes bibliography. / Thesis (M.F.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2014.. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

The field of video game studies is young and requires innovation in its approach to its object of study. Despite the large number of Japanese games and game developers, most scholars in the West approach video games from a point of view that emphasizes Western thought and that is concerned with either very recent video games or the medium as a whole. The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask defies Western interpretations as its inspiration and aesthetics are steeped in a Japanese theatrical tradition that dates to the early Middle Ages, namely Noh theater. The game’s emphasis on masks and possession provides unique commentary on the experience of playing a video game while the structure of the game harkens back to traditional Noh cycles, tying in pre-modern ideas with a modern medium in order to comment on video games and the people who play them. / Includes bibliography. / Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2014. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

The Internet has enabled the popular pastime of playing video games to grow rapidly by connecting game players in disparate locations. However, with popularity have come the two challenges of hosting a large number of users and detecting cheating among users. For reasons of control, security, and ease of development, the most popular system for hosting on-line games is the client server architecture. This is also the most expensive and least scalable architecture for the game publisher, which drives hosting costs upwards with the success of the game. In addition to the expense of hosting, as a particular game grows more competitive and popular, the incentive to cheat for that game grows as well. All popular online games suffer from cheats in one form or another, and this cheating adversely affects game popularity and growth. In this dissertation we follow a hypothetical game company (GameCorp) as it surmounts challenges involved in running an on-line game. We develop a characterization of gamer habits and game workloads from data sampled over a period of years, and show the benefits and drawbacks of multiplexing online applications together in a single large server farm. We develop and evaluate a geographic redirection service for the public server architecture to match clients with servers. We show how the public server game architecture can be used to scalably host large persistent games such as massively multiplayer (MMO) games that previously used the client server architecture. Finally we develop a taxonomy for client cheating in on-line games to focus research efforts, and specifically treat one of the categories in detail: information exposure in peer-to-peer games. The thesis of this dissertation is: a methodology for accurate usage modeling of server resources can improve workload management; public-server resources can be leveraged in new ways to serve multiplayer on-line games; and that information exposure in peer-to-peer on-line games is preventable or detectable with the adoption of cryptographic protocols.