The methods of preserving cultural heritage are becoming increasingly digital, and with this development it is becoming all the more open to public scrutiny. The field of virtual heritage and their applications, which digitally preserve cultural heritage using virtual reality, are struggling to live up to the expectations of the public. The virtual heritage field has begun to look for solutions to their problems in other fields, such as that of video games. This thesis identifies 17 elements which are sought after for incorporation in virtual heritage applications, by conducting a literature review of recent virtual heritage research and organizing the findings into a matrix. The occurrence of the identified elements in four different modern entertainment video games is further analyzed and described. The resulted element matrix and game reviews could be used in the future development of virtual heritage applications, and of cultural heritage or historical video games.

As an entertainment media, video games provide pleasure and enjoyment through interactions with various game elements. Some games are more successful in one part of the world than others, which sales data have clearly shown over the years. Games designed in various parts of the world often have distinct differences, as developers implicitly or subconsciously convey their values and culture in their creations. Thus, in examining ?what is fun,? one must move beyond technical aspects of game design and look into immersion and emotional experiences. <br /><br /> In this paper, sales data for 2004 were first examined, followed by a case study to investigate any differences between Japan and the US, where major game console manufacturers and game developers reside. Although they indicated differences in popularity of genres and design approaches, results from the survey were not able to verify conclusively major statistical difference between the two groups of respondents. <br /><br /> The survey was constructed with a focus on narrative and game-play elements, in hopes to get a better understanding of players? preferences through the concept of immersion, which were anticipated to be influenced by cultural differences. Although no major differences were found, given the small sample population, it could be seen that there was a greater sense of character attachment from Japanese respondents, while American respondents did not like to be forced away from their actions by ?long? narrative elements.

This article focuses on digital role-playing games produced by BioWare in which the decisions made by players can have a profound impact on the narrative of each game. My approach relies heavily upon the dissection of examples from Dragon Age: Origins, Mass Effect, and Mass Effect 2 as I found that scholarship about video games focused heavily on theory rather than analysis of in-game content, at least compared to the size and popularity of the genre. I work with key concepts such as narrative, simulation, and sideshadowing in order to analyse the dialogue options and scenarios presented to the player in these games. I claim that we can compare decision-making in real life and decision-making in role-playing games in order to examine the emotions and thoughts that go into the decision-making process. I task myself with discussing the implications of choosing ones own narrative and analysing the mechanics of these games that urge players to make morality-based choices. I consider the ideas of Gary Saul Morson and Mikhail Bahktin as a way of using literary theory to deconstruct the complexities of navigating through these unique game worlds. My aim is to show that the multi-linear structures of modern, digital role-playing games represent simulators through which players can explore their own decision-making processes. BioWare constructs emotional and intellectual decision-making opportunities that entice players to consider their own morality in the face of life or death decisions. I argue that these role-playing games urge us to consider the ways we make decisions in our everyday lives and allow us to simulate how we might act given the chance to play hero or villain.

Game reviews play an important role in both the culture and business of games the words of a reviewer can have an influential effect on the commercial success of a video game. While reviews are currently used by game developers to aid in important decisions such as project financing and employee bonuses, the effect of game reviews on players is not known. Additionally, the use of game reviews to improve evaluation techniques has received little attention. In this thesis we investigate the effect of game reviews on player experience and perceptions of quality. We show that negative reviews cause a significant effect on how players perceive their in-game experience, and that this effect is a post-play cognitive rationalization of the play experience with the previously-read review text. To address this effect we designed and deployed a new heuristic evaluation technique that specifically uses game reviews to create a fine-grained prioritized list of usability problems based on the frequency, impact, and persistence of each problem. By using our technique we are able to address the most common usability problems identified by game reviews, thus reducing the overall level of negativity found within the review text. Our approach helps to control and eliminate the snowballing effect that can be produced by players reading reviews and subsequently posting their own reviews, and thus improve the commercial success of a game.

Background Brand managers often use brand extension as a “lower” risk alternative when introducing new products. A lot of research has been conducted about brand extensions but mostly focusing on fast moving consumer goods, therefore ignoring the impact that this strategy carries on experience goods and more precisely, the video game industry. Video games have turned from a niche product to a global billion dollar market in which brand extensions are a common marketing strategy. There are several examples of both successful and failed brand extensions in the video game industry. Purpose The purpose of this thesis is to identify brand extension success factors in the videogame industry  and how important these factors are for the consumers, a model will be created to test the obtained results; further on the authors will look at different segment of gamers and how the importance of the identified factors differ among them. Method In order to analyze the level of importance that video game users give to the brand extension success factors, an online questionnaire was created with Likert Scale questions to measure each factor. Descriptive statistics, linear regression analysis, Kruskal-Wallis and Mann-Whitney U test were utilized to analyze the results of the questionnaire and to identify differences between the responses of different type of video game users. A second identical questionnaire was distributed only to Tomb Raider users in order to create a model which gave each factor a score depending on the results of the questionnaire and weighted their positive or negative influence into the likelihood of success of each of the Tomb Raider games; the purpose of the model is to predict if each game could be considered a success or not and then compare the prediction with the real outcome of each game in the Tomb Raider series. Conclusion The most important factors for the success of a brand extension in the video game industry are the factors game-play, the brand extension quality as perceived by the users and the factor storyline. On a lower level of importance, the gamers classified the parent brand quality by users and the factors audio, graphics, developer and genre. The lowest category of importance includes the quality as perceived by the critics of the parent brand and the brand extension, the parent brand awareness and the factor multiplayer mode. Finally the survey showed that the cultural familiarity, the factors publisher and rating, and the marketing campaign for the brand extension are not important for the gamers. A second survey was conducted exclusively with Tomb Raider users in order to create the model and the results for this second survey were the same as the one targeted to general gamers, which allows the possibility to generalize the results of the model. The findings of this thesis can help members of the video game industry to better allocate resources towards the factors that most influence the brand extension success.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Rutgers University, 2009. / "Graduate Program in Education." Includes bibliographical references (p. 209-216).

Thesis (M. Soc. Sc.)--University of Hong Kong, 1985.

Video gaming has become a major pastime in modern life, and it continues to accelerate in popularity. A recent wave of psychological research has demonstrated that core perceptual changes coincide with video game play. Video games incorporate highly complex and immersive experiences which invoke a range of psychological mechanisms. This complexity has led to intractability which precludes determining which specific attributes of video gaming lead to cognitive change. The current work represents a research initiative which uses real-time strategy (RTS) games to boost executive functioning. In order to establish a link between video game features, video game behavior, and cognitive changes, an attention-switching tests two different forms of the same RTS game. Additionally, a difficulty titration paradigm attenuates individual differences in gaming skill. Thus, this project represents a critical advancement over prior research in that aspects of the video game itself were controlled and used to experimentally examine resulting cognitive change. Participants completed a psychological task battery before and after video game training, as well as at a mid-test. The battery covered a range of cognitive abilities including long-term memory, working memory, several attention-related constructs, risk taking, visual search, task switching and multitasking. These tasks were divided into two groups depending on the level of executive functioning components associated with the task performance. This resulted in a group of executive tasks and a group of other tasks. Because the high-switching gaming condition involves control and maintenance over a larger spread of gaming situations, performance on the executive task cluster was expected to improve more for this condition relative to the low-switching gaming condition. To reduce the impact of practice effects and the peripheral aspects of video gaming in interpreting the results, the Sims group was used a control baseline. A meta-analytical Bayes factor technique was used to determine the strength of performance changes from pre-test to mid-test, post-test, and follow up. By post-test, there was evidence that RTS training in the high attention-switching condition had improved on executive functioning tasks but not on other tasks. These results provide further evidence that video game training leads to psychological benefits over time. / text

published_or_final_version / Human Performance / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

The following thesis discusses how virtual pacifism can be utilized as a form of activism and discussed within peace education with individuals of all ages in a society saturated with violent media. I explore the nature of virtual pacifism and how can it be used to change and impact peace education. The argument of the role video game violence plays in violent acts has once again become a prominent question in the U.S. media. A relatively new notion of playing video games without killing any virtual creature is being referred to as “virtual pacifism.” I argue that the term “virtual nonviolence” should be used instead of “virtual pacifism.” I conclude that the definition of “virtual pacifism” is “the refusal to engage in violent military activity within the video game because of one’s principles or beliefs; seeking alternative routes to playing the game.” / Department of Telecommunications