For centuries, the horror genre has ensnared audiences across generations and genre lines: ballet, opera, literature, poetry, film, and, most recently, video games have all utilized the power of terror to shock, horrify, and, perhaps most disturbingly, attract. But what does fear sound like? This thesis will focus on that question as it explores both the twin worlds of Konami’s survival-horror title Silent Hill and the underwater-nightmare city of Rapture in 2KGames’ 2007 hit Bioshock. Offering a deeper understanding of the agency video game sound employs, this thesis will engage critical gender, race, and feminist theory, confront issues of social and cultural fears evoked through sound, and offer an in-depth analysis of each game’s soundscape in order to discuss the ways video game soundtracks can serve as vehicles for both signifying and unpacking complicated social and political topics that prevail in modern society.

O objetivo deste trabalho é entender como o jogo narrativo de aventura para videogame consegue atrair e manter a atenção do jogador, imergindo-o no mundo ficcional, em face dos inúmeros estímulos existentes a sua volta. É sugerida uma definição para o jogo narrativo de aventura e a imersão e, posteriormente, estabelece-se uma relação entre elementos presentes nos jogos e as estruturas que atraem a atenção do indivíduo. Para isso, consultou-se material produzido pelas duas principais linhas de estudos de jogos: Narratologia e Ludologia. O conteúdo teórico foi comparado e exemplificado através da prática de diversos jogos, principalmente do console Sony Playstation 3. O próprio conceito de jogo narrativo, a prática dos jogos e a relação percebida entre seus elementos e as ferramentas para criar e manter a atenção revelaram que o videogame, através dos jogos narrativos de aventura, representa um potente meio para criar e manter o estado de imersão sobre o jogador. / The objective of this research is to understand how the narrative game of adventure manages to attract and maintain the attention of the player, immersing him into the fictional world, despite the existence of countless stimuli available around him. It is suggested a definition to narrative game of adventure and to immersion, and then it is established a relationship between elements present in games and frameworks that attract the attention of the individual. The research uses material produced by the two main lines of games study: Narratology and Ludology. The theoretical content was compared and exemplified by the practice of different games, mainly of Sony Playstation 3. The concept of narrative game, the playing of games and the relationship between its elements and the attention tools revealed that the narrative game of adventure represents a powerful way to create and maintain the state of immersion of the player.

O objetivo deste trabalho é entender como o jogo narrativo de aventura para videogame consegue atrair e manter a atenção do jogador, imergindo-o no mundo ficcional, em face dos inúmeros estímulos existentes a sua volta. É sugerida uma definição para o jogo narrativo de aventura e a imersão e, posteriormente, estabelece-se uma relação entre elementos presentes nos jogos e as estruturas que atraem a atenção do indivíduo. Para isso, consultou-se material produzido pelas duas principais linhas de estudos de jogos: Narratologia e Ludologia. O conteúdo teórico foi comparado e exemplificado através da prática de diversos jogos, principalmente do console Sony Playstation 3. O próprio conceito de jogo narrativo, a prática dos jogos e a relação percebida entre seus elementos e as ferramentas para criar e manter a atenção revelaram que o videogame, através dos jogos narrativos de aventura, representa um potente meio para criar e manter o estado de imersão sobre o jogador. / The objective of this research is to understand how the narrative game of adventure manages to attract and maintain the attention of the player, immersing him into the fictional world, despite the existence of countless stimuli available around him. It is suggested a definition to narrative game of adventure and to immersion, and then it is established a relationship between elements present in games and frameworks that attract the attention of the individual. The research uses material produced by the two main lines of games study: Narratology and Ludology. The theoretical content was compared and exemplified by the practice of different games, mainly of Sony Playstation 3. The concept of narrative game, the playing of games and the relationship between its elements and the attention tools revealed that the narrative game of adventure represents a powerful way to create and maintain the state of immersion of the player.

abstract: CYOA is a prototype of an iPhone application that produces a single, generative, musical work. This document details some of the thoughts and practices that informed its design, and specifically addresses the overlap between application structure and musical form. The concept of composed instruments is introduced and briefly discussed, some features of video game design that relate to this project are considered, and some specifics of hardware implementation are addressed. / Dissertation/Thesis / D.M.A. Composition 2013

This thesis describes and evaluates the implementation of a telemetry tool prototype for the game engine Stingray. Arbitrary data can be chosen from a database and visualized in an interactive 3D viewport in the program. The implemented visualization method is a scatter plot with optional color mapping. A MongoDB server communicates with the editor via a native DLL written in C/C++ which in turn can send data to the rendering engine via JavaScript-Lua communication. Several implemented and continuously improved pipelines are discussed and analyzed throughout the report. The tool is designed to be data driven. Advantages and disadvantages of doing so are discussed. In the final chapter future improvements and ideas of expanding the plug-in are discussed.

This diploma thesis deals with video games as a problematic part of software law that is constantly growing in importance. It focuses on legal difficulties that were a byproduct of their growing economic potential. It further explains relevant aspects of copyright law in this matter and, to a limited degree, also related problematic from different branches of law, namely criminal law, administrative law and civil law. During the writing, I was focusing on distinctive aspects of video games as specific kind of software, and their distinctions from different kinds of works, especially from "classic" computer programs. An introduction to the problematics, an establishment of aims of this work and a brief summary of video games from the forties to the present times can be found in the first chapter. Basic terminology that is used in this work is in chapter two. The thesis further continues with legal concepts such as author, work and computer program. It proceeds with thoughts on a possible subsumption of video game under a certain kind of work as it is defined in the copyright act and considers establishing an individual category for video games. Chapter five defines content of copyrights, their division on personal and property law with a focus on the specification of different kinds of property law....

Video game addiction often leads to a tremendous burden on those afflicted with the condition, draining their time, resources, and life away until they have nothing left. To further elucidate the problem of video game addiction, the current research examines the level of video game addiction of 111 participants, along with their motivation for their addictive behaviors, the quality of life of addicted individuals, and possible relations between video game addiction and other forms of addiction. Results of the current research indicate a correlation between addictive video game use and depression, alcohol use, a desire for escapism, a need for social interaction, and lack of self-control. The results of a multiple regression indicate that, amongst the various research factors, depression is the factor with the most significant link to addictive video game use, implying a dangerous correlation between mental health and an addictive behavior that some erroneously disqualify as a true addiction.

Video games as an entertainment form are very popular. Understanding what video games do to us in a long-term and short-term manner is therefore of interest. Attention is a widely studied field and research into how attentional networks are affected by video is a research field on the rise. Here, I will be investigating how video game play affects our attentional networks and if it is possible for elderly individuals to train their attentional networks with video games. Video game players have high performance in reaction time and accuracy in different attentional, working memory, and cognitive control tasks. As the difficulty of video games increase video game players seem to more efficiently utilize their attentional networks. Whilst some articles cannot replicate findings in other articles this irregularity might be explained with by level of difficulty or load during task performance. Studies see group differences only when the task difficulty is high. Therefore, an important part of video game research is to find an effective and replicable standard for video game research. Measuring video game play with EEG shows that players better can forgo distracting stimuli in central and peripheral view and discriminating stimuli giving video game players more confidence when making decisions. Video game players also seem to have more efficient processes and functional connectivity in attentional networks but utilizing these networks more as non-video game players as mental load increases. Not only does video game players have more efficient attentional networks, but attentional benefits from video games is also something that can be trained with those who do not play video games. Suggesting that older individuals can utilize video games to train attentional networks.

Among both youth and adults, video gaming is a rapidly growing recreational activity. The American Psychiatric Association and the World Health Organization have identified problematic video gaming behavior as a clinical concern in need of further research and have conceptualized this condition as a behavioral addiction. Empirically validated assessment tools may aid in case conceptualization, and cognitive-behavioral techniques have accrued some evidence supporting their efficacy when targeting internet gaming disorder. Clinicians should consider employing goal setting, behavior tracking, and functional analyses, and should consider increasing alternative pleasurable activities, incentivizing specific behavior changes, and integrating caregivers into treatment when working with adolescents.

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