This thesis examines the video game industry within the United States from the first game that was created in 1958 until the shift to Japanese dominance of the industry in 1985, and how white, middle class masculinity was reflected through the sphere of video gaming. The first section examines the projections of white, middle class masculinity in U.S. culture and how that affected the types of video games that the developers created. The second section examines reflections of this masculine culture that surrounded video gaming in the 1970s and 1980s in the developers, gamers, and the media, while demonstrating how the masculine realm of video gaming was constructed. Lastly, a shift occurred after the 1980 release of Pac-Man, which led to a larger number of women gamers and developers, as well as an industry that embraced a broader audience. It concludes with the crash of the video game industry within the United States in 1983, which allowed Japanese video game companies to gain dominance in video gaming worldwide instead of the U.S. companies, such as Atari.

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Being relatively young, the Swedish video game industry has experienced explosive growth in recent years, surpassing several traditional industries. Exemplified by the purchase of King for approximately three times the price of Volvo, and the fact that one in ten people on the planet has played a Swedish video game. This development notwithstanding, the industry remains academically unexplored, suffering high rates of failure among new businesses, and for many companies, access to capital is problematic. In many ways a unique industry; Reversing traditional business models. involving the community, their customers, during pre-, mid- and post-production combined with companies being born global. Therefore, traditional tools for financial analysis, such as profitability ratios, are proving insufficient and the industry is perceived as a risky investment. The study analyzes the underlying variables of such ratios, from the perspectives of uncertainty and risk as well as accounting, considering the unique characteristics of the Swedish video game industry; Providing guidelines for better utilization of the ratios. The authors establish a solid foundation for future studies on the topic and provide investors with useful tools to increase their knowledge of the industry. The findings indicate that due to the abstract nature of the industry, stemming from assets and value creation, financial ratios should be used in tandem with a uncertainty and risk assessment of certain key areas of the industry.

ABSTRACT ASSOCIATION BETWEEN SEDENTARY BEHAVIORS AND BMI IN US ADOLESCENTS: ANALYSIS OF THE 2015 YOUTH RISK BEHAVIOR SURVEY By SARAH SADRUDDIN KABANI April 27, 2017 INTRODUCTION: Research has shown a strong link between sedentary behaviors and obesity among adolescents. AIM: This study aims: 1) To determine sedentary behaviors in US high school adolescent nationally 2) To determine the association between sedentary behaviors and BMI after controlling for demographics, recreational behaviors, diet, and physical activity 3) To examine the association between engaging in more than one sedentary behavior and BMI after controlling for demographics, recreational behaviors, diet, and physical activity METHODS: The Youth Risk Behavioral Survey (YRBS) 2015 data was utilized in this study by using weighted percentages to determine the association between sedentary behaviors and BMI while controlling for demographics such as age, sex, race, and grade, recreational behaviors such as smoking and alcohol consumption, diet such as fruit, vegetable, and soda consumption, and physical activity. Univariate logistic regressions and multivariate logistic regressions were conducted to determine the association between sedentary behaviors and BMI. Adjusted and unadjusted odds ratio, 95% confidence intervals, and p-values were calculated. RESULTS: 81.6% of adolescents watched TV during a school day, while 18.4% did not watch TV during a school day. For video games/computer usage/social media (PG) usage, 82.6% engaged in PG usage during a school day, while 17.4% did not engage in PG usage during a school day. When stratifying by BMI, overweight adolescents and obese adolescents have significantly different sex distribution (p=<0.0001), race/ethnicity distribution (p=0.047), TV usage during a school day (p=0.04), PG usage during a school day (p=0.047), and TV & PG usage during a school day (p=<0.02). For TV & PG usage during the school days, adolescents who watch TV and PG, were at higher odds of being obese [AOR =1.3 (1.04, 1.6), p = 0.02] when comparing to adolescents who did not watch TV and PG. DISCUSSION: This study concludes that there is an association between obesity and adolescents who watch TV and use video games/computer/social media during a school day. Sociodemographic factors such as some races, age, and gender are also responsible for obesity among adolescents.

Background. Eye tracking has been evaluated and tried in different 2D settings for research purposes. Most commercial games that are using eye tracking use it as an assistive extra input method and are focused around third or first person. There are few 2D games developed with eye tracking as an input method. This thesis aims to test the use of eye tracking as a replacement input method with a chosen set of mechanics for the purpose of playing a 2D top-down game with eye tracking as the main input method. Objectives. To test eye tracking in a 2D top-down game and use it as a replacement input method for the mouse in a novel effort to evaluate immersion and enjoyment. Method. To conduct this study the Tobii 4C eye tracker is used as the replacement peripheral in a 2D game prototype developed for the study. The game prototype is developed with the Unity game engine which the participants played through twice with a different input mode each time. Once with a keyboard and mouse and a second time with a keyboard and an eye tracker. The participants played different modes in alternating order to not sway the results. For the game prototype three different mechanics were implemented, to aim, search for hidden items and remove shadows. To measure immersion and enjoyment an experiment was carried out in a controlled manner, letting participants play through the game prototype and evaluating their experience. To evaluate the experience the participants answered a questionnaire with 12 questions relating to their perceived immersion and a small interview with 5 questions about their experience and perceived enjoyment. The study had a total of 12 participants. Results. The results from the data collected through the experiment indicate that the participants enjoyed and felt more involvement in the game, 10 out of 12 participants answering that they felt more involved with the game using eye tracking compared to the mouse. Analyzing the interviews, the participants stated that eye tracking made the game more difficult and less natural to control compared to the mouse. There is a potential problem that might sway the results toward eye tracking, most participants stated that eye tracking is a new experience and none of the participants had used it to play video games before. Conclusions. The results from the questionnaire prove the hypothesis with statistics, with a p-value of 0.02 &lt; 5% for both increased involvement and enjoyment using eye tracking. Although the result might be biased due to the participant's inexperience with eye tracking in video games. Most of the participants reacted positively towards eye tracking with the most common reason being that it was a new experience to them.

There is currently little research about how the aesthetics of a game affects the perceived PX. Especially, the aesthetics of the individual 3D game components, such as characters, enemies and environmental objects. This thesis project studies different design principles and approaches to create 3D game components. These are used in practice to create 3D game components for a video game. The 3D game components are evaluated with qualitative and quantitative methods, with the intention to find a method for creating 3D game components that evoke a certain PX. The results show that it is possible to create 3D game components that evoke positive emotions, by using color psychology, animation theory and by designing from the developers own feelings and experiences.

This Post Mortem discusses the choices made during the design and development process of In a Haystack, a narrative based adventure video game that discusses Privilege and Discrimination in American Society. As a solo project, I created a polished interactive experience that I intend to turn into a published episodic video game series. This document goes over the methodology choices, technical and artistic difficulties, and challenges faced by in pursuit of this goal.

Att göra något som kallas för att “bryta den fjärde väggen” i spel, att adressera spelaren utöver spelmediets ramar, är något som har intresserat oss sedan länge. Att söka om den fjärde väggen och spel på internet har visat sig varit fruktlöst, tills vi upptäckte termen metalepsis. Metalepsis betyder bokstavligen “a jump across” och härstammar från berättarteori där det hanterar hur ett narrativs olika nivåer behandlas. I det här arbetet tar vi hjälp av Karin Kukkonens och Sonja Klimeks artiklar för att djupdyka i termen och dess användning i medier som litteratur, film och musik video samt spel. Vi tar hjälp av Astrid Ensslins och Huaxin Weis arbeten för att förstå varför metalepsis i spel är ett outforskat område och varför narrativen endast studeras på en ytlig nivå. Vi vill därför med frågeställningen “hur kan metalepsis användas i spel?” bidra med mer information om metalepsis i spel och undersöka en medveten användning i utvecklingen av ett spel. Genom att undersöka metalepsis i spel och andra medier, har vi skapat oss en uppfattning av hur det har använts upp till den här punkten för att sedan kunna applicera på vår gestaltning. Arbetet fokuserar på en metalepsis kallad Möbius Strip, som innebär ett narrativ som börjar om i sig självt. Utifrån Georg Kreislers bok Der Schattenspringer har vi tolkat hur en Möbius Strip kan se ut. Gestaltningen, i form av ett spel, har vi sedan byggt på den här tolkningen och jämfört resultatet med bokens version av metalepsen. Det vi har fått ut är fler konkreta exempel på hur metalepsis har och kan användas i spel. Vi har kunnat skapa diskussion om hur vår gestaltning förhåller sig till boken genom Sonja Klimeks beskrivning av Möbius Strip metalepsen. Vi har endast skrapat på ytan av det som kallas metalepsis i spel med det här arbetet, och anser att det finns fler vägar att undersöka. / The act of doing something that is called “breaking the fourth wall” in video games, to address the player across the games’ scope, is something that has been in our interest for a long time. To search about the fourth wall and video games on the internet have been futile, until we stumbled upon the term metalepsis. Metalepsis literally means “a jump across”, it originates from narratology and handles how the different levels in a narrative are managed. In this Bachelor Thesis we take a deep dive into the term, with the help of Karin Kukkonen’s and Sonja Klimek’s work, and how it’s used in different medias such as literature, film, music videos and video games. We discovered why metalepsis in video games is an uncharted area with the help of Astrid Ensslin’s and Huaxin Wei’s work, and why studies of narratives in video games are executed in a shallow grade. With our research question we want to contribute with more information about metalepsis in video games and to examine a conscious use of metalepsis in the development of a video game. By surveying metalepsis in video games and other media, we have created an estimate on how it has been used so far and then to applicate the observation to our video game. This thesis lay it’s focus on a metalepsis called Möbius Strip, that consists of a narrative that restarts within itself. Using Georg Kreisler’s book Der Schattenspringer, we have made an interpretation on how Möbius Strip could work out. We have then developed a video game based on this interpretation and compared the results to the books version of the metalepsis. What we have gathered with this thesis is more tangible examples of the use of metalepsis in video games so far. We have been able to create a discussion about how our interpretation of Möbius Strip relate to the book, with the help from Sonja Klimek’s description of the metalepsis. We have only managed to scrape the surface on the topic of metalepsis in video games and feel like there are multiple other roads to investigate.

Cette thèse se propose d’étudier les enjeux et les stratégies à l’œuvre dans l’apparition de la peur dans les œuvres littéraires et vidéoludiques. Il s’agit de théoriser, dans une démarche comparatiste, le rapprochement des deux médiums ainsi que les paradigmes structurant les fictions horrifiques. La capacité du jeu vidéo et de la littérature à produire de l’incertitude et de l’étrangeté à partir d’un code rigoureux (textuel, informatique, ludique) durant son actualisation en œuvre par l’interaction du lecteur/joueur et l’interdépendance conflictuelle entre mimesis (mise en forme du réel) et phantasia (résurgence d’un réel défiant la rationalité) forment les fondations de ce travail.En tant que catalyseur de la peur, le monstre constitue le point central de l’analyse formelle des œuvres étudiées. La synthèse d’un large corpus permet d’identifier quatre archétypes à partir desquels se déploient les multiples actualisations de la monstruosité : le Barbare, la Gorgone, le Revenant et la Chimère. Ces figures incarnent les zones d’ombre de la culture occidentale. Le Barbare exprime la confrontation à une étrangeté envahissant l’environnement familier mais aussi le soubassement violent et chaotique de la civilisation. La Gorgone représente l’Autre radical, fascinant et terrifiant. S’en approcher suppose de s’aventurer hors du monde et de courir le risque d’être contaminé par la monstruosité, incapable de regagner la demeure. Le Revenant figure les enjeux de la hantise, d’un passé qui, constitutif du présent, reste vivant. Fruit d’une rupture de la continuité temporelle, il ne peut qu’y être réintégré par la résolution de l’énigme qu’il pose. La Chimère est, quant à elle, celle qui transgresse les catégories. Monstre aux multiples visages, elle défie l’organisation rationnelle du réel.Enfin, une étude de la figure de l’auteur, des processus d’adaptation et d’extension des univers fictifs permet d’aborder la mobilité des figures monstrueuses et leur capacité à franchir les frontières, qu’il s’agisse des intentions de création, des cadres médiatiques ou des mondes fictionnels. Ces conclusions s’appuient sur une mise en dialogue d’œuvres littéraires et vidéoludiques sélectionnées dans un corpus varié visant à concilier rigueur de l’analyse et vision englobante. / The aim of this thesis is to study the stakes and strategies behind the apparition of fear in novels and video games. Through a comparative approach, I intend to theorize the bridging of these mediums and the paradigms structuring scary fictions. At the core of this work lie the ability of video games and literature to create uncertainty and strangeness from a rigorous code (be it textual, digital or game rules) during the interaction with the reader/gamer and the conflicting interdependence between mimesis (as a shaping of reality) and phantasia (as a resurgence of a reality that defies reason).As fear’s catalyst, the monster is at the heart of my formal analysis. The synthesis of a large corpus allows for an identification of four archetypes from which the various manifestations of monstrosity spread: the barbarian, the gorgon, the phantom and the chimera. These figures personify the dark corners of western culture. The barbarian embodies the confrontation with an alien whom invades a familiar environment as well as the violent and chaotic base upon which rests civilization. The gorgon represents the radical otherness, fascinating and terrifying. To go near it is to venture out of the world and to run the risk of being contaminated by the monster, becoming unable to go back home. The phantom conveys the stakes of the haunting, of an undead past that is still part of the present. As the baring of a tearing in time continuity, it is to be reintegrated through the solving of the enigma it poses. Ultimately, the chimera is the one who transgresses categories. With its numerous faces, it defies the rational organisation of reality. Finally, a study of the author’s figure, of the adaptation process and of the fictional worlds extensions offers an outlook on the mobility of monsters and their capacity to cross borders, whether they are creative intents, mediatic frames of worlds of fiction.These conclusions are based on a dialogue between literary works and video games selected in a diverse corpus that aims to merge analytical thoroughness and an encompassing vision.