The purpose of this thesis was to find whether the abstraction of dialogue responses in computerized role-playing games could affect role-players’ immersion, PC control, and the meaningfulness of play. Two versions of the same role-playing scenario were created and tested by a group of eight players who all had role-played previously. Though results show that both interfaces come with pros and cons neither interface was found to be superior for role-playing. Rather it was a question of players favoring different ways of being presented with information. A more extensive study with more respondents is necessary to find out if role-players in general prefer either.

As people respond strongly to faces and facial features, both consciously and subconsciously, faces are an essential aspect of social robots. Robotic faces and heads until recently belonged to one of the following categories: virtual, mechatronic or animatronic. As an original contribution to the field of human-robot interaction, I present the R-PAF technology (Retro-Projected Animated Faces): a novel robotic head displaying a real-time, computer-rendered face, retro-projected from within the head volume onto a mask, as well as its driving software designed with openness and portability to other hybrid robotic platforms in mind. The work constitutes the first implementation of a non-planar mask suitable for social human-robot interaction, comprising key elements of social interaction such as precise gaze direction control, facial expressions and blushing, and the first demonstration of an interactive video-animated facial mask mounted on a 5-axis robotic arm. The LightHead robot, a R-PAF demonstrator and experimental platform, has demonstrated robustness both in extended controlled and uncontrolled settings. The iterative hardware and facial design, details of the three-layered software architecture and tools, the implementation of life-like facial behaviours, as well as improvements in social-emotional robotic communication are reported. Furthermore, a series of evaluations present the first study on human performance in reading robotic gaze and another first on user’s ethnic preference towards a robot face.

Virtual worlds provide a way to simulate face-to-face meetings via three dimensional environments where users can meet and communicate through avatars, or their graphical and customized online alter egos. Unfortunately, minimal research exists into the application of virtual worlds on virtual teams for real project management success. This is a concern because virtual worlds can restore the visual cues that foster trust but their avatars' identities may diverge from their owners', thus potentially undermining that trust. Since virtual team members may never physically meet, it is unclear how this will affect virtual team member trust and project success when avatars are used for project communication. This qualitative study assessed whether the authentic projection of an owner's identity via their avatar is an antecedent of team trust. It presented a theoretical model that depicts the impact of virtual team trust on the ability of project managers to leverage the enhanced delivery opportunities virtual worlds provide and the impacts of team member comfort with the virtual world medium and their attitudes toward others' avatar designs on virtual team trust.

This study explores gender modeling specifically in avatar creation tools through the MMORPG Final Fantasy XIV. The design of systems is often limited by the experiences of those who build them. In the video game industry; this means that systems are often designed by white, cisgender, heterosexual men. This demographic does not represent the wealth of people who play games and are subjected to these systems. The needs of marginalized communities, especially queer communities, in terms of affordances and representation tend to be overlooked or forgotten. This issue is apparent in avatar creation tools which define the types of bodies and identities that are allowable in the world of the game. Using Brenda Laurel’s research driven design tactics, modifications to Final Fantasy XIV’s current system were realized through a paper prototype and constant input from a group of self-identifying queer players. Both the feedback from these queer players and the modifications made to the prototype were condensed into a series of suggestions for the creators of these tools. Ultimately, I discovered that there are three key features which vastly improve the affordances of character creators for queer players; the inclusion of pronoun identification, the identification of gender identity, and the separation of both of these options from the character’s physical appearance. Designers who implement these findings in their work will contribute to creating environments that support queer identities.

The diploma thesis deals with the subject of video games heroes. The goal of this thesis is to analyze the image of a video game hero and the components of which this image consists. Another focus of this thesis is to compare the images of video game heroes of the RPG (role-playing game) genre with the FPS (first person shooter) genre and to find out which aspects the images have in common and which are different. Content analysis of the games is applied in this thesis, based on predefined criteria and field notes gathered during playing top 100 rated games (50 games of the RPG genre and 50 games of the FPS genre) by Metacritic for 30 minutes each. The selection of the research sample is limited by the main character of the games; analysed games are such in which the hero is determined by the game and the player can't adjust him in any way, for example by choosing the character's gender, their physical predispositions and their occupation. The analysis of the games proved that the main hero was mostly an adult Caucasian human male. This characteristic was registered in the FPS genre more frequently.

Spel som innehåller karaktärsskapare tillåter spelare att själva bygga sina karaktärer utifrån olika kroppstyper, kläder och hudtoner. Det finns dock osynliga regler när det kommer till kön eftersom många spel endast tillåter spelare att välja mellan man eller kvinna. Spel sätter gränser för hur de två könen kan klä sig och se ut vilket gör att transpersoner och de som önskar att stå utanför normen inte kan relatera eller se sig själva i spel. I denna studie har 5 artefakter skapats menade att efterlikna karaktärsskapare i spel. Bilderna visar olika varianter av valet av kön som deltagarna sen fått ge betyg och feedback om. 196 respondenter deltog i studien där alla var del av trans spektrumet. Resultatet visade att transpersoner gärna ser att spel inkluderar någon form av representation. Spel som försökt att gå utanför normen väcker glädje hos deltagarna eftersom de kan se sig själva i spelen. Spelutvecklare bör dock tänka påhur de representerar transpersoner och kön i spel eftersom det är lätt att falla förstereotyper eller att låsa ett kön i ett visst föreskrivet utseende / <p>Det finns övrigt digitalt material (t.ex. film-, bild- eller ljudfiler) eller modeller/artefakter tillhörande examensarbetet som ska skickas till arkivet.</p>

1 Abstract Current endeavors in the tech-industry to create the first true metaverse, alongside other things, sparked the emergence of interest around virtual avatars, namely in the NFT community. Given the complexity of design-challenges associated with creating an immersive metaverse, its avatars and the systems they evolve around, this paper aims to understand user desires and motivational patterns for avatar selection in VRChat, a game that resembles much of what a future metaverse could look like. Therefore, nine qualitative interviews with a random sample of VRChat users were conducted. The number of participants was limited due to time constraints, and the results hence might be skewed towards a certain perspective; also, with the risk of users not answering truthfully, et cetera. In a broad sense, the key results validated Lin &amp; Wang’s (2014) four motivational patterns of avatar creation (Virtual Exploration, Social Navigation, Identity Representation and Contextual Adaptation), however with significant differences and nuances within those, indicating important subtypes for each category. Preceding research however did not take into account the effects that apply to users employing advanced VR equipment. Statements from such participants in fact suggest the existence of a fifth dimension (Physical Sensation - the “feeling” of an avatar), possibly caused by a heightened sense of presence (due to using said equipment). On this note, the widespread implementation of mirrors in VRChat worlds, along with the discovery of what players described as “mirror-dwelling”, might also have a serious impact on this phenomenon. Furthermore, the results matched concepts such as the Proteus Effect and Deindividuation theory.

Syftet med denna studie är att studera religiösa och kulturella inslag inom anime-serien Avatar. The Last Airbender med en hermeneutisk metod. Uppsatsen börjar med en övergripande genomgång av de buddhistiska, hinduiska samt andra österländska aspekter som hittades i materialet. Här får läsaren en inblick i de delar av religionen som senare kopplas till materialet. Författaren utgår från sina förkunskaper kring religionerna för att utvinna de religiösa fenomen som förekommer i den populärkulturella tv-serien. Slutsatsen av denna uppsats påvisar att det fanns många aspekter av religionerna representerade i anime-serien. Författaren anser att seriens skapare har vävt in de religiösa och kulturella aspekterna bra i serien och med stor sannolikhet så har de religiösa perspektiven tagits med för att på något sätt fostra de unga personer som tittat på serien.

This study examined the influence of gender, the Big 5 personality factors, and self-esteem on virtual self-representation in the form of avatar-self discrepancy. To examine this, participants designed characters to play in a video game, spent 20 min playing the video game, and then had their actual pictures taken. Our results indicated that, consistent with predictions, men and women generally selected self-representations consistent with ideal male and female bodies. This finding was pronounced for men and women high in agreeableness. Conversely, some results contradicted the normative prescriptions often associated with self-presentation. For instance, men did not build taller avatars than did women. Men who were high in openness to new experiences were more likely to select avatars with skin tone variations. Introverts - both male and female - and women high in neuroticism were more likely to build attractive avatars. Moreover, those with low self-esteem were more likely to select lighter skin tones than those with high self-esteem. Thus, the effects of gender and personality have considerable implications for online self-presentation and self-representation.

This thesis focuses on which kinds of aspects that would be extra important when two or more persons are collaboratively navigating a single character in a game world. With help of interaction design methods during this process, such as literature researches and usability tests, a low-fidelity and a mid-fidelity prototype were created to find these aspects. In the tests, I also used a high-fidelity game to compare my prototypes with. The conclusion and discussion in this thesis presents different sorts of new ideas and possibilities concerning the different aspects that could lead to developing new interesting games with collaborative navigation.