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Single player games with branching narratives are often marketed as having meaningful choices, where the outcome of players’ choices affect the story. But when these games fail to deliver on their promise it allows for frustration and disappointment. To aid in avoiding this phenomenon, this study explores the ways different types of choices affect the narrative agency in non-linear, story-driven games by looking closer at one of them - Detroit: Become Human. By means of formal analysis, a framework is developed for identifying various definitions and prerequisites of different choice types. This framework is applied to the chapter Stormy Night to evaluate and measure gameplay data regarding choices. In addition to this method, an interview with the Lead Game Designer is conducted which gives valuable insight into the actual process behind designing the choices in Detroit: Become Human. The results show that the chapter’s choices are explicit in their design. Furthermore, there is noticeable ambiguity and subjectivity in how choices can be portrayed and perceived as meaningful. The interview suggests that different types of choices are better used at certain parts of a narrative. Noticeable from the interview, but not as detectable in the gameplay data, is that having diversity in choice types promotes meaningfulness. Implications of these findings suggest that the requirements for a game’s choices to be meaningful are choice type diversity and careful placement.

This thesis describes a Research through Design process of building a concept of an interactive Virtual Reality experience. It oscillates around the topic of sustainability and mindful food choices. The initial background research led to constructing the main research question: How should a concept of an interactive virtual reality experience be designed, so that it initiates reflection on the user’s consumption of food products? The subject of reflection and the elements needed to induce it are explored and studied throughout the whole design process starting with choosing suitable theories and methods for the development of the concept. Various narratives are developed and built through co-designing with future users and result in creating video prototypes. The final evaluation of the resultant artefact provides a basis for using VR technology in order to initiate reflection on people’s dietary choices and their impact on the environment. The assessment shows that VR can be described as one of the potential media, which can extend the outreach of information and help mitigate the negative consequences of our actions towards the environment. / <p>Examensarbetet är utfört vid Institutionen för teknik och naturvetenskap (ITN) vid Tekniska fakulteten, Linköpings universitet</p>

<p>Intraurban consumer behaviour is explained in this thesis by a conventional scientific method - a hypothesis about why we shop where we shop is empirically tested by observation and model calibration. Dynamic theory of the individual relative choice and a description of the spatial context of the perceived retail structure of Hamilton, Ontario, form the groundbase for hypothesizing a set of areal generalizations for single-stop, single-purpose shopping trips. The generalizations are 'general' statements about why people shop where they shop; specifically, grocery trips should be to an outlet located in the nearest shopping centre to place of residence, while non-grocery trips should be either to an outlet located in a nearby shopping centre when shopping for low-value goods, or to an outlet located anywhere in the city when shopping for high-value goods. The reason why these destinations should be chosen is so as to either maintain acquired utility levels over time when grocery, or low-value non-grocery, shopping or maximize acquired utility at one finite time period when high value non-grocery shopping. The areal generalisations are then tested by constructing trip flow maps and calibrating a multinomial logit model, using an observed aggregate shopping trip data set for Hamilton, Ontario. Both the floe maps of single-stop, single-purpose shopping trips and the estimated logit model coefficients and elasticity statistics, verify the areal generalisations. Thus the observed shopping trip flows for Hamilton, Ontario can be explained by the hypothesized areal generalisations; however, the mode of explanation can be spatially transferred to any city as the temporal relative choice theory of individual behaviour is universal. All that is required is a description of the spatial context in which the choice theory continues to operate. The thesis has thus shown how a conventional scientific method can explain rational behaviour, where to be "rational" is to be human, not deterministic.</p> / Master of Arts (MA)

With this study, we attempted to answer the question Does empathic ability affect the choices made by players in decision-based games?. Nine participants were asked to complete an empathy questionnaire, play the first episode of Square Enix’s game Life Is Strange, and fill out a survey with the choices they made while playing. Five participants were then invited to an interview where further research was conducted regarding the motivations of the players and how they related to the game. We found a very weak relationship between empathic ability and the choices made (R = 0.3653), which, especially given the small group of participants, is not enough to sufficiently prove a relation. However, we found four common themes in the motivations of the players and how they related to the game: role-playing, curiosity, real life, and not real. / Med denna studie ämnade vi svara på forskningsfrågan Påverkar empatiförmåga valen spelare gör i beslutsbaserade spel?. Nio deltagare ombads fylla i ett frågeformulär om empatiförmåga, spela igenom första avsnittet av Square Enix spel Life Is Strange och fylla i ett formulär med valen de gjorde medan de spelade. Fem deltagare blev därefter inbjudna till en intervju där vidare forskning kring spelarnas motivation och hur de relaterade till spelet genomfördes. Vi hittade ett svagt förhållande mellan empatiförmåga och de val som gjordes (R = 0.3653), vilket, speciellt givet det låga antalet deltagare, inte är tillräckligt för att påvisa en relation. Vi fann dock fyra allmänna teman kring spelarnas motivation och hur de relaterade till spelet: rollspel, nyfikenhet, verkliga livet och inte verkligt.

<p dir="ltr">This dissertation explores intrapersonal and interpersonal conflicts that result from differing axiological stances. A stance is one’s orientation towards a subject and one’s axiological stance is one’s orientation towards what they take to be valuable. An axiological stance also influences how one responds to practical reasons. Stances currently enjoy some attention in epistemology and the philosophy of science, but I provide a novel treatment of stances in the practical domain. Comprised of three chapters, this dissertation explores the psychological and normative contributions of one’s stances in normative ethics, then extends this work to the philosophy of religion. In chapter one, I unpack the psychological contribution of axiological stances. I introduce the concept of an axiological stance in the context of the debate surrounding “hard choices,” arguing that an intrapersonal conflict of axiological stances explains the characteristic difficulty of hard choices. In chapter two, I explore the normative side of axiological stances, drawing from Peter Winch. While Winch has been associated with various forms of relativism, I suggest that he is better understood as defending a moral analog to epistemic permissivism. In this chapter, I suggest that a plausible version of his view is an axiological stance permissivism where an axiological stance can modify the weights of one’s normative reasons. Lastly, in chapter three, I address aspects of God’s practical life that may comprise an axiological stance. The normative import of these aspects, I argue, provide a model of God’s practical life that is not objectionably robotic. On such a model, God has some control over what his weightiest reasons are.</p>

This dissertation brings new causal evidence on three topics in education and health. In the first chapter, I study how in-utero exposure to floods affects the education and health outcomes of individuals. I focus on the 1982-1983 El Niño event in Peru to exploit a natural experiment. I assess the impacts of plausible and exogenous in-utero exposure to excess rainfall on education achievement at adulthood. I find that individuals exposed in-utero to the 1982-1983 El Niño floods, have less chances to have completed primary education at adulthood with different effects by place of residence and gender. In the second chapter, I study how a low-cost face-to-face intervention, that exposed senior-year high school students to female role models affects career preferences and reduces the gender preference gap for STEM programs in Peru in a randomized controlled trial. I find that exposure to role models increased preference for engineering majors only for those girls in the top math ability quartile; and that the effect was stronger for those who reside geographically close to the role models' university. Finally, in the third chapter, I investigate how to optimally allocate students to academic programs. I evaluate external signals of ability transmitted to students by academic probation rules in Peru using a regression discontinuity design. The analysis suggests that academic probation is associated with higher drop-out rates from programs and a deterioration in subsequent academic performance. I conclude that in a society with predominant gender norms, signals of ability could aid to the retention of only qualified students in selected programs with further implications on aggregate productivity and the allocation of talent. / Doctor of Philosophy / This study sought to understand how exposure to different adverse events in life affects individuals' decision choices. I focus on a developing country, Peru, where returns to education are high and investment in human capital can improve individuals' lives. In the first chapter, I study how prenatal exposure to extreme weather conditions (i.e. the 1982-1983 El Niño floods in Peru) affected the education achievement of those individuals when they were older. This adverse and unpredictable event, affecting the evolution of babies while in-utero, during the nine months of gestation, reduced the probability that the exposed individual had completed primary education. In the second chapter, I implement an experiment in the field to understand the effect of the exposure to role models on the reduction of the gender gap in careers that are male dominated such as Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM). The gender gap in STEM fields is a major cause of concern for policymakers around the world since it not only contributes to talent misallocation but also critically deepens gender-based socioeconomic inequalities. I find that a brief exposure to role models of about 20 minutes increases preferences for engineering majors of high talented female high school students, and I attribute this to inspiration rather than information mechanisms. The evidence suggests that, inspired by role models, high math ability girls had increased self-confidence for succeeding in engineering majors. Finally, in the third chapter I investigate the misallocation of students to academic programs and more specifically the effect of one university policy related to academic probation on attrition rates and subsequent academic performance. Academic probation is a warning received by students failing to make substantial academic progress required for graduation. By receiving academic probation, students get additional information of their capabilities to successfully complete a degree. The analysis suggests that academic probation is associated with higher drop-out rates from programs and a deterioration in subsequent academic performance aiding to the retention of only qualified students in selected fields of study.

Explores the relationship between nontraditional science education practices, structured by campaigns such as Public Understanding of Science (PUS) and Scientific Literacy (SL), and the field of Science and Technology Studies (STS), using ethnographic work with the Choices and Challenges Project at Virginia Tech as a "point of entry" (Smith 1987) for a broader discussion. It points to the difficulty of "doing" theory and practice at the same time. While affirming that there is no easy solution to the hard work of situating local, nontraditional science education practices within a critical theoretical tradition such as STS, this project also provides recommendations for a new framework to conceptualize a more productive interaction between the practice of nontraditional science education and the theory of STS. In a postscript, I conclude by urging all researchers within the field of STS to begin to recognize that maintaining the false split between our academic research, undergraduate teaching, university outreach, and community involvement is a failed project. As STS researchers, I believe it is, in fact, our obligation to our local and global communities to adopt an interventionist strategy and to use our work — without apology — for directly political ends. Challenging the technoscientific-political context in which we live always involves a level of real risk — but it is also our only opportunity to achieve real success. Our participation in this challenge is a responsibility to ourselves and to our communities that we must recognize and accept. This participation should not be shunned, but rather applauded. / Master of Science