<p>The aim of this study is to examine the language from a small sample of texts from the chat channels of World of Warcraft and analyze the differences found between World of Warcraft English and Standard English. In addition, the studywill compare the language found in World of Warcraft with language found on other parts of the Internet, especially chatgroups. Based on 1045 recorded chat messages, this study examines the use of abbreviations, emoticons, vocabulary, capitalization, spelling, multiple letter use and the use of rare characters. The results of the investigation show that the language of World of Warcraft differs from Standard English on several aspects, primarily in the use of abbreviations. This is supported by secondary sources. The results also show that the use of language is probably not based on the desire to deliver a message quickly, but rather to reach out to people. In addition, the results show that the language found in World of Warcraft is more advanced than a simple effort to try to imitate speech, thereby performing more than written speech.</p>

The goal of this bachelor thesis is to explain how computer game graphic artists at the game company Digital Illusions(Dice) has changed during the last six years. To give this question a background the essay describes how the computer game process works and it also describes the working roles for the peoples in the process. Further the thesis describes the changes for the computer game graphic artist and the reasons for this change. When it comes to Digital Illusions the thesis focus on the game Battlefield 1942. The work began with telephone interviews with game artists at the largest game company’s in Sweden, witch gave us indications of the fact that the status and the influence of the production of the game for the game artists had been ascending during the last six years. We therefore wanted to find out the reasons for this change, as well as finding one single game to study. We therefore interviewed three of the responsible computer game artists for the game Battlefield 1942. We also went to the computer game education Playground Squad in Falun for two days of interviews and observations. We concluded that the computer game graphic artists had increased during the last six years primarily caused by the fact that computer game graphics more and more had been used as means of marketing and the fact that the knowledge and the making use of editors among the artists has increased.

När en spelstudio ska designa ett dataspel är det viktigt att veta hur konsumenten, det vill säga spelaren, kommer att spela spelet. Därför är det avgörande att genomföra speltester och samla in digital information för att få en så klar bild som möjligt över hur en spelare interagerar när denne spelar. En viktig sak för utvecklaren är att försöka få spelaren att investera sig själv i spelet, både emotionellt samt med sin tid. Syftet med vår undersökning är att försöka ta reda på vilket sätt spelutvecklare kan förutse och kontrollera hur en spelare skall spela ett datorspel. Vi har valt att göra denna undersökning på en specifik spelstudio samt på ett specifikt spel. Studion vi valt är Ubisoft Massive och vi tänker undersöka hur de gick tillväga då de utvecklade sitt spel World in Conflict. Vi genomförde en kvalitativ undersökning med hermeneutik som vetenskaplig utgångspunkt och vi samlade in vår empiri med hjälp av mejlintervjuer. De teorier vi använde oss utav var: logocentrisk narrativstruktur, verfremdungseffekt, rationalitet som teori, deterministisk A.I., MDI (människa-datorinteraktion), spelstudier med inriktning ludologi samt datamining. Undersökningen visar att Ubisoft Massive använder sig av ett flertal olika hjälpmedel för att förutbestämma hur spelaren skall spela spelet, bland annat med hjälp av datamining och speltestning. För att få spelaren mer investerad i spelet har de lagt mycket tid på många små detaljer som ljud, ljus och miljö. De använder sig av en deterministisk A.I. för att få A.I.:n att verka mer mänsklig och de använder sig olika communities för att stämma av med spelarna hur de önskar att spelet skall vara. / When a game designer starts the development of a videogame it is important to know how the consumer, that is the player, will play the game. It is crucial to perform game tests and gather other forms of information to understand how the player will interact with the game. It is also important to create a game which the player can connect to and want to immerse themselves in, emotionally as well as practically. The purpose of this study is to try to find out how game developers can predict and control how the player will play the game. We’ve decided to perform this study on one specific game developer and one of their released titles. The developer we’ve chosen is Ubisoft Massive and we’re going to examine how they went about developing the game World in Conflict. We performed a qualitative study with hermeneutics as our scientific standpoint, and we performed our empirical studies through mail-interviews. The theorems applied in the study is as follows: Logocentric narrative structure, distancing effect, rational choice theory, deterministic A.I., HCI (Human-Computer interaction), ludology based gamestudies as well as datamining. The study shows that Ubisoft Massive uses several developer tools to predict how the player will interact with the game, such as datamining and game testing. A lot of details have been used get the player invested in the game, such as lighting effects, sound design and environments. The game uses deterministic A.I. to make the non-player characters seem more organic and they’ve interacted with players on communities to find out what players are looking for in games.

The purpose of this study is to establish whether or not there is a connection between a highincidence of computer gaming and English proficiency in Swedish 9th-graders. The study also takescomputer game genres into account, attempting to see if there is a link between frequent playing ofcertain genres and high English grades.According to this study, there is a clear correlation between the gaming habits of Swedish 9thgradersand the grades they receive in English, with a higher frequency of gaming corresponding toa higher grade. The study also suggests that the Strategy, MMO (Massively Multiplayer Online) andCRPG (Computer Role-Playing Game) genres have a higher representation amongst students withgood grades in English.

<p>In real-time strategy (RTS) games, the human player faces tasks such as resource allocation, mission planning, and unit coordination. An Artificial Intelligence (AI) system that acts as an opponent against the human player need to be quite powerful, in order to create one cohesive strategy for victory. Even though the goal for an AI system in a computer game is not to defeat the human player, it might still need to act intelligently and look credible. It might however also need to provide just enough difficulty, so that both novice and expert players appreciates the game. The behavior of computer controlled opponents in RTS games of today has to a large extent been based on static algorithms and structures. Furthermore, the AI in RTS games performs the worst at the strategic level, and many of the problems can be tracked to its static nature. By introducing an adaptive AI at the strategic level, many of the problems could possibly be solved, the illusion of intelligence might be strengthened, and the entertainment value could perhaps be increased.</p><p>The aim of this dissertation has been to investigate how dynamic scripting, a technique for achieving adaptation in computer games, possibly could be applied at the strategic level in an RTS game. The dynamic scripting technique proposed by Spronck, et al. (2003), was originally intended for computer role-playing games (CRPGs), where it was used for online creation of scripts to control non-player characters (NPCs). The focus in this dissertation has been to investigate: (1) how the structure of dynamic scripting possibly could be modified to fit the strategic level in an RTS game, (2) how the adaptation time possibly could be lowered, and (3) how the performance of dynamic scripting possibly could be throttled.</p><p>A new structure for applying dynamic scripting has been proposed: a goal-rule hierarchy, where goals are used as domain knowledge for selecting rules. A rule is seen as a strategy for achieving a goal, and a goal can in turn be realized by several different rules. The adaptation process operates on the probability of selecting a specific rule as strategy for a specific goal. Rules can be realized by sub-goals, which create a hierarchical system. Further, a rule can be coupled with preconditions, which if false initiates goals with the purpose of fulfilling them. This introduces planning.</p><p>Results have shown that it can be more effective, with regard to adaptation time, re-adaptation time, and performance, to have equal punishment and reward factors, or to have higher punishments than rewards, compared to having higher rewards than punishments. It has also been shown that by increasing the learning rate, or including the derivative, both adaptation, and re-adaptation times, can effectively be lowered.</p><p>Finally, this dissertation has shown that by applying a fitness-mapping function, the performance of the AI can effectively be throttled. Results have shown that learning rate, and maximum weight setting, also can be used to vary the performance, but not to negative performance levels.</p>

Emergency response agencies that need to care for large crowds in real-life events, report a constant lack in human volunteers in large numbers for training purposes. Moreover, existing computerized training aides either totally omit affected crowds in their scenarios, or represent them as computer generated models. A potential solution that can provide real human input in large numbers for training purposes can be found in the form of Massive Multi-user Online Role-Playing computer Games (MMORPGs) that attract millions of users on a daily basis. In order to evaluate the use of MMORPGs as an emergency simulation platform I had to examine the in-game behaviour of participants, usability issues, data collection methods, and data reliability. I did so by constructing a multi-user computer game that included food shortage and a pandemic spread scenarios. Data collected included every possible item that could be technically logged, both qualitative (questionnaires, user’s self tagging of events) and quantitative (all in-game actions and their coordinates, players and virtual environment in-game status). The abundance of data enabled easy triangulation and verification. The main findings were: participants attention span was about 90 minutes, they demonstrated only a narrow range of behaviours necessary for their in-game survival, and this behaviour followed loosely real life behaviour patterns. Usability wise participants ignored interface components and in-game tasks that interfered with their game flow. Data reliability: unlike other methods that rely solely on participants accounts, the game had the ability to compare between actions to questionnaire answers, and was able to detect inconsistencies between people’s actions within the game and their accounts of their actions. The ability to create spatial maps of event types enabled a fast way to visually analyze data. The research concludes that MMORPGs can be used as an emergency simulation platform if: 1) its duration fits the participants’ attention span (as a result aspects of human behaviour that happen over a prolonged period of time will not be demonstrated); 2) the demographic composition of participants fits that of the population examined by the simulation; 3) participants should be properly reimbursed for their time; 4) it is known that participants’ in-game behaviour might be negatively influenced by lack of real-life experience of similar events; 5) in-game rules and mechanisms are set to filter out game abuse; 6) preliminary sessions are run to determine ideal attention span and data skewing factor.

Syftet med den här uppsatsen är att belysa problematiken kring dataspelsberoende och ta reda på hur unga män (killar) förhåller sig till detta. Vi ville ta reda på hur de ser på risken för att bli beroende på ett negativt sätt av att spela dataspel. Ser killarna det som ett allvarligt problem och har de några strategier för att inte påverkas negativt. Studien genomfördes i form av intervjuer i två fokusgrupper som bestod av fyra killar i varje grupp. Som grundläggande material för arbetet valde vi att använda oss av teorier om modernisering, stämpling, hyperverklighet och neutralisation. Under tidigare forskning har vi valt att ta upp bland annat om hur beroende ses ur både en vetenskaplig och en medicinsk synvinkel. Som resultat har vi kommit fram till att problematiken kring dataspelsberoende inte uppmärksammas mycket av informanterna och att de har låg kunskap om risker och konsekvenser av överdrivet dataspelande. / The purpose of this study is to highlight and discuss the problems of computer game addiction and find out how young men relate to this. We wanted to find out how they see the risk of becoming dependent in a negative way of playing computer games. Do they see any problems and do they use any strategies to not be affected negatively. The study is qualitative and was conducted in the form of interviews. We interviewed two focus groups consisting of four boys in each group, in the ninth grade. As basic material for this work we chose to use theories on modernization, conspiracy, hyper-reality and "neutralisationstekniken". For previous research, we have chosen to include, among other things, how dependence is viewed from both a scientific and a medical viewpoint. As a result, we have concluded that the problem of computer game addiction is not addressed adequately much and that the informants we interviewed did not have enough knowledge about the risks and the consequences of excessive computer gaming.

Online multiplayer is the focus of gameplay for a majority of games released in this day and age, and at the core of multiplayer lies the network code. This means that bad networking code can be ruinous for an entire game. A Sweet Studio is a small game studio that both works as a consultant in the industry as well as develop their own games. But with limited time and money to spend on their own projects, it can be difficult to develop new games. The purpose of this paper is to cover how a multiplayer base can be developed in Unity, iterated on, and how to build it for reusability in a way best, that implementing it in new projects is as simple as possible. The end result is a library with broad functionality and a simple layout. / I majoriteten av datorspel som släpps nuförtiden, är flerspelar gameplay ett av de största fokusen, och i kärnan av den funktionen finns nätverkskoden. Detta betyder att dålig nätverkskod kan förstöra upplevelsen helt och hållet. A Sweet Studio är en mindre spelstudio som både gör konsultarbete inom industrin, och utvecklar sina egna spel. Men med begränsad tid och begränsade pengar att spendera på sina egna projekt, kan det bli tufft att skapa nya spel. Mening med den här rapporten är att gå över hur en flerspelarbas kan utvecklas i Unity, itereras över och hur den bäst byggs för återanvändning, så att det lätt går att implementeras i nya projekt. Slutresultatet är ett bibliotek med bred funktionalitet och en simpel layout.

This thesis is focused on usage of computer game (adventure game) in teaching of chemismy (posted on internet since 2017). Game is situated to the town of České Budějovice and contains set of tests from Inorganic chemisty. This game can be used to motivate students to study chemistry on primary schools.

Even though artificial intelligence (AI) agents are now able to solve many classical games, in the field of computer strategy games, the AI opponents still leave much to be desired. In this work we tackle a problem of combat in strategy video games by adapting existing search approaches: Portfolio greedy search (PGS) and Monte-Carlo tree search (MCTS). We also introduce an improved version of MCTS called MCTS considering hit points (MCTS_HP). These methods are evaluated in context of a recently released 4X strategy game Children of the Galaxy. We implement a combat simulator for the game and a benchmarking framework where various AI approaches can be compared. We show that for small to medium combat MCTS methods are superior to PGS. In all scenarios MCTS_HP is equal or better than regular MCTS due to its better search guidance. In smaller scenarios MCTS_HP with only 100 millisecond time limit outperforms regular MCTS with 2 second time limit. By combining fast greedy search for large combats and more precise MCTS_HP for smaller scenarios a universal AI player can be created.