This thesis analyses how intellectual property (IP) laws are used in the home console game industry and in particular how these laws are used to capture the returns on investment, which may indirectly provide a stimulus to innovation. The relationshipis evaluated in three selected markets: The United States (US), the European Union (EU) and People's Republic of China (PRC). The first two of these are selected as representative of developed markets whilst the latter as an instance of an emerging market. This thesis analyses and illustrates ways in which three major types of intellectual property rights - patents, copyright and trademarks - operate in this sector of industry. This thesis evaluates this relationship via a unique approach, adopting both a legal and economic analysis. The thesis starts with a detailed market analysis of this industry to identify key factors that affect individual firms' abilities to capture returns on investment. This is followed by section II (comprising Chapters II to IV) which goes on to examine the effects of each type of IPR on these factors in the developed markets of the US and Europe. The analysis in section III shifts the focus from these developed markets to the emerging market in the PRC. It identifies the unique attributes and problems of the Chinese market and demonstrates how contemporary local IP laws can be used to tackle these problems. It is the view of this thesis that IP laws theoretically can be used to maximise a firm's return on investment while not distorting competition; hence, the thesis suggests that IPRs may indirectly create incentives to innovate.

In this essay, we have unpacked four different levels (the role of women as: a) a part of game history, b) design process, c) characters of the game and d) users) to get a better understanding of the users choice of characters in the popular fighting game Tekken 7.   We have examined the role of women as part of the game’s history and design-process to gain a deeper understanding into the background of the game’s designing process. We have interviewed users with qualitative methods and used analysis strategies such as semiotic analysis and thematic analysis.   The results of our analysis show that users choose their characters based on visual attributes and that they imagine the characters as being an extension of themselves. Users apprehend the characters as stereotypical and thereby reproduce gender-related norms. The process of picking a character to play with is difficult for some of the users - There is a difference between female and male users due to stereotypical visual attributes of the characters which means that it is more problematic for female users to identify themselves with many of the characters. This is affecting the female users experience in a negative way.

Building complex games like Grand Strategy Games for both PC and console is a costly endeavour. Normally, two different platforms imply two different User Interface (UI) and User Experience (UX) designs, even though it is the same game. If the game’s UI could have similar designs for both platforms, this costly obstacle could be overcome. This study aimed to take the first steps to look at “one UI to rule them all”. Due to the lack of existing research on this topic, this study had to begin from scratch. This led to a focus on existing strategy games on consoles, and an evaluation of the User Experience (UX) of these games. Considering the lack of Grand Strategy Games on consoles, eleven existing strategy games on console similar to Grand Strategy Games were chosen to be investigated further with the aim to find possible best practices and/or the most important aspects of the player’s experience in these games. Through discussion with game industry experts (experienced and senior UX designers), the UI and UX of strategy games on console were broken down and grouped as specific game interactions, with emphasis on the similarity to Grand Strategy Games. By using the defined game interactions, a quantitative survey was carried out to pinpoint the game interactions with the biggest impact on the player’s experience. The analysis of the results from the 864 respondents in the quantitative survey showed the importance of console first. It could be determined by looking at how well the only console first game of the survey did. Halo Wars 2 had the overall best-perceived experience in five out of the eight defined game interactions. Yet the participants preferred playing Halo Wars 2 on PC to an equal extent as they preferred to play it on consoles, concluding that console first seems to be the design approach to use when a game studio wants to ship a game simultaneously to both PC and consoles since it gives the overall best player experience. Furthermore, the pace, meaning the speed with which the player can execute specific in-game actions and reach their goals, was found to be a major factor in the player’s experience of the chosen strategy games on console. This led to a further developed definition of the pace through discussion and workshops with industry experts. Research then continued with remote and unmoderated playtests (qualitative usability testing) of two of the chosen games being most similar to Grand Strategy Games; Stellaris and Sid Meier’s Civilization VI. These playtests aimed to find what are the most important aspects of the pace and how the pace affects the player's experience. When the participants were asked to rank what they thought has the biggest impact on the pace in the game, game mechanical aspects were ranked higher than UI and UX aspects of the pace. This shows the game mechanics to be more important than the UI and UX aspects of the pace when designing the pace in a game like Stellaris and Sid Meier’s Civilization VI.