This study investigates if gameplay in an audio-only puzzle game differs when the player is feeling stressed or calm. This was done by conducting a test where 14 participants played an audio-only, puzzle game with two levels. One level containing stressful ambience and the other level containing calm ambience. The players were timed during the playtest and the results were analyzed. The results showed a significant decrease of played time in the level containing stressful ambience. The study has also investigated whether the participants preferred the level with the stressful ambience or the level with the calm ambience. This was done by asking the participants a series of questions. The participants' answers for these questions were analyzed by coding their answers and extracting keywords. The results showed no significant difference in player preference.

This thesis investigated the representation of horses in the video games Star Stable 1: Autumn Riders and Dragon Age: Inquisition from an ecocritical lens. It applies the method of close reading to the game research field to analyse the representation of horses in video games and how that representation can be objectifying. The study finds that by framing horseback riding as the primary aspect of the horses the game design in these two games prioritises an anthropocentric view, where horses are modelled after their value to humans. This game design perspective can be seen in the lack of non-riding related behaviours, lack of non-rideable horses and in the interfaces and language use found in the games, as well as the extradiegetic horse call mechanic used in Dragon Age: Inquisition. Star Stable 1: Autumn Riders includes some game design choices that portray a greater feeling of subjectivity in horses. Some ways it does this is by modelling autonomy in horses by avoiding perfect obedience in riding mechanics or including player affordances related to the care of horses. The conclusion points to that by representing horses as subjects rather than objects game designers can encourage a game feeling of respect and cooperation in players, as well as the potential for future research of horses in games to study emotional game design. / Denna studie har undersökt representationen av hästar i spelen Star Stable 1: Autumn Riders och Dragon Age: Inquisition genom ett ekokritiskt perspektiv med hjälp av närläsning, samt hur representationen av hästar kan vara objektifierande. Genom att framställa ridning som det primära med hästar så prioriterar speldesignen en antropocentrisk vinkel där hästens värde kopplas till vad de kan göra för människan. Detta perspektiv kan ses i bristen på beteenden hos hästen som inte kan kopplas till ridning, bristen på icke ridbara hästar samt i spelens gränssnitt och språkbruk. I Dragon Age: Inquisition kan det även ses i spelets extradiegetiska “call mechanic”. Star Stable 1: Autumn Riders inkluderar viss speldesign som representerar subjektivitet i hästar, till exempel porträtterar spelets hästars autonomi genom att inte låta hästarna lyda spelaren till fullo samt att inkludera alternativ för spelaren angående hästomsorg. Studiens slutsats poängterar att genom att representera hästar som subjekt snarare än objekt så kan speldesigners skapa en spelkänsla av respekt och samarbete hos spelaren och att det finns utrymme för framtida studier av hästar i spel att forska om emotionell design.

The computer game industry has during the past years performed a paradigm shift from physical to digital online retailing based on game portals. Due to the many possibilities Big Data in combination with personalized marketing provides, especially in the form on in-game shops in the software, it is interesting for the computer game companies to investigate how this marketing approach can be performed most beneficially. Since the computer game industry has not been thoroughly investigated in relation to personalized marketing and customer integrity, it has in this study been performed as a predictive research, based on how personalized marketing is used in other industries. This benchmark has been combined with a literature study as well as a case study on a Swedish computer game company, Paradox Interactive in the form of personal interviews, a customer survey as well as gathering of internal data. The analysis of the chosen industries, the grocery store industry, the travel and hospitality industry as well the online gambling industry, demonstrates the importance of offering the customers relevant marketing offers that benefits the customers as well as the company. This approach has been shown to imply a positive spiral of increased customer loyalty and raised revenue for the company. The performed customer surveys emphasizes high loyalty, satisfied customers, positive attitude for a loyalty program as well as for an in-game shop as well as a majority of positively minded customers for personalized marketing. The negatively minded was shown to be affected by data security, the feeling of being monitored as well as the fear for data spread. The investigation further shows a high level of technology knowledge among the computer game customers. This increases the importance of offering high data security as well as describes the used approaches for the customers. Based on these results recommendations related to the implementation of personalized marketing was developed for computer game companies. These emphasizes the importance of using secure techniques related to the data security and the explicit information related to this, which is argued to lead to increased trust amongst the customers and an increased willingness to share personal data. Further the data and information related to the customers should be gathered from different sources and be analyzed together in order to increase the deep of the knowledge about the customers, which enables more accurate and relevant offers. This relevance should be high, but well balanced in relation to the negative aspects related to customers’ possible feeling of being monitored.   For increased knowledge about the customers as well improved customer loyalty the computer game companies should implement loyalty programs, which should be well aligned with the image of the company. This study contributes to the theoretical field related to personalized marketing by investigating how current models and theories aligns with, or should be modified in order to match, the computer game industry. Besides from this it contributes with theories related to data security within the field of personalized marketing, focused on personal integrity and privacy. Theories related to the importance of trust from the customers and the relation between trust and loyalty has been verified for the computer game industry. The importance of identifying a well-balanced level of the personalization has been verified, which in turn falsifies the theories emphasizing that maximized personalization is to strive for. Theories related to key aspects to take into consideration related to data security and handling of personal data has been verified for the computer game industry related to the handling of Big Data. / Dataspelsindustrin har under åren gjort en resa från fysisk försäljning i butik till digital försäljning via spelportaler på internet. I och med de många möjligheter Big Data i kombination med personlig marknadsföring möjliggör, speciellt i formatet av en inbyggd försäljningskanal inuti mjukvaran, är det av stort intresse för företag i spelbranschen att undersöka hur personlig marknadsföring mest fördelaktigt utförs.  I och med att dataspelinsdustrin ej blivit undersökt med avseende på personlig marknadsföring och kunders integritet tidigare, har detta utförts i form av en förutsägande undersökning baserat på användning av personlig marknadsföring i andra industrier. Denna utvärderande analys har kombinerats med en litteraturstudie samt en fallstudie på det svenska dataspelsföretaget Paradox Interactive i form av intervjuer, en kundenkät samt insamling av intern data. Analysen av de valda industrierna, matvaruhandeln, rese- och hotellindustrin och onlinespelindustrin, påvisar vikten av att erbjuda kunderna relevanta erbjudanden som i längden gynnar såväl kunden som företaget. Detta har påvisats leda till en god spiral av ökad kundlojalitet och ekonomisk vinst för företaget. Utförda kundundersökningar påvisar hög lojalitet, nöjda kunder, positiv attityd till sålväl en inbyggd butik i mjukvaran som ett lojalitetsprogram samt en övervägande andel positiva attityder för personlig marknadsföring. De negativt inställda påverkas av såväl datasäkerheten, känslan av att vara övervakad samt rädslan för att data sprids till tredje part. Undersökningen visar även på en hög kunskapsnivå inom data hos kunderna, vilket höjer vikten av att erbjuda hög säkerhet och även av att förmedla detta till dem. Baserat på dessa resultat har rekommendation gällande implementationen av personlig marknadsföring tagit fram för dataspelsföretag. Dessa framhäver vikten av att ha hög datasäkerhet och förmedla detta till kunderna, vilket i sin tur gör kunderna mer trygga och villiga att dela personlig information. Vidare bör data och information om kunderna skall samlas in från olika kanaler och analyseras tillsammans i syfte att öka kunskapem om kunder, vilket ger möjligheten att erbjuda kunderna mer träffsäkra och relevanta erbjudanden. Denna relevans skall vara hög, men väl avvägd mot den negativa effekten som uppstår om kunden känner sig övervakad.   För utökad kunskap om kunderna och samtidigt generera höjd kundlojalitet skall företag i industrin implementera lojalitetsprogram, vilka skall vara enhetlig med företagets framtoning. Detta arbete bidrar till teorier inom personlig markandsföring genom att undersöka hur rådande teorier och modeller passar eller skall ändras för att matcha dataspelindustrin. Utöver detta bidrar arbetet till teorier gällande datasäkerhet inom området personlig markandsföring, med fokus på integritet och privatliv. Teorier gällande vikten av fötroende från kunderna och sambandet mellan förtroende och lojalitet har påvisats stämma för dataspelindustrin. Vikten av att hitta ett mellanläge för markandsförings relevans har påvisats stämma, vilket i sin tur dementerar teorier som påvisar att maximal relevans är eftertraktat. Teorier gällande huvudaspekter att ta hänsyn till gällande datasäkerhet och behandling av personlig data har påvisats stämma för datapselindustrin relaterat till behandlingen av Big Data.

There have been many different studies done around the subject of Extramural English, where researchers Sundqvist and Sylvén (2012) have drawn the conclusion that there is a correlation between video games and learners of English improving upon their English vocabulary. This study focuses time spent on whether or not playing video games for an extended amount of time will help with a student’s English vocabulary. This was done by having the students answer a demographic questionnaire in which they answer whether or not they regularly play video games, and answers approximately how many hours a week they do play. The study is looking for a correlation between improved vocabulary scores and longer periods of time spent playing video games every week. The study also looks into specific vocabulary that is commonly found in video games and compares different groups which have spent different amounts of time each week playing video games. Do video games help a learner’s English vocabulary and if so, does an increased amount of time spent on playing video games correlate to a higher score on the vocabulary tests, and do students who plays video games have an easier time with some of the specific vocabulary? The study found that there is indeed a correlation and that if a student spends time playing video games their English vocabulary proficiency will most likely increase as well. A student who spends more than ten hours a week on playing video games had higher average scores than those who played less than ten hours a week. Incidentally the students who did not play video games at all had the lowest average scores in the vocabulary tests. Lastly students who spent time playing video games had an easier time answering the questions relating to words that are commonly used in video games. / Många olika studier har utförts kring lärandet av engelska utanför klassrummet. Forskare har bland annat undersökt möjliga samband mellan Extramural engelska och ett förbättrat engelskt ordförråd. Sundqvist och Sylvén (2012) visar t.ex. ett samband mellan ord inlärning och dataspel. Om det finns ett direkt samband mellan tid tillbringad framför dataspel och utökat ordförråd är vad som utgör fokusen för denna undersökning. I denna korrelationsstudie utdelades ett demografiskt frågeformulär till 60 elever i årskurs nio. Eleverna frågades om hur regelbundet de spelade dataspel och hur många timmar de spelade varje vecka. Eleverna svarade även på ett vokabulärprov där de fick lösa problem angående engelsk vokabulär. De elever som spenderade tio timmar eller mer per vecka med dataspel hade högsta medelvärde på vokabulärproven. De elever som spelade mindre än tio timmar per vecka hade lägre. Samtidigt hade de elever som inte spenderade någon tid alls på dataspel den lägsta medelvärdes poäng utav grupperna. Studien visar en koppling mellan tid spenderat framför dataspel och ett utökat engelskt ordförråd. Ytterligare undersöks möjliga samband mellan tid spenderat på dataspel och inlärning av engelska ord som ofta används i dataspel. I vokabulär provet som eleverna fick fanns det sex ord som eleverna behövde lösa. Dessa ord är vanliga att hitta inom dataspel. Resultatet visar att de elever som spelade dataspel presterade bättre med de dataspels specifika vokabulärproblemen. De elever som inte spelade alls presterade sämst av grupperna, medan elever som spelade lite dataspel varje vecka presterade sämre än de som spelade mycket dataspel varje vecka.

The overall purpose of this essay, “‘I really hope you guys are enjoying this. Thank you so much for watching!’ - a qualitative and quantitative study of the interaction between YouTubers and their audience", is to study how YouTubers that play and comment video games interact with their audience, what kind of response these YouTubers receive and the interaction between viewers and fans in these YouTubers comment sections. This essay also studies if there is a difference between the response female and male YouTubers receive. The study is based on theories about fan culture, participation culture, collective intelligence, feminism and gender. A quantitative content analysis has been used to analyze 600 comments on six YouTube videos uploaded by six different YouTubers. The purpose of the quantitative analysis was to see what content of the comments most often occur as well as if the comment showed a positive, negative or neutral view of the YouTuber. The result of the quantitative analysis was used as a base for a qualitative critical discourse analysis, which also studied how the YouTubers behaved in the videos. The results of this study showed that the YouTubers mostly received positive comments about their personalities and their YouTube channel. They mostly received negative comments about the way they play the game. The female YouTubers received more negative comments than the male YouTubers, who in turn received more positive comments. The study also showed that YouTubers interact by talking directly to the audience and looking into the camera, by using the word “we” when talking about how they play the game as if they are playing with the audience, by asking the audience questions and by answering comments that the YouTubers have received. The YouTubers engage their audience by using strong expressions and by playing the game during a livestream. The YouTubers’ fans engage and interact by showing appreciation of the YouTubers and defend the YouTubers when they receive negative comments in the comment section of their videos. These ways which YouTubers interact with and engage their audience can be seen as part of a discourse about interaction and engagement online.

This paper is a qualitative study of signs and associations that seemingly communicate the influence of film tropes on female character design in video games. It analyzes and correlates the visual attributes and characteristics of the League of Legends character Zeri with the traditional attributes and trends of the Manic Pixie Dream Girl (MPDG) film trope, and applies theories within women’s representation and gender to examine the results. The findings suggest that Zeris design and description communicates the traditional characteristics of the MPDG such as quirky, energetic, nostalgic, retro, cute and “twee” and that several of these attributes may reflect an idealized portrayal of the female character rooted in fictive stereotypes. Furthermore the paper highlights the complex interaction between design elements and their ability to communicate (possibly unintended) concepts, and the concepts ability to transcend media formats.  This paper includes a design documentation after page 25 called "Kalasklister i Djurparken", which is the second part of the final exam project(s) at the Visual Communication program at Malmö University. "Kalasklister i Djurparken" is an image bank that aims to update the marketing of Helsingborg's djur- och lekpark (zoo and playground) in order to appeal more to children.