Arbetet redogör för konsekvensers inverkan på spelares agerande i moraliska dilemman i dataspel. Arbetet försöker även underlätta framtida debatt inom området genom att definiera begreppen svart-vita dilemman, grå dilemman, moraliska konsekvenser och praktiska konsekvenser. Tidigare statistik visar att ungefär 15 % av spelare agerar omoraliskt i spel som inte ger några incentiv till att göra så, arbetet testar hypotesen att andelen spelare som agerar omoraliskt ökar om spelet uppmuntrar omoraliskt beteende. Arbetet lät åtta testpersoner spela ett spel där de ställdes inför åtta svart-vita dilemman, undertiden samlades data in om deras agerande i spelet. Resultatet visade att testpersonerna agerade omoraliskt 17 % av gångerna, alltså ingen signifikant ökning från 15 %. Slutsatsen blev att ungefär 15 % av alla spelare agerar omoraliskt i moraliska dilemman och att den siffran är svår att förändra, även när omoraliskt beteende uppmuntras genom praktiska konsekvenser. Slutligen diskuteras svagheter med arbetet och potentiell framtida forskning, inklusive liknande arbeten med större fokus på skillnaderna mellan könens agerande i moraliska dilemman.

komerční hry. Zaměřuje se na jejich korespondenci s prezentovanými historickými událostmi a výukový potenciál. Práce vznikala v roce 2017 na základě vědeckých prací Bogosta, Chapmana, Juula a dalších, či vlastním výzkumem podpořeným dotazováním respondenty. V úvodní části se autor zaměřuje na dostupnou teorii a poznání jednak v oblasti výuky u her, jednak v oboru herních studií. V následující části se zabývá metodologií diplomové práce, průběhem vlastního výzkumu a dotazníkem. Autor se snaží komerčních her, vnějších vlivů, které formují jejich podobu a přístupu hráčů k tomuto žánru her. Zároveň se snaží zodpovědět otázky "do jaké míry jsou tituly série vzdělávací a jaký je vztah hráče a komerčního obsahu?" V předposlední části diplomové práce autor pracuje s historií prezentovanou akademickými odborníky. Následně podrobuje herní verzi srovnání a zabývá se také reprezentací historie v dalších typech médií. Na závěr seznamuje autor s povídá vytyčené otázky. V neposlední řadě pak na základě výsledků dotazování prezentuje vztah a vliv vybraných her na hráče.

In terms of both production and consumption, video games and gaming are a significant phenomenon in Russia, a fact acknowledged by the authorities and mainstream media. Although internet use in Russia has been a point of academic interest over the past few years, scholars have been slower to research video games despite their increasingly popular position in the media ecology of the region. Similarly, despite the abundance of theory and data on gaming in North America and Europe, game studies researchers have hardly skimmed the surface of the cultures, preferences and activities of gamers further afield. This dissertation investigates the online gaming sphere in Russia, presenting an empirical study of the industry, providing insight into gamers themselves, and analysing the media and political discourses surrounding gaming in Russia. In this study, I draw upon survey data, forum, website, and blog posts, user comments from gaming forums and analyses of local games to construct a picture of gaming activity and identity amongst gamers. In particular, I show how Russian-speaking gamers present themselves as members of a distinct subcultural group. Online gamers who participated in this study are shown to consume and discuss games in ways that can differ from elsewhere in the world, but they still retain common beliefs about the importance of expertise, taste and self-discipline within the gaming community. They display a great deal of knowledge about the games and communities available to them locally, while also consuming foreign games in selective and critical ways. For the reader conversant with game studies work, the dissertation constitutes a challenge to West-centric theories of gaming and gamers and demonstrates the importance of cultural context in shaping gaming practice. Throughout the dissertation, interactions between global and local, media and subcultural definitions of ‘gamer’ are crucial to understanding how gaming plays out in a Russian context. The self-definition of gamers differs greatly from mainstream media concepts of gamers. I contextualise discourses of the gaming self within an analysis of how the Russian media presents gamers as young people in need of moral and emotional guidance. Moreover, I show how contemporary media assessments of games and gamers have much in common with earlier moral panics about Western-inflected media and subcultures, such as rock music and style. Ultimately the gaming landscape in Russia is shown to be full of tensions, and the task of this dissertation is to identify, assess and compare these disparate discourses.

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.

This philosophical dissertation concerns the nature of play, a nebulous concept that is nonetheless vitally important to understanding the human being. Play is older than the spoken word and represents a mode of being in the world for many animals, including us. Many thinkers have attempted to unravel the mysteries of play but it has long resisted attempts to fully capture it. I begin Part One by defining play – a trickier proposition that one might expect – and examining the biological origin of the instinct for play in boredom and fun. Part One is a genetic account of play. Part Two contains a memetic account of play – these five chapters look at personal, human play in particular. They cover five philosophical topics: how the play concept has been used in the history of philosophy, the phenomenological experience of play, the relations between play and reason, the aesthetic and ethical dimensions of play, and the relation between play and the production of culture. By examining the discourse surrounding the concept of play in these spheres of human activity, this treatise provides a thorough philosophical understanding of play as a foundation upon which future studies of the play concept can build.

Identification record PELANT, Josef. Griefing in Online Games. Prague, 2017. 86 p. Thesis (Mgr.). Charles University in Prague, Faculty of Arts, Institute of Information Studies and Librarianship, 2001. Thesis lead Vít Šisler. Abstract The goal of this thesis is to find out the frequency of griefing (harassment or intentional provocation of other players) among the players of the most popular genres of online games, and to determine the typical characteristics of griefers, based on following factors: age, gender, preferency of the game genres, and motivational factors of competition, socialization, and teamplay. The goal has been achieved through questionaire survey with the use of quantitative method. Among the most important findings belong that men are substantially more frequently griefers compared to women, griefers are more focused on competition than other respondents, approximately half of the surveyed players have commited griefing, and almost every player has been a victim of a griefer. It has also been found that griefers are more likely to identify themselves as victims of griefing, compared to the rest of players. Keywords griefing, griefer, game studies, online games, second life, world of warcraft

Videogames are becoming an important means of expression for marginalized communities. Despite the growing body of research in queer game studies, transgender identity remains under-researched and lacking in empirical data. By using an experimental approach coupled with grounded theory and informed by current game and queer theory, this study aims to illuminate how transgender- identifying persons approach autobiographical videogame depiction of transgender experience. Ten participants were asked to play influential independent videogame Dys4ia, which depicts the author's hormonal replacement therapy, and semi-structured interviews were conducted. Their responses were coded, and a preliminary model of how Dys4ia works in the context of transgender media ecology was constructed. The term Procedural-autobiographic multimodality is introduced to describe an assemblage of interactive affordances, distinctive aesthetics and situatedness of Dys4ia in structures of minority media while considering video game-specific theories. This study attempts to empirically ground transgender queer game studies, suggesting avenues for future research and proposing a model of how videogames as procedural artefacts work alongside vlogs and other expressive means within transgender mediascape.

This paper will create, define & develop the concept of retroactive characterisation as a narrative device for games. In doing so, it will investigate a method of conveying character and narrative to a player after a given event has already taken place, hence, retroactively. The paper will present data collected through surveys and interviews held in conjunction with test sessions. The paper presents and discusses this data through compiled diagrams and interview transcripts, in order to fulfill its purpose of determining the validity of retroactive characterisation as a narrative device in games.

This study focuses on video game developers and their working environments in a growth industry. While some research documents the culture of video games and the people who play them, much less is understood about the labor environment for those who make games. I conducted 20 personal interviews with game developers in order to learn more about what inspired them to select this field, how they gained entry to it, and what their work is like today. Using insights from the interviews, I analyze how workers contend with its male-dominated culture and how creative skilled laborers deal with the challenges of corporate control and precarious work in the new economy.

Nonbinary game characters are often designed based on harmful stereotypes such asfollowing a strict androgynous aesthetic or as not being human. This thesis studies both howthese stereotypes are perceived by the represented gaming audience, and also if analternative method can be successful in nonbinary character design. Two sets of fournonbinary characters were created in which two characters were based on existingstereotypes, and two were inspired by nonbinary celebrities and members of a nonbinaryforum. The artefacts were included in a survey in which the participants chose the most andleast successful design, motivated their answers, and also discussed trends and stereotypesthey had noticed in nonbinary characters. Based on the performed research and the surveyresults, the suggested solution is to create more nonbinary characters, especially visiblyhuman ones.