No description available.

Previous research has shown both positive and negative effects of gaming on academic and cognitive performance. The purpose of this study was to assess the effect of gaming on development of working memory (WM), inattention, reading and math ability using a longitudinal design. A randomly chosen sample of 335 (168 girls) 6–25 year olds performed tests of visuo-spatial and verbal WM, reading and math ability twice, with a two year interval. Gaming and inattention were assed with questionnaires. Time spent gaming did not affect development of any of the variables. However, game category did correlate with development of visuo-spatial WM, with action-gamers having a more favourable development. There was, however, no positive interaction with more time spent gaming for action-gamers. These results suggest that gaming should not be regarded as a damaging leisure activity. There could instead be some positive effects of gaming, but future research should try to identify the aspects of gaming contributing to this effect.

Faculty of Criminology, Justice and Policy Studies

Gaming has become one of the most common activities for children and adolescents, and it is therefore of interest to investigate effects of gaming on cognition and behavior. The present study investigates if gaming is related to working memory capacity (WMC) or inattentive symptoms. We distinguished between three categories: action games, strategy games and non-gamers. The present study hypothesized that games involving higher cognitive functions, such as strategy games, could have an enhancing effect on working memory. A total of 211 children (age 5-16) participated. Gaming and inattentive behaviour was measured through parental assessment. WMC was measured with one verbal and one visuospatial task. No relation between gaming and inattentional symptoms was found. Strategy gamers performed better on the visuospatial and the verbal WM-tasks, but more time spent playing strategy games was not associated with significantly higher WMC, which indicates that this finding could be due to self-selection rather than being an causal effect of playing.

The role of gambling industry in Macao's economic development has become more and more important, and has been irreplaceable position. Therefore, this study examines the history of Macao's economic development as well as the history of the gambling industry development. It is found that the gambling industry to bring economic benefits to only part of local residents, but to bring many social cost for all local resident. Therefore, through the experience of Macao, when Taiwan open the casino required to concern economic, social advantages and disadvantages of the two levels in order to obtain the greatest benefits of our residents.

No description available.

While online virtual worlds draw increasingly wider audiences of players and scholars alike, offline games continue to evolve into more complex and socially layered forms as well. This dissertation argues that virtual worlds need not exist as online, digital environments alone and probes three genres of non-digital gaming for evidence of the virtual: tabletop role-playing games, murder-mystery events, and localized alternate reality games. More broadly, then, this dissertation is about deliberate make-belief: practiced by adults, taken seriously by participants, engaged with for long hours at a time, performed in public, and integrated into everyday social relationships. Drawing on scholars who study games as social activities (McGonigal 2006, Montola 2012) and social institutions (Goffman 1974, Searle 1995), I present three ethnographic case studies that illustrate how complex forms of social gaming can conjure and sustain environments best understood as analog virtual worlds. Through the widespread use of mobile technologies and the concerted efforts of innovators, game spaces are increasingly permeating our everyday lives on- and offline. This dissolving boundary demands anthropologists to revisit questions of how, where, and with whom we play games. Dovetailing Martin Heidegger’s notions of worlding and poiesis to the semiotics of C.S. Peirce, this dissertation investigates how new forms of social gaming demonstrate the same qualities of shared intentionality, intersubjectivity, and performance essential to the production of new social meaning and cultural forms. Following, I situate the bold ethnographic case studies of make-belief in dialogue with scholars who figure exclusively online virtual worlds (Castronova 2005, Taylor 2006, Boellstorff 2008) and argue that analyzing both on- and offline virtual worlds together can help scholars better understand the fundamental nature of social interaction and shared intentionality, those everyday mechanisms that both sustain personal relationships on the one hand and maintain our broadest and most serious social institutions on the other.

HMC Clinic with Matterport, Inc.

Being active in an online environment has become part of our day to day life. The protection of anonymity, invisibility and lack of authority on online platforms ranging from social media to gaming, allows people to act uninhibitedly in a setting often populated by foul language. Acting in an offensive manner while being online has been the subject of various studies, which range from behaviour in e-classrooms, to flaming used as means of entertainment, to cyber-bullying. This thesis examines the occurrences of offensive language usage in online gaming, specifically in World of Warcraft, and attempts to identify the triggers that lead to hostile communication within the game and to map the manner players act in flaming settings. A chat log analysis was used to comprise a list of most frequently utilized offensive words. A questionnaire was applied in order to collect data regarding players evaluation of these words, their mind set when in flaming situations and their reactions to and motivations of offensive behaviour. The research results show that, in flaming settings, players choose to either take a reactive stance and remove themselves from potentially offensive situations, or to act proactively and flame back or get the “flamers” punished. Furthermore, the results show that there are certain words, emotes and situations that are generally directly linked to volatile occurrences. In conclusion, gaming is no stranger to the shortcomings being online entails and a more balanced threshold for offensive behaviour acceptance must be re-established.

Empati är ett brett begrepp som är svårdefinierat, det är även svårt att veta vad som påverkar empatin. Diskussioner om hur våldsamma tv- och datorspel påverkar empatin negativt ökar. Denna studie undersöker sambandet mellan tv- och datorspel och empati där empati definieras som ett karaktärsdrag och en reaktion. Totalt deltog 485, varav 411 var kvinnor, 62 män och 12 som inte ville uppge kön/icke-binära. Davis IRI-skala användes för att mäta empati och enkäten skickades ut som webbenkät och i pappersform. Resultatet visade att kvinnorna skattade högre i empati. Det fanns även en skillnad mellan vilken spelgenre som spelas, där pussel spelades mest. Yngre män spelade våldsammare spel än äldre män medan äldre kvinnor spelade våldsammare spel än yngre kvinnor. De som spelar våldsammare spel skattade lägre i personlig oro. Detta kan tänkas bero på spelarens kvicktänkthet och att de blir stresståligare.