This study was conducted to explore the identity of gamers. The purpose of the survey was to: Explore the identity gamer. What it takes to develop this identity, and I answered this purpose with help from three questions. To answer these questions four life-stories were made were the interviewees told about their identity progression from childhood to adulthood. After all the information was received, it was sort out together with my four chosen theories: Identity, field/habitus, personal life and stigma.           Based on my analysis, I could draw some conclusions. In these cases, the identity begun early, but initially in a more playful manner that later developed to become part of their self-identity. There is also a difference between playing games and being a gamer, it must meet certain requirements in the form of capital to be included in this field. The identity gamer can be created both as self-identity but most importantly in social contexts. This identity has been stigmatized. The stigma was created based on a stereotype that does not represent a fair picture of what a gamer really is. Words such as: isolated, lonely and weird was common and these words did not fit the typical gamer. Gamers have over the years been more freed from this stigma and the interviewees present some means to fight it. This study wants to present gamers in their true identity of what it means to be a gamer.

Ces trente dernières années témoignent de changements significatifs en terre indienne depuis l'arrivée des casinos amérindiens. Le travail présenté ici se concentre sur une tribu du Minnesota, la tribu des Ojibwe de Mille lacs, et étudie son évolution depuis 1991, date de l'ouverture de son premier casino. L'histoire du jeu indien aux États-Unis et la situation d'autres tribus du Minnesota sont aussi présentées afin de donner davantage de profondeur à l'argumentation qui démontre que le jeu indien a eu un impact conséquent non seulement sur les conditions de vie des tribus, mais aussi sur leur souveraineté et leur force. Les choix tribaux incluent le recrutement de lobbyistes et d'avocats efficaces qui promeuvent les droits tribaux à la fois au niveau législatif (au Congrès américain) et au niveau judiciaire maintenant que les tribus peuvent se défendre avec des moyens décuplés. Les taux de chômage et de pauvreté ont baissé sur de nombreuses réserves, et les tribus donnent la priorité à l'éducation, en construisant de nouvelles écoles, à la santé, avec de nouvelles cliniques, et à la préservation culturelle (stages de langue, musées, centres culturels). Malgré la menace d'assimilation que les casinos représentent, ils ont donné aux tribus les moyens d'être plus autonomes dans leurs choix et les ont aidées à redéfinir leur identité contemporaine. En trois décennies, les casinos ont créé une nouvelle image de l'Amérique indienne. / The past thirty years have seen significant changes taking place in Indian Country following the advent of Native American casinos. This work focuses on one Minnesota tribe, the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe, and studies its evolution since 1991, when its first casino opened. The history of Indian gaming in the United States and the situation of other Minnesota tribes are also presented to give more depth to the argumentation which demonstrates that gaming has had a substantial impact not only on the living conditions of tribal people, but also on Native American sovereignty and strength. Tribal choices include the hiring of efficient lobbyists and lawyers to promote tribal rights bath on the U.S. legislative level (Congress) and on a judiciary one now that tribes can defend themselves through effective means. Unemployment and poverty levels have dropped on many reservations, and tribes give priority to education, through the building of new schools, health, with new clinics, and cultural preservation (language tables, museums, cultural centers). Despite the assimilative threat casinos represent, they have empowered tribes to be more autonomous in their choices and helped them redefine their contemporary identity. In three decades, gaming has created a new representation of Native America.

Este trabalho tem como objetivo refletir acerca das potências que a cultura de jogo digital oferece à construção dos modos de ser gendrados e sexualizados. A partir de um evento chamado Proudmoore Pride – uma parada LGBT dentro do jogo online World of Warcraft – procuro compreender de que maneira se constroem possibilidades de enunciar modos de vida não-misóginos e não-heteronormativos nessa cultura, além das formas de resistência à heteronormatividade. Entendo os jogos digitais como uma cultura e um contexto, não simplesmente um conteúdo explícito. Já a identidade de gênero/sexualidade é concebida como sempre política e contingente, inserida e constituída por e em relações de poder. Em relação aos seus materiais, essa pesquisa é divida em três dimensões: uma reflexão acerca das condições de possibilidade do que chamei de tecnopolítica de gênero/sexualidade, ou seja, o conjunto de movimentos organizados que se puseram a pensar a necessidade de uma política questionadora de identidades dentro das tecnologias de informação e comunicação e do ciberespaço, focalizando principalmente nos jogos digitais; a análise de fóruns e outras manifestações escritas acerca do evento; e minha experiência como pesquisador-jogador participando da parada em si. Metodologicamente, utilizei elementos da netnografia, e da análise de discurso e genealogia como pensadas por Michel Foucault. Com esse trabalho, constatei que os jogos digitais, apesar de manterem uma programação fixa e restritiva, podem ser usados de modos que não foram imaginados por seus criadores iniciais. Assim, elementos dos jogos são rearranjados pelos(as) seus(suas) jogadores(as) para designar e construir espaços que antes não existiam ali. Dessa maneira, entendo que durante a Proudmoore Pride se articula um espaço construído por elementos e narrativas originais do jogo original, mas que devidamente rearranjadas e deslocadas, resultam na visibilização e constituição de formas de vida não-heteronormativas dentro do World of Warcraft. / This work aims to reflect about the power that the digital gaming culture offers to the construction of sexualized and gendered ways of being. From an event called Proudmoore Pride – an LGBT pride parade hosted at an online game called World of Warcraft – I seek to comprehend possibilities of enunciation of non-misogynist non-heteronormative ways of life in this culture, in addition to forms of resistance to heteronormativity. I understand digital games as a culture and context, not only as explicit content. The political gender/sexual identity are conceived as always political and contingent inserted and constituted by and in power relations. About its material, this research is divided in three dimensions: a reflection about the possibility conditions of what I called gender/sexuality technopolitics, in other words, the set of organized movements that question identity politics in information and communication technologies and the cyberspace, focusing mainly in digital games; the analysis of forums and other written manifestations about the event; and my own experience as a player-researcher participating of the in-game parade. Methodologically, I used elements of the netnography, of discourse analysis and genealogy as thought by Michel Foucault. With this work, I found that the digital games, despite of having fixed and restrictive programming, can be used in ways that wasn’t perceived by its original creators. Thus, gaming elements are rearranged by its players to designate and build spaces that didn’t existed there before. I understand that the Proudmoore Pride Parade is articulated at a space built with elements and narratives from the original game, in rearranged and dislocated ways, resulting in visualization and constitution of non-heteronormative ways of living in World of Warcraft.

Title: Suggestions for the organization of rugby competitions in the Czech Republic Objectives: The objective of the thesis is to create proposals for improving the system of organizing male rugby competitions in the Czech Republic. Methods: To obtain the necessary information about Czech rugby competitions, a quantitative, specifically an in-depth interview method was used. The Number of Winning Titles, Top Team Identification and Percentage of Points were used to determine the level of competition. Another method used in the work is the performance ranking, created on the basis of already existing rankings, partially modified. Results: The research has shown that adjusting the system for organizing rugby competitions in the Czech Republic is suitable. The proposed changes include, in particular, the introduction of open competitions and increasing the number of matches played during the season. Subsequently, some proposals were made to make the system of organizing rugby competitions more efficient in the Czech Republic. Keywords: rugby, sport competitions, sport event management, gaming systems

This thesis explores how the advent of the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act of 1988 caused Native American identities to become hyper-politicized and manipulated by the Bureau of Indian Affairs' (BIA) Federal Acknowledgment Process (FAP). I use the Ramapough Lenape Nation of New York and New Jersey's 1990's attempt at federal recognition as an example of gaming's pervasiveness in identity debates. I demonstrate that despite the consistent understanding of the Ramapough's Lenni-Lenape ancestry through direct and indirect references since the eighteenth century, the risk of Ramapough gaming in New Jersey caused proponents of Atlantic City, New Jersey's gaming economy to secure an unjust denial of Ramapough sovereignty through interference in FAP proceedings.

An estimated 48.9 million Americans have a disability (Bernstein, 2012). Of those 48.9 million people, 24.1 million Americans have a severe disability and 34.2 million have a functional limitation (Bernstein, 2012). The U.S. Government Accountability Office reports an increase in students with disabilities in the post-secondary population (Ridpath, n.d.). Approximately 11% of post-secondary students’ report having a disability (Ridpath, n.d.). This trend has also been reflected within the athletic population at the NCAA Division I, II, and III level (Ridpath, n.d.). This study examined the average disability attitude of NCAA Division I athletes. The average disability attitude among NCAA Division I athletes was 73.99 out of 144. Recently, the physical and mental impact that video games have on video game players has been greatly researched (Oggins, & Sammis, 2012). It has been reported that 8% of U.S. adolescents and young adults are pathological gamers (Gentile, 2009). Additionally, it has been stated that video game play of over 20 hours per week is common, and that it is not unusual for males to engage in video games for over 40 hours per week (Bailey et al., 2010). This study examined the average video gaming tendencies of NCAA Division I athletes. The data collected reports the average video gaming tendencies of athletes based on behavioral functions (attention, escape, tangible, and sensory) to be: Attention = 12.71, Escape 4.64, Tangible = 11.01, and Sensory 7.46.

The modern world has opened the gates to a lot of advancements in cloud computing, particularly in the field of Cloud Gaming. The most recent development made in this area is the open-source cloud gaming system called GamingAnywhere. The relationship between the CPU and GPU is what is the main object of our concentration in this thesis paper. The Graphical Processing Unit (GPU) performance plays a vital role in analyzing the playing experience and enhancement of GamingAnywhere. In this paper, the virtualization of the GPU has been concentrated on and is suggested that the acceleration of this unit using NVIDIA CUDA, is the key for better performance while using GamingAnywhere. After vast research, the technique employed for NVIDIA CUDA has been chosen as gVirtuS. There is an experimental study conducted to evaluate the feasibility and performance of GPU solutions by VMware in cloud gaming scenarios given by GamingAnywhere. Performance is measured in terms of bitrate, packet loss, jitter and frame rate. Different resolutions of the game are considered in our empirical research and our results show that the frame rate and bitrate have increased with different resolutions, and the usage of NVIDIA CUDA enhanced GPU.

The modern world has opened the gates to a lot of advancements in cloud computing, particularly in the field of Cloud Gaming. The most recent development made in this area is the open-source cloud gaming system called GamingAnywhere. The relationship between the CPU and GPU is what is the main object of our concentration in this thesis paper. The Graphical Processing Unit (GPU) performance plays a vital role in analyzing the playing experience and enhancement of GamingAnywhere. In this paper, the virtualization of the GPU has been concentrated on and is suggested that the acceleration of this unit using NVIDIA CUDA, is the key for better performance while using GamingAnywhere. After vast research, the technique employed for NVIDIA CUDA has been chosen as gVirtuS. There is an experimental study conducted to evaluate the feasibility and performance of GPU solutions by VMware in cloud gaming scenarios given by GamingAnywhere. Performance is measured in terms of bitrate, packet loss, jitter and frame rate. Different resolutions of the game are considered in our empirical research and our results show that the frame rate and bitrate have increased with different resolutions, and the usage of NVIDIA CUDA enhanced GPU.

The modern world has opened the gates to a lot of advancements in cloud computing, particularly in the field of Cloud Gaming. The most recent development made in this area is the open-source cloud gaming system called GamingAnywhere. The relationship between the CPU and GPU is what is the main object of our concentration in this thesis paper. The Graphical Processing Unit (GPU) performance plays a vital role in analyzing the playing experience and enhancement of GamingAnywhere. In this paper, the virtualization of the GPU has been concentrated on and is suggested that the acceleration of this unit using NVIDIA CUDA, is the key for better performance while using GamingAnywhere. After vast research, the technique employed for NVIDIA CUDA has been chosen as gVirtuS. There is an experimental study conducted to evaluate the feasibility and performance of GPU solutions by VMware in cloud gaming scenarios given by GamingAnywhere. Performance is measured in terms of bitrate, packet loss, jitter and frame rate. Different resolutions of the game are considered in our empirical research and our results show that the frame rate and bitrate have increased with different resolutions, and the usage of NVIDIA CUDA enhanced GPU.

The video game industry in Sweden has experienced tremendous growth since 2009 with its revenue generation being compared to iron ore, an important revenue generator for the country. The ability of these firms to record recurrent increases in revenue is due to the innovativeness of the industry. External sources of knowledge affect firms’ innovative performance. However, the complexity of the knowledge acquired is influenced by the strength of ties between the firm and its counterparts. This study investigates how Swedish video game firms develop new products to stay competitive through their relationship with their strong ties counterparts, level of cooperation and firms’ absorptive capacity. We model strong ties relationship with latent constructs including closeness, commitment and trust. A nationally representative survey was conducted among selected video game firms across Sweden. Structural equation modelling was then utilized to assess the effect of strong ties on new product innovativeness. The results show that strong ties with external counterparts have a positive and statistically significant effect on new product innovation through the mediating channel of cooperation and absorptive capacity. Closeness, commitment and trust show a direct effect on cooperation, cooperation on absorptive capacity and absorptive capacity on new product innovativeness. The implications of these findings have been discussed.