Jogar é uma atividade inerente à experiência humana. Em razão disso, os jogos e o jogar, enquanto fenômenos culturais, são amplamente estudados pela psicologia e pela antropologia nos seus aspectos de linguagem e estrutura. Alguns desses estudos, no que tangem à performance, abordam os jogos enquanto rituais transformadores. Uma das modalidades de jogo que vai se enquadrar nesse contexto são os jogos narrativos de interpretação (RPG), que já tem sido aplicados à práticas educacionais mas ainda carece de mais olhares da psicologia. Os objetivos desse estudo são, justamente, entender como o RPG pode ser utilizado enquanto um instrumento de psicoterapia e qual o benefício desse procedimento. Partindo desse princípio, foram escolhidos para este estudo 6 casos de atendimentos em psicoterapia realizados pelo autor que se valeram do uso de jogos de interpretação como um instrumento de avaliação e elaboração. A seleção dos casos incluiu a presença de um processo de luto, seja por uma perda concreta ou simbólica, como variável. A escolha desse recorte se deu pela inerente experiência humana da perda e da consciência de término. Já a reflexão sobre o conteúdo, e sua relação com a performance e a psicologia, é feita sob a ótica da teoria linguística bakhtinana e as contribuições da antropologia. O que se encontra ao analisar os casos apresentados é potencial dos jogos narrativos em projetar conteúdo dos pacientes nos personagens criados ou nas histórias narradas durante o jogo. Isso se deve, muito provavelmente, pelo ato de fantasiar servir como uma comunicação do inconsciente. Mais ainda, também se observa o jogar como uma caminho de escuta de si mesmo e, consequentemente, uma porta para ressignificação. Também se encontra que o processo de luto é, em verdade, parte de uma narrativa sobre os afetos, não sobre as perdas. Para tanto, é necessária a escuta dessa narrativa. A partir disso, é discutido como não só os jogos de interpretação, mas também o processo psicoterapêutico é um ritual. Paciente e psicólogo, quando dispostos e conscientes desse ritual, estão a tecer juntos uma narrativa transformadora. Assim sendo, conclui-se que os jogos de interpretação podem ser instrumentos valiosos na construção de um enfrentamento do luto. É necessário que o psicólogo se permita uma sensibilidade e uma flexibilidade em buscar a estética na história que se conta e se escuta, de forma que também o paciente se permita dar novos lugares a velhos sofrimentos. A psicoterapia está longe de ser uma técnica encerrada em si mesmo e em seu campo do saber / Playing is an activity inherent in human experience. For this reason, games and play as cultural phenomena are widely studied by psychology and anthropology in their aspects of language or structure. Some of these studies, as far as performance is concerned, approach games as transforming rituals. One of the modalities of game that fit in this context are the narrative roleplaying games, which have already been applied to educational practices but still lack more looks of psychology. Objectives of this study are precisely to understand how the RPG can be used as an instrument of psychotherapy and what the benefit of this procedure. Based on this principle, 6 cases of psychotherapy by this author care were chosen for this study, using the use of interpretation games as an evaluation and elaboration tool. The selection of cases included the presence of a grieving process, either by a concrete or symbolic loss, as variable. That choice was by the inherent human experience of loss and consciousness of termination. Reflections on content, and its relation to performance and psychology, was maded from the perspective of Bakhtin\'s linguistic theory and the contributions of anthropology. What is in analyzing the cases presented is the potential of roleplaying games in projects patient content in the characters created or stories narrated during the game. This is most probably due to the fantasy serving as a communication of the unconscious. Moreover, it also observes play as a way of listening to oneself and, consequently, a door for resignifying. It founds that the process of mourning is actually part of a narrative about affections, not about its losses. So being it is necessary to listen to this narrative. From this point it is discussed as not only the roleplaying games, but also the psychotherapeutic process is ritual. Patient and psychologist when willing and aware of this ritual are weaving together a transformative narrative. Thus, it is concluded that the role-playing games can be valuable tools in construction of a work of mourning. It is necessary for the psychologist to allow himself a sensitivity and a flexibility in seeking the aesthetics in the story that is told and is listened, so as that the patient also allows himself to give new places to old sufferings. Psychotherapy is far from being a closed technique in yourself and in your field of knowledge

Interventions for children and their families have traditionally stemmed from two interrelated frameworks: play-based child therapies, and family therapies (Gil, 2015). Integrated family play therapy frameworks aim to capitalize on the strengths of both approaches by combining meaningful engagement of children through play, and systems-level insights into patterns of family functioning and interaction (Gil, 2015). A virtually unexplored avenue for play-based therapeutic applications of role-play that may lend themselves to an integrated family play therapy framework are tabletop role-playing games (TRPGs); cooperative and narrative-based games wherein players adopt the role of fictional characters as they navigate a fantasy setting arbitrated by a game master. Case studies on the use of TRPGs with children and young adults have yielded initial evidence of their potential therapeutic utility (e.g., Blackmon, 1994; Enfield, 2007; Rosselet & Stauffer, 2013), however, research on their application is limited, particularly with families. The current study pilot tested an original TRPG module (“The Family Tabletop Adventure”) for use with families to establish the module’s potential therapeutic utility and identify targets for further refinement. A sample of three family groups (N = 11) were recruited to participate in six weekly online sessions (a 1-hour introductory session, four 1.5- to 2-hour game sessions, and a 1-hour exit interview). A variety of mixed-method measures were used to assess family functioning at baseline and post-game, including observational coding, self-report, and qualitative group interviews. Exploratory analyses of the findings indicated the module’s feasibility of implementation and ease of use, low iatrogenic risk, perceptions by families as fun and engaging, and potential utility across a range of family processes relevant to therapeutic contexts, including communication and problem solving, positive interactions and relationship building, and the generation of novel insights about family members. Family feedback was used to identify several targets for additional refinement of the game module to improve families’ comprehension and engagement with the game. The implications of these findings and their relevance to the use of TRPGs in family intervention contexts are discussed. / Graduate / 2023-08-26

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Miami University, Dept. of Psychology, 2006. / Title from second page of PDF document. Includes bibliographical references (p. 269-277).

Der vorliegende Beitrag hat das Ziel, an bestehende Beiträge aus der Erholungsforschung anzuknüpfen und mittels einer qualitativen Interviewstudie zu eruieren, welchen Beitrag das Genre der MMORPGs für die Erholungsforschung liefern kann.

In 2018, the Swedish Parliament decided to make the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child acivil law, which will be implemented in the year 2020. The consequences of the decision are notunproblematic. The public debate, as well as research, shows that parents have a problem seeing howtheir style of parenting could correlate with the Convention’s legal text. The parents expresshopelessness towards the notion of child upbringing.This thesis is an exploratory pilot study aiming to prepare and generate new knowledge for a projectcommissioned by Save the Children with the goal to develop a game to decrease the knowledge gapbetween parents and children regarding what the Convention means for their relationship. The thesisalso asks the question: how can a game, played by parents and children meant to teach them about softvalues in accordance with the Convention look like.Beyond traditional qualitative research methods, this thesis used Research through Design anddeveloped a presumptive prototype for the project in order to explore the research subject. Findingsshowed that the games narrative and the power to change the narrative through player choices play anessential part in the participant’s ability to immerse in the game, and that this interactive narrative isclosely connected with the ability to learn. The thesis also shows designer directions to consider whendeveloping a game meant to teach the players about soft values.

Industries have expectations that university graduates possess well-rounded theoretical and practical knowledge to be successful in their jobs. While effective teaching and learning are essential goals in higher education institutions, lessons and learning activities in traditional classroom settings are often out of context, presented to students with much theoretical generality and abstract representations. This leads to a disconnection between academia and industry, where students struggle to apply abstract principles and knowledge in a real-world context to perform effectively in their workplace. Live role-play has been traditionally used as an educational technique to engage students and provide them the opportunity to learn with a real-world context within classroom settings. While role-playing in the classroom encourages transfer of learning, one of its limitation is traditional role-play often does not provide an authentic and believable real-world experience to participants. The primary aim of this study is to converge the pedagogical benefits of role-playing, educational technology and digital games to investigate the effectiveness of using digital role-playing games in classrooms to achieve learning outcomes. Qualitative data were collected from digital media lecturers of a transnational university based in Vietnam and Australia to identify desirable learning outcomes and describe teaching and learning challenges of digital media courses. Through interviews, lecturers also discussed their perceptions of digital RPGs and their level of acceptance in using this educational technology as part of their teaching practice to accomplish learning outcomes. The results highlighted three key desirable learning outcomes: The first learning outcome is students should develop solid understanding of theoretical and foundational design knowledge, enabling effective application of theoretical knowledge to produce creative digital media outputs. The second learning outcome - students should speak the "design language". Students should develop the ability to articulate, critique and explain creative works using appropriate design vocabularies and terminologies, which are used by design practitioners in the industry. The third learning outcome indicated that students should be resourceful and self-sufficient to conceptualise and generate creative ideas. Using Bloom’s taxonomy categories, game characteristics and identified learning outcomes, a conceptual framework was developed for the design and use of digital RPGs to achieve learning outcomes for digital media education. In validating this conceptual framework, a 3d digital role-playing game, Virtual Designer was developed and implemented in classroom environment. A pre/post-test experimental setup was implemented, in which performance gains were measured and compared between control (conventional learning methods) and treatment group (played digital RPG) to determine the learning effectiveness of digital RPGs. Opinion-based survey and focus group interview was also conducted. Based on collected feedback, students find Virtual Designer an effective tool to assess their state of knowledge in different areas of design and apply theoretical knowledge into practical contexts. Students find the game to be an engaging alternative to conventional learning methods, but some have commented the game to be too difficult and at times frustrating to play. Lecturers have also play-tested Virtual Designer and provided favorable views on the overall feasibility of using similar digital RPGs as a teaching and learning tool to sustain students’ interest in learning their subjects – and successfully accomplishing learning outcomes.

Submitted by Jean Medeiros (jeanletras@uepb.edu.br) on 2016-04-05T13:56:20Z No. of bitstreams: 1 PDF - Tafarel Fernandes Tavares de Melo.pdf: 782970 bytes, checksum: a6522e2c2a3797c1b79260ddd14866b4 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Secta BC (secta.csu.bc@uepb.edu.br) on 2016-07-22T20:18:30Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 PDF - Tafarel Fernandes Tavares de Melo.pdf: 782970 bytes, checksum: a6522e2c2a3797c1b79260ddd14866b4 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Secta BC (secta.csu.bc@uepb.edu.br) on 2016-07-22T20:18:39Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 PDF - Tafarel Fernandes Tavares de Melo.pdf: 782970 bytes, checksum: a6522e2c2a3797c1b79260ddd14866b4 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-07-22T20:18:39Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 PDF - Tafarel Fernandes Tavares de Melo.pdf: 782970 bytes, checksum: a6522e2c2a3797c1b79260ddd14866b4 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-12-11 / The official documents that are references to Science Education on Brazilian context (Lei de Diretrizes e Bases and the Parâmetros Curriculares Nacionais) encourage a broad and complex proceed teaching capable of stimulating dialogue between curriculum subjects, the social-historical context and pre-established knowledge in the natural networks of students, emphasizing the importance of exercise of uncertainty. As proposed the inclusion of this feature in the conduct of the Natural/Biological Sciences teaching-learning process, emerges from this context the study of Role Playing Game (RPG) lectured here, which aimed to reflect the relevance of the RPG as strategy to rethink the teaching practice in the Science Education. To this purpose, we sought to draw a theoretical walk that focuses on the importance of uncertainty in the educational dialogue, working possibilities about aspects such as inquietude, imagination and metaphor in the construction of knowledge process and reconstruct the emergence of the game, setting the aspect of multiple entries of RPG in the educational context. The construction and data processing/analysis happened through nondirective interviews with RPG’s masters and players audio/video recording, analyzed from thematic discourse analysis (BARDIN, 2011), observing the construction of arguments between shifts speech, worked from pragmadialetical analysis (PÊCHEUX, 2012). We highlight de construction of four categories that emerges of this analysis: 1) community on practice; 2) playfulness on practice; 3) creativity during practice; and 4) learning during practice. The results show the possibility of reflect the teaching practice from the game driving held by the RPG master, highlighting important aspects as the collective construction of the educational process, the mediating role of the teacher and the need for uncertainly in the process of teaching-learning. / A Lei de Diretrizes e Bases (1996) e os Parâmetros Curriculares Nacionais (1998; 2000), documentos oficiais que norteiam o Ensino de Ciências, incentivam um proceder didático amplo e complexo, capaz de estimular o diálogo entre as disciplinas curriculares, o contexto histórico-social e os conhecimentos pré-estabelecidos nas redes naturais dos estudantes, destacando-se a importância do exercício da incerteza. Como proposta à inserção desta característica na condução do processo de ensino-aprendizagem em Ciências Naturais/Biológicas, emerge deste contexto o estudo sobre Role Playing Game (RPG) aqui dissertado, no qual se objetivou refletir sobre a pertinência do RPG como estratégia para repensar a prática docente no Ensino de Ciências. Para tanto, buscou-se traçar um caminhar teórico que versa sobre a importância da incerteza no diálogo educacional, trabalhando possibilidades sobre aspectos como a inquietude, a imaginação e a metáfora no processo de construção de saberes e reconstruir a emergência do jogo, situando o aspecto fractalizado do RPG no contexto educacional. Paralelamente, a construção e tratamento dos dados aconteceu através da gravação em áudio/vídeo de entrevistas não diretivas com os participantes de pesquisa, mestres e jogadores de RPG, trabalhadas mediante análise temática do discurso (BARDIN 2011), observando-se a construção de argumentos entre turnos de fala, trabalhados a partir da análise pragmadialética (PÊCHEUX, 2012). Evidenciamos a construção de quatro categorias emergentes desta análise: 1) coletividade na prática; 2) ludicidade na prática; 3) criatividade durante a prática; e 4) aprendizagem durante a prática. Os resultados apontam que determinadas características pertinentes à prática do mestre de RPG na condução do jogo, entre as quais destacamos a construção coletiva do processo educacional, a função mediadora do processo, a pesquisa e a necessidade da incerteza durante a prática são parâmetros que podem ser considerados pelo professor de ciências durante o processo de ensinoaprendizagem.

This study analyzes the use of linguistic stereotypes in two fantasy role-playing games, Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt and Dragon Age: Origins with a focus on phonology. It investigates how accent stereotypes are used and why they are important for characters in video games, for example regarding prestige and attractiveness. It analyzes each character from a character type perspective: hero, villain, comic-relief, mentor and lover. The results show that there are accent stereotypes in fantasy role-playing games and that they are, most likely, deliberately placed as such. It also shows that standard variations of English are mainly used for characters that serves a purpose to the story while non-standard variations are used for characters that serves no purpose to the game other than working as tools to enrich the world with a sense of life.

This thesis examines the architecture and space simulated in massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs) and argues that the hand which guides the design of virtual architecture and space in these games originates from the same primogenitor of traditional mythology. The simulation of the game-world and the performance of in-game elements which include, avatars, player characters, non-player characters (NPCs), and artifacts, is regulated by the semantics of an in-game narrative that maintains a core structure of hierarchical spaces and traditional and modified architectural paradigms. Hierarchical spaces and architectural interventions are used to curate a mythologically derived model of personal transformation known as the ‘Hero Cycle’ that is based on hermeneutic principles whereby the identity of the collective is required to understand the identity of the individual. As a result, this cycle of personal transformation relies on the integration of the individual with the collective and is a revitalizing process within society. While it is believed that contemporary (computer) role-playing games (RPGs) are built on the shoulders of early pen and paper (PNP) role-playing games, both the early PNP and later RPGs are in fact founded on principles of ritual movement through space, developed by traditional mythology to enact Hero Cycles and by ritualized religious worship, to symbolically enact mythology. Role-playing games can bring forth the benefits of the experience of mythological progenitors of cultural narratives and religious theology. In-game, a narrative is presented to players as the face of the collective identity of the game-world and incorporates many traditional (and modified) iconographic and architectonic typologies that support the semantics of game-play and the theology that ties the game-mechanics to the narrative.

This thesis examines the architecture and space simulated in massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs) and argues that the hand which guides the design of virtual architecture and space in these games originates from the same primogenitor of traditional mythology. The simulation of the game-world and the performance of in-game elements which include, avatars, player characters, non-player characters (NPCs), and artifacts, is regulated by the semantics of an in-game narrative that maintains a core structure of hierarchical spaces and traditional and modified architectural paradigms. Hierarchical spaces and architectural interventions are used to curate a mythologically derived model of personal transformation known as the ‘Hero Cycle’ that is based on hermeneutic principles whereby the identity of the collective is required to understand the identity of the individual. As a result, this cycle of personal transformation relies on the integration of the individual with the collective and is a revitalizing process within society. While it is believed that contemporary (computer) role-playing games (RPGs) are built on the shoulders of early pen and paper (PNP) role-playing games, both the early PNP and later RPGs are in fact founded on principles of ritual movement through space, developed by traditional mythology to enact Hero Cycles and by ritualized religious worship, to symbolically enact mythology. Role-playing games can bring forth the benefits of the experience of mythological progenitors of cultural narratives and religious theology. In-game, a narrative is presented to players as the face of the collective identity of the game-world and incorporates many traditional (and modified) iconographic and architectonic typologies that support the semantics of game-play and the theology that ties the game-mechanics to the narrative.