Research conducted during the 1990s revealed that video games increasingly represent the medium through which children are first exposed to technology, that early gaming can enhance future technological literacy, and that girls tend to play video games less frequently than boys. These findings preceded efforts by feminist entrepreneurs, followed by established video game producers, to develop ‘girl games.’ Such ‘girl-centred,’ ‘girl-friendly,’ and girl-targeted video games now represent a lucrative branch of the contemporary video game industry. In this project, I utilized a multi-method approach to explore how ‘the ideal teen girl’ is re/constructed in three tween-airned ‘girl games.’ My discourse analysis of the ‘dominant’ messages in the games includes an examination of various available feminine subject positions, and how ‘race,’ class, and (hetero)sexuality are implicated in these positions. My analysis of semi-structured interviews that I conducted with eight tween girls provides insight into their everyday readings of the ‘girl games.’ Unlike earlier research that framed girls as passive recipients of ‘damaging’ messages included in gendered texts, my findings suggest that the girls in my study engaged in active and diverse readings of the interactive texts. The multiple ways in which the girls recognized, identified with, resisted, and/or reworked elements of the feminine subject positions demonstrated their management of such contradictory images of ideal girlhood. According to my analysis, while several girls engaged in sceptical readings, none of the girls ultimately rejected the video game messages, or linked them to the wider social order in which they are produced, and which they work to re/produce. My research also revealed that the girls’ identification of and with the subject positions was shaped and augmented by knowledge they had gained from previous exposure to associated transmediated representations (television, movies, music, and fashion products). My research suggests that while ‘the ideal teen girl’ re/constructed for tween garners reflects contemporary notions of girlhood, as she is active and capable, she reaffirms Western standards of hegemonic femininity. The rules of play, beauty ideals, behaviours, and priorities of consumption included in the games work to re/construct White, middle class, heterogendered ‘teen femininity’ as normal and ideal.

Today’s video game players sit in front of their screens immersing themselves within the fictional environment of the video game. They connect their physical self to the game-controller and their cerebral self to the game-world. The video game medium becomes a cybernetic and psychological appendage, a prosthesis that allows game players to share their consciousness across actual and virtual realities. Such an appendage has the ability to expand the personal spatial environment of the game players as they navigate the spaces of an increasingly complex, digitally constructed extension of the imagination. The thesis begins with an autobiographical summary of personal experiences in the suburbs and the resultant escape from suburbia that video games provide. The thesis then presents a series of experiential diaries generated from gameplay. This is followed by a conceptual analysis that uses six meditations to discuss the spaces and experiences presented in the diaries. The purpose of the conceptual analysis is to investigate how the narrative and spatial experiences of single player role playing video games expand our perceptions of architecture and space beyond the real-world. The spaces of these games represent a new way of thinking about, experiencing and creating architecture.

The aim of this research lies in the study of how Japanese console videos games have been re-territorialized into Taiwan in Taiwanese context. Since making its debut in 1970s, video game industry has developed into a multi-billion dollar business in which Japanese console and game developers have been the pioneers. Academic studies on video games, however, had been largely focusing on the physical and mental affection of video game playing, and it is until recent years that video game has begun to be analyzed as a cultural product. Looking to fill the research space of how video games have been consumed and received under different geographical and social contexts, this research examine show Taiwanese, the former colonial subjects of Japan, localize Japanese console video games through measures during the process of production, re-production, circulation, and consumption in the context of Taiwanese society. Attention has been particularly paid to Taipei City Mall, where gamer gatherings of a Japanese video game had been regularly held. Through intensive participatory observation on the gathering and in-depth case studies on a few selected personalities, the author will show how a Japanese cultural good is being re-territorialized under an alien social context. The thesis then argues a new paradigm, in which the individual desire is considered as equally important with other mediation factors, should be adopted in conceptualizing the migration of a cultural good. / published_or_final_version / Modern Languages and Cultures / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

Research conducted during the 1990s revealed that video games increasingly represent the medium through which children are first exposed to technology, that early gaming can enhance future technological literacy, and that girls tend to play video games less frequently than boys. These findings preceded efforts by feminist entrepreneurs, followed by established video game producers, to develop ‘girl games.’ Such ‘girl-centred,’ ‘girl-friendly,’ and girl-targeted video games now represent a lucrative branch of the contemporary video game industry. In this project, I utilized a multi-method approach to explore how ‘the ideal teen girl’ is re/constructed in three tween-airned ‘girl games.’ My discourse analysis of the ‘dominant’ messages in the games includes an examination of various available feminine subject positions, and how ‘race,’ class, and (hetero)sexuality are implicated in these positions. My analysis of semi-structured interviews that I conducted with eight tween girls provides insight into their everyday readings of the ‘girl games.’ Unlike earlier research that framed girls as passive recipients of ‘damaging’ messages included in gendered texts, my findings suggest that the girls in my study engaged in active and diverse readings of the interactive texts. The multiple ways in which the girls recognized, identified with, resisted, and/or reworked elements of the feminine subject positions demonstrated their management of such contradictory images of ideal girlhood. According to my analysis, while several girls engaged in sceptical readings, none of the girls ultimately rejected the video game messages, or linked them to the wider social order in which they are produced, and which they work to re/produce. My research also revealed that the girls’ identification of and with the subject positions was shaped and augmented by knowledge they had gained from previous exposure to associated transmediated representations (television, movies, music, and fashion products). My research suggests that while ‘the ideal teen girl’ re/constructed for tween garners reflects contemporary notions of girlhood, as she is active and capable, she reaffirms Western standards of hegemonic femininity. The rules of play, beauty ideals, behaviours, and priorities of consumption included in the games work to re/construct White, middle class, heterogendered ‘teen femininity’ as normal and ideal.

Traditional peripheral displays rely on drawing the user's attention and gaze through alerts. These displays function best when the central task does not require the user's constant attention. For tasks that require a user to always maintain focus, alert-based displays are not appropriate. We assert that conveying information to a user without drawing his gaze, allows the user to maintain constant focus on his primary task while still receiving additional information. In this thesis we use video games to examine streaming peripheral displays as a means of presenting information without drawing gaze. The results of our experiments showed no significant difference between user performance using our display encoded for peripheral viewing versus an unencoded display. Additionally, we found that players were successfully able to perceive information shown on a streaming peripheral display, however, as game difficulty increased the effectiveness of the streaming peripheral display decreased. Finally, we show that as game level increases, users adopt risk-tolerant strategies. Drawing from these results, we have suggested some additional heuristics pertaining to streaming peripheral displays. Moreover, we have suggested further situations where streaming peripheral displays may be useful. / Thesis (Master, Computing) -- Queen's University, 2009-01-28 10:41:41.602

This study aims to explore the influence of video games on youth identity in 21st century in two aspects, personal identity and social identity. First, through playing video games, young players can create new personal identities and merge their own identity with their avatars’ identity. Second, video games help young players transform from culture receivers to culture producers. Based upon the open coding from the data, two themes are analyzed, which are the awareness of influence on identity and the impact of consoles and other media/devices on the influence of video games. / Graduate / 0515 / 0710 / lxycaesar@gmail.com

In this study, we investigate various lighting applications in a virtual environment, where we compare between light based in naturalism (natural light) and pictorialism (artistic light). The purpose of this study is to gain further knowledge in lighting, which is increasingly important for game graphics. Theory are examined to gather information and recommendations on how to use various light settings that convey different emotions. We then use this information to illuminate the environment that we have built. The environment is presented in Unreal 4 for respondents who are allowed to move around freely in the environment. Then we carry out qualitative, semi-structured interviews at the respondents to find out what they thought of the light. The result showed that natural light did not give the same narrative effect as unnatural light.

It is suggested that commercial video games and gambling activities make use of similar types of intermittent reinforcement schedules. This research seeks to examine the nature of this relationship amongst children and adolescents. One hundred and four children from grades 4, 6, and 8 participated. A questionnaire exploring issues related to video game playing and gambling behavior was completed and a computerized blackjack game was individually administered. High frequency video game players are compared to low frequency video game players with respect to their gambling performance on the blackjack gambling task as well as on information gathered from the questionnaire. Findings suggest that high frequency video game players nor only gamble more than low frequency video game players but report that gambling makes them feel more important. Furthermore, they appear to be taking greater risks on the blackjack gambling task. Males exhibited greater risk-taking tendencies on the blackjack task than did females.

Today’s video game players sit in front of their screens immersing themselves within the fictional environment of the video game. They connect their physical self to the game-controller and their cerebral self to the game-world. The video game medium becomes a cybernetic and psychological appendage, a prosthesis that allows game players to share their consciousness across actual and virtual realities. Such an appendage has the ability to expand the personal spatial environment of the game players as they navigate the spaces of an increasingly complex, digitally constructed extension of the imagination. The thesis begins with an autobiographical summary of personal experiences in the suburbs and the resultant escape from suburbia that video games provide. The thesis then presents a series of experiential diaries generated from gameplay. This is followed by a conceptual analysis that uses six meditations to discuss the spaces and experiences presented in the diaries. The purpose of the conceptual analysis is to investigate how the narrative and spatial experiences of single player role playing video games expand our perceptions of architecture and space beyond the real-world. The spaces of these games represent a new way of thinking about, experiencing and creating architecture.

Thesis (M.A.) in Communication--University of Maine, 2007. / Includes vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 141-151).