As an entertainment media, video games provide pleasure and enjoyment through interactions with various game elements. Some games are more successful in one part of the world than others, which sales data have clearly shown over the years. Games designed in various parts of the world often have distinct differences, as developers implicitly or subconsciously convey their values and culture in their creations. Thus, in examining ?what is fun,? one must move beyond technical aspects of game design and look into immersion and emotional experiences. <br /><br /> In this paper, sales data for 2004 were first examined, followed by a case study to investigate any differences between Japan and the US, where major game console manufacturers and game developers reside. Although they indicated differences in popularity of genres and design approaches, results from the survey were not able to verify conclusively major statistical difference between the two groups of respondents. <br /><br /> The survey was constructed with a focus on narrative and game-play elements, in hopes to get a better understanding of players? preferences through the concept of immersion, which were anticipated to be influenced by cultural differences. Although no major differences were found, given the small sample population, it could be seen that there was a greater sense of character attachment from Japanese respondents, while American respondents did not like to be forced away from their actions by ?long? narrative elements.

Who are we? Why do we do the things we do? These questions are constantly under scrutiny, forever unable to provide us with adequate answers, it seems. Yet, with the continuing rise in popularity of digital media, we are able to situate these questions in a different sphere and see aspects of the self that we were unable to perceive before. Digital media forms have provided us with the capacity to explore whole new worlds, as well as allowing for new and innovative methods of communication. These changes make a huge impact on the daily lives of individuals. This thesis presents a theoretical contribution to both psychoanalytic thinking and to the rapidly expanding field of games studies, with especial reference to avatar-based games. It considers the status of the bond formed between the individual at play (known here as the ‘user’) and the game itself. Furthermore, it presents this as a model which identifies the user’s relation to the game dynamic through an understanding of the key components of a video game, including aspects such as the control mechanism. Elements which cross the boundary between the user/game realities are also considered with relation to hyperreality, thus forming a more complete imagining of this framework. This also allows for an application of this dynamic to what we define as violent (and associated) acts within games. In turn, this allows for a more complete understanding of the game situation, and can be applied to our understanding of the user as well. This thesis provides a standalone framework which can also be utilised in other types of investigation in future.

The tremendous growth in the serious games market presents the opportunity to help people learn through playing games. Defying Disaster is a 2D side scroller serious game designed to teach people how to prepare for and handle an earthquake. Players do a series of mini games that provide earthquake survival tips while interacting with a larger world after an earthquake disaster. An evaluation with thirty people compared learning disaster knowledge through reading materials versus playing games. The results show people learn better through playing Defying Disaster than reading materials.

University of Macau / Faculty of Social Sciences. / Department of Communication

The video game industry is a global multibillion dollar industry with millions of players. The process of developing video games is essential for the continued growth of the industry, and developers need to employ effective strategies that will help them to create successful games. The purpose of this explorative qualitative single case study was to investigate the design strategies of video game developers who have successfully created video games that are challenging, entertaining, and successful. The technology acceptance model served as a conceptual framework. The entire population for this study was members of a video game development team from a small successful video game development company in North Carolina. The data collection process included interviews with 7 video game developers and analysis of 7 organizational documents. Member checking was used to increase the validity of the findings from the participants. Through the use of triangulation, 4 major themes were identified in the study: the video game designer has a significant impact on the development process, the development process for successful video games follows iterative agile programming methods, programming to challenge cognition is not a target goal for developers, and receiving feedback is essential to the process. The findings in this study may benefit future video game developers and organizations to develop strategies for developing successful games that entertain and challenge players while ensuring the viability of the organization. Findings may influence society as they demonstrate where the points of interest should be directed concerning the impact of video games upon behavior of the players.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2006. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

This essay will explore the salient performance characteristics of three selected works for solo trombone by major composers of popular media. The works selected for this study are Colloquy for Solo Trombone and Symphonic Band by William Goldstein, Concerto for Trombone in C Major by Nino Rota, and Arrows of Time by Richard Peaslee. These composers have written extensively for television, motion pictures, theater, and dance. In addition to their significant popular media repertoire, these three composers have made a significant contribution to the solo trombonist's repertoire. Although these works have been performed, recorded, produced, and reviewed, they have not been studied together as a group, nor have they been established in the general repertoire for solo trombone.

ABSTRACT Title: Violence and women representation in video games (Vålds‐ och kvinnoskildringar i TV‐spel) Number of pages: 42 Author: Karolin Bodling Tutor: Göran Svensson Course: Media and Communication Studies D Period: Autumn 2005 University: Division of Media and Communication, Department of Information Science, Uppsala University. Purpose/Aim: The aim is to investigate how violence and women are presented in video games and in game reviews. Material/Method: The study includes theories that consider violence and gender in media and video games. The material of the essay exists of two games and five reviews. The method that is being used is a content analysis. The games that are being analysed are Jade Empire and Grand Theft Auto – San Andreas. Main results: The video games are often connected to brutal violence but the analysis of the game Jade Empire shows that it is possible to hve control of the violence in the games and that the player has a possibility to choose the outcome of violence. In comparence to Jade Empire, Grand Theft Auto – San Andreas shows brutal violence as entertainment. The games that have been analysed shows women as stereotyped objects. The development of women in games has been going forward but the question is wheter it´s going forward in the right way; from an innocent princess to a sex object. There is a big difference between how the violence and women are being showed in the games and how they are described in the rviews, the reviewer is often neutral in his or hers judgement of the violence and the female characters in the games. Keywords: video games, gender, violence, media, gender roles

This article focuses on digital role-playing games produced by BioWare in which the decisions made by players can have a profound impact on the narrative of each game. My approach relies heavily upon the dissection of examples from Dragon Age: Origins, Mass Effect, and Mass Effect 2 as I found that scholarship about video games focused heavily on theory rather than analysis of in-game content, at least compared to the size and popularity of the genre. I work with key concepts such as narrative, simulation, and sideshadowing in order to analyse the dialogue options and scenarios presented to the player in these games. I claim that we can compare decision-making in real life and decision-making in role-playing games in order to examine the emotions and thoughts that go into the decision-making process. I task myself with discussing the implications of choosing ones own narrative and analysing the mechanics of these games that urge players to make morality-based choices. I consider the ideas of Gary Saul Morson and Mikhail Bahktin as a way of using literary theory to deconstruct the complexities of navigating through these unique game worlds. My aim is to show that the multi-linear structures of modern, digital role-playing games represent simulators through which players can explore their own decision-making processes. BioWare constructs emotional and intellectual decision-making opportunities that entice players to consider their own morality in the face of life or death decisions. I argue that these role-playing games urge us to consider the ways we make decisions in our everyday lives and allow us to simulate how we might act given the chance to play hero or villain.

Game reviews play an important role in both the culture and business of games the words of a reviewer can have an influential effect on the commercial success of a video game. While reviews are currently used by game developers to aid in important decisions such as project financing and employee bonuses, the effect of game reviews on players is not known. Additionally, the use of game reviews to improve evaluation techniques has received little attention. In this thesis we investigate the effect of game reviews on player experience and perceptions of quality. We show that negative reviews cause a significant effect on how players perceive their in-game experience, and that this effect is a post-play cognitive rationalization of the play experience with the previously-read review text. To address this effect we designed and deployed a new heuristic evaluation technique that specifically uses game reviews to create a fine-grained prioritized list of usability problems based on the frequency, impact, and persistence of each problem. By using our technique we are able to address the most common usability problems identified by game reviews, thus reducing the overall level of negativity found within the review text. Our approach helps to control and eliminate the snowballing effect that can be produced by players reading reviews and subsequently posting their own reviews, and thus improve the commercial success of a game.