Gaming

This article explores the emergence and significance of printed game boards in Rome at the turn of the seventeenth century. These objects constitute an important and overlooked visual and material aspect of a pervasive culture of gaming that engrossed a huge range of the populace: both the rich and the poor, men and women, the educated and the illiterate. Printed game boards not only served to entertain, but also mirrored and reified deeper social and moral concerns about gambling and leisure, a tension between the prescribed morality of the legal sanctions, decrees, and censures associated with the Counter-Reformation, and the everyday games common both in courtly leisure and play on the street and in the tavern. Visually manifesting a dual understanding of games as both ludic and mimetic, printed game boards enacted the ontology of life’s journey for early modern players, from the courtly, to the religious, to the quotidian.

With the rise of female games, marketers wish to establish if their spending budget on in-game advertising is an efficient scheme of reaching the target audience. The aim of the dissertation was to find out if there is an opportunity for marketers to tap into the rise of female gamer. This dissertation has evaluated the commercial value that is derived from placing product placement in video games among females. The introduction has defined product placement and given various strategies that are used to employ it. The literature review section has discussed available literature on in-game advertising, around-game advertising and adver-games. Fifteen female participants were used for the methodology part of obtaining data. They played three games and their memory on brand awareness was tested for each platform. Convenience sampling was used to obtain the sample: Since the study was interested with university ladies between the ages of eighteen and twenty-four years. The findings were given and conclusions given.

Over the past decade there has been a substantial revolution in the gaming industry. Add the word “motion”, and you are all set. This seems to be the age of motion gaming where you want to be part of the real action and not some bystander using the same old mouse pad, keypad or joystick to express your desires. The Wii console from Nintendo is the world’s largest motion games player. This is due to the fact that it was the first to jump the bandwagon of true to life motion gaming. This paper focuses on the Wii ,however for another reason. as a tool to implementing fitness training using the console’s capabilities.

As an emergent medium capable of telling complex stories, the video game gives us unique insight and challenges to established critical theory. This chapter will examine the ways ‘the gaze' is expressed and utilized in video games, particularly the “survival horror” genre. It will discuss some of the ways ‘the gaze' has been shaped by literary and filmic studies before turning to Outlast (2013) by Red Barrels Games as an example of the way the medium can rearticulate our understanding of watching and being watched. Through its player-driven diegesis, immersion and phenomenologically-situated avatar body, and an ability to stimulate emotional response through game mechanics, the video game gaze might be capable of engendering emotional sympathy rather than constructing hierarchical positions of mastery. With its narratives of state control and institutionalization, journalistic distance, and medical invasiveness, Outlast uses critical understandings of ‘the gaze' to ask q...

In the 1960s and 70s, videogames emerged as a new form of software technology which allowed people to experience innovative ways of playing games in a virtual context via a controller and a screen. Ever since, the gaming industry has grown exponentially and continues to attract new users and designers across the globe. Even though we are not going to go over the history of videogames or games in general. We will still explain some play and games concepts which we think to be relevant in the context of this research concerning videogames related advertisements and the gamer's body. Throughout this paper, I will use the term " gamer's body " to refer to any individual's body who's accustomed to playing videogames and the word " gameplay " to talk about the actual play experiences (the uses of the virtual gamer's body or the uses of the gamer's body in-game) which videogames are valued to be delivering especially in ads. However, the readers must keep in mind that they are different degrees and reasons to why an individual might identify himself as a gamer and 'play or be invested in a specific videogame.' Each game has an impact on the overall industry especially if it has been experienced and reviewed positively by a significant number of gamers. Similarly, each gameplay experience as well as each gamer's experience derived from a videogame's gameplay via the gamer's body will influence their next choice when buying a newly released one. Basically, we will argue that the social significance of videogames lies within the use of the gamer's body which able us to experience other appearances, in designed virtual worlds full of challenges and roles, that would otherwise be physically impossible to undertake. As a result, it will able us to draw conclusions about what ideas surround the gamer's body as both socially significant in the virtual worlds of games and the real physical life body.

This presentation was designed for the EU's Joint Research Centre Knowledge for Growth (KfG) Unit. It provides an overview of recent foresight gaming projects undertaken by CPPFS and HRCFS in Hawaii, Singapore, Tonga, Macedonia, and Iceland.

The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is considering the adoption of e-sports (i.e., organised competitive video gaming), which could be considered a radical innovation as it deviates in many areas from traditional sports (e.g., online game play format, lack of high physical exertion, complicated intellectual property rights for each game, etc.). However, collaboration with firms familiar with the innovation (e.g., National Association of Collegiate eSports-NACE) might mitigate risks surrounding the radical innovation. Thus, the purpose of this paper was to investigate whether a potential association between the NCAA and NACE would be advantageous to both organisations. Through a deductive qualitative content analysis underpinned by Rogers's (2003) innovation characteristics (e.g., complexity, compatibility and relative advantage), several themes emerged: physical exertion, e-sports structure, amateurism, eligibility, compensation, profitability, and diversity and ...

A mobile gaming device may be a player's own personal tablet, smartphone, PDA, etc., with an application program installed via the internet for carrying out a remote gaming session. All gaming functions are carried out by a stationary gaming terminal communicating with the mobile device, such as by using WiFi. The mobile device operates as a user interface The games involve a plurality of players.

The study aims to reveal the need to propose a digital network where entrepreneurs can disseminate their skills achieved beyond formal and normative education. The general objective is to design a gamification platform based on entrepreneurial skills. For this, the specific objectives are proposing a Delphi study to 15 experts obtaining a list of priority competencies in the profiles of entrepreneurs, then the second specific objective is integrating the selected competencies within an interface based on the use of game elements, resulting in a platform that displays the 5 priority competencies, learning through experience, motivation, spotting opportunities, working with others and valuing ideas with 5 game elements respectively, experience points, feedback, leaderboards, progress bar and badges. From the results obtained, it can be concluded that the model implemented will serve as a first precedent for the display of competencies, thus providing an alternative traceability to the...

The average Hardcore ΜΜORPG Gamer (HCG) has an equally strong feeling of two realities, that is, the in-game reality and the out-of-game reality, albeit with more effective expression of cognitive and social skills as well as with better emotional functionality when being in-game. Recent research findings about the out-of-game environment demonstrate low quality of social and I-thou relationships. Most research focuses on the psychopathological characteristics of HCGs, while their positive personality traits are rarely described. In this analytical framework, we set out to examine the main differences between the in-game and the out-of-game profile of the HCG, as well as the general HCG profile's relation to the profile of the non-Gamer (NG), focusing on the positive personality traits. The present work is in progress and further analysis is undergoing.

This article explores the world-building activities of players of the tabletop game Blood Bowl—a game that parodies American Football within a fantasy setting. It utilizes a ritual framework to focus on players’ activities relating to the considerable amount of luck inherent to the game. Based on fieldwork and survey data, it interprets players’ rituals and other actions as an effort to enact a particular social space, a “magic circle,” where enjoyable risk-taking and “edgework” take place. This social space is then analyzed within the Mary Douglas-derived theory of sociocultural viability (cultural theory). Using the theory’s typology, Blood Bowl tournaments can be characterized as individualist–hierarchy hybrid institutions. The article contributes by offering cultural theory as a tool for analyzing and comparing risk-taking behavior in diverse social contexts. The worlds built through Blood Bowl play are both analyzable and comparable with those integral to other social institutions, with cultural theory’s social solidarities ubiquitous. The article thus innovates by linking literatures on leisure and gaming with broader social theory.

Problematic gaming has become an emerging global health issue. Formal recognition of gaming disorder in the ICD-11 is a new opportunity for the discipline to conduct further investigation concerning the psychological consequences of problematic gaming. The present study investigated the psychometric properties and construct structure of the recently developed Gaming Disorder for Scale for Adolescents (GADIS-A) among Russian adolescent gamers, a multi-dimensional instrument that screens gaming disorder symptoms. The sample comprised 933 adolescent gamers (547 boys and 386 girls) recruited via a web-based platform, using a multistage sampling method. Analysis showed the GADIS-A had very good internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha coefficient= .891; Composite reliability= .89) and adequate testretest reliability after two weeks (intraclass coefficient, 68 with 95% CI [0.61, 0.77]. Exploratory structural equation modeling (ESEM) showed the data fitted well. Measurement invariance te...

In the 2000s, governments in the UK, particularly in England, developed a system of governance of public services that combined targets with an element of terror. This has obvious parallels with the Soviet regime, which was initially successful but then collapsed. Assumptions underlying governance by targets represent synecdoche (taking a part to stand for a whole); and that problems of measurement and gaming do not matter. We examine the robustness of the regime of targets and terror to these assumptions using evidence from the English public health service on reported successes , problems of measurement, and gaming. Given this account, we consider the adequacy of current audit arrangements and ways of developing governance by targets in order to counter the problems we have identifi ed. MANAGING PUBLIC SERVICES BY TARGETS: AND TERROR? In the mid-eighteenth century, Voltaire (in Candide) famously satirized the British style of naval administration with his quip ' ici on tue de temps en temps un amiral pour encourager les autres '. In the early twentieth century, the USSR ' s communist czars combined that hanging-the-admirals approach with a system of production targets for all state enterprises. The basic system survived for some 60 years, albeit with various detailed changes over time, before the Soviet system fi nally collapsed in 1991 (Ericson 1991)-a decline that has been attributed by some to not hanging enough admirals to counter gaming produced by the target system.

English:

The article tries to analyze gamers as a social group in Poland. That group has been stigmatized and partly excluded, which led to it's withdrawal to privacy and lack of presence in public. Author attempts to analyze the change in perception of gamers in public, and ponders the circumstances that led gamer scene to shift from hobbists to partly professionals. He analyses the profit possibilities that emerged in MMOs and e-sports with the expansion of Internet. That leads him to conclussion that e-sports are becoming professional sports now, that allows gamers to fully fulfill themselves and their goals in public space.

Polish:

Przedmiotem refleksji artykułu jest grupa graczy komputerowych. Byli oni w Polsce przez długi czas stygmatyzowani i częściowo wykluczeni. To prowadziło do wycofania z przestrzeni publicznej i zamknięcia w kreowanych prywatnie enklawach. Autor stara się przeanalizować zmianę jej postrzegania i towarzyszące temu okoliczności. W swoich rozważaniach skupia się na zjawisku profesjonalizacji świata gier. Rozważa możliwości zarobkowe i zmiany statusu społecznego, jakie w dwóch rodzajach gier sieciowych: MMO i e-sport otwarło rozpowszechnienie Internetu i rozwój popkultury. To prowadzi go do konkluzji, że e-sport zaczyna przypominać profesjonalny sport, co z kolei umożliwia emancypację graczom komputerowym i pełną realizację swoich celów w przestrzeni publicznej.

Cloud gaming is an umbrella term used to describe a form of online game distribution. Cloud gaming or gaming on demand, is a type of online gaming that allows direct and on-demand video streaming of games onto computers, consoles and mobile devices, similar to video on demand (e.g. Netflix), through the use of a thin client. The actual game service is stored, executed, and rendered on the remote cloud operator's or game company's (using the cloud network) server and the video results are streamed directly to a consumer's (i.e. gamer) computers over the internet. This allows access to games without the need of a console and largely makes the capability of the user's computer unimportant, as the cloud providers server (e.g. IBM Softlayer) is the system that is running the processing needs. Hence, the controls and button presses from the user are transmitted directly to the gaming server, where they are recorded, and the server then sends back the game's response to the input controls

Storia, basi scientifiche, ricerche e psicologia della gamification, utilizzata con successo per sviluppare competenze come pensiero critico e creativo, pensiero computazionale, capacità di collaborazione.
"In tutto ciò che devi far, il lato bello puoi trovar. Lo troverai e Hop! Il gioco vien! L'immortale Mary Poppins ci ricorda, nello straordinario film omonimo, che in ogni lavoro che si fa c'è sempre un elemento di divertimento. E questa è una delle chiavi fondamentali della gamification, o più in generale del gaming, che sta diventando sempre più uno strumento di lavoro in azienda per risolvere complessi problemi di business in maniera semplice, immediata e coinvolgente. Ma in realtà cos'è la gamification e quando è nata? È veramente di aiuto nella risoluzione dei problemi? Indice degli argomenti Cosa si intende per gamification, le origini È difficile dare una definizione univoca sul termine e tanto più identificare una data precisa della sua nascita in ambito aziendale. Ritengo che la definizione che meglio esprima l'essenza del significato sia la seguente: la gamification è l'applicazione di elementi di gioco e tecniche di progettazione di giochi digitali a non-game problems, come per esempio le sfide aziendali o le metodologie educative in ambito scolastico. La gamification, pertanto, è un nuovo campo che si sta affermando sempre più in ambito aziendale (e non solo). In realtà, il gioco come strumento per dare senso al mondo che ci circonda viene utilizzato sin dall'antichità.

Esports has generated an industry of increasing economic and cultural importance. In recent years, universities and other higher education institutions have responded to its growth by establishing programmes of study which aim to satisfy the needs of innovators operating in the area. However, there is not yet consensus on what an esports curriculum should include. Despite being a technology-driven sector with ethical and professional dimensions that intersect computing, current ACM and IEEE curricula do not mention esports. Furthermore, existing courses tend to provide teaching and training on a wide variety of topics aside from those traditionally in computer science. These include: live events management; psychological research; sports science; marketing; public relations; video (livestream) production; and community management; in addition to coaching and communication. This working group examined the requirements for developing esports studies at universities with a focus on und...

Existing theory posits that ease of use is a fundamental driver in marketing related technology, such as computer games, of usage and purchase by users. However, there is no empirical evidence to support this proposition. Therefore, this research models the relationship between the user's game purchase and usage behavior and ease of use. In, 2009, 493 users in New Zealand responded face-to-face to complete a structured questionnaire. The analysis tested the conceptual model with confirmatory factors analysis (CFA) and structural equation modeling (SEM). The modeling tested game usage and purchase across four competing model types: (1) the original model (all games) and alternative models: (2) Sports/Simulation/ Driving, (3) Role Playing Game (RPG)/Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (MMORPG)/Strat-egy and (4) Action/Adventure/Fighting. We investigated the impact of ease of use on game usage and purchase behavior, both individually and simultaneously. In our confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling, all of our models had adequate model fit with the exception of the original model. Our path coefficients indicate that ease of use of a game does not impact usage and/or purchase behavior. Research implications are discussed.

This study asks: what counts as writing in a Web 2.0 environment? How do the vocabularies, functionalities, and organizing structures of Web 2.0 environments impact our understanding of what writing is in these spaces and how that writing is performed? Results suggest that we, as scholars and teachers, need to pay more attention to, first, the interactivity that is embedded in and afforded by Web 2.0 applications and, second, the processes that are invisible to the composer. Successful compositional engagement with Web 2.0 applications requires an evolving interactive set of practices similar to those practiced by gamers, comics, and electronic literature authors and readers. What we learn about these practices has the potential to transform the way we understand writing and the teaching of writing within and outside of a Web 2.0 ecosystem.

This paper focuses on the portrayal of gender in the story of “Magic: The Gathering” card game. Recently, growing focus on the story itself has been accompanied by a notable shift in the way characters of different genders have been represented. Using particular cases from Magic's recent story blocks, the aim of this paper is to pinpoint and evaluate the trends in this development, both quantitative (in terms of female/male/non-binary ratio of characters appearing in the story) and qualitative (the roles these characters take on). Roles of characters belonging to sexual orientation minorities are also discussed.

This article presents the category of emersion in videogames. The author of this article understands emersion as an experience of such elements of a game that weaken the impression of non-mediated participation in events presented in the game (some researchers call this impression "immersion"). Emersive elements of the game reveal the mediated character of the action the player takes part in. Emersion may have varied status: it may be incidental (e.g. when it is a result of an unforeseen glitch), repeatable (e.g. as a result of a mechanism typical for a specific genre) or designed.
The last case seems to be the most interesting one, because designed emerisve elements may provide meaningful or artistic results. Designed emersive factors bring new possibilities of creation, which are not achievable through the non-digital and non-interactive forms of expression.

We are surrounded these days by endless digital online content that interprets historical and/or archaeological materials for the general public. From 3D immersive historical recreations , to photogrammetry models of excavation blocks, to augmented geospatial models of entire past landscapes, the resolution and amount of this content is increasing more rapidly than the ripeness of a banana in a brown paper bag. With this vastly increasing quantity of material, one might expect that we have a good handle on the objectives for creating it. Most online digital historical or archaeological content however, seems to follow a model of interpreting the specific context of a location, a time, or event, as if the end-user is visiting a historic site or seeing a visual landscape. In many ways, this material seems to represent only the objectives of the archaeologists or historians involved, and is not part of a larger preservation plan. Being able to digitally recreate , or interpret, the past in new and exciting ways is obviously a good thing. But how do we incorporate larger educational objectives? What do we want the public to learn from their experience? How do we ensure that they retain that knowledge? Preservation of historical or archaeological heritage means passing knowledge, not just materials or online content, onto future generations. At Sonoma State, we are beginning to grapple with ideas on how to bridge this gap, and move from online content as supplemental material to interpret a location, or site, to using it as one tool for larger educational goals and engagement with future generations.

Loot boxes (LBs) are video game-related purchases with a chance-based outcome. Due to similarities with gambling, they have come under increasing scrutiny from media, academics and policymakers alike. Initial evidence suggested that LB engagement might be associated with both problem gambling (PG) and problem video gaming (PVG). We therefore conducted a systematic review of the evidence for associations between LB purchasing, PG and PVG. For LB/PG, 12 of 13 publications reported a positive relationship, with a moderately sized mean effect of r = .27. For LB/PVG, the mean effect was r = .40, although this finding was drawn from only six surveys in total. For PG/PVG, the mean effect was r = .21, with only 11 of 20 studies reporting significant effects. While further evidence is required to determine the direction of causality, the strength of relationships suggests that policy action on LBs may have benefits for harm minimisation. Key words: Addiction, impulsivity, loot boxes, mental health, microtransactions, nudges, problem gambling, problem video gaming, systematic review, wellbeing

Esports has generated an industry of increasing economic and cultural importance. In recent years, universities and other higher education institutions have responded to its growth by establishing programmes of study which aim to satisfy the needs of innovators operating in the area. However, there is not yet consensus on what an esports curriculum should include. Despite being a technology-driven sector with ethical and professional dimensions that intersect computing, current ACM and IEEE curricula do not mention esports. Furthermore, existing courses tend to provide teaching and training on a wide variety of topics aside from those traditionally in computer science. These include: live events management; psychological research; sports science; marketing; public relations; video (livestream) production; and community management; in addition to coaching and communication. This working group examined the requirements for developing esports studies at universities with a focus on und...

Individuals tend to compare themselves with others, and the results of these self-evaluations influence subsequent performance. When individuals perceive an advantage over their rivals (challenge-type response), they achieve higher levels of performance. According to the biopsychosocial model of challenge and threat, benefits of favourable appraisals are partly mediated by cardiovascular efficiency, which is increased by challenge and decreased by threat evaluations. In this study, we tested whether the biopsychosocial model can be extended to predict behavioural outcomes in esports. We expected that challenge-type evaluations would increase performance compared to threat-type evaluations. Eighty-two men were assigned to a challenge or threat group and completed three rounds of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive-a video game popular in esports. Individuals with the highest scores were awarded cash prizes. Cardiovascular markers of challenge and threat, cognitive appraisals, and game scores were recorded. We manipulated the social challenge and social threat evaluation by informing participants that their performance in the initial round was superior (challenge) or inferior (threat) compared with other gamers. We found that individuals with more gaming experience, believed they were better than other gamers, had higher heart rate and, in turn, achieved higher scores. These effects were related to initial situational appraisal at the baseline and were not boosted by feedback provided during the actual performance. These results are the first to document that social comparisons among gamers are accurate in the prediction of future physiological and behavioural outcomes. Furthermore, these findings emphasize that physiological responses mediate relationships between action-related cognitions and performance.

Les figures de Geeks ou No Life s’invitent quotidiennement dans les médias, à l’école ou dans les échanges familiaux. En passe de devenir le premier loisir domestique à travers le monde, le jeu vidéo marque une rupture culturelle et générationnelle majeure. Dans ce kaléidoscope ludique, les jeux en ligne massivement multijoueurs font figure de symboles de cette vie en ligne émergente. Ils fascinent autant qu’ils inquiètent. Désocialisation, enfermement, addiction, sont quelques-unes des nombreuses critiques adressées à ces univers digitaux. Mais c’est leur méconnaissance qui est souvent la source de ces inquiétudes et fonde ces représentations angoissantes.
À contrario de ces imaginaires dominants, une immersion approfondie dans l’univers des gamers fait apparaître une plus grande complexité, voire une large part de lumière psycho- sociale au cœur des ombres vidéoludiques. Fondé sur une ethnographie de plusieurs années au sein d’une communauté de joueurs de World of Warcraft, ce livre entend déconstruire les préjugés en donnant accès à la complexité et la diversité des profils de joueurs individuels ou de collectifs de praticiens, les guildes, et de leurs contextes de jeu et de vie. Ainsi, à partir de ce terrain numérique, il réinterroge en profondeur des théories classiques en anthropologie.

Following the modern era, duel career couples (DCC) is increasing instant of traditional marriage with the evolution of woman empowerment in Bangladesh. So the study is to explore the work life balance of duel career couples to view the both side of leading career and life regarding the economic chances and condition of Bangladesh. This paper aimed to observe the impact of DCC in individual and marital life and workplace as well as identify the conflicted issues. Specific questionnaires according to hypothesis of the study were asked to adult couples with children leading duel career. The analysis of the field research was in a structured, numerical, percentage and tabulated way in the perspective of Bangladesh. The findings almost supported the hypothesis of the study which indicated the challenges of duel career couples which is rare but increasing with the hope of huge possibilities. All the objectives and hypothesis of the study proved the DCC analyzed data. The study showed the environment for DCC in Bangladesh, 'although managing couples life and career together has huge opportunities, its conflicts make it challenging.' Besides, the study aimed to discuss about the situation of duel career couples in Bangladesh, their possibilities and their impact on life, career, society, culture and economy.

In this chapter, I present an analysis of a group of boys in upper secondary school who are poor readers in Norwegian as their first language (L1), but good readers in English as the second language (L2); a highly unusual combination. These students present a challenge to reading research as well as reading instruction, since the analysis indicates that these boys clearly separate between in-and out-of-school uses of English. Based on this study, I argue that, since the students do not seem to transfer their English reading skills from one context to another, teachers need to make this connection for them. As argued in this chapter, the students can profit from instruction that to a greater extent draws upon their interests and engagement, particularly their daily use of English in online gaming activities.