This study examines the players experience, environments and objects in the videogame World of Warcraft. The purpose of this study is to get more knowledge about the players experience in the game with the focus on factors contributing to some form of immersion or/and presence. The data for this study were gathered using interviews as method and then analyzed with relevant literature in the chosen field. A game content analysis and a group of questions are tested with the results of the study which is presented at the end in with an analytic discussion. .

The Squares Family is a game developed as a learning aid in mathematics. With its graphical representation of the decimal system, the four basic arithmetic operations and positive and negative numbers together with a learning agent as pedagogical approach, the game?s primary purpose is to motivate students in their learning of mathematics. Although the game is strictly based on mathematical rules it attempts to encourage students to play and work with math without experiencing it as mathematics as this is initially not obvious. The game being internationally tested on normal performing students, this project introduced the game to six Swedish students who experience low motivation for and/or difficulties in mathematics.

The objective of this thesis is to examine the capital structure of Swedish small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs). Accounting data from Swedish game developers, combined with the result from a survey, is used to examine their financial conditions and capital structure decisions. We find that non-debt tax shield, firm size, growth opportunities and age are, to various extents, the determinants of capital structure in the game industry, while effective tax rate and asset structure have marginal effects. Our study also implicates that most of the existing capital structure theories can explain SMEs leverage decisions to some extent; however, some adaptation is needed to fit these theories into the SME context. Additionally, we find the existence of a financial gap in the game industry which might need efforts from both demand side and supply side to eliminate..

This essay examines how humor is used in the making of stereotypes in the Kronlöf sister?s video SÅ JÄVLA PK! In addition I give my analysis of how power and resistance is shown in the video. Through Michel Foucault?s conception power and resistance together with Judith Butler?s theories about performativity I?d like to show how the characters you can see in the video, in addition to the humor, also put themselves in a public context. I discuss my material in relation to a number of similar and current events that concern sexism and racism in Sweden.

This essay focuses on the construction of so called "computer game addiction" or "computer game abuse" in the Swedish press during 2000-2006. During this period computer game addiction went from an obscure phenomenon to a legit reason for the involuntary commitment of a fourteen-year-old.The study's theory is based on several social constructionist ideas. Kitsuse and Spector's theories about constructing social problems as claims-making activities are used for understanding the actions of the individual and groups involved. Hewitt and Hall's article about quasi-theory is used to explain the construction of explainations for the new social phenomenon. Blumer's five-stage model is used for categorizing the construction of the new social problem.

The aim of this studyhas been to capture preschool children's strategies, when they include and exclude each other in play. My aim was also to find out how children choose to integrate into an already existing game. My questions were: What strategies are used by the children at the preschool when they want to exclude or include each other? How to integrate the children when they want to be involved in an ongoing game and how they will be received during the time of play? My theoretical starting points are from Vygotsky's theory of proximal development zone, and Michel Foucault's perspective on power, and also research on the subject.The empirical study was conducted using the observations at two preschools. The children I observed were between four to five years old.The results show that children used different strategies, and when the strategy did not work so the child could switch to another.

Transmission of digital signals is today more frequently used than transmission of analog signals. One reason for this is that a digital signal is less sensitive to noise than an analog, another reason is that almost all signals today are handled in a digital format. This thesis describes the development of a system that receives digital video signals through FireWire. The standard for FireWire, which is a high performance serial bus, is under development. Today the standard of the bus supports transmission of data with a speed of up to 400 Mbit/s.

This qualitative study examines how users of boardgamegeek.com chooses which analogue game to buy. The purpose of the study is to find out which factors constitutes the choice of games and how the information of these factors reach the consumer. The investigation is executed by users of boardgamegeek.com explaining their latest game purchase in a questionnaire survey online. The results show that many of the respondents research the games they are interrested in beforehand and based on this information make their choice. Despite of this we can see that many game developers and distributors does not make this information available for the consumers, but leaves this task to the public..

This thesis is examining if the management, the managers and the employees have a differentpoint of view regarding the purpose and the expectations of a performance review. Additionally it is an assignment from the Swedish company Flexlink AB with the purpose of constructing a new template for their performance reviews. The assumption is that if you manage to create one template for performance reviews that meets the expectations at all levels of the organization, it will contribute to create a meaningful performance review.We decided to study this from an organizational cultural perspective, since the organizational culture plays a significant part in performance reviews. Performance reviews are systematic conversations between employees and managers related to planning, information exchange and developing the relationship. Previous research indicates that if employees are satisfied with their performance reviews, they prone to be more satisfied with their work situation and have a higher organizational commitment.

As the speed and complexity of computers have increased so have software and the expectations of users. Software development follows a straightforward evolution where complicated tasks are made easier by better tools; this repeats itself as those tasks in turn are automated.Software mechanics that were seen as revolutionary a decade ago are seen as obvious requirements that no multimedia application can be without.dotNet is the next step in line and makes it easier and faster to build software.This report focuses on the development of a multimedia platform developed in dotNet. It does this by developing the tools and framework from which a complete game can be built.A game is selected because it combines the most aspects of multimedia development, such as interaction, graphics, sound & music. The report goes further by describing why the game looks like it does as well as the mechanics of the game and the benefits of the dotNet platform..

My aim in this case study has been to create a method for creature design to test this method in a production and evaluate the results. To achieve this I studied and analyzed the methods of three concept artists and illustrators named James Gurney, Neville Page and Iain McCaig. From the analysis of these artist´s methods, combined with my own personal experience, a new method was formed. To test this method a creature was designed based on directives given by a game design group in the process of creating a table top role playing game in a fictitious world. These directives where given for the creature´s role and its living conditions.

In game development, performance is everything and the Playstation 3 provides a unique platform for utilizing parallelization of code to achieve extremely high performance. In this master?s thesis the issue of animation with smooth skinning is migrated from being a GPU process to becoming a parallelized and 358% faster process. This method is incorporated in an existing commercial game engine and integrated in a currently in development title for the Playstation 3. An in-depth study covers parallel processors, the CELL processor, used in the Playstation 3, and how contemporary industry leading game developers are utilizing the same unique architecture to increase their own games? performance..

The aim of this essay is to investigate the function and development of non-player characters (NPC) in the TV/computer game Dragon Age: Origins. The NPCs are analysed in order to see if their development is affected by the player character?s (PC) background and interactions. The game?s ethics is also investigated by studying how the NPCs treat the PC and what significance they give to his background and actions.The results show that the NPCs are affected by the PC?s interactions, and furthermore, that they are round characters, which is unusual in TV/computer games.

The aim of this thesis is to study how the recent introduction of video games in Swedish public libraries compares to past introductions of other medias, namely music records, sequential art, manga (Japanese comics), and films on video. In what ways does the introduction of video games differ from the other examples of introductions and in what ways are they alike? In what manner have the medias been introduced? How does the librarians views on video games differ from their views on other medias? The purpose of doing this is that by investigating how new medias have been evaluated in the past, we might gain an understanding of how the introduction of video games links into that tradition. Theoretically, this thesis is grounded in Sanna Talja?s theory of the interpretative repertoires of the music library.

Kunskapen om TV- och datorspelmissbruk bland ungdomar är idag väldigt begränsad. Stillasittande/fysisk inaktivitet, som TV- och datorspel ofta innebär och som kan innebära negativa konsekvenser, blir allt vanligare. En semistrukturerad intervjustudie har genomförts på sju män i åldersgruppen 17-29 år i syfte att undersöka drivkrafterna bakom mäns spelbeteende i tonåren. Dessutom har information om spelmissbruk bland ungdomar inhämtats av fyra yrkesverksamma inom spelområdet. Detta samt kopplingar mellan TV- och datorspel och spel om pengar har gjorts p g a bristen på forskning om TV- och datorspel.