Game Design by Numbers
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Asian Stereotypes in Games
ASIAN STEREOTYPES in VIDEO GAMES BY YICHEN SHOU STEREOTYPE ster·e·o·type noun a widely held but fixed and oversimplified image or idea of a particular type of person or thing. Major Asian Stereotypes 1. Charlie Chan: Emasculated, weak and obedient, characters of this “good” Asian-male stereotype are often non-threatening and exist only to foil the superiority of the protagonist. 2. Fu Manchu: Cunning, cruel and grotesque, this Asian-male stereotype embodies the fear of the “Yellow Peril” and is usually revealed to be the evil mastermind behind plots to destroy the West. 3. China Doll: Weak, submissive and hyper-sexualized, this “good” Asian-female stereotype often plays the role of romanic interests needing rescue and are easily replaced by non-Asian romantic interests. 4. KungFu Master: Despite being strong and capable, this character is often a desexualized sidekick whose martial arts expertise is only justified by their (usually Chinese) heritage. 5. Samurai/Ninja: A stereotype mainly reserved for the Japanese, these katana/ninja-star wielding characters are emotionless, fearless, fanatically loyal to their masters, and obsessed with the concept of honor. 6. Dragon Lady: The “evil” counterpart of the China Doll, these hyper-sexualized Asian-females are temptresses who use deception and sex appeal to further their evil plans. Gender Nature Characteristic Stereotype Character (Non-Playable) Character (Playable) Chen Lin Jin Jie Tong Si Hung Bo’ Rai Cho Bioshock: Innite Battleeld 4 Deus Ex: Human Revolution Mortal Kombat Cheng Lorck Raymond -
The Development and Validation of the Game User Experience Satisfaction Scale (Guess)
THE DEVELOPMENT AND VALIDATION OF THE GAME USER EXPERIENCE SATISFACTION SCALE (GUESS) A Dissertation by Mikki Hoang Phan Master of Arts, Wichita State University, 2012 Bachelor of Arts, Wichita State University, 2008 Submitted to the Department of Psychology and the faculty of the Graduate School of Wichita State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy May 2015 © Copyright 2015 by Mikki Phan All Rights Reserved THE DEVELOPMENT AND VALIDATION OF THE GAME USER EXPERIENCE SATISFACTION SCALE (GUESS) The following faculty members have examined the final copy of this dissertation for form and content, and recommend that it be accepted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy with a major in Psychology. _____________________________________ Barbara S. Chaparro, Committee Chair _____________________________________ Joseph Keebler, Committee Member _____________________________________ Jibo He, Committee Member _____________________________________ Darwin Dorr, Committee Member _____________________________________ Jodie Hertzog, Committee Member Accepted for the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences _____________________________________ Ronald Matson, Dean Accepted for the Graduate School _____________________________________ Abu S. Masud, Interim Dean iii DEDICATION To my parents for their love and support, and all that they have sacrificed so that my siblings and I can have a better future iv Video games open worlds. — Jon-Paul Dyson v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Althea Gibson once said, “No matter what accomplishments you make, somebody helped you.” Thus, completing this long and winding Ph.D. journey would not have been possible without a village of support and help. While words could not adequately sum up how thankful I am, I would like to start off by thanking my dissertation chair and advisor, Dr. -
A Discussion of Ecommerce: Innovation, Strategy & the Future of Digital Transactions
A Discussion of eCommerce: Innovation, Strategy & the Future of Digital Transactions 8 – 8:45 am: Registration, Coffee & Breakfast 8:45 – 9 am: D+P introduction to eCommerce M&A landscape Presented by: Reed Phillips, CEO & Managing Partner, DeSilva+Phillips 9 – 9:45 am: “Executing eCommerce” Panel and Q&A Andy Dunn, CEO, Bonobos Chris Fralic, Partner, First Round Capital Scott Kurnit, CEO, Keep Holdings, Founder, About, Inc. Shirley Romig, Head of Corporate Strategy, Hudson's Bay Co. Moderated by: Sheila Dharmarajan, Head of Business Development at Zelnick Media, Former on-air reporter at CNBC and Bloomberg TV 9:45 – 10:30 am: “Driving eCommerce” Panel and Q&A Russ D’Souza – Co-Founder, SeatGeek Daniel de Grandpre, CEO, DealNews Katy McCarthy, CEO, Geeknet & ThinkGeek Gautam Thakar, CEO, LivingSocial Moderated by: Jessica Naeve, Partner, DeSilva+Phillips Networking to Follow Andy Dunn Founder & CEO, Bonobos Andy Dunn is the founder and CEO of Bonobos Inc., the parent company of e- commerce-driven apparel brands Bonobos, AYR and Maide golf. Founded in 2007 with namesake menswear brand, Bonobos, Dunn has worked to define a new model for vertically integrated fashion retail in the e- commerce era, providing a bundle of high quality, great-fitting clothes and a hassle-free shopping experience across brands. He was named to Crain’s “40 under 40” list in 2013 and was listed as one of Fortune magazine’s “Rising Retail Stars” in 2012. Additionally, he founded Red Swan Ventures, an angel investment firm focused on building great consumer Internet companies, is on the board of personal dating website, Hinge, and is founding board chair emeritus of education social enterprise Blue Engine. -
Getting the Most out of Information Systems: a Manager's Guide (V
Getting the Most Out of Information Systems A Manager's Guide v. 1.0 This is the book Getting the Most Out of Information Systems: A Manager's Guide (v. 1.0). This book is licensed under a Creative Commons by-nc-sa 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/ 3.0/) license. See the license for more details, but that basically means you can share this book as long as you credit the author (but see below), don't make money from it, and do make it available to everyone else under the same terms. This book was accessible as of December 29, 2012, and it was downloaded then by Andy Schmitz (http://lardbucket.org) in an effort to preserve the availability of this book. Normally, the author and publisher would be credited here. However, the publisher has asked for the customary Creative Commons attribution to the original publisher, authors, title, and book URI to be removed. Additionally, per the publisher's request, their name has been removed in some passages. More information is available on this project's attribution page (http://2012books.lardbucket.org/attribution.html?utm_source=header). For more information on the source of this book, or why it is available for free, please see the project's home page (http://2012books.lardbucket.org/). You can browse or download additional books there. ii Table of Contents About the Author .................................................................................................................. 1 Acknowledgments................................................................................................................ -
The Style of Video Games Graphics: Analyzing the Functions of Visual Styles in Storytelling and Gameplay in Video Games
The Style of Video Games Graphics: Analyzing the Functions of Visual Styles in Storytelling and Gameplay in Video Games by Yin Wu B.A., (New Media Arts, SIAT) Simon Fraser University, 2008 Thesis Submitted In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts in the School of Interactive Arts and Technology Faculty of Communication, Art and Technology Yin Wu 2012 SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY Fall 2012 Approval Name: Yin Wu Degree: Master of Arts Title of Thesis: The Style of Video Games Graphics: Analyzing the Functions of Visual Styles in Storytelling and Gameplay in Video Games Examining Committee: Chair: Carman Neustaedter Assistant Professor School of Interactive Arts & Technology Simon Fraser University Jim Bizzocchi, Senior Supervisor Associate Professor School of Interactive Arts & Technology Simon Fraser University Steve DiPaola, Supervisor Associate Professor School of Interactive Arts & Technology Simon Fraser University Thecla Schiphorst, External Examiner Associate Professor School of Interactive Arts & Technology Simon Fraser University Date Defended/Approved: October 09, 2012 ii Partial Copyright Licence iii Abstract Every video game has a distinct visual style however the functions of visual style in game graphics have rarely been investigated in terms of medium-specific design decisions. This thesis suggests that visual style in a video game shapes players’ gaming experience in terms of three salient dimensions: narrative pleasure, ludic challenge, and aesthetic reward. The thesis first develops a context based on the fields of aesthetics, art history, visual psychology, narrative studies and new media studies. Next it builds an analytical framework with two visual styles categories containing six separate modes. This research uses examples drawn from 29 games to illustrate and to instantiate the categories and the modes. -
Strategy Games Big Huge Games • Bruce C
04 3677_CH03 6/3/03 12:30 PM Page 67 Chapter 3 THE EXPERTS • Sid Meier, Firaxis General Game Design: • Bill Roper, Blizzard North • Brian Reynolds, Strategy Games Big Huge Games • Bruce C. Shelley, Ensemble Studios • Peter Molyneux, Do you like to use some brains along with (or instead of) brawn Lionhead Studios when gaming? This chapter is for you—how to create breathtaking • Alex Garden, strategy games. And do we have a roundtable of celebrities for you! Relic Entertainment Sid Meier, Firaxis • Louis Castle, There’s a very good reason why Sid Meier is one of the most Electronic Arts/ accomplished and respected game designers in the business. He Westwood Studios pioneered the industry with a number of unprecedented instant • Chris Sawyer, Freelance classics, such as the very first combat flight simulator, F-15 Strike Eagle; then Pirates, Railroad Tycoon, and of course, a game often • Rick Goodman, voted the number one game of all time, Civilization. Meier has con- Stainless Steel Studios tributed to a number of chapters in this book, but here he offers a • Phil Steinmeyer, few words on game inspiration. PopTop Software “Find something you as a designer are excited about,” begins • Ed Del Castillo, Meier. “If not, it will likely show through your work.” Meier also Liquid Entertainment reminds designers that this is a project that they’ll be working on for about two years, and designers have to ask themselves whether this is something they want to work on every day for that length of time. From a practical point of view, Meier says, “You probably don’t want to get into a genre that’s overly exhausted.” For me, working on SimGolf is a fine example, and Gettysburg is another—something I’ve been fascinated with all my life, and it wasn’t mainstream, but was a lot of fun to write—a fun game to put together. -
Fallout Wastelands: a Post-Nuclear Role-Playing Game
Fallout Wastelands: A Post-Nuclear Role-Playing Game A Black Diamond Project - Version 1.3 Based on Retropocalypse by David A. Hill Jr, which in turn was based on Old School Hack by 1 Kirin Robinson Page Table of Contents 3… A Few Notes About Fallout Wastelands 66... Vehicles 5… Introduction and Setup 70… Item Costs 7... Character Creation 71… Encumbrance 12... Backgrounds 72... Combat Rules 13... Brotherhood of Steel Initiate 72... Initiative and Actions 16… Courier 74... Attack, Defense, and Damage Resistance 18... Deathclaw 76... Healing and Injury 20... Enclave Remnant 77... Adventuring 22... Ghoul 77... Environments and Arenas 24... Raider 80... Karma 26... Robot 83... Leveling Up 28... Scientist 84... Overseer's Guide 30... Settler 84... Specialty Items 32... Super Mutant 90... Harder, Better, Stronger, Faster 34... Tribal 92... Additional Traits 36... Vault Dweller 97... Creating NPCs 38... Wastelander 97... Creating Encounters 40... Skills 99... Cap Rewards 46... Perks 100... Bestiary 57... Items and Equipment 116... Character Sheet 57... Weapons 118... Version Notes 61... Armor 119... Credits 63... Tools 2 Page Section 1. A Few Notes About Fallout Wastelands For years I've loved playing the Fallout games, specifically Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas since I didn't have access to a computer for gaming (I am working my way through the original Fallout presently!). I became enamored by the setting and fell in love with the 50s retro-futuristic atmosphere, the pulpy Science! themes, and the surprisingly beautiful, post-apocalyptic world that unfolded before me. It was like Firefly meeting Mad Max meeting Rango and it was perfect. -
Studio Showcase
Contacts: Holly Rockwood Tricia Gugler EA Corporate Communications EA Investor Relations 650-628-7323 650-628-7327 [email protected] [email protected] EA SPOTLIGHTS SLATE OF NEW TITLES AND INITIATIVES AT ANNUAL SUMMER SHOWCASE EVENT REDWOOD CITY, Calif., August 14, 2008 -- Following an award-winning presence at E3 in July, Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ: ERTS) today unveiled new games that will entertain the core and reach for more, scheduled to launch this holiday and in 2009. The new games presented on stage at a press conference during EA’s annual Studio Showcase include The Godfather® II, Need for Speed™ Undercover, SCRABBLE on the iPhone™ featuring WiFi play capability, and a brand new property, Henry Hatsworth in the Puzzling Adventure. EA Partners also announced publishing agreements with two of the world’s most creative independent studios, Epic Games and Grasshopper Manufacture. “Today’s event is a key inflection point that shows the industry the breadth and depth of EA’s portfolio,” said Jeff Karp, Senior Vice President and General Manager of North American Publishing for Electronic Arts. “We continue to raise the bar with each opportunity to show new titles throughout the summer and fall line up of global industry events. It’s been exciting to see consumer and critical reaction to our expansive slate, and we look forward to receiving feedback with the debut of today’s new titles.” The new titles and relationships unveiled on stage at today’s Studio Showcase press conference include: • Need for Speed Undercover – Need for Speed Undercover takes the franchise back to its roots and re-introduces break-neck cop chases, the world’s hottest cars and spectacular highway battles. -
2015 Valuation Handbook – Guide to Cost of Capital and Data Published Therein in Connection with Their Internal Business Operations
Market Results Through #DBDLADQ 2014 201 Valuation Handbook Guide to Cost of Capital Industry Risk Premia Company List Cover image: Duff & Phelps Cover design: Tim Harms Copyright © 2015 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey. Published simultaneously in Canada. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise, except as permitted under Section 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, Inc., 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, (978) 750-8400, fax (978) 646-8600, or on the Web at www.copyright.com. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, (201) 748-6011, fax (201) 748- 6008, or online at http://www.wiley.com/go/permissions. The forgoing does not preclude End-users from using the 2015 Valuation Handbook – Guide to Cost of Capital and data published therein in connection with their internal business operations. Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty: While the publisher and author have used their best efforts in preparing this book, they make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this book and specifically disclaim any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. -
Video Games and the Mobilization of Anxiety and Desire
PLAYING THE CRISIS: VIDEO GAMES AND THE MOBILIZATION OF ANXIETY AND DESIRE BY ROBERT MEJIA DISSERTATION Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Communications in the Graduate College of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2012 Urbana, Illinois Doctoral Committee: Professor Kent A. Ono, Chair Professor John Nerone Professor Clifford Christians Professor Robert A. Brookey, Northern Illinois University ABSTRACT This is a critical cultural and political economic analysis of the video game as an engine of global anxiety and desire. Attempting to move beyond conventional studies of the video game as a thing-in-itself, relatively self-contained as a textual, ludic, or even technological (in the narrow sense of the word) phenomenon, I propose that gaming has come to operate as an epistemological imperative that extends beyond the site of gaming in itself. Play and pleasure have come to affect sites of culture and the structural formation of various populations beyond those conceived of as belonging to conventional gaming populations: the workplace, consumer experiences, education, warfare, and even the practice of politics itself, amongst other domains. Indeed, the central claim of this dissertation is that the video game operates with the same political and cultural gravity as that ascribed to the prison by Michel Foucault. That is, just as the prison operated as the discursive site wherein the disciplinary imaginary was honed, so too does digital play operate as that discursive site wherein the ludic imperative has emerged. To make this claim, I have had to move beyond the conventional theoretical frameworks utilized in the analysis of video games. -
Fallout Wastelands: a Post-Atomic Role-Playing Game
Fallout Wastelands: A Post-Atomic Role-Playing Game A Black Diamond Project - Version 1.3 Based on Retropocalypse by David A. Hill Jr, which in turn was based on Old School Hack by 1 Kirin Robinson Page Table of Contents 3… A Few Notes About Fallout Wastelands 63... Tools 5… Introduction and Setup 66… Encumbrance 7... Character Creation 67... Combat Rules 12... Backgrounds 67... Initiative and Actions 13... Brotherhood of Steel Initiate 69... Attack, Defense, and Damage Reduction 16… Courier 71.. Healing and Injury 18... Deathclaw 72... Adventuring 20... Enclave Remnant 72... Environments and Arenas 22... Ghoul 75... Karma 24... Raider 78... Leveling Up 26... Robot 79... Overseer's Guide 28... Scientist 79... Specialty Items 30... Settler 85... Harder, Better, Stronger, Faster 32... Super Mutant 86... Additional Traits 34... Tribal 91... Creating NPCs 36... Vault Dweller 91... Creating Encounters 38... Wastelander 93... Cap Rewards 40... Skills 94... Bestiary 46... Perks ##... Character Sheet 57... Items and Equipment ##... Version Notes 57... Weapons ##... Credits 61... Armor 2 Page Section 1. A Few Notes About Fallout Wastelands For years I've loved playing the Fallout games, specifically Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas since I didn't have access to a computer for gaming. I became enamored by the setting and fell in love with the 50s retro-futuristic atmosphere, the pulpy Science! themes, and the surprisingly beautiful, post- apocalyptic world that unfolded before me. It was like Firefly meeting Mad Max meeting Rango and it was perfect. Once I finished Fallout 3 and moved on to New Vegas I began searching for a tabletop version of Fallout so I could explore the Wasteland with my friends at college. -
Game Developer Index 2010 Foreword
SWEDISH GAME INDUSTRY’S REPORTS 2011 Game Developer Index 2010 Foreword It’s hard to imagine an industry where change is so rapid as in the games industry. Just a few years ago massive online games like World of Warcraft dominated, then came the breakthrough for party games like Singstar and Guitar Hero. Three years ago, Nintendo turned the gaming world upside-down with the Wii and motion controls, and shortly thereafter came the Facebook games and Farmville which garnered over 100 million users. Today, apps for both the iPhone and Android dominate the evolution. Technology, business models, game design and marketing changing almost every year, and above all the public seem to quickly embrace and follow all these trends. Where will tomorrow’s earnings come from? How can one make even better games for the new platforms? How will the relationship between creator and audience change? These and many other issues are discussed intensively at conferences, forums and in specialist press. Swedish success isn’t lacking in the new channels, with Minecraft’s unprecedented success or Battlefield Heroes to name two examples. Independent Games Festival in San Francisco has had Swedish winners for four consecutive years and most recently we won eight out of 22 prizes. It has been touted for two decades that digital distribution would outsell traditional box sales and it looks like that shift is finally happening. Although approximately 85% of sales still goes through physical channels, there is now a decline for the first time since one began tracking data. The transformation of games as a product to games as a service seems to be here.