Data Adventures

This paper outlines a system for generating adventure games based on open data, and describes a sketch of the system im-plementation at its current state. The adventure game genre has been popular for a long time and differs significantly in design priorities from game genres which are commonly ad-dressed in PCG research. In order to create believable and engaging content, we use data from DBpedia to generate the game’s non-playable characters locations and plot, and OpenStreetMaps to create the game’s levels. 1

Data adventures

This paper outlines a system for generating adventure games based on open data, and describes a sketch of the system implementation at its current state. The adventure game genre has been popular for a long time and differs signi cantly in design priorities from game genres which are commonly addressed in PCG research. In order to create believable and engaging content, we use data from DBpedia to generate the game's non-playable characters locations and plot, and OpenStreetMaps to create the game's levels.peer-reviewe

What is procedural content generation? Mario on the borderline

We try to clarify the concept of procedural content generation (PCG) through contrasting it to other forms of content generation in games with which it could easily be mistaken, and through discussing some properties of PCG which are sometimes thought of as necessary but are actually not. After drawing up some clear demarcations for what is and what is not PCG, we present two versions of a content generation system for Infinite Mario Bros which is intentionally designed to question these same demarcations. We argue that, according to our own definition, one version of the system is an example of PCG while the other is not, even though they are mostly identical. We hope that this paper answers some questions but raises others, and inspires researchers and developers to thread some less common ground in developing content generation techniques.peer-reviewe

Challenges of integration and globalization

There has been plenty of books and articles written about integration and globalisation, especially in English. However, these processes are characterised as being extremely dynamic. The researchers are eye-witnesses to a constantly changing reality and appearing new, often unexpected phenomena accompanying unification or even uniformisation of the modern world.Editors, Foreword -- Part I Globalization and Integration Processes in the Contemporary World -- George Gamkrelidze, How Globalization Affects Integration -- Grzegorz Piwnicki, The Future of the European Union. The Most Important Issues -- Jakub Potulski, The European Sociopolitical Sphere -- Wojciech Forysinski, Integration and Disintegration of International Law in the 21st Century: between Universality and Differentiation -- Stanisław Sipowicz, Globalization and Cyber Threats -- Part II National Experiences with Globalization and Integration Processes -- Andrzej Chodubski, The Importance of Universal Values in the Process of Polish Integration with Europe -- Dušan Leška, Struggle of the Slovak Republic to Join the European Union -- Lucia Mokrá, Approximation of Slovak Constitutional Order to EU Law – Case Study of Successful Accession -- Arkadiusz Modrzejewski, The Concepts of Eastern Borders of Europe and European Identity of Georgia -- Piotr Andrusieczko and Kateryna Shestakova, Challenges for Georgia and Ukraine in the Black Sea Region -- Olha Voznyuk, Ukraine: Back to Homo Sovieticus? -- Anna Szramkowska, Chinese Presence in Global Governance. New Ways or Old Problems for Developing Countries. Case Study of Sudan and Angola

Paradigms in Management

The paper laments the current confusion in business science with regard to its epistemology. Any scientific discipline needs a firm structural basis, otherwise research is unfocused and flawed. In business science not even the vocabulary is clear: terms like Management and Business Administration mean many things to different people. The paper suggests to replace Burrell and Morgan’s matrix of sociological paradigms with a new typology which is really able to guide research and practice alike. Management scholars have argued too long without any sense of direction and managers have as a result become reserved and somewhat cynical toward Management theory.Epistemology, paradigms in business, theory and practice, management, business science, sociology

The Road Map For Tomorrow

"The Road Map for Tomorrow", looks at the woman and the workplace within the Indian context. The authors discuss the paradoxical situation in India, the complexities of the country, the vast differences between rural and urban India and the baffling mix of tradition and modernity. The seemingly conflicting demands of the workplace and of motherhood and other societal roles is explored with a view to finding a Golden Mean, a new paradigm which may be possible in tomorrows world, given the advent of enabling technologies and globalization. The crucial role that women can play not only in the organizational context but also in the process of nation building is discussed. The importance of Education and "Teacher Leaders" is emphasized. Women can play a vital role in this process of social transformation. The old saying, "The Child is the Father of Man" can be replaced by "the Girl Child is the Mother of Mankind". Indian women carry the legacy of a civilization thousands of years old. This legacy is a mixed blessing, in that it is both a burden and a source of inspiration. The challenge is to distill the best from the past, transform ancient wisdom into modern day paradigms and not be shackled by the bondage of age- old dogmas and beliefs. The new millennium may well usher in an era, where not only women, but the entire human race can more easily achieve self-actualization and both professional and personal satisfaction. The leaders of tomorrow should be identified not by their gender, but by their capability and merit. The paper ends with the hopeful note that men and women will both create spaces and roles to enjoy multi-dimensional lives which are fulfilling at work and home and which allow for individual choices for personal and professional growth.

Playing with data : procedural generation of adventures from open data

This paper investigates how to generate simple adventure games using open data. We present a system that creates a plot for the player to follow based on associations between Wikipedia articles which link two given topics (in this case people) together. The Wikipedia articles are transformed into game objects (locations, NPCs and items) via constructive algorithms that also rely on geographical information from OpenStreetMaps and visual content from Wikimedia Commons. The different game objects generated in this fashion are linked together via clues which point to one another, while additional false clues and dead ends are added to increase the exploration value of the final adventure game. This information is presented to the user via a set of game screens and images. Inspired by the “Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?” adventure game, the end result is a generator of chains of followable clues.peer-reviewe

Plot-based urbanism and urban morphometrics : measuring the evolution of blocks, street fronts and plots in cities

Generative urban design has been always conceived as a creation-centered process, i.e. a process mainly concerned with the creation phase of a spatial transformation. We argue that, though the way we create a space is important, how that space evolves in time is ways more important when it comes to providing livable places gifted by identity and sense of attachment. We are presenting in this paper this idea and its major consequences for urban design under the title of “Plot-Based Urbanism”. We will argue that however, in order for a place to be adaptable in time, the right structure must be provided “by design” from the outset. We conceive urban design as the activity aimed at designing that structure. The force that shapes (has always shaped) the adaptability in time of livable urban places is the restless activity of ordinary people doing their own ordinary business, a kind of participation to the common good, which has hardly been acknowledged as such, that we term “informal participation”. Investigating what spatial components belong to the spatial structure and how they relate to each other is of crucial importance for urban design and that is the scope of our research. In this paper a methodology to represent and measure form-related properties of streets, blocks, plots and buildings in cities is presented. Several dozens of urban blocks of different historic formation in Milan (IT) and Glasgow (UK) are surveyed and analyzed. Effort is posed to identify those spatial properties that are shared by clusters of cases in history and therefore constitute the set of spatial relationships that determine the morphological identity of places. To do so, we investigate the analogy that links the evolution of urban form as a cultural construct to that of living organisms, outlining a conceptual framework of reference for the further investigation of “the DNA of places”. In this sense, we identify in the year 1950 the nominal watershed that marks the first “speciation” in urban history and we find that factors of location/centrality, scale and street permeability are the main drivers of that transition towards the entirely new urban forms of contemporary cities