Ludic Dysnarrativa : How Can Fictional Inconsistency in Games be Reduced?

The experience of fictional inconsistencies in games is surprisingly common. The goal was to determine if solutions exist for this problem and if there are inherent limitations to games as a medium that make storytelling uncommonly difficult. Termed ‘ludic dysnarrativa’, this phenomenon can cause a loss of immersion in the fictional world of a game and lead to greater difficulty in intuitively understanding a game’s rules. Through close textual analysis of The Stanley Parableand and other games, common trends are identified that lead a player to experience dysnarrativa. Contemporary cognitive theory is examined alongside how other media deal with fictional inconsistency to develop a model of how information (fictional and otherwise) is structured in media generally. After determining that gaps in information are largely the cause of a player feeling dysnarrativa, it is proposed that a game must encourage imaginative acts from the player to prevent these gaps being perceived. Thus a property of games, termed ‘imaginability’, was determined desirable for fictionally consistent game worlds. Many specific case studies are cited to refine a list of principles that serve as guidelines for achieving imaginability. To further refine these models and principles, multiplayer games such as Dungeons and Dragons were analysed specifically for how multiple players navigate fictional inconsistencies within them. While they operate very differently to most single-player games in terms of their fiction, multiplayer games still provide useful clarifications and principles for reducing fictional inconsistencies in all games. Negotiation between agents (designers, players, game rules) in a game is of huge value to maintaining coherent fictional worlds and social information in some multiplayer games takes on a role close to that of fictional information in single player games. Dysnarrativa can also be used to positive effect in certain cases such as comedy games, horror games or for satirical purposes

Homo Aleator: a sociological study of gambling in western society

The subject of this thesis is the nature and form of gambling in western society. Unlike other academic studies, which approach the subject in piecemeal fashion and treat it as essentially problematic, this research aims to provide a comprehensive analysis of the activity by situating the phenomenological experience of modern gambling within a formal and historical framework, and examining it from a variety of theoretical perspectives. This thesis is divided into five Chapters. The first describes the historical development of the concept of chance and argues that, after a lengthy period in which it existed first as a sacred and later as an epistemological category, in the twentieth century chance was secularised and ascribed ontological status as an explanatory feature of the modern world. In Chapter Two, a study of the historical development of gambling forms, the social affiliation of the various groups associated with them complements the outline of chance given in Chapter One. Here it is argued that the nature of these games reflected wider social attitudes towards the perception of randomness, and also the general configuration of the society in which they were played. The development of games from their genesis in divination ritual to their formation into a recognisably modern gambling economy, is also traced, and the historical specificity of their various forms examined. The formal parameters and phenomenological experience of the gambling economy - the 'phenomenological sites' - is the subject of Chapter Three. It is argued that commercial organisation of games of chance in the late twentieth century is beginning to overcome the traditional stratification that for years has determined the social formation of gambling forms

The Emotions Behind the Screen

This thesis revolves around the narrative form of Dungeons and Dragons, that the players have true free will, which allows for the highest level of storytelling. By reaching this level, the players are able to freely tackle issues in their life and surrounding them, like testing out negative parts of their personality and finding community during events like the COVID pandemic. This, combined with the recent scandal from DnD’s publisher Wizards of the Coast poses this question: what exactly is DnD, therapy, art, community, or just a game? This thesis hopes to lead the reader to answer this question in their own terms

American Understandings of U.S. Economic Inequality: Redistribution and Resistance

Why has economic inequality in the U.S. continued to grow despite widespread and strong public opinion in favor of reducing it? In this dissertation, I argue that Americans are upset by current levels of economic inequality and support downward redistribution as a means to reduce it. At the same time, many have hesitations about or resistance to the mechanisms through which such redistribution might be carried out. This resistance, I found, varied across respondents’ class and race (and, to some extent, gender). Across groups, respondents’ desires for change were stymied by a social and political context of differential visibility that serves the interests of the already powerful—including cues about class, racial and gendered inequality, the lives of the rich or the poor, the work of the government, policies themselves, and respondents’ own relative privilege and disadvantage. Although elite commentators often focus on (mis)perceptions about economic inequality among less powerful groups, the (mis)perceptions among the more powerful groups in my project were equally, if not more, striking, especially given their relatively greater political power. I approached this dissertation as a re-visit to Jennifer Hochschild’s 1981 project (What’s Fair?), returning to her site, engaging with similar questions, and using an interview approach modeled after hers. Hochschild limited her investigation to low- and high-income Whites. I added Black respondents in both income groups and extended the analysis to take into account race and gender in addition to class. In-depth interviews allowed me to explore people’s reasoning in the context of their lives. I conducted 122 hours of interviews with 42 respondents who were high- and low-income, White and Black, women and men. My findings reinforce the suggestion among policy feedback scholars that understanding American opinions about economic inequality requires attention not only to the ways public opinion shapes policy, but also to the ways those opinions are shaped by policy. Thus, questions about why the American public does not take action in their own best interests must also engage with questions about the forces that keep U.S. systems from responding to a widespread public desire for greater economic equality

Ludic Dysnarrativa: How Can Fictional Inconsistency In Games Be Reduced?

The experience of fictional inconsistencies in games is surprisingly common. The goal was to determine if solutions exist for this problem and if there are inherent limitations to games as a medium that make storytelling uncommonly difficult. Termed ‘ludic dysnarrativa’, this phenomenon can cause a loss of immersion in the fictional world of a game and lead to greater difficulty in intuitively understanding a game’s rules. Through close textual analysis of The Stanley Parable and other games, common trends are identified that lead a player to experience dysnarrativa. Contemporary cognitive theory is examined alongside how other media deal with fictional inconsistency to develop a model of how information (fictional and otherwise) is structured in media generally. After determining that gaps in information are largely the cause of a player feeling dysnarrativa, it is proposed that a game must encourage imaginative acts from the player to prevent these gaps being perceived. Thus a property of games, termed ‘imaginability’, was determined desirable for fictionally consistent game worlds. Many specific case studies are cited to refine a list of principles that serve as guidelines for achieving imaginability. To further refine these models and principles, multiplayer games such as Dungeons and Dragons were analysed specifically for how multiple players navigate fictional inconsistencies within them. While they operate very differently to most single-player games in terms of their fiction, multiplayer games still provide useful clarifications and principles for reducing fictional inconsistencies in all games. Negotiation between agents (designers, players, game rules) in a game is of huge value to maintaining coherent fictional worlds and social information in some multiplayer games takes on a role close to that of fictional information in single player games. Dysnarrativa can also be used to positive effect in certain cases such as comedy games, horror games or for satirical purposes

Soft Power Revisited: What Attraction Is in International Relations

This thesis problematises the bases of soft power, that is, causal mechanisms connecting the agent (A) and the subject (B) of a power relationship. As the literature review reveals, their underspecification by neoliberal IR scholars, the leading proponents of the soft power concept, has caused a great deal of scholarly confusion over such questions as how to clearly differentiate between hard and soft power, how attraction (soft power’s primary mechanism) works and what roles structural and relational forces play in hard/soft power. In an effort to ascertain the bases, I address this issue not from the viewpoint of A’s policies or resources, like do IR neoliberal scholars, but in terms of B’s psychological perception of A. Employing social psychological accounts, I argue that attraction can be produced in three distinct ways, namely 1) through B’s identification with A (“emotional” attraction), 2) via B’s appreciation of A’s competence/knowledge in a particular field (“rational” attraction) and 3) by means of the activation of B’s internalised values which contextually prescribe B to act in A’s favour (“social” attraction). Importantly, depending upon the way attraction is produced, it is peculiar in a number of characteristics, the main of which are power scope, weight and durability. Insights from social psychology also show that unlike soft power, hard power requires not only B’s relevant perception of the A-B relationship (as coercive or rewarding), but also A’s capability to actualise a threat of punishment and/or a promise of reward. I argue this difference can be fairly treated as definitional rather than empirical, which implies that coercion and reward necessarily have both relational and structural dimensions, whereas for attraction, a structural one alone suffices, while a relational one may or may not be present. Having explicated the soft power bases, I illustrate each of them using three “most likely” case studies, namely Serbia’s policies towards Russia (emotional attraction), Kazakhstan’s approach to relations with the EU (rational attraction) and Germany’s policies vis-à-vis Israel (social attraction)

The myth of charismatic leadership and fantasy rhetoric of crypto-charismatic memberships

This study will analyze the relationship between myth and the fantasy rhetoric of charismatic leadership by employing Fantasy Theme Analysis to examine the pervasive discourses invoking this enduring folk belief. Fantasies of the Charismatic Superhero are explored within the popular leadership treatises of successful “management gurus” and in our popular culture entertainments. The rhetorical visions of Stephen Covey’s “Principle-Centered Leadership,” Jim Collins’ “Level 5 Leadership,” and Manz and Sims\u27 “SuperLeadership” are examined for their displacement of charismatic leadership in favor of the empowered crypto-charisma of self-leading memberships. Findings suggest “empowerment” rhetorics, like the rhetorical visions championed by many populist “gurus,” bear striking similarities to the fantasy script of charisma and tacitly champion mythic culturetypes that are variations on known routinizations of charismatic leadership: the Ubermensch Prophet, the Messianic Prince, the Servant Superhero, or Technocratic Superteams

Randomness, Uncertainty, and Economic Behavior: The Life of Money in Eighteenth-Century Fiction

My dissertation argues that fiction produced in England during the frequent financial crises and political volatility experienced between 1770 and 1820 both reflected and shaped the cultural anxiety occasioned by a seemingly random and increasingly uncertain world. The project begins within the historical framework of the multiple financial crises that occurred in the late eighteenth century: seven crises took place between 1760 and 1797 alone, appearing seemingly out of nowhere and creating a climate of financial meltdown. But how did the awareness of economic turbulence filter into the creative consciousness? Through an interdisciplinary focus on cultural studies and behavioral economics, the dissertation posits that in spite of their conventional, status quo affirming endings (opportunists are punished, lovers are married), novels and plays written between 1770 and 1820 contemplated models of behavior that were newly opportunistic, echoing the reluctant realization that irrationality had become the norm rather than a rare aberration. By analyzing concrete narrative strategies used by writers such as Frances Burney, Georgiana Cavendish, Hannah Cowley, and Thomas Holcroft, I demonstrate that late eighteenth-century fiction both articulates and elides the awareness of randomness and uncertainty in its depiction of plot, character, and narrative

Controversy, Coverage and Cancel Culture: The Daily Mississippian\u27s Reporting of the 2018 Ed Meek Controversy, and Related Findings

As this thesis reflects a body of work completed by a journalism student near the conclusion of a journalism education at the University of Mississippi, I approached research and writing in that way. I interviewed three people, for an hour each, and the things I learned in those interviews greatly affected the conclusions I reached with this thesis. My full transcripts from those interviews are located in Appendices A-C. I also did a lot of scouring through articles of The Daily Mississippian from fall 2018 and otherwise; I looked at every single edition of the paper from that semester, both news reporting and editorials, to help establish my conclusions, which were as follows: 1) Because Meek was found to have not taken the photos he published, we cannot know whether or not he had racist intentions when he shared his post; 2) Regardless of the first conclusion, Meek’s post was reprehensible for invading the privacy of these two women and for publicly shaming them for the way they were dressed, as well as attaching larger societal issues to them in the words of his post; 3) The actions in my second conclusion alone did not warrant the removal of his name from Farley Hall; 4) The university has an incredibly toxic relationship with its donors and potential donors, and people like Dean Norton, who stood out front and publicly decried Meek, shared the same sentiments with a donor in private; 5) Cutting ties with Ed Meek and losing his endowment money is a bigger cost than people are willing to admit, and it was not worth it; 6) Both of Meek’s apologies were awful and their low quality contributed greatly to the controversy blowing up like it did; 7) The Daily Mississippian was biased in its coverage of Ed Meek, and it made no secret of it; 8) Publicly funded media does not have an obligation to favorably cover the institution that provides for it; 9) Objectivity as a traditional tenet of journalistic ethics is no longer practiced, but fairness and accuracy are the new standard; 10) This entire situation is grossly more complicated than I felt it was before I started this research

Denial of the Mainstream Consensus: A Case-Based Complexity Approach

In the shadow of the recent pandemic, and with the spectre of the ever more serious effects of climate change looming, the denial of the scientific consensus on these issues continues to demand attention. Denial of climate change, pandemics, and vaccinations leads to increased collective risk to our interconnected global society. Using a case-based complexity approach, this thesis constructed and tested a multi-level theoretical framework that attempts to explain denial in a way that does not reduce this phenomenon down to ignorance, mendacity, or any other single psychological or sociological attribute. Rather it seeks to explore the largely non-obvious and unaware, complex interrelated processes and drivers that lead to this outcome. At the psychological level, the theory asserts that our affectively-ladened motivated reasoning is the cognitive process chiefly responsible for our conclusions on issues of significant societal risk. In turn, our motivated reasoning is triggered by our epistemic and institutional trust relationships relative to the constellation of mainstream organisations leading the charge in researching, communicating, and driving policies related to these issues. The theory continues by positing that equifinality is likely at play, meaning that people may come to the same conclusions on these issues for different reasons. These differences stem primarily from variations in our psycho-social make-up and how these attributes interrelate. Specifically, this theory posits that differences in adult attachment orientations, personal values, and core beliefs, when interacting with our gender and cultural identities impacts our dispositional trust. It continues by illustrating how all these facets are richly interconnected to form different pathways to an outcome of denial. To test this theory, data were collected on several scales measuring trust, attachment, values, beliefs, gender, and culture using an analytical cross-sectional survey design drawing on a quota sample of n= 1,199. This sample was roughly equally divided between respondents from the US, the UK, the Global North (less the US and UK), and the Global South with equal gender representations in each group. The findings suggest that trust, in particular institutional trust, was a key determining factor in the support or rejection of the mainstream consensus and that this trust was in turn influenced by a host of factors contingent on variations in one’s psychological and sociological make-up. By employing case-based computational modelling, several distinct clusters were identified resulting in a set of three theoretical profiles distributed as follows: Accepters, (43%) Hesitants (36%), and Denialists (21%). Accepters by and large embraced the mainstream consensus on climate change, pandemics, and vaccinations as true, while for Denialists it was the opposite. Hesitants, however, largely accepted climate change as true but were more sceptical about pandemics and vaccinations. Accepters and Denialists were mainly found to be diametrically opposed to each other in terms of their mainstream institutional trust and their core beliefs. Hesitants on the other hand, while not as mistrusting of institutions as Denialists, had distinct epistemic trust and attachment patterns. These profiles were then mapped over the demographic variables of regional grouping and gender allowing us to reverse engineer the unique sociological characteristics of each profile. The highest proportion of Denialists were found in the US amongst males (35%) and females (30%) while the lowest were found among UK females (11%) and Global North/South females (16%, 14%). However, Global South males and females (62%, 61%) made up the highest proportion of Hesitants. The results of the study generally support our theory and the conclusion that denial is the result of a complex interplay of psychological and sociological influences, with neither one capturing sufficient nuance to paint a high enough resolution picture of what is occurring. However, by embracing case-based complexity as a research methodology we were able to more adequately capture this nuance so as not to fall prey to the limitations of more traditional positivistic approaches. The thesis concludes with a set of recommendations which advises that mainstream institutions take note of the phenomenological and nuanced nature of the trust relationships they have with these different profiles. In essence, our findings suggest that most of the resources spent on combating misinformation and science education may be misspent and would be better allocated towards building broad-based institutional trust by reducing the anxiety of those in the Denialists and the Hesitants profiles