InGAME international pathway to collaboration: Collaboration in Games UK-China

In 2019 the Arts &amp; Humanities Research Council (AHRC) funded a series of projects as part of its UK-China Creative Partnerships Programme. Led by Abertay University in partnership with academic and industry partners across the UK and China, InGAME International was funded through this AHRC programme with the aim of studying the potential for UK-China cooperation and collaboration in the computer games sector. The project is linked to the AHRC Creative Industries Cluster, InGAME: Innovation for Games and Media Enterprise, which is also led by Abertay University in partnership with the University of Dundee and University of St Andrews. The games industry is one of the largest and fastest growing sectors in both the UK and the Chinese creative economies. In 2023, China was the largest gaming market globally with revenue forecast at $82.064 billion compared with$7.94 billion in the UK (Statista, 2023). The growth in China’s market has long been the source of appeal for UK game developers and publishers seeking new routes to market. However, the divergence between the UK and China in terms of market profile, consumption patterns, leading companies, technologies, regulation, licensing, management, and business culture has presented ongoing difficulties for any UK based developer interested in engagement in- or with- China. It is from this basis that the current study sought to consolidate industry, legal, and regulatory knowhow with a view to providing a valuable resource to games professionals and researchers who have interests in UK-China collaboration. This Pathway to Collaboration report curates the cumulative knowledge and insight generated during the InGAME International programme, with an intended audience of games industry professionals and researchers interested in UK-China collaboration. At the heart of the research is an unprecedented qualitative study that involved in-depth interviews with 47 leading experts from the UK, China and other territories and with knowledge of games development, business, publishing, marketing, localisation, IP, copyright, regulation, markets, and sales. This report is the first comprehensive qualitative study to investigate the intersection between the UK and China games industries and markets at this scale and depth, providing readers with an invaluable, interactive resource that will support professionals and researchers to initiate new collaborations between the two nations.</p

InGAME international pathway to collaboration: Collaboration in Games UK-China

In 2019 the Arts &amp; Humanities Research Council (AHRC) funded a series of projects as part of its UK-China Creative Partnerships Programme. Led by Abertay University in partnership with academic and industry partners across the UK and China, InGAME International was funded through this AHRC programme with the aim of studying the potential for UK-China cooperation and collaboration in the computer games sector. The project is linked to the AHRC Creative Industries Cluster, InGAME: Innovation for Games and Media Enterprise, which is also led by Abertay University in partnership with the University of Dundee and University of St Andrews. The games industry is one of the largest and fastest growing sectors in both the UK and the Chinese creative economies. In 2023, China was the largest gaming market globally with revenue forecast at $82.064 billion compared with$7.94 billion in the UK (Statista, 2023). The growth in China’s market has long been the source of appeal for UK game developers and publishers seeking new routes to market. However, the divergence between the UK and China in terms of market profile, consumption patterns, leading companies, technologies, regulation, licensing, management, and business culture has presented ongoing difficulties for any UK based developer interested in engagement in- or with- China. It is from this basis that the current study sought to consolidate industry, legal, and regulatory knowhow with a view to providing a valuable resource to games professionals and researchers who have interests in UK-China collaboration. This Pathway to Collaboration report curates the cumulative knowledge and insight generated during the InGAME International programme, with an intended audience of games industry professionals and researchers interested in UK-China collaboration. At the heart of the research is an unprecedented qualitative study that involved in-depth interviews with 47 leading experts from the UK, China and other territories and with knowledge of games development, business, publishing, marketing, localisation, IP, copyright, regulation, markets, and sales. This report is the first comprehensive qualitative study to investigate the intersection between the UK and China games industries and markets at this scale and depth, providing readers with an invaluable, interactive resource that will support professionals and researchers to initiate new collaborations between the two nations.</p

Adapting Game Mechanics with Micro-Machinations

In early game development phases game designers adjust game rules in a rapid, iterative and flexible way. In later phases, when software prototypes are available, play testing provides more detailed feedback about player experience. More often than not, the realized and the intended gameplay emerging from game software differ. Unfortunately, adjusting it is hard because designers lack a means for efficiently defining, fine-tuning and balancing game mechanics. The language Machinations provides a graphical notation for expressing the rules of game economies that fits with a designer’s understanding and vocabulary, but is limited to design itself. Micro-Mach

Comprehensive Believable Non Player Characters Creation and Management Tools for Emergent Gameplay

This thesis seeks a way to integrate popular psychosocial components required for believability to build a believable Non Player Characters (NPCs) model using the techniques of emergence. The believable NPCs model is scalable in terms of psychosocial models, customizable, flexible and data-driven. Comprehensive believable NPCs creation and management tools were developed to compose, generate, and maintain the system configuration data, as well as NPC profile data, using XML. Furthermore, a run-time prototype has been developed based on our proposed model to test its effectiveness. The prototype has also been evaluated for believable emergent behaviours in different social scenarios

How does regulation affect innovation and technology change in the water sector in England and Wales?

This thesis examines the role of regulation in technological change in the water sector in England and Wales. Based on a combination of Social-Ecological Systems (SES) theory and the Multi-Level Perspective on technological transitions a Comparative Information-Graded Approach (CIGA) is developed in Part 1. As part of the CIGA, a series of tools is used for characterizing and evaluating the relationship between regulation and technology. In Part 2, the CIGA is applied to characterize the relationship between regulation and water innovation in England and Wales based on official publications, Environment Agency data, and interviews. In particular, 7 mechanisms are identified by which regulation affects innovation and 5 issues of trust negatively interact with innovation. As trust is established through these mechanisms, opportunities for innovation are at times sacrificed. Part 3 develops and analyses a set of models based on findings in Part 2. Dynamical systems and fictitious play analysis of a trustee game model of regulation exhibits cyclicality providing an explanation for observed cycles which create an inconsistent drive for innovation. Trustee and coordination models are evaluated in Chapter 7 highlighting how most tools struggle with the issue of technological lock-in. Chapter 8 develops a model of two innovators and a public good water technology over time, showing the role foresight plays in this context as well as the disincentive to develop it. Taken together, the CIGA characterization and modelling work provide a series of recommendations and insights into how the system of regulation affects technology change.Open Acces

SDGs, Why? and For Whom? How to Implement Partnerships to Achieve the Sustainable Development Goals

Fazer negócios da forma usual não permite transformar o mundo como desejamos. A procura de novos modelos de desenvolvimento tem sido feita ao longo de séculos. Ir além do crescimento económico, proteger o planeta e promover a dignidade humana não deixando ninguém para trás, são ideias fáceis de compreender, mas difíceis de implementar. Considera-se neste estudo que Desenvolvimento Sustentável é o nome do novo Jogo, e que os Objetivos do Desenvolvimento Sustentável (ODS) adicionam as Instituições e as Parcerias, respetivamente as Regras do Jogo, e os Jogadores, para que este desafio se materialize e o Jogo seja ganho. Este estudo faz primeiro uma abordagem do topo para a base, cobrindo a evolução do conceito de desenvolvimento, seguida de uma análise sobre um novo institucionalismo para o desenvolvimento onde a economia é humanizada, complementada pela vontade de compreender o desafio da cooperação, para que existam parcerias saudáveis de longo prazo. Da base para o topo, é feita a exploração de 120 casos de estudo de People-first PPPs, parcerias assentes em Value for People, cobrindo 57 países em todos os continentes e os 17 objetivos dos ODS. Desta forma são apresentadas e partilhadas experiências que, não sendo perfeitas, são reais, e demonstram que ilhas de competência são possíveis, quando existem equipas alinhadas com políticas de desenvolvimento, programas de investimento e projetos de mudança, que têm como objetivo melhorar a qualidade de vida das comunidades. Com o objetivo de facilitar a comunicação para a implementação foi criada uma caixa de ferramentas com conceitos que podem ser utilizados por cientistas e praticantes de políticas de desenvolvimento que, estando motivados para utilizar os ODS como uma nova linguagem de desenvolvimento, para transformar cidades, regiões, e as suas organizações, de forma a que a prosperidade económica contribua para preservar o planeta, para que a espécie humana o continue a habitar, e ao mesmo tempo a pobreza seja erradicada