Entry to and Exit from Poverty in Russia: Evidence from Longitudinal Data

Long-term sustainability requires social stability and hence could be undermined by high poverty levels. Still more than twenty five million Russians have incomes that are lower than subsistence level. Effective policies to fight poverty are to be based on clear understanding of its determinants and are to distinguish between measures to prevent from slipping into poverty, and measures to get out of poverty for those who are poor. The study is the first attempt to investigate how entry to poverty and exit from poverty in Russia are shaped, and what are the determinants of the processes. We study entry and exit to poverty using survival analysis and utilizing the Russian Longitudinal Monitoring Survey (RLMS) panel for 1994-2004. The study allows obtaining some important insights. In particular, it shows that the two processes have both symmetries and important asymmetries, with an example of one of the most interesting results being the asymmetry in the influence of economic periods. It turns out that economic growth lowers chances to slip into poverty but also reduces hazards from poverty. This implies that households in poverty in the era of economic upturn are those with serious problems and are to be paid special attention to.Poverty, Duration Analysis, Entry to Poverty, Exit from Poverty, Transition,RLMS

Mortality in Russia: Microanalysis

The paper studies determinants of Russian adult mortality controlling for individual and household heterogeneity. We utilize twelve rounds of the Russian Longitudinal Monitoring Survey spanning the period of 14 years to study determinants of adult mortality. Survival analysis is the main methodology employed. The results are original in several respects. We find empirical support to the importance of relative status measured in non-income terms in shaping mortality hazards while income-measured relative position is confirmed to be statistically insignificant. We find evidence on the influence of labor market behavior, and sectoral and occupational mobility in particular, on longevity. The health detrimental role of smoking is found to be comparable to the role of excess alcohol consumption which is novel in the Russian context where the influence of smoking is downplayed in comparison to the alcoholism. Finally, we find no micro evidence in support to the regional data result underlying Treisman (2008) political economy story.Mortality, Relative Deprivation, Survival Analysis, Transition, Russia

First Person vs. Third Person Perspective in Digital Games: Do Player Preferences Affect Immersion?

Contemporary digital game developers offer a variety of games for the diverse tastes of their customers. Although the gaming experience often depends on one's preferences, the same may not apply to the level of their immersion. It has been argued whether the player perspective can influence the level of player's involvement with the game. The aim of this study was to research whether interacting with a game in first person perspective is more immersive than playing in the third person point of view (POV). The set up to test the theory involved participants playing a role-playing game in either mode, naming their preferred perspective, and subjectively evaluating their immersive experience. The results showed that people were more immersed in the game play when viewing the game world through the eyes of the character, regardless of their preferred perspectives

Adaptation in Digital Games: The Effect of Challenge Adjustment on Player Performance and Experience

Good gaming experiences hinge on players being able to have a balance between challenge and skill. However, achieving that balance is challenging, so dynamic difficulty adjustment offers the opportunity to provide better gaming experiences through adapting the challenge in the game to suit an individual’s capabilities. The risk though is that in adapting the difficulty, players do not get a true sense of challenge, but rather some tailored, perhaps watered down experience. In this note, we report on a study, in which we used time manipulation as a method of simple adaptation in order to explore its effect on player experience (PX) and performance. Volunteers played a game in which the timer was adjusted based on their performance in the game, however they were not aware of the feature. The results showed that players in the experimental group found the game more immersive. This provides empirical support that dynamic difficulty adjustment could be used to improve the PX

The Placebo Effect in Digital Games

Play-testing of digital games is a crucial part of any game development process, used to gather feedback about the game and correct any existing and potential flaws with the design. However, due to the nature of human subject testing, the feedback being collected in such experiments is prone to biases. Players' expectations play a great role in dictating their gaming experience, which means the information players receive before trying a new game, as well as the knowledge they already possess, may affect their perception and experience of the game. Two studies were conducted in order to evaluate how priming players to expect a game technology can positively influence their experience. The results supported the hypothesis that even basic instructions can change players' perception of the game, and lead to a higher level of perceived immersion when knowing that the game contains an improved feature, the adaptive artificial intelligence (AI), while it is not present in the game

Player experience and deceptive expectations of difficulty adaptation in digital games

Increasingly, digital games are including adaptive features that adjust the level of difficulty to match the skills of individual players. The intention is to improve and prolong the player experience by allowing the player to have the feeling of challenge without it being overwhelming and leading to repeated failure and frustration. Previous work has shown that player experience is indeed improved by such adaptations but also that the player experience can be improved by simply claiming such an adaptation is present even when it is not. It is therefore possible that claims about adaptations and the actual adaptations could interact and not lead to the intended outcomes for the players or worse disappoint players. This paper reports on two studies that were conducted to experimentally investigate the interaction between game adaptations and player information about adaptations on the player experience, specifically their sense of immersion in the game. For this, two games were developed using two different kinds of adaptations to adjust difficulty based on players’ performance in the game. Participants were provided with information about game adaptations independently of whether the adaptations were present. The results suggest that players felt more immersed in the game when told that the game adapts to them, regardless of whether the adaptation was present in the game or not. This effect was observed in both games despite their different adaptations and it remained prominent even during longer gaming sessions. These findings demonstrate that players’ knowledge of adaptations influences their experience independently of adaptations. In this particular context, the knowledge reinforced the experience of the adaptations. This suggests that, at least in some circumstances, developers do not need to be concerned about negative effects of telling players about in-game adaptations

Parody Microbloggers as Chroniclers and Commentators on Russian Political Reality

In the political environment of contemporary Russia, government-controlled media dominate the discourse. However, the Internet still provides a platform for – and visibility to – alternative voices and ideas. Parody microblogging is a popular recent phenomenon of Russian-language social media. Users with satire accounts utilize the names of power holders, publish links to the news, and provide opinion and contextualization, as well as offering satirical commentary on corruption, the management of the country and media propaganda. This article studies the function of parody framing in critical microblogging in the Russian-language Twitter. It discusses accounts spoofing the elites as tactical media that disrupt the hegemonic discourse and interpret political reality for the Russian digital audience

Fashion Media and Sustainability

Fashion is among the biggest polluters, yet the media still promote throwaway fast fashion. Based on analysis of 1000+ media artefacts, this policy brief identifies patterns in the way journalists and influencers cover fashion which contribute to unsustainable buying behaviours. Researcher Anastasia Denisova proposes new regulatory measures and a more responsible approach from magazines and other media promoting more sustainable coverage of fashion topics