Grand theft algorithm: purposeful play, appropriated play and aberrant players

"Copyright ACM, 2008. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here by permission of ACM for your personal use. Not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in MindTrek: Proceedings of the 12th international conference on Entertainment and media in the ubiquitous era. pp.3-7 http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1457199.1457201"This paper explores ideas about 'appropriated play' within computer games. It identifies different forms of 'purposeful' and 'aberrant' playing and proposes a model of players' motivations. This will enable a discussion about the experience of games players who resist the norms of 'purposeful' or ludic play, while finding reward in their explorations of game possibilities. It provides a new vocabulary for discussing playing outside of the game world, as a way of understanding some of these actions as more than 'cheating'

Book review: game after: a cultural study of video game afterlife by Raiford Guins

In Game After, Raiford Guins looks closely at video games as museum objects, engaging with curatorial and archival practices across a range of cultural institutions. Chapters cover museums dedicated to the medium, the vast landfills that housed unwanted video games, and the popularity of vintage game superstores. Alison Gazzard finds that the author’s multi-disciplinary approach to studying the after life of games makes this book suitable for a wide audience: cultural institutions, historians and curators; those who collect, cherish, and restore digital content in less formal settings; and media, cultural, and game studies scholars

Teleporters, tunnels & time: Understanding warp devices in videogames

The warp is a device that reframes notions of time and space. It is a common cultural artefact, one that audiences have come to recognise and believe in through various media. We accept the bed in Bedknobs and Broomsticks, the Tardis in Doctor Who, the supralight speed engines of science fiction, as time/space travel devices in order to get characters from A to B, to advance their progress along the story path. The warp as a path device can also be seen in board games such as Snakes and Ladders, where both the snake and ladder sections break the linearity of moving the character piece from square to square regularly up and down the game-board. It is therefore natural that such a time/space device has continued and been reconstructed within videogames. The virtual gameworld is itself a place able to reconstruct time and space; both Juul [10] and Atkins [3] discuss how players' perceptions of time and narrative elements within the videogame can be rearranged, but the warp, a significant 're-arranger', is rarely discussed further or in detail. The warp is used as a common device within videogames to transport the player from their location to somewhere else within the gamespace. Although commonly acknowledged through the hidden tunnels within Super Mario Bros, the warp is not a straightforward device, and can manifest itself in various ways during gameplay. It may be found in deliberately installed puzzles, and by the 'aberrant player' [7]. It may be a way of avoiding danger, of 'jumping' over sections previously achieved, or even of cheating. It may be the punishment for straying from a 'good path', or the reward for a particular act. Whatever its use or function, the warp exists within the virtual world as a means of managing time, space and narrative. The warp turns paths experienced by the player into fixed 'tracks', where navigational control is removed whilst in the warp sequence, and understanding the warp in this way allows us to further understand the player's relationship with the game paths they are moving along, the stories they move within. This paper discusses the multiple characteristics of the warp by identifying its use in contrasting videogame genres. These characteristics open up ways of discussing the aesthetics of the warp experience for the player and how its use affects path structures as well as time and narrative elements within videogames. The discussion will include both the built in, deliberately installed 'puzzle-based' warps and the 'inadvertent warps' sought by those seeking to discover more of the games 'algorithm' [12]. © 2009 Authors & Digital Games Research Association (DiGRA)

Paths, Players, Places: Towards an Understanding of Mazes and Spaces in Videogames

This thesis contributes to the field of academic game studies by reworking and updating the established theories of Espen Aarseth, Janet Murray and Marie-Laure Ryan in understanding the path in videogames. It also draws upon the more recent theoretical discussions of figures such as Jesper Juul, Lev Manovich, Frans Mäyrä and James Newman in order to explore the player’s experience along these paths in the gameworld. By defining a vocabulary of routes through space, the thesis uses the maze in particular as a way of understanding the paths of videogames. The research starts by examining our cultural understanding of the maze within videogames. Various mazes around the UK were walked in order to understand their design and how this may translate into the virtual world of the videogame. The thesis examines the uses of real world mazes through the work of Penelope Doob, and Herman Kern to discuss how the videogame may rework our cultural understanding of the maze due to its increasingly ubiquitous nature. This enables a discussion of maze-paths found within many videogames that are not necessarily categorised by what is often discussed as the maze genre of games. A morphology of maze-paths is devised through comparing the mazes of the real world and the virtual mazes of the videogame. This is achieved by breaking down the maze into separate path types and shows how these paths may link to one another. The thesis argues that the paths of the videogame are generated by the player’s actions. Therefore the focus of this thesis is on the player’s experience along these paths and the objects found at points on them. In acknowledging how to overcome obstacles along the path it is also possible to understand the role of the path in the player’s learning and mastery of the gameworld. This leads to discussions of different types of play experienced by the player in the videogame. Play is separated into what I term purposeful play, being the activities intended by the designer, and appropriated play which is the play formed out of the player’s exploration of the game system. These two terms help to understand player’s incentives for playing along the ruled paths of the gameworld as well as exploring the game’s system further to find new types of play outside of the pre-determined rules. As this thesis is concerned with videogames involving the player’s avatar having a direct relationship with the path, the research also investigates what happens when certain devices break these paths. It was discovered that warp devices reconstruct both temporal and narrative elements within the gamespace, and cause the player’s avatar to temporarily move on tracks through the gameworld. In defining a vocabulary of movement through space on a fixed track, as opposed to a player-determined path, there is a further understanding of the player experience related to each type of route taken in the game. Through an understanding of the maze and defining a vocabulary of maze-paths, tracks and objects found along them, this thesis adds a new contribution to knowledge. It also acknowledges the importance of different types of play within videogames and how these can shape the player experience along the paths of the game

The avatar and the player : Understanding the relationship beyond the screen

“This material is presented to ensure timely dissemination of scholarly and technical work. Copyright and all rights therein are retained by authors or by other copyright holders. All persons copying this information are expected to adhere to the terms and constraints invoked by each author's copyright. In most cases, these works may not be reposted without the explicit permission of the copyright holder." “Copyright IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. However, permission to reprint/republish this material for advertising or promotional purposes or for creating new collective works for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or to reuse any copyrighted component of this work in other works must be obtained from the IEEE.” DOI: 10.1109/VS-GAMES.2009.11This paper looks at the concept of the avatar in terms of our interaction and viewpoints. It proposes a vocabulary of terms which analytically describe the player: avatar relationship as opposed to the player: screen relationship, emphasising the performative rather than the representational elements. In place of transposing cinematographic concepts such as first person' or 'third person' to the discussion of avatars, as has been the case in the past, the paper proposes the idea of the 'altered positions' of the avatar, whether that be playing 'within' the character' or 'outside' of the character. These concepts link to the avatarial display and avatarial presence of a game character and emphasise how the various 'positions' effect our movements and experience within the game world, and help us understand how we, as players, are 'performing' through our avatars, engaging in and enjoying a player->controller->avatar experience that is essentially aesthetic and emotional

The Role of Precollege Philosophy in Education

This thesis is concerned primarily with an examination and assessment of the proposals that are currently employed to promote the inclusion of philosophy in precollege education. It is the central contention of the thesis that the dominant arguments in favour of precollege philosophy are not yet adequately formulated. In support of the inclusion of philosophy in the school syllabus, therefore, I shall in this thesis seek to identify areas of apparent and real weaknesses within the framework of the dominant arguments, with an aim to showing how these weaknesses might either be extirpated or overcome

The preparation of enolates via metal catalysed allylic isomerisation

This thesis is divided into three chapters. As an introduction to this work. Chapter One presents an overview of current stereoselective enolate syntheses. In Chapter Two a new approach to enolate chemistry is described, involving the transition metal catalysed isomerisation of allylic alkoxides. The regio- and stereochemical consequences are investigated, and the mechanism discussed. Chapter Three details the experimental procedures employed. It is shown that treatment of 1-phenyl-2-propen-l-ol with catalytic quantities of chlorotris(triphenylphosphine)rhodium (Wilkinson's catalyst) in tetrahydrofuran at reflux effects allylic isomerisation to give exclusively the (Z)-enolate stereoisomer in good yield, as evidenced by aldol reaction or trapping as the enol acetate. Schlenk-line techniques were adopted as standard. Related substrates with increasing substitution around the double bond require longer reaction times but are effectively isomerised. Highly substituted substrates show little or no reactivity-the catalyst is deactivated by extended reflux times and starting material is isolated. It is found that with substrates for which it is possible, mixtures of enolate regioisomers are produced. Also, in the production of tetra-substituted enolates the several possible starting alcohols lead to identical ratios of enolate stereoisomers. This apparent equilibration of reaction products is thought not to be directly metal-mediated but caused by protic reaction by-products. Discussion and evidence are presented. It is found that catalysts formed in situ from bis(cyclooctadiene)nickel (0) and monophosphines are efficient catalysts, and affect the isomerisation of substrates unreactive towards the rhodium catalyst. However chiral chelating diphosphines give inactive species and this approach to asymmetric induction is therefore unfruitful. Instead it is shown that complexes with chelating nitrogenous ligands are far more active. A number of chiral ligands are synthesised and compared with the aim of generating homochiral enolate derivatives from achiral precursors

Mobilising Monopoly:game design, place and social values

Location based games have seen the translation of popular boardgames into mixed reality settings through the integration of mobile phone technologies. This paper explores modifying the game of Monopoly from a boardgame to a locative mobile phone based game utilising NFC and QR code technologies to engage players with real world places. In doing so, the mechanics, rules and motivations for playing the game shifted in the prototyping of the game concept. Here, we outline the initial game design process, problems and possibilities in modifying such a well-known game to the city streets. We also detail how the mechanics of the game were updated to provide some solutions to ideas surrounding property values, social media values and player location in the new game design

Is selective laser trabeculoplasty shifting the glaucoma treatment paradigm in developing countries?

In 2019, the Laser in Glaucoma and Ocular Hypertension (LiGHT) randomised controlled trial reported that initial treatment with selective laser trabeculoplasty (SLT) is more cost effective than initial treatment with pressure-lowering eye drops, leading to a reduced number of glaucoma surgeries and very low rates of adverse events while providing drop-free intraocular pressure (IOP) control to 78% of treated eyes after 3 years.1 2 As a result, the European Glaucoma Society,3 the American Academy of Ophthalmology4 and the UK National Institute for Health and Care Excellence5 now recommend the use of SLT as initial treatment for open-angle glaucoma (OAG) and ocular hypertension (OHT)

Iridotomy to slow progression of visual field loss in angle-closure glaucoma

BACKGROUND: Primary angle-closure glaucoma is a type of glaucoma associated with a physically obstructed anterior chamber angle. Obstruction of the anterior chamber angle blocks drainage of fluids (aqueous humor) within the eye and may raise intraocular pressure (IOP). Elevated IOP is associated with glaucomatous optic nerve damage and visual field loss. Laser peripheral iridotomy (often just called 'iridotomy') is a procedure to eliminate pupillary block by allowing aqueous humor to pass directly from the posterior to anterior chamber through use of a laser to create a hole in the iris. It is commonly used to treat patients with primary angle-closure glaucoma, patients with primary angle closure (narrow angles and no signs of glaucomatous optic neuropathy), and patients who are primary angle-closure suspects (patients with reversible obstruction). The effectiveness of iridotomy on slowing progression of visual field loss, however, is uncertain. OBJECTIVES: To assess the effects of iridotomy compared with no iridotomy for primary angle-closure glaucoma, primary angle closure, and primary angle-closure suspects. SEARCH METHODS: We searched the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL; 2017, Issue 9) which contains the Cochrane Eyes and Vision Trials Register; MEDLINE Ovid; Embase Ovid; PubMed; LILACS; ClinicalTrials.gov; and the ICTRP. The date of the search was 18 October 2017. SELECTION CRITERIA: Randomized or quasi-randomized controlled trials that compared iridotomy to no iridotomy in primary angle-closure suspects, patients with primary angle closure, or patients with primary angle-closure glaucoma in one or both eyes were eligible. DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS: Two authors worked independently to extract data on study characteristics, outcomes for the review, and risk of bias in the included studies. We resolved differences through discussion. MAIN RESULTS: We identified two trials (2502 eyes of 1251 participants) that compared iridotomy to no iridotomy. Both trials recruited primary angle suspects from Asia and randomized one eye of each participant to iridotomy and the other to no iridotomy. Because the full trial reports are not yet available for both trials, no data are available to assess the effectiveness of iridotomy on slowing progression of visual field loss, change in IOP, need for additional surgeries, number of medications needed to control IOP, mean change in best-corrected visual acuity, and quality of life. Based on currently reported data, one trial showed evidence that iridotomy increases angle width at 18 months (by 12.70°, 95% confidence interval (CI) 12.06° to 13.34°, involving 1550 eyes, moderate-certainty evidence) and may be associated with IOP spikes at one hour after treatment (risk ratio 24.00 (95% CI 7.60 to 75.83), involving 1468 eyes, low-certainty evidence). The risk of bias of the two studies was overall unclear due to lack of availability of a full trial report. AUTHORS' CONCLUSIONS: The available studies that directly compared iridotomy to no iridotomy have not yet published full trial reports. At present, we cannot draw reliable conclusions based on randomized controlled trials as to whether iridotomy slows progression of visual field loss at one year compared to no iridotomy. Full publication of the results from the studies may clarify the benefits of iridotomy