"The Supernatural, Nazi Zombies, and the Play Instinct: The Gamification of War and the Reality of the Military Industrial Complex."

Battlefields have traditionally been considered places where the spirits of the dead linger, and popular culture brings those thoughts to life. Supernatural tales of war told in print, on screen, and in other media depict angels, demons, and legions of the undead fighting against—or alongside—human soldiers. Ghostly war ships and phantom aircraft carry on their never-to-be-completed missions, and the spirits—sometimes corpses—of dead soldiers return to confront the enemies who killed them, comrades who betrayed them, or leaders who sacrificed them

From Beneficent Elderly to Vile M’others Familial Relations and Cannibalism in Troma’s Rabid Grannies (1988)

In 1988 Troma Entertainment released an obscure Belgian horror film titled Rabid Grannies. A natural choice for a company already well known for releasing independent films that blended the ridiculous with underlying social commentary, it was an instant success. Troma aficionados enthusiastically celebrated the film’s adolescent combination of wit, gore, and familial subject matter, while it topped the list of “video-nasties” in the UK and Canada. Initially banned in those nations and pilloried by the mainstream media globally, it remains notorious to this day

Zombies zombies everywhere, what is one to think?

For decades we have been besieged by a growing pop-culture phenomenon – a zombie themed phenomenon. True to themselves zombies seem to be multiplying and infecting all forms of cultural production and discourse! Zombies have found their way into everything from music videos to pornography – we won’t go there – and are even employed in academic studies where they have been used to test disease vectors, utilised in philosophical mind-games, and mobilised to extrapolate on theories of international relations. (Drezner 2011) Scholars have charted the evolution of the zombie and uncovered a myriad of meanings and signifiers. Recent scholarship has questioned whether the zombie represents our own prehistoric past, acts as a mirror reflecting present anxieties, and our fears of a post-human technological future. Or, perhaps more significantly, represents the repressed knowledge that we are a fated civilisation (Christe & Lauro, 2011)

Wasteland

Though not the first video game set in the ruins of an apocalypse—examples of earlier games include the car-combat role-playing game Autoduel (1985) and the turn-based strategy game Road War (1986)—Wasteland was groundbreaking because it was the first ever sandbox, post-apocalyptic, role-playing game, and it created many of the foundational narrative themes of the genre

Designing for Play Instinct: Gamification, Collective Voodoo and Mumbo Jumbo.

method that aims to accelerate performance by implementing game- style incentivisation mechanics into nongame environments, such as businesses and services. Currently, it is most often applied as a “user experience design” (UXD) method, the contemporary convergence of human- computer interaction (HCI), user- centred design (UCD) and marketing that aims to increase user engagement, closing the “semantic gap” in the user experience (UX) by providing a higher level of engagement for people using machines—through call centre interfaces, for example. Quantifiable returns are indeed demonstrated when more engaging elements are designed into any communications touchpoint, a long- established tradition in both media and advertising and HCI. However, the recent evangelization of both gamification methodologies and “gurus” demonstrates a fundamental, and startlingly absolute, absence of understanding of the paradigms of computing, design practice and game studies in the gamification worl

Social, attitudinal and motivational recreational fishing survey: Part of the 2010 statewide recreational fishing survey

This report summarises the results from the Social, attitudinal and motivational survey (conducted in 2011 as part of the 2010 Statewide recreational fishing survey, (SWRFS)) and where possible compares them with results from the 2001 Queensland wash-up/attitudinal survey (part of the National recreational and indigenous fishing survey (NRIFS) 2000/01). Many of the questions asked in the two surveys were identical, providing the rare opportunity to profile the views of fishers from over a decade

2010 Statewide Recreational Fishing Survey

This report summarises the key results from the 2010 Statewide Recreational Fishing Survey. It includes detailed information on how many Queenslanders fished recreationally, where they fished and what they caught. Information on boat ownership and fishing and diving club membership was also collected. These results will benefit stock assessments, sustainability assessments and the recreational fishing industry, helping to ensure that fisheries in Queensland are managed on an ecologically, economically and socially sustainable basis

Survey of marine boat-based recreational fishing in south-eastern Queensland (2007–08)

This report presents the first fine-scale regional data on marine boat-based recreational fishing activities in south-eastern Queensland. The survey will provide managers, policy makers, industry and researchers with information about marine boat-based recreational fishing effort, catches, releases and harvests in south-eastern Queensland. Principally, it will be used to enhance the design of future on-site surveys throughout Queensland. It underestimates total recreational fishing activity in the region because it surveyed a subset of recreational fishers (i.e. those returning to public boat ramps between the hours of 7 am and 6 pm). It did not survey shore-based fishers, people fishing at night, or boats returning to private access points such as marinas and private jetties. The survey was designed to provide information about recreational fishing activities over a fine spatial scale (10s of km). Boat ramps were allocated to one of 14 survey routes within south-eastern Queensland, from Currumbin Creek in the south to Noosa River in the north. Ramps within these routes were surveyed between October 2007 and November 2008. A total of 6533 ramp surveys were completed; 7657 boats crews were interviewed, of which 4559 (60%) were fishing, and 3933 fish were measured. Data were analysed using two methods: (1) the ‘established’ bus route access point method (2) a conditional two-part generalised linear model (GLM). This was done to investigate which method provides the most precise estimates. The estimates of annual fishing effort were similar with both methods: 1,230,456 boat hours with a relative standard error (RSE) of 0.042 for the established method and 1,227,303 (0.036) for the two-part GLM. The two-part GLM, however, provided 76–81% better precision when estimating the annual harvest of individual species of fish (e.g. yellowfin bream: established method estimated harvest at 107,631 fish with RSE of 0.156, while the two-part GLM estimated harvest at 115,974 fish with RSE of 0.030). As sample size decreased, the two-part GLM provided more precise estimates than the established method. Of the 3933 fish measured there were few kingfish, mackerel, mulloway, rockcods or sharks. The precision of annual harvest estimates for these species was unacceptably high. This method is inefficient at collecting recreational fishing data for these less commonly caught species. The most abundantly harvested inshore species was the trumpeter whiting (annual estimate 300,379 fish), while the most abundantly harvested rocky reef species was snapper (annual estimate 37,299 fish). Few undersized fish were measured at ramps and the most popular reason for release was because the fish were undersized. Release rates varied among the species caught (e.g. 22% for trumpeter whiting and 77% for snapper). Fishing effort and the species composition of the harvest varied both among and within routes and appeared related to the accessibility to fish habitat types. The ramps of Route 04 registered the greatest fishing effort. These ramps provide access to the calm and relatively pristine environments of southern Moreton Bay. Information on spatial variation of effort and catch will be used to design future surveys and enhance survey efficiency. This survey relied on fishery-dependant harvest per unit effort to estimate annual harvest. To be comparable with future surveys it is essential to understand how this harvest efficiency changes over time. Boat-based recreational fishers today use different technology and gear than 10 years ago and this has likely improved harvest efficiency. Over time the demographics and attitudes of recreational fishers can change and this is especially the case in the growing region of south-eastern Queensland. These technological and social changes may affect many things including harvest efficiency, the species targeted and the proportion of shore-based to boat-based fishers. Therefore, these temporal changes need to be quantified in order to interpret comparisons of fishery-dependent data over time accurately. This pilot study has highlighted the complexity and diversity of marine boat-based recreational fishing in south-eastern Queensland. It has provided valuable information and will assist in the sustainable management of the Rocky Reef Fishery and the East Coast Inshore Finfish Fishery