Enter Middle-earth: A Comparison of The Lord of the Rings Online with The Lord of the Rings

The purpose of this study has been to explore how the story in The Lord of the Rings is experienced in the game, The Lord of the Rings Online, compared to the book. The focus has been on the concepts of narrative, interaction, immersion, and themes. I have used my own experience from the game in addition to other academic sources when I have examined how the game differs from the book, and when exploring the themes in the book, I have relied on influential Tolkien scholars. What I have found is that the outcome of the narrative is different in the game due to the players’ interaction. The players are a part of the narrative, and they also create their own narrative while playing. The story is also experienced differently due to the different points of view. Immersion gets a new meaning when the players are 'bodily' immersed in the storyworld through avatars, instead of just mentally immersed. Spatial immersion in the game leads to a better understanding of the scope of the storyworld when reading the book. The maps are no longer used only for strategic purposes, but also have affective value due to emotional spatial immersion since the places they depict have become familiar and filled with memories. Since the themes from the book are mainly integrated into the gameplay of combat and the aesthetics of the landscape, they are approached in a more playful way as opposed to the serious approach that the book has. The book’s message is lost because the point of view is from the players, and therefore they do not get insight into the main characters’ thoughts. However, on some occasions, players are directly involved in the story. Instead of reading about the heroic deeds of the main characters, the players themselves are the heroes, which changes the narrative and makes the players the protagonists in their own adventures

Enter Middle-earth: A Comparison of The Lord of the Rings Online with The Lord of the Rings

The purpose of this study has been to explore how the story in The Lord of the Rings is experienced in the game, The Lord of the Rings Online, compared to the book. The focus has been on the concepts of narrative, interaction, immersion, and themes. I have used my own experience from the game in addition to other academic sources when I have examined how the game differs from the book, and when exploring the themes in the book, I have relied on influential Tolkien scholars. What I have found is that the outcome of the narrative is different in the game due to the players’ interaction. The players are a part of the narrative, and they also create their own narrative while playing. The story is also experienced differently due to the different points of view. Immersion gets a new meaning when the players are 'bodily' immersed in the storyworld through avatars, instead of just mentally immersed. Spatial immersion in the game leads to a better understanding of the scope of the storyworld when reading the book. The maps are no longer used only for strategic purposes, but also have affective value due to emotional spatial immersion since the places they depict have become familiar and filled with memories. Since the themes from the book are mainly integrated into the gameplay of combat and the aesthetics of the landscape, they are approached in a more playful way as opposed to the serious approach that the book has. The book’s message is lost because the point of view is from the players, and therefore they do not get insight into the main characters’ thoughts. However, on some occasions, players are directly involved in the story. Instead of reading about the heroic deeds of the main characters, the players themselves are the heroes, which changes the narrative and makes the players the protagonists in their own adventures

A Novel Porcine Model of Ischemia-Reperfusion Injury After Cross-Clamping the Thoracic Aorta Revealed Substantial Cardiopulmonary, Thromboinflammatory and Biochemical Changes Without Effect of C1-Inhibitor Treatment

Ischemic injury worsens upon return of blood and innate immunity including the complement system play a central role in ischemia-reperfusion injury (IRI) as in thoracic aortic surgery. Complement component1 inhibitor (C1-INH) has been shown to reduce IRI and is a broad-acting plasma cascade inhibitor. We established a new porcine model of IRI by cross-clamping the thoracic aorta and evaluated the global changes occurring in organ function, systemic inflammatory response and organ damage with or without treatment with C1-INH-concentrate. Twenty-four piglets (8.8-11.1 kg) underwent 45 minutes clamping of the thoracic aorta at the Th8 level. Upfront 12 piglets received human saline and 12 received C1-INH (250 IU/kg) intravenously. Three sham animals received thoracic opening without clamping. Reperfusion lasted 5 hours. We studied ten cardiorespiratory markers, three hematologic markers, eleven inflammatory markers, and twelve organ damage markers over the whole experimental period. Postmortem tissue homogenates from seven organs were examined for inflammatory markers and analysed by two-way repeated-measures ANOVA, area under the curve or unpaired t-tests. By excluding sham and combining treated and untreated animals, the markers reflected a uniform, broad and severe organ dysfunction. The mean and range fold change from before cross-clamp onset to maximum change for the different groups of markers were: cardiorespiratory 1.4 (0.2-3.7), hematologic 1.9 (1.2-2.7), plasma inflammatory 19.5 (1.4-176) and plasma organ damage 2.9 (1.1-8.6). Treatment with C1-INH had only a marginal effect on the IRI-induced changes, reaching statistical significance only for the plasma complement activation product TCC (p=0.0083) and IL-4 (p=0.022) and INF-α (p=0.016) in the colon tissue. In conclusion, the present novel model of porcine global IRI is forceful with regards to central markers and could generally be applicable for pathophysiological studies. C1-INH treatment had no significant effect, but the model allows for future testing of other drugs attenuating IRI globally