Matching Items (6)
Filtering by
- All Subjects: Video Games
- Creators: Historical, Philosophical & Religious Studies, Sch
Description
This podcast explores the life of Cendraini, growing up in the developing country of Indonesia as well as her eventual immigration to America. It delves into prominent topics and history of Indonesia in regards to Cen's life. The podcast focuses on family, and how no matter the challenges that life may bring, family will be there for you.
ContributorsGoldstein, Rachel (Author) / Schmidt, Peter (Thesis director) / Levin, Irina (Committee member) / School of International Letters and Cultures (Contributor) / College of Integrative Sciences and Arts (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2021-05
Description
This thesis examines two electronic games, PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG) and Fortnite, which rose to popularity as battle royale-style videogames, to question whether they are viable candidates for success as esports. In his 2018 Barrett Honors Thesis, Noah Hilliker developed a model for assessing electronic games as successful esports. His thesis, titled “Ambassador Communities, Hybrid Spectatorship, and Other Indicators of Success in eSports” applied his model of indicators of success to League of Legends, Overwatch and Hearthstone. In this thesis, I have applied his indicators to (PUBG) and Fortnite, which differ significantly from the games he previously analyzed, precisely as I argue here, because they are battle royale games. These indicators fall under three categories: the nature of fans, the overall design of the game and the relationship between game developers and fans. The data that was examined for this investigation included academic literature on esports, posts on online platforms, news articles, YouTube content and forums. The following indicators were analyzed in their application to the collected data for both games: self-organization, spectator-player hybridity, ambassadors, clear center of action, demonstration of skill, mechanical variance, game balance, character of fan/developer relationship and feedback to fans. Through this project, I apply a previous approach to analyzing esports success to two games, Fortnite and PUBG, in order to analyze how well the model fits battle royale-style games.
ContributorsSmith, Brenden (Author) / Ingram-Waters, Mary (Thesis director) / Schmidt, Peter (Committee member) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor) / Dean, W.P. Carey School of Business (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2019-05
Description
The academic study of eSports, or professional competition through the medium of video games, has tended to focus on players' motivations to play and watch eSports as well as marketing concerns of huge eSports corporations. Instead of utilizing marketing or psychology to analyze this phenomenon, I investigate three areas of focus in accordance with available literature: the fans and their characteristics, the design of the game itself, and the relationship between fans and the game's developer. This investigation was conducted by first examining existing literature surrounding eSports fans, then collecting public domain data such as Reddit posts, forum posts, and YouTube videos, and last by studying interviews with developers and players. With this thesis, I apply a fan studies approach to eSports by creating a series of indicators based in each of the three focus areas which can be utilized as a systematic method of evaluating an eSport's popularity and growth.
ContributorsHilliker, Noah Henry (Author) / Ingram-Waters, Mary (Thesis director) / Schmidt, Peter (Committee member) / Anderson, Sky (Committee member) / School of Molecular Sciences (Contributor) / W.P. Carey School of Business (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-05
Description
Pokémon is one of the most profitable multimedia franchises of all time, yet few have endeavored to examine how it has reached such a status. The story of Pokémon is not only the story of its many media ventures and the people who create them, but the story of its fans as well. Through a comprehensive analysis of developer interviews, contemporary news articles, fan blogs and forums, and existing scholarly work, this thesis presents the history of the Pokémon franchise and its fandom as never before, emphasizing four main themes of technology, nostalgia, community, and capitalism as key to understanding how Pokémon has become the titan of popular culture that it is today and how its fandom has developed alongside it.
ContributorsFedje, Kylan (Author) / Boyce-Jacino, Katherine (Thesis director) / Ingram-Waters, Mary (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of International Letters and Cultures (Contributor) / Historical, Philosophical & Religious Studies, Sch (Contributor)
Created2022-05
Description
A significant sub-market within student affairs has been long ignored and broken: Student housing success. Research shows that strong relationships between students that live together are crucial to the well-being and academic success of that student. The problem is that universities have not figured out a standard way to group students effectively with some universities opting to market this inefficiency as a normal part of the college experience. For our thesis as a part of Founders Lab, we created our company, RiZing, to tackle this inefficiency. RiZing addresses the student-housing gap and proves that the lack of effective matching can be solved with the right people and of course, video games. Both students and higher education institutions are desperately trying to solve this problem. General event service vendors are racing just as quickly to serve this collegiate market and are extremely motivated to work with anyone who does. As the world today is becoming increasingly digitized, the founders of RiZing believe that the solution to building and maintaining strong connections with peers is possible through leveraging technology such as video games to create strong personal bonds.
ContributorsMenna, Grace (Author) / Schmidt, Alexius (Co-author) / Williams, Jordan (Co-author) / Topasna, Eric (Co-author) / Byrne, Jared (Thesis director) / Satpathy, Asish (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Historical, Philosophical & Religious Studies, Sch (Contributor) / Dean, W.P. Carey School of Business (Contributor)
Created2022-05
Description
For my thesis, I developed an educational video game titled Cannon Quest. Based around a thought experiment proposed in 1687 by Sir Isaac Newton, Cannon Quest allows players to explore a miniature, 2-dimensional solar system using real physics and gravity. My principle goal was to create an interactive model of orbital motion, with some game/simulation elements. This allows players who are totally unfamiliar with orbital mechanics to gain at least a rudimentary understanding simply by playing the game.
While the educational model was my primary goal, care was taken to ensure that Cannon Quest functions as a playable simulator. I developed my own user interface (UI), control setup, and art, as well as integrating music and animation for a more complete user experience. I also spent a significant amount of time balancing the gameplay aspects with the real physics, occasionally sacrificing reality where needed to ensure a better experience. The resulting product is simple and straightforward, while retaining much of the nuances of actual orbital motion.
I also developed a website to host Cannon Quest, and better direct my playtesters from a single hub. You can visit this website at www.cannonquest.carrd.co.
Alternatively, you can visit https://possiblymatthew.itch.io/cannon-quest or https://github.com/matthewbenjamin22/Cannon-Quest to play the game.
ContributorsBenjamin, Matthew (Author) / Kobayashi, Yoshihiro (Thesis director) / Feng, Xuerong (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Computer Science and Engineering Program (Contributor) / Historical, Philosophical & Religious Studies, Sch (Contributor)
Created2022-05