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Representation of opponents in first-person shooter video games
Štěpánek, Adam ; Švelch, Jaroslav (advisor) ; Švelch, Jan (referee)
Work focuses on representation of opponents in first-person shooter video games. It aims to discover tools, which developers of video games use to choose specific enemies for their games and in which way they present them. First-person shooters are used for this purposes because players have closest visual contact with opponents in this genre. The aim of this work is to describe most typical opponents in video games and to find out why this exact enemies are usualyy the most portrayed. Special attention is paid to video games which used original attitude for creating enemies. Work than focuses on most frequent stereotypes in opponents presentation, mostly racial and national, which are used by developers and what function they have. Than it gives room for critics of such stereotypes and tries to estimate if these critics can result in some changes in the future. Video games which created controversy by representation of specific enemies are subject of next topic. These games often put players in position of moral dilemma. On the base of research from literature and analysis of video games this work focuses on main reasons of representation of concrete enemies and what emotional impact it can have on players.
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Video game playing as a risk factor in adolescence?
Lysý, Jan ; Nekola, Martin (advisor) ; Vondráčková, Petra (referee)
Diploma thesis "Video game playing as a risk factor in adolescence?" deals with actuality of risks for children and youth linked to video games. This topic is currently intensively disscused because of cases of high school shootings. There are concerns that violence in video games is connected to rising of children and youth violence. Another risks refered to video games are addiction and obesity. This diploma thesis deals with these risk too. Goal of this thesis is find out if these risks are real and how great is influence of video games on addiction and obesity. Important topic in this thesis are parents. Parents are important participants who can oversee content of video games played by children and influence amount of time, which children and youth spend by playing of video games.
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RPG as a narrative medium
Slavík, Petr ; Švelch, Jaroslav (advisor) ; Hrdina, Matouš (referee)
This bachelor's thesis deals with narrative in video games, specifically in RPGs and its "hybrids". Theoretical part presents selected concepts of game studies and narratology, which are used as a base for a possible method of analysis in the practical part of this paper. This method is demonstrated using four examples to form four short case studies.
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Virtual death in video games
Štěpánová, Petra ; Švelch, Jaroslav (advisor) ; Vochocová, Lenka (referee)
The topic of this thesis is virtual death in video games. In theoretical part, the concept of avatar (player's agent in the game world) is defined, concerning the relationship between player and avatar as well as the main characteristics of the avatar. The aim of the theoretical core of this thesis is to introduce virtual death; because of various expressions of death in many games, it is difficult to describe virtual death generally. Virtual death, which is compared also to the real death, is revealed as a communication of player's failure. What can not be separated from virtual death is the instant resurrection of the avatar, and also the means how to avoid virtual death. The practical part of the thesis offers a close reading of the computer role-playing game Planescape: Torment, focusing on the theme of death. Unlike most mainstream games, Torment presents the player with sophisticated perspectives on the matters of life, death, immortality and responsibility. Even the high-order goal of the main character (which becomes the goal of the player as well) is to gain knowledge about himself and then willingly die. This stands in a sharp contrast to usual narratives, forcing the player to suppress the life-saving reflex and let his avatar die in the end. The comparative method is used to identify...
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Glitch and its social aspects in video game culture
Švelch, Jan ; Macek, Jakub (advisor) ; Reifová, Irena (referee)
Glitch is becoming an important topic both in popular culture and academia. In 2012, Disney cast a glitch as a major character in its movie homage to arcade video games Wreck-It Ralph. More and more studies about glitch are emerging across various disciplines, from media studies to aesthetics. So far, researchers were focusing mostly on theoretical and technological aspects of the glitch. This Master's thesis aims to analyze the "everyday" glitch and the roles it plays in the video game culture, conducting a qualitative content analysis of online discussion forums of three recent hit video games: The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Mass Effect 3 and Star Wars: The Old Republic. The first part of the thesis reviews the literature connected to the glitch and explains its connection to similar scientific concepts: error, noise and emergence. It also introduces different aspects and roles of the glitch, ranging from cheating and metagaming to humor and aberrant use. The second part consists of the analysis of online discussion forums concerning the player definition of the glitch, the process of finding and sharing the glitch and about the main aspects of the glitch from the viewpoint of active participants in online discussions: glitch as an error or a feature, patching the glitch, cheating, metagaming and humor. As...
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Video games, books and film adaptations and their impact on gaming community
Přichystal, Jan ; Haupt, Jaromír (referee) ; Šedrlová, Magdalena (advisor)
Cílem této práce je popsat postupy používané při převádění knihy do podoby videohry, hlavní aspekty tohoto procesu, změny v daných médiích, které při tomto procesu probíhají a popsat spojení vznikající mezi videohrami, literaturou a filmy. Nastíní také některé z nových technologií používaných při vývoji videoher. Hlavní témata této práce budou demonstrována na sérii knih, seriálu a populárním RPG Zaklínač, původně vytvořené polským spisovatelem Andrzejem Sapkowským. V porovnání s těmito populárními slovanskými příběhy budou dalšími příklady především e-sport hry a také mnoho dalších her jiných žánrů. Nicméně to není jediné téma popisované v této práci. Zaměřuje se také na vliv vztahů mezi knihami, filmy a videohrami na společnost, nebo přesněji, na herní komunitu. Tento vliv můžeme pozorovat v mnoha oblastech, např. subkulturách fanoušků (fandom), kostýmových hrách (cosplay) a profesionálním hraní videoher (e-sporty). Tvrzení, která publikuji v této části bakalářské práce, budou také podloženy mým vlastním výzkumem provedeným za pomoci Google Formulářů na vzorku hráčů videoher z Facebookové stránky Hráči 2.0.
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Video games
Kolář, Vojtěch ; Švelch, Jaroslav (advisor) ; Reifová, Irena (referee)
This thesis is based on a detailed analysis of various topics related to the question of whether video games can be art. In the first place it analyzes the current academic discussion on this subject and confronts different opinions of both supporters and objectors of the idea, that video games can be a full-fledged art form. The second point of this paper is to analyze the properties, that are inherent to video games, in order to find the reason, why cultural elite considers video games as inferior in relation to traditional forms of art. In addition to features of games like entertainment, competitivness and unproductivity, this part examines the circumstances that have an impact on current game design, like mass popularity and game developers pandering to wide audiance. Due to these circumstances, the majority of video games can be considered kitsch. Following passage through the application of theory of kitsch on specific video game shows and identifies tendencies in game design that cause this condition. Conclusion of the second chapter, however, shows that some video games exhibit characteristics that are generally regarded as positive elements of art works and by that they avoid being branded as kitsch. The last part of this thesis, based on cluster theory of art, identifies and analyzes...
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Social and cultural status digital entertainment
Vnouček, Petr ; Švelch, Jaroslav (advisor) ; Nečas, Vlastimil (referee)
This work uncovers perceptions of the Czech society concerning cultural and social role of a digital entertainment (computer games and videogames) as a relatively new interactive media form. The author tries to verify validity of a presumption that the digital entertainment is an object of a cultural stigma that was formed by combination of various factors which are closely specified in the work. According to the author, present perception of the digital entertaiment in society is formed by a media panic that repeated itself regularly in the course of history. Amongst other significant determinants one can find certain stereotypical viewes, efforts of a ruling class to sustain status quo and struggle of various social groups over cultural dominance which leads to hierarchization of cultural tastes. Suggested cultural stigmatisation of the digital entertainment probably leads to a social stigmatisation of players, who submit to social pressures and often adapt their behaviour to general tastes. Essential part of the work is formed by a research based on qualitative and quantitative data collected from teachers and gymnasium (high schools) and elementary school students. The research supports a presumption that the negative view on the digital entertainment is subject to specific generational...
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Mobile App with Predictions of e-Sports Matches
Věčorek, David ; Szentandrási, István (referee) ; Herout, Adam (advisor)
E-Sports, also known as progaming (professional gaming) has grown a lot in the last few years. Professional gamers are regularly attending tournaments watched by hundreds of thousands of fans and with prize pools of millions of dollars. There are many video broadcasts of those events and recently betting on e-Sports has also become available. The main goal of this thesis was to create a mobile app for OS Android, which aims to utilize this growth and create a service of providing predictions of results of the e-Sports matches, similar to that existing in regular sports. The application in its current form receives the predictions via Google Cloud Messaging service and shows an Android notification on their arrival. The predictions are then stored on the device into SQLite database so they are available for further view and filtering. After the matches are finished, their results are shown in comparison to the predictions and balance of the predictions is calculated. Users can display information about their subscriptions and predictions under that subscriptions. The app was created in Android Studio IDE with appearance based on the material design guidelines. The app was tested on several devices of different brand and Android version, then it was placed on Google Play for open beta testing. In the future the app will be offered to the users of the service of providing predictions of results of the e-Sports matches.
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