Master of Arts (MA), Bowling Green State University, 2024, Popular Culture

Retro video game collecting has seen an increase in popularity in the recent decade, however, with the increase in popularity of digital gaming and digital media the retro video game collectors are an endangered subculture of the video gaming industry due to the increase in digital gaming and the disappearance of the physical commodity. This research takes an autoethnographic approach and uses theories such as, Pierre Bourdieu's theories regarding capital and the field, Karl Marx's theory of commodity, and Ray Oldenburg's theory of the Third Place to explain the importance of this subculture and why retro video game collecting is worth researching.

Committee: Kristen Rudisill Ph.D (Committee Chair); Jeremy Wallach Ph.D (Committee Member) Subjects: Epistemology

Master of Arts, The Ohio State University, 2023, Educational Studies

Systems thinking, empirically derived from Systems Theory (Ludwig von Bertalanffy, 1950) involves the dynamic application of organizing, analyzing, and understanding information to solve complex problems. It is a cognitive process that requires a person to understand the links between components, the importance of each individual component, and the meaning of the whole as opposed to just the sum of its parts. Many subject matters (e.g., geometry, reading comprehension) require students to learn by considering knowledge as a complex system of knowledge. The current study proposes a coding scheme to help measure Systems Thinking levels of students who participated in a Virtual Reality Game-Based Learning intervention. Data came from Dr. Irina Kuznetcova's dissertation project (2022). A total of 169 students across 11 classrooms in three middle schools in a mid-western city in the United States participated in the study. The intervention took place in an elective STEM class. The participants in the experimental condition (n=96, 6 classrooms) played the intervention game during 4 sessions over the course of 2 weeks, while participants in the control condition (n=73, 5 classrooms) engaged in typical class activities. For the current study, seven audio recordings of students' gameplay from the experimental condition (n=14, 3 classrooms) were analyzed to observe indicators of systems thinking levels based on their conversations during gameplay. Six levels of systems thinking were identified in the context of game-based learning: recognizing, understanding, applying, option consideration, sequence of events, and generalizable principles. Overall, students generated more low levels of systems thinking than high levels of systems thinking. Correlation analysis revealed that there was a significant correlation between low levels of systems thinking and the duration of time students spent playing the game (F = .647, p < 0.05), but systems thinking was not correlated with visuo (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Dr. Michael Glassman (Committee Member); Dr. Tzu-Jung Lin (Advisor) Subjects: Educational Psychology

Master of Mathematical Sciences, The Ohio State University, 2015, Mathematics

The use of video games to teach mathematics is decades old, but has been predominated by designing video games that directly teach basic skills to young children. The rise of internet culture and modern gaming has created a population of older students that are emotionally and intellectually invested in digital entertainment. Simultaneously, changing educational standards favor problem solving and modeling behavior over basic skills. This paper explores the possibility of using commercial, popular video games as a “real world problem” that can be modeled and solved using mathematics commonly taught to high school students. A specific example of this possibility is drawn from the extremely popular game Minecraft.

Committee: Herb Clemens (Advisor); Azita Manouchehri (Committee Member) Subjects: Mathematics Education

Master of Fine Arts, The Ohio State University, 2014, Industrial, Interior Visual Communication Design

Videogames quite commonly tell stories, and yet often the story development process is disconnected from the game development process. This thesis investigates the design processes needed when developing a videogame which tells a story primarily through gameplay while keeping reliance on non-interactive media to a minimum. This investigation was conducted by using reflective design practices. The creative work consists of the production of a short narrative videogame, and this paper is the documentation of that creative process. This paper outlines the background research that lead to the creative work, the iterative process used in production, and a critical analysis of the project results.

Committee: Alan Price (Advisor); Maria Palazzi (Committee Member); Katherine Borland (Committee Member) Subjects: Design

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Ohio University, 2010, English (Arts and Sciences)

This dissertation examines how "modern literacy" and "contemporary writing" are increasingly influenced by technology from a critical pedagogical perspective. The study develops a definition of literacy that takes into account a reliance on technology, particularly computers, in our writing classes and writing lives. With a focus on one particular institution of higher education, and an emphasis on a qualitative, narrative perspective, the dissertation traces how "traditional" perspectives concerning writing and the job of a writing class influence the technological resources at instructors' disposal. The study focuses on the well-known critical pedagogical work of theorists such as Freire, hooks, and Giroux in order to tease out the critical and political imperative of developing a modern literacy attuned to a more broadly defined kind of modern writing. More specifically, the dissertation focuses on the work of Henry Giroux, by utilizing his theory of "border pedagogy" in a way that centers on borders of different literacies in different mediums, rather than borders between different social groups. As a series of "texts" for examination in order to develop the practical applications of techno-critical pedagogy, Multi-User Domains Object-Oriented (MOO) technology is explored in a qualitative study. The dissertation also explores a techno-rich freshman composition course, focused on matters of online representation (from MOO to Second Life to violent videogames), as a text for elucidating techno-critical pedagogy and its relation to our students' compositions and in composing themselves in electronic environments.

Committee: Sherrie Gradin (Advisor); Linda Rice (Committee Member); Jennie Nelson (Committee Member); Marjorie Dewert (Committee Member) Subjects: Composition

Master of Arts (MA), Ohio University, 2007, Political Science (Arts and Sciences)

This thesis probes the world of video games, focusing on their relationship to America's contemporary sociopolitical scheme. Particular attention is paid to gaming's place in popular culture, the role of leisure in the average American's life, and the content and uses of video games. Video game culture, gaming communities, and individual gamers are examined as potential sources for a more pluralistic, participatory democracy.

Committee: Julie White (Advisor) Subjects: Political Science, General

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Bowling Green State University, 2009, American Culture Studies/Ethnic Studies

The stereotypical video gamer has traditionally been seen as a young, white, male; even though female gamers have also always been part of video game cultures. Recent changes in the landscape of video games, especially game marketers' increasing interest in expanding the market, have made the subject of women in gaming more noticeable than ever. This dissertation asked how gender, especially females as a troubling demographic marking difference, shaped video game cultures in the recent past. This dissertation focused primarily on cultures found on the Internet as they related to video game consoles as they took shape during the beginning of the seventh generation of consoles, between 2005 and 2009. Using discourse analysis, this dissertation analyzed the ways gendered speech was used by cultural members to define not only the limits and values of a generalizable video game culture, but also to define the idealized gamer. This dissertation found that video game cultures exhibited the same biases against women that many other cyber/digital cultures employed, as evidenced by feminist scholars of technology. Specifically, female gamers were often perceived as less authoritative of technology than male gamers. This was especially true when the concept “hardcore” was employed to describe the ideals of gaming culture. It was harder for female gamers to claim the identity of hardcore gamer because this ideal referenced masculine attributes that women were perceived as lacking. Rather, female gamers were lumped into the category of the “casual” consumer ofvideo games, not valued in the community and sometimes also seen as problematic. Biases against perceived feminine gaming styles were also discovered in formal structures of video game cultures, as evidenced by analyses of video game reviews. This data suggests that female gamers had a harder time fitting into video game cultures than male gamers because of gendered biases within the cultures. This dissertation advocated fo (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Radhika Gajjala PhD (Committee Chair); Amy Robinson PhD (Other); Kristine Blair PhD (Committee Member); Donald McQuarie PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: American Studies; Communication; Gender; Mass Media; Technology; Womens Studies

Master of Education (MEd), Bowling Green State University, 2008, Curriculum and Teaching/Master Teaching

The problem of this study was to determine the usage of the theories contained within Gee's (2003) 36 Learning Principles in current workplace training. To that end, an online survey was administered to workplace-training professionals. The survey was comprised of 21 Likert scale statements gauging the usage of those principles. A survey-making software package was then used to convert all collected raw data into utilizable percentages. Those reported percentages were grouped based on predefined, categorical groupings within the survey-instrument. After the survey had been performed and data analyzed, the results for all three groups indicated a high usage of Gee's (2003) 36 Learning Principles. Certain similarities and differences were also noticed overall as well as when the groups were compared on an individual Likert-scale-statement basis. Within that comparison, certain training methods were found to be used more often than others. Similarly, certain methods were given a higher priority than others. Among the more frequently used methods by the trainers were allowing the learner to be actively involved in the learning process, to foster intrinsic value for the learning process, allowing the learner to understand the content, to give the learner information at relevant times and in appropriate amounts. Among the lesser prioritized methods used by the trainers were allowing the learner to perform self-refection and evaluation, practice newly-acquired skills multiple times, until mastery level is achieved, problem-solve while using various resources, and developing and mastering consecutive skills.

Committee: Terry Herman (Advisor) Subjects: Education, Adult and Continuing

Master of Arts (MA), Ohio University, 2012, Film Studies (Fine Arts)

This thesis traces machinima, films created in real-time from videogame engines, from the exterior toward the interior, focusing on the manner in which the medium functions as a tool for marginalized expression in the face of commercial and corporate inclusion. I contextualize machinima in three distinct contexts: first, machinima as historiography, which allows its minority creators to articulate and distribute their interpretation of national and international events without mass media interference. Second, machinima as a form of fan fiction, in which filmmakers blur the line between consumers and producers, a feature which is slowly being warped as videogame studios begin to incorporate machinima into marketing techniques. Finally, the comparison between psychoanalytic film theory, which explains the psychological motivations behind cinema's appeal, applied to videogames and their resulting machinima, which knowingly disregard established theory and create agency through parody. These three approaches culminate to reveal machinima's dual nature as an expression of fandom agency and corporate expansion.

Committee: Dr. Louis-Georges Schwartz PhD (Committee Chair); Dr. Ofer Eliaz PhD (Committee Member); Dr. Karen Riggs PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Film Studies