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Wie stiegen Games zur zentralen audiovisuellen Ausdrucks- und Erzählform der digitalen Kultur auf? Wie entstanden die Verfahren ihrer künstlerischen Produktion? Und wie formierte sich die wissenschaftliche Analyse der sozialen Wirkung und kulturellen Bedeutung des neuen Mediums?Diese grundlegenden Fragen und Aspekte digitaler Spielkultur nimmt die Einführung erstmals ganzheitlich in den Blick. Gundolf S. Freyermuth skizziert die mediengeschichtlichen Entwicklungsphasen analoger und digitaler Spiele, die Geschichte und künstlerischen Praktiken des Game Designs sowie die Geschichte, wissenschaftlichen Ansätze und wichtigsten Forschungsfragen der Game Studies.

How did games rise to become the central audiovisual form of expression and storytelling in digital culture? How did the practices of their artistic production come into being? How did the academic analysis of the new medium's social effects and cultural meaning develop? Addressing these fundamental questions and aspects of digital game culture in a holistic way for the first time, Gundolf S. Freyermuth's introduction outlines the media-historical development phases of analog and digital games, the history and artistic practices of game design, as well as the history, academic approaches, and most important research topics of game studies. Gundolf S. Freyermuth (PhD) is Professor of Media and Game Studies and a founding director of the Cologne Game Lab at TH Köln-University of Applied Sciences in Cologne, Germany. He also teaches Comparative Media Studies at the ifs international film school Cologne. His research interests include video games, audiovisuality, transmediality and network culture.

Military shooters have explored both historical and modern settings and remain one of the most popular game genres. While the violence of these games has been explored in multiple studies, the study of how war and the rules of war are represented is underexplored. The Red Cross has argued that as virtual war games are becoming closer to reality, the rules of war should be included. This article explores the argument put forward by the Red Cross and its reception by games media organizations, in order to consider how the concept of "just war" is represented within games. This article will focus on concerns over games adherence to the criteria of jus in bello (the right conduct in war) and will also consider the challenges that developers face in the creation of entertainment products in the face of publisher and press concerns.

This book is available as open access through the Bloomsbury Open Access programme and is available on www.bloomsburycollections.com While all media are part of intermedial networks, video games are often at the nexus of that network. They not only employ cinematics, embedded books, and in-world television screens for various purposes, but, in our convergence culture, video games also play a vital role in allowing players to explore transmedia storyworlds. At the same time, video games are frequently thematized and remediated in film, television, and literature. Indeed, the central role video games assume in intermedial networks provides testament to their significance in the contemporary media environment. In this volume, an international group of contributors discuss not only intermedial phenomena in video games, but also the intermedial networks surrounding them. Intermedia Games-Games Inter Media will deepen readers' understanding of the convergence culture of the early twenty-first century and video games' role in it.

The importance for social & behavioral sciences of the mathematical theory of games, developed over the past five decades, is in the refinement of the concept of rationality that follows from rigorous strategic analysis of game-like conflicts. This refinement comes to the forefront in the course of analyzing nonconstantsum games & games involving two+ players, where the interests of the players, though generally divergent, are not diametrically opposed. Situations of this sort often give rise to so-called "social traps" -- decision problems in which individual rationality clearly indicates a course of action to each player, leading to an outcome that is to everyone's disadvantage. Thus, a distinction is forced between individual & collective rationality. Here, several types of games & social traps are described, & illustrated with examples, & developments of game-theoretic analysis are outlined. 12 Figures, 11 References. Modified AA

The domination game is played on a graph by two players, Dominator and Staller, who alternately choose a vertex of G. Dominator aims to finish the game in as few turns as possible while Staller aims to finish the game in as many turns as possible. The game ends when all vertices are dominated. The game domination number, denoted by &gamma ; g ( G ) (respectively &gamma ; g &prime ; ( G ) ), is the total number of turns when both players play optimally and when Dominator (respectively Staller) starts the game. In this paper, we study a version of this game where the set of chosen vertices is always independent. This version turns out to be another game known as the competition-independence game. The competition-independence game is played on a graph by two players, Diminisher and Sweller. They take turns in constructing maximal independent set M, where Diminisher tries to minimize | M | and Sweller tries to maximize | M | . Note that, actually, it is the domination game in which the set of played vertices is independent. The competition-independence number, denoted by I d ( G ) (respectively I s ( G ) ) is the optimal size of the final independent set in the competition-independence game if Diminisher (respectively Sweller) starts the game. In this paper, we check whether some well-known results in the domination game hold for the competition-independence game. We compare the competition-independence numbers to the game domination numbers. Moreover, we provide a family of graphs such that many parameters are equal. Finally, we present a realization result on the competition-independence numbers.

Serious games are starting to attain a higher role as tools for learning in various contexts, but in particular in areas such as education and training. Due to its characteristics, such as rules, behavior simulation and feedback to the player's actions, serious games provide a favorable learning environment where errors can occur without real life penalty and students get instant feedback from challenges. These challenges are in accordance with the intended objectives and will self-adapt and repeat according to the student's difficulty level. Through motivating and engaging environments, which serve as base for problem solving and simulation of different situations and contexts, serious games have a great potential to aid players developing professional skills. But, how do we certify the acquired knowledge and skills? With this work we intend to propose a methodology to establish a relationship between the game mechanics of serious games and an array of competences for certification, evaluating the applicability of various aspects in the design and development of games such as the user interfaces and the gameplay, obtaining learning outcomes within the game itself. Through the definition of game mechanics combined with the necessary pedagogical elements, the game will ensure the certification. This paper will present a matrix of generic skills, based on the European Framework of Qualifications, and the definition of the game mechanics necessary for certification on tour guide training context. The certification matrix has as reference axes: skills, knowledge and competencies, which describe what the students should learn, understand and be able to do after they complete the learning process. The guides-interpreters welcome and accompany tourists on trips and visits to places of tourist interest and cultural heritage such as museums, palaces and national monuments, where they provide various information. Tour guide certification requirements include skills and specific knowledge about foreign languages and in the areas of History, Ethnology, Politics, Religion, Geography and Art of the territory where it is inserted. These skills are communication, interpersonal relationships, motivation, organization and management. This certification process aims to validate the skills to plan and conduct guided tours on the territory, demonstrate knowledge appropriate to the context and finally match a good group leader. After defining which competences are to be certified, the next step is to delineate the expected learning outcomes, as well as identify the game mechanics associated with it. The game mechanics, as methods invoked by agents for interaction with the game world, in combination with game elements/objects allows multiple paths through which to explore the game environment and its educational process. Mechanics as achievements, appointments, progression, reward schedules or status, describe how game can be designed to affect players in unprecedented ways. In order for the game to be able to certify tour guides, the design of the training game will incorporate a set of theoretical and practical tasks to acquire skills and knowledge of various transversal themes. For this end, patterns of skills and abilities in acquiring different knowledge will be identified.

Historical notes and references for the Foreword and Introduction -- 1 Noncooperative games -- 1 Noncooperative games and their components -- 2 Optimality principles in noncooperative games -- 3 Realizability of A-optimality principles -- 4 Realizability of A-principles in metastrategies -- 5 Realizability of equilibrium situations in mixed strategies -- 6 Natural topology in games -- Notes and references for Chapter 1 -- 2 Finite noncooperative games -- 1 Finite noncooperative games -- 2 Dyadic games -- 3 Solution of general finite noncooperative games -- 4 On the structure of the set of equilibria in finite noncooperative games -- 5 The complexity of solution of finite noncooperative games -- 6 Reduction to three-person games -- Notes and references for Chapter 3 -- 3 Two-person zero-sum games -- 1 Optimality in two-person zero-sum games -- 2 Basis of the maximin principle -- 3 Minimax theorems -- 4 Finitely additive strategies -- 5 Analytic games on the unit square -- 6 Separable games -- 7 Convex games -- 8 Games with a simple payoff function -- 9 Games of timing -- Notes and references for Chapter 3 -- 4 Matrix games -- 1 Basic concepts and propositions -- 2 Solution of matrix games of small format -- 3 Matrix games and linear programming -- 4 Description of all equilibrium situations in matrix and bimatrix games -- 5 Solution of matrix games with matrix payoffs of a special form -- 6 Approximate methods for solving matrix games -- 7 Structure of the set of a matrix game -- Notes and references for Chapter 4 -- References -- Collections -- List of Joint Authors -- Index of Notations.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to illustrate how game theoretic solution concepts inform what classes of problems will be amenable to artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML), and how to evolve the interaction between human and artificial intelligence.Design/methodology/approachThe approach addresses the development of operational gaming to support planning and decision making. It then provides a succinct summary of game theory for those designing and using games, with an emphasis on information conditions and solution concepts. It addresses how experimentation demonstrates where human decisions differ from game theoretic solution concepts and how games have been used to develop AI/ML. It concludes by suggesting what classes of problems will be amenable to AI/ML, and which will not. It goes on to propose a method for evolving human/artificial intelligence.FindingsGame theoretic solution concepts inform classes of problems where AI/ML 'solutions' will be suspect. The complexity of the subject requires a campaign of learning.Originality/valueThough games have been essential to the development of AI/ML, practitioners have yet to employ game theory to understand its limitations.