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"This entry in the BEA Electronic Media Research Series, born out of the April 2017 BEA Research Symposium, takes a look at video games, outlining the characteristics of the medium as cognitive, emotional, physical, and social demanding technologies, and introduces readers to current research on video games. The diverse array of contributors in this volume offer bleeding-edge perspectives on both current and emerging scholarship. The chapters here contain radical approaches that add to the literature on electronic media studies generally and video game studies specifically. By taking such a forward-looking approach, this volume aims to collect foundational writings for the future of gaming studies"--

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to understand how micro-sized social enterprises can compensate their employees equitably, despite encountering resource scarcity and prioritising their social mission.Design/methodology/approachThe researcher interviewed the founders of micro-sized social enterprises from around the East Midlands and asked about the innovative human resource (HR) practices they used to compensate their employees. The eight interviews were semi-structured, in-depth and analysed thematically.FindingsThe findings and discussion demonstrate that the founders recognised the importance of compensating their employees equitably, but also acknowledged how paying them according to their contribution conflicted with prioritising their social mission as they never had sufficient resources to do everything. Alternatively, these founders used innovative HR practices to establish transactional relations, which primarily consisted of training, experience and references. This was perceived as equitable, despite paying their employees less than their contribution merited, as it allowed them to improve their future career prospects. These HR practices also benefitted these micro-social enterprises by increasing their human capital without increasing their costs.Originality/valueThe paper could be beneficial for academics and practitioners as it explores how the characteristics associated with being a micro-sized social enterprise impacted their HR practices.

From the middle-20th century to today, video games have grown from an idiosyncratic interest of computer programmers and engineers to a globally dominant form of media entertainment. Advances in technology and creativity have combined to present players with interactive experience that vary in their cognitive, emotional, physical, and social complexity. That video games constitute co-authored experiences - dialogues between the player and the system - is at least one explanation for their appeal, but this co-authorship brings with it an enhanced set of requirements for the player's attention. For this thematic issue, researchers were invited to debate and examine the cognitive, emotional, physical, and social demands of video games; their work (as well as the impetus for this work) is summarized below.

As principal links between players and many gameworlds, avatars are of central importance in understanding human behavior and communication in play. In particular, the connection between player and avatar is understood as influencing a range of cognitive, affective, and behavioral play phenomena. Divergent approaches examine this connection from both parasocial (one-way, non-dialectical) and social (two-way, dialectical) perspectives. This study examined how player–avatar connections may be better understood by integrating an existing parasocial approach (character attachment [CA]) with a social approach (player–avatar relationships [PARs]). A quantitative linguistic analysis of massively multiplayer online game (MMO) player interviews revealed statistically robust associations among language patterns, dimensions of CA, and PAR types. Validating and extending prior research, findings highlight the importance of self-differentiation and anthropomorphization in suspending disbelief so that the avatar may be taken as a fully social agent.

Machine generated contents note: 1 Ethnoarchaeology: its nature, origins, and history -- Why ethnoarchaeology? -- The plan of this book -- The birth and definition of ethnoarchaeology -- A brief history of ethnoarchaeology -- The attractions of ethnoarchaeology -- Further reading -- 2 Theorizing ethnoarchaeology and analogy -- Explanation in social science -- Processual and contextual schools and styles of -- analysis -- Analogy -- Ethnoarchaeology and postprocessualism -- Further reading -- 3 Fieldwork and ethics -- Types of ethnoarchaeological research -- Assessment of field methods -- Challenges -- Professional ethics and the ethnoarchaeologist -- Further reading -- 4 Human residues: entering the archaeological context -- Middle range theory from S to A -- Deposits and sites -- Cycling, curation, lifespan -- Natural garbage and discarded meanings -- Abandonment -- Concluding remarks -- Further reading -- 5 Fauna and subsistence / -- Fauna and their remains / -- Subsistence -- Conclusion: the importance of ethnography -- Further reading -- 6 Studying artifacts: functions, operating sequences, -- taxonomy -- Archaeological and ethnoarchaeological approaches -- Identification of artifact functions -- Techniques of manufacture -- Taxonomy, emics and etics -- A note on change -- Further reading -- 7 Style and the marking of boundaries: contrasting regional -- studies -- Style -- Style at work -- Conclusions -- Further reading -- 8 Settlement: systems and patterns -- Settlement patterns and subsistence-settlement -- systems -- Hunters and gatherers -- Pastoralists -- Cultivators plus -- Concluding contrasts, mobility and sedentism -- Further reading -- 9 Site structures and activities -- Hunter-gatherer studies -- Nomadic pastoralists -- Mobile populations with domesticated animals -- Cultivators -- Engendered activities, engendered spaces? -- Concluding remarks -- Further reading -- 10 Architecture -- "Vernacular" architecture -- Why the Willow Lake Dene build log cabins and tipis -- Architecture in the Islamic world -- Sukur: the chiefly production of space -- Conclusions -- Further reading -- 11 Specialist craft production and apprenticeship -- Specialist craft production -- Organization of craft production -- Learning and apprenticeship -- Examples of craft specialization -- The ethnoarchaeology of iron smelting in Africa -- Blacksmiths and brasscasters -- Concluding remarks -- Further reading -- 12 Trade and exchange -- Exchange, trade, and distribution -- Concluding remarks -- Further reading -- 13 Mortuary practices, status, ideology, and systems of -- thought -- Mortuary practices, status, and ideology -- Ideology, domination, and resistance in other areas -- Linking technologies, objects, and social representations -- Conclusions -- Further reading -- 14 Conclusions: ethnoarchaeology in context -- Ethnoarchaeology as contributor to archaeological -- theory and practice -- Career passages and the centrality of ethnoarchaeology -- Lack of institutionalization, increasing maturity -- The future -- Reflexivity -- Bibliography -- Index