title: The Social Relations and Interactions of a First Person Shooter (FPS) Gamer

authors: McQuarters, Glen Matthew

subjects: First person shooters

abstract: Video games have been part of society for over 40 years. During this period, a stereotypical image of a person who plays videogames has formed. Influenced by the stereotypical image (young, loner males, pale, socially inept, overweight, and possibly aggressive or violent), psychological research has focused on the possible negative effects of playing first person shooter video games. Contrary to the stereotype, first person shooter video games can be a medium in which social relationships are formed and maintained. This study aims to explored the social relationships and interactions of players of first person shooter video games in all locations of play, and how these relationships and interactions influenced the game experience, and how players managed these relationships and interactions. This research was done using qualitative interviews with 12 current first person shooter gamers. The study found that between non-persistent game worlds, technological advancements, and the potentially persistent social relationships, a large diversity of social relationships and interactions occur in and emerge from first person shooter video games. These social relationships and interactions play a central role in the enjoyment of playing first person shooter video games. The study found the interactions that are possible, happen in many different forms. The relationships found in the study developed from several different settings with playing together and friends’ friend being the most common start of a relationship. As well, the participants’ reported a level structure for the relationships that are part of their first person shooter gaming. The study also describes the interactions of players while gaming as being seen as mostly good, with a few antisocial acts committed. These findings are discussed in comparison with literature from other game genres on the social interactions and relationships of players. The seemingly “unsocial” and virtually violent first person shooter game world has been shown to encompass surprisingly rich and diverse social relationships.

text: The Social Relations and Interactions of a First Person Shooter (FPS) Gamer Video games have been part of society for over 40 years. During this period, a stereotypical image of a person who plays videogames has formed. Influenced by the stereotypical image (young, loner males, pale, socially inept, overweight, and possibly aggressive or violent), psychological research has focused on the possible negative effects of playing first person shooter video games. Contrary to the stereotype, first person shooter video games can be a medium in which social relationships are formed and maintained. This study aims to explored the social relationships and interactions of players of first person shooter video games in all locations of play, and how these relationships and interactions influenced the game experience, and how players managed these relationships and interactions. This research was done using qualitative interviews with 12 current first person shooter gamers. The study found that between non-persistent game worlds, technological advancements, and the potentially persistent social relationships, a large diversity of social relationships and interactions occur in and emerge from first person shooter video games. These social relationships and interactions play a central role in the enjoyment of playing first person shooter video games. The study found the interactions that are possible, happen in many different forms. The relationships found in the study developed from several different settings with playing together and friends’ friend being the most common start of a relationship. As well, the participants’ reported a level structure for the relationships that are part of their first person shooter gaming. The study also describes the interactions of players while gaming as being seen as mostly good, with a few antisocial acts committed. These findings are discussed in comparison with literature from other game genres on the social interactions and relationships of players. The seemingly “unsocial” and virtually violent first person shooter game world has been shown to encompass surprisingly rich and diverse social relationships.

year: 2013

title: Design and evaluation of an optimistic CPU: the warp engine

authors: Littin, Richard H.

abstract: Instruction pipelining, out-of-order execution, and branch prediction are techniques that improve performance in processors by manipulating the flow of instructions. These control flow manipulations alone are not adequate to allow large numbers of instructions to execute in parallel because performance is limited by accesses to the relatively slow memory system. Performance can be improved by speculating on the outcomes of control decisions, and the values of data in memory, returning results early. This thesis investigates the requirements of an architecture that speculates on control flow decisions and data values to improve performance through instruction level parallelism.

A new architecture, the WarpEngine, that speculates on control flow decisions and data values is presented. This architecture is shown to have the potential to extract performance through parallelism an order of magnitude larger than that obtained by contemporary microprocessors. Control speculation is achieved using a novel tree-based mechanism that produces multiple flows of control. This scalable mechanism is shown to generate a large group of instructions that can execute in parallel. Also, it is essential that memory accesses are allowed to occur out of programmed order. This form of data speculation is shown to break false data dependencies, improving performance. The use of state saving resources is examined and the limitations of in-order retirement schemes are shown. These results indicate that the management of these resources is critical to obtaining good performance.

Virtual ordered simulation is introduced as a new simulation methodology for modelling out-of-order and speculative architectures. This novel simulation technique is unique because each instruction is only inspected and processed once, and unlike other simulation methodologies unlimited resources can be modelled. Individual components can be constrained in isolation so that their effect on performance can be examined in detail. Investigations performed assuming unbounded resources provide new insight into the limits imposed by individual processor components.

The architecture presented shows potential for performance well beyond that of contemporary and research architectures. The insights into the limitations of processor components apply to many computer architectures.

text: Design and evaluation of an optimistic CPU: the warp engine Instruction pipelining, out-of-order execution, and branch prediction are techniques that improve performance in processors by manipulating the flow of instructions. These control flow manipulations alone are not adequate to allow large numbers of instructions to execute in parallel because performance is limited by accesses to the relatively slow memory system. Performance can be improved by speculating on the outcomes of control decisions, and the values of data in memory, returning results early. This thesis investigates the requirements of an architecture that speculates on control flow decisions and data values to improve performance through instruction level parallelism.

A new architecture, the WarpEngine, that speculates on control flow decisions and data values is presented. This architecture is shown to have the potential to extract performance through parallelism an order of magnitude larger than that obtained by contemporary microprocessors. Control speculation is achieved using a novel tree-based mechanism that produces multiple flows of control. This scalable mechanism is shown to generate a large group of instructions that can execute in parallel. Also, it is essential that memory accesses are allowed to occur out of programmed order. This form of data speculation is shown to break false data dependencies, improving performance. The use of state saving resources is examined and the limitations of in-order retirement schemes are shown. These results indicate that the management of these resources is critical to obtaining good performance.

Virtual ordered simulation is introduced as a new simulation methodology for modelling out-of-order and speculative architectures. This novel simulation technique is unique because each instruction is only inspected and processed once, and unlike other simulation methodologies unlimited resources can be modelled. Individual components can be constrained in isolation so that their effect on performance can be examined in detail. Investigations performed assuming unbounded resources provide new insight into the limits imposed by individual processor components.

The architecture presented shows potential for performance well beyond that of contemporary and research architectures. The insights into the limitations of processor components apply to many computer architectures.

year: 2000

title: Research reflections on making visible the experiences of Kāpō Māori during and after COVID-19

authors: Masters-Awatere, Bridgette

abstract: Introduction: 
This piece reflects on our research process when undertaking face-to-face interviews with tāngata kāpō (Māori people who are blind, deafblind, low vision or vision impaired). Particular attention is given to the access requirements of tāngata kāpō and the intersections of Māori and disability. These experiences are shared as learning opportunities for others who are undertaking research in ways that are mindful of Tiriti and disability obligations, and in the current COVID-19 environment.

text: Research reflections on making visible the experiences of Kāpō Māori during and after COVID-19 Introduction: 
This piece reflects on our research process when undertaking face-to-face interviews with tāngata kāpō (Māori people who are blind, deafblind, low vision or vision impaired). Particular attention is given to the access requirements of tāngata kāpō and the intersections of Māori and disability. These experiences are shared as learning opportunities for others who are undertaking research in ways that are mindful of Tiriti and disability obligations, and in the current COVID-19 environment.

year: 2021