Balance control decreases in the elderly and currently 33 to 50 percent of people over 65 years of age experience a fall each year resulting in ten thousand deaths annually. Many balance-training programs use expensive equipment and a clinical setting for the training. The need …
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This dissertation investigates drone warfare, which is the military's use of unmanned planes to strike enemy targets, an integral and relatively new strategy in the 'war on terror'. The dissertation is composed of three unique research papers. The first gets to grips with how th…
This research explored the use of interactive information technology applications for children with long term treatment regimens in which adherence is a key factor in the success of the treatment. Behavior change models play a major role in enhancing adherence to treatment in pa…
Past research has demonstrated the negative effects of media stereotypes on implicit and explicit attitudes across various forms of media. Because video games are a relatively new form of media, there is almost no research on the influence of video game stereotypes on people's a…
This thesis is a study of the ways in which historical portrayals of World War II are used to promote national identity construction in America. The first chapter will detail the promotion of American exceptionalism by the 2008 game “Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway” and the way…
Camera Creatures addresses the new media landscape in which cameras, in most situations, outnumber pens. The dissertation argues that despite the accessibility and power of imagemaking devices, there persists in the humanities and social sciences a hesitation to engage the possi…
This dissertation analyzes the changing meanings surrounding home video game usage and consumption during the first two decades of their commercial presence in the United States. It explores the evolution of home video games as technological devices, consumer goods, and popular …
On August 6, 1945, the city of Hiroshima was reduced to rubble by the first atomic bomb. This act, alongside the second bomb that was dropped on Nagasaki three days later, ushered in a period defined by advancements in nuclear power and the fear of those same weapons. As a respo…
Video games are steadily becoming one of the largest and most influential forms of media in history. Today, video games are so popular that the Nintendo mascot Mario from the Mario Brothers video game series is more recognized than Disney's Mickey Mouse. The reach and influence …
Since early in the history of digital computing, analog games have been adapted into digital forms. More recently, adaptations are emerging in the spaces between analog and digital games, notably in board games and the genre of escape games. Prior frameworks for understanding an…
Following the development of technology, the video game industry keeps rising rapidly year by year. This growth reflects the increasing market and popularity of playing video games, and attracts more players to boost the population of gamers. Also, playing video games has been p…
Space-themed video games have enjoyed perennial popularity in the American video game industry, and they are present in “big moments” in the history of the medium, from the development and proliferation of ur-game SpaceWar! to Atari’s origins through Nolan Bushnell’s creation of…
The technology necessary for hands-free video gaming is available, especially for head-gesture-centric controls. However, remapping controls to head gestures ranges from frustratingly tedious to impossible. I propose a common language of gestures and game actions that categorize…
Whether the discussion occurs among scholars, video game critics, or everyday gamers, the video games held up as exemplars of the medium’s artistic potential (so-called “art games”) are those that inspire complex emotional responses. A game’s soundtrack functions to underscore a…
Super Smash Bros. Melee: what started as a fighting game designed for casual and familial audiences unintentionally created arguably one of the most passionate competitive grassroots video game communities in history. Whether it be nostalgia from playing with childhood friends, …
Over the past decade, historical simulations have become one of the most popular genres of video games. With audiences in the millions, these historically themed games represent mass-market works of popular history. This paper studies the kinds of historical narratives that tend…
Video games and academia have a long history with one another. Academic researchers have continued to debate the extent to which video games can materialize real world effects. In this thesis, I employ procedural rhetoric and feminist scholarship to analyze the rhetorical power …
Artists working to develop today’s popular games reference images of historic objects and architecture when constructing in-game vistas and digital objects. Scholars have often labeled their creations as quasi-historical pastiche, mere explorations of fantasy, retrofuturism, and…
Knight of Drones is a hybrid twin-stick top-down shooter and side-scrolling platformer that aims to bring vintage gameplay to a contemporary game engine. A single swatch of the top-down game mode and a pair of levels from the side-scrolling game mode will be presented beginning …