Suely Fragoso

The synergy between eBooks and printed books in Brazil

– The purpose of this paper is to discuss reading habits in relation to printed books and eBooks. , – The study was structured in two steps: first, an online survey was used to trace a general profile of a group of Brazilian readers who had had previous contact with digital books. Second, a subset of respondents was invited to participate in open-ended interviews. Interviewees were chosen according to their responses to the profiling questionnaire. All interviews were semi-structured. , – The results indicate the existence of a synergy between digital and paper books. The decision between reading one or the other depends on several factors, amongst which the authors emphasise online accessibility, reading motivation (for work or for leisure), intended modes of use and appropriation, circumstances of use and emotional factors. Other elements of importance are the corporeality of the readers and the materiality of the devices used for reading. , – The departure point of the study was the perception that, in Brazil, the arrival of digital books was accompanied by an increase in the sales of printed books. This contradicts the idea that digital books and printed books are concurrent, and the growth of the eBooks market will inevitably lead to a decrease in the revenue from printed books. The initial hypothesis was that digital and printed books could be complementary. Addressing this question required knowledge of readers’ experience with and opinion of printed and digital books. The results of the qualitative study suggest that the relation between these two types of publication is not one of alternatives, but instead is one of synergy. Specific aspects of this synergy are highlighted in the paper.

Interface Design Strategies and Disruptions of Gameplay: Notes from a Qualitative Study with First-Person Gamers

This paper presents the results of a study about how first-person players perceive and describe their gameplay experience, what type of interface representations they consider disruptive and why. The intention to unveil fine-grained information by giving voice to players required the adoption of qualitative methods. In qualitative research, the size of the sample is less important than its adequacy. We worked with an information-rich sample of seven male volunteers, ages 16 to 40, which took part in an experiment composed by a profiling questionnaire, a two-step individual gaming session with DICE’s Battlefield 3 and semi-structured interviews. Results indicate that the integration of interface elements to the gameworld can be disruptive even when it does not compromise usability or efficiency. Smooth gameplay experience requires (a) careful balance of the level of information available at any given point and (b) aesthetical and functional coherence, internally and in relation to the gameworld.

Understanding links: Web Science and hyperlink studies at macro, meso and micro-levels

Web Science has favoured macroscopic approaches which have revealed much about the Webs structural patterns. We argue that contextualised knowledge about hyperlinks on the Web has not advanced at the same rate and that complementary intermediate and micro-scale investigations are essential for a better understanding of the motivations, functions and meanings of these links. We present an investigation that attempted to overcome the shortcomings of current theoretical frameworks and methodological techniques. The focus of this article lies in the demonstration of the viability of studying the web at different scales of analysis without loss of coherence guided by the assumption of the Web as media. Results of our quali-quantitative, multi-scale and study of the international connectivity of websites registered in Brazil are presented. At the macro-scale, previous indications of high international connectivity are confirmed. Intermediate (meso) and micro-scale analyses focused on the connectivity between Brazilian and German websites and contradicted the conclusions about the meanings and functions of hyperlinks commonly associated with structural analysis. Links between Brazilian and German websites were shown to derive from a large number of formal and generic links, challenging the prevalent association that large quantities of incoming links are an indication of high relevance.

Systematic review versus internet search: considerations about availability and reliability of medical information regarding pregnancy in women with multiple sclerosis

OBJECTIVE To compare the results from a systematic medical review and meta-analysis on the subject of pregnancy and multiple sclerosis (MS) with an internet review based on lay sites conducted by experts in computer-mediated communication, on the same subject. METHODS The two reviews were carried out independently in English. Three medical doctors with experience in systematic reviews and two communication experts with experience in internet searching tools performed the study. RESULTS Data from the medical systematic review showed some differences from that of highly accessed websites. CONCLUSION Evidence-based studies conducted under the strictest rules for careful systematic reviews and meta-analyses should be available with open access, i.e. accessible without payment of a fee, thereby enabling worldwide knowledge on matters of great interest to healthcare providers and patients.

HUEHUEHUE eu sou BR: spam, trollagem e griefing nos jogos online

O artigo trata da reputacao de agressividade dos brasileiros em jogos multiplayer online. Para discutir esse tema, as acoes de um determinado grupo de jogadores e sua associacao com o Brasil sao descritas e, a seguir, discutidas conforme as tres categorias em que a literatura pre-existente costuma entender o comportamento toxico em ambientes online: o envio de spam, a trollagem e o griefing. Conclui-se que a agressividade nos jogos multiplayer na internet nao e privilegio dos brasileiros e que suas acoes nao constituem novidade no cenario geral da internet. Por outro lado, as singularidades de seu modo de agir diferenciam os brasileiros dos jogadores de outras nacionalidades.

Meet the HUEHUEs: A Sociotechnical Approach to Disruptive Behaviour in Multiplayer Online Games

This paper discusses the relation between disruptive behaviour in online environments and the design of multiplayer online games, focusing on huehueing, a widespread phenomenon of disruptive behaviour in online games linked to Brazils national identity. The discussion is based on a sociotechnical view that understands MOGs not as the combination of a technical artefact and a social construct that belong to different realms and mutually influence each other but as the two sides of a single coin in which huehueing is inscribed. This vision allows the identification of how and why the social dynamics of huehueing is capable of temporarily changing the mediating ground, and therefore the design features of the game.

Ludic Re-enchantment and the Power of Locative Games: A Case Study of the Game Ingress

Games can promote a powerful form of reversal of the Weberian disenchantment of the modern world, which we refer to as “ludic re-enchantment”. In this article, we present the notion of ludic re-enchantment and situate it in relation to other forms of re-enchantment, proposed by previous authors. Ludic re-enchantment is particularly powerful in locative games, which affect the experience of urban life both with respect to the associations between the inhabitants of the city and with respect to their relationship with urban materialities. These claims are exemplified with an ethnographically inspired study of the game Ingress in the city of Porto Alegre, Brazil. The double composition of gameplay and narrative of Ingress is shown to interlace with urban life in a variety of ways. The strength of ludic re-enchantment by locative games is confirmed and demonstrated to be modified according to the characteristics of Ingress narrative and gameplay. Although play always results in some degree of ludic re-enchantment, the meanings deriving from that re-enchantment vary depending on the attributes of the game.

Imersão em games narrativos

Resumo: O texto discute as expressoes utilizadas para caracterizar a experiencia de imersao em games narrativos. O ponto de partida e uma revisao dos significados associados a suspensao de descrenca na literatura, no cinema e na televisao, orientada pelo questionamento do mito da audiencia ingenua, incapaz de distinguir entre a representacao e a realidade. Duas caracteristicas das narrativas midiaticas interativas – o exercicio da agencia e as disparidades entre as interfaces de hardware e software – evidenciam o carater ativo do envolvimento do publico com as representacoes midiaticas. Propoe-se que, no caso dos games, essa habilidade que permite agir simultaneamente no mundo do jogo e no mundo real estaria melhor caracterizada como uma encenacao de crenca.

TERRITORIALIDADES VIRTUAIS: identidade, posse e pertencimento em ambientes multiusuário online

Este trabalho discute a comunica????o mediada pela internet e as rearticula????es dos v??nculos territoriais a partir de tr??s tipos de ambientes multiusu??rio online: salas de chat, sistemas de rede social e mundos virtuais gr??ficos 3D. Os participantes falaram sobre sua experi??ncia de cria????o ou participa????o em representa????es online de lugares f??sicos (pa??ses, cidades, pra??as, etc). Os resultados confirmam a vincula????o identit??ria e utilit??ria a esse tipo de lugar virtual, indicando vincula????es territoriais m??ltiplas e complexas em fun????o da acentuada mobilidade geogr??fica dos participantes de ambientes multiusu??rio online, al??m da constitui????o hist??rica e identit??ria que diferencia os lugares virtuais dos lugares f??sicos.