Search

Video game players face a fundamental challenge in managing their competing desires for both privacy and publicity, for being both apart from, and a part of, the communities in which they play. In this paper, we argue that "gamertags" are important tools for protecting gamers' privacy as well as creative outlets for expressing meaningful aspects of identity. Based on 30 semi-structured interviews focused on players' usernames, we find through the pseudonyms under which they play, gamers both hide identifying information such as their offline names and addresses while bringing attention to information that is deeply meaningful to them, such as their family nickname or favorite music. By deemphasizing some parts of their identity and by emphasizing others, players not only shape how they are perceived by other gamers, but they also attempt to preclude accidental disclosure of more identifying information. We argue that gamertag practices thus constitute an important form of boundary work through which gamers actively seek to draw lines between their offline and multiple online worlds in the ways that they wish. We argue that gamers use these names to both protect and project aspects of their identities--at times even seeking protection through projection--as a way of addressing their competing desires to both conceal and reveal different aspects of their identities. As boundary work, players' efforts to carefully protect personally-identifying information and intentionally project personally meaningful information to their communities help them better manage their online identities, relationships with others, and overall data privacy.

Videogame players must negotiate their preferences and manage their identities within the infrastructural constraints of their respective gaming platforms. We studied the creation of usernames--the names players use to represent themselves in online videogames--to understand what happens when the demands of a game, platform, or service are at odds with gamers? desires. Through a series of open-ended, semi-structured interviews (N=30) conducted with online videogame players, we found that usernames are co-constructed via a process of negotiation in which players adjust their ideal tags using a variety of adaptive strategies, or workarounds, to find suitable options. In response to unique name requirements, character limitations, language filters, and in-game moderation, workarounds such as tweaking preferred usernames, preemptively avoiding certain names, and keeping secondary choices as back-ups allowed players to satisfy some of their name preferences while still facilitating access to their gaming platform of choice.

This research was developing a mobile-based service system through which consumers can collect labeled information on processed foods. This research collected and analyzed the labeled information of processed foods sold on the market and found that they contain abstruse standards for the information of raw nutrients and additives and are not proper for our database. Thus, to offer proper consumer-oriented information, we reclassified the information according to categories such as raw materials, additives, and nutrient information based on the food information standard of the current Food Sanitation Act, and added it to the database. Using this reprocessed information, this study developed an algorithm and applied it to a mobile-based service system, which allows consumers to use information on the labels of processed foods scientifically and clearly.

Purpose: This study was conducted to examine the association among therapeutic relationship with mental health professionals, hope, and recovery, and to explore the mediation of therapeutic relationship with mental health professionals in the relation between hope and recovery in South Korean patients with a mental illness. Methods: A cross-sectional study design was employed. Eligible participants were 99 people with a mental illness who were enrolled as members at two Community Mental Health Centers in Gyeonggi Province. Data were collected from October, 4 to 14, 2011. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation coefficients, and multiple regression analysis. Results: Hope was positively correlated with recovery, and therapeutic relationship with mental health professionals was also positively associated with recovery. The mediating effect of therapeutic relationship with mental health professionals was found in the relation between hope and recovery. Conclusion: The results suggest that therapeutic relationship with mental health professionals plays an important role in promoting recovery of the patients with a mental illness. Therefore, mental health professionals should focus on developing a therapeutic relationship with their clients and also consider these recovery-related factors for persons who have a mental illness.